I'd like to talk about the various pickleball podcasts, what they offer, and give thoughts as to why a podcast for a sport is even important.
First up, let's look at the biggest pickleball podcasts out there:
Pickleball Kitchen Podcast with Barrett Kincheloe - 59 ratings at time of writing.
Pickleball Problems with Mark Renneson - 38 ratings at time of writing.
Pickleball Therapy with Tony Roig - 25 ratings at time of writing.
Pickleball Fire with Lynn Cherry - 29 ratings at time of writing.
I actually went on a road trip at the beginning of September, and I sampled a few of these podcasts as I've been really into the sport and generally enjoy podcasts. I had a lot of issues with these podcasts and it can mostly be summed up like this: these podcasts feel like audio versions of YouTube instructional videos and reviews.
It's a longer form version of instruction, formatted like a radio show. E.g. Pickleball Problems recently looked at what to do when a ball rolls onto someone's court. For a whole episode. It's probably something that could be covered in about 5 minutes, yet it was stretched into a whole episode complete with cliffhangers around the ads. I listened to the whole thing, and I have to say it was a little predictable and boring.
Also, a podcast has to be a pretty terrible format for equipment reviews. I can't say any other hobby I'm into has included reviews of physical items in a podcast as a regular thing.
The other issue with these podcasts is their demographic -- they're trying to communicate to recreational players and probably the biggest chunk of pickleball's demographics: seniors. I appreciate the sport's accessibility and love that it gets seniors moving, but social media and podcasts aimed at old folks are often different from those aimed at young folks. I'd say that the four podcasts I just pointed out are all senior-friendly, if not focused.
I think that this format of pickleball content is okay, but is probably better served as a blog article or a Facebook post.
That's where PicklePod (37 ratings) and Around the Post Show (not on Apple Podcasts) come in. PicklePod (from the Dink) is the new kid on the block. The Around the Post Show is hosted by Jonny Pickleball and Kyle Yates.
I'm gonna talk briefly about the Around the Post Show. It seems like a pretty solid bid for a pickleball show, but unfortunately it seems like they're more geared to the video format. They have a point of the week and show clips / highlights in video format. I think that as a show, it's a good idea and the hosts are well known in the pickleball world. As a podcast, listening to two people spectate a highlight and not describe what's happening? Terrible auditory experience. There's also another podcast called "Around the Post" which is a tennis podcast, so that's kind of funny.
Okay, this is supposed to be a PicklePod review. It's hosted by the Dink owner Thomas Shields and Tyson Apostle of Survivor fame. It's not to be confused with the Pickle Pod by AC4SA or this PicklePod comedy cast -- I found the name overlap confusing when it was first announced, but already searching on Google seems to turn up the right thing.
As far as podcasts go, it seems that they're still figuring things out, but there are things I like more about this podcast over other ones. First up, we haven't had any talk of strategy, equipment reviews, or anything else that you'd usually find in a YouTube video.
I think if I were to describe PicklePod in a sentence, I would say it's a weekly update on professional pickleball and industry news.
In running the Dink, Thomas seems very interconnected with the industry and is kept in the loop on all sorts of happenings, both public and private. The podcast looks over and dives into news of the past week in the sport, and generates a surprising amount of conversation. They have also have had on guests and done interviews, which have been pretty entertaining, enlightening, and informative.
I found that getting into the pro scene in pickleball isn't easy. I'm new to the sport and because the PPA and APP are in competition and don't have an excellent non-streaming presence, it can be hard to understand who the top players are, what their story is, etc. Thomas and Tyson are really interested in the pro scene and discuss it, and I've picked up a lot and feel like I have a good sense of where things are.
I love the personal touch and watching them figure out the format, discussing whether they're going to get a hip-hop jingle and who will produce it. I like the joking around that they do based on their history playing some pickleball together, and I love hearing how excited both of them are in the industry's taking off and scaling.
As cool as Major League Pickleball sounded, I hadn't heard much about the specifics except from the PicklePod, and I'm really excited to check it out when it airs in November. Thomas also seems really involved with them and hypes up news coming with teasing hints.
As for the demographic, I feel this is one of the only podcasts that's leaning toward the pro-side of the sport. I think that the format of an hour of conversation about the sport's happenings is a good one. It's just the right length to be deep, interesting, and funny and not so much that it overstays its welcome. Because we're not talking about when to third-shot drop or whether the new One Shot paddle met the hosts' expectations, we're instead focusing on things like pickleball as a college-level sport or the unseating of Ben Johns. It's exciting stuff. Just as the Dink skews to a more social-media-savvy audience compared to a lot of pickleball media, I feel that the PicklePod does too. It's the hip podcast on the block that embraces its format for its strengths instead of trying to shoehorn the exact same content into a blog, YouTube video, and podcast. I think that the Dink media offering as a whole is very varied: The podcast covers the newsletter and makes
