Thursday, November 27, 2025, Thanksgiving (Court Day #876)

The thermometer at my house read 44°F and the one in my car, on the other hand, which have been sitting in the sun, was reading 48°F. Regardless, it was pretty cold! I slipped on a sweatshirt before heading out.

My wife didn’t want me to play too long this morning. We’d be meeting my son’s girlfriend for the first time at our house at about noon. My wife wanted the house to be perfect, plus there was food prep to do for the family Thanksgiving gathering at my brother’s house at 2 p.m. this afternoon.

My right knee continues to be sorer than normal, so I wore my knee brace today. I figured I’d probably do some icing when I got home.

Given that my body is generally sore for some reason—as I mentioned in my Tuesday entry—I figured it would be a good idea if I didn’t have an extended session anyway.

Brommer

I pulled into the parking lot at 8:39 a.m. to find an abnormally large amount of parking… early on a holiday!

Games

It didn’t take too long for me to get into a game. A woman visiting from Reno named Ita (“ee-tah”) asked me to warm up with her. Soon Leslie and Monica joined us and we had a game.

Leslie and I were on one side and Monica and Ita were on the other side. Leslie and I took a huge lead before they even got to serve once. They scored a few points bringing the score to 4–8. From there, we went on to wrap up the game and win. Leslie played really well. 

We mixed it up with me playing with Ita for the second game. She and I won in a solid fashion against Leslie and Monica.

Marco

Marco arrived and he took Monica’s place and he played with Ita against Leslie and myself. I don’t remember much about the game other than I was going out of my way to try to hit to Marco to make the game as challenging as possible. One shot sticks in my mind, only because Leslie mentioned it. There was a rally where we were all at the net and the ball got popped up. Marco slammed it hard down the middle between Leslie and myself. When I saw the ball get popped up, I took one step back then stretched out and did a forehand volley reset, dropping the ball into the kitchen in front of Ita. It was a great defensive shot. The game was close and honestly, I don’t remember who won. Maybe it was us, maybe it was them, but it could’ve gone either way.

Visitor

Marco and I played a game against a local man named Brent, who is a new player, and his son Andrew from San Luis Obispo, who is in town visiting his dad for Thanksgiving. I tried to hit more shots to Andrew, but we even then we won in short order 11–1. I could tell that Andrew was just still warming up. I’m sure he would’ve played better in later games. Brent‘s biggest problem was being in the wrong place on the court and not being properly prepared for the ball, but his serves were good, and his drives were also good.

Cool Game

The game of the day was Oscar and myself against Marco and tall lefty Aaron B. Oscar and I had first service and scored three points.

Service went to their side and they scored one point before the service returned to us.

We added one point and went ahead 4-1, then they scored two more points, bringing it to 4–3.

Oscar and I scored another point taking it to 5–3.

They scored a couple, then we scored a couple. 7–5.

Service was going back and forth, but then we went ahead 8–5.

We scored one and they scored two, so it was 9–7 in our favor.

Then they went on a run of three points, taking the lead for the first time in the game, 10–9. One more point and they would win the game.

There were some back-and-forth, then we tied up at 10–10. We held them on their service and then we scored one more point to bring it to 11–10. Then we scored one more and won 12–10.

More?

Oscar asked if we want to play another, but I asked Marco what time it was, telling him that I would need to leave if it was 10. He said, “It’s 10.” I peered over this outstretched watch—yep, 9:59 a.m. Time to go, unfortunately. It was painful to walk away from a game like that, but duty calls! I actually got into dink battles for the first time that the day. 

It was partly cloudy in 57°F when I left.

And?

How did I feel about my play today? Far better than I did Tuesday night, that’s for sure! Tuesday night was a disaster. Today, I felt like I played decently well.

I felt my right knee during games a little bit. The back of my right hand is hurting a little. The inside of my right elbow is also giving me a little bit of pain but nothing to write home about.

Friday, November 28, 2025 (No Play)

Just for fun, Colin and Ben Johns toying with 5.0 players:
https://youtube.com/shorts/WvinJU9Jr14

Sunday, November 30, 2025 (No Play)

Staying bad at pickleball may be the secret to happiness….
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRr1P8XAHZf

Teaching

I didn’t play any pickleball in the morning, but I had 3 1/2 hours of teaching in the afternoon from 1 p.m. until 4:30 p.m.

I had an odd number of students for my second class so I ended up pairing up with various students for the drills. Once the class ended, the students wanted to stick around and play a game. I left at 4:45.

I got a lot of happy “thank you” for my students. One couple, Jocelyn and Oliver, give me a gift. It was a bag of Vlastic Pickle Balls… dill pickle flavored corn puffs. Vlasis definitely played up the game connection. There’s a photo of an actual pickleball on the back of the package! Anyway, thoughtful. I’ve never tried them before, and I like pickles, so who knows…

New Indoor Facility

New indoor pickleball facility about 2 hours north in an old theater complex in Rohnert Park. Clever and creative, I hope that it will be financially feasible.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRqqWzKii7_

Blast from the Past

Someone posted a 2017 video of Kyle Yates and Ben Johns playing a match against Tyson McGuffin and his partner, Matt Gobel:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DRnLuUWj7SD

I posted my own comment on this video clip:

“I’ve been playing since then. I met Kyle and Ben here in California when Ben was just 19. They were #1 at the time and Ben was quite humble.

Tyson and Morgan Evans were there too. I didn’t talk to Tyson, he scared me! He looked so intense!!”

And it’s true. And I regret not approaching Tyson at the time. I believe he’s much less fierce than he appears! You can read about my meeting with them in this post.

Number of days on a court: 876
Number of total hours: 3,333
Number of paid coaching hours: 185.5

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