Month: September 2025 (Page 3 of 3)

Monday, September 8, 2025 (Court Day #849)

Today, once again, is our monthly pickleball club board meeting. I verified that staffing at work would be good, so I took the morning off to play. Truth be told, if I didn’t take the morning off, I’d only be working about 90 minutes before I would need to leave anyway.

I had a leisurely morning and after walking the dog, I was on the road by 9:20 a.m. under cloudy skies. Our home’s front deck was wet and it was almost threatening to drizzle this morning. Still, the temperature is good, 63°F. 

Brommer Park

I arrived at 9:30 a.m. to find a relatively light crowd at Brommer.

A pleasant surprise, OG early Santa Cruz pickleball adopter Terry Long was there playing in a game with Leslie and Dean, their fourth player was is a much newer addition to the pickleball scene—well after I started. I was hoping to get into a game with Terry, but the closest I got was a smile and a handshake as they shifted over to the open next court and leaving space for my group’s new game. Terry spends half the year in Arizona with his wife Karen and come back when it gets too hot to play there.

Josh and Trevor beat Jackie and me 11-8. The loss was mostly on me in that one. I was hitting outballs and popping up shots. 

We played a rematch and we lost 1-11. Jackie wasn’t carrying me in this one and making her own share of errors. Not my finest moment.

Trevor and I won 11-7 versus Cary and a guy named Dan.

Did I only play three games in 2 1/2 hours? Probably not, but there was nothing of great note.

Board Meeting

We started our board meeting sometime around 12:15 p.m. and ended at 1:58 p.m. The nice thing about moving into the VP position is not having to take meeting minutes anymore. It has been a pleasant change.

More Games

I was going to leave to go home and shower and then get to work, when Mark Dettle asked me if I was going to play a little bit more. Of course, how could I say no?

Sean McElhaney and I played a game against Mark Dettle and a tall woman named Kristin that I had not met before. Kristin said that she is leaving town for a three week trip to Africa. I was jealous for two reasons. One, with a three-week break from work, and, secondly, Africa is a continent that I have yet to visit and would like to go see someday.

Sean and I found ourselves down in the game, but came back to win. Kristin is a solid player, easily a 3.5.

I was feeling pretty beat. It was warm and muggy, and while it was only in the low 70s, it was sunny with no shade.

Sean and Kristin had to leave so Mark and I teamed up against Jackie and Ken. 

Ken stepped out and Tony took his place. We found ourselves down but we came back and won 13–11. Ken paid me a nice compliment about my play.

It was just about 3 o’clock, time for me to head home and put in at least some hours at work today.

And?

I wasn’t thrilled with my play. We’ll just forget today happened and move on.

Number of days on a court: 849
Number of total hours: 3,276.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 161.5

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

Saturday, September 6, 2025 (Court Day #848)

This weekend, my dad wanted me to drive him, my mom, and my younger brother Matt, up to my dad’s 65th high school reunion up in Yreka, near the California-Oregon border.

Yesterday, on the long drive, I reached out to a couple of players local to the Yreka area, Snow and also Ken. I had interacted with them a few years ago when my dad opted to go to a previous reunion. Snow got back to me pretty quickly and said there’d be play in Montague—about 10 minutes east of Yreka—at 9 a.m. I asked if anyone shows up at earlier and she said sometimes people are there half an hour earlier.

When we got to the motel last night, there were contract firefighters hanging out all over the place… the parking lot, the stairs, outside of open doors, near their rigs parked in the lot. You could smell the smoke in the air. It wasn’t clear how close the wildfire was, but it was far enough away to not be dangerous.

Today

This morning, as I drove to Montague from the motel, I was wondering if the hazy smoke would be a problem playing, but that turned out to be a non-issue.

I arrived at the courts behind the Montague city hall at 8:30am. I took a stab at where to park, then navigated my way through a gate and into the courts.

I walked up and introduced myself to a group who were sitting in portable chairs. They said Snow wasn’t there but her partner John was, playing in a game.

Pretty soon, I was into a game myself with Jeff as my partner against Larry and Judy.

Larry stepped out after that game and he was replaced by Jerry. Jerry was the strongest player that I faced today. I’d place him as a high 3.0 level player.

Snow arrived about half an hour later.

I cycled through a few games, including meeting another guy named Jeff, and then people started leaving.

With only three of us left, I played a few games against Snow and John with me covering the entirety of one side of the net by myself. I won. Then won again.

After we finished at 11 a.m., we sat and chatted for another 15 minutes or so. Snow said there is a really good player in Montague who was not there today, unfortunately.

Snow wanted to get on with her day, so the three of us when our separate ways.

Reunion

I got back to the motel and got my parents to my dad’s reunion luncheon at noon.

When I picked up my first parents a little after 4pm, they were talking to “Sis” and “Mimi”. It turns out Mimi plays tennis twice a week and also plays “pickle for fun”. She says she gets mad if she loses at tennis, but not if she loses in pickleball. I rattled off a bunch of names of players from this morning, and Mimi was familiar with them. 

Pickleball Strategy

One question that many—including me—wonder about is when winning the toss at the beginning of a tournament match, is “serve or side?”. Here is a good article—backed with data—discussing this topic:
https://pickleballunion.com/pickleball-serve-order-strategy/

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Sunday, September 7, 2025 (No Play)

Today was the 6+ hour drive back to Santa Cruz from Yreka. I won’t miss the smoke permeating the air. And while the Montague people were very friendly, it’ll be nice to be back to stronger competition.

Someone shared a photo of continuing resurfacing work on the Skypark courts. The contractor has been working on it for nearly three weeks now.

I spent part of the evening watching the Raiders beat the Patriots in the first game of the regular NFL season.

Number of days on a court: 848
Number of total hours: 3,273
Number of paid coaching hours: 161.5

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

Labor Day, Monday, September 1, 2025 (Court Day #847)

I was thinking that it was going to be a warm day again today, but not nearly as hot as yesterday. As I was driving to Brommer a few minutes after 11 a.m., there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was 75°. So, yeah, warm.

I was in no mad rush to get to the park given that today is a holiday and it would also be a club day at Brommer. While I was kind of hoping that the heat would maybe keep a few players away, I still anticipated being extremely busy.

René happened to text saying that she’d be coming around 12:30 p.m.

Brommer

And it was busy. During the hour club play, I played three games, mostly with 3.0 and 3.5 level players.

Once noon rolled around organized club play ended and, as typical, waiting moved outside the courts to along the wall inside the courts.

Post-Club Play

I checked the time. At 12:20 p.m., I patiently sat on the wall waiting for a game of Mark Dettle, Hugh, Anthony and René to end.

After their game, Mark stepped out and let me take his place. René and I lost a close game to Hugh and Anthony. That loss was mostly to my errors.

The courts were full, so it was a sit and wait scenario.

René slipped off to a desirable game somewhere else and so Hugh and I played together and beat Art and Marin 11-3.

In a stronger all-around game, lefty Aaron B. and I won 11-5 vs René and Evan. 

Then we lost 12-14 on rematch. Like my game with René, it was more on me than Aaron. 

Then Evan and I won 11-5 vs. René and Aaron. René played in a tournament yesterday and was a bit tuned out. 

Last Game

Casey and the younger Jordan were playing against bearded Aaron and another guy with blond hair who I don’t know but I think his name might be Chris. I waited for that whole game to finish to get into a game because the foursome on another court rolled right into a rematch without come off the courts and checking to see if anyone—like me—was waiting. 

When their game ended, I asked if I could get in one more game before leaving, and Jordan agreed that was fair.

I ended up playing with stocky, tan, tattooed, bearded Aaron as my partner against young Jordan and Casey. Initially, we were up 4-1, then we were up 6-3 but unfortunately They came back in won 11–8. Still, it was a respectable game.

Casey and Jordon were formidable, as you’d expect. I made errors. Aaron made errors, including missing several serves. I felt I played decently well, but there were shots I wanted back, of course. It was a great, challenging game. 

I had my “shot of the day” in that game. From the net, Casey drove a low shot to near our baseline. I was on the left. I stretched out low and hit a beautiful shot that passed low over the net in front of Casey.

I was done about 3:15 p.m. I’d been there for four hours. 

Pro Upset

So, it’s no secret that Anna Leigh Waters has been a force in women’s pickleball for several years now, regardless of her partners. She’s consistently dominates and expected to win every time. This is what makes any loss by her an upset. The surprise this weekend was ALW and her current partner Anna Bright losing to Tyra Black and Jorja (pronounced “Georgia”) Johnson. AFW and AB had a long win streak of 45-0 going into this match!

Here’s a video by Zane Navratil breaking down the match and to save you some time, I’m dropping you midway into the video where he starts talking about it. (He discusses other matches earlier in the video.)

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Monday, September 2, 2025 (No Play)

Now, it’s the turn for another body part to give me trouble. While my left hip appears to be back to normal, now my right ankle is bothering me. It doesn’t ache, it only mildly hurts when I move it. The pain is on the outside of my ankle underneath my ankle bone.

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Wednesday, September 3, 2025 (No Play)

Andy Roddick compares pickleball to tricycles:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DN1B3KwYrsf/
Really, Andy? Is that nice?

Pickleball Growth Slowing Down?

According to according to SFIA (the Sports & Fitness Industry Association):

Pickleball remains the fastest-growing sport, though early indicators suggest its explosive growth may be slowing. After a remarkable 45% increase in 2024, the projected growth rate for 2024-2025 is 14.7%, potentially signaling a new phase of stabilization for the sport.

You can read more here:
https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/report-is-u-s-pickleball-participation-leveling-off/

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Thursday, September 4, 2025 (No Play)

Rick Arnold had shared a link on the local Facebook group for a free paddle being given away by Humana. I entered my name and address, then promptly forgot all about it.

Today, I got a package in the mail. It was the free paddle.

Nothing to write home about, but a paddle is a paddle!

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Friday, September 5, 2025 (No Play)

The problems of rollout courts at the Pro events in Las Vegas this past weekend:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOJaMclkXRq

Frabrizio sent me a direct message via facebook about San Diego closing a street for pickleball, suggesting it for Santa Cruz:
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0p4gPWDKp3gewA6CkwcGe4bX4K8rXg3taQpPZbd8JCCzw412naVB5dgKLcHjTczvBl&id=100064875780454

Here’s a link to their official website:
https://gaslamp.org/news/gaslamp-urban-pickleball

Gaslamp Urban Pickleball is making history as San Diego’s first-ever street-style pickleball event — right in the heart of the Gaslamp Quarter in Downtown San Diego.

From August 21 to September 25, Fifth Avenue transforms every Thursday into a vibrant, open-air San Diego pickleball court, complete with live DJs, a game day market, and Paddle Hour specials at local restaurants and bars.

Whether you’re a local or visiting San Diego, this is one of the most exciting new things to do in Downtown San Diego this summer.

My mother-in-law lives in San Diego. It might be fun to go down and visit her sometimes and participate in some future pickleball event down there.

Number of days on a court: 847
Number of total hours: 3,270.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 161.5

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