Month: July 2025 (Page 5 of 5)

Thursday, July 3, 2025 (Court Day #824)

A few days ago, a post appeared on Reddit…

Now, anyone who knows anything about the rules of pickleball knows that you can’t just modify paddles however you want and consider it legal to play with. Adding what is basically sticky-back sandpaper to a paddle face is soooooo illegal!

Skypark

It was sunny and a toasty 70°F when I arrived at Skypark at 7 p.m. It should be nice for the 4th of July tomorrow.

Games

My first game was signed up with Alec against a couple that seen once or twice before, but don’t really know, Rob and his wife Shay. I don’t remember the results of the first game. I lost second game with Alec. But then we won the last game 11-2. I was getting warmed up, used to our opponents, and Alec and I were starting to gel to each other’s style of play.

I played a series of games with Alec, Ahbi, and a new guy named Eli. Eli makes a lot of newbie mistakes but will occasionally whip out a great shot each game.

We rotated partners, played a few games and by 8:41 p.m., we were done.

Abhi gave me his best cool dude pose:

And?

I’m playing like crap. Lot of shots into the white tape. Returns that sail deep. Hitting out balls. Depressing.

DUPR

I know René has not been happy with her DUPR rating. She’s been posting on social media about a trip that she took to some country in Europe. I knew she was either home or on her way home so I texted her and complained about my dude dropping to 3.3 and how my body now feels that it should play at that level. She said, “No one’s is right.” And I told her that my play was atrocious, she replied with encouragement, “We go thru ups and downs.  Don’t worry too much.”

I know that, of course. But it’s still depressing when you are in the thick of a downturn in play.

Number of days on a court: 824
Number of total hours: 3,213
Number of paid coaching hours: 147.5

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

Tuesday, July 1, 2025 (Court Day #822)

My right knee is continuing to bother me, so brace it is… again and again.

It was sunny and 66°F when I arrived at Skypark after work at 6:45 p.m.

My first game was with a guy named Chris —whom I’d seen maybe once before—against young Ben and another guy named Chris. I had no warm-up and my initial play was pretty miserable, but I dialed it in as a game progressed, playing better and better and we came back to win. 

Not all, but most of the games were decently solid competition tonight.

Oh, my goodness, I am so bad with hitting out balls. I was playing against Ahbi who is notorious for winding up and driving balls into the fence. There are a few times where I reached up and hit a ball right as David L. was howling with the intention of getting me to let it go. There a couple times later when I hit a ball and looked over at David and he’d be making a face. Yes, I hit another out ball.

I felt mixed about my play tonight. I had drop shots into the net. I slammed an opponent’s pop-up into the net. I missed a couple of serves.

We finished up play at 8:47 p.m. since there was still enough light to play after the artificial lights clicked off around 8:30 p.m.

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Wednesday, July 2, 2025 (No Play)

Are dropshots dead?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLLXSbdNj_6

In watching this video, I guess I have some consolation. In the game on Saturday against Alex and Frabrizio, there was a scenario where we had them back and I drove a shot just barely long of the baseline to end the rally in their favor. It happens to the pros too.

Number of days on a court: 823
Number of total hours: 3,211.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 147.5

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