Sunday, July 12, 2026 (Court Day #945)
I feel a bit like I’m falling apart. I’ve taken about a week break from playing. The pain in my right knee when walking is more common than uncommon. I have plantar fasciitis going on in my left foot. Some days, it barely bothers me, but other days, like today, it feels tight, though I would still consider pain to be mild. Then I have traces of tennis elbow going on on my right arm. And then this week, I’ve been dealing with some kind of pull or strain in my right shoulder. Earlier in the week, it was intense enough that I was considering putting my arm in a sling. Today, there’s a little bit of it left, but only with certain movements.
With all the above going on, I figured I would keep my pickleball session shorter than normal today. Plus, in a few weeks, my wife’s summer vacation ends and she fully returns to teaching. It’s not uncommon for her to go in during the summers to prep for classroom for the coming school year. This year, after teaching 1st grade for nearly 20 years, they’re moving her to teaching kindergarten. This requires a major overhaul of her classroom setup. This afternoon, my wife has plans for us to spend several hours at school, assembling new furniture and moving things around.
Backspin Oops
I realized that I didn’t mention it previously, but at my last outing at Derby Park, there was enough backspin on a shot that it flew back over the net toward my opponent side. I was there, but I spaced, and instead of hitting the ball back into the net or at least touching it before it bounced on my opponent side of the net, I simply let it go. Yes, of course, meant that my team lost the rally due to my mistake. How to feel dumb! The rule is you have to hit the ball before it bounces twice—even if it means reaching over the net to do it!
Brommer Park
I pulled into the Brommer parking lot at 9:40 a.m. It was was 64° and overcast.
When I arrived, I was the old man out. There was a court open, but no one to play with.
Young blonde Taylor arrived and asked if she wanted to warm up. We took a court and warmed up for about 10 minutes waiting for someone to join us. A group of four avoided us and walked past us and took the last court to play a game.
Games
Kim and I won 13-11 against Taylor and Gary. Taylor has ping pong background. I hit some drives into the net. Kim and I didn’t have the best collaboration and lost a couple of rallies as a result of not meshing/communicating the best.
Taylor and I won 11-1 against Kim and Hispanic Chris.
Taylor has pretty quick hands and pretty good defense too. Slams were coming pretty fast at her midcourt, but she was getting the ball back over the net. Good job!
Chris and I then teamed up and lost 10-12 against James and Taylor.
The sun came out at Brommer around 11 o’clock.
Lefty Aaron B. and I played against James (the stocky James) and young, thin Aaron. In that game, I offered to stack after a few rallies, but since I had started as the first server, it meant we were stacking on odd scores, which was really strange. The first game was lopsided with me trying too hard and me being responsible for about 2/3 of our errors.
We swapped sides and played again this time, Aaron and I took a 8-6 lead. James is really great with his angles. On one of those shots, I went for an ATP from a dead sprint but hit the ball into the net. On another of Jame’s shallow cross-court shots, I was able to sprint to it and hit it over the net but then James went for a flying erne and hit the ball for a winner down the middle. While we did end up losing that second game 8–11, it was fun and challenging.
Closing Time
I checked the time, 11:36 am. My wife and I are selling an old bed frame online to a guy named Simon. He’s coming to get it today. I saw there was a message from him saying that he would be at my house about 10 minutes. Time to go! Too bad, I could’ve gotten in more good games.
Monday, July 13, 2026 (No Play)
Interesting line call and referee’s actions:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DarVEr8TAVl
One of the comments on this video stated that the referee’s reaction time was too slow and he didn’t turn his head in time and was unable to watch the ball land. That is wrong. The referee is primary job is watching for foot faults. Line calls are left to the players on that side of the net. If a referee happens to see the ball, he can make a judgement, but that’s merely a bonus. We’re counting on the ref to point out the kitchen violations and with momentum, those can take place after the ball is already dead.
I remember sitting at Chamisal a few years ago, after a tournament. I was overhearing a referee up in the stands quietly talking to a man next to him. The referee was repeatedly commenting, “See? There is yet another foot fault!” They happen far more often than we think.
All that said, the referee in the video clip made a mistake. He should have never pointed to where he thought the ball landed. He should have simply said, “The call stands,” since he wasn’t watching the ball. I’m also kind of wondering if the referee was really doing a good enough job watching kitchen fault violations, but maybe he did.
Tuesday, July 14, 2026 (No Play)
Actress Mary Steenburgen getting interviewed about The Dink movie coming to Apple TV this month:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DayRL0VkgyI
Number of days on a court: 945
Number of total hours: 3,498
Number of paid coaching hours: 221.5
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