Life Transformations Through Pickleball

Speaker 1 0:00

Hi, I'm Shelly Maurer and I'm Cher Emrick. Welcome to Life.

Speaker 2 0:05

Lessons from Pickleball where we engage with pickleball players from around the world about life on and off the court.

Speaker 1 0:12

Thanks for joining us. Welcome everyone to Life. Lessons from Pickleball. We are so happy to have with us today Nico and Christy. Fronimos and Nico and Christy, you are senior professional pickleball players, your coaches and aspiring Olympic athletes.

Speaker 2 0:34

Yes, and you are also International Pickleball Federation Ambassadors to Greece and presidents of the Ultimate Pickleball Greece Vacations, yes, wow, yes.

Speaker 1 0:47

You two have had amazing life journeys and pickleball, we know, has had a huge impact. So what was going on in your lives when you were first introduced to pickleball?

Speaker 3 0:59

Lots of work, lots of you just lose yourself when you're getting your 30s and then in your 40s and then, um, people around you start getting sick or, uh, dying of cancer bad things that happened in my life or around me which is life, by the way uh. Then, all of a sudden, uh, the spotlight starts turning on you, uh, and in the future. And what happened with us was my best friend passed away of a heart attack next to me at work, which really opened my eyes to maybe I'm living the wrong lifestyle, cause he always laugh and joke with me. Oh hey, nico, you party too much and I was excessive on what I was doing. I was working 70 hours a week because I loved the idea of money and the idea that if I worked hard, that that would buy me happiness, and that happiness never came with each hour that I spent away from the people I wanted to be happy with which is insanity.

Speaker 3 2:06

And then I started realizing I was living in insanity and I started coping with cigarettes, alcohol when you go out and you drink or drugs, uppers, stuff to stay going, red Bull All these things that were terrible for your body. No exercise, no faith, no gratitude to a higher purpose, to a higher being. It was more selfishness and following my own selfish path. And how I could be happy. I think my motto at the time was FOMO, fear of missing out before.

Speaker 3 2:48

I found pickleball and so, like I said, what happened was my friend passed away of a heart attack suddenly and it was wow, he's only two years older than me and he was right next to me at work. My mother-in-law said come to the villages, I will get you the lifestyle package. What's that mean? He was right next to me at work. My mother-in-law said come to the Villages, I will get you the lifestyle package.

Speaker 1 3:08

What's that mean? The Villages?

Speaker 3 3:10

The Villages, florida, is a retirement community nestled in between Ocala and Orlando. It's landlocked and it's the number one. This is a true story the number one fastest growing master plan community in the world. Wow, much less country. So what they're doing is they've grown. 50,000 people have moved here in the last four years.

Speaker 3 3:35

More than any other city in the United States, so the suburb that we're in right now, where we're living at, four years ago, when we came to florida, was literally swampland, like farm swamp right where I'm standing at. Wow, it's amazing and never in a million years. If you would have told me 10 years ago where I was living in chicago, illinois, downtown chicago, driving my sports car, my dream car, my maserati, and living a life that I thought would make me happy, which wasn't making me happy.

Speaker 3 4:09

And then I started doing extracurricular stuff. Again, nothing was paying, let's say, paying the bills. Nothing was paying. My, my heart wasn't satisfied. And then I found Pickleball. And how I found Pickleball was I came here for the lifestyle preview which my mother-in-law is like oh I'm going to bring you here. And I didn't really want to come here. The last place on earth I wanted to come on hangout was with old people. That's what my brain was going. I didn't consider myself old. You never do. And then what defines age? Anyways? Because when I came out here, I was enlightened that people aren't just. This could be.

Speaker 4 4:52

Well, you couldn't tell that people were old?

Speaker 1 4:55

Like you'd see, bicyclists, it's a golf cart community.

Speaker 3 4:57

It's what you want it to be.

Speaker 4 4:59

You'd see all these bicyclists and you'd think they look in great shape. And then you get up and you're like, oh my God, that person's 80 years old.

Speaker 2 5:07

Like right. So it's all old people.

Speaker 3 5:10

But they're living their best lives by being healthy. Yeah, and not giving up, and so that intrigued me right off the bat when I got here.

Speaker 1 5:21

Now you're saying I Nico, are you two together? At that time we're together, we. Now you're saying I Nico, are you two together?

Speaker 4 5:24

at that time we're together.

Speaker 1 5:26

And so Christine you also moved right next to me when I say I, it's her and I that's another thing too.

Speaker 3 5:34

I should state the purpose of when my friend had a heart attack. Our friend, he was our best friend. Ok, and we would do. We were heavily in the social media in Chicago. He was an underground DJ he was. He had a lot of clout. He was internationally known. We would do a lot of partying, a lot of excessive overnight partying after hours like a Mick Jagger, living your life like a rock and roll star.

Speaker 3 6:02

But then on Mondays you got to go to work, pay the price like a rock and roll star, but then on Mondays you got to go to work.

Speaker 1 6:05

It didn't quite make sense.

Speaker 3 6:06

But, like I said, I found pickleball because I was looking for something. I didn't even know what I was looking for and then what it really was is the joy that it brought. It's like it transformed me. It's like, wow, it's a small enough court. What it appeals to people, it's a fast enough pace game. Where it's fun, it's fast pace. You could slow it up if you want, but you want to hit the ball hard. There's no, um, horizontally or vertically. There's vertically. You don't have to be vertically challenged, you don't have to jump a lot. Uh. Horizontally, you can move two feet and get to the ball if you're playing doubles.

Speaker 3 6:44

So it had all the check marks of uh, aging someone that wants to bring back their youth. It's almost like god's, like, this is perfect for you. I got like god's, like, I got something for you that's going to make you crazy. I'm going to, you're going to, you're going to love this. It's like, no, I won't. And then I played it. I'm like, wow, this is the greatest game ever. And, may I add, I lost every single game in five days to people that were in their 60s, 70s and 80s, like I was losing bad where I was just wanting to score a point just to make me happy, you're just trying not to get picked up.

Speaker 2 7:21

Well, that happens so many times.

Speaker 3 7:24

So the funny thing is talking about with your preview visit.

Speaker 2 7:27

Yeah, like, so you're still here for your preview visit and you, okay, so for five days? Yeah, we found it.

Speaker 3 7:33

Well, my father-in-law is a national champion pickleball player. He's been talking about pickleball for years, for 10 years. So when Christy and I started dating in 2010, she played tennis in high school and she brought that up when she kind of came over to talk to me at the bar and I said, oh, we got to play tennis together. I never played tennis but I always wanted to. So that was our standing we never. Our first night, our first date, lasted till now oh nice, we never, we never first night, our first date, lasted till now, oh nice.

Speaker 3 8:07

We never stopped seeing each other from the first date.

Speaker 1 8:09

Oh, that's so sweet.

Speaker 3 8:11

It was weird, but we were both married, divorced and we kind of knew what we wanted.

Speaker 3 8:17

Oh nice when you see it and you're like I don't want anything that's out here. So figureball at the time was perfect for us because we were going down the wrong path. We were partying too much. Our kids have, you know we're we're divorcees, so we didn't get the privilege of raising our kids or being there because that life. So pick what I'm saying, because pickleball really brought a joy to us that was missing and we could do it together.

Journey to Florida Through Pickleball

Speaker 3 8:41

Yeah, yeah that's the big thing, a lot of people don't play pickleball with their spouses when we we do.

Speaker 4 8:46

When we left the lifestyle preview we both had really looked at and we're like, oh, we love pickleball, we want to make a change, yeah. And so we kind of said what can we, how can we change our lives and what can we do? That we can do something together because, we weren't spending that quality time together, and so we didn't think we would be able to move to Florida for at least five years. It wasn't in like a financial thing.

Speaker 3 9:11

Financially, it wasn't a smart move.

Speaker 4 9:13

Chifaria hit yeah, which was the freezing cold in Chicago and we both been, you know, 49, 50 years and we both said it was the middle of January.

Speaker 3 9:30

This was 2018. 2018, 2018, 2018. We we came back from the lifestyle preview, which is like in november, yeah, and then we should add that my best friend my other best friend, who was, uh, from grammar school greek I'm greek orthodox, he's greek orthodox. We were very tight, we both stayed, stood up each other's weddings.

Speaker 3 9:46

He called me and said he had stage four cancer oh my, these are big things that have happened in my life where I just got finished losing a friend, I'm playing pickleball. I'm super happy. Then I get this news. So I was devastated and I think we were both of us.

Speaker 3 10:03

We were not religious, we were not into a higher power or spiritual. Even I'm not going to say I wasn't spiritual. I always believed in something, but I've had abuse in my life and just wasn't going down that path. And then for one minute I guess the divine intervention of our life Christy and I were on our couch and I looked at her and I said let's sell our house, play pickleball for Greece, win an Olympic gold medal and move to the village of Florida. And I started laughing because I never played a racket sport in my life. I never played racket sports. I didn't know how to hit a four, I didn't know what a forehand was, I didn't know what a backhand was, all the things that you see, people play pickleball, they play tennis, they get that real fast and then they can move on to stage two, three, four and five. I couldn't even get to that stage yet.

Speaker 4 10:55

So when I, needless to say, it's a miracle that we're here, so let me ask this, christyy, when you heard him say that said, hey, let's make this huge change in our lives. What did you say? I said can I get my greek citizenship? That was like I said, because how?

Speaker 3 11:14

can we do it like? How do we do is?

Speaker 4 11:16

that possible yeah, yeah and at that time this is right when they were giving uh, tom hanks, uh honorary g Citizenship, and so that just popped, and they never Done that before.

Speaker 3 11:27

No, Right. To get a Greek Citizenship to Greek Is almost impossible. But they started Getting lax, yeah, and they're starting To open up To the second Generation in America.

Speaker 4 11:37

We both went For this.

Speaker 3 11:39

Crazy thing we did, and it's.

Speaker 4 11:42

It's interesting Because, well, but things have been falling into place because we're actually working on our citizenship right now, like god put us in touch with the right person who can do all the paperwork.

Speaker 3 11:54

You know where we need to add kind of difficult what's really changed our life is the fact that we found god. That's the most important thing and when you don't have a relationship. Regardless of what your faith is I don't know if you were brought up Jewish or Catholic or Muslim or Buddhist it doesn't really matter. If you don't have a relationship, does it matter what your parents were?

Speaker 1 12:19

That's wonderful my parents were Greek Orthodox.

Speaker 3 12:21

Wonderful, yeah, I, my parents were Greek Orthodox. What was I? Someone who went with them to church, found every opportunity to get out, never paid attention, never had any kind of understanding of what was being said, what's going on. And then life you're scared of what might be, so you go and you do your thing, and then what happens is you live your life and you do your, your mistakes. Which life is filled with mistakes?

Speaker 2 12:51

Yeah.

Speaker 3 12:51

And either you're going to step up to the plate and say I made these mistakes and I'm going to do something better, or you're going to continue making those mistakes, and that's I think. I was continuing making these mistakes because money and all the things that were appealing which was, I know now is the devil, I can put it mildly. But pickleball brought Christy and I to a place of happiness. If it was just for a moment to find some clarity and ask the question what should we do with our lives? Is it too late? Are we too old? Has life passed us by? Am I going to die? When am I going to die?

Speaker 3 13:33

Everybody around me is dying, so surely I'm next. And then the kicker happens. We follow that sign, we laugh about it, we put our house up for sale. It sells in 24 hours. Oh my gosh, wow yeah. So now we come to Florida.

Speaker 4 13:52

Yeah, Six weeks later we're in Florida. Six weeks to the day later. You know we're in Florida, where we've never really been before.

Speaker 3 13:59

And then the miracles keep coming because we don't play pickleball, because we have this little extra cash. We sold the house. We have this money now which we're not working, but we're having these. What should we do now? We don't think about pickleball. We think about maybe we do real estate, maybe we take a year off and we live life. I don't know, take a sabbatical. We're throwing out these ideas and then we moved to Orlando. We didn't play pickleball at all for a year and then we we had, we had a crisis, uh, march 3rd 2020, where we, we were going to go left or right, or up or down, but COVID happened. Yeah, god said no, no, you're gonna, you're stuck in the villages during COVID and then my father-in-law says, hey, let's play pickleball, which was allowed, which was great because we haven't stopped. So COVID for us was like it gave us the opportunity where you know you had

Speaker 1 14:55

to COVID was the catalyst. Wait, wait, wait wait.

Speaker 4 14:57

Christy, christy what were you saying? Sorry, I was saying that when COVID hit that was what started our whole pickleball journey at that time.

Speaker 1 15:07

Interesting.

Speaker 4 15:08

We had the dream Because all of a sudden we had to be in the house. We had no way of making that dream a reality.

Speaker 3 15:15

We don't have money to take courses to learn. We're both in our. I just turned 50. I was smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. I was a reformed drug user. I overdosed on cocaine and other drugs in my previous in my 30s late 30s because I was trying to deal with a divorce and losing my son in a divorce and I had sexual abuse from the church Believe it or not.

Speaker 1 15:43

So I had all these things in my 20s and 30s. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait wait, I'm a loaded gun. That is huge. It is huge, it's tragic. It's happened way too much in this world and the fact that you have become this full human being and you are finding your healing and you found the love of your life. I mean, this is a real inspiration for many who have experienced your experience.

Speaker 3 16:16

I can't state enough how pickleball brought me happiness to understand. Look at all these wonderful things you have yeah because, if I've never abused, when 14, and 15, I was abused by someone that was part of the church, the Greek Orthodox Church.

Speaker 1 16:35

Yeah.

Speaker 3 16:36

And I was very well trusted by my parents.

Speaker 1 16:40

Oh God.

Speaker 3 16:40

So what happened was? He passed away in my early 20s. I never said anything. And then, come late mid thirties, you have these crises when I had a child. And then all these things are, these demons are not going away, right Secrets that you're harboring, these thoughts, these feelings are. Am I these sexual feelings? What's going on? Are you correct? Am I going to hell? Am I good person? Am I a bad person? And then you feel like if there is a God, he's clearly doesn't like me or he's a joke and he doesn't care about me. So I just left, went into a whole world of underground, of night clubbing and drinking and then making money uh, what I thought would bring me happiness. And sure enough it didn't. But again, then I realized, by the abuse that I got, I I ended up getting divorced. But if I don't get divorced, I never meet Christy. If I don't meet Christy, I never meet pickleball. If I don't find pickleball.

Speaker 3 17:44

I never go to Greece. I never read pickleball to help people in Greece. So the worst thing that's ever happened to me doesn't define me.

Speaker 1 17:57

It refined me.

Speaker 3 17:58

It refines me, it used to define me. So I do drugs and alcohol and say, oh, you don't understand how hard it is I was abused. And then people are like, man, how hard it is I was abused. And then people are like, okay, no one cares. At the end of the day, they got their own lives to worry about and they've had really bad things. Everybody's had something bad.

Speaker 2 18:19

That's the interesting thing that you find. Since I started telling my testimony, he tells everybody you get to know Nico in five minutes.

Speaker 4 18:26

He's honest, he's in your face, he'll tell you. But I'm amazed at how many people are attracted to that and then, feel comfortable opening up. I always think the broken people find him, but Pickleball is perfect for that.

Journey of Forgiveness and Gratitude

Speaker 3 18:41

Pickleball attracts broken. We do these trips to Greece Wait wait, wait. Let's actually dive into that about.

Speaker 1 18:52

So, first of all, thank you very much for sharing I mean that's so meaningful and I know you've already touched a lot of hearts just now I appreciate that yeah, no, we appreciate that, remember and for everybody that's listening bad things happen to everyone. Yep.

Speaker 3 19:11

As a matter of fact, the worst thing that's ever happened to you most likely will come from someone you love the most. Very often, or someone you love the most or a best friend.

Speaker 1 19:20

Very often.

Speaker 3 19:20

That's part of life, the greatest part and joy of life is the forgiveness part. And joy of life is the forgiveness part Because once you get over that, once you get over the fact that you don't want empathy where it came from understanding of why the person did.

Speaker 3 19:34

What they did will get you through the hard part, but then God will reward you, because here, at 50 years old, I'm 55. Now I'll be 55 in August. I play professional pickleball. I play pickleball every single morning. I lost 40 pounds. I quitball. I play pickleball every single morning. I lost 40 pounds. I quit smoking. I don't ever do drugs anymore. I go to bed at 8.30 at night. I wake up at 4 am and get on my knees and I, with gratitude, thank God for running water, a toilet that works, I have a sink that pulls out clean water, and 100 years ago you needed a cistern. So people understand that. And 300 years ago I lived better than the greatest prince or king or any royalty that's ever lived.

Speaker 3 20:25

The poorest person. Because God did that and I give gratitude first, and then life is really hard. It's really hard. I have a son who's 22 years old, who has not spoken to me since he was 16, because of the divorce, because of the, the, the, the pain that's there from my suffering that I didn't communicate with his mother my suffering that I didn't communicate with his mother. Yes, I was going through really hard times in the 80s. In the 80s, you guys were around.

Speaker 1 20:55

Yeah.

Speaker 3 20:56

We were around. There was no wokeness at all. Nobody was woke. Woke was a word that you woke up.

Speaker 3 21:11

Now people really say that as a bad word, and I think that's the sweetest, greatest word ever, because it means everybody is somebody, the reason why I'm doing all this, the reason I'm going to greece and playing pickleball, to teach people how to play, and teach people that's never too late to accomplish your dreams, to dream big, to think that you're going to win olympic gold medal because I was a drug addict or an alcoholic a functioning one. It was a very high functioning drug.

Speaker 3 21:33

Yet I would do. I would work 70 hours a week, I'd pay all the bills and I. But if you ask anybody that knew me, they're like man. This guy is like. He's like he's burning it. Burning it both ends are like we're waiting for you to pass and then what really set me straight is the secret, is what if you never die?

Speaker 3 21:55

what if everyone around you dies but not you? What if it's true that you truly have eternal life? It that could also be hell, too, by the way. If you don't take care of yourself, you don't do the right things, you don't act, behave rightly, if you, uh, if you're stealing, if you're a thief, if you're a bad person, if you wind up in jail, these are all terrible things. But if you're a good person and you play pickleball every day and you spread joy and happiness, yeah, and you go to another country. This, this was my thinking of how can I make a impact on this universe that I am part of? I had several near-death experiences when I was a drug addict and a functioning one at that, I should say, because I still went to work on Monday. I'd be in the emergency room on a Saturday night that I OD'd, and I still went to work on Monday Now, Christy, are you with Nico during that time?

Speaker 3 22:50

A lot of it she was.

Speaker 4 22:51

Well he had the overdoses, that kind of thing. That was before us. We've been together 14, married 10.

Pickleball's Transformative Impact in Greece

Speaker 3 22:59

The demons, but he was still.

Speaker 4 23:01

we both were living a lifestyle where drugs were part of it Party drugs.

Speaker 3 23:06

Party Ecstasy. We did a lot. We lived downtown.

Speaker 1 23:10

And so, Christy, when you moved to Florida and you started playing pickleball, how was your life changed?

Speaker 4 23:18

Same way. So Nico started with what we call our day one, and so COVID hits. We both put on 35, 40 pounds because we figured we're going to die. We might as well eat everything that is possible. We're going to try everything. So what ended up happening was on July 3rd 2020, we said, oh my gosh, we're not going to die, and all of a sudden was sneaking another cookie and my mom said look, he's eating another cookie. I swore to him.

Speaker 3 23:54

And we said oh my gosh, we have to make a change.

Speaker 4 23:59

So, we called it day one. He got down and did some push-ups and that started it and we decided that we had to do something every single day.

Speaker 3 24:08

What am I willing to do Every day, every day, for the rest of my life. No days off, minimum.

Speaker 4 24:13

So we literally the last four years, we get up, We've built. It's been a slow progression.

Speaker 1 24:18

Slow progression.

Speaker 4 24:19

But we run two miles every morning.

Speaker 2 24:21

Four a year.

Speaker 4 24:22

You know, we do sit-ups, push-ups, calisthenics, then we go play pickleball, so we literally have come to best versions of ourselves and just keep working. The body's still set.

Speaker 2 24:36

You know it's still good.

Speaker 3 24:38

On the outside we're 55, but on the inside I feel like I'm 25.

Speaker 1 24:41

Heck yeah, my body's solid in places.

Speaker 3 24:44

I've never I have muscle in places. I never thought I'd have muscle.

Speaker 1 24:50

I do 200 push-ups every morning and you know what you even talk like you're 25. I mean you are a wonderful energetic speaker.

Speaker 3 24:55

I love it, that's the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1 24:58

But let me ask this and Shelly, did you have a question you wanted to ask first? No, go ahead, go for it, okay. So then you guys became totally absorbed with pickleball, and you? So then you guys became totally absorbed with pickleball.

Speaker 3 25:08

Yes.

Speaker 1 25:09

And you said we want to take this and I think it's a we Nikio you keep saying I, but I think together you are, it's a we.

Speaker 3 25:15

It's a we Okay it's a we.

Speaker 1 25:16

I'm going to have you say we from now on.

Speaker 3 25:18

I know there is no we without us, not a good whiskey in the mix here.

Speaker 1 25:21

There is no me without us to take pickleball to Greece. And what was it about? Of course, your Greek background, nico. But what did you want to have different in Greece with pickleball? How was it going to change people?

Speaker 3 25:37

Well, because my father his story is such an amazing story. He was brought up in World War II Greece, very poor. The oldest of nine brothers and sisters. My grandmother had 25 or 27 miscarriages or stillborns before my father, so she had kids late. My grandfather died at 102. So there's so much history in Greece.

Life Lessons Through Pickleball

Speaker 3 26:03

I've been going to Greece since I was 12 years old or 10 years old and when you go there and you're so much I'm in the village. It's different than going to any other country in the world because my father would put me in the village with my grandmother and grandfather. So now I'm a local. I'm more than a local. You've got roots that go there for hundreds of years. So my father told me the story about growing up in a war-torn country and, at 11 years old, no joy in his life it's trying to find food and taking olive oil to Athens to sell in the market. And then he had a dream of coming here and he came here in his 20s and jumped a boat and is an immigrant. You hear all these stories and it makes you so proud to be Greek, so proud. And he doesn't understand the language English, even as a 50-year veteran, because it's so hard to work full-time to support three kids.

Speaker 1 27:01

And at the same time.

Speaker 3 27:01

well remember, at the time when he came in the late 60s, he couldn't get immigrated to USA and this is important for me, why I take it to Greece because he wanted to be an American citizen so bad that he voluntarily signed up for Vietnam. While everybody else was trying to run the other way. He's like I don't want to leave this country, Please, I'll go fight.

Speaker 3 27:28

And they gave him a Section 8 eight, wow like they wanted too, much and the story of him just being in this country and having me and then telling me how, how, um, I think, the proudness of being greek and how to be proud to be american, yet proud to be greek too, and to help people that are like you, that that are down, because he was down and help immigrants. So he stayed with me and this is my way of helping. I can't help America get pickleball. They already got it. They already got it. The wonderful thing about Greece is only, as we speak to you right now, there's only about 100 people in the entire country of Greece that play pickleball.

Speaker 4 28:08

Oh.

Speaker 3 28:08

That's it.

Speaker 1 28:12

So, Nico and Christy, you are literally introducing pickleball.

Speaker 4 28:16

Okay, we're so blessed we're bringing the flame. We're not the only ones.

Speaker 1 28:23

That is very cool.

Speaker 3 28:25

God works in mysterious ways, because he does have a couple other people that I've never met before with the same bug that I have, and they're trying to do it in Greece too. The wonderful thing is, now we are legit. Greece is legit as a sport that carries pickleball. We're having a pickleball day three free clinic september 16th, 17th and 18th in athens this coming september with dave weinbach, who's a international professional sensation, multiple gold medals.

Speaker 3 29:02

Last year I went with a guy named kyle yates who was the number one great player in the world. Uh-huh, as of right now, kyle and I made a tv show called Second Shots that's available on YouTube if anybody wants to see it. It's called. Uh, it's on the tundracom and the show is called Second Shots with Kyle Yates and Nico Franiwos, and it's about my story that I just told you, that I said I was going to be in the Olympics and then I was joking with my father-in-law and I said not only will the number one player in the world teach me how to play, but he'll pay me to learn. And then the next thing six months later, kyle Yates called me and says hey, listen, I want to come to Greece and play pickleball.

Speaker 1 29:50

Which I paid for him, but at the last minute he brought his girlfriend and he paid me, so it was kind of funny that it all came to pass.

Speaker 3 29:53

The wonderful thing about pickleball is it will help people in Greece like me. It will help people who are socially you know. There's people that are 60s, 70s and 80s that are all alone yeah, living in a condominium building, and the worst thing ever is to be a person living in a city of two million people and suffer from loneliness yeah, you know, that's what happens in cities. So you know, yeah, well, and I saw that greece is I.

Speaker 2 30:27

It was two years ago. I was in greece and it's so beautiful. I just can't wait to go back oh, but I have an image of walking in a beautiful old village and seeing an older woman up in a window looking out, um, looking sad and lonely so when I heard you say that they don't, I when I heard you say that when I heard you say that I picture that woman coming out playing pickleball.

Speaker 3 30:52

But here's the thing I can't save them.

Speaker 4 30:57

They're gone.

Speaker 3 30:57

They don't want to be saved. I asked them come and play. I can save the next generation, though that's the truth. I'm 55. My friends who are 55, that live in Chicago Illinois, that are ex-lawyers or lawyers and doctors are 50, 60, 70, 80 pounds overweight. They enjoy their money and their wealth and their hard earned successes, and they should. But enjoyment of successes when you're over 40 means drinking expensive liquor and eating expensive food which is highly fattening and nothing good for you. So we know that pickleball is not pickleball. Anything healthy is good for you.

Speaker 3 31:48

So, this is a great way, because it got me to quit smoking.

Speaker 1 31:53

Exactly, you two are the walking billboard. You're the walking billboard.

Speaker 3 31:59

I tell Christy this all the time. And here's another thing, too, that I don't tell people I was also clinically depressed. I was also clinically depressed and I had high stages of obsessive compulsive disorder which were hand in hand with abuse. And it goes hand in hand with obsessed, just very highly addictive, addicted to alcohol, addicted to smoking, to drugs, to just about everything and with Pickleball. It brought me this joy and I have been cured from all of it and I tell her.

Speaker 3 32:37

I laugh. I say I don't understand how something could just make you forget about everything. And this is what. So if I could just bottle a little bit of that up, bring it to Greece and make I'm not saying it's going to make everybody cured of depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder, maybe, but it may stop somebody from smoking. You bet and it may give somebody an extra 10 years of life.

Speaker 1 33:01

And certainly bring joy.

Speaker 2 33:03

So I have a question.

Speaker 1 33:04

We're almost out of time, but I want to ask you. I have a burning question too, Go for it.

Speaker 2 33:09

So my burning question is what advice would you two give, Because I would love to be a senior professional pickleball player oh, okay. And what advice would you give to people and people that are listening, that have those aspirations?

Speaker 3 33:26

Practice. See, the bottom line is you could play rec play every day, but if it's not and I this to to kyle yates too he says, if you're not practicing correctly, you're doing the right things, you're never going to get better. So first, first and foremost is is uh, participation is the big p. You have to participate every day. So if you want to be a senior pro, practice every day, number one. Number two is be in shape when the call comes. If you're not healthy, then when you get better in pickleball you won't be able to play. So I see a lot of my friends right now.

Speaker 3 34:07

Four years ago, when I said I was going to be an Olympic champion in pickleball, I got laughed at by everyone. I was told Senior Olympics, special Olympics, people told me that I was terrible, I can't beat them. How am I going to beat them? Four years later, I play Senior Pro and my wife and I. We lose. We play rec play every day, we drill almost every day, or a lot of times, and we lose probably 15% of our games. That's it. We're about 80. We'll win eight out of ten of our games consecutively, no matter where we go, no matter what level, and that's because we're. You have to do it every day, and when you're losing in the beginning, you have to deal with that.

Speaker 3 34:52

That's the hardest part the hardest part part is losing every day and still going there and saying, oh, I got to get better. Playing up and trying to get better, Because if you're playing down and not playing at the same level, so if you want to play senior pro, you got to play the best players and you have to be willing to lose to the best players. I don't think people understand that. That's part of the game. Losing with grace and dignity is not my so actually, that might be one of the life lessons.

Speaker 3 35:24

It is. I'm learning that.

Speaker 1 35:25

To close our conversation, which I hate to do because you two are an absolute joy, I mean wow you have so much to share, but are there certain life lessons that you've gleaned either from playing pickleball on the court or you've taken life lessons to the court?

Speaker 3 35:41

The best lesson I have is when I play with my wife and I let the mistakes go and I say nice play, instead of being angry at her. We win every time. And that's like in life If you're consistently at somebody and you're not being their teammate and helping them in life, you're going to consistently fight. I don't know if couples always fight because they're not helping each other. How do we get out of each other's way? How do I help you out? And although it took me a long time to learn that, I'm learning that and that's the life lesson that I'm learning from pickleball, because you're always learning something from pickleball don't quit, keep trying. There's a, there's always, there's always the motto. But now my motto with pickleball is um, not just don't give up, but be a better teammate, be a better human being, have more empathy for the person next to you playing and I promise you you'll be rewarded tomorrow not today.

Speaker 3 36:45

It's all about tomorrow and sometimes we just yeah.

Speaker 4 36:49

How about?

Speaker 1 36:49

you.

Speaker 4 36:49

Christy, I would say from pickleball I've learned mine would be my day one that being healthier every day and doing something that's going to make me stronger, both mentally, physically and just spiritually. So starting my day with gratitude, lots of water, yeah um and you know push-ups and sit-ups and I plan on being able to. You know, I I started on my knees with like 2025 and now I'm up to 200 regular push-ups a day so I'm very. I'm very proud of myself for that 200 200 wow and every, and I'm doing it.

Speaker 2 37:35

I think everybody needs an exercise ball and a floor mat.

Speaker 4 37:39

But it's just making sure, because, living in the villages, we saw the people that are healthy and the people that go the other way, and you have to make that decision. So at 50, we made that decision and every single day you know it's not hard, it's not easy.

Speaker 4 37:52

You can't lie to yourself. It's holding yourself accountable. And, boy, because I've seen all the videos, kobe, all those things, and that's truly what you have to do. And I can eat every day. There's so many things I can do every day. I can work out a little bit every day.

Speaker 3 38:07

That's fantastic. Plus, it's your sacrifice. I believe that without suffering, you know no pain, no gain. That's true. If you don't suffer, then you will never experience success, because success can only come from suffering. You have to like, want it more than ever and have to know what it's like to lose and cry. And you have to want it.

Speaker 4 38:37

And that starts with yourself.

Speaker 3 38:39

There is no age it's just keep going and it doesn't. You're never too old to start, that's right. And I tell people in their 60s and 70s, day one is the most important thing I've ever done well, and I am so saying with the day one my dad who's 82, gets up every morning at 5 am does 45 minutes on the rower.

Speaker 4 38:58

He rides his bike for 16 miles a day and he plays like four hours. Four hours of pickleball every day, so that's why I have to live up to it, that's inspiration.

Speaker 1 39:11

We're going to have to close this pretty quickly, but no, we're not going to say goodbye just this minute, but I do want people to know how to find out about your Greek tours and pickleballs. What's the website?

Speaker 3 39:26

Ultimate Greece Pickleball Vacation.

Speaker 1 39:29

Ultimate Greece.

Speaker 3 39:30

Pickleball Vacation Ultimate Pickleball Greece Vacation. It's the ultimate pickleball vacation. Ultimate pickleball Greece vacation.

Speaker 2 39:36

It's the ultimate pickleball vacation and it's in Greece, so if you put, any of those words in the website, it'll come up.

Speaker 3 39:42

If you just put pickleball in Greece, the country, you'll see us. Awesome, it's a very unique trip, yep, and I can't see anybody not having a good time in Greece, yeah.

Speaker 1 39:52

Oh, it's going to be awesome and it's helping spread the word.

Speaker 3 39:56

Yeah, and we're helping spread the word. Oh, thank you.

Speaker 1 39:58

And thank you so? Much for taking this time. You are busy people and you're on a wonderful trajectory. Just a real quick answer what year Olympics do you want to be in? 2032. 2032. Thank you we are going to watch for you to be in the Olympics in 2032.

Speaker 3 40:21

And thank you.

Speaker 4 40:22

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 40:24

And thank you to everybody who's been watching and listening. Thank you so much for joining us and stay tuned for some information on how you can support us. Thanks everybody, bye. Bye, if you love our podcast.

Speaker 2 40:36

We'd be so grateful if you'd take a few seconds to follow or subscribe to Life Lessons from Pickleball. This ensures you'll never miss an episode and helps us continue these wonderful conversations.

Speaker 1 40:47

On Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you listen, go to the show page and tap the follow button in the top right corner, and on YouTube, click the subscribe button under any of the episodes.

Speaker 2 41:00

Thanks, so much Hope to see you on the court.