Episode 50 Merry Christmas

Thank you for joining in. I'm Mike. I'm Susanna. We're the Pickleballers Next Door. Well, good morning. Good morning, Mike. How are you? I'm doing good. How about you? Good. I'm better now after you can hear in your headphones. Yeah, I know, right? Okay, so, yeah, make fun of me. Like, I have it on backwards. Yeah, I can't hear. Help. Okay, now, come on. Hey, you know, I have to take it. Is that the worst thing that you can make fun of me? It really is. I wish I could find more, but no, you're awesome. You're always helping us. You're always making things run, so, but we are at a great event today. Yeah, so we are here at Relish in Louisville, and we are here for the Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson's Tournament. It's their first event at a pickleball. Yeah, so they're trying it out, and they exceeded expectations. 120 players here at the Relish, and I think they were trying to get their goal was 80, so they, which is great that there's so much community and pickleball to be able to just be here and help raise money for Parkinson's. You know, I think people are going to realize how big pickleball is. I think, and I think people are. I mean, that's why they're here. Yeah, but I think the community and pickleball in any of the sports out there is very big because we communicate. We talk, and we definitely, you know, you just can't ask for any more from everybody because they love the sport, so you get to play. I mean, how awful is that? Yeah, they're out there playing, right? I mean, who wouldn't want to play, but they're doing, you know, a lot of the proceeds go for Parkinson's, so that's great. And I don't know how many courts. I don't think we know how many courts are being used, but. Well, I think it's all of them. I think they have all the 120 people. That's a lot. That's a grip. Yeah, that's a grip. Well, it isn't more like we just got back from the Nationals. Oh, that was a lot of people. Four thousand people playing, 50 courts going on. We couldn't even get to watch because we were doing so many podcasts. We were. We were. And we were only there, what, Friday and Saturday? Yeah, two days, but it was a full pack. Well, they had the rain. I think that put everybody behind. So we didn't know when it would be good. And yeah, everybody, we had one plug in and we had, you know, it was. It was a phenomenal, but it was a phenomenal how they ran it with with all with the rain and everything. I mean, they didn't miss a heartbeat. No, it was on. Go, go, go. And and they were there to support us. So thank you, USA Pickleball. Always like a shout out to you. Yeah. USA Pickleball and just all our sponsors. Absolutely. We just really appreciate everybody. We're going to be growing. We are growing. And 2026 is going to be exciting for us to just go. We'll go anywhere. You're going to want to turn down. You're going to hear so much about us that you're like, oh, my gosh, I had to turn my radio off. My podcast podcast, whatever. Well, we love this. This is like this is a lot of people, you know, they think it's work like it is. I mean, yeah, you got to get everything ready and all that. Well, for you, me, I get to just show up. Mike just shows up for the party. Yeah. You do all the back scenes. So, well, thank you. You do, too. So we we do it as a team. And it's it actually allows me to just kind of kind of put my head somewhere else. It does. Well, and how can you, you know, people are not angry walking around waiting to play pickleball. No, I mean, they can be angry on the court. Yes, but that's a reflection of us. So, yes. But anyway, anyway, well, we're going to have some good guests on today and some fun. So good people around here. So anyway, stay tuned. Here's some great stories and some something more about the event. And if you can definitely help out, we'll get you that information of where you can donate or help or be a volunteer. Definitely would be really great. And stay tuned. Stay tuned. OK, bye. Coming soon. January 2026. Denver, your nightlife, your playtime, your entire vibe is about to get a major mood swing. Introducing Mood Swing, the newest, boldest pickleball entertainment venue built for players, partiers and everyone in between. Fast games, big energy, unreal food and drinks and a place where your mood lifts the moment you walk in. Get ready, Denver. Mood Swing is coming soon. We're back, everybody. Yes, we are back here at the relish for the Davis Finney Foundation for Parkinson's Tournament. And we are here with Susan Swern. And she is here with Pickleball for Good. So how are you, Susan? I'm in my happy place. I think this is a happy place for everybody. It really is a happy place. Yeah. And we can't stop running into each other. No, there's something going on. There's something going on. I'm worried about you guys. An energetic pull. It is. It is. Well, we're doing good for people. So, I mean, that's the energy because that's what we want. End of the day, we want to help people. And if one person does one thing, it's a great thing. And it takes the whole team. It takes the whole team. And you're building a great team. So give us a little... And you're the founder, right? You're the founder. A founder for Pickleball for Good. So, yes, tell us about the foundation, why it came about. You bet. And thank you so much. I really appreciate the chance to chat with both of you and to share the story. My Pickleball love story, as well as how Pickleball for Good arose in my mind and now it's launched. I started playing Pickleball during COVID, like a lot of people. I came from the tennis world. And I wasn't like a great player. I was like a 3-5-4-0 player. And as I've aged, it was getting harder and harder. And a friend of mine actually 15 years ago introduced me to Pickleball. I had never heard of it before. And we played, actually, at a local community center here near... I think it was in Louisville, the Louisville Rec Center. And, you know, of course, it was on the parquet wood floors. There were a lot of lines. I had to borrow a paddle. I didn't know how to score. I don't know. Okay. But back then... You got used to that 15 years ago, right? Yeah. Okay. I'm not that ancient. No, you're not. We're all the same. Hey, don't you go there. We'll pull the license out. We're young at heart. Yes, we all are, right? So, yeah, playing on the Rec Center courts. With tape. Yeah, with tape and sunshine going every direction. Basketball players. I mean, it's chaos. It is, but there was definitely a vibe. It was. Yet, at the time, I was still playing tennis. And it wasn't until friends of mine, women friends of mine, started playing Pickleball during COVID. And since it was the healthiest things we could do outside, there was a neighborhood court, a single court, we started playing on. I was invited to play on. So, four people. Then other people that we started talking to wanted to join us. And I... It was really like love at first dink and smash. You know, I would say from the... It was more smash than dink. Oh, yeah. Tennis player. Because it's coming from tennis. So, again, I could not score or anything. And I just got lit up and the whole social nature with friends. And then a friend of mine and I just reveled in what this could mean for our friendships and our community. And we launched a league. And it was mostly for women. Anybody could join us, but those were our friends. Sure. And over almost two years, year and a half, we had eight drop-in locations around Metro Denver. We had volunteers who would supervise it, make sure nobody got hurt. We taught so many people. We had clinics because one of our players is a coach and she was like our coach. And it really just showed me it's not just social from a drop-in standpoint. Real friendships developed and relationships. Oh, definitely. And it was just beautiful to observe this. And at the same time, because my day job, I've been in... Professionally, I've been in fundraising, a nonprofit fundraising for, I hate to admit, almost 40 years. And the idea of both where I work in my day job, it started made me think like, wow, this could really be a connector and a force for good in the world, let alone just for our individual little group. And so where I work during the daytime is called Global Green Grants Fund. It's an environmental justice grant maker. And I'm a philanthropic partnerships officer. So my job is to build relationships with donors that are interested in our cause and want to feel connected to the cause. And our model is we give small, what we would consider in the United States, small grants, maybe $5,000 to $10,000. But internationally, it's huge, especially for the groups that are trying to save their cultures, they're women-centric, youth-centric, people with disabilities. And so anyway, it just congealed in my mind and the idea of a Pickleball for Good started. Well, yeah, and especially you come from a tennis... You know, people always ask me, well, what's the difference? You're still hitting a ball. I said, go to a tennis court and you almost need headphones and a mic to talk to the other person across the way. There's four people on a court here. You can fit four courts in a tennis court. So, I mean, you're really close to people. And it's just, it's for everybody. Tennis is tough. I mean, if you played tennis, it's a lot harder game. I mean, it takes the wear, it's hard on your body, you know, and it's a tough game. It's a really tough game. This game here, I can teach somebody in 15, 20 minutes. I'm a coach and they can have fun. And once you get the bug, you know what happens, right? That's why you're here. One more game. OMG! OMG! One more. Come on, one more. It's too funny. But what a great... I mean, what you... to raise and help people. I mean, what a great... you go home at night and I'm sure it's stressful, too. I'm sure that, you know, you got to keep talking to people and you have to keep helping them. But I mean, but really, if you believe in something, I get it. You got a smile on your face. Yeah, I can see. This is your passion. I am the dodo bird. I have stayed in the fundraising field. I've never launched a nonprofit. I've never been an executive director. And somehow it was in my blood, but that's a whole other story. And so what happened was Pickleball for Good, initially, because I learned so much working in my day job about championing the under-champion, as we would say in a sport, as opposed to marginalized or under-resourced or underserved or discriminated against. And so, you know, it just started congealing that the vibe of the sport could be an amazing force for social, economic, environmental good. And so Pickleball for Good actually integrates sustainability in everything that we're doing. So that's the other nuance to our fund. And what that means is when we champion events like fundraising events like this, which we will be doing next year. Right, which we will want to have you go into detail on how that works. Yes. We want to encourage not using single-use plastic. We want to encourage doing food that is organic. And other aspects, recycling the balls, doing what we're calling a paddle fund. Yeah, I love it. People can donate their paddle. They can also, I've learned, you can get a tax deduction. Oh, if you donate the paddle? It's not the full price of the paddle, but we're figuring out what the IRS will allow when people donate to our paddle funds. That's great. And then I found recently a group in the East Coast that has warehouses where people donate their paddles and they redistribute them. They don't fix them, which we would probably like to have like maybe Pickleball for Good tape on top of them if they need re-gripping. But I know I have a paddle that's carbon that I had to replace after two years. So it's not good for me, but somebody who's never played before. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I would have loved that. Yeah, and it also has Ben John's name on it. Oh, yeah. That wouldn't go out in the United States. I would keep that one, though. Oh, sure, Mike. No, that's awesome. We have some people to connect you to. That's all they're about is to recycle and help. So I can't wait till we're building this relationship together. So definitely, but that is so great. So great. Because what are you going to do with these? I mean, you know, even the balls, it's neat. People are making jewelry. People are making, you know. This time of year wreaths? Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Those are cool. Really neat. Yeah. I also saw somebody who sold jewelry and they took the balls that weren't broken. I don't think. And they spray painted them with gold and made little racks. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's really cool. Yeah, the innovation of people. Yeah, imagination, creative. Yeah. But that's always good. Anything we can do for our environment, that's another plus, you know. And this sport, particularly because of the balls and because they don't, they can be pelletized. Like, we couldn't throw it in our recycling bins and then just the, what is it? The public? Yeah, the public. Waste management can't recycle them. But there is an organization on these coasts that does have bins. One of them is here. Yeah, they're here. I've seen it here, yeah. And so you get a container and people here can fill it with the balls. Then it gets shipped back. The organization pays for the shipping unless they kind of do it in advance. That's another thing we want to do is we don't want to recycle the balls ourselves. We want to be able to help pay for the shipping. And again, we haven't launched our grant making yet or our matching funds and things like that. We just launched our website on World Pickleball Day on October 10th. But come 2026, as we raise the funds, we will be dispersing them and getting more information from, like, I just spoke to somebody from the YMCA in California. And there are no grant, very few grant makers in the pickleball space. Equipment, yes. The manufacturers can be very giving. And yet financially, this particular Y had four courts outdoors, but they need maintenance. They want to resurface them. They want to do permanent nets. You know, now that pickleball has gotten so much more popular. And so they got part of the money from the YUSA, but they need a matching fund, you know, to be able to raise more money. And they'll do certain fundraising from the members of the Y. So that's kind of the vision of it. It's to help local communities bring pickleball to under-championed communities. And whether it's under-championed because, let's say here, you know, this is a fundraiser for ending Parkinson's disease through the Davis Phinney Foundation. So we believe, I believe personally, I mean, I played pickleball with my dad. My dad was 100. Wow. And I put him paddle. He taught me tennis. He taught me skiing. He taught me everything. And I put a paddle in his hand. He was just sitting in his nice little chair, and he hit every single ball back to me. I have a video. Four days later, he passed away. At 100. At 100. But I have that last memory of him and the joy on his face that his daughter, that he was so like into her athletics. My mom was too, but he was the one that taught me. And that's why I say anybody could get joy from pickleball. It doesn't even have to be on the court. Just sitting in a chair, a wheelchair, you can have tremors. And it just, like I said, that look on his face and that joy drives me every single moment of what the possibility of the sport is. It is. We just came back from the Nationals from USA Pickleball and watching the guys in the wheelchairs. It was incredible and how good they are. And now they're doing it where they're playing on, sorry, a ball got away here. Yeah. We're at a pickleball facility. I think they were trying to hit you in the head. Yeah, trying to get me. But it was, you know, it was incredible watching that anybody can play this sport. Anybody. And I mean, my oldest that I've trained was 97. He couldn't move fast, but his smile on his face was worth a million dollars. It's not about winning. I mean, I know some people come to this that winning means everything. I think you're winning the second you pick up a paddle and get on the court. Well, you can play with young kids. You can play with older people. It's, I mean, it doesn't matter. All over. And I call it my exit. Like when I go on a court, the world stops. No phones. No traffic. No problem. And they don't even answer the phone when it's on the court. I don't want to answer nothing. So the vision ultimately is to be the world's kind of leading hub for funding, for equipment, and for volunteers. Because I didn't really say, we're also amassing a global volunteer network. So for instance, events like this, they might get local people to help volunteer. But what if a group doesn't have a ton of them? And it's a way that people feel they can, I say, play it forward. Where the joy that they get. And so let's say also they have a family member. I mean, somebody who has a family member with Parkinson's in this case. And what if they like love to give back and they could again pilot a program where people with Parkinson's and their caregivers, because that's the other group that really could use the community like this, where they bring the program. Well, guess who will help them fund it? I love it. Oh, my gosh. Pickleball for good. Pickleball for good. And in your knowledge, your 40 years of doing this, which is awesome. I know it sounds like a lot, but I mean, that's what you need. I'm only 45. I'm only 45. Only 45. That's amazing. To put this together is not easy. Well, and these people need it, right? I mean, they hire people to get people. But they don't have your background to help them. And I mean, we're so glad that we're going to be part of it and help you. And that's like we're doing, too. Like, why does it have to stop here at this function? Why can't we do a live today and have this all over the world? And people could be donating, watching those numbers come in that aren't there. They don't have to be here from other pickleball facilities. Sort of like, remember the Jerry Lewis? Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Muscular. We always watched that, you know? And would raise. Yeah. What is this? I mean, you and I must have a mind meld because in my waking dream state, I had an idea of doing something like that. And then the pro players like Ben. Oh, yeah. And Anna Lee. And then the team owners. And then the amateur players. The veteran player. I mean, everybody. They're on the phones. Oh, yeah. And then they could receive a call. That would be. Wouldn't that be? That would be awesome. Yeah, right? When they're playing and then being on the phone. Oh, yeah. It would be kind of fun. We got some great people at Denver Iconics. Yeah. Have you met them? These are great people. Oh, my gosh. I mean. I know Gail. You know Gail? Yeah, Gail. Gail is. Unbelievable. We met a long time. She's such a community asset. She is. I met her a long time ago. And she's always fun. But she's serious on that court, though. When you go to play some pickleball, she's playing some pickleball. I haven't played her. But I'm not at that level. Early on, I called her the lobster. Oh, that's funny. Because she's a good lobster. Oh, yeah. I don't even think I've watched her. Oh, she's tall, too. She's got some height. She came from basketball. Oh, yeah. That's what her passion is. So. But we. And just a great human. Oh, great human. And we're. Gosh. We worked with her a couple times here. With the Denver Iconics. She's done some great things. So great. Just there. I love where you're going. Yeah, we are. We are having that mind match. Because that's where I think, too. I think it doesn't need to stop right here. Today could be a wonderful day from all over the United States. Right? So I think as us pickleballers next door. And you. We can bring our brains together. Yeah. I'm so excited. Yeah. This is great. So tell me how would it work with the. You had mentioned that something will change. Kind of with like the Parkinson's. How you will actually help next year. How will that work? Kind of explain that. So what the vision would be is. So here I did ask who the organizer of this. Yeah. Of this fundraiser was. And because also they have over a hundred people. This is their first time. And you're in 20. 120 players. Which is phenomenal. Yeah. Very good. And what I would was going to do is connect with their development. Whatever their title is. And then say, okay. Because this is not the Parkinson's Association like USA. It's the Davis Phinney Foundation. And yet it is a national foundation. So I we could work with them and say, okay. For next year. What is your target fundraising goal? And then I would say, what's your stretch goal? Yeah. And I'd say, okay. What we could do is depending on how many funds we have in the matching fund. We could say, okay. Your goal is X. Your stretch goal is X plus. Why don't you say that pickleball for good will match that? Plus. Wow. And so therefore people will give more because you've given a challenge grant. And who likes who? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Challenge better than pickleball players. Oh, yeah. So we want to incentivize the goodness of people and that they do stretch themselves. I mean, we need to stretch in the sport and I'm talking about financially stretch. Because the kind of money that get raised at events like this, it's called unrestricted. It's called a flexible support. So it goes to whatever the organization can use it for. And that's the best kind of support that people can give as opposed to restricting it to a certain geography or a certain program. Unless the organization says, oh, we want to fund. We want this to feed money or generate it. And again, forgive me for getting so wonky in fundraising. No, but we need to. It's my jam. It's so clouded, though. It's so clouded out there. I mean, it's hard to know what to give to anymore, right? There's so much of it. So, I mean, it's wonderful when we have somebody with your statue to explain it a little bit. Because I get confused. I'm like, should I? Should I? No, yes, no. I mean, you know, I want to make sure that I'm giving the money. And, you know, there's always good and bad in any businesses and stuff. So, I mean, it's nice for people to understand what these different terminologies mean, you know? Well, I would say it isn't a gift that's at a level of $5, $10, even $25 or whatever. It makes an impact. Because, again, if you think of the collective that gives at that level, and if the fundraisers are doing their job, a lot of their revenue comes from a lot of different people. Yes. The field has changed. A lot of the higher net worth people are donating more. But still, the base in fundraising is not government funding. It's not corporate funding. It's individual donors. Yes. And that could also include small family foundations. It could include larger foundations, too. But every organization, because you spread the risk among numerous people. And so, I don't want anybody to ever feel, oh, I'm only giving X, Y, and Z. Because you're the multiplier. You have to multiply everybody else who's giving at that level. Right. And at this time of year, there are scams out there. There are. And so you do need to do your own due diligence. There's a website called Charity Navigator. I think it might be .org or .com. And you could always research. Nice. If there's a group that you've seen and it comes in your Facebook feed, you could always go and look to see whether it's got five stars. I think that's the highest, five or four stars. Where I work in my day job, Global Green Grants has the highest stars. And it just means you have financial transparency. We're an over 30-year organization. And so, ultimately, of course, Pickleball for Good wants that highest rating, too. You'll get there. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, think about that. 100,000 people at $1. That's $100,000. Who can't give $1? I mean, we spend $10 on a coffee now. Come on. You don't have coffee that morning and spend it here, right? Yeah. $10 away. You know what I mean? Bring that to the people. And the impact is also on the giver. I just want to remind people that how it made you feel is really what's all important. If you felt good giving whatever amount. Yeah, it doesn't matter. That is your soul expressing itself through an energy called money that's supporting people and that you should be really proud that you're in a position to do that no matter what your income level. True. Very true. So, it's really in the giving. Now, how can people go to your site and do anything now to help and raise? I mean, this is what you're doing. You're helping raise money that we can have these so we can match these funds with these different functions. And any kind of social media that you can tell us about? Sure. So, our website is www.pickleball4good.org. And the four is spelled out, not the number. And there are basically three ways we're encouraging people to get involved. One is to sign up for what will eventually be our e-newsletter. So, that's just sharing your email address. And we're not going to spam. We don't sell our list. I mean, all of that. We have best practices as a number one and being excellent at what we do. And then the second way, of course, is donating. And there are, you know, again, we emphasize the general support so that we can start building our reserve to be able to make grants. Our goal this year for next year is $750,000, which kind of represents 70 projects at $7,500. That was just the number that kind of came to us. If our grants were going to be between $5,000 and $10,000, then that's how we kind of calculated it. And, of course, it would be a combination of individuals that have capacity and interest to give more. But, again, the donor that gives whatever on our website and also perhaps pays for the processing fee. I got to do a picture of that. I get it. Then it won't cost us. Then, you know, that's the fund is the goal. So, our goal is $750,000. That's great. And then you also get the tax deduction. We will be launching the in-kind giving. But the third way, so the first way is signing up for our e-newsletter. The second way is donating. And the third way is to sign our No Planet, No Pickleball pledge. As I mentioned, I work for an environmental justice organization. So how could I not launch something that integrates sustainability from an environmental standpoint but also from an economic and from a social good? You know, sustaining programs is really important. Not just a flash in the pan. You do one thing and then it goes away because it's not sustainable. So, and most nonprofits that would want to build a pickleball program like a Y, they need sustainable longer-term funding to be able to run it. So, eventually we may give multi-year gifts to be able to provide that. We can't be the sole source of money for a program. They have to raise their money and we'll teach them. You know, we'll do webinars to be able to share how do you approach corporate for sponsorships. And we'll help them with sponsorships too because we hope to develop major sponsors that will be able to build their own funds and say, okay, we want to focus on a particular population. So, let's say it's geographic and they want to help all of Illinois or they want to help all of Colorado. We can help them that way and say how can we build programs in this state because you're based in this state. Yeah, and I think what's incredible too is the relationships you have built over time. That's a plus in this too, right? You have some relationships that, you know, like any time it takes to develop relationships and it's got to be, that has to be a tough part to build those sometimes. Everybody's busy, right? I mean, we all want to give and help but we're always so busy, you know, and we're not that busy. We need to help. You know, I think my experience has been because this is a newer, there are other like philanthropic organizations but nobody yet has been a one-stop shop and that it's international as well because one of our official partners is the Global Pickleball Federation and they have been, they have about, I think 70 some odd member countries that are trying to build pickleball in their countries and part of that is to obviously bring it to communities that are under-championed but also to get it in the Olympics because you need a certain amount of players and tournaments and things like that. They have their standards for whether it could be approved by the Olympic Committee and so I actually, just an aside, I happen, for my day job, happen to be going to Nairobi for an all-staff meeting because we have a global staff and I'm staying for an extra week or two. I'm bringing an entire suitcase of pickleball paddles for Global Pickleball Federation and I believe they're going to be brought to Malawi. So again, these are people that soccer may have been, but it's mostly boys. What about the women and girls who don't tend to play sport but this could be a sport that you're entering into it. And so I'm thrilled. I can't wait for January. So that's in January you're going? Great. Well, just know that Pickleballers Next Door is behind you. So whatever we can do, we're going to be there to help you and support you. Absolutely. When I come back, maybe I can come back online and kind of share the experience. Well, we definitely want to know that. This is what our, you know, we tell people, people ask us all the time, who is Pickleballers Next Door? We tell people they get to live vicariously through us because we get about here where we get to meet great people like yourself and other great people and we get to tell the stories. Sometimes you're always just playing in your club and in your neighborhood. I mean, I get it. I live in my, I love my five-mile radius, but we take you outside that five-mile radius. We get to let you people touch that you maybe never would have met or talked to. I was saying that Pickleball literally has changed the trajectory of my life in so many ways. Yes. And I think inherently my passion for both the sport, even, I don't play every day. I work. So like today, Saturday, I hadn't played since Thanksgiving. So to be able to play it and enjoy it, yet again, having been in the nonprofit world, which is all about giving back, all about playing it forward, always all about making the world a better place. This just happens to be the Petri dish where Pickleball and all the good it already brought, it already had the vibe for that. And yes, there are naysayers and there are people who blame bangers. I mean, I know tennis people who want us to not take over courts. I know. Yet, look at here. This is a perfect example of people who have probably not played Pickleball very much. These are not you and me that play repetitively. And look at their faces. Having fun. Smiling. Having fun for a cause. It's fun for a cause. Yeah. And these facilities that they are building, too. I mean, there's something going on. This is a 22-court indoor, eight restaurants. I mean, Relish is quite the place. I call it like my dad belonged to a golf club. Country club. This is my Pickleball country club. It is. It really is. And there's other great places. Oh, God. We have a ton of Pickleball indoor facilities here because, again, it's Colorado. Although we have a lot of bears. What do they call the ones that will jump into the water when it's ice cold? Polar bears. Oh, polar bears. Yes. Yeah. We'll wear the polar Pickleball or bears. Yes. Express. Because I see people who play as long as the court isn't icy. And they have their hats on. They have their gloves on. In the rain. Oh, yeah. 45 degrees. 45 degrees. You're out there. Not me. Not me. But we were looking at the equipment. What was really neat when we were in San Diego, they have some ways to remove water. It was fascinating how well they could get those courts dry. And they had to. Every day. Every day. We got rain. It was crazy. Yeah. I poured there. And the work that they did to make it happen. Yeah. These guys, they're another one. I don't know how much you work with USA Pickleball, but they have a thing on serves that we worked with YMCA, which was incredible. 165 kids. Down in Colorado Springs. They said, oh, we got some kids just come up here to Colorado Springs. That was funny. Right? I know. And we get there and, oh, there's 165 kids. We're going to need some help. But they brought all the equipment. They brought all the paddles. I mean, they left this for them. They didn't just bring it so they could try. We didn't play pickleball, but we got them introduced to pickleball. And then they now have courts there that they can start playing pickleball. And that's, like, the essence is you do need a place to play and equipment to play. You do. And so, again, a gap that we're filling. We don't want to duplicate what other people are doing. What I'm fond of, because I started this three years ago and it finally launched. It took forever to kind of congeal what our mission was. And I had a small board and very grateful to them. And then now we have a board of eight. And it's all volunteer at this point. Great. And it's a great collective of people who have different skill sets and, again, want to play it forward. And we are just embarking on building the relationships with the industry where we can build the funding so that we can make the grants. Yet the people that I've met who tell me they're, like, they started a pickleball paddle company. They started a buyback program. The people who, P3 Pickleball, who's the recycling guy that I met. So there are a lot of people wanting to do a lot of good through pickleball. Pickleball in itself as a sport is good. But, like, this program I talk to, which makes me cry probably every time I talk about it. It's called Project Flex Pickleball. And it started by two academics who are in the sports management in Northern Illinois University. And when I just Googled, I wanted to know where pickleball was popping up to serve under champion or that could have a benefit beyond just the recreation. So this is for in the juvenile justice system within their location. And now it's hopefully growing. They're scaling it to be statewide. So Jen, Dr. Jen, told me the story where these are youth who have done pretty bad things. And it's outside of Chicago. And they brought the kids, not that they played inside on that parquet wood floor with a basketball park. They brought them to an outdoor court. And one of the first times maybe they played, they had their boom box playing really loud, hooping and hollering, have the best time of their lives. And some guy comes over who is, I guess, a regular who played in that community. They thought he was going to say, shut the music off and was going to complain and the hooting and hollering. He came over and he looked at them. He goes, hey, you guys look like you're having a great time. Can I play with you? And the feedback that some of these male, it was all men, young men. And I have their quotes on our website because we're raising money for them specifically. And they basically said that one had never been to a park before. It was a park with people who looked different from him, who had very different walks of life. And they didn't care what his walk of life was. They didn't care why he was in the juvenile justice system. They just were meeting eyeball to eyeball, dink to dink. Playing pickleball. That's amazing. It's incredible. What the outcome is, is that they're not getting into fights when they get back. And she now wants to scale it, to introduce it to the female side of juvenile justice. And it is difficult to bring these kids outside. So they are thinking about building courts near the juvenile justice. But part of it is the social emotional learning of being out in the world and not being judged by the world. And so it's not just that they are having fun at a new recreation. Because most of these guys probably have played sports in their life. And some of them now want to become a pro. They want to teach it. I mean, so it's a lively group. They want to change their lives. They want to change their lives through a pickleball. Yeah, that's awesome. That's the funny part. You walk out here on a court. And you know, especially you do open plays and stuff. You don't know nobody. And they're all walks of life. From doctors, to lawyers, to moms, to grandmas. It doesn't matter. And that's the best part of this whole sport. So what you are doing is awesome. Thank you. Well, it's not just me. It is. I know. You were the founder. And you're the idea. You're going to bring this together. And like I said, your knowledge and background with this is going to be incredible. I mean, to help people. Because a lot of people just don't know where to start. They want to do things. But we don't know where to start. And the internet is not always the best place to look. You know? It's confusing. So having some of your knowledge is awesome. And we're going to be talking a lot. Absolutely. Absolutely. So do you have any other questions? You know, I could talk forever. Well, I mean, just a place, again, just a real quick shout out again, where they can get, you know. Yeah, the social media. The social media part of it. I know you said the website. But how about the social media? I don't even memorize the URLs. They're so new. But again, it's Pickleball for Good. F-O-R. Good. And we also have a DBA. It's Pickleball for Good Fund. So that's both ways to find us. We are on Facebook. We're on Instagram. And I don't think we're on TikTok. And we're on LinkedIn. Okay. And so it's not robust yet. Again, we're going to. It will be. But it will be. And again, part of it is we want to champion the people we're championing. It's not about, oh, yay us. It's that the people, we call them Pickleball for Good game changers. That the people who are donating, the people who are thinking of projects and programs, the people who want to sustain how Pickleball can specifically be a force for social good around the world. Those are really the champions. We're just helping them with the resources to be able to do what their visions are. So, guys, get to the site. And then the number one thing was to sign up, right, as a follower, right? For an e-mail. E-mail. So this way you can know what's going on. This way you got your in. And then you can know from there you can kind of follow and see where you want to go. And where you want to donate and different things. And signing the No Planet, No Pickleball pledge. And it's not a financial pledge. Obviously, if you want to donate, that's great. It's more about how can you commit to one thing you will do in the next 12 months. So you can change your behavior because it does, again, the collective makes the difference. It's like Hive Mind. I've been watching Pluribus. So, you know, that series. And so the Hive Mind is like how we all collectively can make change just one ball at a time. One paddle at a time. One game at a time. One donation at a time. One pledge at a time. And the ball is in your court. I like that. Yeah, that's good. You copied that? No, that's from you. I haven't seen that. I was looking at you and I'm like, that is on your emails when you send an email. I love it. It was great. We thank you for everything you're doing. Thank you for being on our podcast today. And this is just the start of it. We will change the world together. I like it. One ball at a time. And ball is in your listenership's court. It is. We need you. We need you to join our team in whatever way makes sense. If you want to reach out to me personally, it's Susan, S-U-S-A-N, at pickleballforgood.org. And I would love to hear from you. Feedback, ideas, projects you're thinking of, or just say, hey, believe in you. Yeah, DMS, too, at Pickleballers Next Door. You can also, even if you can't volunteer money, if you have time, people are an essence, too. You can always use more people at these functions. To volunteer, yeah. Yeah. There's a little form. It's just a brief thing to see where you would want to volunteer for and what community you like to serve, either geographically. And we probably – let me explain just briefly. Sure, absolutely. You always have time. So we don't want to run the volunteer network. Basically, it's a database that, again, we will not give those names other than to our grantees. So once we've made a grant, if they say we do need more volunteers, then we will send them those names. You will have given us approval to do that. We will also pay for the background check because if they're working with youth or seniors, you just have to do that. Absolutely. That's just a normal thing. A safe thing. So, again, it's not that we don't trust everybody out there that's signing up. It's for everybody. Yeah. So we feel confident, and you feel confident, that you also know that you are the kind of person that this group needs. Definitely. Well, thank you again, and we'll be shortly here talking to you shortly and have you on again. After I come back from Africa. I know. Oh, how awesome. I can't wait. We will get to in January, probably February, but yes. Indeed. I'll come on for my birthday. My birthday's February 18th. That's what we'll do. Let's do it. If I'm back by then. How fun. We'll have fun. Thank the both of you. Thank you. It's so nice to finally meet you after a couple of months. I know. We talked, right? Yes, and I didn't even have to drive to Denver to do this. I know. But it all works out. It all works out. Yep. That's what makes it different. As you say, where I grew up, it's Pechert. Meant to be. Yeah, I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you. You too. You too. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Bye-bye. Bye. All right. We're back here. We're here at the Relish. We're here for the Davis Phinney Foundation, and we are here with Polly Dawkins, and she is the Executive Director for the Davis Phinney Foundation. Well, thanks for having me. No, no problem. Thanks for being here and doing all of what you're doing here. Well, we are thrilled to be here. We are amazed at the turnout today. When we started a few weeks after opening registration, there were seven people signed up. And now 120 plus. Actually, 138. Woo! That's amazing. And we turned so many people away. Oh, wow. So we are going to do this again. Nice. So we'd love for people to think about joining us at the next event, wherever that may be. Oh, yeah. We'll be here. Yeah. We'll be here. And you didn't know that it was going to be this. No, we didn't know. I think there's a pent-up demand in our Parkinson's community. So the Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson's is focused on helping people with Parkinson's live well today, and that's really people with Parkinson's and their family members and their care partners. And we really didn't know if there would be this level of demand from our Parkinson's community and those who love people with Parkinson's to come out and represent and support. And support. Wow. And it really has been tremendous. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. There have been some... It's been a little hard today. There have been some kinks that we're going to work out for the next event. Sure. But that's everything. I mean, any time you do something new like this. For the first time. Right? Yeah. We were just in San Diego. It rained. And they have 50 courts that are going at one time. Can you imagine what rain does outside? Oh, no. They had to clean them, dry them. It was horrible. There was a lot of delays, but they worked it out. But, you know, it doesn't matter even whatever happened, it's here for a great reason. Yes. You are. And for us, seeing our community come out, and it's like old home week. We're seeing folks that we see in cycling class. We see folks that we see in boxing class. We see folks who come to support groups. We're just seeing so many folks and their friends, and we've got board members here. We've got staff. We've got former staff who are here, and they're all here to support the cause and to show what it means, our mission in action, what it means to live well with Parkinson's. This is it. This is it here. I mean, Pickleball. Number one, being in community. Oh, yeah. Community. Absolutely. And that's what we see in Pickleball is that people come out and it's a social activity. It makes you happy when you're out here. It's contagious. It is. It's a really good feeling, right? When you're playing with people. Yeah. Yeah. And so it fills all the buckets that we want to fill, right? Social activity, physical activity, because we know that physical activity, staying active, exercising with Parkinson's is the only thing that's been known to potentially slow the progression of Parkinson's. Exercise helps every single symptom of Parkinson's. Wow. Which is incredible. I know we were off air here talking. It was incredible, the stuff you were telling us about. This is that you have to keep active and you have to. And we had somebody on just before this that was, they're boxing. I mean, that is incredible. And he's in the tournament today and he does the cycling too. 60 miles. 60 miles plus. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So I think the other piece of today is that the two of you are here helping us spread the word about what we do at the Davis Phinney Foundation. But as you all look out amongst the crowd, you don't know who's a person with Parkinson's. I couldn't tell you. We were sitting here with somebody, had no clue. And it was great. But he is doing the right steps. And I think that's the part that you keep telling us is you've already worked through a lot of this, so you can help a lot of people from wasting a lot of time to help them in the future. Yeah. And I think the people you're seeing here at this tournament are folks who've taken action. Folks who've raised their hand and said, yes, I want to be involved. Yes, I accept my diagnosis. Yes, I am... Well, accepting a diagnosis is a hard thing to say. But yes, I am going to do the things that are going to make me feel better. The challenge, and I think for all of your listeners to think about as well, is it's those people who are isolated. Those people who receive a Parkinson's diagnosis and we don't know who they are. We don't know how to reach them. And so people need to, if they know somebody with Parkinson's or if they have Parkinson's, they need to reach out to you. Absolutely. You should see, I mean, you should just see the stuff, that pamphlet and the stuff that's here today. To help. It's incredible. Yeah. I mean, it's well thought out. Yeah. I mean, we've got webinars. We've got videos. We've got in-person events and experiences. We've got written materials. We've got individual ambassadors, so people who serve as volunteers in the community to help others with Parkinson's. We've got over 150 volunteer ambassadors throughout the country and in 12 Spanish speaking countries in the world. Wow. That's incredible. And so many of our ambassadors are Spanish speaking only. Wow. And because individuals who are diagnosed with Parkinson's, no matter where they live, need access to information about how do you live well. Yeah, absolutely. You're exactly right. You know, I can imagine this could be all really alone. And I mean, I know, I can't imagine. It's a very isolating disorder and as symptoms are visible. So when we think about Parkinson's, those of us, or those of you who are not trained in Parkinson's, you might think tremor and maybe stiffness, maybe rigidity, maybe a bit of a facial masking, but that might be the limit to what you see and what you know. Yeah. And there's so much more to Parkinson's. It's so complex. And what you see is just the tip of the iceberg. What's underneath that tip of that iceberg are all of the non-motor and cognitive and autonomic symptoms. Exercise helps all of that. It's the medicine. This is the medicine. This is the medicine. Better than any other medicine. Exactly. Yeah. And so to be able to reach people who are stuck, who have gotten a diagnosis, or maybe not yet gotten a diagnosis, but know that something is off, to be able to reach those folks and welcome them into the community and welcome them to show them that it is possible to feel better and that waiting, just sitting around and waiting for a cure is equivalent to decline. Yeah. And we just can't do that. Well, and you're such a community, you would meet people that have the same diagnosis. You meet people that are helping you. I mean, it's a community and just having that community can help. Spot on. Yeah. Yes. And it is the most amazing community I've ever been a part of. Yeah. Yes. It is a tremendous... The individuals living with Parkinson's in the community are fantastic and have such great stories and passions and just really interesting people. Yeah. And so, I mean, as many humans are, but... Well, and I was surprised how you said, because we asked, where does it come from? You know what I mean? Yeah. 90% from our environment. Yeah. Only 10% to 15% of Parkinson's is genetically caused or familial. That just blows my mind. I mean, I would like, I know we don't have time today, but we definitely need to talk more so that we can tell people that maybe don't have it right now, but how you can maybe prevent that. Yeah. Yeah. There's some great work out there. called the Parkinson's Plan. And it goes through the steps that we can take to reduce our exposure to Parkinson's and a potential diagnosis. Wow. Well, we thank you so much today for being out here and doing this. I mean, without people like yourself, things don't happen. The world doesn't go around. Oh, thank you for highlighting what we're doing and I would encourage all of your listeners to get involved. Yeah. How do they? Yeah. How would they get a hold of you or get part of it? You know, the Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson's, our website is, is our initials dpf or davisfinneyfoundation.org and you can reach out via that. And I'm sure you have all the resources if you want to be a volunteer, donate, whatever, or if you need the help, it's there too. If you need connections. Yep. Well, you are an incredible person. Thank you so much. So are you. Thank you for having me. Oh, you're not done. We're going to talk to you a lot more. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Bye bye. Bye bye. Hi guys. Here we are again at the relish. We're here for the Davis Finney Foundation and we have Tom Carney with us. And Tom Carney, Ashley has been playing for 16 years and he has been coaching for 15. How are you? I'm doing great. Yeah. This is an incredible story. We were just talking a little far pair here about your, how this all started 16 years ago. That's a big, that's a long time ago for pickleball. Yeah. There wasn't, there really wasn't that much going on. Yeah. Pickleball. Even the paddles. I mean, you have seen a change in the paddle technology and balls and everything. It's well, and as I say, we talked about pickleball, Ken, that's who I, I taught for, was able to get started with. And Westminster rec did not believe anybody would show up. They forced him to buy the nets, the paddles, the balls. And then they said, okay, now if somebody shows up, fine. And then he went to Apex after that in Arvada and they sort of, actually the director, Mike Miles said, this reminds me of soccer when it came in, in the early, late seventies. He said, kids went to soccer like crazy. And he said, I see old people going to pickleball like crazy in the same way that they did. And he said, we don't have facilities. So we've got to figure out a way to have facility and that's, that's kind of how it started. Yeah. And if anybody's played at Apex, it's a beautiful facility. Yeah. And this was put together a lot by you. You're a part of this. And I'm part of this pickleball, Ken, who just passed away a couple of weeks ago and his services are on the 19th of December and we'll probably have five, 600, maybe a thousand people show up. Amazing. Because we've had so many people involved through him. Something I didn't say earlier was that not only did he get those courts built. So 24 courts, Apex, 82nd and Sims. We also, after we got them built, we did a fundraiser for bedrooms with traumatic brain injury and we raised over $350,000 for the veterans on top. What a great man. I mean, and now in honor of him, we are donating again. That's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah. And it's amazing what pickleball can do. I mean, you, from where you're seeing it to where we are today, it's incredible. And we're now looking at where it's going. It's gangbusters. It's not. I just walked in here and I don't know faces. Yeah. Who are these people? I didn't teach them. Yeah. I didn't teach them where they come from. Yeah. Yeah. And you do teach a lot of people from what I understand. Right. And you give free lessons. We do free lessons. Actually. And I do a couple of things. I do free lessons at Westminster Rec at 104th, 105th and Sheridan in Westminster. And we do Tuesday mornings, nine to noon, Thursday afternoons, noon to three. So that you can, if you only do Thursdays, you do Thursday. You do both. You can do that. You're Tuesday. You can come and do that. So that if every time I start over on the Tuesday, you would get a different lesson. So within time, you'll be able to go through them all. And I love how you're talking about the lessons. What a great way to do it too. Sometimes people think you can come in, I teach people and I can teach you to play in about 15 minutes, but you're not going to play well and you're not going to understand what you're doing. I like the way you've broke it down into these different lessons. Well in each lesson, if we start out with the serve, hitting the ball is just a small piece of it. Yeah. You've got to be in the proper position, otherwise you're taking a simple shot and making it difficult. Yeah. And you sit there and you stress out, you go, Oh, I got to do this. I got to do this. I got to do this. No, you need to call the score. You need to turn your brain off. You need to hit the ball. Yeah. I like that. That was a really great way to explain it. Turn your brain off there, Mike. I didn't want to say, mine's always going, but somebody else's isn't working always. We only had one to turn on. Yeah, exactly. That would be true. You know what this button does? Don't hit that button. It turns you right off. Not yet. Not yet. But no, I mean, it's awesome. I heard you coach. I kept hearing coach. Who's the coach? You know, I'm so grateful to meet you because I'm a coach, but I'd love to kind of see and come visit you and do some video. We won't even charge you. All right. All right. Thank you. But we know someone needs some coaching. Yeah. And nobody. Who needs coaching? With our lessons, it's free. That's awesome. All you have to do is get into the building. So if you have silver sneakers, that's a free pass, otherwise you have to pay to get into the building. Sure. We do not charge. We are all volunteers. There's five of us. Which is incredible. That's nice. And you've been doing that for this whole time, right? And I'm doing it because of Pickleball Ken. Yeah. That's amazing. And I started out, Pickleball Ken and Steve Cole were the two that started that originally. Steve moved on to a different group, and I took the program over at that point, but they're the ones that laid out the whole idea and the concept of the seven lessons. And I have no clue. I have no tennis background, so I have no clue what I'm doing most of the time. But what I figured out was Steve was, when it was teaching the class, I had to make sure when he received the ball, he could easily return it wherever he wanted to do whatever he was doing. So I had to work on my game to improve my game. Wow. To make it easier, to make him look. To help improve. Makes sense. And that's what this guy is. You've changed lives. I mean, people don't realize what Pickleball does for you. That's what I have on my back right now. Yeah. Pickleball changed lives. Yeah. I love it. I love it. It really does. Well, we've got to get a picture of that. Yeah, we do. Yes. And a picture with you. All right. But we, yeah. I mean, when I get on the court, I leave the world. I get to leave for that time. When you walk into that, if you're indoors, you walk through that door, all the issues stop right there. Right there. And when you get back out, they're going to hang there. Yeah. They're there. Usually. They're there for dinner and I'm in trouble. So. That's what he's saying. I can play one more game. One more game. I don't want to go back through that door. She's like, you told me 30 minutes ago. I said, what? I don't know what happened. I actually don't believe that. I think Palm is a saint. Yeah. And I don't think she would ever, ever have a problem with being late for dinner. Oh, no. I've been in Pickleball marriage trouble. Well, see, and my wife has absolutely zero interest in Pickleball. Yeah. My wife, too. This is my wife right here. She has no, she's like, you can keep that Pickleball stuff, you know. So do you love your shopping? Yeah. Oh, she loves it. My wife loves her shopping. Yeah. So she does shopping and you do Pickleball. So she gets her exercises. Yeah. It's a win-win thing. Nice. Nice. Yeah. She's a crafter. She likes to craft. Okay. Yeah. So, but anyway, it's a great game. I mean, and again, what you're doing for people all ages, right? This is not just. Well, it's getting younger. Yeah. Isn't it? It's crazy. So the youngest ones I've taught in those classes, they're all the same age. Yeah. They're all the same age. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the youngest ones I've taught in those classes are probably 12, 13 years old. Yeah. And eight. So grandma or grandpa will bring. Will bring great grandchildren. Particularly when they have a day off at school or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Tom, can they play in? Absolutely. Yeah. And we have homeschoolers that, the high school kids, and they come and they don't come to my class because they just figured it out, but they actually go across the curtain where there's open play. And there's all kinds of young people playing over there. So we talked about Big Mike earlier, but Big Mike also works with the high schools. So there's club teams at the high schools. So they've got programs going there too. And a shout out to Big Mike. Big Mike. Yeah, you gotta love Big Mike. We love you, Big Mike. Yeah. Yeah. He's quite, he was my first tournament four years ago and he was there and I was so nervous. I was just petrified and he just looked at me and said, you just have fun. And I'm going to be here to make sure that you do the right things, but you just have fun. That's all this is about. And it was so nice. And I'll tell you a little secret of what worked for me anyway. Your first tournament, first big deals you're doing, chew some gum. Because it takes your mind off of all the other things and you relax. Great idea. Except for I think, I don't even think Mike can chew gum. Well, he can chew gum. He can't walk. He can't walk. At this very time. I can stop chewing while I hit the ball. You see how bad this is? We're going to have to shut her off, right Comrade? But let me walk through the seven. And how to do it, guys. Yeah. I'll break it down. So the first one is how to start a game. What are the general rules of the game? Who calls what? Yeah. Good sign. And then how to get yourself positioned for a serve. We do a lot around the serve. Then the next lesson would be, you just received a serve. If you're out of position, it's a very difficult shot to return. But if you're in position, you can return that ball. So you get, if you're on the right hand side, you play close to the middle line. So that all of your forehand is out. And just stick your arm out. Yeah. And you say, I'm covering this area. That tells you that you're right or wrong. Because if you're sticking your hand outside of the court, you're in the wrong position. But you slide over. So get yourself in position. Then you use the white line on the other side of the court. That's your target. You look for a target. On your serve, you look for a target. If to start, you just use the person. Hit the ball right at him. Yeah. It's the worst serve that they don't like. Yeah. That's as bad as a backhand. Oh yeah. Hit it right at him. Once you get a good serve down, you can move it around. But before that, you just hit directly at them. At them. Poke right at them. So then return a serve. Serve deep. Because you don't want the player moving up. They already have a player up already. So if you do a short serve, you just put two players up and two players back. And you're stuck back there because you've got to wait for that second bounce. Are they going to hit it back to you? Or are they going to just hit it over the net? Yeah. So you've got to figure that out. So you give a deep serve. You give a deep return. A deep return. Once you hit the ball, you stop. Then you move forward. Yeah. Do not run through that shot. You run through it, your ball goes twice as far as it should. So you stop. You play. Then you move up. Your team is up already. Yep. Then you have your third shot, which is the next lesson. And putting the third shot in opposite of where the up player is at, that allows everybody to move up into the front of the court. You give it to the player that's up, and your partner is going to get smacked. Yeah. They're going to get smacked. Yeah. All right. So then, that's four, right? Yep. No, that's three. So then the fourth one is dinking. So you're doing nothing but dinking, forehands and backhands, cutting angles across the court, all of that. But then you end up having to play a short game. Every shot you have has to land in the kitchen. That's so good. Yeah. And if it's going out, you've got to let it fall out. You can't say, oh, it's out. No, it's not out until it touches the floor. The ball is never out until it touches the floor. And that's what they have to remember. Because all the, oh, no, I didn't want to have to run after it. Well, you have to run after it. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. And how many times with the top spin, especially the new tennis people coming in, you think the ball's going out, and that thing spins right in. It drops right in. It drops right in. So you need to follow the ball until it ends. So after you get the dinky, then you have the player standing at the kitchen line, outside of the kitchen, and you hit the ball to their midsection, getting them to put their paddle close to their chest so they can push it away. If they put their paddle way out front, they have no pushback. Yeah. Here, I've got pushback all the way to that point. So making sure you've got the pushback. In that same lesson, we put the ball above your head, and how do you slam it and place it so that nobody gets hurt, and you get the point. You slam it hard because you don't want it coming back. You put it over there easy. You're the one eating plastic, not them. Yeah, exactly. So then you've got that one, then you've got get your feet, and tennis players, this is easy for them. If you're not a tennis player, this is ridiculous. But you've got to have good footwork. Get your feet turned sideways, forehands and backhands, and you have actually four shots in that. Once you turn to the right, you can step into the shot, or you can step away from the shot if it comes closer. Same thing, you turn the other way. You can step into it, or you can step out into it, but you can do it back and forth. Then the last one is lobs from the kitchen line and from the back of the court, and as we said, the other team has got to be up, otherwise a lob is a smack in your face. Oh yeah, it is. So you've got to make sure the other team is up. It's got to go up, and as soon as it gets to their head, it's got to start falling, because it's got just enough room then to drop in behind. Then in that same lesson, how do you go back and retrieve one of those balls and safely get it back to the other side? And the only way to do it is to work with your partner. Are you mobile? You're not mobile. Then you're going to have to take more of those shots because you're the mobile player. But then you have to communicate. You can turn sideways and skip back. First thing you do is turn your shoulders. You don't turn your shoulders, you're going to go falling backwards. Turn your shoulders will force you to walk sideways or turn and go completely. On the right-hand side player, they will go behind the left-hand player. The left-hand player will slide over to the right-hand player's position. You play that shot soft and easy, then you can move up. Your partner is covering the area you just left. You play that. If it's the other way around, the player on the left-hand side may turn to their right and skip back or slide back and get that shot. If it's over the right-hand player's head and you're not playing with the left-hand player, you're playing with the left-hand player, they can get it. But if you're playing with the right-hand player, then you go off the court, come back around, and come in behind where that ball is at. Everybody wants to run right where the ball is going to bounce, and it's gone. Yeah, it's gone. If you want to go behind it, let it come up to you. It just bounces. It comes up. It dies right there. Yeah. Waiting for you to hit it. Yeah. It comes up and just sets it. Yeah, we overreact. I mean, I think you know that. I mean, pickleball is a slow game. Oh. Even though, calm down. Wow. Yes. Yes. Yes. And the more you use your head, the less you have to use your feet. That's another good one. I want to make some of these t-shirts. We'll have to send you some. We're going to have to charge you. Yeah, I know. We're probably going to have to get charged for this one. Yeah. These are just incredible. I mean, when you have 16 years of experience teaching pickleball, right? You can see it all. Yeah. And also, my age is to my advantage because I now have played enough. I know it. I can't do stuff. The other thing that I do is I also play with both hands. Wow. That's awesome. And so what I say, if you can take your paddle and throw it from your right hand to your left hand and catch it and throw it back to your right hand, then you might be able to play left-handed. Wow. Yeah. That's awesome. Because I can now cover so much more space. Oh, absolutely. And I don't have to move my feet. Yeah. Nice. And you should see the shape this gentleman's in. Yeah. He told us his age and I won't have to tell you. Can we tell your age over this? Can we tell your age? So you're at the young age of 81 years old. 81 years old and is healthy. Amazing. You look so good. Amazing. You would never guess this. Yeah. So guys, you want to get younger and look better and feel better, pickleball. And start getting lessons. Put white in your hair. Yes. It looks a lot. Oh, it looks good. I was in the wind a lot. Oh, I see a one up there. Oh, I see some shine. Yeah, there's one up there. There's a couple. They feel a little shiny. There's a couple. Oh, you got one that's really long and curly. I did. I gave her the chance to beat on me again. But we would love to come down. Yeah. If you wouldn't mind to come down and bring Pickleballers next door and do a podcast at the, make sure it's okay. And promote you guys. Yeah. Would that be good? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And you can talk to some of the players. Yeah. And find out what their reactions are. Yeah. That kind of thing. Yeah. And again, I'm a coach. I'm more than a coach. I'm more than happy to help too. So, I'd love to see. I'm trying to volunteer. Well, I'm to the point now that Pickleball Camp, as I said, passed. I am looking. I can only do this so much longer. Sure. Sure. But I will not turn this program over to anybody until I know they're going to run the program exactly the way the program is designed. Yeah. And you built it. You built it well. I mean, I'm a coach too. I teach for the Hiltons and stuff. And I'm all about teaching. I don't charge. I just teach. I don't charge people in the game. And again, I'm very patient. You know what I mean? This is not a game. And again, people just want to get out there and go and inspect the young people. You know, they just want to smack that ball. Smack that ball. Well, and the other thing is I also, I have a rare disease in my sister-in-law's family. And she has passed it down to three of their four children. She has passed. Their oldest son has passed. Their oldest daughter has passed. And we, I teach pickleball as part of how we raise money. So we have raised over $350,000. I love it. Or the disease is called catacel. Like seven words I can't pronounce, but it's a capital letter of each one of those. So that's the other thing that I do in my spare time. Well, let us help you with that too. So I'll give you a call. Give us the information and we can put it on our website and have people donate to you. Thank you. And I like four players. So that, and John, and this is actually Orange John, who is my buddy. And you're purple. Who doesn't want to talk. He always volunteered with me. And so we constantly take four players and we go through, we try to go through those seven lessons very quickly, but then we make them, we have them play the game. As they play the game, as soon as they screw up, we holler stop and you got to stop exactly where you're at. And then we can show you it's your paddle, it's your feet, it's your position. You did backhand. That was an easy forehand shot, but we can stop them right at that moment. So that you can show them what mistake they made. So they don't keep on doing it. Well, and that's the problem with this game is there's four squares and we think we live in each just those squares. And so all of a sudden either, or you think you live in the whole, the squares and you forget there's another player. I'm playing with my wife. She's not very good. So I'm going to take it off. I'm going to take it off. Oh, I've been knocked out by somebody. I'm not kidding. I'm not going to talk games. I can get a little crazy. Okay. I can't imagine that. I can get a little competitive. Just a little. The other thing is, is stop watching your partner do their serves, hitting the ball from the back of the court. They're the ones that shouldn't be hitting you. Yeah. It's the two people across there. When he screws up, he puts it up and you're looking back and then you turn around and you get the ball slammed right at you. You've got to watch them. Their expression on their face tells you, I've got the ball coming to me and I'm going to pound it at somebody and I'm probably the suspect that's going to get it. That's going to happen. Yeah. It is. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, and eye protection too. I'll tell you this. Yesterday I played and I got hit in the eye. And lucky I wore glasses. Yeah. You have to wear glasses. You really do now. This, this game has moved. You have to, you, it was a slow, slow game of a lot of dinking. When I say dinking, a lot of people are like, what's dinking? You know, the dinkings went away. Why do you want to do that? Why do you want to do that? The pros, but when you go back to pro level, the dinking comes back, right? You watch the pros now and they still, it speeds up fast. And my favorite shot, which he loves, hates, is if I'm on the right hand side, I will drop it off into the left hand corner and you cannot get it. And if you do, my partner is standing with a big smile on their face and they just slam it right where you used to stand. It's gone. Very good. I hit those front corners all the time. Well, we thank you so much for being here today on our podcast. Yeah. Thank you. And then sorry about your, your friend. That's really brought pickleball to Colorado here to Westminster, Nevada. Pretty much. He opened almost any of the rec centers North of Koufax. Wow. And his friend, Chris Beal covered everything South and they're the ones that got the thing rocking. He had to raise, bring the, you were saying he had to bring his own nets and balls and paddles because they said they didn't believe that nobody's going to show up. Nobody's going to show. Well, now look at today. He's got to be like, wow. I mean, you have to be like, well, it's not showing. We got into all kinds of crazy things of trying to create courts on driveways and all that kind of stuff. It just, they all became too expensive to do, but yeah. Yeah. Incredible. Mine was going all the time on making bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. Well, he was there. He was way ahead of his time and well now we got to, you know, apex is a beautiful facility too. I play there quite often. Great tournaments. Great play. The only thing once in a while you get depends what time of year is that wind that will get you there. Yeah. Yeah. It's up a little high, but it's only seven blocks from my house. Yeah. You know the crazy part too. You want to go eight o'clock at night during the summer. It's all kids. Those courts just fill with kids. Well, and the reason why they put the fence on around the outside is because of kids and dogs. Yeah. They, yeah. All night long. So now, and also when they do a tournament. Yeah. They can control. Control that everywhere. Everybody goes. Yeah. But a great facility. And you, I mean, you did a great job. I mean, it's beautiful. Easy to play. Great lighting. And we'll be excited. We're part of it. We say we're part of his posse. Yes. We're part of it. And he's the guy. He, he had the focus. But if he didn't do that, it wouldn't be here. No. Wouldn't have been here. He actually, probably the first, one of the first times he ever went to Apex to play it, to set up play, he immediately left and was gone. And he was upstairs and walked right into the director's office and said, my name is Pickleball Ken and we need to build outdoor courts. And the director said, who are you and how'd you get in here? He found a way to go, right? That's how aggressive he was. Yeah. We're doing it. He knows what he wanted. He knew how to get it. And he did. And he did it for a lot of people. Absolutely right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, everybody will miss him. I'm sure. And you're still here bringing his legacy on, helping great people, thousands and thousands of people that you've put on these courts. Thank you so much. And thank you for being here today and supporting this Scott. Appreciate it. Thank you, Tom. We'll see you soon. All right. Thank you. Take care. Bye. This is Christana. And Mike. We're back at the, we're back here. And we've got a couple of players here today. Yeah. So they're in the tournament for the Davis Finney Foundation. And so I have team Houston Vernon, and I got Jen's and I got Tom. How are you guys? Good. Good. Good. So how'd it go? So far, so good. So you're still in the running? We're like two or three and two. Three and two. Three and two. So you're still in. We're still in. Well, we're going to play one more game. Yeah. We're going to play one more game. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. Yeah. That's awesome. We're going to play one more time. One more time. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's good. So what made you? There are no winners, by the way. No. Yeah. There's no winners. No places or anything. No. But being here is a winner, right? You're here helping. We're part of the victory group. That's awesome. That's right. That's what counts. Those are the winners. So what made you guys come? Well, we've been doing the bike ride for years. You guys, that's just nuts. Like, how many miles do you guys ride? Well, for the Davis-Finney thing, we'll go between 60 and 30. Oh, my gosh. Wow. So what do you think about pickleball? Have you guys played pickleball before this? Played pickleball, but this is our first tournament. This is our first tournament. Okay. All right. Yeah. Yeah. But you've got to have the, I mean, you guys have the stamina. You're riding 60 miles. Like, this is nothing for you. Right. Right? You're probably moving too fast. But I'm thinking, I'm seeing you. I'm going to come watch you guys, because you're probably just overmoving, because you've got so much energy. The other people are moving a little quicker than we are. Oh. Nice. So you've done stuff with them before, you guys? With the Davis-Finney group. Yeah. Yeah. What a great foundation. Our first time, they called us and asked us to come, and we said, sure. Nice. Anything pickleball, we're here. And if it's to help people, that's even better. Yeah. And you know Relish? Relish has been great here. Oh, my gosh. Relish is awesome. Those guys have been really doing it here. You can eat, play, eat, go hang out. Yeah. We just had tacos. Yeah. Beer. Beer. Yeah, have a beer. It was really good. Yeah. Yeah. What a place. You can be here all day. It's like one of those all-day places. Yeah. It's a good place to hang. It is. It is. Check out the food. I assume it's as good. You haven't tried the food yet? No. We're going to. Oh, my gosh. Really good. You've got a band there. We've got a band. Yeah. And then we just had the Mexican bowl. Super good. You get to make it yourself. Fresh ingredients. Okay. Yeah. This is a good place. We'll go there. And then for dessert, behind is ice cream. Super good. Okay. All right. We'll take it all in. Yeah, we'll do it all. Yeah. You guys need it. You're going to go riding. You're probably leaving here. We're not riding. Riding is like a summer thing. Okay. Yeah, I guess it's a little icy. All right. All right. A little icy out there. How long have you guys been riding? How old are you? Too many years. Yeah. About the same age as old. Yeah. And is Boulder Lafayette? This is kind of your area, right? Boulder. So Boulder's a tough area. Wow. The hills and stuff. Yeah. We're on the hill. Yeah. Woo. So be careful. I'm always careful. Boulder, there's a lot of bike riders. You've got to be careful there. People are pretty good. Share the road. They notice. Boulder's good. Denver's not good. Denver is not good. Yeah, don't ride in Denver. It's not good. Have you gone up Deer Creek Canyon before? Deer Creek, no. No. Okay. Yeah. It's pretty impressive. And there were a lot of bikers going up there. And there isn't a biker lane. So it's really... No. Not the motorcycle bikers. Huh? These are bicyclists. Not motorcyclists. I know that. I'm just making sure you've got to watch her. Wow. No. No. Just giving her... I give her a hard time. He's not very nice to me. I don't know what you guys think. Oh, yeah. So... No. Okay. Go ahead. No, no. You go. So how long... So you play one more game, right? Yeah. Okay. So if you win that one, do you go... That's it? That's it. One more game. That's it. One more. So we've got to get this next one. You've got to win it. Yeah. You've got to win it. You've got to put one in the books. Well, two would be two, right? Two and two, then? Three. We'd be four and two. Four and two? Yeah. That's really good. That's a respectable score. That's really good. Well, we won't make you nervous to watch you, right? No. No. You might not... So you guys play any leagues or anything else? No. This is our first. Fun. Yeah. Well, if you're doing what you're doing and winning, that's pretty good. You know? We've gotten lucky a couple of times. Nice. Nice. Just fall in. Yeah. So don't you think the scoring's a little hard to understand? Well, yeah. I figure... Was that hard for you guys in the beginning? Yeah. The score. Yeah. If you can figure the scoring out, you're playing the game. Yeah. You're a champion. Yeah. Yeah. Or you just forget, right? You get playing, and then who served? What happened? Like, what are you? Yeah. But it works your brain. It does work your brain, which is good. It's great for Parkinson's, right? That's exactly right. It is. Yeah. That's exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. What a good foundation, though. Do you guys have anybody, family or members or anything that have Parkinson's or anything? No, I'm going to say... Tom does have Parkinson's. I am six years in. Okay. Wow. Okay. My progression is slow. The best medicine is exercise. So I bike, hike, play pickleball. I don't think that's a problem for you. It's phenomenal. I don't think 60 miles riding is... Yeah. You got to keep moving. You got to keep moving. Yeah. That's the secret. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I've heard. Yeah. So that's awesome. It's all good. Yeah. It's all good. Well, this is awesome. And they're trying to find... This is what they're doing, trying to find ways to make it better and better. Yeah. Yeah. These are good people. Way to live. Yeah. Way to live. Yeah. And Davis is a great guy and a great guy to lead at events like this. And his support that he has for the Davis Phinney Foundation is pretty incredible. Incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is awesome. So, I mean, that's why we're here, too. We're here... I mean, well, it's pickleball. So anything pickleball, we love pickleball. You know what it is? You know what the bad part of this is? Is we go to pickleball, but we don't get to play. You don't get to play, ever? We're always here hanging out. You don't get to play. So you don't get to make fun of us. Yeah. I mean, I make fun of Mike when he plays, but... Yeah. All right. All right. That's okay. The other sport that I do is with Davis in a group that he leads is the boxing. Boxing? Yeah. Wow. So watch out. Oh, I'd like to hear it. Yeah. How's that? Yeah. Great. And it's kind of like pickleball. It works your brain, but it works your body, too. Oh, yeah. It warms another and... And a little aggression out, too, right? Yeah. You get a little bad day. A little bad day. Come in here. Do you do the boxing? No. No? No. I would get hurt. That's awesome, though. That's really good. No, I mean, I said active. That's the best medicine. I've heard that's the best thing ever. So that's awesome. Yeah. Well, it's so good you guys are here today. Yeah. Thank you. To play and have fun and help raise and help. Yeah. I'm glad to hear you're doing well. So, wow. You look great. Yeah. When do you start training back for bike riding? Well, you know, if you can get a couple of days in every month... Yeah, Colorado has some nice days. You might be able to. My threshold's about 50 degrees, so if it's up or above 50, I'll go out for a couple hours. But mostly, it's like, you know, you're doing it in March. You're going to have to back up in March. Yeah. It's just a crazy sport. My son's a runner, so I think that's just in that same category. Same thing. Yeah, same thing. And he'll just go out there and run. And I'm like, how far? I went 25 miles today. I'm like, that's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. You're nuts. You've lost your mind. Yeah. Yeah. I'd rather be on a bike for 25. I would, yeah. I would rather be on a bike. I need the motorized bike. Well, there's that. That's the one I need. Yeah. Yep, I did two miles, and the rest was done by my bike. Yeah. Well, thank you guys for being on today. Yeah, thank you. We thank you. Good luck. Good luck. Thank you. We're going to come watch your last game. Okay, we're going to be on Court Twelve or... Twelve. Yeah, twelve. We're going to come watch you play, and we're going to come back down and see you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you guys. Bye, guys. Bye. Tired of the same old, same old? Discover a Sweet Sip Nano CBD Sparkling Sodas. We're the delicious, low anxiety, non-alcoholic alternative you've been searching for. When you're on the pickleball court, and you need a calm, this is your drink. Experience delightful flavor and a gentle calm. Try one today at DrinkASweetSip.com and you'll be fine. Sweet Sip. Can I get a Sweet Sip? Sweet Sip. Sweet Sip. Let me get a Sweet Sip. Sweet Sip. Sweet Sip. Well, it's CBD. CBD. CBD. Get a Sweet Sip.