Sunday, January 25, 2026 (Court Day #894)

I arrived at Brommer Park at 9:56 a.m. It was cold, 50°F, and overcast.

Aside from the first game of the day, the games are pretty strong with me playing with other 4.0 level players.

I was happy with my play today, although I did hit a number of service returns out. I need to work on returning serves that are low to my outstretched backhand. That continues to be an inconsistent shot for me.

Luke

There was a guy named Luke who came today. I’d guess that he is in his late 20s. Tall, thin, brown hair and sporting a mustache. He said he’d come a couple of times previously. He said moved to the Los Gatos area from Wisconsin for work and that his parents got him into playing pickleball after he previously played a lot of tennis. Luke has a lot of good slice and can drive shots very well. He does have more work to do on his consistency and soft game.

The courts barely filled up today and I rolled from game to game to game with very little break in between.

Typti

So, I heard about this last year, but it’s now starting to get some buzz. There’s a new sport called typti:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DT54V_zkuqf

To quote the social media post:
“Steve Bellamy, founder of the Tennis Channel, is launching a new racket sport, called typti. The entrepreneur has about 80 investors for his new company, including actors Kyle MacLachlan and Chris Pine, director JJ Abrams and comedian Tiffany Haddish.”

It’s basically tennis with mini tennis rackets and a foam ball. It’s played on a pickleball court—surprise!—and it has an odd aspect . . . if you hit the ball into the net, you can still hit it over with a second hit as long as you hit it with something other than your racket… shoe, hand, whatever. Oooohh-kay…

Honestly, I’m annoyed by typti. It smells of greed. People looking to get rich have seen the growth of pickleball and are disappointed that they missed the boat and can’t “get in early” on the sport. Instead, they start their own sport and get in early! Plus—a bonus—you can steal back courts from those annoying pickleball players who took over the tennis courts!

I will say, an advantage of this newly-invented sport is the fact that they use quiet balls. We are currently stuck with noisy paddles and balls. USA Pickleball launched their initiative to develop a quieter version of the sport, but so far, there has only been minor progress.


Monday, January 26, 2026 (No Play)

An Australian sports commentator took a nasty looking spill while trying out pickleball live on the air. I’m not sure how this became news, but here you have it:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-15495487/Tony-Jones-Channel-Nine-fall-TV-Australian-Open-2026.html

The comments below the story are very harsh! Woah.

“Old fat bloke falls over and doesn’t hurt himself in the slightest; more at eleven.”

“Couldn’t happen to a better slob. Dreadful commentator is way past his use-by date.”

Instagram Post Removal Update

So, I mentioned on January 24 that Instagram removed my joke shared on a Third Shot Sports post. I appealed the removal, explaining that it was a joke. No dice. Denied.

Well, at least I thought it was funny!

Number of days on a court: 894
Number of total hours: 3,372
Number of paid coaching hours: 194.5

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