Sunday, September 20, 2026 (Court Day #968)

This amusing video was sent to me on Wednesday by one of my former staff. It came through when I was busy working and I totally forgot about it until this morning and then watched it. Aliens play pickleball:
https://fb.watch/v/4_0sC8hKg

Health

I didn’t sleep well last night and woke up with a mild headache. I hadn’t played since Tuesday night, so with the five days of rest, my knee was feeling better than it has been lately.

It has been almost 3 weeks since I tripped and fell on my paddle, but there is still a significant bump on my right leg above my knee. I will say that the welt feels as though it has shrunk to half the size this week. So, progress.

Weather

It seems that fall arrived this morning. It was overcast and a chilly 59°F. There were also faint traces of mist on my windshield when I left my house.

On the freeway, precipitation got heavy enough that I had to use the wipers to clear my windshield. Fortunately, that was the extent of it, and there was no problem with rain at the courts.

Brommer Park

I pulled into Brommer Park at 9:15 a.m. The courts were half empty and the lot itself was only a little bit over half full.

Today was good. While I didn’t get a lot of games with all strong players, I did get a handful.

Games

My first game was with Kim Bartley against Kenny and an Indian woman, Shika, who says that she lives in Scotts Valley and typically plays out there. I would say she’s a strong 3.5 level player.

Probably the best game of note was Kim McGinty and myself playing against Mo and Kim Bartley. Kim M. has improved substantially over the last year. In an upset, Kim and I beat Mo and Kim B. It was not a lopsided game, it was close. The key to handling Kim B.’s attacks are being in the right place on the court. When I was at the right place at the net, I had very little trouble handling her hard drives.

Today was the first time I got to play with Kim Bartley in months. Mo had been talking about how much she has improved. Kim can rip strong forehand and backhand drives with accuracy. It’s impressive. She’ll take advantage of any highball or any error in court positioning by her opponents. She’s very fun to play against.

Mo complimented my serves. After one, she said she really had to get underneath the serve to get it back over the net. With the topspin that I apply to the ball, my services tend to stay lower than a lot of people expect.

Last Game

I played an assortment of games over the roughly three hours that I was at Brommer.

The last game of the day was David L. and I against Mickey and Mike “Beefcake” O’Brien. David and I won 11-6. It was David’s second game and he was still getting warmed up. He was making more errors than was typical for him. (David doesn’t show up at Brommer on Sunday mornings that often, I think I’ve seen him twice in the last year.)

Mike O’Brien went for an erne after I hit a dink off my right side. Unfortunately for him, the shot wasn’t deep enough, and Mickey hadn’t shifted over to cover so I merely hit the ball into the hole that was left for a winner.

When that game finished, I checked the time. 11:57 a.m. I had classes starting in 90 minutes.

And?

Today was night and day compared to how I felt after Tuesday night. Tuesday night I felt dejected over how poor I had played. Today, I was getting a steady flow of compliments from my opponents and I felt that I was playing very well.

New Paddle from Aireo

Aireo, whose co-founder is a Stanford professor, has a new paddle coming:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DdgwV65l-2f/?img_index=2
It has an electroplated edge guard—fancy! It’s officially releasing on Tuesday.

Monday, September 21, 2026 (No Play)

This is a funny little clip about the sound pickleball makes:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdWsFAmRCia

The Pope declares pickleball the eighth deadly sin:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DdFaQKlIBJv
(Actually, the Pope seems like a pretty cool dude, he grew up near Chicago!)

Number of days on a court: 968
Number of total hours: 3,547
Number of paid coaching hours: 237.5

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