What Two Empty Nesters with Gold Medals and Matching Outfits Can Teach Us About Starting Over with Cecy Feld and Holly Kerr
Dinks On Tap: The Happy Hour Pickleball PodcastShow Notes
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
More from Dinks On Tap: The Happy Hour Pickleball Podcast
How did a game three grown men made up on a badminton court, because a 13-year-old was bored, turn into the thing your group text runs on? We found the kid who complained, and he still can’t believe it either. In this episode, we get into our summer vault, full of conversations, stories, and a little pickleball drama we never got around to airing. We sat down with Frank Pritchard, the bored kid himself, who can answer “When was pickleball invented?” because he was there when his dad, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum made up the game on Bainbridge Island. We also cover Picklr’s Chapter 11 filing and the “is pickleball dying” headlines that followed, Genie Bouchard’s paddle-tap walkout and what it says about pickleball etiquette, and why the drinks after play keep the pickleball community together. You’ll learn: Why it's called pickleball, and the Pritchard family member who came up with the name A firsthand account of who invented pickleball, from the teenager whose complaining started it What the original pickleball paddle was made of, and which founder designed it The pickleball history most players don’t know, including how scoring and serving used to work Why Frank took a 30-year break from the game, and what brought him back What Picklr’s Chapter 11 filing means for your local club, according to the general manager of the Picklr in DFW How the pickleball business can struggle while the number of people playing keeps growing Why Genie Bouchard skipped the paddle tap, and whether we think she was justified How we won a tournament this summer by giving a screaming team a taste of its own medicine
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