Episodes

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 ...

Save 10% on an Aireo Cyclone Paddle Use code FABIAN10 Save 15% on an RPM Paddle Use code FABIAN15 Rick joins us LIVE from NYC, direct from the US Open, following one of the most athletic and electrifying tennis matches in recent history: Ben Shelton's jaw-dropping, late-night victory over Carlos Alcaraz that ended after 3:00 AM. As Ben's uncle, Rick shares an intimate, behind-the-scenes look from the player's box, detailing the spiritual connection to his late brother Todd Whitsken, the incredi...

Save 10% on an Aireo Cyclone Paddle Use code FABIAN10 Save 15% on an RPM Paddle Use code FABIAN15 We welcomed the CEO of DUPR, Tito Machado, to the podcast for an honest conversation about the most talked-about, debated, and scrutinized rating system in sports. Tito opened up about his journey from Silicon Valley and tennis facility management to taking the reins at DUPR during its wildest growth phase. Before diving into the algorithm, we caught up on his intense training for Ironman Lanzarote...

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! First up is our MLP/CSP Chicago Recap—Rick breaks down the historic event where Major League Pickleball and Champions Series Pickleball shared the stage at Lifetime North Shore in Chicago. From taking a Mach 10 forehand directly to the face and going full "Chainsaw Rick" mode after gushing blood, to pulling off a wild no-look reflex winner that almost cracked ESP...

This week we are joined by the incredible hosts of the new podcast 99% Pickleball, PPA Pro Mari Humberg, and content creator extraordinaire Nikki Maldonado. We dive deep into their origin stories—from Mari pitching her C-suite executives to sponsor her pro tour debut, to Nikki discovering the sport through a bar flyer during a dark time in her life. It's a masterclass in how pickleball changes lives both inside and outside the lines of the court. Plus, we get into the nitty-gritty of the pro ga...

Save 10% on an Aireo Cyclone Paddle! Use code FABIAN10 Save 15% on an RPM Paddle! Use code FABIAN15 This week we sit down with one of the most explosive players on the pro tour: Australia's Danni-Elle Townsend. Danni-Elle breaks down her rapid ascent from a lifelong table tennis prodigy to a formidable force on the PPA and MLP tours. She explains exactly how reading spin and generating power on the table tennis table translates into her lethal, aggressive "hunter" style at the kitchen line. From...

Save 10% on an Aireo Cyclone Paddle! Use code FABIAN10 Save 15% on an RPM Paddle! Use code FABIAN15 Rick is BACK in the studio, and we are skipping the fluff to answer the internet's most controversial pickleball questions! We dive deep into the forums to tackle the ultimate Reddit debate: Is dinking below a 4.0 level actually useless? Rick aggressively shuts down the "bang-everything" mentality, explaining why mastering the soft game is your only true ticket to leveling up, extending rallies, a...

Links: Buy an Aireo Cyclone: Save 10% using code FABIAN10 Buy an RPM Friction Pro: Save 15% using code FABIAN15 Think the pro pickleball lifestyle is all first-class flights, massive paddle contracts, and easy money? Think again. We sit down with the PPA Tour's ultimate giant-killer and Columbus Sliders singles specialist, Alex "AC Baby" Crum, to completely shatter the illusion of the pro tour. If you've ever thought about quitting your 9-to-5 to chase the pickleball dream, this episode is the ...

Links: Buy an Aireo Cyclone and save 10% with code FABIAN10 Buy an RPM Friction Pro or Q2 and save 15% with code FABIAN15 This week, host Fabian holds down the studio while Rick is out in full swing crushing tennis and pickleball lessons. Fabian sits down with the man of many names—PPA Tour World No. 6 singles phenom and St. Louis Shock weapon, John Lucian Goins. We unpack a wild, full-circle realization as John reveals that our very own Rick Witsken was actually his first-ever tennis coach at a...

Use code FABIAN10 to SAVE 10% off the Aireo Cyclone!! In this episode Fabian sits down with Scarlett Chen and Matthias Kling, the visionary co-founders behind Aireo Sports, to break down the incredible internet hype and cutting-edge paddle technology behind the Aireo Cyclone—the exact paddle that just carried Fabian to his very first 3.5 gold medal. From a chance meeting on a flight from Paris to Shanghai to combining a 20-year background in materials physics research with global supply chains,...

WE ARE DALLAS BOUND! ✈️🤠 Fabian won GOLD and officially punched his ticket to the PPA World Championships! In this episode, we are taking you inside the emotional roller coaster of our recent tournament run at the Greatest Spectacle Qualifier. Fabian kicks things off with a raw, completely honest recap of his first-ever singles bracket—where a brutal 0-5 run provided a massive reality check (and a hilarious way to spin a loss by "lowering his opponents' DUPR scores"). But the real magic happens...

What actually makes a "good" partner? It isn't just a DUPR rating. In this episode, Rick Witsken and Fabian Rodriguez break down the intricate dance of pickleball partnerships. Rick shares his "Big Rick" philosophy on taking the middle, the importance of high EQ during timeouts, and why phrasing your suggestions as "we" instead of "you" can be the difference between a gold medal and a blowout. We also recap a wild weekend in the PPA, featuring the "Tama Time" phenomenon—a 15-year-old surfer fro...

In this episode, we sit down with Steve Hoy, a certified DUPR assessment coach at 3rd Shot Pickleball. Fabian opens up about his "Road to 4.0" which recently hit a massive speed bump—an 0-4 tournament finish that led to a literal identity crisis (and a fresh haircut). Rick provides a masterclass on player accountability, explaining why focusing on the process rather than the result is the only way to escape the "quicksand" of a downward spiral. We then dive deep into the controversial world of ...

Nico The Lefty is everywhere. In less than a year, he went from a corporate strategy role at Intuit to becoming one of the most recognizable (and polarizing) voices in the sport as the co-host of the Picklepod. But how did it happen so fast? In this episode, Fabian Rodriguez sits down with Nico to peel back the curtain on the "Nico The Lefty" persona. They dive deep into the business of being a creator, including the exact breakdown of how Nico hit a $10,000 month through affiliate marketing an...

Welcome back to the studio! Rick and Fabian dive headfirst into the massive legal bombshell rocking the pickleball world: JOOLA has filed patent infringement lawsuits against 11 major brands. We break down the "Propulsion Core" controversy and discuss whether this is a move to protect innovation or an attempt to "buy the industry." From the merger of the NPL into the Championship Series Pickleball (CSP) to the new partnership with the MLP, the landscape of professional pickleball is shifting ben...

What happens when you combine three guys from Kansas City making "dumb videos" with three Yale grads crushing e-commerce? You get Friday Pickleball, the fastest-growing (and funniest) brand in the game. We sat down with Isaac and Scott from Friday Pickleball to go behind the scenes of their meteoric rise. The guys get transparent about the initial legal friction and tense first impressions that almost prevented their partnership from ever happening to the shocking decision to turn down a massive...

In this episode, we dive deep into the most controversial news in the sport: the DUPR Reset. Is it a necessary validation tool for the "boots on the ground" players, or is it just a $35 money grab? Rick shares a personal horror story of how winning a gold medal actually caused his rating to tank and why he refuses to play another tournament without paddle testing. The guys also lay out the ultimate blueprint for tournament success. From 48-hour hydration windows and the "Bazooka" paddle setup t...

Are you plateauing because of your paddle, or because of your brain? In this episode of This Is Pickleball, Rick Witsken and Fabian Rodriguez sit down with pro player, club owner, and former military linguist Susannah Barr to dive into the core of high performance: The Pickleball Grit Mindset. Susannah reveals her 77-day military-inspired blueprint designed to harden your mental game and eliminate "playing for giggles." If you've ever felt distracted on the court or frustrated by a lack of prog...

Ever wonder what it takes to organize 7,000 players, 500 pros, and 56,000 fans in a single week? Welcome Inside the Biggest Pickleball Party in the World. In this episode, we sit down with Ben Weinberger, President and Tournament Director of the US Open Pickleball Championships. Ben reveals the staggering growth of the 10th-anniversary tournament, the "humbling" reality of turning away thousands of lottery applicants, and the business strategy behind the DraftKings-backed acquisition of the spor...