Thursday, October 16, 2025 (Court Day #862)

Tuesday, there was an afternoon rain. I texted Matt Babb about 5 o’clock and he said he was going to head over in a little bit and check the Skypark courts. He did text a bit later saying the courts were empty. So there was no play two days ago.

Today

Like most days, today was a workday for me. It was 5 or 10 minutes before 7 p.m. when I arrived at Skypark. It was a lighter crowd tonight and I was able to find a spot in the parking lot—a luxury!

Games

Matt Babb and I played several games against Alex and young Jordan. They had already played and I was warming up. Matt and I lost the first two games then won the third.

My defense off of slams is getting better and better. There was one rally that I really wish I could’ve had recorded. There were three low angle slam shots got back over the net and two of them were definitely highlight reel shots. Even Matt commented on them after the rally was done. Alex couldn’t get through my defense so he switched and slammed it at Matt instead and that successfully ended the rally.

I would’ve kept going with the same partners, but Jordan wanted to mix it up and he played with me against Matt and Alex. I think we were both getting tired. We got our clocks cleaned in the first game. It was closer in the second game, but we lost that one as well.

The last game was me playing with Shane—whom I’d seen maybe once or twice before—against Matt Babb and Mauricio. When the lights clicked off, they were leading 5–4.

Friday, October 17, 2025 (No Play)

Pickleball injuries has made the news now then over the last few years, and another article appeared in the New York Times, this time focused on eye injuries:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/health/pickleball-eye-injuries.html

“Dr. Tsui urged players to wear protective eye gear, because hollow, perforated pickleballs meet little air resistance and travel quickly.”

“Newer paddles can send balls speeding up to 60 miles per hour, the study said. Biomechanical analyses have shown that a pickleball traveling 30 miles per hour or more can deform the cornea, retina and vitreous of the eye, exerting enough pressure to dislocate the lens, the study said.”

NPL vs NPL?

So, there are two organizations calling themselves the National Pickleball League. Surprise! One is suing the other:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/gets-national-pickleball-league-federal-103034989.html

This kind of stuff is bound to happen in a rapidly growing sport.

Number of days on a court: 862
Number of total hours: 3,303
Number of paid coaching hours: 175

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