Hi there,One change to how this newsletter worksI’m shifting to once a week. For a while now, I’ve been sending three emails a week. And honestly, it’s felt scattered. No real through line. No clear reason for you to come back beyond “Rob sent another email.” And I do know many of you like the raw life, real-time updates, but I don’t feel like they are super useful for me right now. I don’t want to send emails just to send them. I want to send something that’s actually useful, something you’d...
8 days ago • 4 min read
Hi friend,I went to bed at 7 PM last night. I’m in Saint Simons Island visiting my mom. It’s 65 degrees, perfect weather, live oaks covered in Spanish moss. The island is beautiful and I can barely get out of bed. I’ve seen my mom every day. We’ve had coffee. But I’ve been so exhausted that I keep having to go lay down. The drainage is really heavy. My body is going through it. And I’m carrying this guilt that I came all the way here and I’m not actually experiencing being here. It just feels...
12 days ago • 1 min read
Hello there,I got some real practice in last week. I was in South Florida before heading up here to Saint Simons Island to see family. One day I drilled with Andrei Daescu and Parris Todd and Andrei’s coach Alex. Another day was men’s games with Andrei, Fed Staksrud, and J Dub. And it made me realize how much I’ve been missing it. When I look back at my pickleball journey, the thing I always did well was position myself around the best practice. That’s what made me good. Playing against the...
14 days ago • 2 min read
Hi friend, Happy New Year. I’m not big on resolutions. Never have been. They feel performative, like I’m supposed to declare some grand transformation that’ll be abandoned by February. But intentions? Those feel different. Those feel real. So here’s what I’m walking into 2026 with. First: putting my health first. And I’ll be honest, it doesn’t feel exciting. It feels frustrating. It’s annoying that I have to make it a priority. I’d rather just live without thinking about it, without planning...
16 days ago • 1 min read
Hello friend,It’s New Year’s Eve, and I’m sitting here trying to figure out what to say about 2025. The easy version would be to list the highlights: pro tournaments, international travel, health advocacy work that’s reaching people. All true. All happened. But that’s not what the year actually felt like. If I’m being honest, 2025 felt exhausting. I got my colostomy in February. That was supposed to help with the pain. It did, for a little while. Then it didn’t. It became another thing my...
18 days ago • 2 min read
Hi there,We’re coming up on almost a year since my colostomy surgery. A year since I made the choice to fundamentally change my body because the pain had become unbearable. A year since I thought, “this will help.” And here’s where I’m at: the pain is back at pre-colostomy levels. Even though I’m not having bowel movements. Even though the thing that was supposed to help, helped for a while, and now doesn’t. It’s not trending in the right direction. That’s the clinical way to say it. The real...
20 days ago • 1 min read
Hi there,I’m laying in a hotel bed in Luzhou right now. This morning I was in Chengdu at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. I finally saw pandas. I’ve been smiling about it all day. I knew I wanted to go through Chengdu because of them. I didn’t know how much I needed it. I stood there watching them eat bamboo and nap and wander around, and I just felt light. It was pure joy. A smile that came easy. I haven’t felt that in a while. It’s been a long stretch. Almost a month on...
23 days ago • 1 min read
Hello friend,I’m writing this from Kathmandu on Christmas Eve. I flew in early this morning from Mumbai. Slept for a few hours, then started walking around the city. It’s my first time in Nepal. The visa process was straightforward. Visa on arrival, though I got mine ahead of time to save a little headache at the airport. Tomorrow I fly to Chengdu, then on to Luzhou for a tournament. There weren’t any direct flights from Mumbai to Chengdu, so I had a choice: connect through Kuala Lumpur,...
25 days ago • 1 min read
Hi there,I’m writing this from my hotel room in India at the end of a very long week. My throat’s starting to hurt, my body’s getting beat up, and I’m running on about four hours of sleep. We had a shot at the one seed in the playoff bracket last night and got crushed. Then today we got swept 3-0 in the elimination bracket. Didn’t even get in the lineup. Team event’s done. But this morning I woke up early to play 35+ with a local Indian player. Five or six matches later, we made it to the...
27 days ago • 1 min read