Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sleeves here with the senior Pickleball report powered by TNC Network. Let's get it going.
Today we speak with champions pro Paul Zickerd. Paul played the National Pickleball League last year with JBB United out of Naples. This year he's also going to be a captain of the App Tour Champions Tour Humana cup. So check out Paul in those places this season. Links below but before we get to that, if you like this content, consider subscribing to the channel. Also, tons of discounts down in the description for paddles and gear and merch and you name it. Check out our newsletter as well, and subscribe for your updates in the Pickleverse. All right, let's get to that conversation with Paul Zickert.
Paul Zickert, member of last year's JBB United of the National Pickleball League and captain, one of the team captains of the Humana cup on the app tour. Welcome to the senior Pickleball Report, Paul.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Hey, thanks a lot, Liz. I appreciate it. Good to be here. I love watching all your videos and yeah, happy to be here. Thanks for everything that you do too and reporting on all this. So much appreciated. And I know everyone else that's been on already loves it and you're given a good name to senior pro Pickleball.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: Well, I appreciate the support and obviously the content. Everybody that I've interviewed specifically from NPL, it's a dream. I haven't had any conflicts with people canceling or changing things up and I get things happen, but everybody's been super sweet, super nice. And I went to two events last year and had an absolute blast just rubbing shoulders with some folks that are having a really good time and seem to be super grateful. But before we get into any of that, I always start with this crazy game that took over our lives.
So fill me in a little bit about your athletic background prior to and then how you came across.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: I mean, I started off with tennis and soccer back in the day and I was big into tennis, four years varsity in high school. Right. Always thought I was actually going to go play afterwards. Actually went and visited the voluntary academy when I was a junior in high school.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Fun.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: And it was all ready to go, actually. It was funny. I was talking to my Humana cup people about this too, because a few of them went to the volunteer academy and I went down and visited and I'm like, yeah, no, I think I still like my friends at home. I still want to go to prom and football games and stuff like that. So decided not to do that, but did that and then slowly kind of moved into volleyball. So got into beach volleyball back in the 80s, mid to late eighty s and started playing that. And then I kind of caught onto that and loved it and ended up playing in college. So I went to school at Nevada and yeah, it was fantastic. And ever since then, I coached for almost 30 years and just recently retired from coaching.
But yeah, I absolutely love the sport and everything.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Right on. Yeah. So before we get into what brought you to pickleball, let's talk a little bit about your volleyball, because that's my background, too.
I'm trying to remember. I went to a clinic years ago in the early ninety s. It was an indoor facility in some suburb of Chicago because they had a league down there, like a midwest pro league. I think it was called like ML MVP or something like that. It's funny because I ended up playing the guy that coached me like 15 years later in an open event at the mother load in Colorado. I'm like, hey, dude.
So that was kind of cool. And I think I played. I played a tournament. I played at North beach.
Yeah.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: Deep sand, super windy, lots of wind.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: But back when I was playing and you were playing a little bit, we still had the heavier, the 18, the balding blow around. Like that big balloon they play with today.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: No, yeah.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Those are great. Except when they got wet.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Yeah, they're a little oblong.
Yeah, they got a little heavier trying to pass the ball when they got it into water a little bit. Yeah, those are fun days on the beach. That was fun going to the pro beach tournaments.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Those guys just hanging out on the chairs and guys were there.
We probably honestly were probably at a tournament, like near at each other drinking beer.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Probably right.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: At some point or another.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: Probably right.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: But yeah, those are the days for sure. Back in beach volleyball.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: Yeah. And pickleball reminds me a little bit of that. I think I missed my window. I didn't really find the game. I knew of it, but I didn't find it until like 2020, 2021. And I just got done talking to Lee Whitwell and she said talking about prior, like sort of that 2015 to 2020 era where the finals were people shining their car lights to make things bright enough. And it reminded me of the days that going to a beach volleyball tournament, like you brought up, where you could bring your lawn chair in your cooler and sit right there before everything went.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Corporate and it became a mess on AVP. I think it's still a mess on AvP.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: We know where this has headed so far.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: I really hope it's funny. I talked to.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. Big player.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Yep. And she coached at UCLA, so both of us knew we have a mutual friend, so we keep talking. We're like, man, we sure hope this doesn't end up like the know. Hopefully it goes well and everyone gets along and it just continues to progress, and it's great. So I hope it does. And hopefully people are smarter now than they were back then.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And we're pretty early on into this, at least at the pro tour level. So back to you. How did you get into the game? How did you find the game?
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Well, so kind of two parts of this story. So, one, I played back in 1987 in gym class my freshman year of high school. Yes. Right.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: My wife used to teach this game, like, 20 years ago.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it was great, right? All they did is they took down the badminton poles and put the net lower, and we just used the badminton court essentially for the lines. And I was big into tennis back then, and I'm like, what is this game? And I loved it. Right? I killed everyone in my gym class, including I took on my teacher and killed my teacher, too. And I'm like, oh, my God, this is my game. Yeah, right? I loved it. Loved it.
And then, of course, you get done with that section of gym class, and you're like, okay, so where can I play this? And nowhere. Like, no courts, no paddles, no ball.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: It's like floor hockey.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
Right, left. I played floor hockey, too, back in the day.
That's the first time that I was really introduced to it. And then, of course, I'm a Covid baby, too. Like many others. I went out, and one day, a budy of mine, Jim Desano, said, hey, do you want to play pickleball? Like, I hear this is a big thing, and I know you're into sports and tennis and stuff, and so him and I would just go out and hit the ball and then play, like, singles. And the poor guy, I feel bad, but I think I was, like, 39 and one versus him the entire time. And he kept coming out to play me. And my problem is, when I get really competitive, it's really hard for me to turn it off. And so I get into it, and we played, and we had a good time, but I'm so super thankful he brought me into it. And then after that, then I kind of got a little bit more.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: And so started to look at pros around the area, and so then I found John had. He's got a garage up in Crystal Lake, which isn't too far from here in the Chicago suburbs. So went up there quite a few times and did some private lessons with them and started such a great guy and such a good teacher of the game, too.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: I think his channel for instruction is my favorite. He breaks stuff down so well and he just moves with very little extra.
Like, I think I'm doing that. And then I see a video of me. I'm like, I don't look anything like.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: I mean, he does. He moves amazingly well. We actually did a video for him on his YouTube channel. It's very early, but I think it was at the time, it was like two 4.5 versus a pro.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: Were you one of those dudes? Yeah, I watched that. I'll have to go back.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: We took him on and I think one of the games, I forget, I think we might have actually beat him in one of the games. And then the next game, he just cleaned our clock.
They might have been 110 or eleven one maybe. And he's like, okay, enough of this crap.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: This is going on the channel.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: Yeah, we're done with this. So it was really fun. But yeah, he's a good guy. And I remember asking him, I'm like, hey, john, how do you like, I'm starting to get competitive about, like, who else do you know that I can get into the higher level games? And he goes, Paul. He goes, don't worry about it. He goes, they'll find you. And I'm like, what do you mean by he's like, don't worry about it. They'll find you. And sure enough, I just started playing in all sorts of different suburbs around a Chicagoland area. And sure enough, I started finding those groups and playing better games and getting better drill sessions in here I am now.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, you're playing football.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty fun. It's pretty crazy.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: If you think back, you probably always had. Because I do this, and my wife was a PE teacher, so I remember, like about 2004 or five, she's like, I stopped trying to play to get these kids to play tennis during this unit because they just jacked the ball over the fence and they can't control it. So I came across this game called pickleball. I'm like, what's that? She goes, it's just whiffle ball and a bad mitt net. You lower. And I'm like, oh. And then I completely forgot about it. But then I was thinking, which I'm sure has crossed your mind, like, God, if I would have just started playing in 2005 or new, like 1987.
[00:10:59] Speaker B: 100%. Right. Oh, my gosh. If I was playing from 1987 until now, I'd be like, tally eight times five, maybe.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. Own paddle, signature paddle.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah, right, right. Oh, my gosh. How great would that be?
[00:11:15] Speaker A: Paul Zickerd Academy.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: Yeah, right, right. My own little voluntary up in Chicago land area.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. So let's talk about, I mean, obviously, the last year or so, year and a half for senior pickleball, and I know it doesn't get a lot of attention because all the spotlight is on what's going on with, obviously, MLP and PPA and a little bit on that side for, you know, you got National Pickleball League now. You got Humana cup. You have the senior pro tour, plus the tournaments that the PPA and the app still put mean. Senior ball champions tour ball has just blown up, and there's so many opportunities. Talk to me a little bit about. Are you surprised by that?
[00:12:03] Speaker B: Yeah. At this point, honestly, with the crazy influx of pickleball, I don't know if I'm surprised at anything that's coming along anymore.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: Yes, they.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: But. But at the same time, too, I hope there's not going to be like five more mean. I don't know how many more tours we can take on at this point.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Well, there's a Chicago league you're playing, and I'm sure there is.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: Yeah. There's a Chicago pickleball league that I do. Right. And it's fun and it's a little bit more know.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: It's.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: It's mean. I think just what you said, there's such a huge influx of people playing it. And listen, there's still a ton of people in a senior age bracket that still absolutely love the game. And so I think this is where all these leagues are kind of coming from, and I think it's great. Yes. It gives all of us a lot of opportunity and flexibility to figure out what our schedules are and where we want to go play.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: Right, exactly.
[00:12:59] Speaker B: Try to play in different places and try to play against different people. There are so many good. I mean, literally, a year from now, it's going to be all these other new senior pros that are going to be coming on. Like, I already know a bunch of guys that I play with that are former d one tennis players that are really good, that are just starting to learn to game, and they're going to be good really quick.
It's fun to see. I think the more the merrier, and it's nice to have options out there.
[00:13:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And it only makes people like yourself and others to have to keep evolving their game because it's an endless farm system. Whether it's people who are playing open pro right now, moving up like Lee Whitwell and obviously Altoff and Deacon and guys like that.
But then all the people you talked about who are high level racket sport people coming into this sport that aren't going to need a lot of time, just shorten their stroke and figure out some strategy that are going to be really good players really fast.
[00:14:03] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been fun. I've been playing with it with a guy locally here. We've had a couple of tournaments and done fairly well. And he's a former d one. I'll give him kudos. Conrad Noak. So he's a great dude, but him and like others, they're going to come on and start taking some names for sure on the tour for sure.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: Sleeves here. Senior Pickleball report powered by TNC Network. Just finishing up a practice session. World's worst pickleball courts and been playing with these bad boys for a while. Crown Pickleball link in the description. Check these out. Great ball. I haven't cracked any yet. Of course, I'm an old man, but really cool ball coming pink and this color. They got outdoor, indoor. And I think they're going to be a major player in pickleballs because people are starting to kind of gravitate towards this ball. I know the podcast king of the court. They love them. I love them. People talking about them, people giving them away with their paddles because they know it's a reliable, solid ball. So check out crown pickleball. New player in town. And man, they came out with a bang. So love it. All right, folks. Hey, at the end of the day, that's pickle.
It's Lee Zoo with the senior Pickleball report reminding you to check out our podcast, people of Pickleball. That's where I speak with all the people in pickleball, the industry, players, team owners, peril creators, people that run organizations, people that create apps, you name it, we're talking to them on people of Pickleball. It's in the playlist of our YouTube channel. It's our podcast. Check it out. Lots of good information there and lots of really cool folks doing amazing things. You can also catch our podcast on Spotify and Amazon. Check out the link in the description. So let's talk about last year a little bit. Obviously a big monumental year for you, playing, getting drafted into the National Pickleball League inaugural season. Really a historic season in any sort of pickleball, but particularly the seniors because they had combine. Obviously they had a draft. A very successful first season with six teams. My experience just from the outside is what was really nice to see people being treated like professionals and that they were wanted for and they were being cared for. Talk to me about your experience on your team and in the league overall, what you thought.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: Yeah, first of all, I didn't know exactly what I was getting into. I think I was literally the last guy to make it into the combine because someone canceled out and so they had an extra spot. And sure enough, I made it into the combine. So I was super happy when I got drafted and heard my name. I was sitting in a car in I think Massachusetts somewhere, dropping my daughter off at college and heard my name watching the live stream and it was pretty cool to see that.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: How fun's that?
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Yeah, right. And I was, it was, it was really awesome to have that. But yeah, I didn't have any expectations. I didn't know really what I was getting into. I'd done fairly well in other kind of tournaments that I played in, but this, the team event, had no clue. But quickly, as soon as I got into it, I figured out, okay, where I was at and what I needed to do and how I needed to get better. But, man, I'll tell you, Michael, Beth and Rick, they did such a great job of putting all this together.
It is definitely first class. They've done a great job of treating everyone really well, making sure everyone's having a good time. Everything is set up for them.
Them working with the owners and the owners giving us feedback as well. I think it's been a fantastic year and it's been a really good experience like any first year league, too. I'm sure they all learned a bunch of new things or things that they have to change for this next season, which I'm really excited about to see.
But it was awesome playing. I mean, it was great playing against John Spurling was on my team and man, I tell you, I learned so much from him. But he was also such a great teacher. Every single week he was giving me a few things. He's like, hey, paul, let's try not know. Kill the ball through the wall on the other.
Always everyone on my whole team was like, paul, like, okay, ease on the power a little bit. I know you play with a pro, Kenneth Black, ace. It's got tons of power. And then people are, yeah, yeah, people are like getting pissed that I'm hitting it. So it was. But it was know I got that great feedback from him and Julio and Vinay on my team that they were always so grateful to be giving it to us. And to be honest with you, not even people on my own team, but other people, like Steve Dawson. He was super helpful, and it was just nice for people to get together. And yes, we're super competitive when we're on the court, but outside of that, everyone's having a good time and partying and laughing and hearing stories.
It's such a great atmosphere, and I can't wait to be a part of it again.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I feel a bit bad for those who aren't playing senior pro because even prior to NPL, because I follow all the social media stuff because that's what my channel is about. You could tell just as you mentioned, people are playing hard, but at the end of the day, they're hanging out, they're having a really good time. And I get it. It's a different thing. You're not playing to make a living like some of these folks who are.
All of a sudden, you're a d two tennis player now. You got to sign a contract to do XYZ. So I get it's a different thing, but it is a nice place to be in your life. And then, like you mentioned, obviously, spurling and Dawson, you want to talk about two silky smooth, don't even look like they're working players. And you're like, how is this guy killing?
[00:20:15] Speaker B: Were they work you on the court? That's for sure.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: Yeah. And I love watching guys like that because they make the game look so simple. And then you're like, well, why can't I go do that? And you walk out there and you're like, man, it's because, one, they're chess masters. They know exactly where they're putting the ball. There's no shot without intent.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Actually, that's a huge thing I learned throughout this year, right, is playing with intent. And I kind of picked up a little bit of that from my volleyball background, right. One of the things I was always really good at, I used to coach d one for a little while. I coached on a women's side, and I loved the strategy part of things, right. I loved breaking down film, and I absolutely love doing the same with this. Right. I want to be able to break down that film and figure out, hey, if I move the ball here, where is it going next? And what am I with this person? Or how am I going to play against this person.
I love that part of it.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: Me, too.
[00:21:20] Speaker B: Figuring that out, that's the really exciting part of it for me.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: It is. And you got to get to a place where you feel comfortable enough in your own game where you can get beyond the technique stuff and start thinking about moving around the court. I coached volleyball, too. Not nearly at the level you did. I coached high school girls, and I coached at a school that didn't have club players and we would have to play high school teams that had club players. So I said, listen, this is not a critique of you. You're born into a different situation.
You have different backgrounds.
You are playing against volleyball players, and this isn't a rip on you, but you are girls that play volleyball. It's a different thing.
You are trying basically to get the ball over the net and keep it in play. That's not what your opponents are doing because they have this background.
In order to get them to understand that, I said, here's what we'll do. I'll play you one on six. And so I just stood in the middle of the court and I got three hits. And I played the varsity team and I beat them mainly because I knew as soon as they bumped, they were going to hit cross court hard. I would just move over, bump that roll line, and I was like, that's what I'm talking about. When you get up there, you just like plant hit, swing wherever it's going.
That's not what they're doing. And so that's where I think I am getting to the point in my own pickleball game is getting out of that headspace where I'm thinking about just the touch of the ball and all that, instead going, I got to put it to this backhand here and things like that. You learned it in real time in a league.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: I know, right? It was real time. And there was a few of us, honestly, that were new to it and just coming up, just turning 50, and there was a few of us that just got thrown under the fire. And you learn real quickly, right, against the players that have been out there. But I think that was the fun of it. I think I definitely saw growth from myself from the beginning until the end, for sure. And even where I'm at now, just even a year later, I think I'm totally different than what I was a year ago.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: Right. So let's talk about this year. Obviously, a couple of new things for you playing Humana cup on the app.
Talk to me a little bit about that process. How you became a team captain and how the team's put together and all that kind of stuff.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Well, the way I became a team captain, I'll literally thank Eva Welsher for that because she basically told Ken, hey, Paul's a really great guy and he would be a great team captain to do a good recommendation to have.
Ken called me up and said, hey, you want to be team captain? And I'm like, really?
[00:24:08] Speaker A: Me?
[00:24:08] Speaker B: There's other people behind me that are probably better.
And he's like, no, absolutely. He goes, Eva said, you're a great person and you have good personality and people would love to have you out there. And so I'm like, sure, absolutely. So, yeah, it was really fun. I mean, during the drafting process, I knew a decent amount of people, but not everyone. And I think honestly, all the captains, we ended up helping each other out a little bit on some of the draft people, but man, it's been fun.
We also end up Punta Gorda. And so we had our first event, it was rained out to some extent. We had to modify how the scoring was just because we didn't start until like 330 or something like that.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: Yeah, but we at least got it in. We actually played Lee Whitwell's team. We beat him five one. Don't tell Lee that.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: I won't.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. She's probably going to make me buy the next case of beer since I said that.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: And she can drink beer.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: I know she did. We did. We drank beer while we were there. Good.
But no, it was really fun. It was just a good to get out there. And I think some of the people that hadn't been a part of the NPL or a part of any kind of team event weren't really sure how it was going to go. But really quickly you could see that the dynamics change a little bit and people were cheering each other on and helping each other out.
It was really good, and it's really good and it's high level as well.
It was really fun. I can't wait until the next one in Sacramento in about another month or so to see how that's going to look like. I know there's a lot of subs and stuff like that coming to Sacramento. Some people can't go from the east coast and stuff, but I think it's still going to be a really good event. So I'm looking forward to the next one.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: Yeah, and that's the thing we've touched on earlier, the senior pro tours. The player pool is just growing.
You know, this comes out. Humana cup has six teams. NPL is adding more teams and I think both will probably grow over the years because like you mentioned earlier, people that are coming from high level backgrounds, people just getting older, it's going to be really fascinating to see what in particular the senior game looks like in about the next three to five years.
I think it's going to be lights out.
[00:26:32] Speaker B: I think it's going to be really good.
People are learning to drill a little bit more in playing less games. Yeah, that's a huge key.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: We haven't even gone global yet. That's the thing.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: No, it's going to grow for sure. I'm really looking forward to seeing what it's going to look like in definitely five years.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: Yeah. So let's talk about your individual game. What do you got planned outside of team events and what are you looking forward to in the upcoming calendar year?
[00:27:04] Speaker B: Yeah, so hopefully I've got the combine. So I'm still going to go to the combine here. Coming up at the beginning of March in Florida, there's still quite a few new team owners that don't know me and some others. So I'm going to go to the combine and do that. So I'm looking forward to that goes to all the seven Humana cup events that we have. And then I think I have like three other ones kind of sprinkled in there. So it just depends on the potential NPL schedule, too, because that's going to be seven and three. So that's 13. And then I know sprinkling in a few more. That's going to be quite a bit. So I have a full time job that I still work and I travel a decent amount because I'm in the events industry and so I still still do a little bit of traveling for that, too. So I got to watch that. My boss has still got to like me.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: Exactly. I mean, you got a couple of things near. You have app Chicago and you have Beer City, Oakland, which isn't too far, which are two fantastic tournaments to have right in your backyard. So to.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: No, it's, it's good. So it is nice to do that. I would love to actually do some of the senior pro tour events, too. So I'm trying to look at that schedule because I know Matthias and folks have done a really good job on that. I've heard those have been really good, too. So I'd love to be able to get out to those and experience those.
It's going to be a fun year, but it's going to be a lot of playing this year for sure.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: Well that's the thing and I guess that's what's nice and what we talked about earlier. You can pick and choose obviously Matthias and others starting the senior pro tour and they have a bunch of events. I'm going to try and get to the event. I think they have one in Phoenix and they have one in Albuquerque. And those are the places that are sort of in between where I live. I live in the southwest corner of New Mexico in the middle of nowhere, but those two places are about 5 hours away from me. So I may get to one of those. Hope to get to some NPL events again this season and maybe try a combine next year. See where my game is. My biggest issue is I live in the middle of nowhere, finding people to play and beat my ass all the.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Tough. Literally someone just said that. I've been looking at it. We've been looking at different, maybe like snowbirding or something like that.
[00:29:21] Speaker A: I'm going to have to go places and stay have, I have family obviously in the Wisconsin southeast corner and obviously there's a lot of ball there which we talked a little bit about. And I get to know more people too, so I can go and pay some visits and hang out and get my butt kicked by them too.
[00:29:37] Speaker B: Yeah, but people are like, if you leave January, February, march in Chicago, which by the way, no one wants to be here in those, I mean we didn't think of like North Carolina coast or something like that, they're like who are you going to play against? And I'm like, that's actually a really good thought. I'm not know.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: Although these communities are popping up with all these great players now.
[00:30:01] Speaker B: This is true.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: Seems to be everywhere.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:05] Speaker A: Well, before we get you out of here, talk a little bit about sponsors you want to mention and kind of what you're looking forward to the most in the near future playing wise.
[00:30:15] Speaker B: Yeah, well, sponsor wise I'm actually working on a few so I'm not sponsored by stack, but I will point out stack. So a and she, she runs this company. I think her and her partner run this and it's a nonprofit and they put all the proceeds back into fixing up pickleball courts. So I love a stuff. They've got great shirts and great hats and so I've been wearing those quite a bit. I was playing actually with Prokenix and I'm in the middle of a paddle change right now and I'm working on potential sponsorship.
[00:30:46] Speaker A: Okay, cool.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: So hopefully more to hear on that, but something that will give me maybe a little bit more control.
And it's been working out pretty.
Yeah, it's been fun. And then there's some indoor courts, too, that are opening up around the Chicagoland area. And so I'm trying to get affiliated with those, too. So I got some things working and if I can get into. So I'm keeping the options open, but hopefully some of them will work out. And then this year, yeah, I mean, listen, I'm just looking to grow and trying to continue to learn as much as possible. So I'm trying to see if I can work with some of the other top pro players, too for a couple of days and get with them and learn some new techniques or learn some new things to kind of look at from like a strategy perspective. Right.
But yeah, I'm hoping to grow. I'm trying to do a really good job of not keeping my eyes on results, right?
[00:31:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Right.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: I think that's hard. They always say if you're looking at results, then you're doing the wrong thing. Right. You should be looking at the progress and a journey of what you're doing and the results will come. And so that's where I'm at, I think, in my career is I'm just trying to continue to train and grow and learn and just continue to get better and I think my results will get there and I've seen that a little bit. At the end of last year, I've started to have some good results. We got a fourth in Houston and that was good. We almost beat one of the top tier teams and that was good for us. But that's baby steps along the way. So I'm looking forward to it, but it should be really fun this year on the app and hopefully the NPL, too.
I'm very blessed to be able to have this opportunity and re get my athleticism back in my since I've been coaching for so long, it's fun to have my competitiveness back and I've done a lot for my body.
I've been working out a ton. I know people see a lot of my Instagram posts.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: I saw you, man. I know what that said. My legs were shaking. I'm like, man, that's no joke, dude.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: After that session, I didn't tell my trainer yet, but after that session, I was literally sitting in the kitchen making dinner and my legs literally were shaking from doing that. It was really sad, but they were. But a bunch of my buddies, they all make fun of me for posting those things. I used to be that guy, like, why are you posting that stuff? But I've actually gotten really good feedback from people that are like, hey, listen, I know you post that stuff, and thanks for doing it. It's really motivating me to start working out and taking this a little bit more serious. And so I think for me, hopefully now I'm kind of giving back a little bit and people are seeing it for that and not just being like, oh, my God, I can't watch this dude work out. Right.
[00:33:55] Speaker A: I think what you're showing, obviously, is what it takes to play at a particular level. I mean, you're not doing this because it's fun. You're doing this because on the court, you want to be a competitive, winning player, and if you're not, you can get killed out there. These folks are. There's no joke what's going on in these senior level games. I mean, they are out for blood and they will take you out.
[00:34:19] Speaker B: The ball moves really fast.
People think they hear champions, pro or senior? Pro, and they're like, oh, you're just like popping the ball over the net. And I'm like, yeah, I don't think so. You should come watch a match.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: You got to see it in person.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Tv, even watching myself on tv, it just doesn't look like as fast as it normally is, and it's totally different, but, yeah, you're right. Listen, if I'm going to do this, I want to throw everything at it.
I've got a team around me, MH athletics. She's my trainer and sports massage therapy. She helps me out and solving acupuncture. I do acupuncture and cupping. So I'm trying to do it all and just make sure my body is at the. That's the last thing I want to worry about is my body being able to keep up, and I want my mind to do the work.
I'm probably in the best shape I have been in, like, 2025 years easily.
And so I'm looking forward to having all that kind of pay off over this next year. So it should be a fun 24 for sure.
[00:35:26] Speaker A: I mean, you had a great 2023, good start to the season, a lot to be proud of. Obviously, you played in two team pro level events and you're knocking on the door in the tournament. So well done, Paul.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it. And, yeah, thanks for having me on. And again, thanks for supporting senior pro pickleball. I appreciate it.
[00:35:47] Speaker A: You bet, brother. It's Paul Zicker, played for JBB United last season. We'll see who he lands with this season. National Pickleball League, captain of a Humana cup team and the app tour. Look for him out there. You're in the Chicagoland area. Probably come across him and you'll kick your butt. Don't play him in volleyball. All right, Paul, thanks for your time, man.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: All right. Thanks, Lee. Appreciate it.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: All right, folks, hope you enjoyed our conversation with Paul. All the info on Paul in the description as well as our newsletter as well. And at the end of the day, folks, hey, let's pickle.
