In Cape Canaveral, Florida, there’s a guy named Ricki Houston who really loves pickleball. His story began on May 6th, 2023, and it’s turned into something pretty amazing.
Ricki got into pickleball because he started working for PickleVend.com, a company that makes cool pickleball vending machines. At first, he just wanted to learn about the game, but it became much more than that.
Ricki found out that pickleball drills are a lot of fun. These drills mix practicing with playing, and it’s way different from just random games at the local park. With drills, Ricki could control how fast they played, the style of the game, and how hard they went – it was pretty exciting.
But Ricki’s story is about more than just fun. He also lost a good amount of weight, about 15 pounds, which is pretty cool. You can see in the picture below that he really made a change.

Now, his mornings are all about pickleball drills. It’s like a workout that’s also really fun. The drills are fast and get his heart pumping, and he loves it.
Ricki isn’t just playing – he’s also testing pickleball stuff for PickleVend.com. He’s trying out different balls and testing new pickleball equipment, and it’s become a big part of what he does.
What’s really neat is that Ricki’s sharing his Oura ring data. This ring tracks steps and health stuff, and he’s showing it in a picture. It’s cool that he’s being honest and open about his journey. The illustration below demonstrates his exercise and heart rate level reached during pickleball drills. The graph below shows two workouts in one day. In football training camp, they are called “two-a-days”.

Ricki’s story isn’t just about playing pickleball. It’s about changing his life, getting fit, and finding something exciting. As we read about Ricki, we can see how pickleball drills can mean more than just a game on a court.
Keep reading, keep learning, and join Ricki Houston as he shows us how pickleball drills can change things up. You can follow his journey to track all the new pickleball court construction projects planned across the USA in the near future.