SPEAKER_02: 0:00

Hi, I'm Shelly Bauer. And I'm Cher Emmerich. Welcome to Life Lessons from Pickleball. Where we engage with pickleball players from around the world about life on and off the court. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_03: 0:15

Before we get started, we have something really exciting to share.

SPEAKER_02: 0:18

Our book, Life Lessons from Pickleball, is now available on Amazon, and a portion of every sale is donated to Operation Paddle Lift.

SPEAKER_03: 0:27

Your purchase helps deliver paddles, nets, and resources to underserved communities around the world.

SPEAKER_02: 0:33

Thank you for being a part of Growing the Game We All Love. Now let's jump into today's episode. Welcome everyone to Life Lessons from Pickleball. We are so excited today to welcome Mike Sleva. Mike, you see the world of pickleball from a truly unique vantage point.

SPEAKER_03: 0:52

Mike, you live off the grid with your wife in a yurt in rural New Mexico, which already has us completely intrigued.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01

And yet you're also deeply plugged in. You host the Senior Pickleball Report on YouTube. You co-host VAR TV, you run the Pickleball Manufacturers Association, work with pickleball travel companies, and serve on the advisory board of the National Collegiate Pickleball Association.

SPEAKER_03: 1:23

You become a trusted voice for the 50 plus pickleball community, helping players stay informed, connected, and inspired while choosing a lifestyle that's anything but connected. Mike, let's start where everyone's curious. What led you to unplug from the grid and build a life in a yurt?

SPEAKER_00: 1:46

Um, and I don't know if Jeff even knows the story, but I've been telling it for years. Jeff Eccles is a colleague of mine, and I was a high school teacher in the metropolitan Phoenix area, my wife and I, and I taught high school for 12 years. And every year I would, every day, I would go in to get my mail out of my mailbox in the administrative building, and they had class pictures. So it was the class of you know, 02 or 03, and then all the teachers who were senior teachers taught seniors, and so I got to watch Jeff Eccles age, and I was like, I love this profession, but I do not want to be Jeff Eccles 15 years from now, and getting a little more bitter and a little more angry and looking a little more grumpy. So I I taught high school for 12 years, and my wife and I, for whatever reason, uh one day I decided I was gonna Google how to travel the world on a shoestring budget, and this site came up called Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, where you can basically go and work on somebody's homestead and they put you up uh and feed you so for room and board. And so we did that for about four years. We uh left our jobs basically to learn how to do things with our hands and work on these different properties, and so eventually we landed in uh a community that's off-grid in rural New Mexico.

SPEAKER_02: 3:00

OMG. And you're in your car because tell our Yeah, it's it's my Wi Fi.

SPEAKER_00: 3:06

I I basically take my Wi-Fi from my closest neighbor in exchange for like a Netflix. Um, I have Netflix and she gives me her Wi-Fi. Sweet. And it's like one bar. So anything I want to do that's worth quality and time, which your podcast clearly is, I make sure it's gonna be right and I go to the top of the hill, which is commonly known here as telephone hill, because the telephone company is at the top of the hill.

SPEAKER_02: 3:31

So you have good connection. Thank you for doing that.

unknown: 3:34

You bet.

SPEAKER_02: 3:36

What is the hardest part about apart from getting good Wi-Fi being uh off the grid? Or is there a hard part?

SPEAKER_00: 3:45

I think for me is explaining really to people uh what uh why I did it. Um and I'm that's still evolving because I think the the initial phase was I just didn't like how the world was going, and I didn't want to be showing up to a building for the next 20-some years. I figured this has to be more than this, and just kind of waiting for a retirement. So um my wife and I talked about this, and we had been in the teaching game about 10 years or so. I was in 12, she was in nine, and we said, Oh, we'll go do this. This is a great idea. We can always come back to teaching, we'll do it in about three years. And then we watched um a movie called Up. Oh, yeah, um great movie, and uh they didn't jump through their window of opportunity, and as you all know, it had a tragic ending, and he was by himself, and so we're like, we're going after this school year. So literally a cartoon pushed us out the door.

SPEAKER_02: 4:39

Oh my gosh, and balloons, and balloons, correct.

SPEAKER_00: 4:43

Can't forget balloons.

SPEAKER_03: 4:45

So, how does living off the grid does it change the way you think about time or priorities?

SPEAKER_00: 4:53

Oh, for sure. Um, time is an interesting uh function as I get older. So I live in a round structure called a yurt, and it not only there's no windows, um, I have a slight like uh canvas at the top where I can pull across and then there's a dome that opens. And so it's sort of like coming out of the womb every morning into the world. It is dark, and in the winter, you know, you have your fire going up. I have a um wood burning stove in the middle of the yurt. It's only 273 square feet, it's round, and so when you come out, it's like each day is literally a rebirth because you don't know what's going on outside. Um, you just can't look out the window. You literally have to like enter the world through a four-foot door and walk out. So it does mess with time, it messes with sound because it's a round structure. So something sounds like it's coming from over there. When you come out, it's actually over here. It's an interesting way to live. Um, and I don't know if I could live any other way now that I've done it for about you know a decade plus. Um, it's just I don't know. It is it's like a rebirth every day without becoming too you know dramatic about it. And uh it's not for everybody, clearly. Um, it's a hand-painted structure from Mongolia. Bought it off a guy who did his Peace Corps work in Mongolia and he shipped himself back some yurts, and my wife bid it on bid on one on eBay, and she's like, Oh, I won the bid. Now we gotta go get it. It's in San Diego. Yeah. And so yeah, we uh just we've been living in it since 2014.

SPEAKER_02: 6:31

That's a long time. Well, are there any what we would call modern conveniences that you miss?

SPEAKER_00: 6:39

Um, I mean, I don't have I'll just tell you kind of what I have. I don't have plumbing inside. So I I have a composting toilet, which basically means that when you look at my toilet, it looks like a normal toilet. It's got the toilet seat and the lid and all that. But when you open it, instead of a porcelain bowl with water in it, it's a five-gallon bucket with straw. And so I compost that um probably every five to six days. I have running water, but it's outside, it's a hydrant. Um and I do have internet. I did have internet for about the first five years, but then my neighbor, her modem, uh, there was a lightning strike near her place, and her modem fried, and so she got a new modem, and all of a sudden I could pick up her Wi-Fi. Uh, so I had there are benefits to that. I probably wouldn't be doing this if that never would have happened, but I do find myself online a lot because you read off my bio, and I always say I'm the busiest guy in the world, not making any money at this. So yeah, those are the things that I miss. I go see my folks in uh a few days back in Wisconsin and I'll have TV for a little bit and stuff like that. But no, I mean I we're busy, you know, keeping the place warm and there's chores and all that stuff, and you know, I'm trying to run a pickleball channel um and all that.

SPEAKER_02: 7:50

So tell us about your pickleball channel.

SPEAKER_00: 7:54

Yeah, you know, I it was weird. I had a guy, a friend of mine, who's a good friend of mine, and I still work with, and we did a lot of videography work in the early 2000s. We filmed uh everything from weddings to quincetas, you name it, we were there, and uh then he eventually kind of got into um a news channel, sort of like a Huffington Post, but for like light news where you kind of gather all these stories, and he wanted to drive traffic to it. And so, like any you know, man, I was like, Oh, I've been playing pickleball for like six weeks, I'll just start a channel because I know nothing, but I think I do. Um the uh four months later, I'm like, oh, this is bigger than your news channel. Um, I didn't really expect this. And then um uh Hollywood started uh came calling and offered me really to be an online narrator in a movie called Dreambreaker, a pickleball story. So I spent the next two years working with them, and I'm like, well, now I gotta keep this channel going because I'm sort of involved in a film. Um, and then you know, other things. A book came along, and I'm in the book, and I'm on other podcasts, and every time I'm like, Do I keep want to keep doing this? Something it's like the mafia, it just keeps pulling you back in. But it's it's a fun mafia at this point, and I've still enjoyed the community. So uh yeah, it's just ripple balls.

SPEAKER_02: 9:13

And is your channel called the Senior Pickleball Report?

SPEAKER_00: 9:17

Correct, yeah, yeah. So it's mainly 50 plus. I try to emphasize on, but I mainly do two things. Um, I do uh uh paddle, a product reviews, mainly paddles, and then like you, I interview people. I probably interviewed close to 200 folks over the last three and a half years, brilliant years, and uh to me that's my favorite part. Uh because that's where I've made all the connections, like you do, and you meet all the people and get all their stories, and um you get involved in some pretty cool organizations like I have to do that.

SPEAKER_02: 9:45

So definitely. So, what is VAR TV? That's V-A-I-R-T V. What's that?

SPEAKER_00: 9:52

Yeah, so uh the the short definition is it's a visual rating system, basically, and what the the idea behind it is instead of always inputting something into a rating system and your scores and seeing what happens, you can get visually rated through this system, and eventually it's going to be camera-based, where it's an AI camera looking at a set of skills, plugging it into an uh algorithm, and it will tell you what you are as far as a rating goes. So I imagine that's gonna happen over time. Right now, it's basically you can input scores, you can actually uh pay if you want a little extra, and have somebody who comes out and rates you based on these 40 skill sets, and then they put that into the algorithm and it spits out what you are. Um, so it's really trying to create a rating system that's more accurate because it has a bunch more variables than most do. So, you know, age, gender, was it an indoor event? What was the weather like? What kind of ball were you? I mean, you name it. They have adaptive wheelchair ratings. Um, you name it. So it's really kind of pulling all the information in and trying to get the best rating for somebody who um either wants to know where they stand or uh wants to see if what they've been told they stand is accurate.

SPEAKER_02: 11:09

Is it an app?

SPEAKER_00: 11:11

It is going to be an app. Right now, it's a website and um it's VAR.com, and you go there and there's a free account, and so you sign up there and you try it, and you can get like, for example, you can get eight of your friends together, do a round robin, and input the scores, and you can input them to like let's say a competitor, and then you can input it into VAR and you can kind of see the differences between the two, and if you feel it's more accurate, or if it's giving you more information. And then if you want to upgrade to um, I think it's called VARE Plus, it will give you a bunch of statistics about your matches and your games and your performance over a period of time as well. So it's really just trying to create something that's going to be better than the current uh systems and status quo, not to necessarily take over the world or anything like that, but to give people an option and to, you know, it's competition, so to improve everybody.

SPEAKER_03: 12:04

So right. I like the way it takes age into consideration. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:10

Yeah, I think that's a big deal, you know, running the senior football report. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. No doubt. I mean, to me, I don't know if I don't know. I think we're gonna find out. Is a 4.5 who's 20 years old is can they compete with a 4.5 who's 60 years old? And I know there's different skill sets, you know, in you know, game strategy and all that, but it'll be interesting to see as this takes time and it goes and it develops. Is I I can't imagine that we can get an accurate rating without the uh the most information that we could possibly put into it.

SPEAKER_02: 12:44

So good point. Good point. Yeah, who's behind it? How did those Mike Barker?

SPEAKER_00: 12:51

Um, I think he's a New Yorker, uh New York State. And uh he's a guy, he's like anybody else. He walked out there and played pickleball and got into the ratings, and he's like, I think I can do something better. So that's kind of who I interview. I interview a lot of entrepreneurs that are like, uh, this is either missing in the space or I think I can improve upon it. And I think that's the part I enjoy about it the most is the collab, it's whether they believe it or not, uh everybody's sort of still collaborating because we're still trying to improve not only you know the equipment and the courts, but the technology and all the uh things that kind of training devices, even the uh apparel um and the shoes that come along with this game. It's been around you know 60 years, but as you all know, it's consumed our lives over the last five most of us. And I think that's kind of the idea behind what I'm doing with PMA in my hat, um, the Pickleball Manufacturing Association, is really bringing all those folks together to keep the collaborations going and to get some folks who might not have a voice to be seen and heard because they may not have the money or the platform yet for their product or their idea. Um, and and that's really I just love the collective community of the game. That's really what's attracted me to it. I played sports my whole life, but I've never had anything remotely close to the community that pickleball has as far as um you know inactivity goes.

SPEAKER_02: 14:21

Pickleball Manufacturers Association. How did that get started? Did you start it?

SPEAKER_00: 14:27

No, actually, uh a guy who I reviewed his paddle, a guy named Kevin Perkins, who owns Crown Pickleball. He built all the infrastructure for it. He built the website, he he's got our directory started of members. And you know, I met with him um a few months back and he's like, Mike, I I'm just super busy. I got the infrastructure going. I have an actual job, I'm running crown pickleball. You live in a tent, you're not doing much, are you? So uh what do you think? I'm like, you're right, Kevin. And yes, I think it's a great idea. Plus, I have all these contacts. Yeah, I'm the guy interviewing all these people, I'm the person reviewing all these paddles. So I have, like all of us, you know, everybody in my phone's got pickleball as a last name.

unknown: 15:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:12

And I have I have the time uh more than Kevin does, and he was you know, had the insight and uh the time to build the infrastructure, which I couldn't have or wouldn't have done. Yeah, and so I think um I can take it from here and he can help me and support me in that way, but I'm happy to take it because he did all the heavy lifting just to get it to be something.

SPEAKER_03: 15:36

Is is it a website or how do people connect with it?

SPEAKER_00: 15:40

It is a website. Um and I'll link in a description, but it's I think it pick PMA manufacturers.com or something. I don't even remember. I type in it all the time, but it's just pickleball manufacturers association.

SPEAKER_03: 15:52

Yeah, you focus on the 50 plus pickleball community. Um, how why? Why is that part of the community important to you?

SPEAKER_00: 16:01

Uh, because I'm 50 plus. It's really the it's sort of why I got into it. I'm like, you know, when I when I told my buddy Rod I was gonna start a channel, I sort of looked out there, and by the way, there wasn't nearly the amount of people doing this kind of stuff four years ago. I mean, it was a very, very, very small community. And I was like, well, everybody's sort of doing similar things, nobody's really talking about seniors. Yeah, and so I'm like, well, I'm 50 plus, and that's senior as far as pickleball is concerned. So I I started that and I was like, well, and it works with my name, sleeves, senior pickleball report. And then I had it going for about a month and a half, if if that, and a gentleman named Rick Whitzkin, who is a senior pro, reached out and said, Hey, uh, love to be on your show. And he was kind enough to come on my show and he was my first interview, and they didn't even think about doing interviews. And so Rick is part of the National Pickleball League, which is a senior pro league, and he really got my interview game going. And he's been on the show a couple times and has really supported my work. And uh, but he's a guy now who's got a podcast, and so I'd love to support what he's doing because um you know he he kind of brought me into the fold, so I'd like to kind of keep supporting, and that's sort of what the idea behind PMA is like you know, collaborate if you share each other's posts, things like that, um, and and get people to uh to be seen by uh maybe not necessarily um just their audience, which might not be very big at them.

SPEAKER_02: 17:26

So are you are you as a 50 plus player, and then also now talking with people all over about it, are you noticing anything that you think is missing for the 50 plus players in pickleball that needs to be addressed?

SPEAKER_00: 17:43

I think really um for me it is from personal experience, and that is keeping people on the court. Um, what I've noticed, and my parents both play and they're both in their 80s. Nice, and um they're they're the outlier because they are in unbelievable shape, like ridiculous shape. Like, um, I'm never gonna see that money because I'm never gonna live as long as they are. They are like, I don't know if I know people their age that are that fit that aren't like doing ridiculous things like triathlons, but my mom and dad both walk and run and cycle and play pickleball three days a week. Um it's it's so but nobody warms up. Like, you know, even here I play with an older group. People just walk onto the court and hope for the best. And I learned the hard way. Um, I never had lower back issues until until I started playing this game. And it took me about three years to figure out what to do. Um, and a big part of it was duh, Mike, hey, why don't you warm up a couple minutes before you start going whacking wiffle balls around? So I think that's really what's sort of missing. And I I saw a really cool at PickleCon, some guy had a shirt, and I forget the organization, but he was all about warming up. It said, be weird warm up. Um so I do that all the time. Like I get there early, and it's like it's not like I'm up there 20 minutes doing stuff before I hit a ball, but like at least five to seven. I'm jogging, I'm doing some lunging, whatever it takes, loosening up the lower back before I'll go out and start you know hitting some dinks or anything like that. So I think that's what's really missing from the game because you hear all the time like, oh, it's the new CrossFit for you know orthopedic surgeons, everybody's getting hurt. Well, yeah, you're getting hurt because it's a game that's a lot of lateral movement that you never do in your life. Oh, and hey, you're not warming up. Right? That's what I see missing.

SPEAKER_03: 19:35

That's a good one. That is that is a good one. I'm gonna think about being an outlier.

SPEAKER_00: 19:41

Be weird, warm up.

SPEAKER_02: 19:42

Be weird, yeah. Be weird, warm up.

SPEAKER_00: 19:44

I mean, even if it's a massage gun or something, to at least get the blood flowing. Um, you know, there's a lot of companies out there that do things like that. Um, Yobo's one of them. And you know, just get the bone, get the blood moving a little bit.

SPEAKER_03: 19:57

So what do you think is your pa what do you think is your parents? Parent secret. I want to be like them.

SPEAKER_00: 20:03

Movement. Movement. They um there's not a lot of sitting around. You know, they'll watch some shows at night, but I'll give you an example. Here's a day. Um, and I'll be there in four days, so I'll be part of that day. Um they get up uh and they're either they're either walking, running, or cycling, depending on the day of the week, prior to pickleball, and pickleball starts at nine. So they're at least putting in, if they're riding bikes, they're putting in 12 to 25 miles. If they're walking and running, they're probably putting in four to five miles. And then they're going to play. My dad's eighty one. My mom will be 80 in June. Oh. Um, my mom comes home and she does ab work for about 45 minutes while she's watching Young and the Restless. My dad um will then go to a gym and do some weights, um, while my mom's generally doing stuff like that. And uh, yeah, that's kind of the the the the gig. And when I get there, you know, um I sort of look at my one ab and go, okay, maybe less beer. Because my sister is super fit and she lives there, and my brother-in-law is super fit and he lives there. So like I get there and I think I'm sort of in shape, and then I'm like, I'm really not in that great shape at all. And my, you know, and then I always ask, like, how long do you people want to live?

SPEAKER_03: 21:23

That's incredible though. Wow, because I yeah, it's incredible.

SPEAKER_00: 21:28

I just don't know if I have the demeanor to do that. Like, I don't I'm running a pickleball channel, Shelly. I don't have time for this.

SPEAKER_02: 21:35

That's right. That's right. You can't be running and doing your show at the same time for it.

SPEAKER_00: 21:41

I'm running a three dollar organization that's you know.

SPEAKER_02: 21:46

So, what was your role in Dreambreaker, the documentary about pickleball?

SPEAKER_00: 21:51

Yeah, I was basically, I guess the best way I can describe it, um, I was the on-screen narrator. So about every 10 to 15 minutes, I would be on screen explaining what the heck's going on because there was all these talking. It was about the tour wars in the professional game. So it was this battle of billionaires and acronyms, you know, the PPA versus MLP and da-da-da-da-da, and the APP. And so I would explain to people, I would sum up what's happening. And so there was all these people, you know, that were players or sponsors or owners or the founders, and they all had, you know, all these terms. And then they would come up to me, and my buddy who was in film said, Mike, you're the ginger. So they'll go away from all the talking heads, and then they'll come out to the yurt, and there you are, chopping wood, explaining what the heck's going on. So that was my job in the film.

SPEAKER_02: 22:43

How fun, how fun. And we have Scott Manthorn as our guest, and he's the one who introduced us to you, and you go by sleeves. We think that is so cool. Um, and he wrote the book, The Pickleball Effect, and you're in that book. And yeah, pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00: 23:02

Yeah, very cool. And I'm what I'm doing for Scott is I'm interviewing all the authors, the people that are the stories that are in the book over the next two years. So I will so they'll get a little sort of thumbnail sketch before they read the book if they want to check out a video of about a five to ten minute interview with those folks.

SPEAKER_02: 23:19

So very nice. And we're doing it the other way around. We have interviewed 92 people that are now their stories, are synopsis in our book called Life Lessons from Pickleball. So it's a little synopsis about each one, and then their life lesson. And Shelly uses the book every day. She opens it up and she uses whatever life lesson she opens up to, and that's her life lesson for the day, which I think is very cool.

SPEAKER_00: 23:45

Yes. I I love that.

SPEAKER_01: 23:48

That's great.

SPEAKER_02: 23:49

Yeah. So what's what's the future for you? I mean, you've got your hands in so many different things.

SPEAKER_00: 23:57

Yeah. Um, one of them should make money sometime. I mean, I made my economic choices a long time ago. You know, I'd given up my job and living out here in the middle of nowhere where there's not a lot of um opportunity. Um, and so I think it's I'm still having fun. So whatever I kind of toward I gravitate towards as these things develop, um, yeah, because like you mentioned earlier, I've kind of got my hands in the college game, the senior game, um, all these brands and manufacturers game. Um, and so I I sort of like the variety of that. I I find what I'm actually becoming ultimately is sort of a networking hub. Because I do know all these people and I've interviewed like you, all these people, and I can connect them, which is great. Um, and so um, you know, some sometime I might get in there's organizations I can work for where I can get commissions for doing that. So maybe that's a way I can make some income to support what I'm doing. Um, but at this point, I don't know. I I I hope um it's still fun. And I'm I'm I'm very I've been very good in my life at um sort of creating really good boundaries for myself so I'm not overwhelmed. And so if it becomes to appoint, I just cut back on what what's you know what's what's not needed in my life because I moved out here for a reason, and that is um to sort of get out of the rat race. And one of my good friends uh who's in pickleball and who owns a team said to me, Careful, Mike, you're getting pulled back in.

SPEAKER_02: 25:25

Yes, indeed.

SPEAKER_00: 25:27

He's right. So we'll see. But so far, so good. It's been a lot of fun, and I think because we're sort of still in the Wild West version of this.

SPEAKER_01: 25:34

Yeah, it I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 25:36

We don't know what we how who knows what this is gonna become. It's I think it's still really in the early stages and it hasn't really exploded internationally. So oh my gosh, you can imagine in five years what this is, right?

SPEAKER_02: 25:47

Actually, it is exploding internationally, but at least it's but it isn't it just starting though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the last couple of years, right? Yeah, and it's amazing what's happening all overseas. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_03: 26:02

Where do you see senior pickleball filling it fitting into the future of the game? That's what I'm so curious about.

SPEAKER_00: 26:07

Well, yeah, I think senior pickleball is the foundation of this game, and I think what's amazing about that is most seniors, even those that are um in business and trying to make a living or um trying to create stuff, it's sort of like icing on the cake because a lot of us have made our impact on the world, and this is sort of bonus time and fun. And anything we can contribute from this point forward, I think is great. And so, and I always look at the difference in the good example of this is I interview a lot of senior pros. Um, and I've interviewed a few um open pros, youngsters. Um, and the difference being that it's sort of a rebirth for the seniors, um, they get to try an activity that they can still improve upon. Um, and anything they gain from that at this point is is great because they've done it and they have a lot of wisdom on how to sort of get keep it going and um and sort of um avoid sort of some of the pitfalls because they've lived a life. Um, and so I think the seniors are sort of the elder statespeople of the game and can be relied upon for um some insight and wisdom and um mentorship. So I think they play a huge role as the game moves forward.

SPEAKER_02: 27:27

I like that answer. Being a moon, it works out, right? Yeah, indeed, indeed. So, with all of your adventures on and off the court, in your yurt online, with all your businesses, uh, what are some life lessons that you've gleaned?

SPEAKER_00: 27:48

Yeah, I think the biggest one is really I left my job and the city I lived in, Phoenix, um, probably without even knowing this, but sort of um I shared a house with my parents. So my wife and I got married in '94. We moved out to the southwest with my folks in '95. Um, and we lived with them for 16 years and shared a home.

SPEAKER_01: 28:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 28:13

And without knowing it, we had a community there, which a lot of people didn't have in their lives. Um because, you know, as this country's developed, a lot of families, you know, you're kind of like, oh, move out on your own and get your own thing going. And whereas families used to live together, um, you know, 50, 60, 70 years ago and prior to that. And so when I would tell people that we lived with my folks, they're like, well, how does that work? And I go, well, for us, it works really well. My folks were retiring, we were teaching, we split costs, blah, blah, blah. A lot of the heavy lifting. And so when we left that, we wanted community as well, and we found an intentional community, which I live in. I share a property, my wife and I, with 13 other people on about 20 acres. We all have our own spaces, but we all have collective spaces as well. We have our own incomes, but we do things collectively as well. Um, and so to find an activity to pile on top of that in those experiences, I think I've the life lesson I've learned is that community is incredibly important, not only in my life for being having a human community, but living where I live up against the Gila National Forest, I have a very vibrant non-human community as well. Plants and animals, mountains, rivers. And I think if you live in a city long enough, some of those things are missing and you don't even realize it. And so it's it, I've really had an opportunity to have a multifaceted experience as far as community. Um, where I live, the past I've had living with my folks as long as I did with my wife. And now the sport that I play all the time and love has the best community that I've ever been in is for an activity. I played beach volleyball for 25 years, and that's not a good community. Um, but this is this community, this community is out of hand. I can't, I still have to pinch myself like, how is this possible? Like, is this am I making this up in my head? Because it seems almost too good to be true. Um I mean, really, it's a whipple ball game. What is happening?

SPEAKER_02: 30:21

A silly little game.

SPEAKER_00: 30:22

Seriously, what is happening? And so, like, I don't know, but I'm riding it out. I love it.

SPEAKER_02: 30:28

Yeah, you're writing it out. Oh gosh. Well, sleeves, so how can what's the best way for people to find you?

SPEAKER_00: 30:36

Yeah, so if you go on any of my um socials, generally Instagram is a good way to contact me at senior pickleball report, and you can you know direct message me. Uh Mikey JohnSleva at uh gmail if you want to get uh my email in there. Um and then you can Google me, obviously, and find uh the senior pickleball report. There's a there's multifaceted ways to to get a hold of me. I'm I'm pretty accessible when I have a connection.

SPEAKER_02: 31:01

Yeah. When you're at the top of the hill.

unknown: 31:04

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 31:06

Oh well, thank you. Thank you so much for driving to the top of the hill so that we could do this show and for all you're doing. Oh my gosh, you are so invested personally and time and heart in the pickleball world, and we are all beneficiaries of that. Really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00: 31:26

Well, thank you. And hey, I love the the pod is great. I mean, you two have a really good connection, and this is uh this is fun. I think it's always fun to have sort of podcasts that have co-hosts, you know. And I started doing Bear TV. Mikkel Moore is my my co-host, and it's so fun to just bounce things off each other, and so um it's fun to be part of that, and uh it's cool to be the guest on one of those.

SPEAKER_02: 31:50

So well, we're do we had so much fun. Thank you very much, and thank you all. Oh my gosh, thank you all for tuning in today. Thank you for all the subscriptions, likes, comments. We really appreciate all your support. And go to Senior Pickleball Report and watch that podcast too. Man, so fun. And we look forward to a new conversation next week. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_03: 32:14

Bye. If 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_02: 32:28

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.