Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Sleeve's senior pickleball report is brought to you by TNC Network. Get ready for an exciting episode of people of Pickleball with Mike Sliva. We're about to dive deep into conversations with influential figures from the world of pickleball, so let's get it going.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Today we speak with Jeff Jennifer Galwaz, who is a member of Naples JBB United from the newly formed National Pickleball League. She's also a physical therapist. We talk all things physical therapy and pickleball and a little bit of tennis as well. Okay, folks, before we get to that, consider subscribing to our channel. Hit that notification bell so you don't miss anything. Check out all the discount links in the description for different paddles and shoes, and subscribe to our newsletter for your daily updates on the Pickleball universe. All right, let's get to that chat with Jen.
Jen Galwis from JBB United, the new uniform National Pickleball League. Welcome, finally to the senior Pickleball Report.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Thank you for having me.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Absolutely. It took us a while to connect, but it's going to be worth it because obviously there's a lot of exciting things happening in pickleball. And with you, we'll get to what you do for a living and we'll get to, obviously, JBB United and NPL, which has been an amazing season so far. But first and foremost, we always start with how the silly ball game entered your life, and it's taken over part of it. So start us off there, if you would.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. Like so many, I came from a tennis background. I played tennis in college. That's actually what brought me from Idaho to Chicago, was, oh, okay. I resisted because I played competitive tennis until two years ago. To be honest, this is my first year. I'm not playing tennis any longer. But on a girls trip to Cabo, and she kept saying, oh, we got to play pickle. And they had these nice courts, and there was a tournament and she signed us up. And after two days of playing and that's all we did. We didn't do the know there were eight of us. We just played the entire time. And it was so much fun. It was such a quick learning curve, all different levels of us. And then fast forward, I went to spring break just by chance, to Naples with the family. And somebody just told me about the facility, the beautiful facility. And I actually went there. I didn't even have a paddle. I'd only played those few times. Cabo and I met Bob Strumman at the park borrowed his paddle. He said, just use it for the week, kid, and get it back to me.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Sounds right.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: And my teenagers ignore me at the beach. So I went there every day for four days in a row, just played in and had a blast. I think I came back and I was all in from then on.
Chance meeting and a wonderful meeting to run into him and really get me started on.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And little did you know, obviously, what was coming down the pike. I mean, if somebody would have told you at that point not too long ago when you were into tennis and this game came into your life, that you would be playing in a professional league in a short period, you probably would have thought they were nuts, right?
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And I wouldn't have given up tennis because I always thought tennis was superior or better or harder or whatever.
[00:03:40] Speaker B: Sure, I played a little bit of tennis. I was like, any Joe that had a tennis racket in his garage would play every so often with their friends. But you played high level tennis. So maybe talk a little bit about that because the entry level is easier, no doubt. I mean, controlling a tennis ball is much more difficult than controlling a pickleball in many regards. But pickleball is a game, mainly a doubles game, where there's a lot of. You find out this very quickly when you run into people. There's a lot of things and nuance that you don't know. And you can look really silly really fast, even though you might have an extensive paddle or racket background. So talk about the transition for you and what was easy and what was difficult.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Okay, well, yeah, playing tennis my whole life, and I basically started pickle. That Naples trip was 2021, so I'm relatively two and a half years into pickle. And I did like mo's tennis players. I kind of known for playing tennis, ripping the ball. Yeah. At Naples they said, you know what a third shot drop is. I said, what?
He still likes tease me. He says, I cannot spell drop, but I can.
I wanted to evolve. So what worked last year in 4550 tournaments is not going to work at this level. So obviously you have to adapt and that hard game works only so much. So it is so much fun to.
The game was kind of easy at first to get to hear and then better players. And I love that there's eddies, there's atps, there's stacking, reverse stacking the points that go really long and waiting and waiting and waiting for them to make a mistake or to put the ball up.
The sports gets more and more fun to me.
This with friends and my kids. And then you start to find better games and like, oh, this is really. There's more to this exciting, because I didn't want to. Okay, this is where it at. The ceiling is high, and the more the strategy comes in and the level gets higher, the game gets more fun to me.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: To be honest with tennis, I still love tennis, but I was getting worse at tennis. When you play high level and it's harder to find similar players with the league. I was traveling downtown Chicago, the suburbs, and pickle, even. Just like, I'm bored. I just show up at a park.
I'll go work on something. I'll just work on my short game or serve back hands the whole time. And just from 15 years old to 17, we have a park. You just show up. Yeah, all ages. It's extremely inclusive. I think people can learn pretty quickly where none of my friends play tennis with me. So tennis is like, just did by myself. Come home. I didn't hang out.
Know Usta and Nitl and that. But pickle has been like this whole new group of friends. I helped this country club open last night, and the four of us had a pro exhibition match. It was.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: Oh, cool.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: It was so fun. It was a 29, so two young pros, I call them, were playing me, but a 30 year old.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: Yeah. That's what's great about the game, obviously.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: I feel like it's very inclusive. It's extremely social.
It's been so much fun. I really love it.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that's what I'm gleaning off. Most people that I talk to is not only is it fun, but they're sort of super grateful for this new experience to come into their life, and it sort of rejuvenates their athletic world. And obviously, like you mentioned, you get introduced to countless numbers of people that you would have never really run into, and you have this whole new community of friends almost instantly or in a very short.
So. And then obviously, you come into the league, like the National Pickleball League, NPL, and that expands a couple of things for, you know, players that enter this league are probably all learning as they go the deficiencies in their own game because obviously they're playing with teammates and then they're playing against competitors on other teams.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: And then at the end of the day, also, you're hanging out. So talk a little bit about your NPL experience.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: So, I mean, I heard about back in the winter when they were having this combine tryout, so I was lucky to go to that.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: So you went to the combine? Okay.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Right on. Yes. And I had a couple of friends that encouraged me to go. And I don't know if I was going to have a chance, but I thought, you know what, three days of pickle for my spring break, I asked, I only have one child left in high school. And I said, I'm going to come late to spring break. They said, my daughter's like, if you have a chance to compete and mom, go, go do it and have fun. And everyone was so nice, whether you. I made it to know I wanted to go try to win it. So I had a spot. It didn't happen, but literally made friends, exchanged numbers. Somebody was texting me the next month to know us open with her. And everyone was in just a really good mood and happy. Whether they were going to win it or what that meant for the. That three day combine was a blast. It was well run and it made me excited about the league. Like, this is really going to be a well run league. There's people that are excited. They're putting a lot of time and energy.
Rick and Michael have been amazing. It is. And then to be invited to the live draft, you don't know if you're going to be drafted. And there are people there even at my table that were not. And so like, well, you have nothing to lose. Might as well go. And if you don't, if you do, great. But it was really fun. I was so excited. Yeah.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: I mean, you're at a combine something, right? I mean, the combine is historic enough. Obviously, there's a combine for people that are 50 plus to play at a pro level. And then I feel like it's sort of like college football. You're at this NFL draft and you're sitting around waiting for your name to get called so you can go up there with your jersey and put the hat on and know JVB United talk about just sitting there and waiting. Sort of know, am I going to get drafted? Do you have an mean, you know, Bob give you a hint that he'd draft you?
[00:09:41] Speaker A: No. He know. I will say that I think I played well at the combine. I think know did enough, but until nowhere. When I get over confidence, because I don't know all the people that weren't. There were lots of people that weren't at the combine that are rated much higher. I think my rating was just under a five at the time. And I thought, if you don't have that over 50, I'm really a nobody. I had no ranking.
I'm like, barely 50. So I just started senior pro this year. I was playing more the 50 tournaments and I don't. Three tournaments. So I was so new, so I didn't expect anything. So it's great if it happens, but if not, I'll just go back and work harder. But it's kind of funny. So I have a couple of friends there and you're kind of nervous. So my friend and partner David George, I think Bob's going to, I don't know, but this other team talked to know some of the people talked to you at the go. I think this team, I have a chance on this one. He said, I think not. I said, what do you mean? So they explained that the first pick was the first person and then they were going to go alphabetical order.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: So you didn't know, right? Exactly.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: Number one pick, John Spurling, and then the rest are just an alphabetical order. Naples going, so there have been three teams that have gone and I'm sitting like, you know, there's only three left and you're like, yeah, Bob hadn't gone yet, but he goes, I think not. I'm like, why? He goes, they're on s. Your last name is like, you know, there's another team. So then Bob, and he was so cute because he said, well, this one. And he started talking about how we met and then it was just a really fun party and just to see something that you really want and to know that you're going to be included in this league and have all these future dates to travel and meet all these awesome players that I've heard about and get to play with and against.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:34] Speaker A: It was super exciting.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about so far. Obviously you have one normal regular season event left, we'll call it. And then obviously the championship coming up.
What are your thoughts so far? I mean, has the league met expectations? Obviously they're treating you well. They're treating you like professionals. I've been to one event, I was at the Kansas City event and there's people walking around asking if you need anything. Everybody's cheering. Team breakers happen. It's like a little stadium thing happens and everybody's gathering around it. So obviously the enthusiasm is there and the level of play is really phenomenal. But obviously we have expectations and then the reality happens. How about you so far experiencing the league play, is it met expectations, exceeded expectations? Is it different than you thought? What are your thoughts on that so far?
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Gosh, well, when it comes to my team for sure has exceeded expectations beyond just the talent of play.
There's nine females.
This group gets along so well. We have the funniest text chains. We are constantly making jokes and we care about each other so much. So I really feel like there's not a lot of ego and Jen, will you play this pod or this pod or. I'll play with anybody. I'll play. We don't have any of that. I mean, of course you want to win, but like even know. But we're so lucky to have Bob Stroman and Jen McCor coaching us. They're just class acts and yeah, we want to win, but not above any drama or anything.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Right?
[00:13:16] Speaker A: So literally, like pod one players are saying, I'll play pod two, or let's move things around to try different combinations as we go into the big final thing is when we figure things out, we've had times where John wasn't there or play I wasn't the last one. We've had always a few people missing. So we're very fluid and we're very flexible. So as far as the actual team, I love our team. Like, we're going to be friends for life.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Yeah. That's awesome. That's the most important part.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Oh, it's so much fun. I mean, just like to have all these new friends and now future tournaments like texting each other. Do you want to play Chicago open? Do you want to play?
[00:13:51] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:13:51] Speaker A: That's been awesome. But the level play has been really fun. Great matches. It's fun to play with new partners and know people know because when you play in the, like we went to Cincinnati, it rained a couple of times and then now you're in the loser bracket and then you're waiting around and rained a lot.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Right.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: I went back to my hotel by myself.
You try to find someone to go have dinner with. But this NPL culture is almost like being back in college. We all are hanging out. Like, we go to the, sometimes we go to the pool after 80s parties. Yeah, exactly. All the 80s party was so much fun. But we have every Bob, he's been so generous. And this team unity picks you up from the airport. We go to every meal together. And so it's been so much fun. It's the most fun I've had in a long time.
[00:14:39] Speaker B: And it's just right on.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: You feel young and you feel like it's to compete again. And I have two in college now and one daughter is a senior. And so it feels like your time again to do something.
[00:14:50] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: Just for you.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: Right.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: Always about my kids sports?
[00:14:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, obviously the fun factors there. I follow a ton of players in this league on social media and you can tell that this community is really tight and you can tell they have the priorities. You know, I watch a lot of pro Pickleball app, PPA, MLP, but the thing I notice is there seems to be a different attitude. And that's because obviously all of you have lived your lives to a great extent and you've done things, you've had experiences, you've run businesses, you've had jobs, you have a huge talent pool of people to draw from as far as how to create and how to maintain things. And you've really taken control of your own destiny and you've made your living, so to speak. So this is sort of the frosting on the cake and it's really cool to see people really enjoying each other's company and hanging out. But I'll make no mistake, I've said this in every interview, if you go watch this live, it's some serious pickleball. There's no joke. People are competing hard and the level is very high. I don't care what pod you're playing, it's good ball.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it is.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: New paddle company Pickle PcKl great paddle line, great price point. Anything you want, from starter paddle to intermediate to a pro series high level paddle, check them out. Get 15% off using my discount code. Pickle is the future.
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Yeah, so let's shift a little bit. You're a physical therapist?
[00:16:52] Speaker A: I am.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: And this sport, as I've heard some people call it, for people who are getting injured. It's the new crossfit of people kind of showing up to the ER or whatever. Now, I played for this month and I've really only dealt with one issue, and that's lower back pain. Okay?
Again, that's not necessarily from pickleball. I've had that throughout the years. I'm starting to do some yoga now, which has made a huge difference in only the three weeks I've been doing it.
But talk about not only what you're doing, but how you, I guess, implement that in your own life and your own playing, because you'll see an entire league of people here and people get aches and pains and things like that. Is it something that you can offer up advice? Do you? And what do you see going on out there?
[00:17:46] Speaker A: So I work for Athletico, which is big sports provider, and I'm actually in a mid. My, my clinic's location is inside a midtown tennis club. Okay. They have pickleball courts there. So I literally have patients of all ages and orthopedics. But I'm getting a lot of pickleball players and tennis players. It is mostly knees, low back and tennis elbow. I would say those are the three biggest. And even myself, I've had a little bit of a knee issue with a little bit meniscal. But all these articles about more injury. Well, these people, I would argue, are more active than they've ever been. They're having fun. So the benefit, always the risk. Absolutely. For sure.
You weren't addicted. People don't play tennis every single day. I never did. I'll play pickle in the morning and then someone calls you to play night, you're like, it's getting people out there. So mental aspect to have friends, have something to do.
She's starting to play and you do have to fit in the extra stuff. So even I was guilty of playing every day and no longer hitting the gym and doing the weight. So you do need to think about like with your knees, you need to get your quads, your glutes, your core strength.
The difference, biggest difference in tennis and pickle is that reaching in, we close the net. You don't have to wait.
So you're not leaning so tall. People especially, I think with their backs to get that shot because of the nature of the game. So they're having back issues. Well, then they should go after their core, their butt, their hips. Other people are bending a lot, their knees, but they don't have the strength. A lot of it's just repetitive overuse, sure. Muscles higher, getting your quads, your glutes, your hips. So spend maybe three days a week playing pickle and then three days a week really doing strengthening, not even cardio strengthening those muscles. So we incorporate that a lot in our clinics. Preventative, prevent, protect and then rehab. So if you are injured, wear a knee brace or we're going to strengthen targeted muscles to get you back out there. So yeah, this is a 50 over community in the NPL, but it's all ages.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Oh, for sure.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: But other sports have all kinds of injuries. It's getting a lot of press, it's super popular, and people are playing a lot more often. Than they do their other sports.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: Those are excellent points. You're right. It is the new shiny object, so to speak, at least the states. And so it gets a lot of attention with the conflict between tennis courts and pickleball courts and players and obviously injuries and things like that. But going back to NPL a little bit, does NPL have something like where between matches you can go stretch out or get a massage or whatever it happens to be? No.
[00:20:43] Speaker A: They've done a great job. Every single weekend there's a sponsor of a chiropractor, the stretch places and pt on staff. One of the owners is an orthopedic surgeon. So there's always an area to go stretch before inside. They're doing a great job with that.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: Yeah, right on. Yeah. They're taking care of their folks because that's got to maintain the league.
When winding up here, let's talk about, I guess, expectations for the future of NPL and your role in it. What do you see coming down the pike? I'm not asking you to give any inside secrets or anything like that, but where do you see this league going over the next few years?
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. Well, personally, I remember I told Bob the other day, I hope we don't wait till this time next year to do it again. It's like on the season, the show gets over and you're like, you have to wait a year. Right?
I'm going to have to go back in the draft.
I think the teams can protect like one or two players, but that'll be like the number ones or whatever. Most of us will go back in. I have a lot of 49 year old friends that cannot wait.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: I'm sure.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: I was never so happy to turn 50 in my life.
I'm so glad I'm not 48, two years away. Right. But there's going to be more teams coming in. I know that they for sure that even that week of the draft there were like all these other teams we want in and to the credit of Michael and Rick, they were like, we want to do this. Know, you do something smaller, you really do. Well, instead of. Just so I know there's going to be no more teams next year. I don't have a number. I don't know what that looks like. I imagine it'll be more teams and maybe not as many players on each team.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: Right. I've heard that as well.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: Yeah. How are you going to have that? You can't have four pods and ten teams.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: Which change the dynamic. But again, it could be a smaller tire unit.
I hope that they go with it quicker. Of course, we're going to be done in October. Probably take a few months off to do it again, but we want it again.
[00:22:50] Speaker B: I could see like, yeah, there'll be another combine or two and there'll be a draft.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: I'm assuming February because you want to get back to see like, it's like a summer break and you want to get back to college.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: Right.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: Your friends again.
So I'm really hoping that I did enough this year and to be drafted next year and who knows if that. Hopefully you stay on the same team, but if you don't, they've done such a good job, especially speaking of my owner and all the other owners. You talk to everybody we all know. Yeah, we all sit and chitchat even after matches. Everyone wishes each other well. Even if you lost 1110 in the third, right.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:28] Speaker A: It's grateful to be part of this experience. I'm grateful.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: Right. And I think that's all the way down from players and up to ownership. I've interviewed at least one person on every ownership team and you can tell everybody is just so jacked to be involved in this. And when I was in Kansas City, I didn't feel sort of any division or people rooting for their teams, but people were just happy to be there and having a really good time and competing really hard and promoting NPL along with their team. I think everybody seems to see the bigger picture of like, this league has set a very high bar and I would argue that coming out of the gates, this league's doing things that the other professional leagues, the open pro leagues, are not doing. First of all, I've mentioned this before. They show every match. You can watch every match.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: I can't believe it on YouTube.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: That's an incredible thing. And I think the thing that I've noticed the most is that everybody feels like they're treated as a professional and they're treated the same. And you can't say that for every league that's going on right now. And NPL has done a really good job, like you've mentioned being very inclusive and very welcoming to everyone and making them feel like they're part of something bigger than just themselves, their team, but this league in general and pickleball as a sport, because whether people like it or not, professionals on some level are representing this game on a higher level because they're getting the exposure and they're on tv and they're on the media and I'd love to see know be on a larger platform because I think the ball is so good and I think a lot of people in leagues could learn from NPL because they've set the bar so high right out of the gate.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that'd be amazing.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: It would be pretty cool. So to get you out of here, let's talk about some folks you'd like to maybe mention. Give a shout out to because obviously none of us do this on our know, people make sacrifices, there's sponsorship sometimes. Anybody you'd like to give a shout out to know made this possible for you, whether it's friends, family or whatever.
[00:25:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, a couple things. I mentioned the three founders, but I want to mention Julie Weston as well because that girl is working her tail off and always smiling and is so lovely and kind and super nice on Friday from the themes from the gift bags, they're spoiling us and making it really fun. So all the people involved are just. Thank you so much because they're doing a great job. Obviously I mentioned my amazing owner, Bob Stroman. And Jennifer, who gives such valuable hall of famer her coaching advice, she's like, give me the chance. I want you thinking, give me their little tips. They help a lot.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. She knows what she's doing.
[00:26:21] Speaker A: Yeah. So I listen, I'm grateful for her help, obviously. I have an awesome husband, Rick, and I have three kids, Jack, Audrey, page two, and one's at Illinois, one's at the University of Kentucky. And then I've got a daughter that's a senior. So they make jokes that when I started playing pickle, there was no longer food in the fridge.
I never picked.
It's kind of true.
She could drive herself. She's 60.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: So, yeah, it's just been really. I mean, as far as sponsorships and things, there's some things. Athletic has been great to me and all the sponsors of the league have been amazing.
And then it's just for fun. Now I'm running a couple of clinics. Oh, you can actually.
David George. So we play outside of the league. We're on the same team just by chance. We play, you know, the PPH stuff together, like Cincinnati and we did Beer City recently. We've been playing together for about a year and a half. So we're doing clinics that are called. He's a professor and I'm a the PT and the professor.
He thinks they should be called the professor and the PT. So maybe you can weigh in because you have so much experience. So I'm older by about.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: So I said, dave, I'll ask please, what he thinks.
[00:27:40] Speaker B: I actually like the PT and professor a little better. I think it rolls off the tongue a little.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's a great idea. And again, anything that you want to to send me, we'll have all these links in the description how to find Jen and if she's running some clinics, hopefully so folks can come up and show up for those things.
Thanks for your time. I appreciate it. And I look forward to meeting you in person in Glendale at the championship.
Go JBB United. And hey, enjoy the rest of the season. And hey, let's pickle.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: And I want to thank you for your support. Thank you for having me on and senior pickle and the NPL. And I really look forward to meeting you at that final. It's going to be so much fun.
[00:28:32] Speaker B: Oh my God. It's going to be out of hand. I'm really looking forward to it. Thanks to Jennifer for her time. Great information and always fun to speak with somebody with that kind of enthusiasm for the game and life in general. Okay, folks, remember, at the end of the day, hey, let's pickle. Hey, if you're looking for very, very comfortable court shoes, in fact, the most comfortable court shoes I've ever worn, and I've worn a lot of them over the years playing different sports, try Fitville. We have a link in the description that gets you $20 off your purchase.
You.
