Tuesday, August 6, 2024 (Court Day #697)
It was 75°F, sunny and warm as I drove after work to Skypark.
I parked on the street next to the full remote lot and walked in, arriving at courts at 6:45 p.m.
Tonight, it was extremely busy. The waits were long and unless you wanted to wait for a much longer of period of time to match up with better players, you merely signed up and ended up with who you end up with.
Ethan and Cait
Ethan and Caitlin were in a box and I added my name to theirs. Ethan is a 5.0 and Cait is still newer but coming along as a 3.0 level player. Our fourth would be Chuck, an older somewhat regular player at Skypark in the evenings. I don’t know who was playing better, Cait or Chuck. Chuck and I lost.
Ethan the “Bad Player”
I signed up with Ethan and Cait again. The fourth player turned out to be a young man who is home from college. Ethan decided to have a good time and pretended to be a far worse player than he actually is. At a certain point in the game, the young fellow gave Ethan some advice about how to play better. This was hysterical, but we kept quiet. Even when Ethan ripped off his 2-3 awesome shots in the game, my partner was still convinced Ethan needed help with his game. When my team won, Ethan complained aloud about how he can never beat me! So funny!
Things were still super busy when we got up to the dry erase board again and we ended up signing up for a rubber match. For this one, I decided to play left-handed and told Ethan so in advance. He and I both drilled lefty over the tennis net to kill time. Ethan played most but not all of his shots left-handed. He let us win again.
Aside from our inside joke, we were kind to the young fellow.
Dad and Son
My next game was with Alex against Mike D. and his dad whom I’d never met. (I learned that Alex is a local who went to San Lorenzo Valley High School.) Mike’s dad is probably a 3.0. Alex and I beat Mike and his dad 11–2. Aside from three errors in a row—including returning a serve long—I played quite well. Alex too.
Abbreviated Game
I got into a game with Jessie against the man I didn’t know named Ferdinand and a regular, Juliana, who has blonde hair and an accent. (Juliana was someone who I trained as a newbie at Derby Park 2-3 years ago.) Jessie and I were losing 1-4 when the lights clicked off and put an end to our game—it’s getting pretty dark these days at 8:30 p.m.
I took down a temporary net and put away the dry erase board then left Tim F. or someone else to finish closing up. I was ready to simply get home.
Wednesday, August 7, 2024 (No Play)
I’m annoyed. UPA-A, a new governing body for pickleball founded by a for-profit company, has announced they now have their own paddle certification program.
This quote burns me:
“UPA-A is honored to be the first governing body to implement such a comprehensive certification program,” said Jason Aspes, President of UPA-A.
That is nonsense. USA Pickleball has been certifying paddles in a comprehensive manner for decades. Propaganda.
It goes on…
Detailed information about the 2025 UPA-A Professional Certification will be made public in mid-September. Starting in 2025, all professional pickleball players participating in UPA events, including those in the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) and Major League Pickleball (MLP), will be required to use UPA-A certified paddles.
They are continuing to undermine USA Pickleball which has been growing the sport as a non-profit for decades. Now, these millionaires get involved and are trying to take over the sport.
Gym Rat
So, there’s this short video circulating of a guy with a cable attached to the top of his paddle which he connects up to a weight machine. He then sets the machine for the lowest weight and does a 2-3 “drives” with the “weighted” paddle, at which point, he unclips the paddle and walks away. I’m not sure if it’s satire or if the guy was serious… which I guess would be the best satire, right? Dunno.
Classes
I asked Rec if they could change my August Beginner class to an Intermediate class. Lindsay got back to me and said they’d changed it. Done. I emailed out to former Advanced Beginner students to see they are (or are still) interested in signing up for it.
Number of days on a court: 697
Number of total hours: 2,915.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 63.5
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