This is Pickleball

Rick and Fabian are back at Third Shot Pickleball, where the show started a year ago, and both are headed to Dallas. Rick previews the Champion Series Pickleball Championships: his Indy team picked Coachella as its first-round opponent, Houston has gone undefeated all season, and he tells the story of last year's finals, when Seattle's cowbells were stolen and the opponents took the good seats. He also explains why he thinks playing for the paycheck is "a dangerous perspective" for a senior pro,

Rick's out on court, so Fabian sits down with PPA pro Blaine Hovenier. Blaine played college tennis at UCLA, earned a master's in finance at SMU and was headed for investment banking. Then pickleball happened. He'd played fewer than 10 times when he entered his first tournament and lost first round of qualies, and he got hooked anyway. Blaine walks through turning down the finance path, signing with the PPA, taking Fed and Pablo to three games, and why being a bigger guy is no help when someone

Rick and Fabian are back in person at 3rd Shot Pickleball to recap the Great Pumpkin Paddle Battle. Signups sat at 30 three weeks out and finished at 150, and the open singles division sold out with $500 to the winner. Then they get into DUPR's new data: only 1% of rated players are 5.0 or above, almost a third sit between 3.0 and 3.49, and Florida and California lead the country in 5.0 players. Rick says 5% of the world thinks they're a 5.0, and he has a message for anyone blaming a DUPR drop o

Fabian sits down with comedy creator Sean Munoz, JuanSeanPB on social media, to talk about how a guy who thought pickleball was "the dumbest looking thing ever" in 2021 became Volair's go-to creator. Sean breaks down his day at Sean O'Malley's Pickleball Dojo, what happens now that 12-year-olds won't let you lob them, why every pro outside the top 10 needs to be making content, and the difference between a 6-million-view meme and followers who actually stick around. Then they get into the fun s

🏓 Save 10% on an Aireo Cyclone Paddle! Use code FABIAN10 🏓 Save 15% on an RPM Paddle! Use code FABIAN15 Rick is back after an incredible two-week stint in New York City supporting his nephew, Ben Shelton, during his epic US Open run! Rick and Fabian unpack the entire experience—from playing pickleball in the middle of Times Square to the high-stakes, late-night drama on Arthur Ashe Stadium. They dive into the controversy surrounding late-night scheduling, serve clock violations, and how the men

Save 10% on an Aireo Cyclone Paddle! Use code FABIAN10 Save 15% on an RPM Paddle! Use code FABIAN15 Welcome back to This Is Pickleball! Fabian is holding down the fort while Rick recovers from watching his nephew Ben Shelton tear up the US Open. On this episode, we're joined by a true prodigy: Camden Chaffin, the youngest signed male professional player on the PPA Tour. Cam shares his mind-blowing journey from picking up a wooden paddle during the pandemic at age nine to taking down top-ranked