Sunday, May 3, 2026 (Court Day #929)

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.

Tuesday, May 5, 2026 (No Play)

Here’s a short video about the pickleball market slowing down:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXXd0tuEvUP

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!

Franchise Challenges

The Picklr franchise financials were shared in Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pickleball/s/E3i28RoREt

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!

Saturday, May 9, 2026 (No Play)

You have to love some of the rules questions that get asked online about pickleball:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/thekitchenPB/permalink/2426604844520547/

“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

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