Hello friend, I played yesterday. Actually played, not just dinking around. First real session in a while. Last time I was on court my hamstring seized up. This time it didn’t. I’ve been rolling out every day, stretching, all the stuff that’s boring but apparently necessary. It’s working. The knee feels better too. I can tell I’m making progress. I need to be making progress because I leave for China next week to train in Shenzhen and support Ram at the PCL Finals. I then go to India...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Hi there, A friend lost his wife last week. Another friend's daughter is in the hospital fighting. And I'm sitting here planning my 2026 tournament schedule. It just doesn’t add up sometimes. You do everything right and it's still not enough. My friend and his wife were controlling what they could control, staying optimistic, fighting for a clinical trial. And then it just... wasn't enough. It hit me hard, not in a way where my own stuff feels small or invalid, but in a way that pulls you out...
6 days ago • 1 min read
Hello there,The pickleball event last week wiped me out more than I expected. Interesting data point about where my energy level/capability actually is right now. I’m having to learn through trial and error what I'm capable of and how to pace myself. So I haven't played much this week. Just letting my body recover. But there's been good progress on the ostomy belt. Turns out "silent" hook and loop (basically Velcro) isn't silent at all. It's actually louder than my existing belts. Good to...
9 days ago • 2 min read
Hi there,I slept until 11 AM yesterday. That’s not something I do. I’m a morning person. Always have been. Even as a kid, if I slept past 8 or 9, I’d feel like I was missing something. There’s this low-level stress that comes with waking up late, like the day got away from me before I even had a chance at it. So when I woke up yesterday and saw the time, my first reaction was stress. That feeling of “oh no, I just wasted the whole morning.” But then I sat with it. Had my coffee. Didn’t rush...
11 days ago • 1 min read
Hello friend,This weekend was the PCL event in Manila. If you follow me on social, you saw the crowds. Full drums playing. People packed on bleachers around the courts and filling the second-level terrace of the mall. It’s what happens when you tie teams to regions. People want to represent where they’re from. The finals in Shenzhen are early December. Countries representing on an international stage. In Asia, that’s everything. I played in a celebrity exhibition with a beauty queen, an...
13 days ago • 2 min read
Hey there friend,The pain's been coming back in waves this week. Hour to hour, sometimes. That thing where you make plans and then have to cancel because you know you'll be miserable if you go through with them. It's incredibly frustrating, and I'm still sitting on an MRI showing grade 4 fistulas, waiting to see my doctor on the 18th since he's been out of town.But here's what's also true: I got on court this week.Been using resistance bands while dinking to build strength in my legs. My...
16 days ago • 1 min read
Hi there,I did an interview yesterday at 5 AM my time for a PSA with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. Video call with an agency in New York. I wasn’t at my sharpest. It went fine, but something sat with me afterward. I realized I don’t have a clean way to tell my story yet. There’s a lot happening. Playing pro pickleball with an ostomy, living abroad, dealing with ongoing health stuff, trying to grow the sport in the Philippines, working on a bunch of different projects.But when someone asks...
18 days ago • 1 min read
Hey there friend,Just wrapped a weekend of catching up. When I’m traveling and meeting people in person, I try to stay present - which means email piles up, messages go unanswered, and content creation falls off. Worth it to be there with people, but it creates a backlog that needs dealing with.We had a super typhoon roll through Manila over the weekend. They forecasted it pretty hard, but the track stayed north and there’s apparently a mountain range that shields the city a bit. Northern...
20 days ago • 1 min read
Hi there,I almost didn’t go to China. Getting to the airport felt impossible. The pain made the thought of a long flight and meetings feel like too much.There’s this thing that happens when I’m struggling physically. I want to be alone. It feels easier to manage everything myself, to not have to explain how I’m doing or put on any kind of face. Isolation is the easiest thing for me to do. But I also know it’s not the healthiest thing for me to do. It’s a weird contradiction that I haven’t...
23 days ago • 1 min read