Tuesday, July 14, 2026 (Court Day #946)
I left work early to have dinner with my wife. We got home with time for me to still get some play in. I left my house at 6:32 p.m. It was still sunny but thankfully it had cooled down to 70°F after being a rather warm day.
While driving to Scotts Valley, I felt like a whale. I was full of a large hamburger, garlic fries – including some that my wife didn’t finish of hers – as well as a margarita in about 2/3 of a very rich chocolate mousse cake for dessert. I felt inclined to just curl up in a ball and not move, but they’re only so many days I can get out and play pickleball!
Injuries
The plantar fasciitis in my left foot continues to linger, but it seems to be gradually improving. My right shoulder is about 95% back to normal. My right knee, which had the meniscus surgery, continues to be mildly problematic. Enough so that I opted to wear my knee brace tonight. I suspect the knee is trending more towards a replacement than healing on its own.
Pro Upset
A bit of a surprise in the pickleball universe, the women’s doubles match with Anna Leigh Waters on the team lost. No, this was not a normal tournament, this was Major League Pickleball where ALW doesn’t have the luxury of picking her partner. An interesting twist, the team that she lost to included her regular doubles partner Anna Bright. Anna and her partner relentlessly targeted ALW’s partner Jorga. ALW was simply not given opportunities to hit the ball. But this is tournament strategy. It’s cutthroat. There is no mercy. The weaker player is targeted. ALW’s opponents just took this to the limit.
Skypark
Today was fun. Aside from a couple of games, most of the games were pretty challenging.
It wasn’t too crowded. I was able to roll from game to game to game.
Paul Winn and I played a couple of games against lefty Aaron B. and Daniel Borlean. We lost first game and won the second. Aaron wasn’t interested in third game and found some new players to play with.
My first few games were a little rough but my play got better and better.
Matt Babb and I played against Daniel and Chuck. It was Matt’s first game but we still won.
Daniel Borlean and I took on Chuck and short lefty Eric. The first game they came back and made a go of it but we still won. We played it again and this time Daniel and I clobbered them.
Ashley’s Brother
Tonight, Daniel Borlean and I played a couple of games against Ashley and his visiting brother Leslie. Leslie comes from a strong table tennis background. Ashley said that he and Leslie have been drilling pretty much every day this past week. Leslie played really well for having only played for one week. He has a little bit of work to do regarding court positioning, and there was one time when he volleyed while inside the kitchen that his brother called him on, but nonetheless, Leslie did quite well. I would say he was already playing at a 3.5 level. Impressive. Ashley said Leslie is big into sports. Leslie said he also plays basketball and some other sport name that I didn’t recognize or didn’t catch.
Daniel and I won the first game, then we relaxed a bit too much in the second game and lost. We had to do the rubber match which Daniel and I won with, I believe, final score of 11-5 or 11-6.
The lights clicked out mid-game, but there was still enough light to continue to play and we were able to wrap up that last game.
I felt like a sloth on the court tonight, but I played recently well. Reasonably.
Knee
I don’t usually feel my right knee while playing, but tonight there is some movement that tweaked it. By the time I got home, my knee was starting to bother me more.
Wednesday, July 15, 2026 (No Play)
It’s been a few years since my knee has flared up like this. The pain in my right knee was keeping me from falling asleep and woke me up a few times during the night.
Today, I was trying not to limp. Walking hurt. Regardless of my efforts, one of my staff asked if I was limping. In the afternoon, I was turning and my knee felt for an instant like it was going to buckle. Not good!
Electric shock
Last year in August, a pickleball player, Renee Love, down in Chula Vista (near my mother-in-law in San Diego) was rendered unconscious when she bumped into a chain-link fence. An electrician was working on 110-volt light pole wiring and inadvertently connected it to the fence behind the court, essentially making an electric fence. Ow. Love is now suing the City of Chula Vista.
Thursday, July 16, 2026 (No Play)
While my knee is still unusually sore, it was a bit easier to fall asleep last night compared to the night before. It has improved some, but it continues to ache.
Joola Lawsuit
Joola has expanded their lawsuit to include Gearbox:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Da3FP6BMuYI
The poster’s contention is that some of the construction of the Gearbox paddle actually predates Joola’s patent, invalidating at least portions of the patent and, therefore, the lawsuit.
Shopping
While my wife and I were out shopping—well, she was shopping, I was tagging along—we found a pickleball dog bed at Marshall’s.
I was much more interested in it than my wife was, unfortunately. But what was interesting was their choice of words: pickle, dink, kitchen—I get those. But “carry”? What an obscure word to pick! Serve, drop, drive… there are a bunch of other much more common ones!
Friday, July 17, 2026 (No Play)
Brandon, Sean Lynch’s brother, stopped by my work looking for some pens. He said that he’s temporarily back in the area.
USAP Oops
Someone at USA Pickleball made an error with this posting. It’s not very clear. It looks like the gray is supposed to be the kitchen area, which means that all of the balls are legal:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Da6HhEzkrJ4
One could argue that it’s talking a serve, but given that they are claiming that the ball labeled “3” is “in”, they are treating the line between the blue and the gray as a sideline, but it’s confusing. If they removed the perimeter white line in this diagram, it would make more sense. Sloppy.
Saturday, July 18, 2026 (No Play)
Take a good look at this pickleball business sale listing…
Notice anything weird? (Aside from the price!)
Yes, a complete A.I. nonsense image.
Monday, July 20, 2026 (No Play)
That time that ALW almost lost…
Jared of the The Kitchen interviewed Brooke Buckner this month. They talked about her match in 2024 against Anna Leigh Waters where Brooke won the first game 11-4. Brooke was then up 9-4 in the second game and was just two points away from winning the match. But ALW came back, won that game then won the next game 11-5 to win the match. “It ain’t over, ’til it’s over!”
https://www.instagram.com/p/DbCY1dJkWdR
Tuesday, July 21, 2026 (no play)
Millions of people use digital devices to keep track of the number of steps that they take during the course of a day. Someone did an analysis and figured out typical number of steps taken during a hour of pickleball, that is, about 2,700 steps during an hour of doubles:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Da51hikxo-E
My right knee continues to hurt with every step. But it is improving.
The last couple of nights I’ve worn my foot support for plantar fasciitis, I’m starting to think this foot pain may be around for a while.
VAIR
I mentioned this before, but there is a rating system competing with DUPR, a company named VAIR. Their domain, vairified.com, was first registered in March 2024, but I’d only heard about it this year. It got a mention on social media here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DbEOD8bD2LN.
Bizarro Clouds!
Late this afternoon, we had the weirdest clouds that I’d ever seen. These kinds of formations are supremely rare in Santa Cruz.
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 (No Play)
The Dink movie starts streaming in two days.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbElGYKOF8Q
I hope it’s not trash as most—all?—pickleball-themed movies have been.
Another Pickleball Movie
Apparently, there’s a different pickleball movie that no one has heard of that just came out:
https://www.jcfilms.org/movies/pickleball-pete
Here is a review of it and it’s not good!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaeCkq3xDpk
On the Internet Movie Database, this movie has the lowest rating that I have personally seen, 2.6 out of 10.
Oh, it’s free to watch on YouTube… which I will not be doing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrnjQz2h6g0
Recycled Pickleballs
There is a new company, BounceBack Pickle, that is recycling old pickleballs into new pickleballs, a noble effort:
https://www.bouncebackpickle.com
Partners Series
Watched the first episode of Partners, it was worth watching. I’ll eventually watch more of them.
Friday, July 24, 2026 (No Play)
DUPR is feeling the heat from competition—VAIR—which has been using artificial intelligence to analyze gameplay with regard to determining a person’s rating. DUPR has decided to start using A.I. themselves:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DbL4cZpCT-M
The Dink Movie
So, The Dink movie released today. I watched it. It was ok-ish. Not outright awful, but predictable. I will admit there were a couple of spots where I laughed out loud, but those were buried by the overall “get me out of here” feeling. I’d skip it unless you want to be able to talk about it from experience.
Pro player Zane Navratil shared his take (negative) and I couldn’t help but comment on his Instagram post…
Saturday, July 25, 2026 (No Play)
This is interesting one. Legal or not?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbMpbSJJ3hP
Kitchen violation? Momentum?
You can step through the kitchen and if both feel are on the ground prior to hitting the ball, it’s legal. It looks legal—barely legal—to me. A ref might call it a fault though. It’s very hard to see in real time.
A Funny
Maybe I shared already, but it’s hilarious. When you have top pros making really good 5.0 players look silly:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbPNT7xtRHx/
Number of days on a court: 946
Number of total hours: 3,500
Number of paid coaching hours: 221.5
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