All it took was 10 minutes to get hooked!

What happens when a lifelong tennis pro gives pickleball just 10 minutes… and it completely changes his life?

In this episode of Kitchen Conversations – Stories Behind the Paddle, I sit down with Kevin Beeson—elite coach, national champion, and one of the most recognizable voices in pickleball education today.

From grinding through the tennis world to becoming a global pickleball coach, Kevin breaks down the real reason this game is exploding—and why so many of us wish we started sooner.

We get into:

The exact moment pickleball “hooks” players (and why it happens so fast)
Why most players plateau—and how to avoid it
The biggest mistake beginners make (hint: it’s not what you think)
His “Zero to Hero” philosophy and what it actually means
Why the future of pickleball might be moving too fast
And the deeper truth: this game isn’t just about competition—it’s about connection
This is more than a conversation about pickleball.
It’s about reinvention, purpose, and finding something new to chase—no matter your age.

“We all start at zero… the goal is to become your version of the hero.” 

🔗 Connect with Kevin Beeson

👉 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@kbpickleball?si=rdy9soY7zfm2tJl4

👉 Website / Coaching & Camps: https://www.kevinbeesonpickleball.com/

👉 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kbpickleball?igsh=eDBwcjl3NXdyZTNw


👉 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.beeson.2025

🎧 Watch More Episodes

👉 Full Podcast Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@KitchenConversationspodcast

💬 Join the Conversation

If this episode inspires you to pick up a paddle for the first time… mission accomplished.
Drop a comment below 👇
What was YOUR pickleball “magic moment”?

🏓 Hashtags

#Pickleball #KevinBeeson #KitchenConversationsPodcast #PickleballLife #PickleballCoach #PickleballTraining #PickleballTips #PickleballCommunity #DinkAndDrive #PickleballAddict #SportsPodcast #RacketSports #PickleballJourney #ActiveLifestyle #PlayPickleball #PickleballStories #ZeroToHero #PickleballGrowth #SeniorAthletes #GameOfALifetime


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[Please excuse any and all spelling and grammatical errors.]

And that wraps up this episode of Kitchen Conversations.

If you enjoyed the conversation, be sure to follow the show, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves the game as much as you do.

And if you want the full experience, including the visuals, head over to YouTube and watch the episode at

https://www.youtube.com/@KitchenConversationspodcast

Or search Kitchen Conversations Pickleball Podcast

That’s where these stories really come to life.

You’ll also find links and show notes in the episode description.

Until next time…

more than dinks, drops and drives…

these are stories from behind the paddle.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Welcome to Kitchen Conversations. If you go online looking for coaching tips and tricks and advice, you are going to inevitably run into a gentleman named Kevin Beeson. Now, Kevin's someone that came from, and these are his words, they're not mine, from the dark side. Yeah, he was a tennis player. And the interesting story that he shares today, I won't let the cat totally out of the bag, but suffice to say, he said, I'll give it 10 minutes. Well, it's turned into a lifetime passion. You'll hear all about that and so much more on this episode. But Kevin has a really interesting, pragmatic way of breaking down coaching tips. We talk about a drill called Up the River and Down the River. And you're going to love that part of the conversation for sure. But we interestingly enough kicked it off by, I suppose, uh, reluctantly perhaps talking about our ages and how technology is moving so quickly and how it kind of melds into the world of podcasting and all of this technology and gear that's here in the studio. And but that got us into fax machines and Kevin reflecting on thinking that his beeper, and there's people right now going, beeper? I've never heard of a beeper. Well, he'll he'll talk about his beeper and how he thought that would be all the technology that he would ever need. I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Kevin. It was just an incredible chat. And I thank Kevin so much for being part of the podcast today. I remember the very first facsimile machine that I ever laid eyes on. And I thought to myself, it can't it can't get any better, Kevin. Like if we stick a piece of paper here in Oregon and it shows up in Ontario, Canada, like how does it get any better?

SPEAKER_00 1:35

So No, it's crazy. I mean, even, you know, us being, well, I don't speak for myself, being a senior, you know, and I remember I was one of those that was like when the iPhone came out, or the, you know, the I was like, I'm never gonna use this. I'm never gonna, I'm never gonna no I've got my little, I've got my little beeper, I've got my little pager.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

This works fine for me, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Yeah, what what more do I need? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Yeah, I don't need anything more than that. I mean, that's perfect. And then, you know, and even today, when I asked my son, you know, a simple question, what I don't think is simple on the iPhone, and he's, you know, he's 26 years old, and he'll say, Oh my gosh. And then I I took him to uh a thrift shop, an antique store, and I showed him the old dial phone, the dial up. And I said, Okay, dial enough, dial a number for me. And he just looked at that thing, and so he dialed the number, but I said, You forgot to do one thing. He said, What?

SPEAKER_01 2:39

I said, You didn't even pick up the You gotta start by getting a dial tone.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

That that was so much work back then, you know?

SPEAKER_01 2:50

It's well, Kevin, welcome to my podcast. Welcome to Kitchen Conversations, and I can't begin to tell you just how thrilled I am to finally connect with you, at least somewhat face to face here today. We have been uh talking to one another back and forth with text and messages and emails and trying to line up a date and a time for us to uh sit down together and talk about this amazing game of pickleball that we both love so much. So let me start by thanking you for finding some time to be here today.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Well, thank you very much. I'm I feel honored to be as you kick off your kitchen conversations.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Uh thank you very much for reaching out. Wow, you're welcome. I'm so happy to have you here today. And uh I've got so much I could cover with you, Kevin. This is one of these conversations that I think could go all day. And uh, but I will be mindful of the clock and I'm keeping an eye on it. So we'll do our best to make sure we uh stay within some kind of a reasonable time frame here today. But I'm uh hoping we could kind of have a conversation, Kevin, based on three rallies to keep it, if you will, in the spirit of the game of pickleball. We all love long rallies. And uh I'd like to start rally one with asking you to tell us a little bit about your background, the sports that you've played in the past. I know you've got some tennis background, you've got some, you know, coaching and communication background. And uh, so I'd love for you to kind of run with that uh initially. And then rally two, I want to jump into this incredible game that started way back in 1965 on Bainbridge Island with those wonderful people and Barney McCallum and his group. And we're so thankful that they did that. And we're kind of thankful for the kids for driving them crazy that day. And that ultimately led to the invention of the game. So uh small steps in that. So rally two, we'll spend some time talking about pickleball. And then rally three, which I hope Kevin is ultimately our longest rally together, is where we talk a lot about what you're doing online, your coaching, your camps, your clinics, your traveling. Uh, you just are doing such an incredible job with all of that. And I really want to spend some time talking to you about that. So if that makes sense, uh, I'd love to start today's conversation with you by inviting you to tell us a bit about your background and perhaps uh, you know, where tennis fit in and some of the other sports that you may have played. So if you don't mind, why don't you run with that for me?

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Well, okay, I I uh started in the tennis, I started on the dark side. Okay. So I started in the tennis world and I grew up in Minnesota, and um I got involved. We had moved to a new place, and there was a tennis court right across the street, and there was a gentleman playing who asked me to come play. And uh, you know, I was one of those young kids that played baseball, football, and hockey and all those things. And um I just started in the in the tennis at a really early age and continued to play tennis and really loved the game and played you know through high school, a little bit in college, and then tried to play on the pro tour until I ran out of money, which didn't take long. Okay. Uh it's pretty it's pretty darn, it's pretty darn tough. Um but you know, it's when I went from in to tennis, when I ran out of money, what two tennis pros do? They fall back to what they know, and that is is teaching. So I got into the teaching part of tennis, why, as my parents would say, uh, looking for a real job. Okay. But I I really, really enjoyed it. And so I just really got hooked, and I did that for oh my gosh, I've been coaching since 1985. Okay, yeah, so for a long for a long time. So it's yeah, 30 plus plus years. Okay. And so I got into the tennis business, and then I did that for so many years, and then about eight years ago, I uh I got like pickleball. That's all we heard about pickleball, pickleball, pickleball. And I never had any desire to play, like zero. It was in my DNA. I was a tennis pro. Right. We there was nothing, there was nothing about pickleball that interests me at all. Like zero. Yeah, I mean, you used a little kid's wiffle ball with an oversized ping pong paddle on a small court, right, and everybody was old. Right. Okay, and so I I know what you're thinking. Okay, I was in denial, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

So I got invited to play pickleball, but I only committed to 10 minutes. I said, I will give you 10 minutes of my time, and you can't tell anybody.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

That's a secret. It's our secret.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

It's a secret, right? It's a secret, okay. Well, 10 minutes, 10 minutes turned into 45 minutes. Uh and I had to I had to leave. I had to go teach a tennis lesson. And it was the first tennis lesson that I had ever taught where I was trying to teach the player how to dink.

unknown 7:55

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Right. And that 10 minutes or that 45 minutes, yeah, just changed my life as I know it today. I mean, it was I believe pickleball is just the as you as you feel also, yes, is the great is the greatest game. Absolutely. And the only regret, the only regret I'm ever gonna have is I wish I would have started a long time ago.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah. You know, Kevin, I don't think there's many of us in the age bracket. I'm 59, um, that wouldn't echo that exactly. You know, is there a regret about the game? Yes. What is it? I didn't start earlier, I didn't start sooner, I didn't pay attention, I I judged it, you know, from the sidelines, I didn't give it a fair chance. I mean, all of those conversations are happening all over the courts, all over North America today. So many people wishing that they had picked up that paddle because many of us had a chance to do that. And I'm, you know, that was my story. I did have a chance to pick up this game probably a decade ago. And I just started about three years ago, Kevin. So I, you know, I lost out on about seven years of enjoying this game, you know, learning the game. And so I don't think what you and I are talking about in this moment and those listening to the podcast, I think there's a lot of people shaking their head going, absolutely putting their hand up screen. Yeah, that was me.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Yeah. I agree. I 100% agree. The number of tennis players that I've worked with in the past who swore they would never ever play pickleball, right? Are now some of my students or or or even my partners, right? Some of the people said, No, I'm not, I'm never gonna play that game. Yeah, well, there they are.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Yeah. And it's a magic. I call it, sorry, Kevin, I call it the magic moment. And you experienced that because you were willing to give 10 minutes, you know, under almost under cover of darkness, you know, I can't, nobody can catch me doing this, you know. And 10 minutes turned into 45, which I love. It's a great story, and thanks for sharing that. I just love that story. Um, but what happens in that moment, Kevin, from your professional and personal opinion? What is it? Is it is there something between the ball and the paddle connecting that triggers something in our head, the instant addiction? I I've yet to figure it out, but I know it happens, and it happens, you know, in a nanosecond almost, just a couple of minutes, and you're starting to smile and fall in love with this game.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Well, you you said it. You you're smiling. You're you're la you're laughing. Okay, you're you're you're having fun. And the thing about pickleball is that I kind of break it down into ages. So as you get older, right, your career or whatever your sports background was. So when I first came over to pickleball, people would say, Well, isn't that going to ruin your tennis game? I was like, I'm 50 some years old. What a tennis game. That was that was 30 years ago, right? That was a long time ago, right? And then there is the the part for the players who um the game in general is it's an easier game to pick up, right? It's it's easier to learn to play pickleball than it is golf or tennis or something like that. Um, so right away you have this immediate success, right? You don't even you don't even need to know how to keep score to play pick to be able to play pickleball. We see that all the time. People are out there jumping on the courts playing. They they don't know they don't know the score, they don't know the rules, but you know what? They're smiling and they're laughing. And I think that's the one thing that makes this game so darn addictive.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

It's it's yeah, you've hit the nail in the head. I talked to a buddy of mine who we play together periodically just yesterday, actually, Kevin. He said uh he does a bit of coaching up here as well uh in Ontario, Canada. And he said he loves to teach hit and giggle. That's what he calls it. Hit and giggle. He said, if you want to go out and your game is hit and giggle with a bunch of friends, play for a couple hours, go out for a beer, a glass of wine, or bite to eat, or whatever the plan may be, he said, I'm good with that. And I think the magic of the game, at least a part of it to your point, and I'm I'm glad you went there, is the fact that you can do just that. You can step into the game, learn kind of how to play in a matter of, you know, half an hour, an hour maybe. And um, it doesn't matter. If you want to stay there for the rest of your life and just hit the wiffle ball, do it. If you want to take pro coaching, you want to get better, you want to grow, then that's there too. So yeah, it's that's all great stuff. I love your insight into that, Kevin. Thanks for sharing that. Yeah, appreciate it. Take me back just for a minute. Let me draw you back to that moment, those 10 minutes when you were still in the tennis mode, you were fighting it. Why do you think that is? Is it just that we're a little reluctant to admit that maybe we can't handle the real estate of the tennis court anymore? There's a lot of tennis players, you mentioned the dark side, but you know, I think it's shifting, and that's a good thing. I think pickleball's, you know, image, if you will, with a lot of tennis players is starting to be maybe something I'm I'm gonna be able to do and enjoy down the road. Uh, and that's that's great for the game. But what what what was it in that moment that that you were fighting while thinking about pickleball?

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Uh I really think there was that, um, and we still hear it some, but I believe that pickleball and tennis are really they're great for each other. They can feed off each other. Um, I think there's parts of pickleball that can improve your tennis game and parts of tennis that can improve your pickleball game. Okay. What really, really turned me on to it was at 50 some years old, I was like 57, 56, somewhere in that age, right? Okay, when I started, was I had gotten to a certain point in my age where I was really looking to learn something new. Okay. And so I literally took guitar lessons at a late age. Okay. I tried to figure out how to play the piano uh at a later age, but the problem was I didn't even own a piano, which was which was an issue. That's a challenge. I I really wanted to learn something else because again, in in the tennis, my tennis game, I wasn't improving, I was declining with age, and that just happens. Pickleball was the one thing that I could do where I didn't know enough about the game that I could actually learn something new at a later age and actually potentially hopefully get better at it.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

And I think that's really what hooked me into it was that, hey, now I have something I can strive for. And I love it. Yeah, that's pretty much how I got hooked.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Yeah, it's great. And I've I've kind of heard a similar conversation uh in the past with a number of different people as well, Kevin. And uh I agree 100% with that. And uh it is something that you can sort of segue into from either, you know, squash or badminton or tennis. And I don't think it hurts you to have some of that, you know, racket experience. I do think that does give you a slight edge, you know, heading into pickleball for sure. I came from a golf background, so everything I do is forced. I and you would know that. Yeah. If I came, if you were to coach me today, you go, ooh, boy, this guy hasn't got a lot of racket experience, but but he's trying. He's really, I would get the award for the most passionate player on the court maybe that day. But uh I do see when I step on a court, someone that's played table tennis for a while or you know, some badminton, you can you sort of get a sense uh that there's definitely some experience there. It's coming into play in the pickleball uh game immediately almost for them. So yeah, interesting. I talked to Patty Hunter Murphy. We mentioned him off camera uh just before we started recording, who runs, of course, the senior pickleball tips Facebook group, which is uh an enormous community and an engaged community, and he's doing a lot of good for the sport. But uh his um thoughts on this, uh, when I asked him, Kevin, uh, he talked about the length of the game compared to, say, a tennis match, because he was a 50-year tennis player as well. And he said the fact that in a social setting where you're just doing a paddle rotation, you know, a Tuesday morning, you're kind of in a game and out of a game with, you know, three other people for maybe 15 or 18 minutes. Then you're on the sidelines, you're chatting with some people, you're jumping back into another game, you're back out again. And he really gave a lot of credit to the length of the game, you know, to get to 11 as part of the magic. And, you know, I'm wondering what your thoughts on that might be.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

I I think that's definitely true. Pat, and and number one, Patty is a great guy. What he's done for pickleball is absolutely amazing. Had great conversations with Patty. Um super guy. But I think I think he is, he's right, okay, is that the length of the game definitely helps when you're, you know, if you're gonna go out there and you're gonna learn something new and you're out there, you know, two, two and a half hours and you're grinding in the heat and whatever, that might not be a real big turn-on to somebody. But if you can just go out there and play for, you know, 15, 18 minutes, whatever it might be, I think that um could be a big part of it, is it's shorter and you do get to go and socialize afterwards. Now, what I didn't understand about pickleball when I first started was I started playing some tournaments and everyone said you needed a cooler and a lawn chair. Okay, because uh you needed to, when you started, when I started playing tournaments, I didn't get it because there wasn't like, okay, you're gonna play at nine o'clock and then you're gonna play at 10:30, and then you're gonna play. It was just one after another. So at first I went without the lawn chair in the cooler, and I figured it out pretty quickly because you need something to sit on when you're over there socializing, and you might want to have a, you know, refreshment or a power bar or something like that. The problem was though, I went through a lot of coolers and a lot of lawn chairs.

unknown 17:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Did you? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Oh, yeah. Because especially if the tournament didn't go well and I did and I would, oh, oh man, I'm getting out of here. I lost, whatever, right? Okay. And then I'd be driving home and I'd be like, Where's my lawn chair? Where's my cooler? Right. And then now I gotta go either back to get it or you know, stop by and buy another lawn chair and another cooler. I didn't get I didn't get that part, but I learned quickly.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Well, somebody said, Oh, Kevin was here. He's donated another cooler and another lawn chair. That's great. Yeah, it's your charitable donation work. There you go. Yeah, you should have started a foundation, maybe lawn chairs and coolers. There might have been something there. Well, that's all terrific. What a great start to the conversation to get a sense of kind of how you got into the game and a bit of your sports background and that tennis. And uh, I really appreciate you sharing that. So thank you. Um, let's jump into rally two, and that's kind of where is the game today for you, Kevin? And we're gonna park the coaching conversation because that's the biggest part of us getting together and talking about all of that this afternoon. But let's talk about you as a player today. What have you accomplished that you're most proud of in the game? And kind of where does it fit into your life today? You're you're so busy. Um, I can't imagine you have a lot of time between all the coaching and trading and and the work that you're doing to help the pickleball, you know, the broader pickleball community. You know, do you get much time to play? Are you still doing some tournaments? Where is all of that in your world today?

SPEAKER_00 19:24

So I just recently jumped back into the tournament world um within the last year. And so I've been competing on the APP Masters Senior Pro Tour, which has been great. When I first started, okay, I really jumped into playing. I actually never knew, never thought I would be coaching pickleball. That wasn't the reason I jumped into it. I jumped into it to compete. Because I, you know, like so many of us, I still like to compete, even at an we'll say an older age. Okay. And so I went all in. I started, you know, I I trained all the time. I played tournaments all over the country, you know, I played nationals and things like that. I was fortunate enough to win a few national titles. And then COVID hit. Okay. And I started thinking to myself, do I want to be remembered as an old senior pro player that no one's going to remember? Or do I want my legacy to be able to be in the teaching? Right? To go to the teaching side where I can, you know, share some of this game that I've learned, or or even share life lessons with people, especially younger players. Get to share some life lessons with them. Um so when COVID hit, I decided I was really gonna focus on the teaching. So for five years, I didn't really play up until the last year. I actually just traveled the world doing camps and which was great. But just recently in the last year, I figured, you know, there's gonna come a time where I can't run anymore. Okay. Right. And I still work out, I still do all that stuff. And as long as I could still run, I should get out there and try to compete a little bit. And uh that it's it's been great. It's it's been super, it's been super fun. And they're really good. I mean, those masters that's 60, that's 60 and over, they're really good. I wasn't expecting that, Mike. I really thought I'm gonna go out, yeah, I'm gonna go out there and clean up. No, they're really good.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

I've got my hands full now. This is not what I signed up for.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

But isn't that again, Kevin, to just to idle on that point for a moment with you? Isn't that another reason why you and I in So many others love this game, the ability to take it forward into your, you know, I'll be careful here, into our senior years. Um, but if we look after ourselves, we work out a little, we eat well, and we, you know, prioritize sleep. And, you know, if we do a lot of the back end work well, then we can take that onto the court tomorrow and the next day and next week, and we can play this game at a relatively competitive level for, you know, many, many years. And I think that's another aspect, another element, if you will, of pickleball that's so appealing.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

It is. You're so true. It's a it's a game of a lifetime. Absolutely. It is. It's the game of a it's a game of a lifetime. At one of my camps, the the oldest student I've ever had.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

101. Stop. 101. One oh, one oh, one, and he was the best dressed guy there. He had it, he matched from head to toe, right? He looked, he looked great and he he did great. He did um, yeah, so it is a game of a lifetime, you know.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Well, Kevin, not now, not many can say they coached a centurion. I mean, really, that's that's a moment. There should be some kind of an award, a plaque. There should be something to recognize that. What a moment, though. And he must have been a real fire plug, a real spark, I would imagine.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Oh, he was. He he he truly was. He he had the best one-liners. I mean, the guy was just he was a he was a stand-up comedian, right? And he he knew he knew his limits, right? He knew it, he knew his limits. And uh yeah, just to to say that I coached someone 101 years old is absolutely just okay, just for them to be out there. I mean, I'm I'm just hoping that every day I'm thankful. Every day I'm thankful that I get to go out and you know, teach and compete and make videos and all these things. I'm just I'm just thankful that I still get to do that. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Oh, it's just terrific. Good. Well, I'm so glad to hear you're back in and playing. So, what give me a sense of your schedule then for 2026? Have you sort of set it up to say I'm, you know, a minimum of number, you know, X number of tournaments, or are you just kind of managing that schedule, Kevin, on a day-by-day, week-by-week basis at this point?

SPEAKER_00 24:15

So I I will play in what I really like about the APP is that it's tied in with the Humana Cup. And the Humana Cup is for seniors. So it's a team competition where you're drafted to a team. And there's we in the Masters, there's five five tournaments that we play. So we play um Cincinnati, New York, Detroit, Chicago. And so it's about one a month for that. So I'll definitely play those. Um, and then I will play some local tournaments. I'll probably play 12 tournaments this year, I would guess, maybe give or take. But I um the APP ones with the Humana Cup, I'll definitely play.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

That's awesome. Well, that sounds great.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

It's so great because you're on a team sport again, right? With a bunch of people that are all in the same age division with the same stories, we can talk about, hey, you remember back 20, 30, 40 years ago, right? Yeah, you know, it's it's great.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

It's so much of it, Kevin. That that that whole aspect of the game, that social element of it, however you want to define that, and we all find it. And I don't think we necessarily, as non-players, you know, those listening today, and that is, by the way, the whole goal of this podcast is each episode inspires just one person to pick up a paddle and try this game for the very first time. That's what, that's what I'm hoping to accomplish. So the day I get a comment saying, hey, I heard that terrific interview with Kevin and you, and Kevin was great, you weren't so great, but he was great. But I, you know, I I I Mike, I did it. I picked up a paddle. I went out to my local club or my local court and I tried the game. And you know what? Kevin and you, you were absolutely you were right, both of you. I fell in love with it. So, you know, I think the social side is something that you can't really explain to people. You can kind of explain the game that you, you know, it's a paddle and a ball, and you hit it over the net, and the score goes to 11, it's confusing, and you'll figure it out. But it's really hard to express that that core, that social core that is such an important part of this game. Would you not agree with that?

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Oh, I I totally agree. I totally agree. And I think that players that first come over to the game. So, funny story is the first tournament I ever played in was run by a good friend of mine, Mike Hoxie, who is pretty darn well known out there in the pickleball world, runs pickleball is great tournaments. But the first tournament I played in, I showed up to the tournament desk and he was sitting there. And they had a band playing right next to the courts. They they had a live band playing. And I looked at him coming from the tennis world and being a competitive tennis player. I looked at him and said, Is that band gonna be playing when I'm playing? And he looked up at me and he said, Do you have a problem with that? And I said, No. And then I'm good. Yeah, no, I guess not. Wouldn't you know it? He put me right next to the court where the live band was playing, and I was not happy about it. And but about the third song in, they started playing a Jimmy Buffett song. And okay, you know what? I found that I was singing along as I was playing, and I was like hitting giggles. I was like, okay, wait a minute. This is so much fun. And look, look at all the chords of all these people playing, and look at the smiles. They're smiling, they're laughing. What are they smiling about? What are they laughing about? Right? And it's like all of a sudden, I was just I was so wrapped up in the whole thing of the music and the people, and it was great.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

I love it. What a great story. Thanks for sharing that. Because somebody had said to me a couple weeks ago, Kevin, you know, you walk by a pickleball club and it's almost like a comedy club, you know, sometimes the laughing and the carrying on. And what I love about it is being at a club with, say, 10 or 12 indoor courts, and you can have, you know, a hit and giggle group in the far corner having the time of their life. You can have a somewhat, you know, a social game going on two or three courts, you could have a somewhat competitive game happening, you know, on another court, and then maybe a few people off to the side drilling and working with a coach. And and you just, if you're able to step back and recognize just the layers of this game that you can encounter on a Tuesday morning anywhere in North America, it's pretty, it's pretty interesting. And and all of that that you've just said is a part of it, you know, getting out, having fun, socializing, making friends. And and a lot of these social games, Kevin, as you're well aware, they lead to long-term lifetime friendships. You know, they really do. You'll meet somebody on a Tuesday you've never met, and by Wednesday, you're best friends. Like it's it's almost almost like, hey, I met yesterday and we're friends, you know, we're best friends tomorrow because we have this common love interest in this game of pickleball. So yeah, good for you. Well, good luck with all of the tournament play this year. I'm glad to hear you're back into it. Thank you. And uh yeah, I wish you all the luck with that. It's terrific. Well, listen, let's get into rally three. I really want you to run with all of this and I want you to help me understand a couple of things because I'm a little bit confused. And number one is I don't think you can possibly sleep with all the content that you're putting out. So I want to know your secret to that. If you figured out how to sleep while standing straight up, I'd like to learn that. I know the amount of work it's taken me since January to put this little studio together, to try to record a few podcasts, to go through the editing, to get them out there, hopefully, with something intelligent to say, a little bit entertaining, and hopefully, again, as I said a moment ago, to inspire someone to try this game for the very first time. So when I pick up my phone, when I grab my iPhone, when I go to my iPad, the first person I see is Kevin Beeson smiling away, giving me the most practical, pragmatic tips that I've ever heard in my life. And I love it. I love all of it. And I'm consuming as much of your content as I can. But I'd love for you to explain to me how much time are you putting into this? Because it is, I mean, congratulations on all of it, but I don't know how you're doing it. I really don't.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

Well, sleep is overrated, you know that. Okay. All right. So I I made a I made a goal at the beginning of the year to put out new pickleball content every day for 2026. Okay. Now we're only into April, okay. And so it's it's gonna be it's gonna be challenging, but it's you know what it is, it's for the love of the game. Okay. My time here, our time is limited. Okay. If my goal is to touch as many people as possible, as many people as I could get to one person to pick up that paddle and get out there and play, or maybe one thing that I said, right, really help them. Right. And just going out there and sharing. There's no reason not to share. I mean, I'm blessed to have been able to play this game as long as I have, okay, which isn't that long, okay. And I plan on playing a lot longer. But in the meantime, is to be able to share and to be able to, you know, spread the word about this great game of pickleball. It's it's not it's not easy, but you know, it's it's fun, it's great. I I absolutely look, I look forward to it. I love it. There's, as you know, you started a podcast. There's a lot more to it than just going out and putting out a video. You have to set it up, you have to film it, you got to find the court, you have to edit it, you have all those things. But you know what? When somebody, when I'm at a tournament and somebody comes up to me and says, Hey, I watch your content. Thank you very much. That's that makes my day. That's right there. I mean, that's why I'm doing it. You know, it's funny, it's the craziest thing is it's happened a couple of times. I was in Denver in the airport, and a guy came up to me and he said, You're the YouTuber. And I'm like, I'm the YouTuber? Wow, not now yeah, I'm the YouTuber now, right? And and can I have your autograph? And I'm like, crazy. I'm like, wow, this is this is really, but that that's not why I do it though. I mean, it's just those people that they they say thank you. And it's my it's my privilege to be able to put content out there that you watch and other players and hopefully other people watch, and they and they learn something from it.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Well, Kevin, you're doing such a job. And I want to jump into that in just a minute because I've got some questions specific to all of that. But I want to draw us back to a again, we had a little bit of an off-camera conversation prior to starting today, and uh the name Steve Peronto came up, and he's a good buddy of yours. You guys are friends. You you were just recently at the Peronto Playhouse, and let me tell you, I'm envious of that. That's boy, that's like the Mecca. That's like going to Disneyland for pickleball players is Paronto's Playhouse. So good on you for being there, and I'm sure you've been there a number of times. But, you know, there's a guy that when I had a chance to talk to him, and I was so blessed, a friend of a friend of a friend connected me with Steve. And so we had a chance to chat. And, you know, there's a guy who obviously the history with he and his dad and the development of that paddle in 1984 and him playing in that first bicentennial tournament in 1976. And, you know, but I got a sense in talking to him as I am with you today, and I love this about both of you, is you you have this sense of responsibility, Kevin, for whatever reason, to pay it forward, to do the work that Barney McCallum and his group started, you know, in 1965. And and that's where I feel I'm finally kind of getting it after a couple of years in the game. I don't know why it's happened. I can't tell you what made me wake up in January of 2026 and say I'm going to start a podcast about the stories behind the paddle. But my hope is to contribute in some small way to exactly what you're saying, to get people involved. And and I really got that sense from Steve. And I'm sure that you would echo that, you know, he and the other Hall of Famers that are out there. And of course, he was inducted in 2019. And um, you know, they just seem to have this ongoing sense of responsibility to promote the game and to advocate for the game. And it's so nice to see you echoing that exact thought and feeling today. So thank you. It's it's terrific.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

You're you're so welcome. And then and Mike, put it on your bucket list. You have to go to Paranto's Playhouse. It is more, it is more than just two pickleball courts. It it's a museum, it's an actual museum. You could you can just get caught up for hours looking at all the pictures and to sit with Steve and to be able to talk with him. I could talk with him for hours about the history of the game of pickleball and where the game, where the game, where he thinks the game's going and so on.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

When I listen to your content and I take in as much as I can, uh, I just love the way you're able to simplify it for me. I want to talk about, you know, and one in in particular, and I hadn't mind coming into the call today. Um, I watched something recently about a warm-up drill, you know, up the river and down the river. And it just rang my bell. Like it just made sense. Because when I'm out at my local club on a Tuesday playing with the guys, you know, there are a bunch of us trying to warm up, but we really don't know what we're doing. You know what? Right. We're starting off with some cross, you know, direct dinking, cross-court dinking. Somebody will back up. We'll start to try to hit some third shot drops, we'll work our way up to the kitchen, maybe get some fast hands going. But the concept of up the river, down the river, and having a system made a lot of sense. So was that something that you were teaching as a tennis coach that you kind of brought into pickleball, breaking down what could be a complex training session and trying to make it simple? Is that sort of how you got to where you are? Because I just love your content. I think it's terrific.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

Well, it it comes down to it's when players go out, you go out there, right? And you go out there and you're you're playing and you're warming up, what you think is warming up. Okay. So, you know, the the typical warm-up, the typical warm-up for the pickleball player is driving through Starbucks. Okay. That that that's the typical warm-up. Okay. But so they they dink a few up at the kitchen, right? And then they run all the way back and they say, okay, give me a couple drops. And okay, now they're ready. But they didn't hit any hit any balls in the transition zone. Right? They didn't hit any balls. What I think is the most important spot on the whole court is that opportunity land, or some people call it senior citizens land or no man's land, is in between the baseline and the kitchen. But and they skip that whole area. Okay. And that's you can't get you can't get from the baseline to the kitchen without going through the transition zone. So when you are out there warming up, because we don't like to warm up that long, this way you get to hit a ball in each each spot on the court. Okay. So that's more of a a it's a short warm-up because your goal is to use like one ball. So if you and I are going to go out, we're going to go start with two dinks at the kitchen. You take two steps back, you're going to hit two drops, two steps back, two drops. And we're going to try to do one ball where you go all the way back, I'm up at the kitchen, and then you come all the way in, then I go back. And now that took us a big whopping, you know, 45 seconds to do if we can keep one ball going, right? And we're working on that consistency and control, which is so important in pickleball.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Yeah, 100%. So it's intentional then. I mean, you're taking something and simplifying it. I mean, it must be a there's a purpose behind the way that you're presenting. So when I'm watching your videos, Kevin, and I encourage everyone who's listening to this today, if you haven't been there yet, get there. You've got to, you just gotta put it in, you know, go to the Google and type in Kevin Bees, and uh, you know, you'll be amazed. But it's there must be a lot of intent, you know, when you're planning those videos and you're thinking about them, taking that concept of what am I trying to teach here and how do I make it into something that's memorable and simple, yet effective. And I think that's the trick, Kevin, in being a great coach. I think being able, you know, a lot of people can play the game well. And it's a question I I'd like to come back to in a minute on, but you know, being able to play the game well and being able to teach it well, those two don't always sync up. They don't necessarily run in parallel uh one to another. So um you must put a lot of thought into breaking down those lessons.

SPEAKER_00 39:31

Well, I do because it's I go with the old the old KISS system. Keep it keep it simple student. Okay. Is because it's it's pickleball, right? We don't it's an easy game that we make difficult. So I'm trying to reach that player, if it is the beginner player who's just starting, or the or the more advanced player or the senior player. So everything has a you know a plan and a purpose, right? And so, and then the most you'll hear a lot in my videos is the word patience. That's the one thing. But they're all about keeping it simple because like I said, it's this is an easy game that we're making difficult.

SPEAKER_01 40:21

And there's no reason, just simplify it. Well, I love all that. Tell me about your zero to hero sort of slogan. Where did that start and how does it play into your coaching?

SPEAKER_00 40:31

Well, zero zero to hero, I started when I years ago, like seven years ago, okay. And I started thinking about from my all my years of teaching, we all start at the same level. We all start at zero. So the first time you stepped on a court, you were at zero. I was at zero. Okay. And our goal is to for most players is to get as good as they possibly can. Right now, that's going to be different levels. Okay. So for you, that might be a 4-0. That's okay. And for some players, that might be, oh, I want to be a pro. Okay. So a lot of these, if you if you start at zero, we all start at zero, right? And we're going to reach our our goal. That's that's our goal there. Is that it gives them something to strive for. But the thing about the hero part is it's not the same for everyone because some of the people that I work with, some of the people that you meet out on the courts, this is the first sport they ever played. This is this is their US Open. This is their Wimbledon, right? And they may only get to, let's say, a 3-5, right? But they they started at, you know, just right at the very beginning. So it was more telling people that it's all about where you can reach your potential, and your potential is going to be different for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

I love it. Yeah, that's a great way of looking at it. Yeah. And, you know, again, we touched on it briefly, but the beauty of the game is coming into it at zero, let's say, and then finding finding your path, Kevin. There's no prescription that you must follow. You can decide I'm going to just plug into this game here, and that's kind of where I want to stay. I want to be competitive, but I don't want to play tournaments, and I don't, you know, but at the same time, the opportunities to take this game to whatever level you'd like to, including, you know, Turning Pro, it's all out there. And I think, you know, that's the beauty of it as well. There's just so many components to the game that make it what it is today, and the ability for each of those levels to enjoy it uh uniquely in their, you know, in their own unique way. But at the same time, there's a universal love for the game that just kind of develops within all of those little segments. So it's all great stuff. Well, listen, I'm careful with the clock, uh, as I promised I would be. So I don't want to hold you too much longer, but give me a sense of your thoughts, Kevin, on a player coming into the game today, they're going to get lots of advice. And it's unavoidable. And, you know, like you know, sir, return, run to the kitchen. You know, that that run, run, run right through the transition zone. Just ignore it. It's not there. Just get yourself up to the kitchen and and go. How important um would it be in your mind for every player beginning this game? And again, we're talking to those today that may not have tried pickleball, to get into the game, absolutely try it, get a few rallies in, go try it. But you know, to hire a coach, to work with a coach at least once to get some foundation to the game. How do you where do you weigh in on that? And sort of what's your dialogue on that when you start thinking about it?

SPEAKER_00 43:51

Well, first of all, the one thing that you're going to find at every open play, okay, there's one thing, there's one thing in common. There are 40 retired attorneys giving you free advice. Okay. Right. There's nothing, there's nothing you do about it, right? It's just like you're they're gonna be there giving you their and and they mean well. They mean well, right? Okay. It doesn't mean that what they're saying is right or wrong. Okay. But I feel that if you get some basic coaching, you get the fundamentals, the sky is the limit. If you have if you have the basic fundamentals, the sky is the limit. If you're unorthodox, let's say you're an unorthodox player, you haven't taken any lessons, you don't know the correct way to hit a drop or whatever it might be, you're gonna reach a plateau. Okay. And once you reach that plateau, right, you're now going to get frustrated. Okay. And now you've been playing for two years, you've reached that plateau, and now you're gonna reach out to your local pro and ask them. And this is going to take us longer because now you've been playing for a couple of years and you have these maybe people call them bad habits or whatever. Right. And so now we're going to have to break you down and rebuild you, right? So I think when you first start, I would highly recommend learning the basics. Uh I'm a golfer. And I am a and I am a bad golfer. Okay. But I'm a bad, I'm a bad, okay. All right. I but I I never I never took a lesson. I never, I never took a lesson. And I wish I would have. I love the game, but I wish I would have when I first started, right? Because it would have taken a lesson. So I think it's incredibly valuable to go out there and find a uh a player, a person, a pro, we'll call them, that is certified and knows, you know, what they're we don't want anyone getting hurt either. And I and then some of the advice that some of the advice that people are giving out there trying to be helpful, you need to look at the level of the player, their athletic ability. Could they even do that? What you're trying to tell them to do, right? So I I think it's very beneficial to start with the fundamentals.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

I love that, Kevin. Thank you for all of that. It's great insight. I think your golf analogy is terrific. I fall into that. You and I could be golf buddies because I played the game most of my adult life, terribly, terribly bad at it, but didn't take a lesson. You know, my father-in-law handed me a set of old blade spaldings. That's a great set to learn on. Blades.

SPEAKER_02 46:45

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

Yeah, handed me some blade spaldings and said, Go get them, kid. And uh, you know, the first swing almost took his head off. He was standing a little ahead of the T blocks. He didn't make that mistake again for 30 years, but he did that day. And but you know, I never took a lesson. So I developed, you know, I took a little bit of pond hockey experience and transferred it into a golf club. And it's not pretty. I mean, it makes Jim Furick's swing look, look, look like like a velvet swing, you know, it's yeah. So I I echo that. Um, you know, the the other uh very quick point on this before we wrap up, Kevin, is you know, I think the moment when a group of beginners, if you will, because let's be honest, most beginners getting out there at serve, return, and then maybe a third, maybe a fourth, but the rallies don't go much longer than two or three taps on the paddle. And I love it when there's an accidental reset. And I call it that because they didn't intend to reset it. It did they got into a little bit of a firefight, and then somebody made a mistake, and all of a sudden we're dealing with a, you know, a reset, and they go, Oh, wow, hey, this is fun. And then that might actually lead to a little bit of accidental dinking. And then that might lead to a rally of eight, 10, 12 points. And and I can tell you, I almost remember Kevin to the day, the first time I had an accidental reset. You know, I went to hit it and I missed it and it reset, and all of a sudden we slowed it down again because it's that serve, return. And then sure enough, at that level, that beginner level, it, you know, all of a sudden everybody's trying to get the kill shot in. Uh, it's a moment. And I think people would enjoy the game in the way that it was designed to be played if they would take that coaching to learn how to get the reset intentional, not by accident. Because I think that's the greatest moment in pickleball, in my opinion. I love it when it's serve, return, a nice third shot drop, we get a little dinking, somebody thinks they've got a shot, they try to, you know, and all of a sudden you're into 15, 18, 20, 22 rallies, uh, at a, you know, at a social competitive level. And when you're able to slow that down, and you mentioned that the importance of that transition real estate in the middle, be able to do that, it the game becomes it almost just peels back a whole nother layer of it. What do you have your eye on with respect to the future of the game, Kevin? You you are so immersed in this, and and uh, you know, your opinion on this would be very valuable. Tell me, is there something about the game that concerns you? Is it, you know, I mean, paddle technology obviously is at the forefront of so many conversations today, the speed of the ball, eye safety, um, you know, uh younger players coming into the game, changing the game in a way that might be good for the game. You know, I'm not saying it's not, but I think we would probably both agree as a demographics drop, the speed of the game, you know, all of that starts to change. Is there something from your perspective, both as a coach, a player, and I guess an advocate for the game that you're thinking about today that concerns you a bit?

SPEAKER_00 49:25

Well, the game's changed. The game's changed drastically since I started. Okay. Um, my concern is, I mean, with today's game with today's technology and you know, the power, the power that the ball can leave the paddle today, we see a much more powerful game than we used to see, right? That's not for everybody. That's not for everyone. The game is um, I'm a big believer everybody wear some sort of eye protection when you're playing because the game is so fast today. Um my concern is that the game is going to get so fast that it's not going to be an enjoyable spectator sport, okay, because of the and the the pace of the game. And when you you've been out there, okay, and uh pickleball is the only sport where you could have this this dinking rally going back and forth, and the people watching are going nuts. They're like, oh my gosh, this is the most amazing point ever, right? Okay, and if you do to experience that is just it's is great. I mean, it's a the average number of shots for the recreational player per point is four.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

Okay, good. It's four. So that's kind of where I yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:58

Yeah, the average number of shots for the pros in doubles is if you watch, is anywhere, it used to be 20 to 30, now it's 10 to 20, but that's still a much bigger number. And if you get out there and you get into this dinking battle back and forth, right? Pickleball. What I love about pickleball is every time the ball comes back, it's like every time they return the problem to you, which is the ball, okay, is the point starts over. But like I said earlier about patience, we get impatient, the balls come back four, five, six, seven times, and you feel like you need to do something tricky, right? And yeah, and tricks are for kids, tricks are for kids. Tricks are for kids, right? Okay. Don't get bored with success. Okay. Right. So just return that problem. But and I also think in the in the pickleball world, what we're going to see more of, and it's coming out more and more, is my biggest concern is I'm going to lose my job to AI. To AI. There's now all these, there's all sorts of apps out there now where you can video yourself and you can see, and it's going to tell you what you're doing wrong, and all this stuff. And it's like, wait a minute, how how about me? How about me? Right? Okay. You're going to lose that personal touch and the whole thing. Um, I I think the game is just not to take away from the game. I mean, I think there's different levels. Like you say, there's levels the the the players that we're watching on TV are world-class athletes.

SPEAKER_01 52:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 52:45

Right? Okay. Just because Mario Andretti can drive his car 200 miles an hour doesn't mean I get to drive my car 200 miles an hour, right? And then I love what what is the greatest job security for me? YouTube. It's the greatest job security for me because, and what do I mean by that is you go out and you watch all these YouTube videos by all these people out there that are putting out pickleball content and some of it's really good. Okay. But then you watch this video and you come in and you see, you come to see me, right? And all of a sudden you're trying to hit this Ernie or this jumping four feet in the air at 60 years old. I'm like, what are you doing? Well, you know, I saw Ben Johns do this, uh, and I'm I'm like, oh. So I look at it, you know, and it's like I think with with today's game is I can't say it say it enough, is patience is you know, the longer points are so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 53:56

They are, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:57

They are, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:58

I just think so many people don't get there, Kevin, because you know, they just don't either want to put the time in to get there or they're quite happy where they are with those four-point rallies. But let me tell you, it's like tasting chocolate for the first time. You're like, I like this. And I'd like I would like more chocolate, you know, because when you when you get into those rallies that are longer and the patient starts to play into that, as you've said, it uh it becomes a totally different game. And I just think it opens up a whole new world for those of us that haven't experienced it. So, well, listen, this has been beyond amazing, and I could talk to you all day. Uh, I appreciate everything you're doing to help the game. I respect everything you're putting out there. I admire how much time you're putting into this, and I get a small sense through my little podcast about just how hard you're working. So I I want to, you know, pat you on the back for that and just tell you, you know, good on you and thank you for doing this. It uh it's amazing, Kevin, and we're all enjoying it. And uh, we hope you can continue to do it. And we hope you meet your goal of putting out that piece of content at least one a day, every day for the rest of 2026 and uh continued success in your playing career and uh the Pro Tour and all the things that you're doing out there. It's just terrific. So appreciate it and thank you for being on the podcast today. I really thank you.

SPEAKER_00 55:08

Well, thank you so much, and thank you for all that you're doing for Fickleball, also. I really appreciate it.