Life Lessons from Pickleball™
Meet Shelley and Sher, the dynamic duo, who found more than just a sport on the Pickleball court - they discovered how Pickleball was weaving its magic, creating connections, boosting confidence, and sprinkling their lives with amazing joy. Inspired by their own personal transformation and the contagious enthusiasm of their fellow players, they knew this was more than a game. Join them on their weekly podcast as they serve up engaging conversations with people from all walks of life, and all around the world reaching across the net to uncover the valuable Life Lessons from Pickleball™.
Life Lessons from Pickleball™
E56: Martin Clark: From ER Doctor to Pickleball Champion
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What can pickleball teach us about resilience, healing, and purpose?
In this episode, Dr. Martin Clark shares his remarkable journey from ER doctor to international pickleball champion. After a throat cancer diagnosis, Martin was forced to rethink life, health, competition, and what it means to keep moving forward.
He talks about cancer recovery, mental toughness, athletic mindset, and how pickleball became a source of connection, joy, and renewed purpose. His story is a powerful example of resilience on and off the court.
If you enjoy podcasts about pickleball, cancer survivorship, sports psychology, health, healing, and overcoming adversity, this episode offers inspiration, perspective, and hope.
📘 Our book Life Lessons from Pickleball™ is now available on Amazon
Order the book here: https://a.co/d/0bHPFYve
A collection of short, true stories from players around the world about community, resilience, and joy through the game of pickleball.
A portion of proceeds supports Operation PaddleLift, through the Global Pickleball Federation, distributing paddles, balls and nets to underserved communities around the world.
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Meet Martin Clark: Australian ER Doctor
Speaker 1Hi , I'm Shelly Maurer and I'm Cher Emrick . Welcome to Life .
Speaker 2Lessons from Pickleball where we engage with pickleball players from around the world about life on and off the court .
Speaker 1Thanks for joining us . Welcome everyone to Life . Lessons from Pickleball . Oh my gosh , it's so great to have you with us , and we are really honored to have with us as well , guest Martin Clark . Martin , you are an Australian emergency room doctor from the Gold Coast of Australia and a standout figure in the international pickleball scene , and you're currently a member of the Seattle Tsunami Senior Pro Pickleball Team .
Speaker 3You have amassed over 25 gold medals across Asia and Australia , including a gold in men's open , 50 plus at the Asia open and a bronze in pro mixed doubles . Notably , you co-won the mixed masters title at the inaugural national pickleball league championships on the Gold Coast .
Speaker 1My gosh Martin . Such amazing accomplishments after only playing the sport for four years and with such a demanding medical career . So we want to ask you how did you decide to go into emergency medicine in the first place ?
Speaker 4Well , emergency medicine . My brother was a doctor , I love scientific things . I wanted to work with people . It seemed like a good thing to do at the time and I guess at 17 , when you make the decision you're pretty immature , but it worked out well and I've enjoyed it . I mean it has its challenges , working , you know , with death and dying and all the dramas , but overall it's a very satisfying . Death and dying and all the dramas , but overall it's a very satisfying , rewarding career .
Speaker 1That's wonderful . My youngest is now in ER tech in Phoenix .
Speaker 4Oh , okay , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 1So I totally get that high adrenaline and oh my gosh it's demanding , but as a doctor especially .
Speaker 4It's rewarding , but it can take its toll on you as well .
Speaker 3Yep , yep , yep . It's good that you have pickleball for an outlet .
Speaker 4Oh yeah , love pickleball .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , so speaking of that , when did Australia pick up pickleball , and then how were you introduced to it ?
Speaker 4So it's probably really only been in Australia about seven years . There was a fellow called Keith Bing who was an american who came to australia , worked with engage and he was very instrumental in doing lots of the setup in australia , um , and then we had our inaugural australian championships I think it was six years ago , um and all the engage crew came out and they swept the field and then there was a bit more interest in pickleball and now it's on the same growth curve as the US . It's getting very big here .
Speaker 3How is it for ? Do you guys have a lot of courts Like that's an issue ? Here Is courts , court time .
Speaker 4Yeah , that's the biggest issue there still aren't enough courts . It's still really . The majority of courts are still tennis courts , with either lines painted over them or tape put down . We don't have nearly enough custom-built courts . Yeah , um , I'm very fortunate at home .
Speaker 4When I got addicted to pickleball , we built an indoor and an outdoor court , so I've got two courts at home , so a bit of an addict , so I don't have to travel really for to find courts and we have lots of people coming here , but yes , we do have a problem with not enough courts so maybe that helps to answer the question on how do you manage both your demanding medical career and being a pro pickleball player um , so initially it was just finding the time .
Speaker 4You know if you , if you love something enough , you can find the time , even if it's half an hour . Um , I've got a ball machine at home , uh , so even if I've got 20 minutes spare , I'll get out and I'll hit 50 third shot drops or do some dinks or do something . Yeah , um , and I find it a great stress reliever when I'm playing pickleball , I think of nothing else , it's just I love the sound of it , everything about it . I just I really like it and it just I escape from life and just really enjoy pickleball . Um , and then there's the community aspects . I have lots of people over here to play . It's a bit of a training venue really where I live , um , and so many nice people in pickleball just seems that everyone who plays pickleball in general really nice people so that sense of yeah , just that sense of community is the best thing of all , really that's so great to hear .
Speaker 1It's the same in Australia as it is here yeah , yeah tell us about competing in the National Pickleball League and the experiences with the Seattle Tsunami . We're Seattleites so we're excited about that .
Speaker 4It's absolutely awesome . So Rick Witskin and Beth Bellamy and Michael Chen created the NPL as kind of a home for seniors , for senior pros in the States , and the first one was two seasons ago and I got drafted by the indie team , Indianapolis , and we ended up winning the whole thing and it was absolutely awesome the whole thing because you've basically got you know , at that stage it was eight teams who would turn up . There were 16 people on each team , so you've got over 100 players who are fantastic and great people , all next to each other playing on every court . The sense of camaraderie and the team spirit and the cheering and everything about it I just loved and I was so addicted to it . So it's very tiring going back and forth from Australia once a month , basically for six months , six months
Building a Pickleball Career in Australia
Speaker 4and that's taxing , but it's just absolutely worth it .
Speaker 4I've made so many new friends . I love the pickleball . Travelling with pickleball is just the best . I really enjoy that . So last year I got drafted by Seattle . I didn't make most of it because I was unwell , but they kept their faith and I've been drafted with them again this year .
Speaker 1That's so exciting .
Speaker 4Yeah .
Speaker 3How did they find you all the way in Australia ?
Speaker 4I guess it was results and Dupa . So if your Dupa is high enough and you're in that top 100 or so , then your name springs up . So I had enough good results across Asia . I played in a couple of US Opens and got some reasonable results there . So just lucky enough , they took a chance on year one and then it's continued on from there .
Speaker 1Do you find a difference when you are playing with international players outside of Australia ? Is there a difference in the game or the style or anything when you're playing ?
Speaker 4So the US Senior League is a lot stronger than the Australian Senior League . So playing seniors in the US at the top level is almost the same as playing open here Not quite as high as the open here because there are a lot of young ex-tennis players coming across who have made it super strong . But the US level of pros in scene is very high . There's a legendary guy , mills Mills Miller , who was in my indie team and I was just amazed how he just always knew where the ball was going . And I said your court sense is amazing . How long have you been playing for ? And he said , oh , 35 years .
Speaker 1Oh my gosh .
Speaker 4You know , he just knows where every ball is going and that's , that's what it's like . A lot of these players in the seniors have been just playing forever , so they know the game backwards . They're very smart , uh , very knowledgeable , and it's it's .
Speaker 1It's a really high level and what is your duper score ?
Speaker 4my duper at the moment is 5.27 . So I think the highest I got to was 5.4 . I didn't play , I was unwell last year so I missed a fair bit and came back slowly so I dropped a little bit . But yeah , about 5.27 .
Speaker 1Oh my gosh and is that , generally speaking , your team , the level for your team ?
Speaker 4Yeah , there'd be no one under five , so everyone is over five and the top players . Rick Whitskin's our captain , and I think he's six .
Speaker 1Wow .
Speaker 4He's 5'9 to 6'1 , somewhere in that vicinity .
Speaker 1How high does it go for senior pros ?
Speaker 4Yeah , it can go as high as yeah , it can go . I mean , I think Ben Johns is like 6.8 or 7 or something , yeah , so . And I think the top I think Jamie Onsien's might be the top senior pro in terms of Dupre and I think it's 6.2 , something like that .
Speaker 1Oh my gosh .
Speaker 3Can you tell us you were talking earlier before the show about how the Pro Pickleball works ? Like you said , you come over once a month , so there's yep , so each each weekend .
Speaker 4So you have 14 players in your team and there are three pods of four , two men and two women . So it's 12 players plus one reserve male and female who often just rotate through , and then you have a matchup against two teams each day . So Saturday morning you'll play a team and then so we might play the Kansas City Stingers on the Saturday morning , and so each pod plays a men's doubles versus the other team , a women's doubles , and then the two mixed doubles and all three pods play that , and each one is the best of three games to 11 . So it's conventional , it's not rally scoring . And then you get . You get points , you know for you if you wins for each , each game you've won plus the overall um , and then there's some prize money for the overall winning team for each weekend . But then it becomes cumulative and where you finish at the end of the regular season of five rounds determines where you start in championship weekend in Seattle in October .
Speaker 4So the higher you finish there , the higher I mean you can still . Theoretically you could win from last place , but it would be very hard , you so many teams so october is when you come to seattle for the champions seattle , and that's the big one , yeah okay , we're got it we're putting it on our calendar so please come yeah oh , my gosh and the hope is that it'll be at side out .
Speaker 1Is that the ?
Speaker 4Side Out . Yeah , I believe it's going to be at Side Out , it's going to be a wonderful facility there too , oh my .
Speaker 1God , yeah , I can't imagine that you are flying
Competing in National Pickleball League
Speaker 1back . I've been to Australia Beautiful , loved it but oh my word , that flight it's a long flight . It's a long flight .
Speaker 4And how often are you doing that flight ? So it's once a month for six months . So it takes a week to get over the jet lag going and then a week to get over it coming back . So , right , basically spend half of the next six months jet lagged . But , oh , my goodness , it's worth it . It is , it really is worth it . It's just a great . It's great competition and great camaraderie and just so many friends and connections and , yeah , I love it . So the the jet lag is worth it and we're used to in australia . We're so remote down here that we all travel a lot you probably find .
Speaker 4Everywhere you go , you find loud australians . We do .
Speaker 3We do travel a lot , yeah that's actually why I started laughing earlier in the show . Something just hit me about a remembrance of being with a loud australian in vietnam .
Speaker 4Just your accent brought that we hate our accent , you know , for for other countries they probably think it's interesting , but we don't like our accent . So when we travel , travel , we don't want to hear other Australian accents . You might feel the same about Americans , but yeah .
Speaker 1Completely , and it's so funny that we would call anybody else's way of speaking having an accent . In fact , we all have accents .
Speaker 4Exactly , that's not our perspective , yeah .
Speaker 1So you've played all over the world . What ?
Speaker 4are some of your favorite places where you've played um , I think my favorite , probably overall , was the us open in naples , um , and the first one that I went to , but only been playing for just on a year , and my partner and I , mike Newell , got into the senior pro and they gave us a wild card into the open the 19-plus open as well , men's . So we were very fresh , we didn't know the game that well and the draw came out for the open and round one M Clark and M Newell versus B Johns and C Johns .
Speaker 1Oh , come on .
Speaker 4Which was just awesome , because we were never going to make an indent into the main draw Never . So we might as well play the best and , you know , get that experience . So we came out , we had nothing to lose . We went up 5-1 in the first game , and then they woke up and they then they destroyed us as they should .
Speaker 4They were just half asleep for the first , you know , the first 10 minutes , but that was an absolute buzz and they were such nice guys to play against , very respectful , even though there was a big difference in level obviously . Um , but that was just the best experience and oh my gosh yeah , oh my gosh .
Speaker 1Yeah , if you're gonna do it , go for the gusto . You know exactly why not .
Speaker 4And ben johns has always been my favorite player to watch um the game's getting a lot faster , but he really he kind of um epitomized the chess on concrete uh-huh , yeah , yeah , that's a good one .
Speaker 1I've never heard that before .
Speaker 4Chess on concrete terms they talk about pickleball . He's just so clever and .
Speaker 1I love the way he plays . Yeah , he's thinking three hits ahead , right . Yeah , like in chess three moves ahead . Oh , what a great phrase .
Speaker 4Chess on concrete ?
Speaker 1Yeah , that's cool , and where in Asia have you played ?
Speaker 4So Phuket , bali , vietnam , korea , they're the main ones and had some , had a few open wins in the 19 plus in that . But of course Asian pickleball it's getting stronger and stronger but of course it's well below the US . So I'm not going to medal in 19 plus open in the US but can still kind of manage it in the Asian tournaments .
Speaker 1And , as you say , it's fast approaching . Yeah , I mean it's blowing up In Vietnam .
Speaker 4apparently now they have 5,000 custom built courts in Vietnam alone . Custom-built courts in Vietnam alone . Wow , oh my goodness , it is getting very big .
Speaker 1Oh , my goodness .
Speaker 3So were you a tennis pro in Australia .
Speaker 4Not a pro . How did you know ? I played a good high social level but not pro level ?
Speaker 3no , it's just amazing how quickly you've come up in pickleball .
Speaker 4Yeah , oh , I love it . I guess I've got some affinity for it . But at the end of the day I work hard , so I just hit a lot
International Tournament Experiences
Speaker 4of balls cause I enjoy it so much and have a lot of games . And I think when you play that much , you , you , you improve .
Speaker 1Yeah , before you started playing pickleball , did , did .
Speaker 4had you been to all these countries before um no , I hadn't been to korea , hadn't been to vietnam , um , and hadn't been to bali . So wow so it's , it's the travel I mean . It's always . I always think it's more fun to travel with a purpose than just as a tourist . Yes , and so travelling for pickleball , I love it . You meet a lot of locals , you get a good feel for the place and meet so many people .
Speaker 1Can you think of some funny or poignant or powerful moments in your play anywhere in the world ?
Speaker 4I think you remember the wins and you remember the smiles of the people and the friends that you met . I guess they're the two things . Yeah , so , yeah . So some good wins , had some good wins and met some great people . I guess they're the standout things .
Speaker 1It's amazing , isn't it it , that all the different cultures , the languages , traditions , doesn't matter . It's like you were saying when you're on the court , you're not thinking of anything else you're in the moment and you can be that way with all these people all over the world where , in any other setting , we might have some awkwardness like how do I communicate ?
Speaker 4Yeah , it's crazy . Yeah , yeah , so true .
Speaker 1Level playing field yeah .
Speaker 2For sure .
Speaker 1So , with all of your experiences too , have you learned any lessons on the court that you now use in your life , or life lessons that you knew and you use them on the court ?
Life Lessons After Cancer Diagnosis
Speaker 4I think the main life lesson I've learned probably the last couple of years . I got cancer last year and from that I just learned to worry less about little things .
Speaker 1Wait , say that again .
Speaker 4So last June I had a lump in my neck and thought , oh , it was just a gland after a virus , and then ended up having some tests because it didn't go away and it was a throat cancer .
Speaker 1Oh , for heaven's sake .
Speaker 4So had an operation on my neck , had radiotherapy and chemotherapy and now cured and that's all gone . But I think until then the whole concept of living for the moment and not worrying about things was almost a cliche . It didn't really feel real until death stares you in the face . I didn't learn . I probably didn't learn that lesson . Death stares you in the face I didn't learn . I probably didn't learn that lesson . Um , I've been surrounded by you know suffering and dying at in in my job , but until it actually hits you it doesn't feel real Like it's . You could be what that one . So I think after that I probably worry about things less , um , work a bit less hard . Uh , probably don't worry about wins and losses as much . Um , and just the connections have become more important than the results on the scoreboard since then .
Speaker 1I'd say that's the that is very powerful , martin I am so sorry that you went through that journey . It sounds like you gained some real important insights and kind of a reset for life . But boy , facing our own potential death is a real wake-up call and wow . And also I've heard when my dad was a doctor and when he was a patient it was a very different experience , kind of a wake-up call for him as a patient , as a doctor . Was it different for you being a patient experience , kind of a wake-up call for him as a patient , as a doctor ?
Speaker 1Was it different for you being a patient . Did that give you a different perspective on being a doctor ? It ?
Speaker 4certainly gave you a very different perspective and it rammed home that when you're as a patient , you don't want to be treated like a number , and when people connect with you , it makes almost as much difference as the actual medicine . So the staff that you remember are the ones who actually connected with you and actually did care . So it was , yeah , it probably made me a better doctor as well . Yeah , so yeah .
Speaker 1Wow , I have a feeling you were kind of a heart centered doctor to begin with , wouldn't you say ?
Speaker 4Yeah , I'm a sensitive person . It's probably I'm probably too sensitive for medicine in some respects .
Speaker 1Um , yeah , overwhelming , yeah , yeah , wow . So pickleball is a good release for that too , right ?
Speaker 4Pickleball is awesome for that .
Speaker 3Yeah , wow , wow , so go ahead , shelly you had , I was just gonna ask if he had any advice for aspiring athletes who have demanding careers um , I'd say you just find a way , because we all sometimes we think we need to exercise .
Speaker 4We don't have time , but we still have time to sit down the couch and , you know , watch nothing , or you know scan the channels for an hour . You can find time to . You know , find a hitting partner and just drill for half an hour . So if you don't have time for rec games for four hours a week , you can get probably more benefit out of just drilling with someone for half an hour than you probably can out of two hours of wreck . So if your time's short , find a partner or a ball machine and drill . It's so much fun . If you find someone that you like playing with and you like them , it's so much fun drilling .
Speaker 1It's so true , it's a lot of fun . Yeah , great suggestion .
Speaker 4Yeah .
Speaker 1You've been in this game now for four years . I can't believe you've done all you've done in four years . Oh , thank you oh my gosh , I know right . Have you seen a change in the game itself over these four years ?
Speaker 4Just the speed of it . The speed .
Speaker 4And it's got so fast . It's interesting A friend of mine in Brisbane , just above the Gold Coast , a couple of times a year they organise a little tournament where you play with different partners and you have to play with the old paddles . So the paddles are back from four or five years ago . So no spin , no power . And it's quite interesting that the players who keep winning those tournaments are the players who were good four or five years ago , not the fast players now . So it's almost a different skill set because you used to be able to . You know we used to talk about green zone , orange zone , red zone for balls , that anything below the knee was red zone . You couldn't attack it , which is not the case anymore with these fast spin paddles . You know players will be attacking from their shoelaces and hitting you in the chest with the ball , and it used not to be the case . You couldn't attack those balls . So certainly the speed
Evolution of Pickleball Equipment
Speaker 4is the main thing speed and spin .
Speaker 1Speed and spin . In fact , fran Meyer was one of the first to establish the USAPA Pickleball Association .
Speaker 4Yeah .
Speaker 1Mark Friedenberg and Fran's husband , barney Meyer . And she was saying , in fact , the rules are , there can be no special surface on the paddle paddle . And even though that's the rule .
Speaker 4The paddle makers are coming up with amazing services on the paddles , pushing the boundaries , so yeah , yeah yeah , I'm almost a bit nostalgic about how the game used to be um . But yeah , it's . It's a different game now .
Speaker 1Yeah , you just have to adapt and I think , yeah , I think the cow's out of the barn or the horse is out of the barn or whatever they say . You can't go back again . But there was something very lovely about that rule , because it really did level the playing field more , as she said there was no advantage in offense or defense . Everybody kind of was at the same pace . And now the paddles are making it and the young'uns can race around the court .
Speaker 1And there are more tennis players coming in , which is great . I love the expansion of the game , but it is different from when it started .
Speaker 4A really good paddle now can actually level , make a , allow a player to level up , and it used not to be that that's right , so a few years ago you really couldn't change paddles and become a better player , but you actually you virtually can now you can yeah , yeah , well what's your favorite paddle ?
Speaker 4um , I've been sponsored by a company called luna and I've really enjoyed their paddles . That's a guy called matt nola from the us , um , from wichita , who lives , lives in thailand now , so I've yeah , I've enjoyed using those paddles spell the name of that company um luna l-u-n-a-r okay yeah our audience might want to be checking that out , that's pretty cool .
Speaker 1Yeah , oh , my gosh . Well , I'm still kind of feeling very moved about your year , last year of all your health and your illness , and then your healing , and now being just full on back in pickleball again . So quickly that's .
Speaker 4And in four years all that you've accomplished really remarkable martin really very much , yeah , yeah very inspiring well , you made so many remarkable people . I'll tell you one that I mentioned where's gabrielson now ? I know that you know Wes and he came and stayed here a year ago and you know , if it wasn't for Pickleball , I don't meet someone like Wes Gabrielson and he , apart from the legendary status he has in Pickleball , one of the nicest human beings you're going to meet , and that's what Pickleball is all about the people like that that you meet .
Speaker 1So true , we felt the same way about Wes , and I think he's the one who connected us with you , my friend . So , yeah , he is lovely , and everybody he's mentioned to us is as lovely . So , martin , you are in that same group .
Speaker 4Oh , thank you . Yeah , so lovely to meet you both . You're both such warm , lovely people .
Speaker 1Thank , you , thank you , thank you . Something about pickleball .
Speaker 3Huh , something about pickleball .
Speaker 4I don't want to see you in Seattle . Yes .
Speaker 1Definitely In October . Cannot wait . Yeah , thank you . Thank you . Thank you for being our guest and cross the . I love that we can do this . You're in Australia , we're in Seattle
Upcoming NPL Championship in Seattle
Speaker 1and this you're in australia .
Speaker 4We're in seattle and it's just sitting in the living room having a chat .
Speaker 1I mean it's amazing , thank you great to meet you both . Yeah , so great to meet you too . All right , thank you all . Oh my gosh , thank you for being with us today . Check out the paddle idea . Check out the no wait . Can we watch this if for those who can't be there in Seattle , is it going to be streamed ?
Speaker 4Yes , each event starting from the one in LA and the weekend after next will be streamed . Awesome , so it's . The NPL website has a link to the streaming , okay .
Speaker 1Well , we'll be watching those and then we'll see you in person . All right , thank you , nice chatting , thank you all Okay .
Speaker 4Well , we'll be watching those and then we'll see you in person , all right .
Speaker 1Thank you , thank you all , thanks . And we look forward to a new conversation next week . Bye-bye .
Speaker 2If you love our podcast , 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 1On 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 . Thanks so much .
Speaker 2Hope to see you on the court .