Tuesday, June 10, 2025 (Court Day #813)

When I got to the Skypark neighborhood at 6:50 p.m., I spotted Jordan walking out to his car. I rolled down my passenger window and he said I could take his parking spot because it was super-crowded and he was leaving. He said there were at least 24 people waiting to play. Eight courts, four players each, so 32 players. 32 + 24 = 56. That’s a popular local sport!

Lots of people waiting and discouraged people leaving.

While my wait for the first game was long and the wait for my second game was about half of that, then from there on out it was pretty quick.

Tonight was fun. I left feeling pretty happy about my play, but that was tempered by knowing that I wasn’t playing against the strongest players. It wasn’t a cakewalk, but they were not among the strongest either.

I would say that I was mostly inconsistent tonight. While I had some shots that pros would be proud of, there were also shots that were simply lame. I hit a high ball from near the net and I angled it off the court too wide so we lost that rally. On the flip side, I hit one of those high balls a few minutes earlier to great success, as well as hitting an overhead crosscourt backhand shot which angled the ball off the court to my right also for a winner. In games with Alex against Ahbi and Thad (Mike O’Brien’s friend), I had three forehand rips down the left sideline for winners—two against Ahbi plus one against Thad to wrap up the last game of the night. Thad was kind of funny, Thad was telling me that my last shot crushed his soul!

When the lights clicked off a few minutes after 8:30 p.m., we had enough natural light to continue to play until 8:44 p.m. In about a week and a half, we will have a summer solstice and then the days will, unfortunately, start getting shorter again.

I was expecting the back of my right hand to bother me more than it did. I maybe had a twinge of mild pain once early in the evening, but that was it, thank goodness. It seems to be just a passing thing.

Drilling Fodder

After a game tonight, I was walking back to sign up for my next game when David & Beth Black were leaving. David shared that Christine and me beating them pretty handily last week prompted them to get out and do some drilling work on the court. Ah, that’s why they were out at Skypark on Sunday when I happened to spot them while I was teaching!

Wednesday, June 11, 2025 (No Play)

Here’s a list of paddles made in the USA:
https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/the-complete-list-of-pickleball-brands-making-paddles-in-america

Of the ones on the list where all their paddles are made in the USA, Engage and Paddletek are very well-known. And Players, I know since I have a couple of their paddles, but they don’t get much buzz. Selkirk and Vulcan make “select models” here in the USA—I suspect that is a small subset of their overall lines.

Number of days on a court: 813
Number of total hours: 3,183.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 141.5

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