It doesn’t take long in Doris Woo’s company to realise that she does not fit any pickleball player stereotype. The English Open and English Nationals medallist is a techno DJ who, on more than one occasion, has headed straight from an all-night rave to the pickleball court.
During last year’s English Nationals, Doris drove from Bolton to Cheltenham on the Saturday evening to DJ (she goes by the stage name ‘DJ Bus Replacement Service‘), then zoomed straight back up the M6 through the night and won silver in the 3.0 mixed doubles, fuelled by about two hours’ sleep.
“It was a bit crazy!” laughs Hong Kong-born, Indiana-raised Doris, who moved to Worcestershire to marry her husband Anthony Child (also a techno DJ known as ‘Surgeon’) 21 years ago.
That blurry-eyed success at Bolton convinced Doris she wanted to take pickleball more seriously. “No more burning the candle at both ends – it was time to be more of an athlete,” she states. (Although she admits, “that’s still kind of a work in progress.”)
Doris heard pickleball before she saw it. It was being played in the distance on the island of Maui, Hawaii, last year by some off-duty firemen. As a former tennis player with a history of knee injuries, she wondered whether pickleball would be a little easier on her knees.
Returning home to Worcestershire, she joined Michael de Groot‘s pickleball group in Kidderminster in February last year. “It was love at first sight,” she says.
Michael encouraged her to play in the English Open last summer, where she won bronze in the 3.0 women’s singles. Then followed two more medals at the English Nationals in October, then further higher-level tournaments in the UK, Spain, USA and the Netherlands.
She is enjoying learning the game’s finer nuances as she creeps towards becoming “a baby 4.0.” She trains three times a week with her own ball machine – or travels to Shropshire or the east Midlands to find training partners. “They’re long drives, but I get to listen to a lot of pickleball podcasts!” she laughs.
Doris has started her own club, the Droitwich Salty Picklers (see above), which has just onboarded its 100th member and is moving to a larger venue this month. She is in the process of earning her Level 1 Club Instructor qualification.
Pickleball has been a timely intervention during a difficult period of transition in Doris’s life.
Doris returned from the English Nationals “knowing that pickleball was going to become an obsession.” That same day, she was told that a conditional job offer had been withdrawn. Having become disillusioned with her career as a solicitor and completing an MSc in data science and law, she decided there and then “to stick two fingers up to what society expects me to do with my academic qualifications.”
She gave up law and tech, resumed working for her husband’s record label, and played and created a new pickleball community in Driotwich. In addition to the dopamine hit of exercise, the game has given her drive, self-belief and a new network of friends across the world.
“Pickleball basically saved my mental health,” she admits. “It’s actually uncanny how often I hear people say that, but in my case it’s certainly true. I had hit a dead end – but pickleball is something I’ve actually chosen and it makes me happy.
“The medal [at the English Open and Nationals] gave me back a lot of self-esteem and confidence that was beaten out of me before I discovered pickleball. I was mentally in a really low place in the years before I found the sport.
During that period, she was diagnosed with anxiety disorder and ADHD. “I like to think of myself as a fairly carefree, easy-going person but slowly that got chipped away. But I’ve never felt healthier than I do now,” she states.
She is, however, still seeking that right balance between the late nights on the techno scene and staying in shape for pickleball.
When she’s behind the decks, clubbers can expect an eclectic evening. “I play some weird s**t!” she says. “My musical base is late-90s techno, but I have a lot of musical references.
“Techno can be quite po-faced and I’m the antidote to that. I’m a big comedy fan and I’ll play punchlines or clips from Radio 4 where the phrasing matches the music. I played a gig in Croatia a few years ago which really went hard at the end, but I started it with an interview with Giles Coren about how to properly load a dishwasher!”
Doris accompanied her husband to a dance music festival in Detroit recently. She deliberately booked a hotel within walking distance from a new pickleball club. After going from an after-party from 1am to noon then did an open play from 1-4pm at the pickleball club. “I had a lot of fun!” she says. “We ordered some omelettes at the after-party at about 8am so that was a big help.”
She’s now trying to cut down on this kind of caper to keep her paddle skills sharp during competition. At the end of last year, Mixmag reported that she was taking an “indefinite break” from DJing to focus on pickleball. However, she combined both passions by DJing at the Premier Pickleball League’s inaugural season finale in between providing match commentary for the livestream.
She says: “Last summer, I wanted to see if I could combine DJing and playing pickleball in the same weekend, but that lasted for about three or four months. I realised I can’t be monkeying around like that if I want to take my pickleball to a serious level. I need to find time to sleep.”
