1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,440 Hey hey, this is Shaun with the award-winning GoTennis! Podcast powered by Signature Tennis. 2 00:00:10,440 --> 00:00:15,280 Check us out at LetsGoTennis.com and we invite you to learn more about the award by following 3 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:17,080 the link in the show notes. 4 00:00:17,080 --> 00:00:20,560 And as you're listening to this, please look in your podcast app where to leave a review 5 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:22,200 and do that for us. 6 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:24,920 We would love to earn your five star reviews. 7 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:28,880 And now let's get into our recent conversation with Dr. Rommie Maxey. 8 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:34,160 Dr. Maxey has recently joined the National Board of the American Racket Sports Association. 9 00:00:34,160 --> 00:00:37,800 He's trained almost 1500 players around the world. 10 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:43,600 He's owned some clubs, a professional pickleball team, and has taken the time to talk to us about 11 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:46,320 the pickleball industry and where it's going. 12 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:50,840 Have a listen and let us know what you think. 13 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:54,840 Who are you and why do we care? 14 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:59,160 I wanted to know what I was to. 15 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:04,820 Just being a former collegiate and professional athlete moving forward to being an athletic 16 00:01:04,820 --> 00:01:09,320 director for 20 years, and then at some point pickleball found me. 17 00:01:09,320 --> 00:01:15,960 And from that point on, it's been entrepreneurship with pickleball, a co-owner of the Houston 18 00:01:15,960 --> 00:01:20,760 Hammers, which is a professional team here in Houston associated with the senior pro circuit. 19 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:25,840 I've done a number of things. 20 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:27,000 Obviously, I am an influencer in the sport of pickleball. 21 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:28,600 I found that out from my grandson. 22 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:32,320 I had to ask him what an influencer was. 23 00:01:32,320 --> 00:01:35,240 But a lot of following him and enjoy the game. 24 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:39,400 I'm speaking at five conventions this year, national conventions. 25 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:46,360 Talking about a variety of things, some sponsorships to branding, to the VAIR rating system, to 26 00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:47,360 a variety of things. 27 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:52,400 It was the future of pickleball, all those kinds of things that people want to know. 28 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:55,200 It's just a fantastic and growing sport. 29 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:57,040 I became very involved as a player. 30 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:03,880 It's lucky enough to be a six-time national and silver champion, which allowed me to start 31 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:04,880 training people. 32 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:07,280 They wanted to know what are you doing. 33 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:13,680 So that turned into 14,000 players now that I've trained and five national champions. 34 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:21,160 So the training aspect gives me the opportunity now to Costa Rica, to Punta Cana. 35 00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:26,440 I've been going to Vietnam at the end of the next month. 36 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:27,440 Then to Turks and Caicos. 37 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:33,680 I've been to Jamaica doing various clinics and giving people the opportunity to share their 38 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:38,480 love for pickleball on excursions and things of that nature as well. 39 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:46,560 So that's kind of me and an entrepreneurial ship of pickleball, also own three indoor clubs. 40 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:49,320 I get to sleep occasionally. 41 00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:51,120 I like the reminder. 42 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:54,400 I'm doing a lot, especially at this point in my career. 43 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:56,280 Now, a quick question. 44 00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:57,360 You own some clubs. 45 00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:01,600 You said the hammers, the Houston hammers, that speaks to me. 46 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:06,120 We had a name for our Alta team, which Bobby, if that says anything to you, our double 47 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:09,480 A2 Alta team had a name, we called ourselves the hammers. 48 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:14,120 So we will let that speak for itself, whatever that says. 49 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:18,360 So we can connect there and absolutely want to learn more about it. 50 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:22,920 It's almost impossible in the time frame that we have to go through everything that you've 51 00:03:22,920 --> 00:03:25,320 done and everything that you've created. 52 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:32,360 I would love to remind everybody or introduce you as the most recent addition to our national 53 00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:39,280 board for the American Racket Sports Association, because Dr. Maxey has agreed to help promote 54 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:45,320 what we're doing in the sport of pickleball as an expert in that world, because Bobby and 55 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:48,200 I come out of kind of purest tennis world. 56 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:50,280 We understand that perspective. 57 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:53,920 And pickleball has an entirely different view of the world. 58 00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:56,240 Would you put it that way? 59 00:03:56,240 --> 00:03:59,200 I mean, I think this works hand in hand. 60 00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:04,080 There's a lot of tennis players that get to a point in their tennis lives that maybe they 61 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:09,120 want to convert over to pickleball, whether it be age restrictions and things that makes 62 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:12,200 it maybe a little easier and a little less court to cover. 63 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:15,080 I'm a former tennis player as well. 64 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:18,200 So pickleball comes and becomes a pretty good transition. 65 00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:22,840 Of course, at this point now, pickleball is youth. 66 00:04:22,840 --> 00:04:26,000 I mean, the average age is 34 years of age. 67 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:31,160 So the age just keeps coming down increasingly every year because of some of the young people 68 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:33,280 playing the game now. 69 00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:38,040 You notice that in Cincinnati, I went on a trip with my family to meet our newly born 70 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:44,120 granddaughter and we ended up at a three different pickleball facilities in the area and the public 71 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:45,120 park. 72 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:46,440 It was fascinating to see. 73 00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:47,920 It was all 20-somethings. 74 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:48,920 That's all it was. 75 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:49,920 It was packed with 20-somethings. 76 00:04:49,920 --> 00:04:54,200 And Bobby, you got a similar perspective at your club as to who you see on your pickleball 77 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:55,200 courts? 78 00:04:55,200 --> 00:04:56,200 It was the big surprise. 79 00:04:56,200 --> 00:05:01,520 It wasn't the seniors or the older folks where it really resonated with the high school kids. 80 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:03,200 I always equated. 81 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:09,040 We played all the short kids who couldn't play basketball in a higher level, but still 82 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:10,040 love basketball. 83 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:11,040 We go wrong. 84 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:12,680 And these kids are out there. 85 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:14,880 This is their competitive outlet. 86 00:05:14,880 --> 00:05:17,880 And really, that's who really graphed on that. 87 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:22,480 I don't think anybody really knew the dimensions of what it was going to happen there. 88 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:24,880 It's chaos, but it's fun. 89 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:25,880 Yeah. 90 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:32,480 Well, and the expansion now, of course, globally, just going to Vietnam, I think I mentioned, 91 00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:36,920 but Vietnam and Malaysia and the Philippines are just, it's just massive. 92 00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:43,760 I mean, literally tournaments, not every weekend, every day, they're having tournaments in those 93 00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:49,520 countries and just to see the growth is just beyond everybody's imagination of what could 94 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:51,240 happen, I think. 95 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:57,600 And I think that's just an testament to people wanting to get activity and movement and doing 96 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:02,680 things that like you said, Bobby, maybe they can't play basketball, maybe they can't hit 97 00:06:02,680 --> 00:06:06,560 a curveball, you know, in baseball, maybe they can't do other things, but if they have some 98 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:10,520 hand-eye coordination, it can still move, you know, and do some things that can have fun 99 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:12,480 on the pickleball court. 100 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:16,080 So I got to put in this, you know, I don't want to come off wrong here, but how did they 101 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:21,200 play in Vietnam and is the game different just because I would think their orientation 102 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:25,160 is coming more out of badminton and ping pong. 103 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:30,560 So I would find it think it'd be a much more risky sport, which could make the ball go a lot 104 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:31,560 faster. 105 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:36,640 Well, you know, that's really a good question because when I'm teaching, you know, the number 106 00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:40,800 of people that I mentioned earlier that I've taught, one of the things that I tell folks 107 00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:46,440 is tennis is a good lead-in sport because you have the baseline skills, but the game of 108 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:51,680 the pickleball becomes a more condensed portion when they get up to the kitchen line that people 109 00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:57,760 understand what I'm talking about and the dinking portion of it and then the complexities 110 00:06:57,760 --> 00:07:02,320 of the angles and all of those kinds of things in a closer proximity. 111 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:06,000 And I always say, if you've got a ping pong background, once you get to the kitchen, you 112 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:08,560 better start using your ping pong skills. 113 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:15,000 And because I think that's a really good lead-in to pickleball rather than, you're not going 114 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:18,600 to get away with playing baseline skills and pickleball. 115 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:22,160 Sooner or later, you know, it's going to catch up to you and you won't be the player if 116 00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:23,160 you want to be. 117 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:26,200 You have to learn all the new answers of the game. 118 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:29,320 As a follow-up to Bobby's question, I want to ask, and this wasn't one of the things I 119 00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:34,280 was expecting to ask, but can you describe what is the industry like? 120 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:36,320 I don't know how much experience you said. 121 00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:40,280 You said you're going to that area, but I don't know how much you know about it already 122 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:42,480 or if you've been multiple times before. 123 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:46,600 I know we have another board member, Chris Harradine, that has Benny just got back. 124 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:48,760 He's in trains, coaches there. 125 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:50,520 But is the industry different? 126 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:55,520 Is it just the same thing there, just with their people, is it here, the country clubs and 127 00:07:55,520 --> 00:07:58,400 the facilities and the public areas? 128 00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:00,560 And what does pickleball look like there? 129 00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:02,520 Is it that different or is it the same? 130 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:09,720 Not as much as the public side of it, but the clubs are growing and the private sources 131 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:11,480 and things of that nature. 132 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:16,360 It's just the massiveness of the people. 133 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:24,800 And I call the European country, China and all the Asian countries have always been paddle 134 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:26,800 sports, badminton. 135 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:33,880 I mean, there's 250 million badminton players in China. 136 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:36,280 Can you fathom that? 137 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:42,560 I can't even, that doesn't compute, but 250 million badminton players in China. 138 00:08:42,560 --> 00:08:47,400 My point is, that's always been that type of sport. 139 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:48,400 That's what they play. 140 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:49,400 They're good at it. 141 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:56,120 And so the growth of pickleball, the explosion has just led those people that played badminton 142 00:08:56,120 --> 00:09:00,760 or private played, maybe even played a little padel or have now transformed and gone 143 00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:06,600 in the pickleball and it's just massive growth. 144 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:11,280 And it's fun to see in general because tennis is established. 145 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:14,160 It's like the giant business that's been there forever. 146 00:09:14,160 --> 00:09:16,640 You see that slow moving machine. 147 00:09:16,640 --> 00:09:22,240 And I've said recently that it's difficult to make change. 148 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:27,680 It's very tough to move that big of a ship and to take the traditions that are there. 149 00:09:27,680 --> 00:09:30,320 You have country club traditions, which are hard to change. 150 00:09:30,320 --> 00:09:33,640 And then you have the sport itself of tennis that's hard to change. 151 00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:37,960 So are we really surprised that tennis is a little bit stuck and fighting back and we 152 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:41,520 say tennis as though it's a thing that has its own mindset. 153 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:46,680 But pickleball, if we picture it as its own thing, doesn't even know what it is yet. 154 00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:49,640 It's basically a nine year old. 155 00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:50,640 Facts. 156 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:56,400 That, you know, but all the country clubs are now realizing that rather than, you know, 157 00:09:56,400 --> 00:09:58,120 at first it was like this, right? 158 00:09:58,120 --> 00:09:59,880 Everybody was tennis player. 159 00:09:59,880 --> 00:10:06,240 No, but now all the country clubs are going, well, we're not really smart if we don't join 160 00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:08,000 hands at least. 161 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:14,800 And so if they've got 20 tennis courts and there's four to six of them that are not being 162 00:10:14,800 --> 00:10:19,940 used on a regular basis, they're turning them into pickleball courts and creating that 163 00:10:19,940 --> 00:10:23,280 environment where we're working together. 164 00:10:23,280 --> 00:10:26,960 And it's, you know, I mean, it's all about monetization as far as air concern. 165 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:29,360 Any country clubs wants to have the. 166 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:33,240 And so when you have the tennis people starting to come to him and go, hey, we'd like to 167 00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:35,400 play pickleball as well. 168 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:36,400 Okay. 169 00:10:36,400 --> 00:10:42,680 We'll turn courts 16 through 20 and the pickleball courts is just a smart one. 170 00:10:42,680 --> 00:10:43,680 Agreed. 171 00:10:43,680 --> 00:10:47,840 And Bobby, I know you want to ask your question because Bobby did his club, I say recently, 172 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:53,200 it still feels recently you converted some tennis courts into pickleball and now is the 173 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:55,120 monetization question, right, Bobby? 174 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:56,120 Yeah. 175 00:10:56,120 --> 00:11:00,240 And that's, it seems like from the industry standpoint, absolutely what you're saying, 176 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:02,200 do the clubs need it? 177 00:11:02,200 --> 00:11:03,200 Yes. 178 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:08,200 You know, is it leading to new members not sure helping member retention? 179 00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:13,680 Absolutely not translating on the coaching side yet. 180 00:11:13,680 --> 00:11:18,480 And do you think that's just because we haven't, like you said, the average or median age is 181 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:19,680 34. 182 00:11:19,680 --> 00:11:21,960 So everybody came in with a little bit of knowledge. 183 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:26,720 We're not growing yet, even though the more it gets established and the more it becomes 184 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:29,360 a mainstream sport, I think you'll start to see that. 185 00:11:29,360 --> 00:11:34,600 Obviously the kids will see it and start going into it and that will bring in the lesson 186 00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:35,600 revenue. 187 00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:36,760 But is that where we're at right now? 188 00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:38,360 Would you say that's a fair assessment? 189 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:39,360 I do. 190 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:43,600 I mean, I think, you know, it's up to the country clubs though to realize that need to start 191 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:48,240 their junior programs in pickleball, just like they do their junior programs in tennis. 192 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:53,600 In other words, make it available, make those youth programs available and let the kids 193 00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:57,120 choose if they want to play pickleball or they want to play tennis of that matter because 194 00:11:57,120 --> 00:11:59,720 the parents are already members of the club, right? 195 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:04,800 So then they've got all these children and some of them push them towards the youth tennis 196 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:07,320 because that's the only thing that was available at the time. 197 00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:11,760 But now if they have pickleball as well, there could be, you know, a shared responsibilities 198 00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:18,760 and then the monetization that they will come from that growth from the youth up. 199 00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:19,760 Are you really? 200 00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:24,840 Sorry, the Academy side looking at that, you just spoke of your demographic. 201 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:28,320 You didn't say it specifically this time, but we don't mind saying it. 202 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:32,680 Your demographic is a shorter than average demographic at your club. 203 00:12:32,680 --> 00:12:34,640 So they're not going to play basketball, even though they all do. 204 00:12:34,640 --> 00:12:35,640 Don't get me wrong. 205 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:37,160 They're all down there on the basketball court. 206 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:41,680 But should this not be the, okay, should my kid, he wants to go to vision one, 207 00:12:41,680 --> 00:12:46,520 and play tennis and you're like, your kid's going to be five, three, five, four, maybe pickleball 208 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:47,960 is the way to go. 209 00:12:47,960 --> 00:12:54,480 This could easily be the, I don't know, call it the plan B for those that need that college 210 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:56,480 resume option. 211 00:12:56,480 --> 00:13:00,640 I don't know that it really works in the same way, but it could easily build a junior development 212 00:13:00,640 --> 00:13:03,480 program at a club. 213 00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:04,480 That's what I'm curious about. 214 00:13:04,480 --> 00:13:07,040 You're outside of Houston, Dr. Maxey. 215 00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:08,800 Yes, I'm out of Houston. 216 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:16,560 So, would you say your club is that's what's running the programming there is opposed to, 217 00:13:16,560 --> 00:13:18,480 we're very HOA driven. 218 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:24,080 All of our neighborhoods have tennis courts and from that we developed out to, and now, as 219 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:28,720 you said, the bigger neighborhoods are throwing in either permanent, you know, turning a couple 220 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:33,200 tennis courts into pickleball courts or they have the lines down in temporary nets so 221 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:37,320 you can use the tennis courts for pickleball as well. 222 00:13:37,320 --> 00:13:41,760 And if you, you know, and that's the interesting and difficult dynamic about Atlanta, we're 223 00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:45,840 spread out thing if somebody in the long lines we're saying, if somebody was to sit there 224 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:50,120 and say a dedicated pickleball program, it can't be at every neighborhood. 225 00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:51,120 And that's the problem. 226 00:13:51,120 --> 00:13:57,840 We're limited because everybody has capacity issues, everybody has scalability issues, but 227 00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:02,600 I think, you know, in Atlanta, at least, we all need to get together and say, okay, there's 228 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:09,280 five facilities. This is where we should concentrate on developing pickleball players. 229 00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:11,280 And you know, if it goes into tennis, great. 230 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:15,680 The hard part is it's so against the culture here because the parents are so used to having 231 00:14:15,680 --> 00:14:17,560 tennis at their fingertips. 232 00:14:17,560 --> 00:14:19,920 They will drive a little further for their kids. 233 00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:20,920 They won't drive for themselves. 234 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:23,280 They'll put up with anything in their own neighborhood. 235 00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:27,480 They will drive a little bit for their kids, but we always joke, you know, get your circumference 236 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:29,640 out and make a circle eight miles. 237 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:32,080 That's about as far as anybody's going in Atlanta. 238 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:34,040 So it makes it challenging. 239 00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:39,520 And I think the club background has a better chance, you know, getting the head start. 240 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:40,520 Let's put that with them. 241 00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:41,520 We do here. 242 00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:46,440 Well, and I don't know what Atlanta has done by the shirts pretty similar. 243 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:54,160 Houston in the last four years has gone from one indoor pickleball facility dedicated 244 00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:59,880 to the strictly pickleball to relieve the nation now with 42 in four years. 245 00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:07,800 So we have 42 indoor complexes with anything from four to 20 indoor courts in these indoor 246 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:11,960 complexes air conditioning because we're obviously eight months out of the year. 247 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:14,640 You don't want to play outside if you can help it. 248 00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:16,440 Now, I've been good up to this point. 249 00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:20,000 I've said the most god awful climate on earth is Houston, Texas. 250 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:22,000 So yeah, we know it. 251 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:24,000 Atlanta is not far off at times. 252 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:25,920 So we don't have your humidity. 253 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:26,920 I lived in Texas. 254 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:30,120 It's nothing like Houston. 255 00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:38,720 But yeah, so we've gone to 42 indoor complexes and they're all most of them are doing fine. 256 00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:42,440 And again, it's just the growth people want to play indoors. 257 00:15:42,440 --> 00:15:43,600 I'll be honest with you. 258 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:50,520 I've played in Utah myself in a tournament a while back. 259 00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:53,960 I've played 98% of my play now indoors. 260 00:15:53,960 --> 00:15:56,680 I mean, why would I go outdoors? 261 00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:59,240 If it's, you know, it is a pickleball. 262 00:15:59,240 --> 00:16:01,360 Number one, it's a whiffle ball. 263 00:16:01,360 --> 00:16:03,480 So wind affects it. 264 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:06,800 So it's, you know, 15 mile an hour wind. 265 00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:10,480 It's not a lot of fun, you know, because the ball is doing different things. 266 00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:14,080 If it's hot as heck, you know, it's not a lot of fun. 267 00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:16,640 If it's raining, obviously you can't play. 268 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:21,920 You know, so the variety of things that are there is just driving pickleball because of 269 00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:26,080 the smaller court and you can put more courts into a particular facility. 270 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:30,160 It's just driving the game indoors for the most part for most people. 271 00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:32,080 And it's been good. 272 00:16:32,080 --> 00:16:37,400 I mean, it's kind of fun to be able to go and get your court and play indoors and play 273 00:16:37,400 --> 00:16:38,640 for a couple of three hours. 274 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:41,520 And then you can leave and call it a day if that's what they want to do. 275 00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:46,520 But that's the course of pickleball right now, I think. 276 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:51,000 But the country clubs are all beginning to share courts now. 277 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:55,360 I mean, it's their understanding that we need to share. 278 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:58,960 I mean, I need to attend us and pick a ball. 279 00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:00,560 And this needs to be a shared cooperative. 280 00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:06,560 And I think that's what we're seeing around the country and at least in the United States. 281 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:11,360 So Dr. Maxey, your uniqueness is obvious, which is one of our, kind of our next questions, 282 00:17:11,360 --> 00:17:12,640 is why are you unique? 283 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:17,560 And it sounds like where you've come from, how far you've gone and everything that you've 284 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:19,760 accomplished sounds amazing. 285 00:17:19,760 --> 00:17:22,880 And actually finding information on you online is not that easy. 286 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:28,280 I know there's a list of accomplishments, but it's not like anyone has explained everything 287 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:29,280 that you've done. 288 00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:30,280 Maybe it's just not possible. 289 00:17:30,280 --> 00:17:31,280 There's too much. 290 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:34,600 But is there anything that you can tell us from an industry perspective? 291 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:36,080 We talk a lot of tennis. 292 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:42,440 We talk a lot of technology, business owners, but we don't get a lot of just pickleball 293 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:44,920 where here's the industry. 294 00:17:44,920 --> 00:17:48,320 We could probably have a little bit of how to be a better coach. 295 00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:49,920 How do you take the convert? 296 00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:55,160 Because we have some that have left tennis completely been one of us for thousands of years. 297 00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:56,640 And all of a sudden said, pickleball is great. 298 00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:57,640 I'm in. 299 00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:02,800 You know, Frank Solana, Jim Carella, the guys that have just really made the switch and do 300 00:18:02,800 --> 00:18:03,800 that mostly. 301 00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:07,400 But what are you seeing in the industry? 302 00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:14,160 I know we talked about having the question that pickleball just received $225 million. 303 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:15,520 But where does that money go? 304 00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:16,520 How does that work? 305 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:19,400 What's actually happening in the pickleball world? 306 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:25,240 The $225 million was an influx of money to the PPA, which is the professional pickleball 307 00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:31,600 association or the UPA, which is the umbrella organization for professional pickleball in 308 00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:32,600 that regard. 309 00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:37,400 And just to sustain what they're trying to accomplish on the professional tour. 310 00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:43,840 I mean, you now have several players on the pickleball tour that are making multiples 311 00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:49,200 of millions of dollars playing pickleball now, which is a few years ago is unheard. 312 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:51,920 A lot of people didn't even know what pickleball was. 313 00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:58,200 And now you have athletes making a good number of athletes that are making good living, 314 00:18:58,200 --> 00:19:00,440 displaying pickleball on the pro tours. 315 00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:05,040 And there's two particular pro tours, the PPA and the APP. 316 00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:10,240 Those are the two association pickleball players that are out there. 317 00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:14,440 PPA is considered probably the top more top tier players. 318 00:19:14,440 --> 00:19:18,960 And the APP is maybe a little less, but still fantastic players. 319 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:24,560 Many of them have converted from tennis, you know, Jack Sock and of course, Andre Agassi 320 00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:29,280 is just, he's taken pickleball under his wing all in now. 321 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:34,080 He's doing pickleball slams and he played the number one female player in the world. 322 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:37,200 And all these waters here, well, back for a million dollars. 323 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:40,480 I mean, you know, that's just blowing up the sport. 324 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:44,760 So to try to, you know, in a roundabout way, answer your question. 325 00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:50,680 That money is just an influx of money to continue the progress of the professional ranks of pickle 326 00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:53,720 ball and support the teams and stuff. 327 00:19:53,720 --> 00:20:00,480 A team to purchase in MLP, which is Major League pickleball, which is another segment under 328 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:08,480 the umbrella of the UPA is, it costs 16 million dollars to buy a team now. 329 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:11,240 To buy a team for the Major League pickleball. 330 00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:17,480 Much like if you were going to buy a WNBA team or something, they're not on the NBA or MLB, 331 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:21,440 you know, Major League baseball or basketball, not on that level yet. 332 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:28,240 But to buy, you know, a soccer team or by a professional women's basketball team, that's 333 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:29,840 beginning to be that level. 334 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:36,120 It costs, you know, around 15 to 16 million dollars to purchase a team to be in that league. 335 00:20:36,120 --> 00:20:37,120 That's significant. 336 00:20:37,120 --> 00:20:40,280 Bobby, Bobby, we're saving up our money. 337 00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:41,280 That's 80 each. 338 00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:42,280 We can pull that off. 339 00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:43,600 Who are we buying that from? 340 00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:46,080 Like, who owns the team to sell it? 341 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:47,080 What does that look like? 342 00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:48,080 The PPA. 343 00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:50,880 That's the professional pickleball organization. 344 00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:55,520 That's the MLP Major League pickleball or the teams. 345 00:20:55,520 --> 00:21:01,160 So as the team concept, the PPA is the tournament concept where you go to the tournaments and 346 00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:02,640 all that, that kind of thing. 347 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:08,080 But the MLP is strictly team concept so that you own a team of professional players. 348 00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:12,200 It's some of the same players obviously that are playing on the tournament circuit and 349 00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:14,160 the ones that are playing on the MLP as well. 350 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:21,960 But I mean, they're building home complexes where they have training facilities and trainers 351 00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:23,960 and their Major League teams. 352 00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:29,440 I mean, they're being treated like Major League players that they are. 353 00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:33,560 We just spoke with the trainer of the bouncers here in Atlanta. 354 00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:39,040 The guy with the name of Brian Lee, they have a physical trainer that works with the team. 355 00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:43,240 And Bobby, did you know we had a professional pickleball team in the area? 356 00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:44,560 We should know this. 357 00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:45,560 We should know this. 358 00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:47,240 But I did not know this. 359 00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:50,240 And they're paid handsomely. 360 00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:57,280 Well, if they're bringing in that kind of revenue by existing and by doing what they 361 00:21:57,280 --> 00:21:58,280 do. 362 00:21:58,280 --> 00:22:02,800 Then yeah, hopefully the money's there and it's not just subsidized by big investors. 363 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:06,600 At some point, Bobby's going to run through the business conversation on that one, right? 364 00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:07,640 Yeah, you just hit it. 365 00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:11,880 I mean, and that's, you always want to be careful that don't make the mistakes that other 366 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:13,120 sports have made. 367 00:22:13,120 --> 00:22:17,560 You know, is this really because the quickest way to make money in professional sports 368 00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:18,840 is to franchise. 369 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:23,400 So when you come up with a random number and say, okay, this team is worth $16 million, 370 00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:25,680 well, who benefits from that? 371 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:27,480 So obviously we love expansion. 372 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:29,320 It's the quickest way to raise your revenue. 373 00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:31,000 So you've got to be careful. 374 00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:36,280 Yeah, professional, the tennis store has the issues, monetarily with the smaller tournaments. 375 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:39,000 Are these tournaments truly making money? 376 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:40,000 Where? 377 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:41,000 What is it? 378 00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:43,920 Because it's still not mainstream television yet. 379 00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:48,720 I can't imagine, you know, your rights fees are not anywhere near what a right fee is 380 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:52,120 going to be for the US Open or Wimbledon. 381 00:22:52,120 --> 00:22:54,480 So are you feeling the stadiums? 382 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:58,600 Last weekend they were on CBS TV, National TV all weekend. 383 00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:02,760 And that's, I mean, we're getting there, but I'm saying it, but there's still not comparable. 384 00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:06,640 I mean, you're talking to sustain what you're talking about and tennis struggles. 385 00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:09,760 So even with what they have, monetarily, they struggle. 386 00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:14,720 There's still only 100 players in the world, men and female making money in tennis. 387 00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:18,840 I mean, you know, that's the part that you don't want to see the other sports go down 388 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,440 that same rabbit hole, rapid expansion. 389 00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:24,120 One of the things you brought up, I think, it was great because I think you start to see 390 00:23:24,120 --> 00:23:25,120 it here. 391 00:23:25,120 --> 00:23:29,440 Initially Atlanta was very dominated without door courts and we could probably go back 392 00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:32,120 to one of our, you know, we said the same thing. 393 00:23:32,120 --> 00:23:34,520 Don't make the same mistakes tennis made. 394 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,840 I wanted this to be an indoor sport, make it special. 395 00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:40,880 If you're a country club, say we don't do it. 396 00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:46,320 You'd be better served to go to an indoor facility for all the reasons you talked about. 397 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:49,680 And this way you're keeping on a business side of it. 398 00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:51,280 You're keeping the power. 399 00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:53,760 You know, tennis is free in Atlanta. 400 00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:59,040 It's a tough business model because of the way Alta became the phenomenon. 401 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:00,440 We don't play tennis in Atlanta. 402 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:01,920 We play Alta. 403 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:06,840 Alta so dominates that as we explained in the past, culturally speaking, developers come 404 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:12,680 in, build two tennis courts that are lighted with access to a bathroom so the facility can 405 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:15,120 be deemed out to playable. 406 00:24:15,120 --> 00:24:18,280 So this, you know, this is something for your neighborhood to do. 407 00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:25,600 It's a unbelievable phenomenon and that's why we have 60,000, you know, people playing tennis 408 00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:30,280 in a league and it's been a little slow, you know, getting comparatively speaking. 409 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:33,880 Everybody's like, when it's pickleball, when it's pickleball, well, you know, this is 50 years 410 00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:35,360 into making Alta. 411 00:24:35,360 --> 00:24:37,360 Give pickleball little time. 412 00:24:37,360 --> 00:24:38,360 Let's not make the mistakes. 413 00:24:38,360 --> 00:24:39,360 Let's do this inside. 414 00:24:39,360 --> 00:24:41,960 Like you said, let's get into the clubs. 415 00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:45,040 Let's do the, as I said, Alta is a glorified bowling league. 416 00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:46,360 I'm originally from New York. 417 00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:48,360 The least of called is bowling. 418 00:24:48,360 --> 00:24:53,320 They make pickleball even more glorified and say, hey, it's great because you're getting exercise. 419 00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:54,320 Now we're bowling. 420 00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:55,320 You really won't get any exercise. 421 00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:57,560 These pickleball, you are getting exercise. 422 00:24:57,560 --> 00:24:58,800 You're getting a workout. 423 00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:01,520 So there's nothing wrong with saying we're playing it inside. 424 00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:03,200 We're playing it in air conditioning. 425 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:04,680 And by the way, there's a bar over there. 426 00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:06,640 I'm going to be here if I so choose. 427 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:08,520 Yeah, that's, that's my fear. 428 00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:13,240 It's like, where is this money coming from other than, as Shaun said, because I just heard 429 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:15,640 something with the WNBA. 430 00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:16,640 It's outrageous. 431 00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:22,760 Out nine figure in millions of the franchises worth. 432 00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:25,280 And that's because it subsidized. 433 00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:29,960 There's no justification that for that whatsoever if you really want to crunch numbers. 434 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:30,960 Right. 435 00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:33,280 No, I mean, I get where you're coming from, Bobby. 436 00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:39,920 I think it comes from the fan participation that's taking place now and in some of the, 437 00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:41,560 a lot of the events that are going on. 438 00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:49,240 Plus the fact that, you know, and Shaun alluded to it too, you've got numbers of professional 439 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:53,400 athletes that are buying teams of other sports. 440 00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:57,840 You know, you've got Tom Brady's and Drew Brees' and the football aspect. 441 00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:03,800 And you've got the Torelloans and just on, on words of people like that, LeBron James 442 00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:08,920 is, you know, all those people are buying into pickleball because they're playing pickleball. 443 00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:15,840 Plus on the side or having fun, it's easier to put a pickleball court in your backyard for spacewise. 444 00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:20,120 So you're seeing that phenomenon around the country that everybody's just filling in their 445 00:26:20,120 --> 00:26:25,600 swimming pools and putting in a pickleball court because they're not using the pool, but they 446 00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:27,080 will use the pickleball court. 447 00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:30,120 So, honey, call Mike Emburnone. 448 00:26:30,120 --> 00:26:31,720 We're putting a pickleball court in the back. 449 00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:33,840 Yeah, we got a floating pickleball court. 450 00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:35,960 I know how to get a floating pickleball court. 451 00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:36,960 We can do it in the pool. 452 00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:37,960 I mean, that's, yeah. 453 00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:38,960 We've got to ride in the pool. 454 00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:39,960 Here you go. 455 00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:40,960 I'm floating. 456 00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:41,960 I love it. 457 00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:47,040 I mean, I have a, I have a close friend who is in the pickleball construction business and 458 00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:50,280 now she has put in, you know, these 41 facilities. 459 00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:53,440 I said that have grown in the last four years in Houston. 460 00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:55,840 She's been a part of many of those. 461 00:26:55,840 --> 00:27:03,040 However, her red and butter comes from the seven million people in the Houston proper 462 00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:06,800 area that are putting in pickleball courts. 463 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:13,160 And their house is because they can, you can't, so many yards, you can't put a thinnest 464 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:14,160 court in. 465 00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:19,640 I mean, they might like to have one, but it's just not possible, but you can put a pickleball 466 00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:20,640 court in. 467 00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:24,120 So they'll put basketball goals on both end, put the pickleball court in the middle. 468 00:27:24,120 --> 00:27:27,280 And now you've got a really nice recreational area in your backyard. 469 00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:34,120 So that phenomenon again alone is just creating that environment. 470 00:27:34,120 --> 00:27:37,720 You become the most, you're the most light person in the neighborhood. 471 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:42,440 You got a good or bad, right, Bobby? 472 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:44,200 But you better have a pool in Houston. 473 00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:50,440 Let me tell you, you better have, oh, exactly for after the pickleball. 474 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:55,480 Well, Dr. Maxey, I'm sure we can talk for four hours and probably what we'll have to do 475 00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,080 is just make this a recurring, recurring episode. 476 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:00,840 We'll come back and do this once a quarter or so. 477 00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:05,480 If Bobby is good and we've done a good initial conversation, we've covered quite a bit and 478 00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:09,680 who you are and why we care and your uniqueness and the things you've done. 479 00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:13,720 One quick thing I want to do, even though it's going to push us over time, I want to ask 480 00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:15,720 about the rating system you're involved with. 481 00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:16,720 Can you tell us about that? 482 00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:22,640 Yes, the VAIR rating system is a rating system and I want to make this very clear and that's 483 00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:27,200 one of the reasons I'm really excited to be involved with the American Racket Sports 484 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:33,240 Association is because there is also going to be the Racket Sports, Total Racket Sports 485 00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:34,240 rating system. 486 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:39,760 They're in the pickleball space right now, but they're going to be with badminton, ping pong, 487 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:43,960 padel, all of those systems they'll be working with. 488 00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:51,520 It's a better rating system and has age built in and has gender mixed, which are all different 489 00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:53,440 levels of play. 490 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:59,720 People don't have a 50 player, we can talk tennis or pick a ball either one, it doesn't matter. 491 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:05,760 50 player at 60 years of age is not the same as a 50 player at 30 years of age, sorry, but 492 00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:08,920 we'd like to think so, but it's not true. 493 00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:14,400 We're not going to be, and we might get a point or two here and there, but we're not going 494 00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:15,400 to beat them. 495 00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:16,640 And so age is important. 496 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:23,360 I think I would like to know my 50 tennis player at 60 and when I'm playing 60-year-olds, 497 00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:24,880 I'm okay with that. 498 00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:27,320 I'm not a 50 player when I'm playing a 30-year-old. 499 00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:28,640 That's facts. 500 00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:35,360 And so that built into our algorithms, it's a great avenue for people to get to a better 501 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:38,040 rating system than probably what's available out there right now. 502 00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:43,480 And that's what we're not trying to replace anybody, just want to give an option. 503 00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,680 So we'll follow up with that as well, because we want to make sure people know about that. 504 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:55,280 I had not heard of VAIR, and you can virtually assess international rating. 505 00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:57,720 That's what it looks like. 506 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,240 And it's a rating system. 507 00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:01,600 So there are others out there. 508 00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:04,640 We've got some relationships with some of the others as well. 509 00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:08,160 Yeah, Dr. Maxey is intimately involved. 510 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:12,880 He's will send all questions your way because Bobby and I have no idea what you're talking 511 00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:13,880 about at this point. 512 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:16,640 So we're going to have to solve ourselves caught up on how to do it. 513 00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:17,640 It all works. 514 00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:19,200 It's a similar rating system to tennis. 515 00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:20,800 I mean, it's all related. 516 00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:26,280 I mean, you've got your levels of, and the pickleball is very similar. 517 00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:28,120 But Dr. Maxey, you are in Houston. 518 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:32,040 You can go to the tennis simulator. 519 00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:33,040 Have you been there yet? 520 00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:34,040 I have not. 521 00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:35,680 I know of it, but I haven't been there. 522 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:37,480 I'll see those folks. 523 00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:39,840 Go see Craig there, trying to get one here. 524 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:44,080 I think it's, but, you know, they're trying to build, because that was my big thing. 525 00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:47,080 You know, I'm going to talk about golf simulators, opposed to tennis. 526 00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:51,280 I always say the good part about golf simulator, you can walk out with a score. 527 00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:54,280 Tennis, you just walk out with a workout or you learn. 528 00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:58,560 But all these algorithms can be built in to the simulators. 529 00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:02,760 And this simulator is the role's voice of simulators. 530 00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:03,760 It's great. 531 00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:05,800 They're looking for creative partners. 532 00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:09,880 And I love the idea that they literally have, you know, a warehouse where they, I think 533 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:14,200 they have three or four of these set up where you go in and, you know, rent court on 534 00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:15,280 essentially. 535 00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,480 So, and I know I think I'm pretty sure it's pickleball. 536 00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:19,480 They can change it over. 537 00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:23,560 So, yeah, that would be a good contact to go see the tennis simulator people. 538 00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:28,920 Nice lady, the lady who's founded it is an ophthalmologist by, you know, the person, 539 00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:29,920 Bobby? 540 00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:31,920 Yes, I'll send it to you. 541 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:35,960 I'll send you a, so I can look him up and you miss you out. 542 00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:36,960 I'll be glad to hear it. 543 00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:37,960 You're in the city. 544 00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:40,880 Yeah, I'd like to send you just a report because I flipped. 545 00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:42,120 Bobby wants to know. 546 00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:43,120 I don't tell you. 547 00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:44,120 I don't have a key. 548 00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:46,120 Now I want to go check it out. 549 00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:47,120 I'm going to go. 550 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:50,560 I mean, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm in Northern Texas, guys. 551 00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:53,040 So coming to Houston is a hard detour. 552 00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:56,560 But I'm like, okay, can I go for a homecoming and go south afterwards? 553 00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:57,560 That would be fun. 554 00:31:57,560 --> 00:31:58,560 They ever, they're playing. 555 00:31:58,560 --> 00:31:59,560 Yeah. 556 00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:03,280 I mean, it really looks like a great piece of equipment. 557 00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:04,280 I want to see that. 558 00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:06,280 That's, that'd be great. 559 00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:10,720 And we'll get all that connected and all those connections like Bobby's, Bobby's going 560 00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:15,160 to send a bunch of, a bunch of things your way, Dr. Maxey, make sure you know and we'll obviously 561 00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:18,160 try to know as much as we can about the industry. 562 00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:19,880 And I appreciate you sharing with our audience. 563 00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:26,040 But at this point, love to ask our final question and kind of get your perspective from this. 564 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:28,720 We ask our king of pickleball question. 565 00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:30,360 And it can be on any scale. 566 00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:32,680 It can be local to Houston, the United States. 567 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:39,240 It can be the whole world, the universe, professional amateur from any perspective. 568 00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:45,720 If you were king of pickleball, is there anything you would do or change? 569 00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:47,040 King of pickleball. 570 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:54,120 Well, the biggest thing is, is the challenge has been most recently of people not wanting 571 00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:59,320 to be in an environment where their rating goes up or down. 572 00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:04,920 But they play with their friends, they want to protect their rating and then I'm kind of 573 00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:11,180 getting back to VAIR a little bit because we've segregated on the course because they're 574 00:33:11,180 --> 00:33:14,680 afraid to use their score to play people. 575 00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:17,640 And that's just, that's not why the game started. 576 00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:21,080 But there, and it doesn't matter what sport we're even talking about. 577 00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:27,160 It was about learning how to play and the camaraderie and the social aspects and the fun. 578 00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,840 And we've taken that away a little bit by, well, I'm not playing with you because if you put 579 00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:35,800 that score in, you know, I could, you know, get my, and that's not what's about. 580 00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:40,840 I mean, I go into these clubs that we're talking about in Houston and if a beginner comes 581 00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:43,440 up to me and says, Hey, would you play a game with me? 582 00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:44,440 And I said, Sure. 583 00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:50,480 I mean, I'm never going to worry about whether they put a rating or something. 584 00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:56,280 And I'm not that person is going to, and I tell people all the time, we were all beginners 585 00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:58,760 at some point, we were all beginners. 586 00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:00,480 Someone had to show us. 587 00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:06,880 Someone had to be kind enough to lead us into that game and bring us to it and get a passion. 588 00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:12,160 So if I was King of Pickleball, I would just try to work really hard into making sure everyone 589 00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:16,960 still feels comfortable in playing where people have the environment that they can go in 590 00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:23,120 and share that love of the game and the passion and not worry about their rating that there 591 00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:25,760 might be used against them at some point. 592 00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:30,560 So I guess that would be the King of Pickleball. 593 00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:37,760 Bobby, he encourages the use of a rating system and then says the rating system is part 594 00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:39,560 of the problem. 595 00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:44,200 Well, but ready for tech already looking all those former tennis players, that's, that's 596 00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:46,560 who I heard when you were, they don't want to lose. 597 00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:48,440 I'm like, well, that's why they left tennis. 598 00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:52,120 They plateaued and, you know, they went to think of all they were kings in the beginning 599 00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:53,840 and now everybody's catching up. 600 00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:59,000 You know, when Jack Sock entered Pickleball, that Pickleball game changed dramatically because 601 00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:01,680 that man hits the ball very, very hard. 602 00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:03,120 No matter what he's hitting. 603 00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:08,120 So it's a completely different game and now, and I completely agree with you because, and 604 00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:13,560 I know that's one of the big stall points obviously in tennis is we're so segregated and 605 00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:19,760 everything's a level, you know, I do drills at my club and people still, you know, well, 606 00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:21,840 she's, they don't belong. 607 00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:27,800 It's a club where neighbors first, you know, it's amazing, and especially, here's a great 608 00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:29,000 part about Pickleball. 609 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:32,520 You took out the most difficult part of tennis. 610 00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:34,080 You don't serve. 611 00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:39,200 So you've really changed the dynamic of the game. 612 00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:42,120 Everybody just played like you said, same with basketball. 613 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:43,800 It was, you know, who's next? 614 00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:45,160 Okay, jump in the court. 615 00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:46,840 And if you're not good, guess what happens? 616 00:35:46,840 --> 00:35:48,280 You'll lose. 617 00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:50,640 And then you've got to sit again until you get to play again. 618 00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:55,080 And if you want to get better, you practice, you know, hit the nail on the head, but shine 619 00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:59,080 getting back to your comment into the minute ago, that's one of the things that VAIR does 620 00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:00,080 differently. 621 00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:04,480 They have a recreational rating where you can just have fun and it doesn't count against 622 00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:07,640 your verified rating or your certified rating. 623 00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:09,160 So there's two different ratings. 624 00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:15,200 So if you want to go out on the court and play with some lesser level players, it doesn't 625 00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:16,200 affect your rating. 626 00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:19,320 So that's kind of the beauty of it. 627 00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:21,560 I'd like to mute my rating right now. 628 00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:22,600 I'm just playing for fun. 629 00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:23,600 I didn't mean it. 630 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:24,600 Can you do it afterwards? 631 00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:26,760 Like when I leased a Bobby, I'm like, oh, no, I'll just kidding. 632 00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:28,280 That was just for fun. 633 00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:31,280 Absolutely. 634 00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:32,280 Shaun, I was impressed. 635 00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:34,160 I thought you were setting up for that great answer. 636 00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:37,680 I was like, see, that's what you can tell Shaun does some homework with the guests. 637 00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:41,440 And he knew the answer was he was feeding you a good answer right there. 638 00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:43,880 I was a good lead in. 639 00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:45,960 We've been working on that. 640 00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:47,800 I was thinking he did his homework. 641 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:49,880 I was impressed with that. 642 00:36:49,880 --> 00:36:52,280 This is not hard hitting Journalism people. 643 00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:57,320 This is us making you look good and bringing out your competency. 644 00:36:57,320 --> 00:37:01,640 But Dr. Maxey, that's obviously easy with you because like I said, you know what you're 645 00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:02,640 talking about? 646 00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:07,400 We appreciate you sharing everything that you know and everything that you've done. 647 00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:11,720 We love seeing all that in 14,000 people you've trained. 648 00:37:11,720 --> 00:37:13,040 That's an amazing number. 649 00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:19,440 And that says a lot about the industry and what people can become because you didn't go 650 00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:20,440 into the world. 651 00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:25,000 You didn't come into the world saying, I'm going to be a pickleball trainer. 652 00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:26,160 It's something like you said earlier. 653 00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:28,880 I think you said pickleball found me. 654 00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:32,800 And I think that's really important for people to realize Bobby and I were the same way a 655 00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:34,120 few years ago. 656 00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:37,280 People were asking us about pickleball and we said, we're go tennis. 657 00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:38,880 Pickleball will present itself. 658 00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:41,200 It will be here when it needs to be here. 659 00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:43,560 Right now we're not actively seeking it. 660 00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:46,200 But I'm pretty sure Bobby pickleball is here. 661 00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:47,760 Oh, I think it's here. 662 00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:49,280 Dr. Maxey, please come see us. 663 00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:50,440 You're two roads away. 664 00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:52,280 You get on 20 to your head 85. 665 00:37:52,280 --> 00:37:54,000 You're in Atlanta. 666 00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:56,200 I'm a Southwest flat away. 667 00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:57,200 Even better. 668 00:37:57,200 --> 00:37:58,200 Even better. 669 00:37:58,200 --> 00:37:59,200 I'm an A-lister. 670 00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:00,200 Trust me. 671 00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:01,720 He's been on a few flights. 672 00:38:01,720 --> 00:38:02,720 Well gentlemen, thank you so much. 673 00:38:02,720 --> 00:38:04,000 I appreciate your time. 674 00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:05,920 Bobby, as always, I appreciate it. 675 00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:07,920 Dr. Maxey, thank you so much for being here. 676 00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:08,920 We will be in touch. 677 00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:09,920 Thank you, gentlemen. 678 00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:13,320 Well, there you have it. 679 00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:18,520 We want to thank reGeovinate.com for use of the studio and signature tennis for their support. 680 00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:20,360 And be sure to hit that follow button. 681 00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:24,560 For more racket sports content, you can go to LetsGoTennis.com. 682 00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:29,320 And while you're there, check out our calendar of events, great deals on racket sports products, 683 00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:30,880 apparel, and more. 684 00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:34,760 If you're a coach, director of any racket sports, or just someone who wants to utilize 685 00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:39,680 our online shop, contact us about setting up your own shop collection to offer your 686 00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:42,720 branded merchandise to the racket sports world. 687 00:38:42,720 --> 00:38:44,480 And with that, we're out. 688 00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:45,000 See you next time. 689 00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:47,580 (gentle music) 690 00:38:47,580 --> 00:38:50,160 (gentle music) 691 00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:52,740 (gentle music) 692 00:38:52,740 --> 00:38:54,740 [Music]