Thursday, June 18, 2026 (Court Day #937)

I left work about 6:15 pm. after asking one of my staff to finish closing up. When I got halfway to Scotts Valley, the very light mist on my windshield turned to authentic rain. I figured I would get to Scotts Valley and once there, I’d either continue on, or use the overpass to turn around and head home. As it was, the rain lightened up and stopped as I approached Skypark.

Skypark

The courts were never full tonight. And when I arrived, I had the choice of two different parking spots in the lot. The rain scared a lot of players off.

Mo is back from her European trip with her family—I knew she had been gone since she had shared pictures on Facebook. She was playing with Spencer and Aaron Huang. Jax was probably in that group too. They stuck together like glue.

First Game

I saw Shreyas warming up with a tall, thin young man who I didn’t know. This turned out to be Nick. Not long after I got there and was warming up, Chuck arrived. He joined Nick and we had ourselves a game.

More Games

Once that game was over, I stepped over to the other side of the courts and joined Thad against Matt Babb and Mike O’Brien to up the challenge some. We would end up playing a series of games.

For the next game, Matt and I switched partners.

Honestly, I have no recollection of who won those games.

Play Misty for Me

It started misting again and then turned into like a very light rain. Then it went away for a while and then came back again. We continued to play, though a bit more carefully. It was close in this third game, but Thad and I pulled off a win.

On the moist court, Matt slipped and took a tumble. We paused to make sure he was not injured and that he was ready to finish up the last few points of the game. Matt didn’t appear to have hit his head and he said he was fine. Thad and I wrapped up the win and, given the precipitation that was falling, we decided to stop.

We chatted for a few minutes, and then I looked over and realized the courts were dry enough to play on again. I teamed up with someone—my voice-to-text noted “Serra” but that makes no sense, it was probably Shreyas!—and we played against Thad and Mike then we switched it up and I played with Thad.

The lights clicked off as we were close to wrapping up that last game. Summer solstice is in a few days and we still had enough natural light to finish.

It was nice to see some of the regulars out there tonight.

We all left shortly after 8:30 p.m. and as I drove home, it started to mist once again.

And?

Today was a weird mix of not-so-great shots, which I chalk up to being rusty, but also some nice shots. I did get some compliments after certain rallies.

I earned about half a dozen points off my serves that were not properly returned by my opponents. But I did end up with one of my serves in the net.

My left foot was starting to hurt in that last game. My Plantar fasciitis was acting up. It’s not too bad and I hope it doesn’t get worse. It’s been a couple of weeks now with it.

Friday, June 19, 2026 (No Play)

Last month, a woman was arrested for felony assault during a pickleball game in Florida after she allegedly hit a man repeatedly in the face and head with her paddle. The police said there was a lot of blood involved and there were a number of drops of blood on the court after the incident, so this was not a little thing.
https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/pickleball-player-facing-felony-charges-after-bloody-match-st-augustine-park/WNZWEIUSXNDRBOKPRH56Z266HY/
She pled “not guilty” this week.

The woman was 47-year-old nurse named Michelle Bannister though she gave a fake name, “Aiyanna Lei”… which sounds a whole lot like “Anna Leigh” like in #1 women’s player, Anna Leigh Waters! So funny!

Next Generation Player

This past weekend, at the Boise PPA Challenger, Kelly Goodnow won the women’s doubles title with Carlota Trevino. Kelly, at 14 years and 3 months, became PPA Tour’s youngest gold medallist ever. Back in 2021, Anna Leigh Waters won her first PPA gold at 14 years and 6 months.
Now, to add some context, this was done at a Challenger event, not the main PPA tour with the top pros. When ALW did it five years ago, it was against the top pros and she has been a force ever since. One could argue that competition is harder these days—which is generally true—but I believe it would be a stretch to say that the Challenger pool today is better than the top players were 5 years ago. 15 years ago, very possibly.
https://kellygoodnow.com/
https://ppatour.com/athlete/kelly-goodnow/
https://www.instagram.com/kelly.goodnow/

Great Rally

This is a very good rally from PPA Tour Asia:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZw_jDfTEFz
I kind of wonder if there would have been a speedup sooner with PPA players here in the USA. I mean, there are dink rallies and there are speedups but the ratio seems a bit heavy on dinking, but the sample size is small (1) and I have never stopped to really analyze, so take this with a huge grain of salt!

Another Altercation

More fighting on the court… this time at Poinsettia Park in Carlsbad near San Diego.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZx-MqJxS6T

Aireo Paddle Interview

Matthias Kling, co-founder of Aireo Sports, who lives about an hour from me, is appearing on a podcast that I’d never heard of, This is Pickleball Podcast.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZqJ1KVv71d/
It should be out soon. I’m assuming it’s going through editing first.

Just for kicks, here is Matthias’ personal Instagram account:
https://www.instagram.com/klingmatthias

Number of days on a court: 937
Number of total hours: 3,479
Number of paid coaching hours: 215.5

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