Month: August 2026

Thursday, August 6, 2026 (Court Day #952)

Over the last few years, there have been a solid number of investors seeking to cash in on the pickleball gold rush. This included building a number of for-profit facilities. But, unfortunately, some of these business plans included highly optimistic expectations for income and, as a result, some of these businesses have already closed. On the flip side, others are now being more cautious. Here’s an article about a South Carolina commercial pickleball project that has been put on hold spending further evaluation of profitability:
https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article316760859.html

PPA News

The PPA has announced that in 2027 there will be 20 pro events held in Europe. So . . . there will be a PPA Europe.

After Work

I was on the road after work heading towards Skypark a little bit before 6:30 p.m. It was cloudy, but sunny and 72°F.

Injuries

My right knee continues to bother me, hurting with nearly every step. The plantar fasciitis that I have been dealing with is mild, it hurt a little bit this morning as I walked around after getting up. Mornings are generally the worst, although sometimes it will flare up after an evening pickleball session.

Skypark

I arrived at the courts at 6:35 p.m.

Sunny—the tall Asian guy with long hair—was there tonight. I hadn’t seen him in months. He and I played together against Paul and Aaron Hicks. Aaron was playing pretty well. I felt that I played ok tonight, but for whatever reason, I was having a hard time, especially with the transition into darkness. I always have a harder time judging the position of the ball when it starts to get dark. (And it’s starting to get darker earlier for sure. I was noticing as I was on the freeway driving home, it was definitely far more dark than it was light at 8:40 p.m.) It does make sense, of course, we’re about seven weeks past the longest day of the year.

I played four games with Sunny as my partner. We won the first game 11-6. Then Aaron and Paul won the second game 11-6. We held a rubber match which was a close one, but Sonny and I win again. Then we squeezed in one last game, which ended just before the lights went off. We won that one as well, but those were close back-and-forth games.

We were done at 8:31 p.m.

And?

It seems like my play was just like a little bit off. There are balls that are too low that I attacked into the net. I did miss two serves tonight—one went into the white tape, and the other one landed on the wrong side of the center line when I was trying to go down the middle. There were two or three rallies where I haven’t shifted over to the middle of far enough during a rally and I left too much of a space which Aaron took advantage of.

Still, even with my subpar play, it was good to get out tonight. There were only a few times tonight where I was aware of my knee. The rest of the time I didn’t notice.

Embarrassing

I think this is embarrassing for the pickleball community. This rule question popped up on social media. As you can see, I picked the correct answer. But nearly three-quarters of people got the answer wrong!

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Friday, August 7, 2026 (No Play)

This video popped up.

Overall, the idea with this video is good. However, she’s letting him get away with something that I don’t let my students get away with—except for my rank beginners. What is that something? Creeping over to the sideline when you already know that a shot is going to be coming there. Obviously, in a drill, you have the advantage of knowing where the ball is going and you can cheat over. But that’s never where you would stay in a game when a ball is coming from the other sideline. Instead, I force my students to stay more towards the middle where they would be standing in a real game scenario. In a true rally, you would never be standing over by the sideline waiting for a full crosscourt shot. That would leave the middle wide open. It’s unrealistic.

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Saturday, August 8, 2026 (No play)

This one’s kind of funny—the reason why your play isn’t as good as it should be, if it’s not the paddle, what is it?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbybxAbRh7w/

Number of days on a court: 952
Number of total hours: 3,513.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 225.5

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.

Tuesday, August 4, 2026 (Court Day #951)

It was sunny and 66°F when I departed work at 6:15 p.m., leaving the task of fully closing up to my staff.

Left Foot

I’ve worn the plantar fasciitis support for my left foot overnight about half a dozen times. Part of the deterrent for me doing so is the metal bar inside the sleeve which digs into my foot no matter how I tried to bend it. Last night, I explored that more and—sure enough—there is a flap which allowed me to remove that metal bar, which I did. Though the metal bar does keep the end of my foot elevated better than without it. I may try the sleeve again tonight and see how it goes. I’m pretty sure that it did not work as well because when I woke up and walked around this morning, there was tightness and mild pain in my left foot. It’s not horrible, but this plantar fasciitis certainly not going away quickly.

Knee

My right knee continually continues to be bothersome. As is typical lately, maybe I shouldn’t be out playing given that there’s pain with every step. But too bad! I am playing anyway! I did decide to wear the elastic knee brace tonight, however. I honestly don’t know how much good it does, but it can’t hurt anything to wear it.

Skypark

I walked in at Skypark at 6:29 p.m.

Rose

I ended up playing a couple of games with Rose as my teammate. I’ve seen Rose around, but I don’t know her well and don’t play with her much at all. Before our second game, she was asking me when I started playing and she said that she thought that she had heard someone say that I’ve been playing for about a year. I chuckled and told her that I’ve been playing for nearly 10! She said, “No wonder you are so good!” I don’t know about that—after playing for nearly a decade, you think that I’d be turning pro by now! Alas!

Max

I played a game or two against Max tonight. Max played the best I’ve ever seen him. There at least half a dozen shots that I was not expecting him to be able to return, but he did. Nice! Better competition is always good.

I finished up at 8:23 p.m. It was dark and 63° by the time I left.

Tonight was one of those nights where I had no games with all strong players. There was one group of strong players that just stayed together and didn’t mix, but then there were some others, such as David, Ashley, Paul, Alec, Alex and Frabrizio later in the evening and they would’ve been good to mix in with, but it didn’t work out. It was a bummer. As it is, it’s hard for me to stay focused on the game when the rallies are short and my partner is blowing shots.

And?

Overall tonight, I wasn’t super thrilled with my play. I had a handful of wild floaters that flew long of the court. There were also a couple of drives, maybe three of them, that I hit into the net. And there were a couple of rallies where I was a bit lazy and didn’t move fast enough to cover the middle based on where the ball was.

USAP Question Weirdness

I’m empathetic to staff whose job it is to come up with things to post on social media on a regular basis. It’s that pressure and mundane work that leads to errors, like this one!

Confused? The answers go to a completely different question! Here’s the question that was almost certainly intended to go with these answers:
“When serving, which of the following are true?”
What do you think?

The answer is “C”.

Number of days on a court: 951
Number of total hours: 3,511.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 225.5

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.

Sunday, August 2, 2026 (Court Day #950)

I was going to be spending a very long time outside today between playing this morning, teaching two classes this afternoon, and then having a private lesson afterwards. So I wasn’t too keen on rushing to get out to play this morning.

Injuries

My left foot is still tight with plantar fasciitis in the morning. But my biggest concern continues to be my right knee. Thankfully, there generally isn’t any pain in a resting position, though that is not always the case. There is varying degrees of pain while walking. It tends to be the worst after not using it for a while, be that sitting or lying down. My knee definitely feels better than it did a couple of weeks ago when I twisted while players ng and I was limping for a few days and was seriously thinking about knee replacement surgery. That’s still on the radar as a possibility, but my daughter, the orthopedic surgery resident, was recommended in trying a whole lot of different things before going to major surgery.

Normally, I go and play at Brommer Park, however, I needed to get to my classes early given that there’s a 60th anniversary of the City of Scotts Valley birthday party at Skypark grassy field near the courts, so I was expecting the parking to be impacted. And if anyone who has to be at the class, it’s me, the instructor! Brommer is an extra 5-10 minutes from my house, time I might need.

When I left my house about 9:40 a.m., it was a chilly 59° and completely overcast. It rained a little bit overnight, judging by the puddle remnants in the street and the various drips still on the windows of my car.

Derby Park

As I walked into the courts at 9:51 a.m, there was pain in my knee with every step. That’s another reason that I wasn’t as anxious to get to the courts as early as possible… I figured that my play would be somewhat limited regardless.

Games

My first game was with young Jesse versus Karin— the middle-aged, Asian woman—and her husband Mark. We won 11-3. The points they did get came from lack of communication between Jesse and myself.

The regular Paul and I won 11-7 against Sam and Jesse. It seemed like Paul was almost trying too hard. He drove a handful of shots into the net.

My third and final game was teamed up with Jesse against Glenn (the lefty) and Andy. Glenn and Andy are in their mid to late 60s. I’m still hanging on in my 50s and I would put Jesse in his 30s.

A bit of a surprise, Jesse and I found ourselves down 1-4. But it didn’t stay that way very long. There were a couple of shots where I was being aggressive and being a bit of a ball hog. I stopped doing that. Jesse was not a weak player. That and I also went from trying to hit winners to hitting higher percentage shots and hitting shots that were difficult to return as opposed to high speed shots.

Time to Hit the Road

I checked the time. 11:19 a.m. The waits were long. I could sign up again, but it would likely be at least 15 minutes before I could start the game and then probably another 10 to 20 minutes after to finish that game which would bring me uncomfortably close to noon. If it had been easy to get a game with stronger opponents, I’d be more tempted to push the time. My goal was to leave my house no later than 12:30 p.m. to give myself plenty of margin to get to the courts and find parking. I definitely do not want to be late for the first class. Maybe I’ll bring a book!

It was 61° and still completely overcast when I left Derby Park.

Today, I could definitely feel my knee during the later games. It hurt. 

As I was leaving, I walked up to Ashley and Frabrizio and asked them how they did at their tournament. Ashley, with not much enthusiasm, said that they got a bronze metal. I teased, “Was it out of four teams?” Ashley laughed and explained, “No… it was out of three teams!“ Apparently, the tournament didn’t have many signups. Well, that’s how the ball bounces sometimes!

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Monday, August 3, 2026 (No Play)

This popped up on my YouTube feed. The news report about a town, Mashpee (in Massachusetts), requiring a low-noise ball.

Here is a article about how those local players hate the performance of these low-noise balls:
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/mashpee-pickleball-noise-complaints-new-ball

History

Here’s a short clip interviewing some of the sport founders and founders’ family members about the very early days of pickleball with details such as how the net height got determined:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/936720392776245

I’ve heard most of this before. What’s interesting to me is one of the sons explaining that the original kitchen line was the badminton “short serve line” which is 6’6″ back from the net. Years ago, I read somewhere that it was originally at 5′ and later got moved back to 7′. This is wrong. It was originally at 6’6″ then got moved back another half foot to 7′.

Number of days on a court: 950
Number of total hours: 3,509.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 225.5

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.