Tuesday, December 30, 2025 (Court Day #887)
This morning, I woke up with a little bit of a cough, but it doesn’t seem to be anything serious. Pickleball is supposed to be one of the safest sports when it comes to illness transmission, but nonetheless, I used some hand sanitizer before I left work, just in case.
Unless something unusual happens, tonight will be my last pickleball outing of the year 2025.
While we are a week past the winter solstice, it is still—of course—quite dark early in the evening. And it was a nippy 57° as I drove to Scotts Valley.
Teaching
My teaching is supposed to resume with a new series of classes this Sunday, but rain is expected to hit tomorrow and continue for quite some time, including through this weekend. I reached out to Rec.us this afternoon to get an updated list of students since I will need to reach out to them one way or another with regard to this weekend.
Monkey
When I was a kid, on Christmas Eve, my grandfather would play a tune on a tin whistle in time with a battery-operated monkey which would clang miniature cymbals together. And if you happened to whack the monkey on the head, its eyes would budge out and its lips would pull back exposing its teeth and it would screech a few times, then return to clanging the cymbals. When we were cleaning my parents’ house a month or so ago, I rescued the monkey along with its hand-knitted matching Christmas beanie.
I brought the monkey on Christmas Eve this year to the annual gathering at my parents’ house and set it on the mantle during dinner festivities. The next generation thought that the monkey looks nefarious, but to my generation, it brings back fond memories! As I drove along tonight, I could hear the monkey’s cymbals rattling since the toy hadn’t made it out of the back of my car yet.
Skypark
I arrived at Skypark at 6:55 p.m.
My first game was teamed up with lefty Aaron B. against Matt and Paul. That was a fun game. Surprisingly, I started out playing quite well in that game only to get a little more sloppy in the second half. Aaron and I won, regardless, by a few points.
Once the game was done, Aaron said he had to leave, stating that he had been there since 3:30 p.m. Lucky guy, I was knee-deep at work at that time.
Alex, the bird researcher, jumped in and replaced Aaron as my partner.
We lost the first game, won the second, then lost the third. Aside from the first game, which was a lopsided result, the rest of the games were pretty close.
We wrapped our play at 8:28 p.m.
It was 52°F when I left. I kept my sweatshirt on the entire time tonight.
As common with night play with me, I felt that I played below average.
Talking Smack
Pickleball players generally don’t go out of their way to mock tennis players for the sport of their choice. But there sure are tennis players that like to attack pickleball, like this guy:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSvpV5XEso7
Thursday, January 1, 2026 (No Play) – New Years Day
I woke up unquestionably sick today. Congested, fatigued, sick. At least it was wet outside and it was unlikely that I’d get to play anyway.
No Respect
Remember when I said that pickleball players don’t bash tennis players for their sport, but tennis players bash pickleball players? Yeah, here’s another:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRuq3YgDwWP
Friday, January 2, 2026 (No Play)
Anna Bright shared 26 things you can do to get better in pickleball this year. I feel this is worth sharing…
Here’s Part 1:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DS_IBrDDvIw
And Part 2:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTBuNHXjgOc
Sunday, January 4, 2026 (No Play)
I was supposed to start my new round of classes today, but rain prevented it. I notified all my students in advance that we’d be starting classes one week later. I’m still not over the bug I caught, but I was well enough to go into work for a short time yesterday. My voice was a bit weird due to the chest congestion, but I was mostly sequestered in my office anyway.
Dwayne Gingrich
Dwayne is a popular coach on social media who isn’t afraid to counter conventional wisdom. He’s got some confidence too, or he wouldn’t post a video like this of him messing up!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTD5RLGEprC
I commented on it:
This usually happens after I hit some kind of highlight shot. Then this happens. Then you hear the words, “same guy.“
Dwayne replied to my comment with a series of laughing face emojis!
Genie Bouchard
Former tennis pro turned pickleball pro Genie Bouchard was interviewed by Jared of The Kitchen:
Movie Review
So the Lifetime network came out with that Pickleball Christmas movie that aired last month. Well, some guys watched it and shared their comments. I enjoyed this! (It’s not a surprise that they had some critical things to say!)
Monday, January 5, 2026 (No Play)
Social media is abuzz speculating who is going to be the new paddle sponsor for Women’s #1 player Anna Leigh Waters:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTJL9ySkk9C
Pro Tour Shenanigans?
Did I talk about this already? There were several pro players that went overseas and played exhibition games as part of a tournament in Asia. The PPA was not happy about it and voided their contracts saying proper permission was needed to participate in events not under the PPA purview. But there is speculation that the players were dumped because, unlike other players, these particular players had not agreed to the new contract pay structure rolled out after the PPA/MLP merger. They were getting paid more than other players and many see this situation as a good excuse for the PPA to drop them. Some question, for instance, if top players Ben Johns or Anna Lee Waters had done the same thing, would they have been dropped? (Probably not!)
Number of days on a court: 887
Number of total hours: 3,357.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 185.5
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