Introduction to Megan Fudge

Speaker 1 0:00

Hi , I'm Shelly Maurer and I'm Cher Emrick .

Speaker 2 0:03

Welcome to Life 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 . Oh , we are beyond delighted to have as our guest today professional pickleball player Megan Fudge . Megan , what an honor . You are the top-ranked female player in the world with the APP Tour . You've earned over 90 medals in just the last three years and you currently play for a professional pickleball team called the Chicago Slice . I love that name .

Speaker 3 0:45

On top of that , you're a mom of two children , lily and JR , who are also aspiring pickleball players , and you live and travel the country in an RV to tournaments with you and your husband , ryler DeHart . Wow , I want your life .

Speaker 1 1:05

She wants her life .

Speaker 3 1:06

I want to travel and play pickleball .

Speaker 4 1:10

Well , thank you guys so much for having me on . I'm excited to chat with you all .

Speaker 1 1:14

We're delighted , so delighted . So , what an amazing life you've had . How did you first learn about pickleball ?

Discovering Pickleball During COVID

Speaker 4 1:23

Yeah , it was basically around COVID , like a lot of stories out there . It was something . My husband and I were doing different things . My husband was coaching tennis and I was actually working in and for farmer's insurance . I was an insurance advisor and we were looking for something to do together again , some something to be outside , exercise and meet other people . And people kept on mentioning pickleball . We saw it a little bit on social media and we're like what is this thing ? I feel like it's following us around . I feel like it's once like it's like something's attracting us to the sport and um , and so we gave it a try and we just instantly fell in love . It like it was a perfect fit for us . We're super competitive people coming from tennis with a tennis background for both of us , and we just like to be active and gave us a competitive outlet while at the same time , yeah , we met so many people through pickleball and we still are right now too , so it's been kind of a full journey for us . But that's how we first got started .

Speaker 1 2:23

So it was because of COVID . It was during COVID that you discovered it . So it really has only been you've got all these . You have all these medals from when you first started in these last three years . Oh my gosh , I'm just beyond it . So what's the Germany-England connection

International Roots and Education

Speaker 1 2:39

? You started in Germany , right , born in Germany .

Speaker 4 2:42

So , yeah , I was born and raised in Germany . My mom's actually , though , from London , and my dad's from New Zealand . Um , there I was , um , they moved to Germany like 43 years ago . Um , my dad's a tennis coach . He took a job there on a two-year contract , persuaded my mom to join him in Germany . They didn't speak a lick of German . He retired from the same job after 42 years last summer and , yeah , raised my family there and still living there , and they finally had to learn German . So that's the connection to Germany . But I did go to boarding school in England , so I have more of a British accent and we spoke , like English , english at home as well . Well , so , but yeah , when I was 15 , I went to boarding school in England before coming to the States .

Speaker 1 3:30

Yeah , I love your accent . I went to boarding school in India , but it was American accent , so I don't have the British accent . Oh wow , nice .

Speaker 4 3:39

We're in India .

Speaker 1 3:41

Cody Connell International School in southern India , and India is one of Shelley's favorite countries too . She spent a lot of time there . So we have that wonderful . And you were in India . You were talking about recording something there and had to turn off the air , and how hot it was .

Speaker 4 3:58

Yeah , so I've actually been to India three times this year already for pickleball and it's taking me back there to start my 2025 season in India actually in Mumbai again and super excited to keep helping grow the sport over there and it's exploding . So and we love India like

Growing Pickleball in India

Speaker 4 4:17

we have so enjoyed the people . We've always loved Indian food . My husband and I . We love trying different foods and obviously traveling as well , so India has been incredible to us and the people have been amazing . So I love going back to India . It feels almost like home .

Speaker 1 4:35

That is really cool . So tell us about Pickleball in India .

Speaker 4 4:39

Yeah , it's honestly taking off like crazy . They've only had it , have had it for maybe a year or two , but the courts have gone from about 15 courts when we were there in february to um over 100 courts that are being built , um , obviously , space is limited there and so they're squeezing in courts like on rooftops , um , and and trying to build facilities kind of more on the outskirts of the cities . But yeah , they are loving pickleball over there and it's such a perfect environment for them because they have the racquet sports background from tennis , badminton , table tennis and they have such a competitive nature as well , so it's a perfect combination for them , while , at the same time , they have all these people wanting to play sports and be outside , and so it's yeah , it's , it's yeah , it's growing like crazy what are the cities that you oh sorry , shelly , go ahead ?

Speaker 3 5:34

I'm just curious how you started going over there with pickleball yeah .

Speaker 4 5:37

So , um , interesting story was that last year at the english open I met this um , I met this man , uh , this guy called shashank and he's a Bollywood movie producer . He was playing in the English Open . I did a pro-am actually , rylan , my husband , did a pro-am with him , like a little three and me and um , he was like hey , like if , if we get something on the ground , if we get something going in India , would you guys come ? And Rylan and I were like , yeah , we would come . Like India sounds interesting to us .

Speaker 4 6:03

Um , and so we kind of stayed in touch and then we all of a sudden got this whatsapp hey , we're going to have our first tournament in February . Will you come ? I think the APP will send some players and we're like let's check the dates . If it doesn't conflict with anything , we would love to come , as long as we can bring our whole family . And he was like yeah , bring the kids , they can play . Uh , we'll have a junior event as well , so we'd love to have the whole family . So we went over in February and met so many people . Um , we did get very sick . Um , actually , everybody but me got very , very sick .

Speaker 4 6:36

Um there's obviously some strict rules that you have to follow . We felt like we were pretty strict on what we were doing but learned our lesson and yeah , it was a wonderful experience . You know , my kids were a little bit scared away by the fact that especially my husband got very sick , but they were all very , very helpful in trying to take care of us and , like help us in every way possible . We competed all week as well . Even though Ryla was sick , as a dog , he still competed super hard and um , and we came back and we're like , would we go back ? And we're like , yeah , I want to see more of the country , I want to see meet more of the people . So we went from Mumbai in February , um , and then we went to Ahmedabad sorry , my dogs are moving around um . We went to amdabad in um june and did like a team event there , um in june for about a week and then finished up in mumbai in june and then we went out and then left to go to china . So , um , but then we went back for the monsoon open again . We like got invited again to go in august . We're like you know what ? We're coming back , let's do it again , like . So we went again in august and uh no , it's been , we're coming back , let's do it again , like so . We went again in august and uh no , it's been wonderful .

Speaker 4 7:47

There's actually a lot of different organizations that are trying to lead the way in india pickleball , and kind of similar to the battle of app versus ppa in this country . Um , so they are trying to figure out who's going to be the top dog over there . Who's going to lead the way , who's going to kind of um spearhead the ? Who's going to lead the way , who's going to kind of spearhead the journey of pickleball in India . So there's a little bit of rivalry stuff going on . I'm trying to stay out of it and not pick sides , but it's exciting because the more people that want to help the sport and grow the sport , the better it is for the sport . So I'm all for a little bit of competition and people wanting a piece of the pie . So it's all good .

Speaker 1 8:28

So say more about the rivalry between APP and PPA .

Speaker 4 8:35

Well , you know , as most American pickleball players , especially on the pro side , know , the rivalry between APP and PPA has been ongoing for a couple of years now . I try to stay out of most rivalries , although I do think it's good for our sport . I think the players have benefited from it greatly , especially when it came to contract negotiations in the last couple of years . Having the chance to say that we won't play for one and we can play for the other has basically forced the tours to be better , has forced the tours to step up and they don't have a monopoly . There's someone on their toes trying to do a better job than them , but yeah , so who knows what's going to happen ? Everybody thinks they know where the pickleball world's turning to , but really you don't really know and anything can still happen and anybody can take over . There's always new players coming , which is exciting , and I think the tour battles , while at times has been very , very frustrating and annoying , I think overall the players have benefited from it .

Speaker 1 9:39

And did you say that you can play in either one ?

Speaker 4 9:42

Yeah , I'm in the position that I'm a free agent . As such , I try to give myself as many options as I can , including going overseas . I don't like to be told what my schedule is going to be and that I'm owned by a tour , so it was important to me to have that freedom freedom of choice , freedom of decision making . So that's

China Tour and Global Growth

Speaker 4 10:04

where I'm at .

Speaker 1 10:05

That's awesome . And did you say you left India and went to China ? I did yes . Tell us about that .

Speaker 4 10:13

Yeah , so it was this grand big Asia tour for us that we decided to do in June . It wasn't so much about competing , it was about offering workshops , clinics , seminars , basically coaching coaches helping meet with communities and corporations to showcase what Pickleball can do for them . How does the platform of Pickleball really help businesses , governments , you know , officials how can they get involved ? Why should they get involved ? And it was really and it was really a fun , like an amazing tour of both countries and we got to meet so many people . We went to and , as I said before , we went to India for about two and a half weeks and then we went to China for two and a half weeks or two weeks , and in those two weeks we went to seven different cities all the way from the northeast all the way south to Zhuhai , almost in Hong Kong .

Speaker 4 11:08

We ended up and it was amazing . We went to a paddle factory where they were making paddles Almost every paddle that is in the American market right now . We got to see them getting made firsthand , which was very interesting . And , yeah , it was super fascinating to me . I don't want to say I'm a pickleball nerd , but I'm just . You know I love the sport , I'm extremely passionate about it , and being part of growing the sport and developing and creating new pathways for players is exciting to me . And so , yeah , it was a really , really fun , fun trip and china was nothing I ever thought I could imagine . I was super cool . It was so fun to share that journey with my family .

Speaker 4 11:54

Um , it's hard to describe how certain things are super advanced and other things that are super different than here , but the people were were lovely . As soon as I was able to get a translator , it was great , but without a translator I would have been totally lost . No chance . Like they don't even try . They don't even try to speak English In India . We got there and everybody was like obviously noticed we're different and they're like oh , how can we help you Like , what can we do for you ? We want to invite you to our home . How can we ? You know full hospitality and in China they're like you're different , we're gonna look the other way . You're like , we're like . So it's just very different cultures , um . But as soon as they kind of like got over the fact that we spoke different languages and we had a translator to help with that aspect , they were super nice and like , wanted to just share everything about their culture with us and and meals were incredible . And yeah , it was , it was , it was fun , it was great .

Speaker 3 12:53

It's just remarkable , the life that pickleball has given you isn't it .

Speaker 4 12:59

Oh my gosh .

Speaker 1 13:01

It really is .

Speaker 4 13:02

Yeah , If you would have told me three years ago that this is what I would be doing , I don't even know what I would say . I would say you're crazy , Like . You are crazy , Like there's no chance of this happening . That I get to travel with my family , that I got to make a good livelihood , create plans for the future beyond my playing days of impacting a sport that you know hopefully one day will be in the Olympics or not , it's okay , but that's something I get to enjoy with my kids . I mean , like they're eight and nine and I get to spend every day with them and we're super passionate about something together and it's just , honestly , it's mind blowing .

Speaker 3 13:44

Well , I read something where you had said it's my passion to inspire women and girls to chase their dreams . And I mean , that's what you're doing . You're chasing your dream and look at all the joy it's bringing you . It's like wow .

Speaker 4 13:58

Honestly , yeah , it's been great . It's been , I think , most special the fact that I get to show my daughter what I get to do . Like when I was an insurance advisor . I liked my job , you know it was a good job and I was doing well and and but kind of pickleball gave me this life back of an athlete . I was an athlete in college and retired from athletics after college because I decided to travel with my husband and travel around the world and kind of dedicate my time to him while he was playing professional tennis , and so this pickleball thing has , you know , given me my life back and was like , oh my gosh , you know I'm , I get to be an athlete again , I get to impact people , I get to be myself , I get to be fierce and fearless and a competitor and all these things , while at the same time I can teach my daughter it's okay as a woman to do these things .

Speaker 4 14:51

You know it's it's not about , um , men versus women . It's actually so many amazing opportunities , um , for for all of us , and and pickleball is one

Family Support and Work-Life Balance

Speaker 4 15:02

of the biggest sports in the world right now where men and women are paid equally . We're truly paid equally , like even , you know , even from endorsement deals . Anna Lee Waters just got announced that she's getting paid the most in the world right now . I mean , what sport can we say that that about ? There's no other , even in tennis . Everyone brings up tennis , but only in the grand slam . So they get paid equally , um , in all the other tour events they don't , whereas in pickleball we are 100 paid equally . So it's um , it's it's .

Speaker 4 15:31

You know , that's what I try to share . I shared with a lot of um young players in india . I shared with a lot of groups of women , and in china as well , who are learning the game and who are looking to aspire to kind of break through and pickleball . I'm like guys , like , go after this hard . There are so many opportunities in this sport . This is just the beginning . We're scratching the tip of the iceberg right now . Keep working hard . This is our path , this is our sport . Go for it .

Speaker 3 16:00

Okay , senior pros , here I come , there you go .

Speaker 4 16:05

There you go . I love it . You're inspiring me .

Speaker 1 16:16

I love it . I love , too , that you're educating your son that women can do all the I think we think so much about , and I love that you do so much about encouraging girls and women to go for it , but I think a lot is educating men that women can go for it and support women to do so , and all that which your husband is doing as well , and your son is being exposed to both your you and your and his dad , so involved and traveling the world . Both of your children . What's it been like for them ? I mean , here you are a mom , okay , so Shelly and I are each moms , now grandparents as well , but it's a lot to be a parent with , especially two children and traveling , and a professional life pickleball player , and you're coaching and you've got your own . We'd like to hear about your academy . So what is ? How have you found a balance ?

Speaker 4 17:07

I mean it's definitely a balancing act . I always say I would not ever be able to do this without my husband . This is definitely a team , and with our team also comes my coaches on board . We have Dr Eric Coram , who you guys have met . We have a lot of .

Speaker 4 17:25

We have this village I call around us that have we've kind of , you know , accumulated these incredible people around us for us to balance this life . You know , there's times where , you know , I just need Ryler to step up and help me in certain aspects . I'm just I'm overwhelmed . There's definitely moments I get overwhelmed because I get excited about certain projects and he's just like I know you need to do this right now . You go , do that and I'll step up . You know , and he talks .

Speaker 4 17:53

He actually just spoke on a podcast and was talking about his , you know , being a servant and have a servant mentality and and I think that's incredible to see that in a , in a male position , right as a , as the husband , as the , as the dad , to see that he understands that my , you know , career might be doing better right now in pickleball than he is , whereas he's still playing amazing , don't get me wrong and he's getting all his medals as well , but he's kind of letting me lead the way and letting me kind of be myself and take the make the most of this opportunity right now and he's stepping up in all the other ways you know of being the hands-on dad and being the hands-on , you know man at home and taking care of , like getting the laundry on or you know doing the dishes or making dinner , and it's definitely been a balancing act all around . So I'm just extremely grateful to have a partner in him , that he understands me and and also sometimes his role is to tell me Megan , that was too much .

Speaker 4 18:54

You're taking on too much . You know , like I see you , you're exhausted and I need him to say that , like I need him to be honest , I need him to recognize that and that's helped me at times . So you know I'm , you know as well , you know some people like man , when do you ever sleep ? Like do you do ? You know , like do you ? When do you find time to sleep or rest ? You know , and at times I , my head , just goes a million miles an hour because I have all these things I want to do . And he's just like all right , the switch has to be turned off . You got to turn off . It's got to stop , it's got to . You got to take a break .

Speaker 3 19:26

So well , that's hard for you because you have so much going on but and you need your body , so you have to rest and you have to work out and take care of yourself . So that's difficult .

Speaker 4 19:37

Yes and exactly , and yes and exactly and um , especially dr quorum eric .

Speaker 1 19:45

Uh , who you guys ?

Speaker 4 19:46

have had on on your podcast as well . He's awesome , he's he's amazing , he's been incredible and he's been a very , very strong voice , um , telling me to rest and how rest is so important for me . So , um , you know it's , it's , it's a balancing act , because what I feel like in the sport , I um , I um , I'm not the youngest in my in the sport , right , I'm actually one of the oldest players on the tour . Um , I feel like I feel like I'm young . I feel like I'm young too .

Speaker 4 20:08

You know , I've only been playing for three years and I have so much still to learn , but at the same time , I like my , my clock is ticking right . It's like I , I don't have 10 years in the sport , I get maybe five , I get maybe eight years , maybe , you know , if I'm lucky , if I stay strong and step away from singles , finally , um , I get a few more years , you know . So I feel like I'm so determined to pack everything in right now and go after it hard , so , which gives me that motivation at the same time , um , to stay strong and every , every day counts for me . Uh , whereas younger players can like , like , I got a couple years , I got , I got 20 years in the sport , you know . So it's a different mentality . Every moment I step away and step on the court , I'm stepping away from being a mom , I'm stepping away from being doing something else , so I feel like it's even more important for me to go after it .

Speaker 1 20:56

I love that your whole family is modeling how we can be . I love that your whole family is modeling how we can be . That whole sense of cooperation and support and encouragement and not being threatened by each other's successes , but actually celebrating each other's successes and supporting that it really warms my heart and that your kids are a part of this team .

Speaker 1 21:19

They're not just a side . They're going with you , they're experiencing and they have their own experiences that I'm sure are going to just impact the rest of their lives . Just being able to see the world the way they are now their horizons are already so broad I love that yeah .

Speaker 4 21:37

It's hard . It's it's hard for them to see that right now , at the age of eight , nine , to recognize . We had a conversation this morning , you know , my daughter's like her best friend had just got two kittens and all they want to do is play with kittens . And mom , why don't we have kittens ? And she gets kittens . And kittens are amazing and they make me so happy and I'm , and you know , obviously the conversations come up of , like , you know , can we , can we go into home base ? Can we buy a house , can we get kittens ? Can we do all these things ?

Speaker 4 22:09

And I'm like you have to recognize that these , while these things are incredible , think about all the amazing things we've got to do you wouldn't get a chance to travel , you wouldn't get a chance to meet new people every week and go to China , go to the Great Wall , go to India , go to you know we're ending our year in Vietnam and Thailand . You know these things . They're like , oh , do we need to do those things ? Like , what about the kittens ? You know ?

Speaker 4 22:35

So we still do have those conversations and my kids are kids and I understand and we laugh and we share and we are adamant about , you know , like trying to explain this journey to them , that this is so special and I don't know when this bubble will burst and we might come to an end in a couple of months . It might come to an end in a couple of years . I don't have the answer to that . We're trying to enjoy every moment and every trip that we take because , you know , covid kind of taught us that we don't

Academy and Future Plans

Speaker 4 23:08

, we can't rely on anything . We can't rely on tomorrow . So that's kind of how we , how we're going about this right now .

Speaker 1 23:14

So true . Tell us a little bit about your academy .

Speaker 4 23:19

Yeah , so , um . So Ryle and I used to have a tennis academy . When he ended on the tour , we had a junior tennis high performance program in Florida and that kind of you know drifted in and out of me running it while he was a college coach . And then I stepped away from tennis While we kind of found our way into pickleball . I found myself wanting to coach again and wanting to coach , in particular , obviously , pickleball that I was now passionate and learning so much about , and I felt like I could apply a lot of my theology , a lot of my you know , kind of ground roots , of what I've learned in tennis and bring it over to pickleball . And so I found a lot of passion in coaching tennis and pickleball and now it was just like a opportunity to share the sport and go over internationally coaching coaches .

Speaker 4 24:11

We had such an amazing time in June to kind of share what high performance pickleball looks like . Like how do we , how do we drill ? How do we approach the sport ? How do I see the court ? How do I , you know , attack every point , not necessarily with an aggressive shot , but how do I what's my approach into , you know , looking at the court , and what am I trying to design or um or create , and so we love sharing that side .

Speaker 4 24:38

Rio has a huge , amazing background in coaching as well , so we're kind of working on creating , uh , more and more opportunities for us to share that while at the same time , we're still trying to play . So we're not trying to over coach or overdo um , we have plans and we have ideas what we want to do after playing and when our playing days are kind of ending . So we're trying to create little pockets and little opportunities . Right , playing days are kind of ending , so we're trying to create little pockets and little opportunities right now and letting people know . You know we're passionate about coaching but it's just not our time yet . Um , that you know where .

Speaker 4 25:11

My deal with franklin , for example , is a contract . You know that's going to go beyond my playing days . It's not just about me , the player , megan fudge , but it's it's me impacting the sport beyond those days . So we've also talked to various different aspects that we want to start a foundation and work on creating a pathway for developing pickleball into a way out of poverty and a way out of teaching life lessons from the pickleball court or from the tennis court . Maybe we'll include that as well , but just different things that we are passionate about and want to share . And there's certain things in the works , but I have to , you know , do one thing at a time . My mind goes a million miles an hour but I am excited about the future , but I'm living in the moment . Good .

Speaker 1 26:01

Awesome , so you had a perfect segue . Yes , what are some of the life lessons that you've learned either on the court that you take into your life , or you've learned in your life that you definitely take on the court ?

Life Lessons from Pickleball

Speaker 4 26:14

Yeah , I mean , obviously pickleball is an incredible sport and has taught me so much about myself , so much about who I want to be again , who I wanted to become again after stepping away as an athlete , and how I want to become the best version of myself . And through that , through discipline and hard work and dedication , those have kind of been the lessons . Like , the more you know , the the dedication I can provide myself in any facet of my life , I can become the best version of myself . And when I do those things , um , and and right now it's pickleball , but you know , it can be anything in life that I dedicate myself to , and and and and go after . I can do it , you know , and pickleball , and it's been fun sharing that journey and I blog as well .

Speaker 4 27:03

And I've had various moms reach out to me and they're like , oh my gosh , I can't believe you started playing pickleball when you were like 33 , 34 and you're a professional pickleball player . And I'm like , yes , anybody can do this . Like you know , it takes work , don't get me wrong . Like I work very hard . You know a lot of dedication , a lot of like time goes into this and there's certain aspects I miss on . You know I miss out on certain aspects of like . You know would I like to go to every baby shower and every wedding that I get invited to . You know , there's certain things I have to say no to and miss out on , but , at the same time , I know what I'm striving for and I'm striving for the best version of myself .

Speaker 1 27:45

Oh striving for the best version of yourself . Oh , that is sweet .

Speaker 3 27:50

And I liked it . I read somewhere it was your blog or somewhere how you really are passing that on to your children , right , With pickleball . It's like if you're going to play it , do it , do it right , Respect the sport , work hard , give it your all . Like you're really passing that on , I think that's terrific .

Speaker 4 28:09

Yeah , I , um , I talked a little bit about , uh , with a group of kids , uh , this is last week ago uh , about the pursuit of excellence , um , and there's certain aspects of how , uh , how do you pursue excellence and like what , what are the aspects of it ? And I talk about , you know , when you , when we pursue something like pickleball in this matter , is we , we got to show respect to ourselves , our opponents , our sport and our time . You know , and , and you know , with that comes preparing , working hard . Come , you know , with that comes preparing , working hard . You know , attacking the sport with your full intent , like what are you trying to achieve ?

Speaker 4 28:47

So it's , you know , it's important to me that my kids get to see that that I walk the walk and talk the talk . You know , it's not just me lecturing them like , yeah , you know , don't watch me do this , but like I think you should do , but no , I'm like I , you know , don't watch me do this , but like I think you should do , but no , I'm like I'm truly living it . They get to see me do this day in and day out . And they see both Ryla and I do this day in and day out , like we are , we're trying , you know , the pursuit of excellence .

Speaker 1 29:13

Brilliant , we could talk with you for hours and , megan , we are just over the moon that you took time out of your schedule .

Speaker 4 29:22

It is .

Speaker 1 29:22

You have an incredible schedule and life and the fact that you said yes to be on this show just means so much to us and we know it's going to touch so many people's hearts , especially women and their men who are supporting them or who identify as male . You know the whole thing . I just love it that you are modeling individually , you're modeling as a family how to be in this world and how to live every minute as if it matters because it does , and I'm so appreciative that you are helping to expand this sport around the world the way you are Shelly , this sport around the world the way you are Shelly . This is the life you want , girl .

Speaker 4 30:09

I know Well , thank you guys for having me on . Someone was telling me that I'm living the American dream . I get to play pickleball and I travel in an RV . So I'm loving the American dream and I travel in an RV , so I'm loving the American dream .

Speaker 1 30:25

Pretty amazing . Well , thank you so much and we will continue to watch with great glee as you continue on your professional career . And thank you everybody

Closing Thoughts and Farewell

Speaker 1 30:33

. Oh my gosh , yeah , megan Fudge , megan Fudge , thank you all and we look forward to a new conversation next week . Bye-bye . Thank you , bye . Continue these wonderful conversations .

Speaker 1 30:58

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