Month: April 2025 (Page 1 of 4)

Tuesday, April 29, 2025 (Court Day #796)

I was going to try playing with the new cheapo Owl quiet paddle tonight but unfortunately I left it on my dining room table. What I’m really hoping is to get Spencer to play with it for a game so he can compare its performance against his more expensive Owl paddle… but, obviously, that will not be tonight!

It was really nice sunny day today and it was still in the low 60s when I made my way Scotts Valley.

For whatever reason, Tuesday nights at Skypark tends to be busier than Thursday nights.

I walked in and was ready to play by 6:37 p.m.

Games

Aaron B. and I played against Matt Babb and Kirby. Oh my goodness, I was not warmed up. We lost 2-11. There was a highlight though. We had a very long rally. I think it was the longest rally of my life. Unfortunately, on a ball that was just a bit too low, I drove it into the net. My bad.

We had a rematch, but this time, it was a rull reversal and we won 11-2.

We went on to play two more games with the same partners, but for these, Aaron and I lost 9-11 and then 5-11.

At this point, Aaron had to leave so it was the end of our series of games.

New Games

For the next game, Matt and I paired up against Brendan Zimmer and Pauly. Matt and I won that game 11–2.

With 15 minutes of light left, we had time to play just one more game. We switched sides and played again. This time is much closer to the game and when the lights clicked off after 8:30 p.m., the score was tied at 10-10.

I was starting to drag a little bit by that last game.

Owl Paddle and Spencer

On the way to our cars, I told Spencer that I bought an Owl silent paddle for 39 bucks. I told him that I was pretty sure that it’s the mass market version that you would typically find it in Walmart or something. I shared him my plan of having him try it and he said he was actually quite Interested in comparing the two paddles. When I told him the paddle seem a little heavier at 8.8 ounces, he was a bit surprised and Mo also chimed in saying, “Oh, that is heavy.”

Pros Warm-up

This was a unique and valuable video. It the entire warm-up routine of Anna Leigh Waters and mixed doubles partner Ben Johns warming up. Considering they are the #1 pairing in the world, it’s hard to argue with their routine.

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Wednesday, April 30, 2025 (No Play)

Andre Agassi had his first appearance in pro pickleball today at the U.S. Open. He turned 55 yesterday and for his birthday present, he got a win partnering with #1 women’s player Anna Leigh Waters.

https://www.reuters.com/sports/andre-agassi-wins-debut-us-open-pickleball-championships-2025-04-30

They beat a couple of young teens, Stevie Petropouleas (13) and Tristan Dussault (16). Afterward, Agassi was funny, saying, “Coming out here with Anna Leigh, I was more nervous than a gypsy with a mortgage.”

Number of days on a court: 796
Number of total hours: 3,136
Number of paid coaching hours: 132.5

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.

Sunday, April 27, 2025 (Court Day #795)

It rained overnight and there were wet patches on the ground. As a result, a “Delay until 10” notice was sent out to members about organized club play at Derby Park… though I wasn’t headed there, I was headed to Brommer.

My grand scheme was to be out playing by 8:30 a.m., but I’d been awake for about an hour in the middle of the night and I was moving rather slowly. I got ready then grabbed an old towel out of the garage to help dry the courts, in case that was necessary.

By 9:15 a.m., I was in my car. As I drove, little sprinkles appeared on my windshield and I wondered if it was going to turn into full-fledged rain? Was it going to make the courts slippery than they already are? Is it going to scare other players away? It was not an ideal situation.

As I drove, sprinkles turned into solid rain. Ugh. But I was undeterred and continued on my way. Within minutes, it returned to light sprinkles then nothing. My fingers were crossed.

Brommer Park

It was 54° when I arrived in Brommer at 9:24 a.m., a reasonable morning temperature. Fortunately, the courts were just dry enough to play.

I played with glasses Nick versus Laura and Dean. We lost the first game by a wide margin. It was my first game of the day, after all, but still embarrassing. It was bad. I will say that I went in with no warm-up, but still I missed shots that I would’ve expected myself to make.

But then Nick and I won the rematch by a wide margin.

Then we came back to win the third game. 

We were playing one more game with myself and Nick versus Laura and Dean when it started to rain enough to make Dean uncomfortable moving around on the wet court. The court was slippery. We abandoned the game at 3-3.

Being optimist, I started dinking and warming up with Chayton across the net for me while Jon Barlow‘s son Ryan warmed up across from Nick. This is when it started coming a bit more and everyone left with the exception of six of us. Chayton said he was going to go home and play with his dog. We started doing a rotating kitchen game with Ryan, Nick, a man named John and myself. Kim joined in too.

Around 10:30 a.m., it was time to call it a wrap. Too wet.

Stray Paddle

I was out walking the dogs with my wife when we passed the 7-11 near our house. I saw something I’d never seen before. An abandoned random pickleball paddle on the ground outside the business. It appeared to have been chewed on by an animal. So odd!

Pickleball Reprised

After I finish teaching around 4:30 p.m., I was on my way out of the Skypark neighborhood when my brother John called hoping to hang out and do some pickleballing. My wife had her book group dinner tonight, so is there was no pressure to be home other than the take care of the dogs with her gone. I turned around and headed back to the courts.

I ran into René Baker in the parking lot just before 5 p.m., I rolled down the window and asked her what she was doing there. She, in turn, asked me what I was doing there! Then she explained that she was training with her minor league MLP team, Spencer, Chloe, and Jax.

Spencer wasn’t there yet and Jax was getting stuff from his car. I warmed up with Chloe for a few minutes. My brother John had shown up so Chloe excused me and I slid over and started to drill with John. We did dinking then we did serving and then a young couple named John and Gabi asked if we wanted to play a game. We agreed.

We played three games with them and they won two of them. I made 4-5 mistakes over the three games—mostly being lazy or underestimating my opponents—and brother John got credit for the rest of the errors. They were not hiding the fact that they were avoiding hitting to me. 

Pros

An interesting turn of events, Anna Lee Waters will be playing with tennis great Andre Agassi at the U.S. Open. Yes, that’s the U.S. Open of pickleball.

Due to contract restrictions, ALW is the only PPA player allowed to play in the U.S. Open. The UPA—the umbrella company for the PPA—sees the U.S. Open as a competing tournament and keeps signed players from participating… except Anna Leigh Waters.

Regardless, it’s fun to see a very famous tennis player—even retired—out playing a pickleball tournament.

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Monday, April 28, 2025 (No Play)

The Owl paddle I ordered on eBay arrived today in the mail. Quick observations. Short handle. (Which is fine by me as I don’t typically do two-handed shots.) It feels rather top heavy and the paperwork states that the manufactured paddle weight averages 8.8 ounces. That makes sense, that is a bit heavy.

Uh, oh. Pro Fight

Teenagers, Anna Leigh Waters and Hayden Patriquin, had a profane verbal altercation at an MLP event yesterday:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/thekitchenPB/permalink/2114149929099375/
Here’s the uncensored—don’t watch around kids!—bad language version from a different angle:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI-WJQNpXoa/

And more about it…
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI-SCkbpuYI/

Agassi Pickleball

Andre Agassi gives his take on pickleball in this interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOao4HS0wpg

Number of days on a court: 795
Number of total hours: 3,134
Number of paid coaching hours: 132.5

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.

Thursday, April 24, 2025 (Court Day #794)

I left work fairly quickly and arrived at Skypark at 6:40 p.m. The parking lot was full, but there were quite a number of empty neighborhood parking spots usually inhabited by pickleball players. When I walked into the courts, surprisingly, there were three empty courts. That’s unusual. The Golden State Warriors were playing the Houston Rockets in the NBA playoffs, so maybe that affected attendance.

While the quantity of players was low, the quality was quite good. While my first game wasn’t the best, the rest of the games for the evening were strong.

First Game

The first game was stocky Chris and myself both sporting the Kitchen Blockers protective glasses that made us both look like Batman. We played against Jax and Matt Babb. This is my first game and I did not play my best, but I did still outplay my partner. We got clobbered in the game.

Jax

Jax and I played a game against Spencer and a man named Josh who lives in Aptos. Spencer said that he had been trying to get Josh to come for a while and wanted to play with him.

Jax and I found ourselves down by a significant margin. It was something like 3-7. But ultimately, we tied the game back up at 9-9, however, they did end up scoring the remaining two points and beat us. Spencer is applying some amazing topspin to his shots. It’s impressive. I would like to play more against him. He’s a good challenge. Josh is a good player, but is missing some key strategies, like closing up the middle of the court by positioning tighter with his partner.

I played a game with tall lefty Brenden Zimmer against Jax and Mauricio, that was a pretty close game. (I don’t recall who won.)

The last game was Jax myself against Mauricio and Spencer. We were ahead by two points when the lights clicked out.

Lawsuit

I found out today that USA Pickleball filed a countersuit against paddle maker Joola. Joola had filed a $200 million lawsuit last June against USA Pickleball over the delisting of Joola’s new paddle… after Joola made some changes to the paddle design from the samples that were submitted for certification testing. (Oops.) I hadn’t heard anything about the lawsuit in the last six months and I was recently wondering if it had been dropped or settled quietly.
https://www.timesnownews.com/sports/pickleball/usa-pickleball-hits-joola-with-200m-countersuit-over-gen3-paddle-approval-abuse-article-151489563/amp

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Saturday, April 26, 2025 (No Play)

New fancy rolling nets were finally installed at Skypark this morning. Club president Mark Dettle emailed out some photos to the head of Scotts Valley Parks & Rec and the SCPC board… and since I’m the club VP, I got them.

Pickleball Death

A 54-year-old man died in Vietnam while playing pickleball. While he appeared to be in reasonable physical shape, he had a heart condition that could lead to cardiac arrest with strenuous physical activity. Contrary to what some tennis players will tell you, pickleball can be strenuous, as was the case in this instance.
https://news.tuoitre.vn/vietnamese-man-dies-after-collapsing-during-pickleball-game-103250424171142659.htm

It’s good heed the advice of the doctor there quoted in the article:

“Dr. Pham Huu Da, head of the hospital’s cardiology department, advised the public to exercise in ways appropriate to their health and fitness levels.”

Number of days on a court: 794
Number of total hours: 3,132
Number of paid coaching hours: 129.5

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.