The Erne and the Nasty Nelson
October 24, 2024
Erne Perry (left) and Timothy Nelson in Everett, Washington
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Only two players in pickleball’s 60-year history have had a shot so unique, so difficult and so bold that it’s named after them. Both players are charismatic, colorful characters.
One won’t disclose his height and weight, the other declines to reveal his age.
One of the players embraces the honor, the other has mixed feelings.
“I feel conflicted,” Timothy Nelson told me.
“It’s pretty amazing to have a shot named after you,” Erne Perry said.
Perry is rightfully proud. The Erne is a shot requiring a high level of athleticism and agility and looks awesome when successful.
The Erne is often set-up by many straight-on dinks near either sideline by the player planning it because he or she wants to lull the opponent into a sense of security. The player executing the Erne eventually hits a volley shot in mid-air before or after establishing both feet outside the non-volley zone following one of three scenarios:
1) Jumping over the corner of the non-valley zone, aka the kitchen.
2) Running around the kitchen corner.
3) Running through the kitchen.
Perry actually was first victimized by a player hitting a similar version of the shot. Erne tweaked it and liked it so much he began using it regularly in 1993.
The shot didn’t have a name until the 2010 USAPA Nationals in Arizona. Erne used it successfully several times in one match and after about the fifth put-away a guy who was videotaping the game yelled, “Erne!” The name, and the shot, stuck.
Now, Erne plays pickleball five days a week for three hours a day. “I play all the time when my back’s not killing me,” he says. He used to play eight to nine hours a day, but the back pain (from a car wreck) combined with arthritis in his hands ended those marathon sessions. His DUPR is 4.93. He’s 5’11”, 170 pounds, and looks to be in terrific shape. When asked his age he replied, “I’m over 50 and qualify for the senior tour.”
Erne and his wife, Kim, have been married for 42 years. They have two children and live in Gig Harbor, WA, during the summer and Edmond, OK, in winter. He’s a retired commercial contractor, born in Texas and raised in Oklahoma, where he started playing pickleball in 1985. “It is a sport that anyone can play, whether you are young or old, male or female, and anyone can be great at,” Erne says.
When Erne plays pickleball with strangers he tells them only his first name, never that he’s the Erne the shot is named after. Rabid pickleball fans and those who know the sport’s history sometimes recognize him, especially if he pulls an Erne on them. He says opponents really get a thrill using his shot against him. “Everybody wants to Erne Erne,” he says over the phone with a laugh. He loves signing autographs and posing for photos with fans.
Whatever his age, Erne plays with a youthful enthusiasm and is boisterous on the court. “I definitely like to talk [to my opponents],” he says. “I try to get in their head.” He talks loud and dresses loud, wearing colorful on-court clothes. “When I’m in a tournament they know where I am,” he says.
Erne has given countless pickleball lessons over the years but says, “I no longer have the patience nor desire to still give them today. But I will always give advice if asked.”
Erne was among the founding members of the USAPA 19 years ago and is gratified that pickleball is America’s fastest growing sport. He’s not one of those old-timers who laments the “good old days.” He likes the trend towards more power. “The matches are more watchable now,” he said. “All those 100 dink rallies, I don’t think they’re exciting. I’m all about the game growing.”
Erne says he’s played pickleball at least 500 times with and 500 times against the other player who has a shot named after him: Tim Nelson, creator of the “Nasty Nelson.” The pickleball legends live 80 miles apart in, fittingly, Washington State, the sport’s birthplace. They’re good friends, having traveled to tournaments together all over the country for years.
Tim Nelson was a pickleball prodigy. His obsession with the sport began when he was 17. While in high school he enrolled in courses at Edmonds Community College. “It was like 15 to 19 minutes from my house,” he said. “There was a gym with pickleball that was three minutes from my house, directly along that route, and even though my mom had me out the door to go to school, the magnet of the [pickleball] court was generally much too strong to pass by.”
Nelson often skipped the college classes to play pickleball. He says he crammed for finals and passed easily.
Nelson and a group of high-level pickleball playing friends had regular, extremely competitive matches at a fitness club in Everett. The games were not for the faint of heart. They were filled with trash and brash: trash talking by brash players, constantly trying to one-up each other with often X-rated verbal jabs and skillful shots.
During one match an opponent was trash talking non-stop and Nelson had had enough. That’s when he had an idea. He would try to get a point by intentionally hitting the guy with his serve when the trash talker was the receiving team’s return of server’s partner. Not exactly a high percentage shot even for Nelson, who has a rocket-like serve.
“The first time I tried it I nailed him in the stomach,” Nelson said during a lengthy phone interview from his home in Everett. “He got mad and quit. He eventually returned and was daring me. He kept saying, ‘Do it again.’ I waited a while and later that same day I hit him again with my serve. He was beside himself.”
The “Nasty Nelson” was born.
“It was an extra thing for opponents to think about,” Nelson says. He admits it worked about only 50 percent of the time, so I ask if he’d be better off hitting a regular serve and just trying to win the rally. “No,” he says, “not all points are the same or worth the same. Things like momentum and mindset are far more important to the outcome of the game than the point value associated with any individual point.” Nelson believes that putting the mere thought of having to avoid getting hit by his serve into an opponent’s head can rattle the player for the entire match.
Nelson now says he’s indifferent to having the shot named for him. He doesn’t apologize for doing it but acknowledges,“The original intention of the sport is camaraderie, and the shot is not aligned with this.”
Although the “Nasty Nelson” was his famous shot, it almost unfairly detracts from the fact that Nelson is a great all-court player with lightning quick reflexes. At one point he added a gesture he also became known for, a type of non-verbal trash talking. After hitting a winning shot Nelson would put his hands over his head and move his fingers as though he was a puppeteer. He was signaling I’m controlling my opponents. The guy with the already controversial “Nasty Nelson” serve was given a nickname: “Puppet Master.”
The puppeteering gesture rubbed some people the wrong way. They thought it was arrogant, cocky, and, like trying to hit an opponent with your serve, bad sportsmanship. Nelson not only didn’t care then what his critics thought, he played wearing a shirt that had the words “Puppet Master” printed on the back.
“I won’t go by that name anymore,” Nelson, 34, says. He even suggested that I title this piece, “Erne and Puppet Master Timothy Nelson” with the words “Puppet Master” crossed out.
He became deeply religious a few years ago, when, he said, “God found me.” He now calls the “Puppet Master” nickname “self-edifying and glorifying, rather than glorifying the only one who deserves all glory.”
He also doesn’t go by “Tim” Nelson anymore, always referring to himself as “Timothy.”
“The name Timothy means ‘Honoring God’” he says. “It just so happens it [the name Tim] is the only name I can think of where people think they are instantly buddy-buddy with you by chopping off more than half of your name without asking.”
Nelson had a change of heart, became kinder and gentler, years after learning he had a failing heart. In 2008, he had open heart surgery.
“I was playing ping-pong. I had a physical a few days earlier because I was prepping for nationals. My doctor calls and says, ‘What are you doing now?’ I say, ‘I’m playing ping-pong.’He says, “Stop now because you could die.’”
Nelson was 18.
He needed two more heart surgeries. Once when he was in the intensive care unit the patients on both sides of him died. He says he changed two years ago when “God found me. I wasn’t looking for him. I was lost and reckless. He came and intervened and changed everything.”
He plays pickleball “less than once a week” by choice, not because of any physical limitations. “My heart’s condition is such that physical activity is a benefit,” he says. Until recently he worked with teens with behavioral problems at a high school. Sometimes, to help an angry student work out aggression, Nelson took the kid to a pickleball court to slam a few balls. He enjoys trying to be a positive influence and pass on his wisdom.
He graduated from law school at the University of Arizona and recently started practicing law. “I want to be a trial attorney as opposed to transactional, in the courtroom on my feet.”
Nelson says he has a serious girlfriend. He is deeply into photography and painting with acrylics and is talented at both. “There are no ceilings in either form of expression,” he says.
Nelson won’t reveal his height and weight, and when Erne Perry is told this, Perry says, “He’s so thin that when he gets on a scale the scale says, “Is that it?” Nelson says, “I’m not going to answer the height and weight question for a competitive reason.”
The “Puppet Master” gesture may be history, but it sounds like the “Nasty Nelson” might just be taking an extended timeout.
Perry (left) says he and Nelson played together 500 times and against each other 500 times
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(Note: I first interviewed Erne Perry and Timothy Nelson for a story that appeared in the July/August issue of Pickleball Magazine. This article is a longer version.)
Hudef released a new paddle last week, the Newera Luxury Gen 1. It is thermoformed and edgeless. It’s elongated yet has a swing weight of only 110. The static weight is 7.8-8.3 ounces and the twist weight is 6.0. It has a core thickness of 18mm and a terrific combination of control, power and spin.
The Newera Luxury Gen 1 is in many ways similar to the Selkirk LUXX but I can tell you from playing with it over the past three weeks that it has more power than the Selkirk. The Hudef also costs $130 less using a discount code. The LUXX retails for $249.99 and the Newera Luxury Gen 1 is $169.99. But if you use my discount code, MS30, the price is knocked down to only $119.99. And for what it’s worth, the one in the cyan color might be the prettiest paddle I have ever seen. The Hudef website has complete details and paddle specifications.
Thoughts of the week, not all pickleball
- I meant to include this item last week and plain forgot, but it’s too funny to not mention. If you watched the television series Seinfeld and were watching Game 3 of the National League Divisional Series between the Mets and Phillies, you had to love play-by-play announcer Adam Amin’s one particular toss to commercial. With a shot of lifelong Mets fan Jerry Seinfeld in his luxury suite, Amin said about the exciting game, “It’s real and it’s spectacular.” Just perfect.
- I often see paddle shoppers on Facebook asking other pickleball players, “Which of these three paddles should I buy?” Then instead of helping the shopper choose from those three, many respondents will suggest an entirely different paddle, often one they are an ambassador for. Either that or they’re not paying attention. I saw a guy today say he wants one of three wide body paddles and several people suggested only elongated paddles. Not helpful.
- The comedian Groucho Marx said, “I refuse to belong to any club that would accept me as a member.” But I was touched and honored last Thursday night when my high school inducted me into its Distinguished Graduates Hall of Fame. I ended my speech by singing the school’s fight song. I somehow had remembered all the words after 50 years.
- It’s funny, the things we remember. I know my high school’s fight song by heart and can’t recall what I had for breakfast.