Talk about the power of pickleball. It can be life changing. JoAnnah is a great example of how pickleball changed her life and can yours too. Enjoy.
Guest Columnist: JoAnnah Micheal – USAPA Ambassador and one of the newest members of The Pickleball Mile Club.
How I Gained It:
In the past 6 years I’ve gone through life’s roller coaster of divorce, budget cuts, job loss, bachelor and graduate degrees, and hip surgery. I gained 75 lbs. in the process, because of almost no exercise and constantly eating junk food.
Breaking Point:
July of 2013, I was depressed, and did not know myself anymore. I hated my looks, had no energy, and avoided socials, cameras, and mirrors. Looking at photos of me alone brought such tears of frustration. It was a reality punch! The person who had gained all this weight just wasn’t me! Where was the fight, the grit that makes me, well me!?
I knew then that I had to step up and become active. I wasn’t sure how to go about it, but knew that the first step for better health and wellness was overcoming the past six years of life’s negative obstacles in my head to a positive image and then adjust my habits, such as the unhealthy eating habits, sedentary lifestyle, and surgery.
How I Lost It:
So what was that first step? Having been an athlete all my life until these past few years, I focused on positive imagery of a healthier and slimmer me. In order to achieve this I needed to get back into exercising again to reach my ultimate weight-loss goal of 75 lbs.
I began to walk every day but that wasn’t enough. While volunteering with the Foundation for Shackleford Wild Horses in Beaufort, NC I decided to check out the Carteret County Parks & Recreation activity programs. Their website included a flyer for some oddly named game called, “Pickleball” offered twice a week at the local Morehead City gym. Much to my surprise I found myself eager to attend a session of this funny named game.
Walking in as play had started was tough. However, I was welcomed with open paddles and big smiles. The local USAPA Ambassador taught me this fun and social game, and I was immediately hooked! Pickleball allowed me to play at my own pace while being cautious of my hip/weight/lack of conditioning challenges.
Returning to my home in Asheville, NC I started playing locally. It wasn’t easy but other picklers supported me as we encouraged each other to lose weight together. With my background in highly competitive women’s sports I didn’t like being the slowest player on the court! It was hard for me not to overdo it so my hip gave me challenges. The exciting news was that the more I played, the more weight began to drop off and helped ease my hip pain and yes, improved my game too!
This motivated me to eat healthier. My pantry and fridge were emptied of all junk food. I boosted my veggie and salad intake and ate smaller meals more often instead of extra-large ones. I now understood why pickleball is the Nation’s fastest growing sport with players with previous injuries that could now get out on a court again and exercise again. I was delighted!
The Reward:
Now I usually play five days a week at different WNC venues and enter as many tournaments as I can.
My best motivation is to see the numbers on the scale going down and my workout clothes falling off. By setting mini-goals of losing 10 pounds at a time has really worked.
Other players saw the positive results and began their own health and wellness goals as we supported each other. While there’s more pounds to lose, I look back at my pickleball weight loss journey and am thrilled. I feel like a new woman at 55 with pickleball being the core of my weight loss success.
I love to play and the way this sport makes me feel. Pickleball has transformed my life and has motivated me to share not only my weight loss journey with others but also, promoting the sport, sharing the rewards of health and wellness, socialization fun and community cohesion. Just some of the reasons why I became the USAPA District Ambassador, NC Mountains District.
This positive turn around has brought back my confidence. We all have different ways of reaching ultimate weight-loss goals, but the end results are often the same: a well-deserved sense of accomplishment and a new more positive outlook on life. I’ve earned a tremendous perspective on what it takes to live and maintain a healthier lifestyle. What surprises me the most is how those six years of weight gain melted away in only one year of playing competitive pickleball.
Get inspired to get fit and get the best body you’ve always wanted by playing this awesome funny named game!
Come join the pickleball weight loss movement and so much more! Everyone deserves to feel this wonderful!
The greatest week in pickleball has wrapped up and everyone left raving about the experience.
One huge vendor tent combined with 28 courts and almost 700 players, plus dozens of Sun City Festival Pickleball Club and USAPA volunteers created the most spectacular tournament in pickleball history.
After watching players aged eight to eighty play over 2000 matches during the seven days, we have come to one conclusion.
It is great to play any time when you are at the National tournament, but if there is one goal that every pickleball player young or old should have, it’s to play under the lights. It is just special to see and feel the atmosphere at those matches that are played at the end of the day.
If you are playing under the lights, it means pretty much everyone has lost except you. The crowd is totally focused on you, the music is blaring during the timeouts and the TV cameras are rolling. It means you have survived a long, hard day and a medal is likely coming your way.
The matches under the lights are special. Think about the tennis US Open in New York at night. Yeah, it’s just like that, only better because you get to play in it.
So make it your goal to play under the lights.
It will be tough to do, but certainly worth the effort.
Good luck in next years National tournament in Casa Grande.
From The Pickleball Champions Club: A Helping Pickleball Grow Tip
Hey Pickleball Nation,One of the most asked questions we get from people who are actively trying to grow their community is this: How do I get my local church or YMCA or school to let us play pickleball at their facility?
Most of the time we hear people say, “I did a presentation to this or that organization. I gave them all the benefits of playing pickleball and still they turned me down. They just won’t work with us.”
It’s not that they won’t work with you. It’s just that your approach to getting them to work with you might need to change.
In our communities, our success has always been based on a specific, well-planned strategy.
OUR STRATEGY? We never approach any facility unless we have already had some key person in that facility try and embrace pickleball first.
Example 1: I have a friend who plays with us, who is friends with a Baptist minister at a church about 15 miles from us. He asked his Baptist minister friend to do him a favor and come try pickleball. He wasn’t approached with “hey you might like this and then we can use your church”. He was approached by his friend to try it personally because we thought he would enjoy the fun. The Baptist minister immediately fell in love with it and painted an indoor court and two outdoor courts at his church.
Example 2: I have a friend who is a Phys Ed teacher in our school system. I asked him to do me a favor and meet me at our outdoor courts to try this silly sport. He instantly loved it, put it into the school curriculum and now helps us get indoor gyms to use in the wintertime.
Bottom line is, If you think THE MAYOR is the key person who can help you get a place to play, then find someone, who knows someone, who knows the mayor well enough to invite him/her to play. Find and invite the right individuals to play who you or one of your players already have a relationship with. Once they are hooked, they will naturally help you get a facility that they have some influence over.
The old adage “it’s not what you know, but who you know” is very true when it comes to finding facilities to play pickleball.
It’s not about shouting the benefits at people. We all know that doesn’t seem to work.
It’s all about building relationships with “THE RIGHT PEOPLE.”
Find the right people and they will do the rest for you.
Are you registered to be a part of the world record attempt at holding the world’s biggest pickleball tournament? It happens every year about this time. Our whole “Pickleball Rocks” team is registered and ready to play. Plus we just sent in our yearly signed contract to sponsor it. This year’s USAPA National Tournament in Buckeye, Arizona promises to be the biggest and best yet.
From yesterday’s national press release:
Said National Marketing Director, Josh Grubbs, “we love being a part of this great annual event. All the best players will be there, and as usual we will use the nationals to unveil our new fall line of trademarked “Pickleball Rocks” clothing, plus we will be introducing a great new pickleball related program that players everywhere will absolutely love. We can hardly wait.”
The 2014 USAPA National tournament will be held November 2-9 at Sun City Festival in Buckeye, Arizona.
If you haven’t registered yet, the deadline is October 5th.
And as Josh said in the press release, “All the best players will be there”. I’m going anyhow. 🙂
It will be fun to see all our old friends and make a ton of new ones.
Hope you’ll join us there. I promise you’ll have a good time.
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