Friday, April 3, 2026 (Court Day #921)
This morning, I received one of the myriad of pickleball newsletters that I’m subscribed to. This particular one was from Pickleball Union. A section of the newsletter was discussing cleaning your paddle to help grip pickleballs. What I found amusing was that it referred cleaning off “ball fuzz”. What sport do they think they’re talking about? Tennis? Pickleballs don’t have fuzz, tennis balls have fuzz!
Mike Cattivera had reached out a few days ago asking if I could play this afternoon with a private group. I told him that I’d be meeting with my cousin from Florida but I would join them no later than 5:30 p.m.
Skypark
It was sunny and clear and 77°F when I arrived at 5:15 p.m. It would be Mike, Scotty, Max, and me. Scott was in the middle of a random game and Mike and Max were warming up on an otherwise empty court. It was warm in the sun and hot on the court surface.
Max and Me
Max and I teamed up first. The game stalled at 7-7, with a series of side outs, then we pulled ahead to 10-8, then won 11-8. A good way to start.
We had a rematch. Max and I went ahead 8-3 then went on to win 11-8.
Scott and Me
We rotated partners. Scott and I lost 5-11.
We did better on the rematch, pretty much flipping the score, winning 11-6.
We played one more together, but this time Scott and I lost 9-11 after being up 8-1. A pretty sad letting them go on an 10-1 run.
Ashley—the only face I recognized of the 16 or so other players on the courts—came over and asked if he could rotate in. I told him that we wanted to play one last combination of players, then we’d get him in. Mike and I hadn’t played together yet.
Mike and Me
Not a shocker, Mike and I won 11-2. (Mike and I are the strongest players.)
At this point, Max opted to hit the road and leave space for Ashley.
Ashley In
Mike and I won 11-9 against Scott and Ashley. I was trying to hit a bit more to Ashley, who was the stronger of our two opponents.
Mike and I won again 13-11. I was continuing to try to hit more to Ashley.
We mixed things up and Ashley and I won 11-8. We really should have done better.
Scott and I lost 3-11, then we lost again 0-11. Ouch.
Done
It was 8:37 p.m. and—while the lights would be on for another hour since it was a Friday—we called it a night. I would’ve continued to play even though I was tired, but Ashley was done.
I felt that I played reasonably well. Not stellar, but not bad either. I didn’t make more than about half a dozen errors in that entire last game, including returns that should’ve been deeper. One of those errors, I was going for a shallow crosscourt winner but I slammed it into the net. I was kicking myself for that one.
Saturday, April 4, 2026 (No Play)
A notification from my DUPR app popped up on my phone telling me about the “no risk” DUPR reset going on. I already knew about it. And, well, there is risk, you could be out whatever fee they are charging and still not have any changed your rating for the better!
Just for kicks, I went to the app. I tapped on the “players” icon at the bottom of the screen, and it displayed a list of players in the my area. It showed the ratings for the players that have one, others show “NR” (not rated). I had to laugh at some of them for being so wildly inaccurate. For instance, Mark G. shows a rating of 2.6. Mark is actually in the 3.5 range. There’s a local woman who was showing a rating of 3.8, and there is no way that is correct, she’s definitely in the 3.0 range.
One problem occurs when you do DUPR games only with players that are approximately your own age and gender and/or within the same group of players. You can end up overrated.
Another problem is that if you always play with players that are a lower skill level than you, then it can be hard to move up.
Number of days on a court: 921
Number of total hours: 3,438.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5
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