Tuesday, July 8, 2025 (Court Day #827)

As I headed after work to Scotts Valley, it was still pleasantly in the mid-60s and sunny.

As I drove, I was musing how bad my play looked on video in that game against Frabrizio and Alex in the mini tournament last Saturday. It was depressing. My goal for tonight is to try to make fewer errors… such as keeping my return of serve in instead of hitting it too long, targeting my opponents’ kitchen line for drops instead of thinking about the white tape of the net—which I seem to have been hitting more frequently lately. Also I need to be more patient in my attacks and not slam any balls into the net. My goal is to play patient and play smart. “Now if I can just keep that in mind and execute it,” was what I was thinking.

I was very anxious to get out to play. I feel like I’ve been playing subpar lately and I feel like I need to get out and redeem myself.

Skypark

Parking was a pain in the rear end. I greedily grabbed a spot from a player who was leaving down the street then I was walking in at 7 p.m.

Games

My first game was playing with Rachel against her sister, Irene, and also Kirby. As with most games with little to no warm-up, it was a little rough for me.

My second game and beyond was paired with Kirby against various opponents.

There are a few times in early games where I was getting frustrated and annoyed with myself. Shots were not going where I wanted them.

Played against Aaron Bartley and his wife. His wife has gotten much better and her drives are a lot to handle. We probably would’ve had an easier time of things that we had managed to get her into the soft game. Kirby and I got clobbered in that first game, and it wasn’t even close.

We had a rematch and this time we won a close game.

We played the third game, which was another close one, but this time they pulled off the win.

The next to last game was against linebacker Mike and the shirtless tattooed guy who serves with his back to the net. I forget his name. He’s been around maybe six months now.

Last game was Kirby myself against Matt and Paul. It was fairly close to start with, but then Kirby and I pulled ahead and continue to extend our lead until the end of the game which was roughly 8:35 p.m.

And?

It was still above 60° when I left Skypark.

I hit two of my serves into the net tonight. Both times I was a little distracted. The first from from shifting courts, the second one from thinking about the previous rally.

I would say most of my errors came from hitting the ball too high and not too low into the net. Too low happened maybe half a dozen times over the course of the evening. Yes, I still returned two or three serves too long, giving my opponents a point.

Wednesday, July 9, 2025 (No Play)

This popped up as a suggested YouTube video. For all the complaints that pickleball gets for its confusing scoring, honestly, it’s nothing compared to tennis. Tennis has a crazy scoring system.

Pickleball score simply counts up 1, 2, 3, 4… for each team and also has a server number, either 1 or 2. It’s pretty easy. It’s still confusing to some at first, but it’s not complicated. Tennis has advantage, 40, deuce, 15, love, 30. It’s only not nutty to some because they are used to it.

Number of days on a court: 827
Number of total hours: 3,222
Number of paid coaching hours: 147.5

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