Sara Weiss Amateur Pickleball Champion

Welcome to the Mike Hartman Show. Mike is a performance coach and former Stanley cup champion with the New York Rangers. Topics on this show are focused around stories, mindset, and champions. Mike will also go into details about helping you with your pain points and struggles and finding motivational solutions on how to have the mindset of a champion. Now, here's your host, Mike Hartman.

Hello, athletes and sports enthusiasts. My name is Sarah Weiss. I'm the CEO of Empowered Life, and I am a pickleball amateur champion. It's pretty exciting for someone like me because I've never been into sports. So I just want to take a second to thank Mike Hartman for having me on the Mike Hartman Show. It was really such a pleasure to get to know him and to hear his background and his history in sports. And again, just an honor to be on his show. I know he has such incredible guests and athletes who come on and share their experience, and I've gotten the chance to hear some of them, and they're amazing. You guys all rock. So I'm just. I'm so happy to be here. I want to talk to you guys a little bit about my pickleball life. You know, as someone who is not a sports athlete or never was before, and now at age 34, being a sponsored athlete, I'd love to share how this all happened. And you know what got me into this exciting sport of pickleball. So, first of all, again, you know, I haven't played sports since middle school. Playing volleyball because of my height. And now I am so obsessed and I would say almost addicted to the sport of pickleball. I have so much fun, and it got me sucked right in. So here's how it all started again. I'm just like this normal person that's not really sporty. I live in Canada. I don't even care to watch hockey games. It's not very Canadian of me, I'll admit it. But, hey, that's just who I am. Never been into sports, really. But my husband moved up from Florida into Canada, where I am. I'm in Ottawa, where it's basically a tundra right now. And he wanted to show me tennis. I'm like, okay, cool, I'll do something with you. And I knew of a court down the road, and I took him to the court, and when we got on the court, he said, something's not right. This feels so small. It looks kind of like a tennis court, but it's so tiny. What is this? I'm like, are you sure this looks like a tennis court to Me. And he said, no, I don't think this is a tennis court. And we found a little information board, and we saw a picture of a tennis racket beside a picture of a pickleball paddle. We're like, what the heck is that? I've never seen that before in my life. And we ended up playing a little bit of tennis and, you know, I sucked at it. But we went back home, we googled it, and we YouTubed it. And we saw incred players like Ben Johns, Tyson McGuffin, Annalee Waters, Simona Jardim, and other players playing this game where two players, mainly we saw a lot of doubles. Two players would hit this wiffle type ball back and forth with a paddle that seemed kind of like a ping pong paddle. It kind of seems like an overgrown game of ping pong or table tennis played on a smaller tennis court. And we're like, hey, should we give this a try? Let's do it. So we went and got some cheap paddles and we went 1v1. And he, you know, whipped me around the court. But I still loved it. I was getting my butt beaten by my husband, and I loved it. You know, it did come to a point where I had to ask him, you know, can you go easy on me so I can actually hit the ball? And we did. And for a month we played, you know, one on one, kind of just testing it out. And we became kind of enamored when we'd watch doubles players, but we didn't have friends who played this. So we had to go searching for other courts and hopefully find people that would play with us. And we did. We went a little into town and we found a court where there were these senior citizens playing. And we said, let's go. Hop on the court. We hopped on, and as soon as we opened the gate, they were all like, hey, you guys want to play? And we said, yeah. So we got to play our first doubles match, two on two, and we found out that we were pretty good, we made a good team, and we were playing this game. I was already in addicted at this point, but now I just became so obsessed with the game. And I now play anywhere from three to five times a week, more if I can, training with coaches and all that stuff. But at that time, you know, we're still brand new. I just started playing May 2021, and it's now 2022, so I'm still under a year since I started playing. But at that point, you know, we're a month or two in really not that great. But we are. We're hitting the ball hard, and we're. We're actually doing good against these senior citizens. And we decided, you know, we want to step up our game. We must be pretty good at this game, so we should step it up. And we ended up looking for a club. Around us, we found this awesome club called valley stream with 16 dedicated pickleball courts. It's incredible. We went to the place before we signed up, and as soon as we went there, it felt like home. It felt like we were right at home. We heard the sound of 16 balls getting hit at the same time. And these are like. Pickleballs are like a wiffle ball, you know, holes all through them, kind of plastic hit by these hard paddles. And the sound that it makes when you hear all these balls getting hit at the same time, to me is soothing. And I'm not great at sound effects, but it's kind of like this poppy. Like, I'm not good at sound effects. Terrible sound effects. Anyways. You could hear 16 balls getting hit at the same time, and it sounded really cool. And we got to experience this really awesome social aspect and to me, of sports I'd never experienced before. And we got to meet new people and we played against these people, and we found out that we really weren't good at the game. You know, we had our butts handed to us all up and down the court, and I didn't care. It was so fun. It was only adding to my addiction, but it also started to make me want to get better. And all of a sudden I started having this, like, competitive drive. And eventually we got invited to play in some ladders and got to play against people who were better than us. And again, every time we played people who were better than us, we'd get our butts handed to us. And we started to learn that this isn't just about being stronger, faster, going harder. It was a lot to do with finesse, which I have over my husband's experience with tennis, where it was a lot of hard hits and athleticism. I didn't have the athleticism. I had these finesse shots. You know, if you haven't heard about pickleball, which I highly recommend, if you haven't played it, go play it. It's so fun. There's this thing called the kitchen. So it's the Non volley zone, 6ft 4 from the net. So you can't stand in the kitchen and hit a ball out of the air and slam it back at your opponents. That's why? You have to stand six feet back and you can't hit the ball out of the air unless it goes beyond the kitchen. If you step in the kitchen and hit a volley out of the air, you lose a point. So we are learning that it's time to slow down the ball, which is why I can play this game and I can actually win. Having not been an athlete or a sports person, I can actually win in pickleball. And I continue to get better and better and better and. And I actually won my first tournament undefeated and won a gold medal. It was really, really cool. So we got, you know, we got these nice paddles. Before I even went to the tournament, we got actual paddles. We started to take this game a little more serious. You know, we started to really have fun with it. And I started to play these better players and hold my own, which made Drop in not as fun because now I'm playing against weaker players. And because I hadn't created a bunch of relationships or a clique, I wasn't invited into all the you leagues. So Drop in started to get frustrated, and I started to experience something that I had never experienced before, which was like, an expectation of how my partner should play. Now I am like, I'm a life coach. I teach people how to enjoy their life to the max, make more money, be happier, have better relationships. And I'm finding myself on the court sometimes frustrated. You know, my teammate is just so much weaker than me. So they don't give me the ball because if they give me the ball, I crush it or put it back where they can't get it it. But they keep giving it to my partner, and my partner will be the one that messes up. And then my energy is like, not. Not the nicest. It's like, ugh, you know, and I kind of get bored, and I get this, like, bored energy. And I had to check myself because this was a whole new experience for me. Some of you might have experienced that before, but this was new to me, and I didn't want to play like that. I didn't want to feel that way or have that energy. So I made a conscious shift to show up as the cheerleader for my teammate. Now, if any of you ever play a team sport or something like that, and you, you have this energy, unmet expectations from your teammates, I highly, highly encourage you to check yourself and to encourage them to be the cheerleader. That was a big shift for me to go from that to being the cheerleader. I would go on knowing I'm with a weaker player, knowing that we probably won't win this match, but I don't care. It wasn't about the win and the growth. I wanted to go have fun, so I would cheer on everything that happened. If my player messed up a shot, that's okay. It was a nice try. You'll get it next time. Let's. Let's try this. And, you know, we had this communication and I just cheer for my teammate and we ended up winning games that we probably shouldn't have. It was really, really cool. So that big shift was big for me in my life of pickleball. Now the next really big thing that happened for me was when I got a new paddle. We actually decided to get good paddles. I got a paddle from Pro Lite because I liked their branding. It's this, like, lightning bolt through a pickleball. Loved it. Figured I'd pick up a paddle and the paddle was like a million times better than the paddle that I had picked up from what we call canad. I loved it. So I actually went to my first 3.0 tournament, went undefeated with my partner, won a gold medal. My first time winning anything like that. We were so excited. You have no idea. I have a picture of me and my partner. We're giving each other this big hug and her legs wrapped around me and was just pure joy. We had so much fun. And I posted my pictures holding a Pro Lite paddle. Now I am now sponsored by them. And I'll tell you, it's not because of my skills. And this is so cool. Anything can happen. I never expected ever be a sponsored athlete, and it's not because of how much skill I have, and it will be eventually. But this is to anyone who, you know, doesn't totally believe in, like, miracles or things of that nature. Because I love pickleball so much, I joined a Facebook group called the Pickleball Forum, where there's tons, tens of thousands of people. I think there's like 50 or 60,000 people. I started just posting stuff about the game that I loved and posting questions and stuff. And I created like a presence in that group. And one time, once I won the tournament, I posted some pictures and I gave Prolight a shout out. I said, thanks to Prolight for this awesome paddle that won me my first gold medal. Now, I mean, I didn't buy it straight from them. I bought it from a dealer, but I gave them a shout out, gave them some love and respect, and they reached out to me, I think, a couple days later, and Said, hey, we loved your post. We'd love to send you some T shirts and some, some hats, some swag. Basically, I'm like, oh my God, that's so amazing. Thank you so much. I was so grateful, so appreciative. It was really cool. They sent me some awesome gear and I started to wear it with pride. And you know, one day, I think it was like two weeks after that, I made a post in the forum wearing their gear and I said something along the lines of, you know, am I crazy for actually wanting to go pro in this sport? I know I'm far off, but, but I think I can do it and damn, I look good in this pro lite gear. So I gave him another little shout out, thank you for sending me the gear. And I reached out to them another week or two later and I asked them, I said, I'm thinking of getting a backup paddle. What would you recommend? And the response was, actually, could you give us a call? And this was the person who reached out and sent me the swag. His name's Marcus with Prolite. And I just, I'm so. I'll be forever grateful for Marcus. So I called him, he gave me the number and I called them and they said, hey, Sarah, so as far as a backup paddle, you know, we got this recommendation, but we were talking the other day and we see your social media presence and we know you're not a pro, but we'd like to sponsor you on your journey to becoming one. And I was just blown away. I was blown away. These, these people who've created a company since I think their company started in 84 or it was in the 80s, I forget exactly, but. But decided to sponsor little old me. Little old me because of my social media presence. Because I actually loved the sport and I created this incredible energy and culture around it and I was very real about it. They decided they wanted to sponsor me and I said, heck yeah. Heck yeah. It was really, really cool. So they sent me a bunch of paddles and gear, a bag and all kinds of things, and it's just been a really cool experience, especially because I am taking this sport serious enough to get coaches to play at high level tournaments. I'm now in a national competitive training league here in Ottawa and if you are subscribed to the Prolight newsletter, you'll see my article once a month. I actually write the article for them because I'm very straight up about my story and I actually share all my truths and stuff. Well, one truth that I shared in one of my articles is kind of controversial and what I say might in some way shape or form trigger some of the people listening. But again, this is me. I'm real now. I don't own any labels. I don't define myself by any labels. And I don't really talk about this. But I also don't avoid it because it's part of my past. And as someone who now is looking towards being very competitive and playing at a high level in the sport, I have to wonder and I've done the research and I've looked into what steps I'm going to have to take, what red tape I'm going to have to cross because of my past objects transition. So you can label that as you want. I don't own any labels, but my experiences of, you know, the label that some people would use is transgender. Now, again, I don't see myself as transgender, but that label is what people would use. So it's kind of a moot point for me. You know, I've seen all the drama caused by people disagreeing with anyone who's transitioned from one gender to another playing in the sport of the gender that they match. And I have to be prepared for that. And for me, all that matters to me is my love for the game. And I'll tell you right now, I have no gender based advantage. I can promise you that. I get outplayed by or out powered by any guy on the court. I can try as hard as I want. I can't hit the kind of shots that these guys I play against hit. So I can tell you I have no advantage. But will I experience people in opposition to me playing as a woman in women's doubles or in mixed doubles? Will I experience that? I'm sure I will. I'm sure I will. And it's. It, it is what it is. But I wrote an article about it and, you know, Prolight continues to elevate their amount of support they give me. So I want to give the founder and CEO of Prolight right now, quick shout out. Neil Fradenberg, thank you so much for always supporting me, for being my first sponsor and showing me that my past doesn't need to be a disadvantage, my past doesn't need to be a liability or a setback. And your support means a lot to me. So I want to, I want to really let anybody know. Don't let your past define you or your past disadvantages define you. There are people out there who are going to support you. So I've got, I've Got them backing me up and I write their articles and I share from the heart. And it's become an incredible experience to be part of this sport. I now am so involved in this sport. I love it to pieces. I want to coach in it. I want to teach people how to go from thinking they're not an athlete to being an athlete in. In pickleball or anything else. Not having to be a superstar athlete to play and to enjoy and have fun and to get competitive. It's been such a blast. I meet so many incredible players. I've trained with some of the best, like Matthew Kawamoto, who's right now in an app tour out in Florida. He's a 5.0. What he teaches me is incredible. So big shout out to Matthew and everyone else. Kim Brent. She's the Canadian Women's Champion of 2021. I've gotten the opportunity to learn from her. She's absolutely incredible. Luke Germain. I've got these incredible coaches, and it just makes it so fun. And you can find incredible coaches out there that even though you maybe pick up a paddle or pick up a basketball or whatever, and you don't feel like you can play this, if you actually love it, if you enjoy it and you find. And you want to get competitive with it, find a good coach, find some mentors, and you can, you can. You can get good enough to play at least a high enough level that challenges you, that pushes you, and I love that about what I've been experiencing, and I mean me as a life coach, and I certify life, coaches mindset is everything. And when it comes to pickleball, that is a big thing. The psychology, having your mindset straight, not overthinking too many things, challenging yourself and pushing yourself, but not being hard on yourself like I've been, and in some cases and just making it really, really fun. So I highly recommend anyone who is bored. You know, it's been a crazy couple years with this whole. All the lockdowns and mandates and all the pressures and stress and businesses shutting down. I'll tell you, pickleball is my solace. It's my getaway. It's not that I need to escape life, but when I go play pickleball, it's like my instincts take over and I'm just doing what it feels like, what I'm born to do, without having to think, think or try to resist the stresses of life. I go and I kind of am free of all that stuff when I play pickleball, so. And I'm Sure. Anyone who's listening, who is an athlete understands that I definitely encourage it. I'll tell you, it has changed my life. It has added so much happiness and joy to my life. So I will be forever grateful for the sport and the people involved in it. If you want to see some of my highlights, my clips, and see me and get to know who this Sarah Weiss is, pull out your phone right now and text the word pickleball. So it's P I C K L E B A L L. So pull out your phone, text pickleball to 855-434-9804 and my pickleball sports card will come up. You just click on that and you'll get to see my sports card. You get to see some of my clips, my highlight videos, some of the professional pictures, some of the people I train with, my sponsors, you'll actually. My sponsor gave me a code that if anyone wants to buy their paddles, they get 25% off. Now, I'm not a salesperson or anything, I don't get commissions or anything, but I'm happy to share their products because they're freaking awesome. But yeah, you can stay in touch with me. That way you can contact me. That way you can see this really cool sports card and I'd be happy to connect with you. Anyone who. Who resonates with my message or wants to reach out, get some advice or some tips, I'm happy to. You can also find my YouTube channel on there or just go straight to empowered pickleball on YouTube. Empowered being the company. I'm the CEO of Empowered Life and it's spelled I M. Like I'm. I am as Matthew P O W E R D. Empowered Pickleball. My company is empoweredlife.com if you check that out, you can see what I do and from there you can contact me and I'd love to be in touch with any of you guys again. I love the sport so much. Talking about it is such a pleasure. Anyone who doesn't know about it, I love being the person who introduces them to it and hearing later how grateful they are for it because how much fun they're having and the social aspect and the competitive drive they're finding themselves with this sport they never even knew about. So, yeah, I'm really excited. And I gotta once again thank Mike Hartman for having me on the show. Such an honor to be part of this again. You know, sports being so new to me to be able to be speaking to an audience about a sport, being an athlete, it's a really cool experience. And if you haven't experienced it before, if you're not an athlete or if, you know, you've only ever thought about playing a sport or whatever it is, go for it, get out there, live a little. You know, we all create these lives where we're chasing our dreams, right? We're chasing, we want more. And we feel like once we get there, then we can finally live the life of we want. I encourage you to live it right now. Live a little. If you're thinking right now. I wish I was somewhere else in life. I wish I had something else in life. I wish I, you know, had built what I want to build. Well, don't forget to enjoy the life you've already built. Go live a little. Play some pickleball. And with that, I just want to thank you all for listening, taking, taking the time to check out my story, to check out my pickleball card again. If you want to get in contact with me, pull out your phone, text PICKLEBALL to 855-434-9804 and I'll be in touch. I'll be able to communicate with you. You can see all my stuff. And I look forward to hearing from you once again. Thank you so much, Mike, and all of you and all my sponsors and the people I play with. And it was an honor and a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much. Have an incredible day and an incredible life.

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