Tuesday, April 22, 2025 (Court Day #793)

My daughter Charlotte sent me this clip that appeared on Instagram, from Dr. Arianna Gianakos talking about how to prevent pickleball injuries:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIv2ro1RyCy
Being that my daughter is studying to be an orthopedic surgeon—though it’s super competitive to get into—and Dr. Gianakos is already orthopedic surgeon and I asked if Charlotte had met her at a conference, but not yet.

Skypark

The morning had been sunny, but the clouds arrived midday and stayed the night, meaning it was overcast when I arrived at Skypark just before 7 p.m.

Games

Gabe and I played against a pair I’d never met, a woman named Stephanie and her guy friend. I overheard her telling her partner that Gabe is good but she didn’t know me. (I chuckled to myself at this point. Gabe is getting to be formidable, but I’m still an even better player.) Midway through the game, after she returned my serve into the net and she said, “Nice serve!” Gabe told her, “He’s a good player.” She replied, “I can tell!” We won 11-0 in a quick game.

Father-Son Pairing

Chayton was there with his dad Kevin and I got into a couple of games with them. I won with Scott as my partner, then won again with Kirby as my partner. I will say, that first game, my second game of the night, was a little rough in terms of my play. After what seemed like a rash of errors, I was thinking I’d play it really safe and return Chayton’s serve to the center of their court. Instead, the ball flew past Chayton’s right shoulder, wide and significantly deep. Well, that didn’t work! I even walked up to the net and told Chayton about my keen plan and the abject failure of that plan!

Last Game

My last game was with Kirby against Matt Babb and David. It was a super fun game with longer rallies and firefights at the net. They pulled ahead 11-10, but even with Kirby not playing his best game, we won 13-11.

With only 8 minutes of lights left, Matt didn’t want to start another game. Me? I would have played whatever I could get, but you need opponents! So, we took down the last two remaining portable nets instead and after saying a brief general goodbye, I was driving away at 8:29 p.m.

New Paddle

I’m still adjusting to this new Aireo Harpy paddle I got a few days ago. It feels like it has just a little bit more power and that takes some adjusting, but I like it.

Wednesday, April 23, 2025 (No Play)

With my new ball machine coming in the next month, I have been on the hunt for a cheap quiet paddle. 

I’ve been poking around online for the last week or so and found that someone was selling a new one on eBay for only $35… a new OWL Sport Silent Storm paddle. I think it’s a model that you’d find in some mass market retailer like Walmart or Target. I’ll have to do some testing when it comes to see how it hits a ball compared with my regular paddle. You don’t want them to be too dissimilar or that would defeat the purpose of drilling with a machine… unless I were to switch completely to the Owl paddle.

Anyway, I ordered the paddle. $39.50 after tax and free shipping. It’s $86.99 on Amazon and $89.00 on the Owl website… though it’s on a number of websites at $39 to $45.

Number of days on a court: 793
Number of total hours: 3,130
Number of paid coaching hours: 129.5

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