Tuesday, May 6, 2025 (Court Day #799)

Late this afternoon, I got a shipping confirmation email from Franklin Sports that the 100 balls that I had ordered are on their way. That’s good news.

Skypark

It was 61°F and a patchy sky when I pulled into a spot in the dirt just outside the parking lot at 6:30 p.m. after work.

It was a surprisingly light turnout. Francis was on his way out as I was on my way in. He stopped and asked if I had joined the La Madrona Athletic Club. I told him that my wife had but I was not a member since it’d be so rare that I would actually use that facility. I added that the competition is better at Skypark than at La Madrona anyway. I’m assuming that Francis is a member there. He said that they are trying to get better players to show up there.

Games

Kirby and I won 11-2 over lefty Eric and Hispanic Chris. Kirby and I probably should have split up, we were the strongest players.

I got into a game with Marco against Tim Handley and Kirby. Marco and I barely lost the first game 11-13.

In the second game, Marco and I won. It was something like 11-8.

It was a very light crowd tonight. If we did fill up all the courts, it was barely. The Golden State Warriors had a playoff game tonight. As I was in the midst of a game, Tim F. announced that the Warriors were “destroying” their opponents (the Timberwolves) by a score of 21-20. Wait… what? 1 point? That was amusing!

Next

We played a rubber match at Tim H.’s suggestion. This time I made more errors and Marco and I lost that one. But we had some really, really good rallies. At the end of one such long rally, Kirby and I were at the net, and Kirby drove a speedup that was easily going to fly quite long… but I misjudged it and reached up and hit the ball which glanced off my paddle wildly and landed out somewhere. Matt Babb and his group of players had just finished their game and were waiting to pass through to the waiting area. They watched most of the rally and at the end, Matt exclaimed, “Oh, Andrew!” Yep. I blew that one. Out ball.

Tim H. said his toe is hurting that he needed to sit out and be done for the night.

Manda

So we got Manda to join us and he teamed up with Marco against Kirby and myself. That seemed like the most balanced grouping. I thought that we should’ve won the first game, but we didn’t. It was close, but we did lose. Marco hit a speedup from the net at me and the ball ricocheted off the edge of my paddle and into my chin. Ouch.

(We looked over and Tim H. was in a game partnered with a young blonde woman. I guess his toe wasn’t hurting too much!)

We played a rematch and this time Kirby and I won in a fashion that I thought we should’ve won the first game, winning 11–7. We had been winning at 8–3 but then they came back and got within 3 points.

The last game wrapped up right at 8:30 p.m. I helped move the new rolling nets to their spots. (It’s soooo much faster and easier than disassembling and bagging portable nets!) The lights clicked off at 8:33 p.m. as I was in my car.

As I was driving phone at home, I asked my phone about the game score. It said the Warriors were winning 83-68 with 9 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Looking good for the “home” team!

Wednesday, May 7, 2025 (No Play)

Early this morning, I was thinking about the challenges of a ball machine and a small backyard. I was thinking I may want to create a stand that I can roll the machine up onto so it can get the ball over the net when there’s not much space between the machine and the net. It would probably need to be collapsible to keep my wife happy… the yard needs to be presentable once in a blue moon for guests, after all. (Plus she hates anything clutter.)

Jedi Net Battle

I thought this was cool and sent it to Matt and Paul this morning:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJPnkzkBlTY

Weird Paddle

There’s this new paddle that has come out and it’s approved by the USAP. It has an off-angle handle. It’s bizarre. There’s a tiny bit of information about it here:
https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/wild-looking-paddle-granted-approval-by-usa-pickleball

This exact image is shared in handful of news articles, so it seems to be provided by the company.

Hilarious

Here is some great pickleball-inspired relationship advice:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJCBFIYJKPT/

Number of days on a court: 799
Number of total hours: 3,143
Number of paid coaching hours: 135.5

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