[00:00:04.800] - Tony Roig
Hello and welcome to this special episode of Pickleball Therapy. I'm your host, Tony Roig. For this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Lydia Hirt, who is the Vice President of Marketing for Life Time. Now, you may have heard that Life Time is involved with Pickleball, but what you may not know is that Lifetime is actually the largest facility operator of pickleball courts anywhere in the world. And also, Lifetime has developed what's called the LT Ball now, which is a new ball that's making its way among pickleball players. In this interview, I talk to Lydia about the growth of the sport, the new ball, as well as Lydia's own personal experience in the sport of pickleball. Enjoy the interview.

[00:00:41.000] - Tony Roig
Hello, Lydia. It's a pleasure to have you on the Pickleball Therapy podcast. How are you doing today?

[00:00:44.920] - Lydia Hirt
I'm doing well. Thanks so much for having me, Tony.

[00:00:47.360] - Tony Roig
It's a pleasure to have you on. Lydia, I've already let everybody listening know that you've been at Life Time for about almost a year now, going on a year now. Talk to us a little bit about how you got into pickleball as an individual, and then we'll talk a little bit about your story. We had some nice conversation earlier about you being able to play with your father and how awesome that is. Let's just work through it a little bit. So tell us a little bit how you got involved in the pickleball.

[00:01:10.860] - Lydia Hirt
So, Tony, like so many other people, I discovered the ball in 2021 during the pandemic. I was with my family. We were renting a place down in Florida for the winter, and we discovered the ball as something that my sister and I could do with our parents. It was fun. It was safe. It got us out the house. It got us moving, and it ended up completely changing the course of my entire life.

[00:01:35.700] - Tony Roig
That's awesome. That's the story of so many of us, myself included. I'm glad you got exposed to pickleball. Unfortunately, in circumstances, but the result was good for you. Tell me a little bit about... I believe you were working in publishing, and then you've been working at Life Time now. How does your experience with pickleball translate into Life Time's commitment to the sport of pickleball and how it's growth?

[00:02:03.100] - Lydia Hirt
Yeah, great question, Tony. I had a fantastic career in book publishing for around a dozen years. I was at Penguin Random House, where I worked with many of the world's best authors in the fiction and non-fiction space. If you're a fan of reading, you probably have read some books that I have been very proud to publish. Luckily for me, marketing is transferable. When I discovered pickleball, came back to New York City from Florida, where I live. Pickleball in New York, it was really hard to find at the time. Again, this is 2021. People were played in parks, in public settings. But if you did not really know how to get in the door through, at that time, it was a lot on team reach through specific invite codes. You really had to know somebody to get in the door. So it was a very popular community. You just had to figure out how to get your foot in the door. I got involved on a local level to really raise that of how to play pickleball in New York City. I started my Instagram account, Vidia. Pickleball, to really help more people get involved at the community level.

[00:03:08.560] - Lydia Hirt
I was doing all of that in my free time while I was also working this very corporate publishing job. From there, I met the two women who were starting City Pickle. My initial foray into pickleball was the Chief Marketing Officer at City Pickle, which did incredible things for pickleball in New York City. From that experience, I met some people who work at Lifetime who really with me that opportunity of Life Time is the world's largest pickleball operator. At this moment in time, we have 795 courts at 143 clubs nationwide. We have millions of people playing We already have more than 2 million moments of participation at our Clubs for pickleball in the first five and a half months of this year. So at scale, Lifetime's commitment to the sport of pickleball and growing that within our own members and elsewhere is just incredibly compelling and exciting to me as a marketer, as a brand leader, and somebody who is really committed to the sport of pickleball and think it truly does have the ability to change lives.

[00:04:14.880] - Tony Roig
Yeah, that's awesome. I can hear there's some there's some there's some there's some play going on right now.

[00:04:18.620] - Lydia Hirt
So that's- There is there's some going on in the background. I'm at our beautiful Pen-1 Club in the heart of Manhattan. We're right across the street from Madison Square Garden. We're right above Penn Station. Hundreds of thousands of people walk by every day. Our seven pick-up courts are on ground level. Sometimes it's like you're playing on Championship Court at a public setting because you'll have people peering in through the windows. Sometimes we have families stopping to cheer for us. It's a ton of fun.

[00:04:46.360] - Tony Roig
That sounds like an awesome facility. I might have to check it out when I got up to New York for the MLP upcoming. So I'll swing by and take a look at. Definitely should. So, Lydia, so it sounds like, obviously, Life Time's all in on pick-up, which is phenomenal, right? I'm, and it sounds like you are too, right? Such a fan of growth of this sport because of the impact that it can have for so many folks out there. And obviously we need facilities, right? No pickleball courts, no pickleball play. And so it's great to hear about Lifetime's current and also planned growth in the sport of pickleball. One of the other things that we talked about was one of the areas that's different parts of the country, you play with different balls, balls have evolved over time. You had the Dura, Franklin has a big in place right now. Core has been involved. There's all these different names that you hear about. But my understanding is that Life Time has taken a step in that direction as well?

[00:05:39.040] - Lydia Hirt
Yes. Oh, my gosh, Tony, I have it in my hand right now. We have our patent pending LT a ball, it is an incredible ball to play with. So our Lifetime founder and CEO, Buram Akradi, is a trained engineer. So he saw a problem that the ball for a pickleball does not always bounce correctly. It's not sustainable, it's not durable. It's not the speed at which he likes to play. So he went out to solve that problem. We now have our proprietary LTE pickleball. You'll actually see, unlike other pickleballs, it is actually two sides, like a roter motor. Let me get back to you on exactly how that's produced. But it's two actual sides fit together, and it has 48 holes, evenly space. The holes have champered edges, which means that this ball rolls. It won't get caught in one of those holes like other balls. It also is incredibly sustainable. I have personally not actually seen our ball crack. I do know if it does, it cracks along that seam, it doesn't get those annoying hairline fractures where you play a couple of points and then realize, one of these holes is cracked, how far do you go back?

[00:06:49.060] - Lydia Hirt
It is fast. It is an incredibly fun ball to play with. Ppa, MLP Pro, Zane Navrittal just recently did an entire YouTube review of the LT pickle ball after it was played with at the PPA event in Peachtree, and he had incredible things to say. He did say this is the best bouncing ball with that most consistent bounce that he has ever played with. We at Life Time are incredibly excited to really be fixing something that we perceive to be as a problem with the ball to make that ball a better experience for players of all levels, and also to hopefully make it more sustainable ball that breaks less, you need to replace it less, which is both cost savings and better for the environment.

[00:07:33.480] - Tony Roig
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And Zane definitely knows the sport. He's been at it for a long time. And if Zane likes it, then I like it. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet. I know, I believe Dan is sending me a few, and we're going to be trying them out and then giving our feedback on it. But certainly the fact that the PPA and the MLP are willing to put the ball in play says a lot as well about the ball. And I believe that this episode is dropping sometime around We've owned the PPA and MLPs out in San Clemente, so they're going to be using the balls out there. So we're going to be on the look out to see how the ball performs out in the San Clemente West Coast weather. It had some East Coast weather in Atlanta, now we're getting some West Coast weather, and I'm sure the ball will do great there.

[00:08:15.180] - Lydia Hirt
Exactly. So it will, as you're mentioning, the LT, the ball will be used at the PPA in Rancher San Clemente and then MLP immediately following. So we will be seeing a ton of buzz and feedback from the pros. We have heard some very notable top players Our big fans of how it plays. So really excited to see the ball continue to get experience.

[00:08:36.640] - Tony Roig
Yeah, that'll be awesome. And I'm always a big fan of anything that makes our sport stronger, anything that improves our sport. And obviously, just like we need courts, we need balls to play. And if the balls last longer, kudos for that development. So that's a great news that your founder took some time to focus on that, some of his attention. Lydia, share with us a little bit about your You and I were talking about your father, right? And your father, a lot of players out there, the sport getting younger, right? But still a lot of the players in our sport are a little bit older. And I believe you said your father was in his 70s, I believe, early 70s. Tell us a little bit about your father's experience. You just saw him and your interactions with your father in the sport of pickleball and how that's improved his quality of life, I guess, or his experiences.

[00:09:26.220] - Lydia Hirt
All great questions, Tony. So my parents, my sister and I all discover pick a ball together at the same time. My dad and I have really become fully pick a ball addicts. We play as much as possible. We love to play together. My dad just turned 71 over the weekend, so he came to New York City along with my mom, and we played pick a ball every single day. It was incredibly fun. So on Saturday, it was myself, my fiancé, one of our friends, and my dad got together here at Lifetime Pen, and we for an hour and a half, my dad and I won three out of five games. That is not to embarrass my fiancé and our friend via. That is just because pick a ball is one of those sports that it really does put precision over power, even though I will also say my dad does get quite a bit of speed on that ball. But at 71 years old, my dad and I together were able to meet, we were able to consistently win against and show up and perform against two middle-aged men, which is incredibly satisfying. When we were leaving the game or when we were wrapping up the day, Viet, our friend who played with us, was like, Wow, your dad is so good.

[00:10:41.960] - Lydia Hirt
Not necessarily what you're expecting for a 71-year-old man, he tore his meniscus last year playing pickleball. So he shows up, he wears his knee brace, he wears an ankle brace for his Achilles, and yet he can still have a strong presence. He can feel really good about how he plays. He can still show up on that court. And from my dad being active in his pickleball community, he and my mom moved to Philadelphia around two and a half years ago now. And their social life really originated through people they met on the pickleball courts out of the gate. It was those early relationships that through which they found other friends. They now found volunteer opportunities. They also are very involved in Bridge. So clearly, my parents are just gamers in general. But pickleball really brought so much community, friendship, physical activity to their lives, and just that sense of togetherness when they're moving to a new community. I love to travel, but I prefer to really travel to places where there is more pickleball because that way, even if I'm going by myself or with friends or with my fiance, we'll inevitably find more people that we enjoy through pickleball.

[00:11:54.440] - Lydia Hirt
Whether that means we're actually going to get a meal or a drink with them later or even just hearing what their recommendations are in the place that they call home is just incredibly fruitful.

[00:12:06.180] - Tony Roig
Yeah, that's an awesome way to engage with the sport is, the sport has such a ripple effect right in our lives, not just, okay, we get to play this thing. It's all the other benefits that we get from it, socially travel and otherwise. And I've had the pleasure, me and my wife, we had the pleasure of the same interaction with this wonderful sport. One last question, Lydia. I know that you have a busy schedule today. What are you guys seeing at Lifetime in terms of if you have this up your head, like growth of the sport in terms of engagement. I know you mentioned the two million, I think you call them moments and things like that. But are you guys seeing that to be like a constant for you guys where the courts are in use? Obviously, again, we're hearing the courts. We're recording this about midday, and so it's active. Are you guys still seeing that spread out throughout the country, the same demand growth?

[00:12:58.300] - Lydia Hirt
So Lifetime's Year over year numbers just continue to increase. Our percentage of players is up. Our percentage of members engaging in pick-up all is increased. As you're mentioning, we're recording this in the middle of the day on a Monday. Our courts here at Penn in the heart of Manhattan are always packed. You'll hear about peak times versus off peak here in New York, it is always peak times. We've even extended our club operating hours by an hour so that we are open until midnight during the weekend until 11: 00 on the weekends because there is that much demand for pickleball. We're seeing that across the nation. We are continuing to build more courts. We want lifetime to be your home away from home. We offer the best saunas, the best spas, incredible recovery, small group training. We really bring the boutique-style fitness class to you. But then also with pickleball on top of it, we understand that Pickaball can be competitive or it can be really more social. We want offer our members and our community basically whatever they want under one roof. I know people that stay at Lifetime. I work from here, and they're here just as long as I am.

[00:14:12.940] - Lydia Hirt
It's a luxury experience. Like my lifetime is that athletic country club, so they are able to pay for their membership while also spending a significant amount of time here all day, every day. I love to see it. People have their routines down. They pick a ball, then they to the cafe and get their smoothie, then they take some calls, then maybe they get back on the court, then maybe they go back to that cafe to get lunch a little bit later in the day. And in between, you see those people you know. You're waiting from across the court. I sit here with my headphones out on on calls as you mentioned, courtside. And I see people and friends I know who are wildly waving from across the court. And it's like, I'm on a call. And then sometimes I'll be on an important call and all of a sudden a ball will come right in my head. So it keeps That keeps us on our toes. But ultimately, the love for a pickle ball within lifetime just continues to grow and really motivates us to be delivering on that best possible experience, whether that is you're traveling to one of our courts.

[00:15:17.400] - Lydia Hirt
In Atlanta, Lifetime has over 60 courts. My fiancé and I were traveling to Costa Rica over the holidays to play pickle in Costa Rica. We ended up getting stuck in Atlanta for 24 hours through a misconnection due to a Delta breaking system. And guess what we did? We went to one of our Lifetime clubs and got an extra day in of pick-up all in. Was it in Costa Rica? No. But was it really great to be able to enjoy that type? Make the most of it, see some other beautiful lifetime experiences, and pick up that paddle? So we definitely... It was not a waste of day.

[00:15:53.880] - Tony Roig
That is awesome. And that's awesome about lifetime commitment. If someone wants to follow you, do you I don't have your ledia. Pickaball on Instagram? You're still using that thing?

[00:16:02.380] - Lydia Hirt
Yes, it's ledia. Pickaball. I need to pick up my newsletter again, too. I am really just excited about everything I look at as the pickaball lifestyle. I love fashion. I love pickleball clothes. I now wear skorts, I think 90% of the time. If I have to put on what I call hard clothes, it really just throws me off. I think there is so much to that community, to that lifestyle of pickaball, and really how it can really touch every of your life. And then I'm also really lucky to have a career that also highlights the business side, because I do just think that as the sport continues to grow and evolve, we're still early in the future of pickle. I think pickleball is just going to continue to rise up. And I really feel so privileged to be able to see it from both sides, to be able to experience pickleball from the fun, the friendship, that joy in community, but then also from that business side, and how lifetime can continue to grow and develop those core experiences, which really just continue to bring more and more desirable into our brand, into our really incredible memberships.

[00:17:11.440] - Tony Roig
Yeah, that's awesome. So, Lydia, that's pickleball. We'll put it in the show notes. Then Is the ball available yet for the general public? So if someone wants to try it out, they can go ahead and get some, or is that still coming up?

[00:17:20.680] - Lydia Hirt
Yep, you can get the pickle ball on our LT shop, and also we are building a relationship with Pickleball Central. So everybody is welcome to experience the LT pickleball. Please do. I would love your thoughts. I cannot wait to hear what you think, actually. It is so much fun when I play with other balls now for any reason, they feel a little slow and heavy. The timing is off, whereas this ball, it is so much fun to play with. And again, it doesn't break. So I carry them around in my bag everywhere I go. Sometimes, depending on where it is, I'll leave them with other players I meet because I know it has a long life ahead.

[00:18:00.660] - Tony Roig
Love it. So we'll put that in the show notes as well. So if you want to check out the LT pickleball, and if you want to follow Lydia on Instagram. Lydia, it's been a pleasure having you on here. It sounds like they need a fourth out there on the court, so I'm going to let you go. Really appreciate your time.

[00:18:13.120] - Lydia Hirt
Thank you so much, Tony. I really appreciate it, too.