Sounds Like A Cult - The Cult of Pickleball

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

If you've been paying attention at all, you know that this weeks cult is growing at a mighty pace. The rate at which Americans and individuals from all over the world have decided to blindly spend all their free time idolizing this secret force is astonishing. On this weeks episode we get into it and discuss the much requested topic of The Cult of Pickleball. From their exclusive language to their outfits, rituals and cliquey us versus them mentality towards other recreational sports this is one for the books. Isa is joined by special guest and Pickleball enthusiast, Ruby Karp (@RubyKarp) to decide if this is a Live Your Life, a Watch Your Back or a Get the F*ck Out level cult?  This episode was hosted, edited and produced by @isaamedinaa - go to her IG or website to tell her where to perform stand up, keep up with her work and learn more about her new podcast coming in 2024 (!!) Follow the podcast @soundslikeacultpod Thank you to our sponsors:  Hatch is offering our listeners $20 off your purchase of a Hatch Restore 2 and free shipping at hatch.co/cult  Dipsea is offering an extended 30 day free trial when you go to Dipseastories.com/cult   Manage your money the easy way, go to RocketMoney.com/SLAC

Thank you to our sponsor Hatch. Right now, Hatch is offering our listeners $20 off your purchase of a Hatch Restore 2 and Free Shipping at Hatch.co-sla-cult. Sleep deeply and wake gently with the restore 2. Go to Hatch.co-sla-cult to get $20 off and free shipping. That's Hatch.co-sla-cult. Thank you to our sponsor, Dipcy. Dipcy is an app full of hundreds of short-sexy audio stories designed by women for women. For listeners of the show, tipsy is offering an extended 30-day free trial when you go to tipsystories.com slash cult. That's 30 days of full access for free when you go to DIPSEAStories.com slash cult.

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When I first joined, started playing pickleball, I was an outsider. Like you have to prove yourself, you have to work your way up. People didn't really like me when I first came. Now that I got good though, I'm accepted into the crew, but they're kind of gonna ignore you and put you off to the side. Until you really, you know, earn your spot and major work. This is Sounds Like A Cult. A show about the modern-day cult, we all follow. I'm Esa Medina and I'm a comedian touring all over the country. Every week here on the pod, we take a deep dive

into one zealous group from the cultural zeitgeist, from Peloton die hearts to celebrity stands, to try and answer the big question. This group sounds like a cult, but is it really? Another week, another episode, this week, we are covering the cult of pickleball, everyone, and their mother has been telling us to cover this cult. And I am so excited to talk about it. All I can do is think of pickleball ever since I started looking into this cult.

And I am so excited to announce that we have a very special guest talking about it with me today. Hello, hello, Ruby. Could you introduce yourself for everybody? I'm Ruby Carp. I'm a comedian and video producer at Betches and guest today on Sounds Like A Call. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. I know, I like how we both just got very high pitch. I know, we did. We're in studio now, so it's intense.

Let's put it on for the camera I'm gonna show put on a show So would you consider yourself a member of the cult of pickleball? I am actually proud member of the pickleball cult and I'm also a connoisseur of drama and Famously pickleball actually has quite a bit of drama. There is so much drama I mean aside from the drama the cult of pickleball is full of drama. There is so much drama. I mean, aside from the drama, the cult of Pickleball is full of cultish influence in so many ways, everywhere from the language that they exclusively use,

like kitchen, dink, bodybag, stack, shaken bake. I mean, the term getting pickled. All the way to their outfits and rituals and clicky us versus them mentality towards tennis players and other recreational sports. But the cultiest thing about pickleball in my opinion is the drama with the leaders of the cult. There is so much drama. And I think people don't even realize it because I think there are two cults, quote unquote, of pickleball. There's like the pickleball that we, as like regular people know of just like,

you can go and play this sport and it's very accessible. But then there's the other side of pickleball, which is like the higher ups, which are the people who are like the NFL of pickleball. Essentially. That makes sense that there are two sides of this cult. You know, we have that a lot on the podcast where we cover fandom similar to this one, NFL of pickle ball. Essentially. Yeah. That makes sense that there are two sides of this cult. You know, we have that a lot on the podcast where we cover fandom similar to this one,

like the cult of Coachella. You know, you have the attendees, the people who go to the festival, but then you also have the people who run the festival. And that's what we're going to talk about. Those two separate cults, because with the cult of pickle ball, there is the cult of the people who play the game. And then there's the people who have been lobbying to make this sport grow faster than any other sport in recent US history.

So because we only have a limited amount of time, we are going to briefly cover the cult of the players and then we're going to get into the juicy part. But before we get into that, for anyone who's kind of been living under a rock, what is Pickleball? And where did it come from? Pickleball has found itself booming and growing, starting in 2018. And before that, Pickleball was truly like couldn't get arrested. Pickleball started in 1965, a literal US congressman and his friend were trying to entertain their kids and they didn't have the proper equipment to play full on tennis, but they created pickleball because they were using a wiffle ball, ping pong paddles, a badminton net, which then they lowered to 36

inches. Slowly this like homegrown sport grew and they made rules and stuff like that. It's the fastest growing sport in America. So it's essentially like a mini tennis court. I like to describe it as like human ping pong. Like if we were the size of our ping pong. That's a really good way to think about it. Because the court reflects is exactly like...

Pretty much. I mean, it's different. But it is like, that's how I like to visualize it. Yeah. Because like a tiny, if humans got shrunk, and point on a ping-pong table. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. It's obviously like a break-through internet. I know revolutionary thoughts. But the main difference is essentially that everything is smaller. Yeah. Yeah. And then I, so what I like heard when I was doing some research for this episode was that it's not like tennis because it's not about hitting the ball as hard as possible.

But it's more so the way this guy in an interview said it, it's about finesse. So it's about like style and the way that you hit the ball rather than like the force that you hit it with. Right. And it's also, in my personal experience, I work out a fair amount, but I would not qualify myself as someone who does sports for competition or does anything. Honestly, I, I, I'm not you. Saying this the weekend after you fainted. Okay, guys, I, I do, I do have a serious fainting issue that I do need to get a handle on. I, okay, that made it sound really intense.

I was just a matter of snacking at the right times. I'm truly, like, the hospital was like, you low-key, like, oversaturate on vibes. And you need to, like, kind of sit down sometimes and stop taking in the vibes. I, speaking of vibes, I'm personally someone who, I think I play pickleball and I play sports for the social for the fun of it. And that is truly what pickleball is about.

Yes, and I want to talk about that. I want to talk about the fun aspect. I want to talk about the everyday players before we get into the Colt TT. And to do that, we brought on another special guest, a co-worker of rubies at Beches, who is another pickleball of Fissionato, Sean Kilby, Sean. Before we get into it, what do you think is the biggest appeal of this cult from a positive perspective for most people? Okay, so much like most cults. I think the appeal of pickleball is the community out. I think people are looking for something to do with their time that is not too demanding,

but still fun and has a community element. I am on a group text called Carpe Dink, and we see the dink with like 25 people on it. How did you meet them all playing pickleball? So this is how I was recruited to the cult. Yeah. I have a friend. She really wanted to get in on it. Yeah. So she went, we was my birthday. We went down to the American South and we were

hanging out in Savannah, Georgia. And she got me from my birthday private pickleball lessons, professional player. So we did a little lesson and then we came back to New York and then we started our own little group. That sounds really fun and positive. What do you think is the most fun and least culty version of pickleball? So pickleball the most fun for like one on one, like, try hard. It's always doubles. Like people like professionals play one on one. I've watched them play.

It's like watching tennis. Like these guys like slow down. The idea of doubles is so fun to me. Yeah. I like the idea that it's like it's mixed ages, it's mixed genders, it's mixed skill levels and people are still able to have fun with it. I mean, this is a cult you want to join us. Yeah, you should be the spokesperson leader of this cult. It is one of those hobbies where you can get better quickly. And I've actually thought if you were like a coach in a different sport and you were trying to get somebody to understand how improvement in a hobby works,

you I would actually just like take them outside of their sport, put them in pickleball and like you do a few sessions and you can actually just like learn how to bend your mind towards getting better at it. Yeah, that appeals to people. The world is a boring place. There's not that much to do. Yeah. And what I'm hearing is that you don't have to hire a certain coach or you don't have to go down a certain path to get better, which is, again, it's like lack of barriers to entry, even on improving, even on ascending to the next level, you can do that. It's accessible to anyone.

Literally watch a video on YouTube. Before we get into the other side of the cult, I want to ask you can do that. It's accessible to anyone. Literally watch a video on YouTube. Before we get into the other side of the cult, I want to ask you one more question, which is how would you describe this game in comparison to any other regular green flag game? What would you compare it to? Pickable is the codenames of sports. It's the codenames of sports because it challenges you.

You have to work together as a team. People are having fun immediately. You want to like focus on getting, you know, better or whatever pushing yourself. Pickables is the code names of sports. We love it. We love to hear it. So Ruby, now back to you, you know, you play in New York. How seriously do you think people in the community take pickleball courts and spaces? I saw an article in the New York Times that says that like tennis court waitlists are out of control in the city.

Like people get up at like 6 a.m. and wait in line for hours to use tennis courts. Is that the same thing with pickleball court? Because I know that is an aspect of the pickleball community that can get pretty culty. In my experience, there is competition when it comes to claiming your space. Because if you put your net down,

that's like you claim that space and until you pick your net up, no one can really take your spot. And it's like, it's very awkward to approach someone and be like, hey, you guys have been here for like three hours. Can I like have a turn? Yeah. So you're not gonna do that.

So it is kind of like a, not to be like a pun, but it is like first come first serve. Oh, I think I'm not. Did you hear me? Wait, but also that lack of regulation is kind of culty because I know for a fact with tennis courts, you only have an hour. So you have 60 minutes and like people will literally time you

and then at 60 minutes on the dot, they'll like, this is my court now, you're off, but that doesn't exist with pickleball. There is quite a bit of drama with the free courts in general, like West Village, you know, you gotta love the West Village. The rich West Village parents. So you sent me this article that was like parents in New York City, say pickleball players are pushing kids and parents out of these spaces and it's funny

But it's quite serious. I mean apparently this is happening all over the country this pickleball takeover of public spaces and this Battle for public space especially with tennis and Why do you think that is happening right now Ruby? I think the hesitancy with pickleball is that it's like It's such this like new phenomenon to so many people that they don't see the purpose in a dedicated space. Yeah, that makes sense to me. I mean, this is happening so much, but we're going to use this West Village New York example

as a microcosm of that battle for space. So specifically in the West Village, this issue received heightened attention after an article in the Gothamist got published and it talked about the ongoing battle between the fed up parents and their kids having to dodge wiffle balls as they played catch or learn to ride bicycles. The standoff got the park's department to create two designated pickleball areas within Severoli playground to stop the makeshift ones from taking over the entire space. But this only drew more attention to the issue. Local elected officials condemned the use of this space for courts, and a petition that

was signed by 3,000 people was created by families united for open play that aimed to save Severally from quote, the pickleball takeover. They call the presence of the game quote, dangerous and unfair to the children to let this sudden land grab happen at their expense. I do completely understand how that can be annoying. I just think the image of like a bunch of PTA moms coming together to storm against the pickleball community is maybe the funniest matchup of Cole.

It's also literally like a cult versus Cole. Like the cult of PTA moms versus the cult of pickleball players. And then the kids are just like, I just really wanted to play tag. Yeah, they're like mom, please. Like mom, please don't get serious. Yeah, literally. Yeah, and even moms in that same interview that we're talking about the West Village.

Some of the moms were like just give them a little bit of space like why can't we come to like a Consensus where we like share the space or like you said why is there not more regulation? Which is a great segue into the organizational drama because in overall issue in Pickleball is the lack of regulation and I think that's like where a lot of the problems come from and is where it really starts to get Coltie. Yeah, so let's get into that. My name is Adi. I'm from Brooklyn, New York. The cultiest thing that stands out to me is the fact that they are politically active. Around the country and local governments, pickleballers are lobbying local governments to rip out tennis courts and put in pickleball courts and paint pickleball lines on

gym courts and do this and that. They're way too active, they're getting things done and honestly they need to be stopped. Okay so before we get into the drama I feel like we need to cover acronyms that are used in this whole space because you mentioned that Pickleball began in 1965, but it wasn't until 2005 that the USA Pickleball Association, USAP was formed and then in 2009, the first national championships were held.

And in 2015, prize money for winning nationals was still only $10,000. So it's like, okay, it's just started, but what are all these acronyms and like, what are all these organizations? So there's a lot and it also matters for the drama. So bear with us. But the USAP, which is basically like, they are the founding fathers of the regulations of pickleball. So in 2005, it was formed with the purpose of establishing a rulebook, tournament structure, and a national membership program. So this was them establishing it as a sport to hopefully one day very far down the line. Eventually, maybe do the Olympics. In 2009 was when the first national championships actually happened 400 players prize money was $7,000.

So that should give you some perspective on how not huge this was. Yeah. I also think it's, I think it's so funny that it's like, it's so very American to start a sport that is just kind of like based off vibes and mostly for retirees and be like, no, actually we're gonna make it a national sport

because we need to go to the Olympics. Like that's a reflection of like the cult of capitalism. And that's honestly the cultiest thing about pickleball is all of the capitalism. It's truly like you see it at every step of the story. Yeah, like the fact that they're always seeking more and they're always seeking approval from a higher power and it just is not enough to just play the game for the sake of having a good time. But we see that a lot in cults. We see that cults are founded on like outlandish ideologies and as

much as you feel like taking something to the Olympics is expected of a sport. It is outlandish. It is like wild thought to be like, I created a sport and now I'm gonna take it to the Olympics. It is very cult leader vibes and we'll get there because there are a lot of people who very much have the vibe of like, well, I'm gonna revolutionize everything.

So, one year after the first national championships, you usap USA pickleball created the international federation of pickleball here on out known as IFP. This is important. IFP said the people working at usap rationalize that if the sport was going to go global, it cannot be under the guidance of usap, because that is not what they do. When they said global, again, they meant the Olympics. To even be considered an Olympic sport, Pickleball would have needed a minimum of 75 usap type

national governing bodies across the hemispheres. Okay, so right off the bat, the way that you're saying, they had to build a larger organization, right? And then they had to recruit other nations so that they could get to the next level of ascendance, which is the Olympics. This is literally like the definition of a call. Yeah, and in a way, kind of like a multi-level marketing scheme

because it's like, we alone can't do this. We need to recruit other nations which within their nations are then going to recruit players. We're then going to recruit teachers and coaches and then it goes on and on. Right. So to add to the cultishness, you SAP would operate under IFP, even though you SAP had spawned IFP. Spawned me. Spawned me and gave birth to. Oh, okay. That's just me being myself. That's not my good sports term.

Yeah, it's like... Oh, it's like birth? Is that a touchdown? No. Actually, I don't know any sports terminology beyond this. Okay. Okay, so you SAP gave birth to the IFP. It's now under the umbrella of the IFP.

Yes, and for the rest of the story, just for our brains, Usap is still kind of like the controller of all. Everyone pretty much has to get approval from Usap to do everything. Usap is essentially just mother, and then everyone else is doing mother's work. Now that we've introduced Usap, and I, oh my god, you guys,

I'm getting confused. I'm getting confused. Now that we've introduced, this is kind, you guys, the four that think abuse. I'm getting confused. Now that we've introduced, this is kind of reminding me of the episode of the Cult of the Hammer family because there were like so many levels to the family. Yeah. But we got this.

We got this. Okay, so now that we've covered Yusap and IFP, now we have to get to WPF. So to talk about WPF, which is the World Pickleball Federation, we have to discuss Seymour Riftkind. So this is how he's described in one of the articles I read. A self-made millionaire through his advertising firm, he has completed an Iron Man,

earned a black belt in Taekwondo, run the famously unforgiving badwater Ultramarathon, bicycle, so low from coast to coast, all of this after his 50th birthday. The way that you describe this man is the way that we have described every other like white cult leader man and a cult leader like, I mean, there's Gary Vaynerchuk, Tony Robbins, Keith Reneeri, famously loved to play volleyball, which everyone knows with like his weird headbands and we literally, literally what is it with cult leaders and sports with nets?

Yeah, they're obsessed with them. That's why it's like if you work for a company that makes you play a sport with a net, keep your eyes peeled. Your eyes peeled? Do you set your alarm early and have everything ready to go for the day yet end up snoozing and rolling out of bed an hour late? If falling asleep easily and waking up feeling rested is something you need help with, let me tell you about the hatch restored too. Think of the hatch restored too as your bedside sleep guide, your ally and rest. The innovative all-in-one machine is a sophisticated sound machine, light and alarm clock, beautifully designed for your

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So, a lot of this has startup vibes. Like, nobody, which is what a cult is. it's just like, nobody knows what's going on, so there's possibilities for people to come in and intrude themselves and take over and make it even cultier than it are. Yeah. Yeah, but I also want to say that like the fact that there are competing leadership roles within the organization to me, funny enough, is a green flag because it kind of also allows for players to be able to like advocate for themselves because they're like, Hey, FYI,

we actually have a choice of where we want to go. And so you guys have to give us what we want. Right. So this guy, Seymour Riff kind created the game's first certified instructor course and introduced its first system for rating players similar to how tennis and table tennis operate at amateur levels. So in 2017, so it's pretty recent, he announced he was creating the first pickleball Hall of Fame. And in 2018, he created the World Pickleball Federation, the rival surrogate of the IFP. So this guy's entering the scene pretty recently.

Where did this man come from? I mean, I feel like he was literally like, uh, excuse me, I'm just gonna borrow this microphone for a second. Uh, let me take a look. Beyonce had the best album of all time. This happens a lot throughout the pickleball history.

It's a lot of rich men who are billionaires or millionaires off of their own previous entrepreneur type adventures, seizing the moment of pickleball. I feel like white rich men literally have ego matches for fun as a hobby. It's kind of funny because it's like for regular, you know how we were talking about how like, there's the pickleball for the regular person,

which we talked about a little bit in the beginning, and then there's all of this drama. I think it's funny because it's like, for the regular person, the act of playing pickleball is their hobby where they're like, oh, I wanna do this on weekends and it's fun. But for the rich people, the act of having like an ego match with other billionaires, that's their hobby.

That's the hobby. That is why they're doing it. They could care less about the sport, I'm sure. Yeah, even though they do, they both are like in the press, like I love pick up that, I play it all the time. I find it interesting that like you described this man as someone who's just like so driven, classic entrepreneur, like just a charismatic leader,

because that's where we're starting to see these cultish influences. It's a leader who has guru admiration. He's better than other members, probably defined as a genius by his coworkers or colleagues. And so that creates this space where all of a sudden pickleball is starting to get more culty. And what's so funny is Seymour Riff kind pitched all of this stuff he created to Usap and the

IFP first, who at the time were overseen by the same people. And Seymour comes in and he's like, you guys, I have this actually incredible idea, what if we made a hall of fame of pickleball? And on top of that, what if we make a rival to the IFP and call it the World Pickleball Federation? Obviously, they were like, no. So he was like, okay, I'm just gonna start it on my own because I'm a millionaire and I can do that. Yeah, and that kind of reminds me of the fact

that like with Colts, there's rituals, like having a hall of fame for the members. Exactly. So they have these two entities and so then for pickleball players, can they choose to play in both? Like, does it matter? So that is actually where touring comes into the conversation because WPF and IFP are something that countries sign on with. WPF and IFP are something that countries sign on with. So nearly two dozen countries in the world, except for USAP decided to register with WPF because there was nothing stopping them

from registering with both WPF and the IFP. Everyone is registered with everyone at this point, except for USAP is not with WPF because they have beef. And why do they hate each other? So Pat Murphy got involved in the usap administration in 2019 and was named president of the IFP. To him and a few others, IFP had never been independent of usap before them. They think that IFP is just run by usap members and that isn't fair. Pat Murphy gets appointed as president of IFP in 2019. He wants to clean house. He wants to fire everyone. He says that they're being controlled by USAP. It's

managed by the same people and they want to be independent of USAP. That is actually really culty because that cleaning house, it allows for there to be the specific kind of, like, group think that he wants. It means that he wants to be like, I don't like what you guys are doing. I want to create a space where we all think exactly the same. And we all know the rules that I've created. And that's a classic, like, cult leader move, because like, cult leaders aren't Geniuses, they're kind of just opportunists and I feel like this guy saw an opportunity to clean house and make it what he wanted so then Murphy Decides to appoint a guy named Steve sidewell as director of memberships and literally began a quote unquote no country left behind policy, a contest between the two

federations, IFP and WPF, to accumulate 75 nations. So Pat Murphy is declaring essentially war on the nations, like he's like, now you have to pick sides. On February 14th, 2022, Pat Murphy, president of the IFP received an email. Steve Siedwell, who Pat brought on to do the whole non-country, no country left behind thing, said, there's no secret whatsoever about the way Pat and see more feel about each other. They both want to crucify each other,

one perhaps more than the other. So then, the presidents of Pickleball Australia and Pickleball Canada decided that having two international governing bodies was not sustainable, which, girl, we've been saying this since we started talking about this, they decided something needed to be done. So they staged an intervention. A letter was sent to both of them asking if they could become either a single organization or if one of them could step aside and resign. Riffkind replied, agreeing to meet halfway and Murphy met them with silence. Murphy refused

to let Riffkind sit on his board and said that Riffkind had deceptive and unethical practices. The girls are beefing. You're probably like, why? So why do these two billion-airmen decided to take an interest in pickleball hate each other? What I think it personally comes down to is ego and them wanting to be the best and them thinking that their idea is the best and the way that they run things is the best. Yeah.

I'm not willing to budge. Well, because you see this in cults all the time, but like as much as like there are two types of cults that I think can be really dangerous, which is like sounds almost redundant, but it's like there's always cults that have a very specific particular leader, like you'll see cults like Nyxium who have Keith Reinerie at the top and it's very obvious and it's very clear and it's very blatant. But then you'll see other cults that don't necessarily have a leader or you don't know who the leader is like reality TV or dating shows, you know, you're like who is the leader, the producer or the members or the host. And I think what we're seeing with pickleball

in this situation is it's having, it's like coming of age moment. Yes, it's like the cult, that's like, it's like what kind of cult do we wanna be? Do we wanna have, do we wanna be a- That's kind of a voice. Yeah, it's like let's find our voice. Like do we wanna be the cult that like has a secret hidden person

pulling the strings and putting through a secret agenda? Or do we wanna be the cult that like has a secret hidden person pulling the strings and putting through a secret agenda. Or do we want to be the cult that has like a very clear, prominent member that is a charismatic leader. It establish rituals and us versus them dynamics and exploitation and ends justify the means. And these two leaders, these two guys have very different approaches. And that's essentially what the fundamental issue is.

Because Murphy absolutely refuses to make up with anyone on Valentine's Day, they send Murphy an email, basically saying they staged a coup and everyone wants a mouth. Oh, yeah. Oh, so it's a mass walk on Murphy. That's so funny. On Valentine's Day. On Valentine's Day, it's a mass walk on Murphy. That's so funny on that time's day on valentine's day

It's giving cold energy cold leader. I do feel bad for Murphy because Murphy is a guy who clearly likes to stick to the rules like play by the book and He ultimately got got by a guy who was, I'm new and revolutionary and I'm changing everything. Yeah. And I actually want to get into that a little bit because even though Murphy was the rule follower, his organization, IFP was definitely more grassroots, which read as a volunteer based

organization. They were the people who were spearheading the pickleball goes to the Olympics movement. Like they were very purist, traditionalists and also like lovers just of the sport. But that's very culty because it's like to be like we're purest and we're doing this just because we love the sport and we're not going to get paid brainwashed. That's kind of where we're seeing the cult, the cult, because it's all under

the language of grassroots effort and like purity and we're just doing it for the love of the sport. What does that read as? We're doing it for free. We're not getting compensated. This is a grassroots effort. We're volunteering and I am kind of grateful in a way that Rift kind came in and was like, actually, we need to revolutionize this, we need to legitimize this. So that is the end of the tea with these two. I feel like something I can take away from the fact that both of these men were trying to battle it out

for who leads a more legitimate. Yes, that's what it comes down to. Yeah, to me, it is a green flag because they were both trying to legitimize it. Even though one was maybe culture than the other and they both have different ideas on how they want to run that cult, the like a hidden figure running it through strings of puppets or a prominent leader who's at the forefront of the cult.

It's still a green flag that they were both trying to legitimize it because the way that this started was a very much passion project. Yes. Which like we know with nonprofit organizations can get like quickly out of hand. Right. And quickly exploitative. And thankfully, you know, even though this is hilarious watching these two men just kind of have an ego battle, they are kind of keeping each other accountable.

Yeah. Like making sure that neither gets too powerful, which is kind of actually good. Yeah, exactly. Because this is kind of like bigger level drama. Like this is not the kind of drama that's affecting like the day to day players. It doesn't really know effect the majority of like normal people who want to play pickleball after work or want to like meet new communities. So this is something that I think I kept going back to as someone who knows

about pickleball as like a person. First of all, I want Pickleball's publicist. I want their PR agent. I think Pickleball is getting, I mean, the fact that nobody really knows about all of this drama and all anyone talks about when talking about Pickleball is like the vibes and the fun is incredible for Pickleball as a sport. But I do think that this drama is just the beginning. I feel like what you're kind of getting at is that it's a little bit scary, that this group that is so full of green flags,

and it's so full of people who really just want to vibe, is led by such big personalities, and is led by such big personalities. And is led by such ego-driven individuals with all of this drama that is already going so deep. On a sport that has barely even been around for not that long. And I think the reason the drama goes so deep

is everyone sees an opportunity to capitalize on. Yeah. And the fact that we're dealing with such charismatic leaders, it kind of can create a space for potential future power abuse. I do think it will be really interesting to see Pickleball grow into itself. It's like embarrassing to watch, but it's also like, I love mess. I'm here. I'm here to watch it. We love a mess. The biggest red flag that I saw in researching Pickleball was that it is pitched as this sport that everyone can do.

And you don't have to be as agile and as young and as athletic, but it is causing a lot of injuries and like the elder community. Because it's still funny. No, it's not funny because it's still kind of like older people think that they're more agile than they are and they might like run to catch a ball and they've gotten a lot of injuries

and there was a forebosotical that said, people, injuries have cost Americans nearly $400 million this year and the seniors are the ones being hit the hardest with these injuries. That's really sad. Yeah. But that being said, there's no manipulation happening. You know, when it's like, you seniors need to be playing exactly like,

we should all be like grandma chill. Yeah. Maybe have like an empire that's kind of like, hey, how's everyone doing? Let's check in physical health, mental health, stretch. Intimacy coordinators for pickleball. OK, so Ruby, what do you think the cult of pickleball falls into? Do you think it's a live your life?

A watch your back. Or get the fuck out level cult. Oh, you're not. Honestly, I kind of think it's a live your life for now. Yeah, like a live your life, watch your back rising. Why, yes. Live your life, watch your back rising is the exact way I would describe it.

Yeah. Because it is exactly like right now, as you said, it's coming of age. A lot of these issues aren't going to affect us as people who just like play pickle ball at random courts, but there is a future in which this could get weird. Yeah, like you said, there are just so many egos involved in the leadership.

I'm sure something is going to start getting out of hand. First has, I mean like again, the capitalization of it all. I mean, this is America, so it's like, why wouldn't we rise to the next level? And that's again, what I come back to is, well, I mean, we'd be stupid if that's what we, we can't say that that's not what's happening here. Yeah, it's like, can we just have like one sport where we just vibe? Yeah, which is right now what it is, which is why I'm saying pickleball is the startup of sports.

Get in now! Get in now. Thanks so much for coming on the podcast Ruby. Thank you for having me. Ah, that's so much fun. Well, that's our show. Thanks so much for listening. Amanda will be back with a new episode next week. But of the meantime, stay Coltie. But not too Coltie! Too culty! Sounds like a cult was created, hosted, and produced by Issa Medina and Amanda Montel. This episode was edited, hosted, and produced by Issa Medina.

Our theme music is by Casey Colbe. I'm on Instagram at Issa Medina, I-S-A-A-M-E-D-I-N-A, where you can find tickets to my live stand-up comedy shows, tell me where to perform, or get information on a new podcast I'm launching in 2024. And if you like the show, feel free to give us a rating on Spotify or Apple Podcast. Struggling with stubborn discoloration? Get the clinical solution!

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