Dinks On Tap: The Happy Hour Pickleball Podcast

You know that friend who texts you at 1am just because she figured out you’re both still awake? Now imagine she’s also your doubles partner, your hype woman, your matching-outfit co-conspirator, and the person who gets genuinely jealous when you drill with someone else.

That’s what’s waiting for you in this episode.

This week, we’re sitting down with Cecy Feld and Holly Kerr of Feld/Kerr Pickleball, two former tennis players, current empty nesters, and 50-plus pickleball influencers who decided that winning age-bracket pickleball tournaments was a great start and also not even close to enough. What began as a charity tournament on a whim turned into matching Lucky in Love outfits, a big ass calendar, a gold medal at Worlds, and a very real road to senior pro.

But underneath the outfits and the gold medals is something more interesting: two women who got everything they planned for and then decided to plan something bigger. Pickleball just happened to be the vehicle.

We get into:


How a tennis friendship turned into a full-blown doubles partnership, including the moment they both knew it was official


The real difference between PPA tournaments and APP events at the senior pro open level, and why that gap is humbling in the best possible way


What their weekly pickleball training, drilling, and tournament planning actually looks like


Why pickleball fashion isn’t just about looking cute, and what matching outfits actually signal to opponents before a single ball is struck


Partner jealousy, blind date mixed doubles, and what happens when your regular partner drills with someone else and doesn’t text you back for two hours


How playing against your partner can teach you things you’d never see from the same side of the net


Why the pickleball community at tournaments like the Masters in Palm Springs and the US Open in Naples feels less like competition and more like a reunion you didn’t know you needed


What competitive pickleball looks like when 80-year-olds are out there playing singles and their friends are cheering from the sidelines, and why that image changes how you think about the next few decades


How women athletes over 50 are rewriting what ambition looks like, one tournament weekend at a time

This one’s got gold medals, wellness wake-up calls, a very dramatic drilling betrayal, and a love letter to pickleball that might actually make you tear up a little. Fair warning.

Pour something cold and press play.

Cheers,

Casie and Lauren

Dinks on Tap

Let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with us:

Instagram: @dinksontap

Facebook: @DinksonTap

Website: dinksontap.com

For those wanting to fortify their mental game on the court, check out Lauren’s Mental Caddie offerings on her website or book a Chemistry Call. 

Connect with Cecy and Holly:


Instagram: @feld.kerr.pickleball 


Tiktok: @feldkerrpickeball

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It turns out the distance between a Michelin-starred restaurant and a pickleball court is shorter than anyone expected, especially when the person crossing it is already wired for pressure, creativity, competition, and just a little bit of chaos.

This week, Casie and Lauren sit down with Chef Richard Blais, a chef, entrepreneur, author, television personality, and newly declared aspiring pickleball influencer. What starts as a conversation about how he found the game quickly becomes something bigger: why pickleball has a way of sneaking into your schedule, your friendships, your competitive wiring, and, if you are Richard, possibly your next business pitch.

Richard brings the same curiosity to the court that made him such a recognizable force in food. He talks about learning the game from his wife, Jazmin, and discovering that pickleball, beyond the cardio, gave him a new social life, a new outlet, and apparently, a new reason to talk to himself in the car about dinking patterns.

We talk about:


Why Jazmin is the real origin story behind Richard’s pickleball obsession


What tournament nerves have in common with cooking under pressure, and how that shapes his pickleball mindset


How he talks himself through competitive pickleball moments without losing the fun


Why great chefs and great doubles partners both need practice, trust, and a plan


The line-call philosophy every player should probably adopt


Why pickleball friends can feel surprisingly important when the rest of life is built around work


What Richard thinks clubs are still figuring out when it comes to food, hospitality, and the post-game hang


Why he has strong feelings about players who only drive the ball, and what that says about pickleball strategy


The fine line between helpful feedback and becoming the person no one wants coaching them mid-match


How rec pickleball, court confidence, and pickleball culture all collide once people start taking the game just seriously enough


And the celebrity foursome that somehow turns into a full pickleball fan fiction scene

Somewhere in this conversation is the thing pickleball people know but rarely say out loud: 

It is not just the game that gets you.

It is the group texts, the partner dynamics, the small rituals, the style points, the competitive spirals, the questionable line calls, the post-game food, and the strange joy of finding yourself fully invested in something you once thought was just a casual hobby.

Settle in and press play. This one’s for anyone who has ever picked up a paddle and accidentally found a whole new world.

Cheers,

Casie and LaurenDinks on Tap

Let’s keep the conversation going!

Connect with us:

Instagram: @dinksontap

Facebook: @DinksonTap

Website: dinksontap.com

For those wanting to fortify their mental game on the court, check out Lauren’s Mental Caddie offerings on her website or book a Chemistry Call. 

Our listeners can buy one prescription pair and get 20% off any additional pairs at WarbyParker.com/ONTAP — and using our link helps support the show.
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What happens when a Dallas pickleball duo suddenly finds themselves wearing St. Louis Shock colors?

This week, we’re unpacking how we became part of the St. Louis Shock's Minor League Pickleball program while still serving as Dallas Flash ambassadors. 

What starts as a “how did we get here?” story quickly turns into something bigger: a look at why pickleball’s next chapter may depend less on superstar pros and more on the amateurs who want a reason to care, a team to cheer for, and a place inside the sport as it grows.

We also recap our first Major League Pickleball weekend in Dallas, where we played our first Minor League Pickleball event, from rally scoring and Dream Breakers to the surprising realization that your teammates' points can feel just as important as your own. 

We’re joined by St. Louis Shock owner Rich Chaffetz, who shares why investing in pickleball means paying attention to the amateur player, and COO Andrew Haines, who walks us through how the Shock is building a nationwide “family” and a player experience that feels bigger than one tournament bracket. We also talk with pro Anna Bright about switching between Professional Pickleball Association play and team-based MLP, plus 13-year-old phenom Elsie Hendershot, the youngest player in MLP, on confidence, competition, and what it’s like to play at that level before most people have mastered parallel parking.

We talk about: 


The real-world differences between PPA, MLP, and MiLP


How MILP gives amateur players a way to belong to something bigger than one tournament bracket


What made the St. Louis Shock’s onboarding, communication, and team culture stand out right away 


Why the Shock care less about having a 5.0 DUPR and more about bringing a “5.0 attitude” to the team


The growing tension between elite competition, young players, and keeping pickleball fun 


Casie’s new pet peeve involving excessive screaming after ordinary points 

Between the matches, interviews, and sideline conversations, this episode reveals why connection and belonging remain at the heart of pickleball, even as the sport becomes bigger, faster, and more professional.

Whether you're trying to make sense of the acronyms or curious about where pickleball is headed next, this conversation offers a front-row seat to the people and ideas shaping the sport's future.

Pour something cold and press play.

Cheers,

Casie and Lauren

Dinks on Tap

Let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with us:

Instagram: @dinksontap

Facebook: @DinksonTap

Website: dinksontap.com

For those wanting to fortify their mental game on the court, check out Lauren’s Mental Caddie offerings on her website or book a Chemistry Call. 

Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/ONTAP #honeylovepod

Get 15% off OneSkin with the code DINKS at https://www.oneskin.co/DINKS

#oneskinpod

Interested in joining MiLP? Check out The Shock MiLP opportunity here: https://shockmilp.com/
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This spring, DUPR hit pause on your history and asked a simple question: Who are you right now, without all that baggage?

Turns out that's a harder question than it sounds.

We know because Casie did the Reset, knew it didn't count, watched her number drop, and still had to talk herself off the ledge on the way home. So we brought Tito Machado, CEO of DUPR and the man who's spent years trying to convince the pickleball community that a number is just a number, back to Dinks on Tap for a second time, fresh off a DUPR Reset period that generated more player data than anyone anticipated. 

We get into what the Reset actually was, what it wasn't, and why so many people signed up hoping it was a cheat code, plus:


Why "DUPR Reset" was never meant to be a path to a higher pickleball rating, and why everyone heard it that way anyway


The myth that playing up is the fastest way to move your number (the algorithm disagrees)


How DUPR accidentally became a social gatekeeper, and why Tito says that's their fault


Career High, Age Ratings, and DUPR Impact: the new metrics, who loves them, and who's already mad about them


Why DUPR forecast might be the perfect gambling tool (Tito's words, not ours)


The AI + camera integration coming that could finally account for what everyone knows matters most: chemistry


And why, when asked what the Forecast would look like if Tito's team played Casie and Lauren, he bet against himself

Pour something cold and press play, this one's for anyone who's ever refreshed their DUPR after a loss and told themselves it doesn't matter. 

Cheers,

Casie and Lauren

Dinks on Tap

Let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with us:

Instagram: @dinksontap

Facebook: @DinksonTap

Website: dinksontap.com

For those wanting to fortify their mental game on the court, check out Lauren’s Mental Caddie offerings on her website or book a Chemistry Call. 

Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/ONTAP #honeylovepod

Connect with Tito Machado:

DUPR

Instagram
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This week, Casie and Lauren sit down with Jay Paterno, son of Penn State coaching legend Joe Paterno, and author of Blitzed: The All-Out Pressure of College Football's New Era. 

This one is part sports conversation, part cultural temperature check, and we did what we do best: take a sports story and find the human behavior hiding underneath it. Because it turns out that money, pressure, loyalty, ego, and identity do not stay neatly on the football field. They show up everywhere people care deeply about something, including a 20X44 pickleball court with a plastic ball and a surprisingly complicated rulebook.

In this episode we talk about:


The trick Jay uses to tell the truth (and why it lands better when it comes with a little plausible deniability)


The NIL era, and what happens when college football starts operating more like a franchise than a tradition


What the pickleball community should probably get in writing before growth outruns the pickleball culture


Why the most intense person in any pickleball competition is rarely having the most fun


The chaos of a game growing faster than its guardrails and what a pickleball strategy looks like when the rulebook is still being written


The women in Jay's book who keep asking the inconvenient questions


And the question underneath it all: when something you love becomes valuable to everyone else, does it still feel like yours

The pickleball lessons here have nothing to do with your backhand and everything to do with what happens when a sport you love starts growing faster than the values that built it. So whether you're following NIL headlines or just wondering where pickleball goes from here, this episode gives you plenty to chew on. 

Pour something cold, hit play, and spend some time with the man who knows what happens when a game gets bigger than its guardrails.

Cheers,

Casie and Lauren

Dinks on Tap

You can purchase Blitzed!: The All-Out Pressure of College Football's New Era by Jay Paterno here. 

Other ways to connect with Jay Paterno:Website

Facebook

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LinkedIn

Let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with us:

Instagram: @dinksontap

Facebook: @DinksonTapWebsite: dinksontap.com

For those wanting to fortify their mental game on the court, check out Lauren’s Mental Caddie offerings on her website or book a Chemistry Call. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices