Month: April 2026 (Page 1 of 3)

Sunday, April 19, 2026 (Court Day #927)

In three days, I’ll be flying to Alaska to join up with my daughter Charlotte who flew up there yesterday. It’ll be a very rare vacation for me, spending a full week visiting my wife’s cousins and her aunt in Anchorage. They have some activities planned for us, but honestly, it’ll be nice just to get away from work and hang out with extended family.

Knee

My right knee has been bugging me, but in a different way. It hasn’t been aching as much, but there is the sensation of it being swollen. It’s a bit weird.

No Rush

Since I’m not teaching classes later today, I took it a bit slow this morning, since I could play as long as I wanted. If I needed to leave at noon to get ready to coach, I probably would’ve sprung out of bed and been at Brommer an hour earlier! Instead, I left my house at 9:17 a.m. It was 61° and hazy.

Brommer Park

I pulled in about 9:30 a.m.

In my first game, Dan Dewey and I won close one against René and Rick, 11-9.

And we also won the rematch 11-1.

We switched things up and I played with Rick this time and we won 11-7.

For the next one, I played with René and we lost 7-11. I made a few mistakes in a row at the end, but otherwise I played reasonably well.

New Partners

Rick and René went off to play with some others, so I teamed up with Kirk against Dan and Tony. We found ourselves down 2-10. Not a huge surprise—I’d pick Dan or Tony over Kirk as a tournament partner. But, a shocker, we came back against Dan and Tony won 12-10. I would have bet money that was not going to happen!

I ended up in a game with Marquis against Tony and Anthony. We won 11-2. Marquis and I were both playing well in that game.

Tony and I played against blonde Taylor and Marquis. To keep it more balanced, I played 4-5 rallies lefthanded. Tony and I weren’t taking that game super seriously. But then they went ahead and Tony and I couldn’t turn it back on and went on to lose 6-11! Oops!

In the next game, Mickey and Tony beat Dan and me 11-6. Mickey played very well.

Alessandro and I beat Dan Dewey and little Linda.

Alessandro and I lost to Chris (the tennis player) and bearded tattooed Aaron 6-11. That was a good and tough back-and-forth game. Chris is very formidable and Aaron is a strong player too. 

Evan and I played against Abhi and Ashley. Perhaps a bit of a surprise, Evan and I had a decisive win.

As the session went on, the wind had picked up and affected some rallies by pushing the ball around.

Leaving… Not!

I drank some water, packed up all my gear and put on my backpack and was about to go when Evan called over and asked if I had one more game in me. At that point, I’ve been there almost 5 hours. I would’ve been expected to be completely exhausted at that point, but I wasn’t. Certainly, I was a little tired and starting to drag just a little bit, but I still had some energy.

Evan and I were up 6-2 against tattooed Aaron and tennis Chris. (Chris’ dad Darrell was around somewhere playing too.) We ended up losing 6-11. Kind of a crazy swing in momentum. They had a comeback, but it wasn’t all at once, they did need to earn it. There were a lot of side outs.

As I was walking out of the courts, I said goodbye to Aaron and Chris. Chris called over, “Nice playing.” I’ll take it. High praise from Chris.

Time to Go

I left at 2:40 p.m. under sunny 63° blue skies, a little over 5 hours after I arrived.

As I was pulling out, I stopped to say hello to Shawnté. Shanté said that he had played a couple of games with Oscar starting at 7:50 a.m. but then he left to get some chores done. Now, he was back. He could take my “spot”!

I was really pleased with my play today. Rally-ending errors were limited. 

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Tuesday, April 21, 2026 (No Play)

A PPA referee called a technical warning for blowing on a ball during a rally:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXYGnLEDRyB
What struck me is a comment on this post by OG Kyle Yates:
“First time I did this in 2014, ref called a fault… I petitioned to USAPA afterwards since there was no rule about it at the time. They ruled it was legal, been doing it ever since”

Seattle Courts

Seattle is considering removing a whole lot of pickleball courts:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXZ0QvoCRXp
“If approved, the plan would reduce Seattle’s pickleball courts from 92 to 56. Seven neighborhoods would lose a combined 36 courts as soon as June. Tennis courts would remain largely intact, with 107 courts preserved.”
Ouch!

Classes

A pleasant surprise, not that there have been very many yet, but I have been receiving emails from Scotts Valley’s new software system notifying me of new signups for my classes. I wasn’t expecting to get any such notices when students sign up, so I am pleased.

Yet Another Invented Sport?

OK, now things are just getting crazy. Yet another racquet sport? Like if padel and tennis had a baby?
https://www.instagram.com/p/DWpuy6cDC64

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Wednesday, April 22, 2026 (No Play)

Today, I flew to Alaska to meet up with my daughter and see relatives—my wife’s Aunt Pat (my mother-in-law’s little sister), cousin Nuri, cousin Krag and his wife Joli. This was my first trip to their state. Charlotte and I are staying at Krag’s house. We got a warm welcome!

Krag’s neighborhood has a communal recreation area which includes a tennis court striped for pickleball too… but Krag said that almost no one ever uses it for tennis anymore, only pickleball. We would have gone out and played but the court was covered with snow!

DUPR

So, DUPR has added some new features:
– Mixed-gender rating
– Age-based rating
– Average partner rating
– Average opponent rating
These are all additional data points. I’m not sure what I think of an “age-based rating”, but as long as they keep the true key DUPR rating, I think that’s fine. I think ratings should age irrelevant. Such as, if I end up being a 3.0 when I turn 75 because I’ve slowed down, that’s the way it goes!

Funny!

What archeologists will find in the far future:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXH10XIRHR1

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 Friday, April 24, 2026 (No Play)

Charlotte and I continued to tromp around Alaska with Aunt Pat today. We took a trip to Seward, then took a boat tour around the coast. Cold, windy, and a little wet but the scenery was breathtaking.

Proton is Back

After initially being banned for non-payment of their sponsorship bill, Proton paddles are back for PPA/UPA play:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXcyE8rCSTp

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Monday, April 27, 2026 (No Play)

Today, Charlotte, Pat, Joli, and I drove out to Anchorage to the Matanuska Glacier. The brochures say it’s the largest glacier accessible by car… though there was a short hike and a snowmobile ride involved! As far as sight-seeing, this was the highlight of the trip! Some of the hiking was a little sketchy, but aside from a few slips here and there, everyone managed fine.

Usurper Rules

The UPA-A, the umbrella organization that oversees one pro tour and a handful of their own amateur events, decided to release their own rulebook. Up until a year or so ago, there was one governing body for pickleball in the USA, the venerable non-profit USA Pickleball which has been around for decades. In a power grab, the UPA created their own “governing body” and they have there own new rule book:
https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/pro-pickleball-rulebook-line-calls-paddle-throws-ball-blowing/
This causes all kinds of confusion for amateur players who think this rulebook applies to them—it doesn’t unless they are playing in a PPA tournament.

Number of days on a court: 927
Number of total hours: 3,455
Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5

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

Wednesday, April 15, 2026 (Court Day #926)

At 6:25 p.m. tonight, my daughter Charlotte called me afterhours at work asking me if I wanted to fill-in for a pickleball game. I was certainly surprised. She and her boyfriend Aidan had arranged for some pickleball with two of their friends, but then Charlotte discovered that her 6 o’clock virtual doctor’s appointment was actually at 7 o’clock so she couldn’t play. I later figured out that they’d been trying to find a fourth player from their pool of friends but were unsuccessful so they settled for me!

I was in initially a bit incredulous about Brommer Park given that it has no lights and sunset would be in about an hour. It wouldn’t give us a lot of time to play… though even after sunset there is still enough light to see for a little while.

I explained over the phone to Charlotte where she could find my pickleball clothing and gear and so Aidan brought all that and met me at work about 10 minutes later. I changed at work then Aidan drove us to the courts.

Brommer

By 7 p.m., we were at Brommer Park. Aidan chatted with his friend Turner as we walked in and Turner‘s fiancé Alissa was smiling and hanging back about 50 feet on a phone call.

When I walked in, Zach and Kirk were playing against Kim and Conner McNicholas. Kim called over to me, “You’re getting here late!“ Yes, sunset was coming quickly.

Aidan started warming up with Alissa and Turner across the net. I grabbed a second ball so I could warm up faster across from Turner. I initially was hitting right handed, but then switched to my left. Turner’s dinks were high and easy to handle.

Games

I teamed up with Aidan for the first game and played lefty. Aidan and I won, but it fairly close.

For the second game, I said I wanted to play with Alissa. I told her that I’d play righty. There was some surprise that I had done the previous game lefty. Turner laughed with realization.

Alissa and I won. I will say I hit a couple of my early shots in the white tape! Oops. (Too much thinking: “Ha, ha, ha! Watch me now with my right hand!”)

Later on, Turner said that today was only his second time playing. He did pretty well for only his second outing.

Turner and I teamed up—I was back to lefty—and we had a big lead when Charlotte arrived. I stepped out and let Charlotte take my place. The game tightened up a bit, but they still wrapped up “our” win. 

Alissa said she was going to run home—literally! So I jumped back in, this time with Charlotte. She’s a natural lefty and I told her I’d be playing lefty too. We won 11-3 but it was getting dark and out opponents were chatting more than really paying attention.

We finished up at 8 p.m.

Pickleball Slam Highlights

Andre Agassi was out playing again in another “Pickleball Slam”. The winner got $1,000,000 for charity. This time Anna Leigh Waters, #1 women’s player, was involved… well, except for in the boys against girls doubles, when she was barely involved. The guys were relentlessly targeting Anna Leigh’s partner Genie Bouchard.

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Thursday, April 16, 2026 (No Play)

Here’s a take by Zane Navratil on the Pickleball Slam results:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXNZ-1xDM5t

Rules Dunces

So dumb. So many wrong comments!!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DR7R22REXhM

“He went into the kitchen before the ball bounced in it” 
1,230 likes!

WRONG!

“Reached over the net”

WRONG!

“Was in the kitchen”
1,191 likes!

WRONG!

People! His foot touched the net and it was past the plane of the net! Everything else is legal!!

Scotts Valley P&R Commission Meeting

I was planning to attend the SV P&R meeting tonight but instead, at 3 p.m., I left work to take my brother Matt and mother to urgent care for evaluation. Matt has pneumonia (X-ray) and my mom has an infection severely affecting her hearing (CT scan). After the diagnosis, it was off to get prescriptions. It was just shy of 8 p.m. when I dropped them back off at my folks’ house.

In the driveway, I logged in online to see if the P&R meeting was still going on. I caught about 10 seconds of one speaker then they closed public comment. I knew then that there would be no point in driving the 10 minutes further from home to get there. I checked in with club president Mark Dettle and he said there was a good turnout of about 50 players. That’s a far cry from the five of us who were at the last meeting! No major decisions were made and the commission opted to further investigate solutions to noise and traffic and parking around the Skypark courts.

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Saturday, April 18, 2026 (No Play)

My wife and I know the owner of the local Bookshop Santa Cruz, Casey. Casey decided to close the shop early this evening and throw herself a milestone birthday party. Of course, I had to check the sport section for pickleball books. I wasn’t disappointed, they did, in fact, have a couple in stock.

One was “Pickleball is Life” by Erin McHugh and the other was “Pickleball for All” by Rachel Simon. I need another pickleball book like I need a hole in my head, but they were fun to see.

And, yes, the party was fun and the food was yummy!

[A quick note. I’m rather behind in getting these posted. I’ve been doing a lot of travel and work has been insane. More coming soon!]

Number of days on a court: 926
Number of total hours: 3,450
Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5

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

Tuesday, April 14, 2026 (Court Day #925)

I could definitely feel my right knee after playing five hours of pickleball yesterday. In fact, as I was trying to go to sleep last night, it was aching some. I was moving the positions of my legs to find the most comfortable spot. Some positions made the aching worse and others made it slightly better. But I was tired enough that I did manage to get to sleep pretty easily.

I may have shared this before, but it’s a good one so here it is just in case. The rule of thirds:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUWIp-JEn49
A third of the time, you feel awesome about your play. A third of the time you feel you are playing ok. A third of the time you ask yourself why you bother to play! That’s normal and it means you are being challenged. It’s good.

Autograph Line!

I have to say, this video is a far cry from pre-pandemic when, at a tournament, I could just walk right up to #1 doubles team Kyle Yates and Ben Johns sitting under a canopy as they waited for their next match and ask them for their autographs. Here’s a video clip of the line to get #1 women’s Anna Leigh Water’s autograph:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXFj7dBEYPO

Skypark

I arrived at Skypark at 6:45 p.m. It was a nice day today and still comfortably in the mid-60s and sunny.

It was busy tonight, but it wasn’t too busy. At most, there were 10 people waiting to get into games.

Young Leo—often seen at Derby—and I won 11-0 versus Abhi and Shreyes. This was my third shutout win at Skypark in the last month or so. It’s nice when it happens against competent players. Sometimes, it’s just momentum. I’ve been on the losing side of shutouts a few times in the last decade of playing.

I was in two games where my partner—whomever that was!—and I lost 11-13 after being up in both 9-4!

Ashley and I put our paddles up and we ended up in a game with a couple of women. One was Blake and I don’t recall the other woman’s name, but I’ve never played with her before. After the game was done, Blake told us that she could tell that we were pulling our punches. I will say they had a handful of very good shots. Some of the mistakes we made were from taking it too easy in the game. I think at one point they were winning 4–2, but Ashley and I went on a long run of points at the end of the game winning 11–5.

When I left it was 55°.

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Wednesday, April 15, 2026 (No Play)

A new massive racquet sport facility—nearly 200,000 sq.ft.!—is opening in Arizona and will feature pickleball and padel. About 50 indoor courts are expected as well as a pro court with spectator seating.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXFdEOcgam9
I hope they did a solid business plan. Indoor does seem like it’d be a bigger drawn in hot (and cold) Arizona, than here in sunny California.

Number of days on a court: 925
Number of total hours: 3,449
Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5

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