Thursday, May 22, 2025 (Court Day #806)

I had a board meeting this afternoon for a local nonprofit. (I’m on an assortment of local nonprofit boards!) I told my staff that I would not be returning to work afterwards. Surprisingly, the meeting was fairly quick and shortly before 5:30 p.m. I was already on my way to Skypark. It was a warm one today and it was still 81°F as I drove.

It was actually cooler in Scotts Valley at 75°F. Usually, it’s hotter in Scotts Valley, but that was not the case today.

Skypark

I pulled into the Skypark parking lot at 5:38 p.m.

I started at least half of the evening playing games where the skills were lopsided and the rallies were short.

Local Connection

I played a few games against the guy name is Zach and friend James. It turns out Zach’s wife is my dentist. Since she might be taking one of my classes this summer, I suddenly felt I need to focus more and try and make a good impression. I did play better. [Later note, my wife said that his wife—who is in a book group with my wife—said that Zach said I was a good player, so good impression made!]

Abhi 

The lights clicked off at 8:33 p.m., however, there was enough natural light for the newish guy Abhi and myself to continue playing against David and John. We played a few more rallies on the permanent courts and then we slid over to the rolling net next to the gate with the light and finish out our game. We won, I think it was 11–8 or it might’ve been 11–6. Regardless, it was a fun game with some long rallies.

Rallie

Eric from Rallie got back to me this morning and sent me a file of his ball machine manual, however, it was a PDF version which I already had. I asked him if he could track down the master document for me or if you just wanted me to do edits as best I could on the PDF and send it back to him for editing. 

USAP Quiet Products

There is a page on the USA Pickleball website, dedicated to quiet tech technologies, including balls, paddles, and accessories, including surfaces that you can apply to a paddle to reduce the sound:
https://equipment.usapickleball.org/acoustic-equipment/

Friday, May 23, 2025 (No Play)

Zane Navratil shared some information on the Lifetime ball that the PPA has been using. The Vulcan ball is the official ball of the PPA but Lifetime told the PPA that unless the PPA uses the Lifetime ball at their Lifetime facilities, they can’t use their facilities. Given that some high profile PPA events are held at Lifetime venues, the PPA agreed. Zane talks about the qualities of this Lifetime ball in his reel:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJ4ocyKgCsa/

Apparently these things are called the “LT” ball. A unique thing about them is when they manufacture these balls, they chamfer the hole edges so they are less likely to crack… assuming their logic is correct. It does seem—well—logical, but maybe there’s more to it. Physics is an interesting animal.

Number of days on a court: 806
Number of total hours: 3,160.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 135.5

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