#591 Competing in 10 Huntsman World Senior Games' Events - Featuring Terry Monda

Terry Monda grew up on a quiet street where days were spent playing every sport imaginable. This passion for athletics earned him a basketball scholarship at a local college in Washington. As an adult, Terry played city league basketball and softball, even while having multiple knee surgeries to fix cartilage, but he abstained from most racquet sports to avoid ACL reconstruction. From picking up golf at 50 to owning a CrossFit gym in his 60s, he built the strength and stability that now allow him to compete in, and truly enjoy, pickleball. Terry continues to push his limits and plans to register for a wide variety of events at this year’s Huntsman World Senior Games. Driven by a desire to inspire his five children and ten grandchildren, he loves the connection, resilience, and fun that comes with an active life.

Transcript

Welcome And Terry's Athletic Roots

unknown 0:01

Jeremiah was a bullfrog. Was a good friend of mine.

Speaker 0:04

Hello and welcome to the Huntsman World Senior Games Active Life. My name is Kyle Case and I'll be your host on this amazing journey as we attempt to help you get the most out of your life. Today's guest, Terry Monda, grew up on a quiet street where days were spent playing every sport imaginable. His passion for athletics earned him a basketball scholarship at a local college in Washington. As an adult, Terry played City League basketball and softball, even while having multiple knee surgeries to fix cartilage, but he abstained from most racket sports to avoid ACL reconstruction. From picking up golf at 50 and then owning a CrossFit gym in his 60s, he built the strength and the stability that now allow him to compete and truly enjoy his favorite sport, pickleball. Terry continues to push his limits and plans to register for a wide variety of events at this year's Huntsman World Senior Games, driven by a desire to inspire his five children and ten grandchildren. He loves the connection, resilience, and fun that come with an active life. Terry, welcome to the show. Thanks, Kyle. Appreciate it. So you really have lived the active life your whole life. I love that example. You played, as I said, a wide variety of different sports. Tell us a little bit about your philosophy on sports and how it kind of shaped you to become the person that you are.

Childhood Sports And Competitive Mindset

Speaker 1 1:42

Well, Kyle, I grew up in the Northwest in the 60s. So between rain, school, and only a black and white TV, um, all we wanted to do was get outside and be active and do stuff, building forts, climbing trees, riding bikes, you know, skateboarding. We had we, I think we made the first skateboards ever with our, you know, skates and and boards in the neighborhood. And then we got into playing games. I grew up with a uncle who was only two and a half years older than me. So Uncle Jerry, and then my brother, who was a year younger than me. And then with neighborhood kids, that provided all the people that I needed, you know, to compete against. And I knew losing always to my older uncle, and then yet being able to compete against the rest of them. I learned a little bit about you know winning and losing. And so that kind of motivated me to try to you know stay on top of things and be good at stuff. And of course, then then in school, you start playing on your different teams and getting involved and being active and social and being part of the gang and you know, all that kind of stuff. So that was fun, and and that just sort of carried on throughout my life. I've pretty much done the same thing in every phase of my adulthood.

Speaker 3:07

So uh we want to get into senior sports for sure, and we're definitely going to talk about pickleball. I want to touch on CrossFit as well. But when you got into competitive sports, organized leagues and competitive sports, we know about the basketball for sure. Uh, that was a big part of your life. Did you play other sports as well?

Speaker 1 3:25

Uh as a as a young adult, I basically was working. So, you know, we had time and and not a lot of back then, there wasn't a lot of people doing just workouts and stuff. So if you wanted to be active, you kind of joined a team. So I was on the basketball city league team and the softball city league team, that kind of stuff. And uh and then I started having some injuries, and you know, that that is a whole nother you know topic.

Speaker 3:53

But well, that's it's such an uh a relevant and prevalent part of someone who competes in sports, especially throughout their lifetime. So let's touch on the injuries just a little bit. When you had an injury, and as you continue to be active and to play sports, and as you mentioned, you're you're a part of a team, there's expectations. What approach did you take to injuries as they came up in your life, both as a as a kid, as a as a high schooler, as a college player, and then also as an adult?

Speaker 1 4:25

Well, in college, it literally took me out of my basketball career, so that was bad. I mean, they were, you know, the this the season is only so long, and by the time I recovered, it was over. So that kind of blew me out of the water. As a young adult, uh, working and trying to play on teams, I would get off work, rush over, get in the game, sometimes not enough time to warm up, got injured, and then you go through that whole thing of being mad at first and then depressed, and then you realize, well, if I you know work hard enough, maybe I'll get stronger with the rehab and be better afterwards. Like, you know, I never had ankle injuries again after rehabbing for those, you know. So I just assumed that maybe if I kept that mindset, I would be, you know, the same after that.

Speaker 5:15

So you know, you mentioned the the anger and the denial. Uh there really are stages of grief, and uh you kind of go through all of them, right? Yeah, sure, sure. So you mentioned that you didn't have ankle injuries after you kind of got rehabbed, but you have struggled with some knee situations. Uh, tell us you I'm assuming based on what you said that the knee injury came, the the significant knee injury came during college. What was it? And how did you how did it happen? How'd you find out about it? Well, tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 1 5:48

I was driving three hours home from working. I was in a young adult in my 20s, and I was in, I was a salesman, and I got to the gym, I was late for the game, got dressed, got out there, didn't even get a chance to warm up, and they put me in the gang. So the first time down the court, I came down, wasn't warmed up, they threw the ball to me, and my my knee went literally uh guys on the bench said it went a foot out to the side. So it kind of tore up my ACL and my cartilage. Back then they didn't do arthroscopate for for uh ACL, so I had the you know the cartilage fixed, and then my mindset was, you know, I still want to play. I don't want to not play. So I got this big, you know, metal and strapped brace on my foot and uh or on my knee and and played again, two more knee surgeries, and finally the doctor said, you know, you if you're not gonna have this fixed properly, and I know you're working and you don't want to go through this, you know, surgery, you're gonna have to just stick with things that are forward, not side to side. No more basketball, you know, racquetball was out, tennis was out, all that stuff. I didn't play those sports, but I knew I probably never quit.

Speaker 7:07

So I I I never did. And so you made the decision that you weren't you weren't in a position, as the doctor said, to to do it correctly. So you just said I'm gonna adjust the way that I'm active.

Switching To Golf For Connection

Speaker 1 7:19

Yeah, so I I stuck with I I kept on the softball team because I knew that was pretty much just running. I started doing some five and 10Ks, even though I don't like to train, I don't like to run, but I liked to compete. And there was again five or ten thousand people doing these runs. It was really cool, you know. They blow the whistle or the gun and you running with five thousand people, it was just very cool. So I I did those types of things to fill my active, you know, you know, you know, I wanted to do something, and I hadn't found golf yet until I was in my mid-40s. Um, so those kinds of things kind of filled filled the the bill for me. And then I'd say I quit playing softball about 50 because I just was getting older. The people we were competing against were getting younger. They had $300 bats that could just, I was a pitcher by then, and I I couldn't get out of the way of the ball fast. It was just horrible. So I was like, I guess golf is it for me from now on. So so I at that point I I thought that was all that was I was gonna do the rest of my life was play golf. But you did pick up golf, and I'm assuming that you learned to enjoy it. Oh, I did. Uh I did. I I took a couple lessons, I you know, played and practiced enough to where I got to where I was shooting in the 70s quite often, and and you know, that was fine. And a bunch of us from high school at our 30-year reunion realized that we all had taken up the game. So every year for many years, we'd go over to Palm Springs, about eight of us, and and have four or five-day you know, event together. And so it was really great.

Speaker 9:02

Yeah, how how fun is that? I I love that in so many ways and in so many cases, sport brings us together. It does absolutely for you to be able to have a class reunion and then to be able to renew and continue and strengthening those friendships from your youth, that had to have been really satisfying. Yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 9:24

And you know, it keeps you in touch with people that you were friends with, and and obviously at home golfing, you're going out with three buddies and spending four hours with them. So you're always, you know, kind of with other people, and that's what I liked.

Discovering CrossFit In His Late 50s

Speaker 9:39

And there are so many health benefits to the social aspect. When we think about the active life, we oftentimes think about the cardio, the strength training, and all those things are important. I'm not downselling that. That's important stuff. There is also some real benefits to being socially connected, socially engaged, and I'm sure that you've been able to experience much of that throughout your life. I want to shift gears to CrossFit. Okay. You picked up CrossFit, uh, as we said in your 60s. Tell us how you got introduced to this kind of different approach. CrossFit's a very different uh activity than golf is.

Speaker 1 10:16

That's that's kind of a funny story because I think I was about 55 or 56 when I first heard about it. But my perception was, oh, it's only for Navy SEALs. This is really tough stuff. You can't do it. So I thought, oh, as an old guy. So I spent two or three years when I could have been in getting involved, thinking I couldn't. Then one, then one day my wife goes back east to visit her daughter and son-in-law. She comes back, she says, Guess what I did? And I said, What? And she goes, I did CrossFit. And I said, What? How did you do CrossFit? In my mind, it was freaking me out. And she said, Well, they scale it for beginners and old people. And I said, They do. So right about then, I was rehabbing from my fourth knee surgery now that I had I had slipped on a wet floor, tile floor. So she joined, and I had to watch her for a couple of months while I was rehabbing my knee. But as soon as I walked into that gym to join, I looked up at the board and I saw that they wrote names down and scores for that day's workout. And then it was like, oh my God, not only are you working out with other people, there's the social part of it again, but now look, I get to compete again. There, my score is gonna go on that board. So that kind of you know, got my juices flowing again. And so I started, I didn't start prospect till I was 58, which is relatively old for that sport.

Speaker 11:45

Wow. Well, kudos to your wife or lean the well for me and the example. I I think that that is pretty awesome, and then you know, congratulations to yourself for being able to kind of put aside some preconceived ideas and some concepts and some, you know, some preconceived notions and uh be able to jump right in. Tell us what it was like to walk into that gym for the first time as a new, at that point, potential CrossFit athlete. Was there intimidation? Were you nervous? You talked about the ability to compete and how important that has been to you, but what was going on in your head as you walked into that gym for the first time?

Speaker 1 12:23

Obviously, nervous because it's so new and it's something you know. I had never lifted weights. When I was a kid, even in high school and college, we weren't lifting weights because I was a basketball player. They thought it would affect our shop. So here's all these weights in this gym. And I thought, oh my gosh, what is this? They put you through a little trial workout, and I was decent at it because it was body weight stuff. It was push-ups, pull-ups, squats, rowing, you know, that kind of stuff. I did fairly well, I thought. Um, and then it was just realizing that I was going to have to learn how to do stuff that I had never done before and try to be good at it if I could, and I was up for the challenge.

Speaker 13:10

Well, I could see that that has been a theme throughout your life. You you seem to be up for the challenge. Yeah. So you jump into this new sport, you find out that there's a competition element to it, and that's within your own local gym. Did you also compete as a CrossFit athlete at other competitions? Did you did you travel to compete? Tell us a little bit about that side of things.

Speaker 1 13:31

You know, I I did. And that it it's very similar to the senior Olympics in that they have five-year increments. So, like if you're competing, you're 50 to 54, 55 to 59, which is where I started. Then I knew, oh boy, next year when I'm 60, you know, oh, I'm gonna be the youngest in that category. And at that time, that was the last category. Since then, they've added 65 plus, 70 plus now, that kind of thing. And I did compete, I got into the CrossFit Open and um did fairly well. I got a I got to the point where I was in the top 90 in the whole world for my age. That's that's better than fairly well. That's well, that's pretty dang good. I I think I like other things where I got kind of knocked out because of injury, I had an elbow injury from many years of softball that sort of kicked me out. I mean, trying to do a handstand push-up with a bad elbow is tough. Um, mobility, and you know, um, I wasn't real mobile and as an older guy, so lifting a bunch of weight up above your head and then trying to do a squat with it, very tough. Yeah, you know, those kind of things.

Speaker 14:52

But but it does sound like you had a great experience and learned a lot about the sport and a lot about yourself.

Speaker 1 14:59

You I guess you could say I enjoyed it. I liked it so much, like the old Shaber guy on TV said, I liked it so much I bought the company. There you go. So I I bought the gym and you know, I owned it for a couple of years. It was interesting and exciting, quite a bit for an older guy, though. So I ended up selling it to a couple of younger guys a couple years later, but but it was an experience.

Pickleball Turns Into A Social Habit

Speaker 15:25

We mentioned in your intro that it was through CrossFit that you felt like you you you build up the strength so that you can now kind of tackle some of those lateral movements that you had been avoiding and nervous about. You've kind of uh picked up pickleball. Tell us about your introduction to pickleball.

Speaker 1 15:42

Yeah, pickleball, same same thing, a different perception. When I first heard about it, I think it was like oh, probably uh 2015 or 16, somewhere in there, but it was literally four years before I actually started playing. I had never heard of pickleball, and the word sounds so weird, and I didn't know what it was. And the guy that I heard about playing was like my age now, 70, and he wasn't particularly athletic. So I thought anything with a name like that that this guy could participate in, probably not for so I literally didn't think about it again. I hadn't moved to a retirement community yet, so I didn't even know what it was. We moved to a retirement community. There's some pickleball courts, but I still didn't take it up. Well, then the pandemic comes. It's I'm golfing all the time because I'm retired three, four times a week. I looked at that pickleball court and I said, you know, they always play in doubles, and it's not very wide. The part that you have to cover. I think I could do that even with a bad knee, you know. So I had two wooden paddles that I bought for 10 bucks, and my wife and I started playing, and then I started joining up with the groups in the community and playing, and it was social, you know, it was active, I would imagine strategy, all kinds of things that were so cool.

Speaker 17:10

I was just about to say, I would imagine that you also found it to be a very, very social activity.

Speaker 1 17:16

Yeah, almost more so than anything I'd ever done because every single time there's four or eight or twelve people in a round robin, and every 10-15 minutes you're stopping, you're changing partners and opponents, and you're talking, you're having a little sip of water, and the you know, then you go back out and do it again, and you know, people are texting you, hey, can you play today? And you know, all these things. So it you feel like you're in a group again, you know.

Planning Ten Events At Senior Games

Speaker 17:43

Yeah, well, and you are you're not, you don't just feel that way, you actually are in a new circle. And uh it pickleball is a fantastic social activity, as well as the the other health benefits that come along with it. We I we got to get into the upcoming Huntsman World Senior Games. You've got you've got big uh expectations and big plans. You're planning to compete in multiple events across multiple divisions. Tell us what you're hoping to accomplish.

Speaker 1 18:10

That's the plan. Okay. So I heard about the Huntsman Games, I knew there was two weeks worth of events. I pulled up a calendar online, I saw all the different, I mean, there's 30 or so. It's unbelievable how many different sports. Yeah, I can do a lot of this stuff, but which ones can I actually do to compete and maybe win or win a medal or something like that? So I picked 10 things. It was two basketball events, shooting you know, events, um, two golf events, long drive and pitching, uh, indoor rowing. I thought I'd do the 2000 meter, uh 2000 rowing. And a friend of mine named Amy said I have to get on the relay if I do that. So I thought I would do that. Um, and then a couple of pickleball mixed doubles, men's doubles, and then two events in track and field. I thought maybe high jump and launch them.

Speaker 19:05

So you are gonna have a full schedule.

Speaker 1 19:08

The big thing, and the reason I had called in to you guys was to try to find out is there a way to work the schedule? Because I know there's different venues and different time frames and stuff, and that's gonna be the biggest challenge.

Lessons On Persistence And Enjoying Play

Speaker 19:21

Well, there will be some challenge to that. I I guarantee that, but it does sound like you've kind of spread things out a little bit. Yeah, it also sounds like you're in for a ton of fun. So we we hope that you just really, really enjoy yourself. Um, I'm wondering as you've as you've aged, and you as we've talked about, you have been very active, very engaged. You've played sports your whole life in one way or another, even through difficulties, even through injuries, through job changes, you've done all of that stuff. What's the biggest lesson that sport and competition has taught you?

Speaker 1 19:56

Wow, the biggest lesson, I guess, is just stick to it-eness. I mean, and enjoy the journey. There's almost, I mean, if you're always trying to get somewhere, you're gonna almost always be upset. But if you learn to enjoy the journey in the process, whether it's practice, whether it's losing, whatever, you can gain a little bit from each thing and then just keep going and eventually, you know, yeah, it's how how have you been able to do that?

Speaker 20:26

Because I know I I feel like you you and I probably have this in common. You're very competitive. I'm quite competitive. If I'm going to do something, I want to feel like I don't necessarily feel like I have to beat everybody, but I want to be successful, you know. I want to, I want to feel like I can do this thing and and have some success at it. How have you found that you've been able to balance the I guess just balance that concept of I'm gonna be competitive and I'm gonna go for it, but I also am going to enjoy the journey and have some fun along the way. What have you done to help you kind of find that find that middle ground?

Speaker 1 21:04

I I heard somebody say it and I really believe it, and I talk about it all the time. And that is somebody said, if you want to enjoy pickleball and as well as get good at it, spend 25% of your time playing against people who aren't as good, 50% of your time playing with people who are as good, and 25% of your time playing with people who are better than you. So you get a great mix of just enjoying, having fun and laughing, working on some different shots, um, and then the the competitive and the stress of you know competing in a tournament or something, and with people that you know are maybe gonna kick your butt, you know.

Family Motivation And The $2,000 Challenge

Speaker 21:44

So I think that sounds like great advice. Uh really good balanced approach.

Speaker 1 21:50

Yeah.

Speaker 21:50

You you also have mentioned that you really want it to be an inspiration to your kids and to your grandkids. Have you seen that play out in their lives? And in your life as well?

Speaker 1 22:02

Yeah, because my grandkids, there's 10 of them, they range from five years old all the way up to 27 years old. So I've had a lot of years of them visiting me, me visiting them, and my goal all my life was to not just watch the grandkids play stuff, but actually play with them. And so to this day, there isn't many things that they'd like to do that I can't do with them. If it's a CrossFit workout, if it's uh, you know, throwing a baseball or a football or shooting baskets or playing pickleball. Matter of fact, I want to encourage them to get into pickleball because I love it so much that I have incentivized all my grandkids with $2,000 if they ever beat me in skinny singles. So at this point, I'm the only one in the family that's put as much time in it to play it. So it you know hasn't played out that way. But I am sure as I get older and they get into it more, they'll soon beat me. But you know, so far, yeah.

Speaker 23:09

Well, I think there, first of all, you've created a real incentive there. There's no, I hope so. Yeah, yeah. Well, what a what a fun approach to spending time with your family. And as I said earlier, sport is one of those things that really can and does bring us together. It brings families together, it brings strangers together, it makes friends out of people that we didn't know before. And I think that's one of the greatest things about sport. You've obviously been able to experience that throughout your entire athletic career, both uh competitive as well as socially and recreationally. So we want to wish you the very best as you move forward. Uh, the very best in your competition with your grandkids. Hopefully, you hold on to that $2,000 perpetually. You're always able to be. I figure I'm gonna give it to them someday anyway. So, you know. And we really want to wish you the very best at the upcoming Huntsman World Senior Games as well. So uh we look forward to seeing you have some some real success here with us in October.

Speaker 1 24:06

Thank you, Kyle. Nice, nice to be with you.

Registration Details And Closing Thought

Speaker 24:09

Well, thank you. And uh again, just best of luck with everything. Thanks, Kyle. Uh, just a couple of things to wrap us up here really quickly. By now, we all know that registration is indeed open for the Huntsman World Senior Games. Don't wait. Now is the time to secure your spot at the games. You can do that as well as find out all the information that you need to know the rules, the venues, uh, how to take care of the registration. You can find all of that on our website. That is seniorgames.net. The games this year will run from October 5th through the 17th. So put that on your calendar and plan to be a part of it, just like Terry. You don't have to choose 10 sports, but find something that works for you and come and be a part of it with us this year. Remember to tune in live next and every Thursday at 5:30 p.m. Mountain Time on AM 1450 or FM 93.1 for the Huntsman World Senior Games Active Life. We take this live show, we turn it into a podcast, and you can find that wherever you subscribe to your favorite podcast shows. If you're listening or watching by podcast, give us a rating, write a review, that really helps us spread the word. And then, of course, you can find this as well as all of our previous shows right on our website at seniorgames.net. So check that out. Today's inspirational thought comes from Leah Labelle. She's an American singer. She once said, work hard for what you want because it won't come to you without a fight. You have to be strong and courageous and know that you can do anything you put your mind to. If somebody puts you down or criticizes you, just keep on believing in yourself and turned into something positive, which I think sounds like great advice. Until next Thursday, stay active.