In this episode of The Joy of Pickleball, host Pickleball Chick travels to Performance Pickleball in Richmond, Virginia to showcase the facility’s cutting‑edge Pod Play technology and the community vibe that surrounds it. After a chaotic travel day, Chick is welcomed by founders John Laser and Lee Warfield, Forbes pickleball writer Todd “Funboss” (who also helped shape the app), and staff such as kitchen manager Sam Katcherin. The tour highlights the venue’s 12 indoor courts (with plans for 18), a dedicated dink court, outdoor courts, a gym, and a full‑service food and beverage area. Pod Play’s hardware (court‑side monitors, wrist‑worn trackers) and software (instant replay, reservation system, duper‑score integration) are demonstrated through a live doubles match that feeds directly into the Duper app, updating players’ rankings in real time. Throughout the visit, Chick emphasizes the social aspect of pickleball—post‑match drinks, community bonding, and the role of technology in enhancing coaching and player engagement. The episode ends with a celebratory meal, a quick look at the updated duper score, and a shout‑out to both Pod Play and Duper for creating a seamless, fun experience.
Chapters
I am a disaster. Delayed, delayed, delayed, canceled flights, but now I'm here. So excited. Let's go. Whole new person. Feeling like my damn self. What's up guys, it's Pickleball Chick and I am here at Performance Pickleball in Richmond, Virginia with Podplay. We're here to check out how the Podplay tech is used to make the pickleball experience more fun for everyone. The Christmas tree though, and the snow Oh man, and a dog! Okay, so cute. I'm already in the Christmas spirit. Wait for the camera. Clearly John and the founders of Performance Pickleball love dogs. Doggy! This is Steve's house. Steve! You're gonna be famous, Steve. Oh, now I'm your friend. Yeah. Thanks, Steve. Obsessed. Oh, the court setup is amazing. Look at how much space is on each back end and look at how much space for ATPs. Like, clearly they thought of everything. Pod Play technology replay. Let's go. We're going to have a duper challenge match later today and I'm going to put my duper on the line. Freddie said I should be getting paid like 10x for that. Woo! Look at the ladies having fun. We love it. They are ultimately going to have 18 courts courts. Right now they have 12 courts and 1 dink court to practice on, I believe. That's pretty awesome. They're gonna have 6 outdoor courts as well, and they're opening up a facility like 2.5 hours away in Roanoke, Virginia. So this will be the first of many more to come. Every single court in this facility, they are using the Pod Play tech. So they have gotten the pro tier. They're using the monitors as well as the iPads. So you can see things like your duper score, you can see the people in your reservation, you can see replays when you tap the replay button. This facility is really top notch. I mean, unbelievable. All right, go get out of there. These pickleball chicks look like they're having a blast. This is what exactly pickleball is about. Did you guys just get done playing? Are you playing? What's the deal? Played at 10 o'clock. 10 to 12. 10 to 12. And we're in leagues together. Yeah, we have a great time and we hang out at the bar afterwards. We love it. We play for 2 hours and then we have drinks and celebrate and get to like socialize. Yeah, I love that. They are awesome. They're crazy. They're passionate about pickleball. They're having so much fun. Perfect examples of what pickleball can do for your life. They even have a gym for you to work out, stretch. Light work, light work here. I need the 40s. Make sure you use your core. Squeezing your glutes and your core at the same time. Feeling ready and warmed up to hit the courts. Come on. I'm going to I'm gonna put my duper on the line and play some of the people at this facility. It's kind of messed up that I'm willing and able to do this right now. I'm kind of nervous. I haven't played pickleball and I just got off a crazy travel day, so we'll see how I do, but they're going down. Todd! What's going on? Oh my God, I love it. Look at her hat. I love it. Let me just do— Todd needs a new paddle.
Oh yeah. I get good use out of these paddles, what can I say? That's creepy.
Funboss is the Forbes writer for pickleball and he writes like the best articles about pickleball.
Well, thank you.
But he needs a new paddle. Yola, hit him up. All right, so we are going to do a doubles match. We're going to do side-out scoring, 11 points per game. We're going to do one match. Serve from the left. It's me and John, the founder of Performance Pickleball, versus Marcy and Leigh. That's the replay. This is not a good replay. Don't, don't snip this. Today we are hosting the first ever duper competition matches. What does that mean? That means that you get to play with your friends on the pickleball court and challenge them in a duper match that is official. As soon as your match is over, those statistics are going to go right into the duper app and affect your duper. It's actually crazy that I'm putting my duper on the line here, but I'm I didn't do it for pod play. What's really awesome is that I have a wristband that is connected as well as the monitor up top. So this wristband is used to keep track of scoring, side outs, and instant replays. The scoreboard is also used. It shows our names, who is serving, when it's a side out, and it also shows instant replays. So we have a sick point on the court, we can look right up there and see the instant replay right then and there. It's also sent to our app so we can post it later on social, post it in our our text group to show our friends the body bag we just hit, or the Ernie. And this is all thanks to Pod Play. This place has become my happy spot. As soon as I walk through those doors and walk in here, it's pickleball paradise. Yeah, as the sign says. Are you guys dating? Yeah, we were actually brought together by pickleball. So we were playing together as mixed partners for about a year before we ever started dating, and it's been good since then. We moved here down to Richmond together and Started teaching here together as well. Oh, all right, pickleball bringing these two cuties together. She rejected me at first, but I was, I was persistent. So, see, Larlee and I met at the PBA Bristol tournament. It was amazing. Talk a little bit about Pod Play, like the technology on the app. I loved it. My favorite part was the ability to do the instant replay. So I teach here about 10 hours a week, and one of the things I've noticed when I'm doing especially individual lessons is when I see my student do something good, oftentimes I have to describe it back to them, right? And say, oh, you kind of held your wrist like this, or My feet were here, and when I could press that button and do the replay, it just made my job so much easier. And so I can't wait to start doing that in my lessons because it was such a huge development. This is why she's beauty and brains. So Todd is the writer for pickleball for Forbes. Talk a little bit about Pod Play.
Well, so, all right, so as a customer, you know, because I was here at the beginning, and so from day one, this club uses, uses and integrates, uh, with the Pod Play technology. So I'm logging in, and instead of calling to make a reservation or calling to sign up for a session, it's all done through the app.
And it shows you the names of the people?
Yes. So that was actually— I'd like to take credit. You can ask Ben if I actually was the impetus for this. And he and his team, like, were able to build that feature in, like, pretty quickly. Like, they were able to turn around that functionality very fast, which from an IT perspective, from an IT company perspective, is great to see. The last thing you want is to make a feature request and then you don't see it for a year. Like, a responsive tech company is great.
It is incredible to be here with the founders, John Laser and Lee Warfield.
Well, first of all, it's awesome to have the Pickleball Chick here. I know our members are really Invited a bunch over here, and you'll see that in the games we played with them. So welcome once again. We're happy that you're here. And I'm going to let Lee talk about the origin because that was where he was and brought me in eventually. Well, do you want the short or the long version? In all seriousness, I met John on the pickleball court. Didn't really know— we had no idea that both of us wanted to open a facility. Our company owned the mall, and this was an old Macy's, and it had been vacant for 8 years, sitting here just dormant. And my partner said, hey Lee, you like I like this pickleball game. All these people are coming to me wanting to do a place here. You should do it.
Wow.
And I said, I really, I just started playing. I don't know what to do. Next thing, I started talking to John on the courts. One thing led to another and we became partners and it's been a great partnership. And we got this thing open from 0 to 100 miles an hour, literally in 6 months.
Wow.
From a burnt out looking, you know, cinder block walls. First meeting ever at his office, he asked me to come across. I actually live across the street. It was February 1st. 2023. We broke ground May 23rd, 2023.
Wow.
Opened doors December 15th, 2023.
Wow, you guys deserve a round of applause for yourselves too. That's incredible. No, seriously. All right, so I'm here with the founder of Performance Pickleball, John. We're gonna head over to the kitchen, get some food and drinks.
Wow, really good food rather than just venue food. Wow. We have a very talented kitchen manager, Sam Katcherin, who's come aboard and just transformed everything that we do food and beverage-wise.
Let's dive in. I'm gonna go for the pizza first.
Yeah, gotta get you a flatbread.
Hmm, it's actually amazing. Next, I'm going in for the pretzel. Unbelievable. Wait, this is so amazing. I don't usually drink. I'm not a drinker. However, a beer with a pickle in it— one sip, everyone. He knows the rules. That is epic. I need a picture with this. I'm obsessed. That is epic. That's the best thing about this place. You guys outdid yourselves on the food. So I'm waiting for my dinner at the airport, and I just had a chance to look at my dupe wrap for the first time, and it's amazing to see that The matches we played for the duper competition matches at Performance Pickleball are already in my duper and it updated my duper score. I gained 0.021 points for winning my match with Laura Lee against Megan and Marcy. We won 11-7. That is magic. Like, that is incredible. Shout out to duper and Podplay for making this a seamless integration.
