The Incredible Journey of Tournament Pickleball Pro Lindsey Newman

Intro

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welcome to Simply pickleball the podcast

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where we discuss all things pickleball

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the fastest growing sport in America and

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around the world we’re interviewing the

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founders industry leaders athletes

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lovers of the sport that are driving the

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spectacular growth if you love

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pickleball as much as we do listen in

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hi I’m Crystal Brown your host and I had

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the chance to catch up with busy mom and

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professional pickleball star Lindsey

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Newman we got to dig into her National

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PPA win with her teammate and brother

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Riley Newman how she got into the sport

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after a long career in tennis and how

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she manages to balance motherhood and

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family life with her successful career

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and out of the show alright well Lindsay

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thank you so much for joining me today

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really excited to speak with you about

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everything pickleball really wanted to

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just start with kind of earlier on in

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your life where you could you know share

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a little bit about what it was like to

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grow up in a household with a ton of

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kids I know you are one of seven is that

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right yeah yeah that’s right yeah it was

Lindsey Newman Early Days

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It was kind of as you can imagine super

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crazy uh loud chaotic you know everyone

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was coming in and out of the door doing

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and going different places yeah it was

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wild and to add on to all of that all of

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us were super super competitive and

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we’re actively playing multiple those

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words typically at a time you know so

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many times you know I would be shipped

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off to a basketball practice and then

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another sister would be going to a

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soccer practice and then a brother would

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be going to a baseball practice I mean

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looking back now that I have you know

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two kids of my own I don’t even I can’t

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even comprehend like how my mom and dad

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did it you know for so many years and

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for so long so yeah I mean it was it was

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crazy and wild I actually kind of refer

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to it as like Survivor uh where

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everyone’s you know you’re kind of on a

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team but you’re honestly kind of like

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just kind of just trying to survive

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yourself you know there are multiple

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times where you know dinner was made and

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and sometimes if you didn’t eat fast

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enough there wasn’t enough you know

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enough for seconds and uh yeah so yeah

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definitely kind of a Survivor household

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there were times when you know we’d be

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fighting over who had to go to bed first

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and you know instead of just one of us

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kind of Manning up and going we would

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you know play ping pong or we had a

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little basketball well hoop in our

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living room and we would shoot free

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throws and the loser had to go first and

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do that sort of thing so like I said

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really really competitive but also very

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very loving uh you know we had the

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absolute best parents uh in the whole

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world yeah it was fun it’s I’ve heard

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stories about that you know I have a

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friend who who has five siblings all

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boys and it would be definitely a fight

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for who got to have seconds for dinner

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and then they do they eat fast to this

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day they still kind of yeah yeah it’s

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crazy I mean I can I can finish a meal

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you know when we have our sponsors or

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like different people take us out you

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know I have to make a really really

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conscious effort to to eat slow and put

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a napkin on my laps honestly like none

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of that comes natural we were you know

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dinner was made it was a race to the

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kitchen you know you you got what you

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got and then you just shoveled it in and

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half the time you didn’t chew it you

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just swallowed it yeah so like you said

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I totally totally relate to that and

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yeah to kind of be more aware that now

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as an adult so and so were you guys all

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sporty was everyone in your family

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pretty athletic and did you kind of know

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you you all had a knack for that or even

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you specifically just kind of knew that

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you were maybe better than the average

A Family of Athletes

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athlete yeah I mean our parents ever

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since you know I can remember we grew up

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in in sports and it was in a gym it was

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on a field you know it was in the car

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going to the the gyms or the fields and

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yeah at an early age our parents kind of

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bedded in us that we were gonna play

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sports and that uh you know doing that

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would build a lot of character and uh

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respect and and teamwork and all that

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good stuff so yeah growing up you know

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ever since I could walk I was I was

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playing something so yeah I mean it was

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it was a lot of fun to you know have

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parents who were so supportive it was

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also really fun to have you know always

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someone to play with or against you know

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for me it was a lot of times Riley we

Lindsey and Riley Newman Rivalry

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were always kind of I would say probably

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the most competitive most athletic ones

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of the family you know so many times we

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would go to the tennis court and we’d

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duke it out in singles and and for you

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know early on I would do a lot of the

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winning and he would get so mad that he

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would actually pick up a tennis ball and

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hit the ball I mean it’s as hard as you

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could and uh you know we gotten a lot of

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a lot of fights growing up about you

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know who won who lost that was a bad

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line call you’re a cheater you don’t

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know the score things like that right

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now you know we get along a lot better

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obviously yeah that sort of stuff isn’t

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as big of an issue but

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um where do you guys fall in in terms

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are you guys

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yeah so actually Riley is just dead

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heat in the middle and actually I’m one

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above him so okay so you guys we kind of

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fall in the middle yeah it totally makes

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sense so yeah I mean it was just it was

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like I said everything in our house was

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a competition uh we always had

5:17

basketball or ping pong or or baseball

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or whatever it was it was just never

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anything that we did was to win to beat

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out everyone else and that really hasn’t

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changed even you know in our 30s I was a

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swimmer growing up and you’re it’s it’s

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more individual right you you you think

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like hard work is part of it but also

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that spirit that you want to win right

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because you can you know you can you can

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play but you to want to win is a little

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bit different so um when so you you were

From Tennis to Pickleball

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a tennis player though prior to

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pickleball did you feel like that was

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going to be your sport could you imagine

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winning Wimbledon or you know what

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tennis yeah I mean I don’t think I was I

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was that silly you know I grew up like

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you said on a small island none of us

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ever had like private coaching lessons

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money was was pretty tight growing up I

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used to sit in front of the TV for hours

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and hours and and watch the tennis

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tournaments and just tried to try to do

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what you know Lindsay Davenport or Maria

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Sharapova and like all those girls were

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doing and tried to just do it to the

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best of my abilities because yeah we

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just never could afford private lessons

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so tennis was definitely kind of my

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favorite sport I think I also did

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volleyball and basketball those were

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kind of my big three sports that I

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played and honestly I really really love

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volleyball too so no I never I never

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thought I would make it in the big

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leagues or the pro but my goal growing

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up for sure was to get a division one

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scholarship and I did that because I

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worked really really hard and always

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always wanted it in my opinion more than

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you know the person on the other side of

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the net I ended up do you know getting a

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division one scholarship and then uh

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actually when I found pickleball I was a

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reffing basketball because yeah

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I’m curious about that for a really long

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time I wanted to uh ref in like the WNBA

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and NBA and that’s really really what I

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wanted to do I was I was refereeing I

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got to division two uh so one away from

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division one and uh my boss at the time

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found out I played division one called

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tennis and he’s like you should play

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Pickleball it’s a lot of fun and

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you know I was pretty fresh out of

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college and I was like no no like

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pickleballs for old people I’m a D1

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athlete like I’m too good for that he

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was like but that’s good that’s so

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that’s what you thought growing up

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because I mean not even around the

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country not a lot of people had heard

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about it but you’d heard of pickleball

7:41

earlier on ah

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yeah I mean I I think I played it once

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or twice you know in PE you know in

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middle school or high school never

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touched it after that and then yeah my

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boss when I was roughing college

7:53

basketball actually kind of informed me

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about it because I didn’t think it was

7:57

anything past a PE sport so and so he so

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he thought maybe you’d have a knack for

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it and yeah so he found out we you know

8:05

both Riley and I played Division One

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tennis brought us out to pickleball

8:08

Central in kind of the Seattle area and

8:12

Riley and I played for like four or five

8:13

hours that first time and just

First Time Playing Pickleball

8:16

absolutely like everyone else got hooked

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on it and our our boss’s name is Mark

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cook at the time was like well there’s a

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tournament in Oregon you guys should

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come and play

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and of course Riley and I being ultra

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competitive we’re like yeah let’s do it

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so I actually went to a Taylor Swift

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concert the night before ended up taking

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our parents car driving all through the

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night we slept in a casino parking lot

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the night before the tournament showed

First Professional Pickleball Tournament

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up to the tournament and ended up

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entering in like the 5-0 Pro mixed

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doubles bracket and showed up to the

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tournament we didn’t have our own

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paddles we didn’t know how to keep score

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we were all over the place we were

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borrowing people’s paddles we just had

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no clue what we were doing but for God’s

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reason we ended up winning uh the

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tournaments we got first place uh that

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first tournament and actually there was

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a rep from paddle Tech that was there

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who offered us our first endorsement

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deal

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after that wow

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that same tournament we signed with

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paddle Tech and uh we won like 330 bucks

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and thought we were the richest people

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on on the planet and the way home both

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Riley and I kind of looked at each other

9:24

and we were like well you know what

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should we do should we kind of do this

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and yeah on the on the very long car

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ride home we were like yeah let’s do it

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so that’s kind of how it all got started

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isn’t that amazing how just like one

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twist can sort of change change the

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direction of your life we think about it

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all the time too well especially now

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that Taylor Swift is her concert tickets

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are going to like I know that would do

9:47

to go to a Taylor Swift concert

9:54

exactly that’s a good idea actually I

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bet she does so you so you’re in

9:59

Washington and how did you make so after

10:01

college how did you make your way

10:03

um you you ended up living in Arizona

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for a while is that right I ended up

10:06

marrying my high school sweetheart so

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we’ve been together oh my gosh like 15

10:11

17 years now and he was working for

10:13

Boeing at the time and he got an

10:16

opportunity to uh take kind of a job

10:18

promotion in Arizona and we thought yeah

10:20

why not what the heck at that point we

10:22

had no kids we were just dating so we

10:25

were pretty flexible and yeah that’s it

10:28

had nothing to do with pickleball or

10:29

anything else it was simply because he

10:31

had a a better job opportunity so we

10:34

moved from kind of the Seattle area to

10:37

Arizona technically Queen Creek kind of

10:39

by Mesa and uh lived there for a few

10:42

years and then golly like a month or two

10:44

ago bought a house in the in the Denton

10:47

Texas area so that’s where we reside

10:50

right now and or but was there a lot of

Pickleball in Arizona

10:52

pickleball in Arizona as well when you

10:54

were there yeah there was a ton it was

10:56

it’s almost like seeing a Starbucks

10:58

coffee place like no matter where you

11:00

look there’s always

11:02

there’s always one right there

11:04

um and that’s how it’s like in Arizona

11:05

you uh you know I had a couple pretty

11:09

bad but technically a couple courts in

11:11

my own community and then there were

11:12

complexes getting put up all over the

11:14

place I was actually eight minutes from

11:17

Legacy in Mesa that that new complex and

11:20

uh so yeah always lots of play a lot of

11:23

people have private courts that’s pretty

11:25

popular in Arizona so even if you know

11:28

the public courts were were too busy you

11:31

always almost could could get yourself

11:33

onto a private Court fairly fairly

11:35

easily and is that the same now that

11:37

you’ve moved to Texas are you finding

11:39

there’s a big pickleball Community for

11:40

you there yeah I actually we bought our

11:43

house pretty much sight unseen so we uh

11:46

I actually haven’t really I’ve been to

11:48

the house twice now for about an hour

11:51

and that’s it so I actually don’t know

11:53

what the pickleball Community is like we

11:55

actually did not move for pickleball it

11:58

was uh more family family stuff but from

12:01

what I’ve heard you know know you know

12:03

the PPA is now kind of residing in the

12:06

Dallas area so I don’t think it’s quite

12:09

uh the Arizona level yet but I think

12:12

it’s getting there and and hopefully I

12:14

can help bring it a little bit more to

12:16

Denton yeah that’s awesome so okay so

12:19

after this you guys sent me a got your

12:21

300 and you were selling your cash on

12:23

the way home yeah what happened what

12:25

happens next how do you sort of Make

12:27

That official decision that you you

12:29

mentioned you were like okay let’s do

12:30

this but what was this did you know

12:32

there was going to be the pro tour that

12:35

you know what it was like yeah I don’t

12:37

think we did I

12:39

like you said we were so excited about

12:41

about counting our 20 bills on the way

12:43

home you know because like I said at the

12:45

time we were roughing college basketball

12:46

so we both we both still kept reffing I

12:50

think we both just thought there was no

12:51

way you know Pro pick what we could do

12:53

pro pickleball it was it was still I

12:56

think fairly I don’t want to say

12:57

non-existent but still pretty on like

12:59

the back burner at the time so yeah I

13:01

mean we were just we were kind of like

13:02

well you know pickleball’s fine we we

13:04

know that now you know we’re getting

13:06

free paddles that’s pretty cool so you

13:09

know let’s practice a little more let’s

13:10

play a little more if there’s a

13:11

tournament that comes up that’s

13:13

convenient and close by let’s do it but

13:15

yeah it was really nothing super serious

13:17

until I would say probably 2019 is when

13:21

we started kind of taking it you know

13:23

much more seriously and yeah yeah so you

13:26

guys have coaches the whole time after

13:29

that where you guys you know get serious

13:31

about having you know Pro coaches and no

No Pickleball Coaches

13:34

no we’ve actually we’re probably uh we

13:36

might be you know one of the few Pro

13:38

players that really has never had a

13:40

coach never had you know whether it’s a

13:44

pickleball coach or a strength training

13:46

coach or a you know a mental coach or

13:49

whatever we’ve never really had any of

13:51

those you know growing up in a big

13:52

family you get to a point where you can

13:54

become fairly stubborn and like this

13:57

this attitude of you know I don’t need

13:59

anyone’s help I can do it on my own we

14:01

both could probably use a good coach

14:04

not only invisible but in other areas of

14:07

our life but you know I think we’re just

14:09

honestly too stubborn to to kind of

14:11

accept the help at this point so nope we

14:14

never had a coach never had pickleball

14:16

lessons never never went to a clinic or

14:19

camp or anything like that wow so yeah

14:22

well you know some of it is The Rock

14:25

talent and

14:26

um you know it it that you have and also

14:29

being being able to watch and pick up

14:31

things from tennis and from Sports in

14:33

general but probably someone listening

14:35

is going to be knocking on your door

14:37

but I do think that that grit

14:40

um you know that drive and like you were

14:43

saying you were watching tennis on TV so

14:45

in some ways it’s like I think a lot of

14:47

people now are watching videos

14:48

constantly to get better at pickleball

14:51

everyone who plays wants to get better

14:53

no matter what level you’re at yeah you

14:55

know you mentioned that you know you

14:56

have two girls when we connected through

14:58

the I was doing some research on playing

15:01

when you’re pregnant not for myself

15:02

because my kids but I’m curious curious

15:05

about the subject how has that changed

15:07

your kind of outlook on the sport or

15:09

your time

Balancing Pickleball and Motherhood

15:11

um you know how do you balance it all to

15:13

be honest I I really don’t think I am

15:14

balancing it uh you know I spend way

15:18

more time not complaining but I spend

15:20

way more time with my with my girls than

15:22

than pickleball and I mean not even

15:25

close to 50 50 to be honest it’s

15:27

probably like

15:28

80 20 you know and even that’s being

15:31

probably pretty pretty generous I think

15:33

they’re so cute and they’re so fun and

15:35

and I don’t want to be a parent that has

15:37

kids and then you know has someone else

15:40

raise them I was a babysitter and nanny

15:42

for a really big chunk of of growing up

15:45

from 13 years old to

15:48

24 ish and uh I’m not knacky you know

15:53

I’m not dissing the parents that do that

15:55

I get sometimes it’s it’s a necessity

15:57

and you have to do that and I totally

15:59

get that but for me I’m you know way too

16:02

blessed and and lucky that I don’t

16:05

really need to you know to work and to

16:08

have someone else raise my kids so you

16:10

know if I’m able to to be around them as

16:12

much as I can and and not miss their

16:14

first steps and not miss when they learn

16:17

how to ride a bike with no training

16:18

wheels then then I’m gonna do that

16:20

without even blinking twice and and

16:23

that’s kind of just me as a person I I

16:25

value family over anything else and

16:28

pickleball is great and and I love

16:30

winning and it stinks that you know I’m

16:32

not maybe winning as much as I’d like

16:34

because I’m not really putting in the

16:37

time that other Pros are putting in and

16:40

that’s my choice that’s what I want to

16:42

do and I have to live with that but so

16:44

far uh no regrets I know I I practice

16:47

maybe maybe once or twice a week if I’m

16:51

lucky and if I don’t practice more than

16:53

two hours that’s kind of me and Riley’s

16:55

uh rule more than two hours on the court

16:58

and you know if there’s a tournament

17:00

coming up you know of course I’ll play

17:02

as much as I can try to push it to maybe

17:04

three or four times a week but if

17:06

there’s no tournaments going on and I

17:08

have a break I prioritize family and I’m

17:10

only on the court you know maybe once or

Pickleball Training

17:12

twice a week

17:13

so what do you do outside of you know

17:15

for training maybe even before you had

17:17

kids what would you do to make sure that

17:19

you could make sure your body stayed

17:21

healthy make sure that you could you

17:23

know hand-eye coordination or the things

17:25

that you were trying to make sure you

17:26

did off the court

17:28

um you know I have a weighted jump rope

17:29

I really really like a weighted jump

17:31

rope I’ve always really I’ve enjoyed

17:33

that for some reason I really don’t like

17:36

running but I do it because I know it’s

17:38

really good for me

17:39

um I love weightlifting I’ve always

17:41

loved getting weights so I’m actually a

17:44

big like kickboxing person I absolutely

17:47

love kickboxing really don’t do it

17:49

anymore uh but I used to do it quite a

17:52

bit and loved loved the absolute grind

17:54

of of kickboxing and and that sort of

17:57

stuff so now with kids it’s more of like

18:00

jumping on the trampoline it’s trying to

18:03

incorporate what I can do with them but

18:05

some you know kind of get a workout too

18:06

it’s bike riding literally chasing them

18:09

around at a park I mean I have my one

18:12

daughter who is one years old who’s a

18:14

little clingy right now we’re at the

18:16

clingy stage meetings which is pretty

18:19

needy but I’m holding her in my arms for

18:22

several hours a day so that’s a good arm

18:24

workout yeah

18:25

um yeah yeah it’s trying to kind of I

18:27

guess in this sense balance you know the

18:30

working out and staying healthy part

18:31

with also spending time with my girls so

18:34

trying to find ways to stay with them

18:36

and keep them happy and productive but

18:38

also kind of trying to benefit myself so

18:41

you and Riley have been doubles partners

18:43

and you won

18:45

um gold in 2021 right it was just so

18:48

awesome

18:49

um but how so now that you have

18:51

different priorities and maybe you know

18:53

he’s playing with different partners um

18:56

I don’t know if he’s has he played with

18:57

other mixed doubles Partners besides you

18:59

oh yeah oh yeah for sure yep and you’re

New Doubles Partner for Riley Newman?

19:03

and you you realize his career is going

19:05

to go in One Direction and your you guys

19:07

feel I mean you’re mature now you’re

19:09

probably you’re not 14 years old

19:10

competing but

19:12

but still I mean you were his first

19:14

Devil’s partner makes Devil’s partner

19:16

and you know

19:17

um yeah I’m sure you guys had to talk

19:18

about like what’s next for his career

19:20

versus yours yeah I mean it’s it’s a

19:22

tough conversation for me because you

19:26

know more than anything I always told

19:27

myself that pickleball was fun but it

19:30

was also a way for me to spend time time

19:32

with him because like I said earlier you

19:34

know we’re you know of all the siblings

19:36

that you know we’re fairly close

19:39

um and yeah pickleball was a chance for

19:42

me to just get to hang out with him more

19:44

and and compete with him which I never

19:46

thought I would be able to really do in

19:48

adulthood I also know that like you said

19:51

my priorities have drastically changed

19:53

and pickleball really doesn’t do what it

19:57

did for me earlier on now that I have

19:59

you know kids and a husband

20:01

um so yeah I mean I told Riley you know

20:03

a year or two ago I said look like I

20:07

love more than anything competing with

20:09

you and uh even with the eye rolls and

20:12

the snarky comments I enjoy it and and

20:16

all that good stuff but he was my

20:18

brother before he was my devil’s partner

20:21

and I want him to win and I want him to

20:24

get on you know the gold medal Podium

20:27

and I want him to get more you know

20:28

sponsorship opportunities and

20:30

endorsement deals and I know you get

20:32

those by women so I told him I said you

20:35

need to find someone else I don’t want

20:36

to hold you down I don’t want to be dead

20:38

wait you deserve someone better you

20:40

deserve you know a girl who’s going to

20:42

be training four five six seven days a

20:44

week and it’s gonna be really further in

20:46

the time because there’s no way in heck

20:49

I’m going to do that because I don’t

20:51

want to yeah I mean it honestly took him

20:54

longer than I thought it would I

20:55

actually thought he would kind of find

20:57

someone immediately but uh no he he kind

21:00

of took his time and you know I told him

21:03

if if there’s ever a tournament that you

21:05

know you can’t find a partner for which

21:08

is crazy but I can’t find a partner for

21:10

or whatever the reason is I’m happy to

21:13

play with you I just I want you to win

21:16

and I don’t think you’re winning enough

21:19

with me next to you so play with someone

21:22

else I’ll be as always his biggest

21:24

cheerleader on the court and off the

21:26

court yeah so right now we’re playing

21:28

the Seattle open this weekend and then

21:32

the takea Showcase and as of right now

21:34

those are the only two uh tournaments

21:37

scheduled for this year as of right now

21:39

so was that hard from his perspective

21:40

did he did he sort of push back a little

21:42

bit like come on sis I want you to keep

21:44

playing with me

21:47

stuff I think we both you know there are

21:50

so many advantages playing with The

21:51

Sibling of course there’s a lot of

21:53

disadvantages too but I think for us

21:55

there were more positives and negatives

21:57

yeah I mean I think he pushed back a

22:00

little bit in that like

22:02

we were so comfortable playing next to

22:04

each other you know it might be kind of

22:06

hard to find that same jive with another

22:09

another partner but I also think he was

22:12

kind of excited to to get the green

22:14

light to to really pursue someone else

22:17

and you know

22:19

Riley is one of the most competitive uh

22:23

driven uh hard-working people I know and

22:27

he will do anything it takes to win and

22:30

I have no doubt that he’s gonna try to

22:33

find a girl who is going to give him

22:35

that best shot to do that that’s awesome

22:37

so he has not yet picked anyone

22:39

permanently yeah not permanently I think

22:42

he’s I think he’s playing with Jesse

22:44

Irvin in an upcoming tournament I think

22:46

he’s playing with possibly Andrea coop

22:48

in another tournament

22:50

um he’s definitely mixing around and

22:52

then uh probably in the next month or

22:54

two he’ll kind of hopefully lock down a

22:56

solid more consistent partner well you

22:59

are it’s very it’s it shows maturity and

23:02

um that you and also just where you’re

23:04

where you are in your life that you are

23:06

happy for him to continue on and that

23:08

you want to continue to play but you

23:10

also want to spend quality time with

23:11

your girls so have have you taught your

23:14

your maybe your older daughter how to

23:16

play Pickleball yet

23:17

well I mean a little bit so I have a

Pickleball Mom

23:20

one-year-old and like a two and a half

23:21

year old and uh the two and a half year

23:23

old you know she’ll if if you know Riley

23:26

and I are drilling or playing you know

23:28

she’ll want to come and and watch for a

23:30

little bit and then you know after five

23:32

or ten minutes she’ll kind of wander out

23:33

onto the court and want to play you know

23:36

mechanically she’s not quite there yet

23:38

we have to work on some broke mechanics

23:40

stuff but for a two and a half year old

23:42

uh you know that’s eager and happy to

23:44

play uh yeah she’s she’s got it you know

23:47

uh hopefully awesome you know she’ll

23:50

pick another another sport that that

23:52

pays a little better I would love for

23:54

her to be a a tennis player but yeah I

23:57

mean she likes playing and uh the more

23:59

we can get her out onto the court

24:01

um you know onto a field anything

24:03

athletic wise I would be very happy with

24:06

that well it’s interesting because I I

24:08

just did an interview with um and and

24:10

sort of the subject matter of Collegiate

24:12

pickleball and sort of what would what’s

24:14

the future and I I feel like there’s

24:16

going to be some rapid increases in

24:18

interest and and already you can see

24:22

um you know young people young players

24:24

and I guess in maybe in Washington

24:25

that’s always been the case that maybe

24:28

it was in PE and being taught but I

24:30

think around the country it’s taken its

24:32

time and now it’s just exploding and

24:35

um so I do think there’ll be some

24:37

opportunities for college scholarships

24:38

down the road for sure what do you think

Pickleball Popularity

24:41

why do you think like right now

24:42

pickleball is having its moment you know

24:44

what do you think kind of changed for

24:46

the sport because even 2019 it was

24:48

starting to explode but it’s like that

24:51

was just at the Tipping Point where I

24:53

feel like the country’s finally caught

24:55

up

24:55

yeah I mean honestly I think it’s one of

24:58

those things that you know there’s no

25:00

age restriction there’s no gender

25:03

restriction there’s no honestly income

25:06

restriction it’s something that you

25:07

could literally go to a park and play

25:10

for free it’s cheap entertainment

25:12

because it’s most of the time it doesn’t

25:15

cost anything to play

25:17

um everyone’s super welcoming and

25:19

friendly I think tennis kind of got a

25:21

bad uh kind of got a bad rep because it

25:24

can be a little clicky and you know from

25:28

what I see you know at least pickleball

25:30

really isn’t it’s everyone’s more than

25:33

willing to to help you learn how to play

25:35

and to play with you and against you

25:38

um and it’s and it’s fun like you know

25:41

you meet so many people you you TR I

25:45

mean for me at least you know I got to

25:47

travel to places you know I never ever

25:49

probably would have gone to uh unless I

25:52

had a reason to and pickleball was that

25:55

reason for me so it’s just the

25:58

opportunities to play meet new people

26:01

have fun uh not break the bank by you

26:05

know going to a Taylor Swift concert and

26:07

spending hundreds or thousands of

26:08

dollars I know so all of those reasons

26:11

what so what’s next for you you you know

What’s Next?

26:15

you I totally understand wanting to

26:17

spend time with your kids and their only

26:19

little ones so I definitely encourage

26:21

that um but just for you personally what

26:23

are the things you’re focusing on you

26:25

know outside of mom Hood yeah outside of

26:29

it honestly not not much but uh yeah I

26:33

mean I would love to continue to play

26:34

Pickleball you know I’ve I’ve had a lot

26:37

of fun doing it I want to keep doing it

26:40

um so I would like to continue to play

26:43

for as long as I can be competitive for

26:46

um as soon as I start doing tournaments

26:48

and I’m going on too

26:51

um or getting wiped off the you know the

26:53

court going you know getting beat 211

26:56

um is probably when I’ll start thinking

26:58

about really retirement uh but as of

27:02

right now I feel like I’m still pretty

27:03

competitive even only playing once or

27:05

twice a week

27:07

um so I’m gonna play for as long as I

27:08

can I’m gonna ride ride the wave and

27:11

then

27:12

um after that we’ll see and you know I

27:14

really I still want to have more kids uh

27:17

I love real estate so possibly doing

27:19

something in real estate down the line

27:21

uh obviously everyone wants to travel

27:24

more so that’s my list and uh we’ll see

27:28

what happens either you know yeah making

27:31

plans is always tough because you know

27:33

life life changes so we’ll see what’s

27:37

exciting and you’re in a really exciting

27:39

space and like I said I think it’s

27:40

really inspiring for a lot of players in

27:43

general female players mom players

27:46

um you know and I know a lot of the

27:47

players now are young you know I I just

27:50

went to the exhibition and uh in San

27:52

Francisco and saw Anna Lee there and and

27:55

Paris and some of these younger players

27:57

um but for them to also have some sort

28:00

of sense that you can keep playing even

28:02

as you decide to have a family and

28:05

change priorities it’s it is really

Conclusion

28:07

inspirational so I appreciate you

28:08

sharing your story with us and you know

28:11

cheering you on and excited for the

28:14

sport I mean you really have you and

28:15

your brother both are making a name for

28:18

the sport and for a lot of people it you

28:20

know they they really make that

28:22

connection by getting to know the

28:24

players and and feel excited and I think

28:27

the pickleball scene is really On The

28:30

Rise so it’s exciting you you were a

28:32

groundbreaking for in the Forefront I

28:35

don’t know about that but yeah I mean I

28:37

want to thank everyone for for not only

28:40

you know watching and supporting me but

28:42

Riley as well you know we’re really

28:43

really grateful I mean I think sometimes

28:46

people take that sort of support for

28:48

granted but but we really don’t uh it

28:51

really means a lot to us and uh you know

28:54

feel free if you’re at a tournament

28:56

anyone to come up and say hi we’re we’re

28:59

both very very friendly as long as

29:00

you’re not on the the opposite side of

29:02

the net from us yeah that’s right yeah

29:05

we’re friendly come say hi you know if

29:08

we’re not doing a whole lot of teaching

29:10

or doing that sort of stuff a lot

29:11

anymore but if we are uh you know come

29:13

out we’d love to meet you and and thanks

29:15

again for uh for having me awesome well

29:18

thank you again all right enjoy the rest

29:20

of your day with your girls and

29:22

hopefully we’ll catch up with you soon

29:24

absolutely thank you so much okay bye

29:28

hey guys thanks for listening to Simply

29:31

pickleball we’ll be back very soon with

29:33

great interviews discussions and more

29:35

all about pickleball don’t forget to

29:37

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29:41

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29:43

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