Month: September 2026 (Page 1 of 5)

Tuesday, September 29, 2026 (Court Day #973)

Dave Cox invited me to play tomorrow morning at Brommer Park yesterday, but I had an interview finalized for tomorrow morning. I can’t conduct an interview and play pickleball at the same time, unfortunately. So I had to tell Dave no.

I managed to leave work before closing to try to get in more than the miserable one hour of play that I’ve been sometimes getting lately with this new temporary test of the lights going off at 8 p.m. instead of 8:30 p.m.

By 5:55 p.m., I was on the freeway and heading to Scotts Valley. While the sun was dipping below the trees, it was still 68°F with clear skies.

Skypark

In my first game, I missed three or four of my serves. My first one landed at least 4 feet wide of the court. But my next serve is closer, but it was too far the other way by a few inches. It was enough that Alec jokingly called across the net, “Are you Andrew‘s twin? What did you do with him?” Yes, my serving was inexplicably wonky. But, by the end of the evening, three of my serves in a row were returned into the net. Aaron Hicks asked, “What did you put on that ball?“ He was smiling. I smiled back and yelled, “Top spin!“

Play against Marquis, I had a crosscourt dink from my right towards his right. Granted it was a touch high, but I fully expected it to drop into the kitchen and be taken off the bounce. But Marquis is easily over 6 feet tall and simply reached in and volleyed a drive toward my partner! Note to self!

There was one rally where Paul and I were on the ropes. Alec and Shreyes had ball height and angles and they had us running all over the place just trying to get the ball back over the net, however Paul and I were both doing a really great job of covering for each other and we ended up winning the rally. Being in the correct place on the court helps immensely.

I was playing with Mauricio against Aaron Hicks and big linebacker Mike. We were leading 6-2 when the lights clicked off at 8:05 p.m.

It was still 63°F when I headed home.

And?

This was one of those nights where the lighting really seemed to affect my play. One of the overhead lights in the center of the courts was not working.

My play was inconsistent tonight. I had some stellar shots and then some inexplicable shots. I like to think that I would’ve played a whole lot better without the lighting. It wasn’t just me complaining either. Marquis and Mauricio played against me and Aaron Hicks. And Marquis was complaining multiple times about losing the ball in the lighting in the poor lighting.

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Wednesday, September 30, 2026 (No Play)

This is basically my entire pickleball existence, but it’s not every other match, it’s full sessions!
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd6bAC3S8kK

Tournament

I got Mike Cattivera to commit to the Monterey tournament today. He wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to do it.

Number of days on a court: 973
Number of total hours: 3,556
Number of paid coaching hours: 240.5

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

Sunday, September 27, 2026 (Court Day #972)

It was overcast and 57° when I left my house a few minutes after 9 a.m.

While my knee isn’t perfectly comfortable, it’s feeling better than it has recently, so that’s good. Though I suspect that it will be sore tomorrow. Plantar fasciitis continues to linger in my left foot, but it is far from crippling.

Brommer Park

As I walked in, after parking my car, I surveyed the courts, and I immediately noticed there were two tennis players. Uh-oh. That takes four pickleball courts offline. That stinks. To top it off, two of the pickleball courts were reserved, leaving only two out of the eight possible courts for rotational play. It was the worst case scenario.

When I arrived, there were seven players sitting along the wall. Binh was there, I haven’t seen him in at least a couple months. He told me that the tennis players said they had reserved the court for an hour and a half and that was half an hour ago. I checked the reservation website and it said the court was reserved until 10:30 a.m. As more disappointed pickleball players arrived, more disappointed pickleball players left.

Shika was at Brommer again today, the woman I played with Thursday night.

Most of the games in the morning were mostly with weaker opponents and weaker partners. They were fun, but the rallies didn’t last very long.

Later in the morning, I got into a game with Aaron Bartley against Shawnté and Mike O’Brien. Mike was playing about the best that I had seen him play. He held his own in a couple of firefights against Aaron. But it was only Aaron’s second game and he was still warming up. If he’s like me, it usually takes three games before everything is really dialed in.

In my last two games, I wasn’t playing all that great. I wasn’t playing all that focused, evidenced by the fact that each time I was serving, I wasn’t remembering the score! 

Probably most notable today was Shawnté driving some very hard low shots at me, two of which I returned for winners. After one, Aaron Bartley told me, “I think I’ve seen that shot in some of those ‘how to beat bangers’ videos.“ I’ll take the compliment!

 It’s just as well that I had to leave at noon to teach, because all the courts were reserved at noon for some kind of pickleball tournament that Monica had organized.

I checked the time 11:58 a.m. Time to go.

It was sunny and 70° when I left.

Teaching

This afternoon was the third meeting of my two 4-week classes. One of my students, Shannon, told me she would not be able to make the last class next weekend. She thanked me and told me that my classes are always so much fun. That’s great to hear. If my students can have a good time while developing skills, I call that a win!

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Monday, September 28, 2026 (No Play)

In Vietnam, 310 counterfeit Joola paddles were seized:
https://www.timesnownews.com/sports/pickleball/310-counterfeit-joola-pickleball-paddles-seized-in-vietnam-owner-fined-article-156239610
The culprit in Vietnam was fined nearly $4,000 after the police found boxes of the counterfeit pickleball paddles at his premises.

New Ball Machine

A ball machine that is very different:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdvC0C0RW4C
Here’s another clip of that machine:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ddu97FnuLli

Pickleball Quicker Than Tennis

The reaction time available in pickleball is less than in tennis:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdyWddajz8-

Paddle Cores

Some number of months ago, there was a video done on paddle cores:

Number of days on a court: 972
Number of total hours: 3,554
Number of paid coaching hours: 240.5

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

Thursday, September 24, 2026 (Court Day #971)

I got to Skypark around 7 p.m. after work. It was slim pickings for players tonight.

Games

My first game was with Paul Winn against Gabe and Jerry. Paul and I built a big lead before they started coming back. When we had a wide margin, there were a couple of times where I intentionally went for high-risk shots—both of which failed, unfortunately! Regardless, Paul and I still won 11-7.

I played a game with Gabe against Jerry and Shika. We won the first game 11-0. Shika wanted to play again which we did and this time Gabe and I won 11-2. After that game, Gabe had to go home… “kids,” he explained.

Singles

Without enough free players for doubles, Jerry asked if I would play singles with him in preparation for his singles bracket at a tournament on Sunday. So this was the second night in a week where I have been playing singles. I told him that I wasn’t very good at singles, but he wanted to play regardless. Shika wanted to play and asked us to play just to 7… fine.

I build a good lead before Jerry earned any points and I went on to win 7-2. Shika then took my spot and I went and sat on the bench waiting for a game on the other court to finish. As I was sitting, I was listening to Jerry racking up points on her. I think he was up 5-2 by the time that the game on the adjacent court wrapped up.

Back to Doubles

I ended up in a game with Shika against Jerry against Jesse. Well, Shika is not a newbie but she had the weakest performance of the players on our court in that game.

It’s kind of funny when your partner tells you, “Let’s go!” when they made the previous three errors on your team. I mean, heck, I am already going. But sometimes players say that merely to get themselves focused and fired up.

When I left Skypark shortly after 8 p.m., it was still a toasty 72°. I was sweating.

And?

While it was fun playing tonight, it was pretty much throw-away games. My biggest challenge was simply paying attention.

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Friday, September 25, 2026 (No Play)

Here’s an article from Florida talking about pickleball maybe becoming a sanctioned high school sport.
https://www.yourobserver.com/news/2026/sep/16/pickleball-high-school-sport/
My only beef with the article is this line:
“There isn’t much strategy involved, unless an athlete wants to test their talents on the APP Tour.“
The writer is obviously ignorant of the sport. Every single shot involve strategy except at the lowest level levels where a player is simply trying to return the ball over the net. And once you start getting at least some control and placement of the ball, which typically isn’t too long into playing, strategy becomes part of the equation.

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Saturday, September 26, 2026 (No Play)

“Pickleball is not athletic”…NOT!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdwNpReBiWB/

Number of days on a court: 971
Number of total hours: 3,551
Number of paid coaching hours: 237.5

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