My right arm is continuing to display fairly consistent early stages of tennis elbow. I decided that I would go ahead and play today but only left-handed. To help reinforce that, I didn’t go to Bromer Park but instead I went to club play at Derby Park where the competition is generally not quite as strong.
It was 59°F and overcast but it still felt warm.
Derby Park
I walked up to the courts and signed up for my first game at 10:25 a.m.
Today, as planned, I hit every single shot left-handed. At one point during the morning, a ball rolled onto the court I was playing on, and I picked up the ball and threw it right-handed back to the correct court. The pain in my arm during that throw reinforced the need for me to continue to play entirely left-handed.
This morning was a combination of solid lefty play but also completely inept shots. There were a few shots where I was looking to angle the ball off the court. But I missed maybe half of those today—there were three or four winners but also three or four losers. It’s good practice for me to get out and seriously play lefty now and then.
A young group out playing. Probably UCSC students.
It was fun seeing the westside clan again… Jeff and his brother Scott, JJ, Mark, G., Juls, Ted, Glenn, and others.
I played against and with an Asian woman named Jan. I’d never met her before. Jan has good drives, and I would say she is a solid 3.0 player.
With a smile, JJ complimented me after I won a hands battle against him. I laughed and told him, “You should see me right handed!”
Ken
Last Sunday at Brommer, I met a tall lefty young named Ken. He came up with a smiling and greeted me by name today. We end up playing a game together against Jan and Juls. Ken continues to stay back near the baseline and not come forward to the net, he also tends to the drive too many shots instead of being strategic in his shot selection. But he’s tall, young, and athletic, which goes a long way in pickleball. Still, he’s not going to advance all that far until he starts developing more aspects to his game. He’s a super nice guy and he is fun to play with.
Ken with Sean M. at the left and Leo on a court.
I checked the time on my phone after walking off that last game, 1:01 p.m. I headed home.
Clever Paddle Weights System
Quickly adjustable weights for paddles have become a thing. I thought this paddle with an integrated adjustable system was kind of clever. I don’t know much at all about this Japanese company other than it’s big and has been around for 120 years: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYKtdF4CRxX
Forgetful!
I realized, after dinner, then I completely spaced and left my entire bag of demo paddles at Derby Park hours before. (Crazy!) I immediately headed back to the courts and to my relief the bag was still there.
However, the newest paddle that I need to demonstrate the most was gone. The Aireo Cyclone foam core paddle. I’m definitely bummed. The paddle has a label on with my name and email address. It’s not like it had a tag on it that said “Free, take me.” I posted about the missing paddle in the local pickleball Facebook group. I have a suspicion that if someone was bold enough to take it, they are bold enough to keep it even though it doesn’t belong to them. The paddle does have “Demo” written on it big in silver Sharpie, hopefully, the person may just drop it back off at the courts. Such a bummer. I guess we will see.
Number of days on a court: 930 Number of total hours: 3,463.5 Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
I slept in this morning and when I woke up, there was a text from my wife which said it was raining and pickleball would be questionable. There was also an email in my inbox from the pickleball club saying that play at Derby Park had been delayed for an hour. I figured Brommer Park was likely out of commission also.
By the time I got out of my house around 10:45 a.m., it was overcast but the ground was dry. It was 61° as I made my way to Brommer.
My right knee is acting up and I have very mild tennis elbow going on in my right forearm. To help with the tennis elbow, I added another layer of tape to my paddle grip and my forearm strap will be my friend today.
Brommer Park
I arrived at 11:01 a.m. and the parking lot was about two-thirds full.
OK. Tennis elbow is definitely becoming a thing. I’m not sure what triggered it, but I’m feeling it in my right arm, no question. There was one backhand that I drove hard and I experienced significant pain in my forearm.
Most of my games I got into were reasonably challenging. I will say that after three hours, I was starting to get tired.
Ken
There’s a lefty player who I’ve never seen before named Ken. A little bit over 6 foot with short dark hair. I’m guessing that he’s in his late 30s. He was wearing a tennis T-shirt so I imagine that’s his background. When I asked, he said that he is local, but he usually plays on the westside, no doubt meaning Derby Park. He has a habit of not coming to the net, which is a common tennis practice. Ken was smart—he asked for tips after games. I told him, pickleball players come up, tennis players stay back. He has strong drives, but too many of them either ended up in the net or sailing long.
When I left at 3:07 p.m. after 4 hours of play, it was still a comfortable 66° and mostly cloudy.
What interesting is that when he (Dominyck Bullard) starts to talk, he includes this graph:
I tracked down the source (obviously, the page was somewhere on fact.mr): https://www.factmr.com/report/pickleball-machine-market It breaks down the pickleball machine market and says: “The global pickleball machine market is expected to reach USD 35.3 million by 2035, up from USD 15.2 million in 2025.”
The graph includes a scary downturn. Well, it’s not so scary. It’s the growth. Growth is projected to still be good for pickleball machines—heck, sales expected more than double… though we want to take into account inflation, but that’s still an expected 65%-70% growth over the next 10 years. And their growth downturn doesn’t appear on the graph until 2031, five years into the future… in other words, it merely speculation and could be entirely wrong. The most recent report by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) states that they expect pickleball to continue to grow by a least double digits over the next five years.
The thing is Dominyck goes onto talk nothing about pickleball machines, but pickleball franchises. Judging from what he posts, he posts about a wide variety of sports. I requested his “report” on pickleball, but I got a link to sign up for his newsletter. I did a search on his website for pickleball, but only a lacrosse article came up. From there, I abandoned the cause.
Friday, May 8, 2026 (No Play)
This morning my daughter Charlotte graduated from medical school! Her next stop is five years of orthopedic surgery residency in Southern California.
Yes, I’m the shortest one in my family. My son Nicholas is over 6-foot. My wife Kristen and I nearly exactly the same height, but with her and Charlotte wearing high heels, it makes me look a bit like a shrimp!
We traveled on a very short trip to Las Cruces, New Mexico for the graduation. I didn’t feel like dragging my pickleball gear there and playing in their heat. I’ve done that before!
The opening paragraph tells the tale… “Corporate Income Statements: 2023: $2.09M Net Loss 2024: $7.33M Net Loss 2025: $4.44M Net Loss $13.8M Cumulative Net Loss since inception.“
Here is the report on Wisconsin’s Department of Financial Institutions. The report links to a 265-page PDF going into great detail. In the PDF, it states: “The total investment necessary to begin operation of a single Picklr franchise is $1,252,400 to $2,077,300. This includes $100,000 that must be paid to the franchisor, or its affiliate(s).”
Here is a particularly insightful comment in the Reddit discussion: “WearyDragonfruit3668 The cumulative loss number is concerning but not unusual for franchise-led expansion in a category this young. The bigger red flag in the FDD math is the shareholder deficit – that means the operating company can’t absorb another 12-18 months of corporate losses without a capital raise, and a raise in this environment for a fitness-adjacent franchise is going to be expensive. For franchisees, the key question isn’t the corporate loss number, it’s whether unit-level economics at the franchise location are positive after royalties. If the unit-level UFOC [he means FDD, UFOC is the old term] numbers show franchisees losing money after fees, that’s the actual problem. If franchisees are profitable and corporate is losing money subsidizing growth, that’s a different (more recoverable) situation.”
Regardless, I wouldn’t advise anyone starting a The Picklr franchise without very serious reservations!
“Question. If a paddle goes into the kitchen without the player touching the ball and the ball goes out. Is it a fault or do they get the point?”
Boy. How about writing your question more clearly?
This is my favorite response: “It all depends. Where was the kayak in all this time?”
I kind of wonder if this was asked as a joke. Regardless, in case anyone is wondering, here’s my take, just for you: – It’s the non-volley zone. If you don’t volley (which includes contacting the ball), there’s no fault, regardless of if you, your paddle, or anything you are wearing falls in. – If the person in question or his partner didn’t serve, then they don’t get any points though they will have won the rally. (Players tend to be loosey-goosey with regard to the terms “point” and “rally”… technically, they are not the same time. Rallies may or may not result in points.)
Later Note from July…
I returned to this above discussion in mid-July.
A man had given his answer to the original poster’s question.
Eric Olson This rule was changed in 2025. Previously, if a player dropped their paddle (or anything else attached to their body) into the kitchen while swinging at the ball in an attempt to volley it, it was a fault. This seemed too weird (and too hard for a ref to call), so they changed the definition of a volley to not include anything before contact with the ball. Under the new rule (as of 2025) it is not a fault.
But this is incorrect. So me, wanting peace and better information in the universe, posted my reply:
Andrew Lenz Eric, I’m 99% sure that’s a misinterpretation of this rule change. I’ve been a pickleball rule nerd for the last 10 years and I don’t believe it was ever a fault to be in or drop anything into the NVZ if you never actually contacted (whiffed) the ball. This particular rule change has to do with what happens BEFORE ball contact. For instance, It used to be if you scraped the kitchen with your paddle right before contact with the ball while volleying, it was a fault. Under the revised 2025 wording, it’s not. (The prior rule change for covering this was in 2012 which was a few years before I started playing, so I can’t speak to that.)
To which Eric replied:
Eric Olson Andrew Lenz I think you may be right!
I know.
Number of days on a court: 929 Number of total hours: 3,461 Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
I slept in this morning and when I woke up, there was a text from my wife which said it was raining and pickleball would be questionable. There was also an email in my inbox from the pickleball club saying that play at Derby Park had been delayed for an hour. So I figured Brommer Park was likely out of commission also.
By the time I got out of my house around 10:45 a.m., it was overcast but the ground was dry. It was 61° as I made my way to Brommer.
My right knee is acting up and I have very mild tennis elbow going on in my right forearm. To help with the tennis elbow, I added another layer of tape to my paddle grip and my forearm strap will be my friend today.
Brommer Park
I arrived at 11:01 a.m. and the parking lot was about two-thirds full.
OK. Tennis elbow is definitely becoming a thing. I’m not sure what triggered it, but I’m feeling it in my right arm, no question. There was one backhand that I drove hard and I experienced significant pain in my forearm.
Most of my games I got into were reasonably challenging. I will say that after three hours, I was starting to get tired.
Ken
There’s a lefty player who I’ve never seen before named Ken. A little bit over 6 foot with short dark hair. I’m guessing that he’s in his late 30s. He was wearing a tennis T-shirt so I imagine that’s his background. When I asked, he said that he is local, but he usually plays on the westside, no doubt meaning Derby Park. He has a habit of not coming to the net, which is a common tennis practice. Ken was smart—he asked for tips after games. I told him, pickleball players come up, tennis players stay back. He has strong drives, but too many of them either ended up in the net or sailing long.
When I left Brommer at 3:07 p.m. after 4 hours of play, it was still a comfortable 66° and mostly cloudy.
What interesting is that when he (Dominyck Bullard) starts to talk, he includes this graph:
I tracked down the source (obviously, the page was somewhere on fact.mr): https://www.factmr.com/report/pickleball-machine-market It breaks down the pickleball machine market and says: “The global pickleball machine market is expected to reach USD 35.3 million by 2035, up from USD 15.2 million in 2025.”
The graph includes a scary downturn line. Well, it’s not so scary. It’s the growth. Growth is projected to still be good for pickleball machines—heck, sales are expected to more than double… though we want to take into account inflation, but that’s still an expected 65%-70% adjusted growth over the next 10 years. And their growth downturn doesn’t appear on the graph until 2031, five years into the future… in other words, it merely speculation and could be entirely wrong. The most recent report by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) states that they expect pickleball to continue to grow by a least double digits over the next five years.
The thing is Dominyck goes onto talk nothing about pickleball machines (as mentioned in the graph), but pickleball franchises. Judging from his other social media posts, he comments on a wide variety of sports. I requested his “report” on pickleball, but what I got was an automated response with a link to sign up for his newsletter. I did a search on his website for pickleball, but only a lacrosse article came up. From there, I abandoned the cause. No, I don’t want your newsletter.
Friday, May 8, 2026 (No Play)
This morning my daughter Charlotte graduated from medical school! Her next stop is five years of orthopedic surgery residency in Southern California.
Yes, I’m the shortest one in my family. My son Nicholas is over 6-foot. My wife Kristen and I almost exactly the same height, but with her and Charlotte wearing high heels, it makes me look a bit like a shrimp!
We traveled on a very short trip to Las Cruces, New Mexico for the graduation. I didn’t feel like dragging my pickleball gear there and playing in their heat. I’ve done that before!
The opening paragraph tells the tale… “Corporate Income Statements: 2023: $2.09M Net Loss 2024: $7.33M Net Loss 2025: $4.44M Net Loss $13.8M Cumulative Net Loss since inception.“
Here is the report on Wisconsin’s Department of Financial Institutions. The report links to a 265-page PDF going into great detail. In the PDF, it states: “The total investment necessary to begin operation of a single Picklr franchise is $1,252,400 to $2,077,300. This includes $100,000 that must be paid to the franchisor, or its affiliate(s).”
Here is a particularly insightful comment in the Reddit discussion: “WearyDragonfruit3668 The cumulative loss number is concerning but not unusual for franchise-led expansion in a category this young. The bigger red flag in the FDD math is the shareholder deficit – that means the operating company can’t absorb another 12-18 months of corporate losses without a capital raise, and a raise in this environment for a fitness-adjacent franchise is going to be expensive. For franchisees, the key question isn’t the corporate loss number, it’s whether unit-level economics at the franchise location are positive after royalties. If the unit-level UFOC [he means FDD, UFOC is the old term] numbers show franchisees losing money after fees, that’s the actual problem. If franchisees are profitable and corporate is losing money subsidizing growth, that’s a different (more recoverable) situation.”
Regardless, I wouldn’t advise anyone starting a The Picklr franchise without very serious reservations!
“Question. If a paddle goes into the kitchen without the player touching the ball and the ball goes out. Is it a fault or do they get the point?”
Boy. How about writing your question more clearly? I kind of wonder if this was asked as a joke.
This is my favorite response: “It all depends. Where was the kayak in all this time?”
Regardless, in case anyone is wondering, here’s my take, just for you: – It’s the non-volley zone. If you don’t volley (which includes contacting the ball), there’s no fault, regardless of if you, your paddle, or anything you are wearing falls in. – If the person in question or his partner didn’t serve, then they don’t get any points though they will have won the rally. (Players tend to be loosey-goosey with regard to the terms “point” and “rally”… technically, they are not the same time. Rallies may or may not result in points.)
Later Note from July…
I returned to this above discussion in mid-July.
A man had given his answer to the original poster’s question.
Eric Olson This rule was changed in 2025. Previously, if a player dropped their paddle (or anything else attached to their body) into the kitchen while swinging at the ball in an attempt to volley it, it was a fault. This seemed too weird (and too hard for a ref to call), so they changed the definition of a volley to not include anything before contact with the ball. Under the new rule (as of 2025) it is not a fault.
But this is incorrect. So me, wanting peace and better information in the universe, posted my reply:
Andrew Lenz Eric, I’m 99% sure that’s a misinterpretation of this rule change. I’ve been a pickleball rule nerd for the last 10 years and I don’t believe it was ever a fault to be in or drop anything into the NVZ if you never actually contacted (whiffed) the ball. This particular rule change has to do with what happens BEFORE ball contact. For instance, It used to be if you scraped the kitchen with your paddle right before contact with the ball while volleying, it was a fault. Under the revised 2025 wording, it’s not. (The prior rule change for covering this was in 2012 which was a few years before I started playing, so I can’t speak to that.)
To which Eric replied:
Eric Olson Andrew Lenz I think you may be right!
I know.
Number of days on a court: 929 Number of total hours: 3,461 Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
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