Married, Motivated, and Mega: How Pickleball Became Their Thing

In this episode of the Pickleball and Partnership Podcast, host Charlotte Jukes sits down with Sumit and Rajan, a powerhouse duo who have found both purpose and partnership through the game of pickleball. 

Sumit, a high-level player and coach, discusses his journey from competitive cycling to finding a new passion in pickleball, where he now runs Pickle Perfect Coaching and serves as the Program Co-ordinator and Head Coach at Mega Courts, Calgary's largest indoor pickleball facility. 

Rajan shares her experience of learning the game under Sumit's guidance and how the sport has enriched their relationship. The conversation delves into the couple's dynamics on and off the court, the unique coaching programs at Mega Courts, and the social impact of pickleball. Whether you're a seasoned player or new to the game, this episode offers valuable insights into how pickleball can strengthen personal connections and foster a sense of community.

00:00 Welcome to the Pickleball and Partnership Podcast

00:47 Meet the Powerhouse Duo: Sumit and Rajan

02:15 Sumit's Journey to Pickle Perfect Coaching

07:16 The Rise of Mega Courts

11:30 The Benefits of Pickleball for Everyone

13:44 Playing Pickleball as a Couple

19:06 Advice for Aspiring Pickleball Players

27:10 Mega Courts: Upcoming Events and Vision

33:43 Final Thoughts and Farewell

Links mentioned in this episode:

https://www.instagram.com/megacourts.calgary?igsh=MTJ3aXY2dmY0MHgyMg==

https://www.pickleperfectcoaching.com

https://megacourts.ca/

https://widgets.courtreserve.com/Online/Public/EmbedCode/13410/44861

Pickleball & Partnership Facebook Page
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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pickleball-partnership/id1775742795

Pickleball & Partnership Email cejukes@gmail.com

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Music: Purple Planet Music
Thanks to Purple Planet Music for Pickleball & Partnership Intro and Outro music Purple Planet Music is a collection of music written and performed by Chris Martyn and Geoff Harvey.

Transcript

Charlotte Jukes: 0:10

This the pickleball and partnership podcast, the place to talk. Talk about building better connections with your partner. Learning how to communicate with each other and how to inject fun. Into your relationship all through the game of pickleball. If that sounds like your cup of tea. Pull up a chair grab your paddle and join me. Your host, Charlotte Jukes. For pickleball and partnership.

Charlotte J: 0:44

Today's episode is one you don't want to miss. We are diving into the world of high level pickleball with a powerhouse duo who not only share life off the court, but have found purpose, play, and partnership on it. I'm joined today by Sumit, a top tier player and coach with a serious. Passion for the game. He's the force behind Pickle Perfect Coaching, and he's just taken on an exciting new role as the program coordinator and head coach at Mega Courts in Calgary, Canada's largest and most advanced indoor pickleball and tennis facility. Yes, you heard that right? Mega Courts is making major waves in the pickleball scene. What makes this conversation even more special is that Sumit isn't joining us alone. His wife, Rajan is here too. Together, they've turned their search for a fun fitness friendly activity into a shared love for pickleball, and they're here to talk about how it's shaped their relationship, their routines, and even their goals. So whether you are a. Seasoned player, a relationship builder, or just curious about what happens when passion and partnership hit the court. This one's for you. I'm so excited to be joined today by Sumit and Rajan.

Sumit: 2:09

Thank you so much. Thank you. Awesome. Really glad to be here.

Charlotte J: 2:12

It's so lovely to sit down and chat with you. I'm curious about your pickleball journey, of course, and when you first discovered pickleball and yeah. Tell us about both of you, how you met, how you found pickleball.

Speaker 2: 2:29

Yeah. Pickleball journey has been really exciting, Charlotte. both of us started at the same time about three years ago, Rajan right?

Speaker 3: 2:36

Two

Speaker 2: 2:36

two and a half years ago. So I was into competitive cycling before I discovered pickleball and cycling was all I used to do. And then Raja would join me sometimes on our. So we would go on a bike tour to Jasper we even went to Vancouver By bicycle. So we would do like a four day, five day trip. And that used to be like our time together. And then I was also into competitive cycling. Joining me for these tours and all, and we were. Bike on weekends together. And then unfortunately I got injured and I couldn't do competitive biking anymore. And I was just looking at different avenues for us to, do something together because both of us are really active. And Rajan would go to gym and I would go to gym separately. I'm like, we should be doing something together. So one of, one of these days at the YMCA. I saw a bunch of 50 year olds playing this funny sport called pickleball, and I'm like that sounds weird but interesting at the same time. So I'm like, Rajan, do you want to just, try that and maybe this is something we can do together and. We both tried it, we both enjoyed it. And I come from an extensive table tennis background. I used to play table tennis competitively as a kid, as a youth. So I picked up the game fairly quickly and Rajan is a natural. So we both started enjoying it. And then yeah within six months, Charlotte, I was already playing at, pretty high level and like an advanced level. And then I just I am a natural coach. My previous jobs I've done coaching and all that. I like to break down technical stuff into simple components and just help people understand, the game. So I just started coaching friends and family just for fun. And then they're kind enough. They said, maybe you should get a certification and, see where it goes because you can help more people. So I did the certification and I. Opened my own pickleball coaching company with a friend. It's called Pickle Perfect Coaching. I've coached more than 500 students, so we just started coaching one day a week. Just to see how it goes. And then within two or three months, we were doing it full time. So that's that. I just for your listeners, pickleball is the, fastest growing sport in North America. Most of us know that. And then Rajan would play with me and luckily we found a sport where both of us could enjoy together and spend time together. At the end of the day, pickleball is about fun and spending time with your friends and family, and we are lucky we could do that.

Rajan: 5:09

Yeah, absolutely. One thing I would add though his coaching skills is I would say the primary reason that I could pick up and learn and get better at it because he is, he taught me unlike him, I don't have any like tennis or the racket background. Of course, I've played badminton, like on the street, Of course, I've hit few balls with tennis too, but not nothing like, oh, I've got a training. You know how to hit a shot. You just wing it, but when we started playing pickleball, like I noticed right away he was like watching, he was spending so much time watching things on YouTube, how to do this shot, and he would just watch it and learn it. And I'm like, oh my God. And then he taught me all of this. So that I am not left behind. And then of course, because he taught me, he's such a difficult student who doesn't have know how, who doesn't know the difference between what's a top spin and a, what's a slice, then he said, okay, then maybe I can teach others too, and then so far we've been very lucky and blessed he found a very good partner that he could start this company with and we are here.

Sumit: 6:14

That's amazing. I absolutely, I love your story. That just, oh, Raja, that just warmed my heart when you said, and it's such a similar story to mine and Neil's, and, we talk about this in previous episodes as well. Where Neil was so gung-ho on, we have to play pickleball. And I was very resistant to it and thought it was for old people, but I went along because I thought, yes, we need to do something together. And interestingly, we used to road bike as well, but of course, you know where we live, you can't do that year round. Whereas pickleball, of course, now you can do it year round. So I love that you've almost just followed the breadcrumbs, you've had an idea or an inkling I hear a passion from you as well, and you've gone from, coaching friends and family. To starting a coaching business, which I think is amazing. So when did you first discover mega courts? What's the story there? Yeah, so just a bit of a background, Charlotte. Regarding Pickle Perfect Coaching, when me and my business partner, her name is Clara, she's also a coach at Mega Coach the whole idea behind starting our coaching business was we felt there was a big gap in coaching where either you have to go for private coaching. Which is very expensive. Or the other coaching system or styles were, there were eight students or 12 students to one coach. If you want to go a relatively cheaper route, and we thought there's a big gap in between. Private coaching, one-on-one coaching is very expensive, and a group lesson where you have eight students or 12 students to one coach is cheaper, but it actually doesn't get the job done because. You don't get the one-on-one attention that you're seeking. So the whole idea for us starting this was that, hey, how about we do lessons where maximum, there are four students and there are two coaches, and they can actually see us hitting the shots properly, watch us do it, and then we can detect and correct what they're doing wrong. So I think that's resonated with our students a lot and, before we knew it, right? People were signing up for our lessons and every day. Even during the evening when we couldn't even coach. So I think that's where we found the gap. And we were renting courts From different facilities because we wanted to be independent. We both knew that if we. Start working for a facility they would dictate how we can coach, how many students are there, because at the end of the day unfortunately they have to look at their bottom line, right? So we knew we would not be able to have a smaller group size, which was a niche so we were coaching for two years, and then as Mega Courts was opening Vlad, the owner of Mega Courts, he reached out to me. He was looking for somebody to join as the head coach and as also as the pickleball program coordinator. And I thought, this is a great opportunity where actually I can have a facility, but also write my programs on my own. So my whole plan was to, then joining keep Vlad aside and start my own thing where I can still have that small group size. So if you look at the coaching program at Mega Courts, we have apart from one or two programs, most of our programs have maximum of four students. We, we never want to go more than that because I personally don't think that's the right model of having a lot of students to one coach. Individualized retention is where we improve. And yeah. And that's the whole idea behind being here at Mega Courts. That's such a unique, it is a niche as you say, because you are right I've been in so many lessons where you are one of a group of many and. Sometimes you feel like you get the attention you need, you get your questions answered and sometimes not. Rajan, I can see how you would have really picked up pickleball quite quickly and maybe you could speak to, people listening who are on the fence. Shall I try pickleball or not? It sounds like this would be an ideal. Coaching program or ideal lessons for them to jump into. A

Rajan: 10:34

hundred percent. So for example, I would say one of the main reason I could learn this sport relatively faster is because I had access to these like coaches, right? Like I have access to Sumit and even Clara would drill together. If you want to improve, definitely having that personalized attention because my problem might be different from the person who is standing next to me or learning in that same program.'cause I might be doing X wrong, she might be doing Y wrong. And then for one person to focus on eight of these people with different set problems. It's gonna be tough, right? It's gonna be hard. And versus me getting that attention or like it's only two of us or four of us getting that individualized attention. Ideally, obviously we all wanna do one-on-one, it gets expensive, right? So then this is the happy medium. For all of us. And another thing about pickleball is I cannot speak to everyone in terms of whether they're gonna like it or not, but all the people that I have spoken to or that I've met, they've always told me, oh, when after they started playing pickleball, they now cannot put the paddle down. They're like addicted. So the problem has always been the opposite. How do I not play pickleball this much?

Speaker 3: 11:52

You

Rajan: 11:52

know. Oh, I love that. Oh

Sumit: 11:54

my gosh. I know. For anybody who hasn't played pickleball I know they're thinking that can't be but it is. It, Charlotte, when we read the news that there is a loneliness epidemic, I just feel so bad. I'm like, just play pickleball. Yeah. Get on a court, you'll make so many friends. I've never had these many friends in my life before. It's a life changing sport, Charlotte. It is. It's it's a relatively small court. Four people are on the court it's so easy to pick up the game. And the good thing about pickleball is that unlike some of the other sports, even if the level is different between the players who are on the court, they can still have a really good time. They can still have a. Wonderful time and then, at the end of the day, what is life? If it's not about fun and being social and being, together with somebody you want to enjoy with. I love that you said that, and actually you gave me the chills when you talked about loneliness. Because that's actually next week's episode. Neil and I sat down and we started having a conversation about predominantly men, I have to say, because men are not that great at socializing or sharing their feelings And so we sat down and we started having a conversation about men and loneliness. And I said, oh my gosh, this is a podcast episode. We need to talk about this because look at how many friends you make playing pickleball. And I love that you've said that too. You've confirmed my belief. I've never made so many friends except perhaps when. The children were small and you would take them to their groups, and then you'd take them to school organically. You just met lots of people and as we get older, that gets harder and harder. So I love that you said that about pickleball too. I'm curious, how do you find playing together? Do you play on the same side of the court and has that been challenging at all?

Speaker 2: 13:54

You wanna talk about that?

Rajan: 13:55

Yeah it is definitely challenging and because the reason is we are. Tough on ourselves, and sometimes we are tougher on our partners, or I should say the opposite. We are tough on our partners and we are tougher on ourselves. Why? Because they are your own extension, right? Versus. I cannot be tough on you, Charlotte. Let's say you and me are playing together. I'll be a little bit nicer to you but I can be harshest to him because, with us, the difficulty is. He's also my coach. He coaches me. So then what happens in our cases when we are playing together, he's seeing all these things that I'm doing wrong and that impacts his game. He doesn't say anything to me, but I can read his body language. I've known him for 22, 23 years, right? And he's in that moment he's trying to tell me you are doing wrong. But then he's impacting his own shot, right? Because think about it, like you have so many things going on then you are not playing loose. If you are just watching your partner and which I'm thankful for that he watches me. Then he can help me. Correct. All those like small things, sometimes it gets tougher. But having said that, we are trying to. Learn how to play with each other.

Speaker 2: 15:19

You're making it sound more serious than it is.

Sumit: 15:22

No, I and I, that resonates with me. I get that. Because Neil and I say that too. And I don't know if you found this, but we stepped on the court and suddenly realized that actually we weren't communicating that well. And it wasn't until we were doing that, I call it the dance, and finding that rhythm on the court that we realized that a lot of the way we were supporting each other playing pickleball, we could also bring into our home life as well, which was amazing,

Speaker 3: 15:54

right?

Speaker 2: 15:54

Yeah. A friend of mine who plays pickleball with us Steve Steve and Lauren. They're another couple who we play pickleball with, and I had a chat once with him, which kind of changed my thinking about playing pickleball with your spouse. He said that Sumit, because I always see Steve and Lauren have a really good time on the court even if they're winning or losing, doesn't matter, right? They are competitive people. But I always admire how they handle themselves on the court. And I was actually talking to him one day, we were having dinner together. I'm like, Steve, how do you and Lauren manage to play so well together and not get angry at each other? Because with spouses, things can heat up, as we all know. And he said, Sumit, me and Lauren we had a fight once on a pickleball court in a tournament, and we came back home and we just had a chat that. If we are together, it's because we love each other the most. So why shouldn't we be actually the nicest to the person we love the most? Rather than being the opposite. And that actually changed the way I think. And I'm now having said that, we are playing at 10:00 AM today in an hour together. So I think the most of the problem was from my side. I'm just too harsh on her because like she said, I'm her coach too, so I get so critical when I play with her, why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? Because I'm like, I taught you how to do that. You're still doing that wrong. But I'm really getting to a point where I'm like, during the time when we are on the court, we are playing together. I'm not a coach anymore. I'm just your partner, right? And as a good partner, my job is to support you. To create an environment where we are actually having fun on the court. And then I'm making mental notes that once we are done, then I'm gonna tell you what you what wrong you did.

Sumit: 17:33

And for those of you listening, Sumit it wagged his finger at Rajan

Speaker 5: 17:38

at that point.

Sumit: 17:40

I love it. But that's not an easy thing to do. I'm sure yeah. Take your coach hat off and Raja n I admire you because I know it's difficult. I think we've all been subject to our partner, whether it's our husband, our partner, somebody we just met for the first time. Perhaps they roll their eyes at us or, they make that disgruntled noise and you've done something wrong and upset.

Rajan: 18:05

Charlotte, I wanna be very clear. He does none of that.

Speaker 5: 18:08

Thank

Speaker 3: 18:08

you. Yeah,

Rajan: 18:09

he does none of that. It's not that, it's just that we both are very competitive. I am equally competitive. I'm more competitive than him. and problem is when I'm playing with somebody else, they don't know me internally and I can easily put a face, but I cannot put a face in front of him. When I'm angry, it rubs on him. Also, the same thing. When he's angry, it rubs on me too. So we both know each other just so well. That is sometimes hard to hide your feelings. So then, then it sometimes you just like not able to play your game. That's all. But having said that we all can get better. I.

Sumit: 18:49

Absolutely. And that's great awareness. And I think, if we are all a bit more aware of the face that we are putting on, or our energy on the court, I think we would all play a better game and we'd all have more fun. More fun than we're having.

Speaker 3: 19:06

Yes.

Sumit: 19:06

So would there be a piece of advice that you would give to anybody who's listening, and maybe they're here in Calgary and maybe they can come and check out mega courts, but maybe they're somewhere else in the world. What advice would you give to somebody who's sitting on the couch, really wants to be active, wants to try something and thinks maybe pickleball is the thing I should try.

Speaker 2: 19:34

Yeah, I think from my side, Charlotte, I'll just say, just go for it. It's the initial step is the toughest one where we are just sitting, we are like, we, where we feel like, oh, I don't know. I've seen some pickleball on tv. It doesn't look that easy to pick up. Trust me. It's such an easy sport to pick up once you're on the court I highly recommend people who don't have a rack sport background to do an introduction to pickleball whether it's with us at Mega Courts or wherever they are, because it just makes it so easy for them to then understand the rules of the game, hold the paddle correctly, and. You are on the court with three or four other people who are also at your level who are just starting pickleball. And within 15 minutes if you have the right coach with you, he or she's gonna make it easy for you to understand the game. So we do what we call a two hour crash course, introduction to Pickleball Crash Course at Mega Courts and it just brings a smile on my face that within an hour, the first hour they already now know the rules of the game, and the second hour they're just playing games and. At the end of the two hours, they're like, okay, what should we do now? Put me in some group where's my next lesson? I just wanna be on the court, right? And most of them are people who have actually played no sports in their life before. So anybody can pick up the sport at any time, at any age. Please do not sit. And think that you cannot, pickleball is something anybody can do. Just just find the nearest introduction to pickleball course near you. Go to the facility, they'll give you a paddle. They will provide you with the balls. You are on the court, and your life will never be the same again.

Sumit: 21:09

A lot of sense. I love that. Yeah, and I think I would add to that any sort of ability, if somebody is, feeling like they don't move very quickly or they don't move well, or perhaps, I've played people wearing knee brace. People with different injuries or disabilities and it's still a sport that people can play in some capacity,

Speaker 2: 21:32

Definitely Charlotte. I will actually add to that. Sometimes on, on tv, we cannot appreciate the size of the court the pickleball court is not that big. It's not that big, and mainly the game is played in doubles. So even if you have some mobility issues, the court is very small and you're only covering half of the court and. You can get to the ball. Just give it a try. Please. Just give it a try.

Sumit: 21:56

Definitely. What's one thing that you both personally want to accomplish this year, whether that's on the court or off the court? Maybe you could share that with listeners.

Rajan: 22:09

I think for me, as far as pickleball is concerned I wanna get better on my feet. What I find is when the ball comes at me, I just sometimes feel like I'm frozen. Like I'm not moving. Like instead of instead of doing that split step and then going into the direction where the ball's going, I just try to keep my feet where I am and I'm moving with my arm. If I can accomplish that by the end of the year, I would be like, so happy. And you know that I can move my feet, thinking about moving your feet First

Speaker 2: 22:44

feet first, paddle second.

Rajan: 22:45

Yes. That's what Sumit always tells me if I can do that would be like amazing.

Speaker 2: 22:50

The act of hitting the ball, Charlotte is actually the last 10%. What you do before that? How do you prepare yourself? You get behind the ball, you use your feet. That's the secret sauce of pickleball.

Sumit: 23:00

I like that. Yes. And isn't it interesting how we do feel Rajan, to what you said, we do feel rooted to the spot. I know I've done that myself. You reach for the ball, and think, how did I ever think I was going to reach that? But yes. First paddle, second.

Speaker 2: 23:18

from my side, I would say I have two goals. First from Mega courts point of view I really hope that by the end of the year, more and more people know that here's this facility in South Calgary, which is the premier facility. the biggest thing that I wanna accomplish as far as mega courts is concerned. I want us to be that facility which is welcoming. Not just the higher level players, but to anybody who's just starting pickleball or who's already playing pickleball for five years at a competitive level, right? We want to create an environment where everybody's welcome. Everybody can improve, everybody can have fun. Be more social. I'm already thinking of a lot of different things where we can make it more social, where people at different levels can actually connect. What I've been seeing so far in our city, unfortunately, Charlotte, is that a lot of silos have been created where higher level players are not communicating with, let's say intermediate level players and all. Even when I was picking up my team, the coaching team, we have, we have three amazing female coaches at Mega courts and a lot of our discussions is how we can help bridge that gap where. People who are just starting pickleball or who have been playing for a couple of years, but wanna improve but have, not been able to improve that much because they don't have access to, let's say, higher level players because they have not been playing with them. How to connect that and make it a big community where Calgary can thrive as one of the best pickle world communities in Canada or. Even in North America. That's my goal. As far as mega courts is concerned. Personally, I just wanna keep on improving in pickleball. I don't set myself a goal of that I want to be here or, I want to be at this DUPR level or this skill level. But every time I get on the court, if I can improve on one thing for example, right now I'm working on my forehand counters and. Every time I get on the court, I just wanna feel that I've improved a bit, or at least I've tried to improve myself that just hits the spot for me. I just love that feeling and and just enjoying being on the court with friends. And I just love making friends and then hopefully the friendship becomes in such a way that, we are also going out for dinners and lunches and all that together. I'm a very social person and pickleball has been a life changer for me. Charlotte, honestly, not just from a livelihood point of view, but also from a personal, my psychological, my mental health point of view. Yeah.

Sumit: 25:41

The days I play pickleball, they're great days. They're not just good days, they're great days. And I love what you said about personal growth as well, because honestly I've stopped comparing myself to other people. I now only compare myself to how I was yesterday and so beautiful. If I feel better and I've improved and I've done something to move towards that growth today, And I think. Pickleball is a great vessel to be able to do that, like you say. One thing I have to say for anybody again wondering, shall I go into mega court? Shall I go and try pickleball or shall I perhaps go and do some lessons or just even book a court and play? When I walked in the doors of Mega Courts, the welcome was phenomenal.

Speaker 3: 26:32

Thank you. I was

Sumit: 26:33

greeted. It was friendly. It was very welcoming. I love that you have showers there because I don't think there's one facility I've played at except in Mexico where there were showers and that's so important. If you are not going straight home or a group of us often will play pickleball on a Saturday afternoon and then we'll go out for dinner. I'd like to shower before I go out for dinner, so I love that Mega Courts has those showers too. But the welcome was phenomenal, What's coming up for mega courts? Are there any tournaments? Any big events coming up that we should know about?

Speaker 2: 27:16

I wish I could tell more about tournaments, but I'll just quickly say that we are planning something mega as far as tournament is concerned. We're planning a grand opening tournament. I can announce the date now. It's on 24th of May. And the details will come out in three or four days. And all I can say is that we are partnering with a major. US Pickleball organization it's going to be big, it's going to be a big tournament and hopefully a lot of people will join us there at Mega Courts and it'll be lots of fun. And we just recently launched a couple of ladies League and Mix League and we are happy that they filled up relatively quickly. And apart from that, our, introduced what we are calling Round robin Style Open play in Calgary. Open play was not structured before, before mega courts open and, I can already see some facilities copying us, so that means we are doing something good. Apart from that, look out for, more leagues, ladders coming soon to mega courts and if you go to our website, a lot of our clinics are already up. We have amazing coaches at mega courts we have a pro player with us who's coaching and she's doing an amazing job. Clara. Is doing a lot of coaching for novice players. We are doing introduction to pickleball and yeah, we'll keep on adding stuff. We are always looking for feedback. That Charlotte, I am always looking for feedback, especially negative feedback so that we can improve and keep on improving and that's a goal. Yeah.

Sumit: 28:41

Thank

Speaker 2: 28:41

you.

Sumit: 28:42

I love that. If you had to just sum up and describe the spirit of mega courts in one sentence what would that be?

Speaker 2: 28:51

I think I'll start with tagline. Mega courts. Mega fun like you said yourself, Charlotte. We want to create an environment of friendliness. At the end of the day, pickleball should be fun. Pickleball should be fun. Pickleball should be social. And that's our whole idea. As soon as somebody comes, whether they have been playing for five years, or this is the first time they're on pickleball court, we want them to feel welcome. We want them to have a feeling of, this is their second home. This is their home on a court that's what we want to achieve. And if we do that I'm happy.

Charlotte J: 29:21

And I love that you said home because that really resonates with me as well. Any time I have stepped onto any court, it really feels like you're coming home and you're part of this big family. And I know there are people out there are going to be thinking, there's no way a. Sport makes you feel like that, but it's true. And I'm very excited to watch and see how Mega Courts grows over this first year. You've done a phenomenal job and it's very exciting. If you're in Calgary, go and check it out. If you're not in Calgary, you need to come and visit us. And check it out. Definitely. So I always ask this question, and either of you or both of you can answer. What topic would you like to see a future episode of Pickleball and Partnership Podcast?

Speaker 2: 30:16

I have 10 different things in my mind right now. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 5: 30:18

I love it. Go.

Speaker 2: 30:20

I think when Rajan and me when we started talking about, how couples play together and not, I think something related to mixed double psychology, how we can improve that, what should we be thinking when. Couples play together and how we can help more couples to be more friendly on the court with each other, I think. I think that can certainly be one topic, we can discuss. Yeah.

Rajan: 30:42

Especially at some whenever I talk to like lot of the couples sometimes the biggest issue is that their levels are different. So then how to be able to still play together and have fun even though you are at different levels,

Charlotte J: 30:56

that's a great point. And I did actually put together, and it's available for anybody, I put together a top 10 tips for playing pickleball with your partner and then transposing that strategy and those. Skills from the court into home life. So that is available if anybody wants to take a look at it, that might be helpful. That's awesome. But I love your ideas.

Sumit: 31:19

Think another thing that comes to my mind, especially for Alberta, how the different facilities can collaborate together. As far as leagues and competition is concerned I don't see a lot of synergy right now. I think we are all working in silos as more and more facilities open because there's demand for pickleball. I would love to see how the different facilities can actually come together and, we have access to different coaches. Some coaches are good at something, so how we can actually train youth together, how we can have competitions together, which actually helps. All of Alberta grow together as as competitively in pickleball. I think that's another thing which I would love to see on the podcast, that's a beautiful vision. I love that idea. And actually, Neil my husband had that idea as well, and I think, we could run with this, is having the different leagues in competition, so Yeah. You could have a league at mega courts and we could, Calgary Pickleball Center, or we could play YYC.

Speaker 2: 32:17

I think if I could just say from a selfish point of view at the level I play at, there are only a handful of players, as you go up the pickleball ladder as far as skills are concerned. So I would love to have an inter-facility collaboration, where I have access to players from Edmonton or from St. Albert, who are at a higher level. And we can all compete together in some way. And then also

Rajan: 32:37

drill together.

Speaker 2: 32:38

Yeah. And work together how we can improve youth programs and, coaching programs. And we can all learn from each other. I think rather than pickleball is social. It should be social Also at the level of facilities rather than being competitors to each other, we should be thinking how we can collaborate and, make pickleball more successful in Alberta. Yeah.

Sumit: 32:57

You're right. Yeah. Absolutely. I think the connection needs to be there for us all to move forward. So I love your vision and we'll keep an eye out for. What you are doing in the future there. So where can people find mega courts and follow what

Speaker 2: 33:14

you're doing? If you would ask me this question three months ago, I would've said why are people on social media? Just be on a pickleball court but yeah. So mega courts we are on Instagram our page is megacourts.calgary. And if anybody wants to check out me on Instagram I am sumit pickleball, S-U-M-I-T dot pickleball.

Sumit: 33:38

We'll put the links in the show notes so that people can find you as well. Oh my gosh, thank you so much. That was such an amazing conversation. I love both of your energy. Those of you listening couldn't see, but both Raja and Sumit smiled all the way through that, so I love that. And

Speaker 2: 34:00

you did too.

Speaker: 34:01

Thanks so much for listening today. I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. Anything mentioned, including links, notes, and a full episode list, will be over on our website at pickleballandpartnership. buzzsprout. com. Com. If you got something outta this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe to Pickleball and Partnership on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so that you are notified of new and upcoming episodes. And if you're finding value in this podcast, a free way to support us is to leave a five. It truly means the world to us. This will help more people access these real conversations. And if you haven't connected with myself or Neil personally, we would love to meet you and say hi over on our Facebook page. Thanks again for listening. Please tune in next week for another exciting episode of Pickleball and partnership. Remember, we're all learning, growing, and showing up in our own ways. And that's what matters most.