John Kew’s Sidekick
November 27, 2024
Eddie (left) and John Kew in June in San Clemente, CA.
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Johnny Carson had Ed McMahon. John Kew has Eddie Kang.
Eddie has co-hosted the popular “John Kew Pickleball” podcast since January, often playing the comic to Kew’s straight man. They mostly review paddles but also discuss pickleball trends and hot topics.
“John is a nerd,” Eddie tells me. “Maybe I am too, but I’m not a scientist by trade.”
Kew (his full name is John Kew Williams) is an archeologist. As I wrote about him earlier this year, “He digs on the court and off.” Eddie is a longtime federal employee, a supervising manager with the National Institutes of Health, in the Human Capital and Workforce division. “We focus on environmental health. We investigate the things in our world that can affect human health. My role is to manage many programs that keep people working effectively – everything from fitness programs, to training and workforce development, to performance management. I even help run an onsite pickleball club!”
Eddie is 56 but looks younger. He has a perpetual smile on his face during the podcasts. He appears somewhat reserved on the show but on the phone he’s chatty and friendly, speaking with me for the first time as though we were old friends. Eddie and his wife have two children, a son and a daughter who are both in college. His upbringing in upper middle-class Rockville, MD, could not have been more different from his father’s.
Eddie’s dad grew up in a small village that is currently in the Demilitarized Zone, the buffer between North and South Korea. His father’s family were staunch anti-Communists. “When soldiers came from the north to enlist all men to join the Communist army, my father escaped,” Eddie says. “Fleeing, at times hiding in ditches and trash containers, he made his way to friendly American forces in the south. His English was good enough to serve as a translator in the U.S. Army.”
Eddie’s father studied physics in the US and earned a Ph.D at Vanderbilt University, where he met Eddie’s mother. His dad taught college physics for his entire career, or so Eddie thought. Turns out teaching was not all he did. When Eddie found out his father’s long-held secret, he received the shock of his life.
Eddie says, “After teaching physics for a while, my father joined the CIA, which I did not know about until the day of his retirement. Crazy!”
Hollywood would reject the story for being too far-fetched.
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Eddie is a 4.2 player and has been rated as high as 4.6.
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Eddie Kang first played pickleball in 2017 in a group class in Wake Forest, NC. “The 60 and 70-year-olds were beating my butt,” Eddie said during his first podcast with Kew. Eddie now has a DUPR (Dynamic Universal Player Rating) of 4.2 and it’s been as high as 4.6. He’s 5’8”, 145 pounds and athletic. He’s played in approximately 30 tournaments and medaled in most. He currently plays in 4.0-4.5 tournaments in the 50+ division. “If I was only four inches taller,” Eddie jokes.
During their first podcast together, after introducing Eddie, Kew said, “They call him ‘Flying Eddie’ for his jumping antics.” In high school in Rockville, MD, Eddie ran track and played soccer. In college at the University of Maryland he played intramural racquetball, squash, softball and volleyball. He graduated from UM with a business degree in 1991.
He loves hiking and wants to combine it with his love of pickleball to accomplish an unusual and ambitious goal: Playing pickleball on top of one of Colorado’s 14,000-foot-high mountain peaks.
Eddie works his federal job remotely from his home in Superior, CO, outside of Boulder. He co-hosts the podcast in Kew’s home studio less than 20 minutes away. The pair met, where else, on a pickleball court in Superior a few years ago.
“From the beginning, we enjoyed playing with each other and talking shop about pickleball,” Eddie says. “I think we were at a local pizza joint and he brought up the idea for the pod. He wanted something informal and conversational.
“At the time I remember thinking, ‘Just don’t put me on camera, and we’ll be okay.’ We know how long that lasted! I also recall thinking that John and I were already talking about all the new paddles and other technology anyway, so adding a microphone seemed like a no-brainer. It’s amazing how fast the time goes in the studio. We’ll chat for 90 minutes easy, and it goes by in a flash. I think that’s a pretty good indicator of the kind of chemistry that works between us. Forty-ish episodes later we’re still at it with no end in sight. I think we’re a good team. John is analytical and data driven, while I’m pragmatic and qualitative.”
Their first podcast together last January drew 7400 views. Their podcast last week doubled that. Kew’s YouTube channel has 15,300 subscribers and increases daily. John and Eddie bring distinct personalities to the show.
“I definitely feel that there’s more to a paddle than what can be described with numbers.” Eddie says. “Time and again, I’m impressed with certain paddles that are just a joy to play with. John and I have different perspectives, and we even disagree on things. I think that’s good for the podcast since our listeners come from all different skill levels and backgrounds. I also make it my personal goal to get John to crack up at least once per episode,” Eddie says. “Sometimes ‘Robot-John’ is too prominent and I have to jumpstart ‘Human-John’ back into the conversation.” Eddie adds in an email “Just joking, partner.”
Eddie calls pickleball “The perfect game. I love the community, the health aspects and the flexibility. You can be as serious or as competitive as you want,” he says. “There’s no limit to what you can do in the sport, at any age. One of my favorite aspects of the game is that I can be competitive against much younger, faster, bigger and stronger people by using strategy, anticipation and hustle. You can’t judge a book by its cover, and that is true in pickleball, perhaps more than any other sport!
“I love the gear,” he says, “The innovation and technology are changing the game, and I’m thrilled to be here for the ride! I’m one of those people who was buying a new paddle every few months, so being able to evaluate new paddles as they come out is a dream job for me! Reviewing paddles helps inform people of the stuff that works in new paddle tech and what is just marketing fluff,” he says. “I think durability is an issue that we see being addressed. Replaceable components (such as face ‘skins’) aren’t quite at the level of peak performance, but it’s getting there. Cores need to be more stable over time. Manufacturers need to give consumers a product that will last more than a few months.”
Regarding future trends in paddles, Eddie says, “I think we will see a shift in focus to forgiveness and sweet spot optimization. Today, some paddles have massive spin and huge power, but extracting those big numbers is difficult. The sweet spot it limited to a circle the size of a quarter on the paddle face, accompanied by an abrupt drop in performance outside of that narrow area. New technologies will focus on spreading out the size of the sweet spot to make paddles more forgiving, consistent and predictable.”
Eddie enjoys giving back to the pickleball community. “Sometimes I’ll go to open play with 10 or a dozen new paddles, and I’ll let people try them,” he says. “It gives me great joy to help someone find their next new paddle that really works for them.”
It gives him as almost as much joy as when he makes John Kew crack up.
Thoughts of the week, not all pickleball
- If you’re a fan of the New York Giants or Jets and also a baseball fan, it’s safe to say you’re counting the days to pitchers and catchers.
- Putting a Slyce Speedcap on a pickleball paddle is too much work for me. There are about a hundred other things I’d rather do in the time it would take to put one in. Glad I feel that way because $35 for the thing seems a bit much. But hey, if it really helps your game, that’s great.
- I hope the wonderful body of work by some musicians who passed away much too soon is never forgotten by the next generation. I’m thinking about some singer/songwriters whose songs I heard this week. Harry Chapin, who died in a car crash at 38; Jim Croce, killed in a plane crash at 30; and Dan Fogelberg, who died of prostate cancer at 56. As The Righteous Brothers song says, “If there’s a rock n’ roll heaven, well you know they’ve got a hell of a band.”
- I’ve been hearing more stories lately about sandbaggers in pickleball tournaments (and you know who you are). They must be desperate for medals, insecure, or both.
- Top paddle reviewers Chris Olson, John Kew, Braydon Unsicker and others all told me you need not spend more than $150 on a paddle unless you’re a high level player, at least a 4.0. I’ve seen many $250-$300 paddles at rec play, so many players ignore that sound advice.
- Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers, my pickleball playing friends and those who took the time to be interviewed for this column since its inception in January. I’m thankful that I’m healthy enough to play pickleball every day and have met so many wonderful people since first playing this fantastic game after retiring from my full-time job four years ago. I thought I never wanted to work again after 40 years in TV news and now have two writing jobs.
I always say when you love what you do, it doesn’t seem like work.
Reminder: Hudef’s Black Friday sale runs from Friday, November 29th through December 5th. You will get 35% off the regular price on The Mage Pro Gen 2, Viva Pro Gen 3 and the Luxury Gen 1 paddles. They will cost only $110.49 using discount code HBF-MS35 at check out. They regularly cost $169.99.
