John Moore is a 4.5 rated pickleball player. Before getting into America’s fastest-growing sport, he had a successful career in corporate marketing. The 55-year-old Dallas native worked for big companies including Whole Foods. He would give talks in front of large groups. That was unusual, because John Moore is a lifelong stutterer.
Now, Moore is a pickleball instructor.
“I don’t see my stutter as a negative,” Moore told me from his home in Greenville, South Carolina. “I see it as a positive in my life. My stutter doesn’t define me but it has absolutely shaped me into being a better me. I’m a better writer because of my stutter. I’m more detail-oriented because of my stutter. I’m a more respectful and empathetic person because of my stutter. I feel as though I must work twice as hard to get half as much. My stutter has given me a strong work ethic.”
Moore was a terrific table tennis player as a kid after learning the game from his father. He says his dad “beat my butt” initially, but even at 12-years-old, Moore liked challenges and took that as one. He worked to improve and soon beat his father in table tennis.
Moore discovered pickleball in June 2015 and like most newbies loved it immediately. “Pickleball is so incredibly approachable,” he says. “Anybody with an ounce of athleticism can find success quickly on the pickleball court. However, to achieve greatness on the court requires lots of practice. I love the easy to learn but hard to master aspect of pickleball.”
Moore has two bachelor’s degrees, from Baylor University in Radio/TV and Film and from North Texas in business. Growing up he wanted to be a sportscaster, but his stuttering changed his career course. Now he’s a marketing consultant. “It used to be my main hustle. It’s more my side hustle these days,” he says. Moore prefers consulting pickleball players on how to improve and marketing the sport instead of a corporation.
Moore says his stutter is mild now but it used to be “pretty strong.” Stuttering is a speech pattern involving involuntary disruptions, or “disfluencies” in the flow of speech. According to the National Stuttering Association, there are 79 million people who stutter worldwide. Stuttering usually begins in childhood (as it did with Moore) between the ages of 2 and 5 years. It is estimated that about 1% of the world’s population stutters, though about 5% of children go through a period of stuttering. Stuttering can begin gradually and develop over time, or it can appear suddenly.
Moore says, “People who stutter must not fall victim to the ‘why try effect.’ That is, why try to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, etc.”
Moore addresses his stutter with everyone upfront, sometimes humorously. The top of his website, which has the cool name “Brand Autopsy,” says, “marketing strategist | keynote speaker | stutters often.”
“I’ve found it’s best to disclose my stutter with people,” Moore says. Many times people do not know how to react when they see/hear someone speak with a stutter. I’ll start my clinics by saying something like, ‘I stutter. It’s just how I talk. Think of it as my accent.’ By disclosing my stutter, it disarms the listener and it gives me permission to stutter,” he says.
David Sclar of Greenville is 69 years old and a 4.0 player. David first played pickleball in 2018, when he and his wife took lessons from Moore.
“His teaching skills and his passion were much more important to us than his stutter,” Sclar says. “John has the ability to emphasize skills to players who show potential. And for those who just want to enjoy the game’s social aspects, John emphasizes how fun is the most important thing.”
Moore’s empathy towards others, thanks in part to his own struggle, led towards his involvement with adaptive pickleball players who compete in wheelchairs, as well as players with Downs Syndrome, autism, Parkinson’s and other disabilities. “It’s amazing to use pickleball as therapy for these players as they get exercise, socialize and laugh while playing pickleball,” Moore says.
Moore’s top tips for 3.5 recreational players:
1) Be intentional with your serve. Stress your opponents with a deeper serve. Stress your opponents with a heavy topspin serve. Stress serves will result in shorter/weaker returns and that gives you more options with your third shot.
2) Third shot hot then fifth shot drop. Drive your third shot at the belly of your opponents standing at the non-volley zone. Your drive shouldn’t be 100% power. Drive the ball at 60% speed and most likely, your opponents will only be able to block the ball back. This slows down the ball and allows for an easy fifth shot drop to neutralize the point with both teams dinking it out at the kitchen.
3) Focus more on making better decisions and less on winning games. If you make better decisions with shot strategy and shot placement, you will win more points. When you win more points, you’ll win more games. Too many 3.5 players focus solely on winning games and they forget that to improve, they need to improve their decision-making on the court.
4) Hit balls to the stronger player in games. During rec games players will focus so much on winning that they purposely target the weaker player. That’s the wrong mindset if you want to improve. Hit balls to the stronger player because they will challenge you.
As for his future, Moore says, “My goals are simple. Bring the awesome game of pickleball to more players.”
One gets the feeling after interviewing Moore that he has downplayed the obstacles from stuttering that he has overcome. He doesn’t seem to a new acquaintance to remotely be a “woe is me” type.
That, no doubt, has helped John Moore in the corporate world, and on the pickleball court.
Thoughts of the week, not all pickleball
· The NBA is facing a crisis after a head coach, a current player and a former player were arrested on two federal indictments related to illegal gambling on games and rigged poker games with Mafia connections. Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former player Damon Jones all face criminal charges. Billups was inducted last year into the Hall of Fame and I think if he is found guilty he should be removed. I asked another Hall of Famer and one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players of all time, the always candid Rick Barry (and at 81 a multi-gold medal-winning senior pickleball player), for his take on the scandal. “I don’t think it’s going to have a major impact,” Barry said. “Obviously, it’s not something that anybody involved in the sport really would like to see happening, but you’re always going to have some people who do things that make no sense whatsoever. Obviously, that’s the case here as to why in the world would these players and this coach, who are making such outrageous amounts of money and have such a great life, do something so foolish.” I think greed has no boundaries with some people who can never have enough money.
· Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia has missed the World Series due to what the team called “a deeply personal family matter.” This was announced at around the time Vesia’s wife was expecting a baby. Vesia was a key contributor to the Dodgers success this season. Yet some haters on Facebook actually posted that they don’t think Vesia deserves a World Series ring if the Dodgers win. Seriously. Some peoples' priorities are screwed up.
· Shohei Ohtani is a freak and could end up as the greatest baseball player ever if he keeps his numbers similar to what they have been for five or so more seasons. I read online posts this week from those who say Babe Ruth was better. I think if Ohtani were an all-American boy, say Mike Trout, some of those claiming Babe was the greatest would not put him behind Ruth. Because of so many factors from the vastly different eras, will we never know for sure but I firmly believe that Ohtani is better than The Babe was. Ohtani has pitched for seven of his eight seasons in the majors. Ruth stopped pitching after five seasons. Ohtani faces pitchers who are better than those in Ruth’s years. They are bigger, stronger and thanks to modern technology, more knowledgeable about pitching and throw a wider variety of breaking stuff. There’s no comparison regarding pitchers velocity then vs. now. Recent data shows that 82 pitchers hit 100 mph this season. No one threw 100 during Ruth’s career. Ohtani can fly and has 165 stolen bases in eight seasons. Ruth was slow, he had 123 stolen bases in his 22-year career and was caught stealing 117 times.
· While in airports this week I saw so many travelers walking or blocking others because they had their heads down staring at their cellphones. One guy on the light rail train we were on almost missed his stop and had to pry the doors open because he was immersed in his phone.
· Flight attendants sometimes announce before landing to let passengers with tight connections off the plane first. And when it’s time to get off the plane, hardly any passengers do that.
· One of the countless reasons I love pickleball is making new friends. I met Bob and Kelly Simmons in Asheville, NC, about three years ago. Last week we spent five days with them in Sunset Beach, NC, where they are building a new home. Bob is an Army vet and was a nurse practioner at a maximum-security state prison. Kelly was a schoolteacher for more than three decades. They have been married 36 years and are salt of the earth people. I am fortunate to have met them and even luckier to call them friends, although though Bob and I got our butts beat by two female players last week. Hey, those women are at least 4.0 players.
· I predicted here last week that the Dodgers would win the series in five games. Another reason I’m relieved that I stopped betting on baseball years ago.
If you buy any Hudef paddle that costs $169.99, enter my discount code MS30 at check-out to knock down the price by 30%, to $119.99. For the new Hudef Mage SCF1 Supercritical Foam paddle, use code MS10 to make your price $135.00 (I have been playing with it and it has fantastic power, spin and control and is my new main). Any less expensive paddle, the code is MS15, giving you 15% off.
