Tuesday, November 11, 2025 (Court Day #871)

The Pickleheads email newsletter today included questions about rules and one of the questions was this:

“Before serving in doubles, the server starts with one foot inside the court but behind the baseline extension. The serve lands in. What’s the ruling?”

I found this question to be worded in a very confusing manner.

Their possible answers were:

  • Legal serve
  • Let serve – replay the point
  • Legal if the ball clears the net and lands in the correct box
  • Fault — both feet must be behind the baseline and within the correct sideline boundaries at contact

By rule, on a serve, at the time of ball contact, one foot needs to be on the ground behind the baseline, and the other foot cannot be planted inside the court. (That unplanted foot can be in the air over the court, however.) Also, at the time of contact, neither foot can planted be outside of the imaginary extension of the sideline nor across the imaginary extension of the center line.

To answer this question correctly, one needs more information. It says, “before the serve”, but we would need to know what’s going on at the time of contact. Before the actual serve, at least with regard to the server’s feet, is irrelevant.

Let me quickly address the second suggested answer, that is, “Let serve”. There are no let serves in pickleball. There used to be, but the rule changed about 5 years ago. The only reason a serve would be replayed would be a hindrance (like an errant ball rolling onto the court) or stopping before the serve is returned due to score error. (Once the serve is returned, the rally can’t be stopped for a score discrepancy.)

Biodegradable Balls

A company called Professional Pickleball Partners has come out with a product called a “Compost-A-Ball” that is made out of wheat straw and rice husk polymer and biodegrades in about three months. They claim it can last about 2,000 hits before cracking, which is supposed to beat out most plastic balls.

I can tell you, it won’t last longer than an Onix Pure 2 ball—those things last forever. (They just get kind of “spongy” in terms of performance, which is why they don’t see widespread use these days.)

PPP makes a Rec version and a Pro version of this biodegradable ball. Both aren’t cheap, $16 each, which is about 5 times the cost of a regular ball. If they can bring the cost down, they’ll get a lot more takers.

Komodo Pickleball came out with their own biodegradable ball at least a year ago, the BioBall, though they say that one decomposes in a much longer 3-5 years.

Skypark

I left work at about 6:40 p.m. exhausted. Aside from literally getting about six hours of sleep, working all day, perhaps a little bit of jet lag, and dealing with the tail end of a cold, I have very little energy.

As I got into Scotts Valley in the dark, it was 57°F. I was just thinking last night how we have about six weeks before we get the winter solstice when days start getting longer again. I’m looking forward to that.

The weather report is predicting rain on Sunday, which would interfere with the last weekend of my 4-week classes. I will probably need to bump them a week.

I walked into the courts at 6:52 p.m.

The scene as I arrived to the courts.

There was a new thing, there was a wood paddle rack where we would sometimes hang the white dry-erase board.

Games

There was a group that was waiting for a fourth on the paddle rack and so I didn’t even have time to hang up my backpack before I was asked into a game.

I found myself playing with Brandon. That game started pretty rough, but as the game went on I started dialing things in. We were playing against Mike C. and the younger guy named Shane who I had seen around a few times and seems to be becoming more of a regular.

Mike Cattivera and I played against Matt Babb and a guy named Jerry. We won 11-1, then played again, also winning 11-7.

But then Mike and I lost the next game in a lopsided fashion. Weird.

Interlude

In the middle of that next last game, I spotted Pauly giving Maria a hug. Jerry, the server, was talking to Matt, his partner, and I quickly dashed over to Pauly and Maria and exclaimed, “Where is my hug?” They stopped their embrace and Maria turned to hug me but I gently barged past her and gave Pauly a hug! Pauly and I were cracking up. I turned around and Maria had a hysterical pouting look on her face. She had her arms folded, looking like a five-year-old who was withheld a cookie. It was quite hilarious!

One More

Jerry was about to leave, saying that he had said that he would be home around 7 p.m. and at that moment it was 8:12 p.m. I told him that he was already in trouble, so he might as well stay and play one more game, which he did!

We switched sides and, this time, Mike and I one in a comfortable fashion.

An unusual thing happened in that last game. They drove a ball from midcourt and it caught me in a chicken wing at the kitchen line. The ball bounced off my paddle nearly straight up and landed barely over the net literally on the sideline. Matt made a run at it, but he couldn’t get there in time. The situation was amusing. It was pure luck.

We finished up our last game at 8:25 p.m.

Weather

As I drove home, there was drizzle on my windshield and I had to use my wipers. Rain is coming. Matt Babb mentioned the words, “atmospheric river”… not something out outdoor pickleball player wants to hear!

Ouch!!

Mid-session, I tripped over the mesh divider—the short ball stopper—going out to start a game and it aggravated my already-sore right knee. That really hurt. A lot.

Tempers Flare in Pickleball

This article is a summary of some pickleball disputes that made the widespread news:
https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2025/11/pickleball-disputes-arent-just-rocky-rivers-problem-tensions-over-the-growing-sport-flare-nationwide.html

Thursday, November 13, 2025 (No Play)

So, someone decided to do a prank call pretending to be from DUPR. It sounds like the person getting pranked deserved it!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNdiT-Eut7P

Comedian on Pickleball

Here’s a guy performing stand up about his wife’s reaction to both of them out playing pickleball.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM-3awnSwYk
What’s funny is that in nearly 9 years of me playing pickleball, my wife has never seen me play. Not even once! She’s seen me teach, but not actually play.

Pro Video Analysis

Nice pro doubles match analysis by John Cincola against Ben Johns.

Number of days on a court: 871
Number of total hours: 3,323.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 182

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