Sunday, August 3, 2025 (Court Day #838)
By a few minutes after 8 a.m., I was on my way to Brommer Park. As it is sometimes in the morning, there was a light missing on my windshield under cloudy skies as I drove. It was a cool 59°F.
Knee
My right knee has been bothering me a little bit more in this past week. Yesterday, for example, walking to my car at lunchtime there was slight pain with every step. My elastic knee brace continues to be my companion for pickleball outings lately.
Perhaps I should mention that they finally opened the multimillion dollar pedestrian overpass near Chanticleer Avenue. It seems like a lot of money spent for a bridge I suspect will get very limited use, but I hope that somebody knows more than I do when it comes to justifying that construction cost!
Brommer Park
My first game of the day was horrible. Lefty Daniel and I lost 0-11 against Ed and tall, slim lefty Chris with the gray hair. Every once in a while you have a game that just goes completely haywire. (You just hope games like these are not your only recorded DUPR game over a year or more span… like what happened that last time I lost a 0-11 game!)
The next game was Brian and me against Shawnte and lefty Chris. We leading at one point 8-4. But we lost a close one, 12-14.
My last four or five games of the day were with Matt Babb against Marco and Brian Hackett. Marco was on fire and Brian was playing about the best I’ve seen him play. Matt and I lost every single game. The closest one was the second to last game where we were ahead 8–4 but they came back and won 11–8. Yes, that’s a 7 point run! Not Matt and my best moments.
Matt apologized for his bad play, but it was definitely not just him.I had a few ill-advised speedups. They were too low and ended up in the net. I also had a few drives that hit the white tape or otherwise also ended up in the net.
My last game ended at 11:53 a.m. I had to get home and get ready to teach. I did go and teach for three hours—those were the last in my series of four meetings of these two classes.
Local Team Featured
Locals Mo and Spencer got interviewed as part of a promotion by UTR Sports Pickleball after they participated in a UTR event, probably at The Hub in Campbell. Fun stuff!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM5hR7uxsv5/
Tuesday, August 5, 2025 (No Play)
Ball bounce comparison against the Lifetime ball recently adopted as the official ball of the PPA tour:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM07maBvwMY
Around here, the Franklin X is “go to” ball. I don’t know how much it affects play and or longevity of the ball, but coming off the bounce, the LT ball definitely returns to its original shape far more quickly than the Franklin.
This is hilarious! Pickleball Bouncer guy:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJwW2ubSuYV/
Wow. Amazing rally:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM_tBDtA_ZN/
Sunday, August 10, 2025 (No Play)
A friend of my wife, Julie, has a group of women that she’s been playing pickleball with… Ellis, Leora, Kay, and Kaylee. Julie arranged with me to give a private lesson to the group this afternoon for a couple of hours. We covered a lot of material and they were very pleased at the end. That makes it worth it.
Online Video
This is how I feel sometimes when trying to explain pickleball scoring to my beginner students… though I like to think that I do a better job!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DL-t8VvPdgP
You never know what people are going to ask on Reddit…
Monday, August 11, 2025 (No Play)
Maroon 5 guitarist commenting on why pickleball is more fun:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNI4IbKgW9O
And pickleball is making an appearance in Grand Central Station!
https://youtu.be/EuC_OQ7WbF4
Number of days on a court: 838
Number of total hours: 3,248.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 161.5
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