Life Lessons from Pickleball™
Life Lessons from Pickleball™
Shelley Maurer and Sher Emerick
E76: Bob Gress: Parkinson's and Pickleball
28 minutes Posted Oct 7, 2025 at 7:00 am.
Hosts’ intro and Bob’s journey begins
Early symptoms, disability, and long path to diagnosis
2015 turning point and therapies
Emotional toll, weight loss, and marriage support
The “recliner speech” and decision to move
Discovering pickleball at the Y
Learning, falling, community, and progress
“Thank God, my wife, and pickleball”
Playing level, heart ablation, and comeback
How partners can help and safe adaptation
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Show notes
How do you keep moving forward when Parkinson’s tries to rewrite your life? In this episode, Bob Gress shares his powerful journey from a lifetime of physical work and sports to facing the life-changing challenges of Parkinson’s disease. Bob opens up about the long road to diagnosis, the emotional toll of losing strength and mobility, and the turning point that came when his wife encouraged him to get out of the recliner and start moving again. That decision led him to pickleball, and the gam...