Monday, September 14, 2026 (Court Day #966)

For golf, they have indoor simulators. In St. Petersburg, Florida, there’s an indoor tennis and pickleball simulator business opening called Game Set Sim:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdMfj4RSaO9
It’s not a business that’d I’d want to get into. Especially in a nice weather state like Florida. Would you pay to use a simulator like this when you can just go out and drill with a friend?

How to Improve

This is a really good article about how to improve with insight from Zane Navratil as well as other coaches:
https://pickleballunion.com/improve-pickleball-without-changing-technique/

Getting Ready

I woke up, checked personal and work email, sent some messages, texted staff regarding work matters, took our younger dog out for leisurely walk and once that was done, I made my way to Derby Park. Today was our monthly SCPC board meeting. I missed last month meeting due to work demands, so it’s good that I was able to make this one.

Derby Park

It was sunny and 64° as I stepped through the chain link gate at 9:54 a.m.

The crowd was light at Derby since it was not a club day and only about half the courts had players on them.

I played with an assortment of people I knew—Sam, Glenn, Matt Zachary, plus Joan and Lauren of the board. There were also others whom I didn’t know.

My partners were getting targeted like crazy. I would go entire rallies touching the ball once or twice or not at all. (One of the suggestions in the article I linked to above is to hit to the stronger player during rec play—not avoid them!)

Midway through one game, Sam announced from across the net, “Andrew made an error!” I wasn’t happy about the making the error, but I was happy that it was rare enough that it warranted an announcement! Ha!

Meeting

We called our meeting to order at 12:22 p.m. and later closed out the meeting at 1:11 p.m.

The only thing of significant note was the news that work is scheduled to begin on the eight new pickleball courts—conversion from two tennis courts—on UCSC property on Delaware Avenue next month, October 19. And this indeed is significant. This project has been in the works for years. Things would almost be worked out with the university and then the athletic director would leave hampering arrangements. Then, of course, there is a bunch of legal paperwork involved between the city of Santa Cruz and the University of California. Regardless, this is exciting.

Number of days on a court: 966
Number of total hours: 3,543
Number of paid coaching hours: 234.5

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