I arrived at Brommer Park at 9:56 a.m. It was cold, 50°F, and overcast.
Aside from the first game of the day, the games are pretty strong with me playing with other 4.0 level players.
I was happy with my play today, although I did hit a number of service returns out. I need to work on returning serves that are low to my outstretched backhand. That continues to be an inconsistent shot for me.
Luke
There was a guy named Luke who came today. I’d guess that he is in his late 20s. Tall, thin, brown hair and sporting a mustache. He said he’d come a couple of times previously. He said moved to the Los Gatos area from Wisconsin for work and that his parents got him into playing pickleball after he previously played a lot of tennis. Luke has a lot of good slice and can drive shots very well. He does have more work to do on his consistency and soft game.
The courts barely filled up today and I rolled from game to game to game with very little break in between.
To quote the social media post: “Steve Bellamy, founder of the Tennis Channel, is launching a new racket sport, called typti. The entrepreneur has about 80 investors for his new company, including actors Kyle MacLachlan and Chris Pine, director JJ Abrams and comedian Tiffany Haddish.”
It’s basically tennis with mini tennis rackets and a foam ball. It’s played on a pickleball court—surprise!—and it has an odd aspect . . . if you hit the ball into the net, you can still hit it over with a second hit as long as you hit it with something other than your racket… shoe, hand, whatever. Oooohh-kay…
Honestly, I’m annoyed by typti. It smells of greed. People looking to get rich have seen the growth of pickleball and are disappointed that they missed the boat and can’t “get in early” on the sport. Instead, they start their own sport and get in early! Plus—a bonus—you can steal back courts from those annoying pickleball players who took over the tennis courts!
I will say, an advantage of this newly-invented sport is the fact that they use quiet balls. We are currently stuck with noisy paddles and balls. USA Pickleball launched their initiative to develop a quieter version of the sport, but so far, there has only been minor progress.
The comments below the story are very harsh! Woah.
“Old fat bloke falls over and doesn’t hurt himself in the slightest; more at eleven.”
“Couldn’t happen to a better slob. Dreadful commentator is way past his use-by date.”
Instagram Post Removal Update
So, I mentioned on January 24 that Instagram removed my joke shared on a Third Shot Sports post. I appealed the removal, explaining that it was a joke. No dice. Denied.
Well, at least I thought it was funny!
Number of days on a court: 894 Number of total hours: 3,372 Number of paid coaching hours: 194.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
In March last year, the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club put on a halftime show demonstrating pickleball—I was one of the four playing.
We were invited again this year, but this time it would be before tip off. Our demonstration was scheduled to take place at 6:20 p.m., 40 minutes before the basketball game was to start.
Club president Mark Dettle arrived early, around 5:15, and I was there by our arranged time of 5:30 p.m.
Mark and I set up the temporary net which he had previously stashed at the end of the bleachers near the concession stand. Then we decided to carry it out back behind the arena and there we started laying out the temporary orange nylon court lines underneath it.
Mark, Elise Hansen (Warriors Group Experiences Representative), Pauly
Once we had the court lines set up, we formulated a plan to walk them in with a group—us SCPC people and some Warriors staffers.
It was nice that it was not raining, so instead of 2025 when players had to warm up in a cramped covered spot, Pauly and I warmed up outside during our wait.
We were getting a little nervous since we were told that we’d be going out on the court at 6:17 p.m. and Jackie and Katy were still not there yet as of 6:05 p.m. But, fortunately, they showed up with five minutes to spare! Cutting it close!
We strategically collected the net and court lines and—unlike last year, when the lines were a completely tangled—this time was a relatively smooth and quick process getting the lines laid out.
I dropped my backpack off on the side of the basketball court, helped with the lines, then grabbed my paddle and lensless protective glasses.
Jackie and I—wearing matching green SCPC club shirts—were on one side and Pauly and Katy were on the other. As the strongest players, Jackie and I normally would have split to balance the teams, but—hey—it’s just a demo game and we visually matched.
Since it was still about 40 minutes to game time, the seats were still significantly more empty than full. But we were given more time to play than the four minutes allotted during a halftime span.
Me walking to my backpack. I was oblivious to the turtle mascot about 10 feet away!
We got to playing and, fortunately, while we had no fences, we had a few of their staff to act as ball retrievers for us. We had several balls at the ready for when one escaped. Pauly was good for at least one tweener or a behind-the-back shot.
I will say, it was a much better experience to have court lines—unlike last year! While Jackie handled little to no warmup better than Katy did, still we had some good rallies. The announcer warned that we had time for just one more serve. We finished that rally then we all went about removing all our gear.
Obligations complete, I ignored my ticketed seat and instead sat in an empty spot next to local pickleball player David Ang and his wife Heather.
Me sitting with David from Aptos, and his wife.
The local basketball team was down by double digits but came back to lead by a few points at halftime. I was tired and hungry and called it a night right then. (Curious, I checked later and found that the visiting team had won by double digits, so I had picked a good time to hightail it out of there!)
The halftime experience in 2025 was much more pressured and limited in time, but the much larger crowd had been into the game more. If we do it again next year, I think we’ll push for halftime again.
Instagram Smack Down
I was hit by a notice saying Instagram removed my joke comment because it was in violation of community guidelines! Wow! That’s a first for me.
Yesterday, Mike Sullivan sent out a group text saying that he and Mauricio had reserved a court at Brommer Park from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. I found it kind of odd that there were no takers. I told them that I would come as long as my back wasn’t any more sore than it already was.
A little bit later, Mike texted asking if I would come from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. I asked about the change in time and he said that they had changed the location from Willowbrook to Brommer. I looked back at his original group text and read it more closely—it had actually said “Willowbrook”! In my haste, I had completely missed the location! Being that I am teaching today, driving all the way out to Aptos and then driving back in time to teach would be a total pain. I could see why there were not a lot of takers, aside from the distance, Willowbrook is not a venue known for strong players.
Today
I set my alarm for 7:20 a.m., figuring I would have plenty of time roll out of bed, put on sunscreen, get dressed, and get out the door. But, boy, I was moving slowly. I typically wake up about an hour later since I don’t have to get to work until closer to 10 a.m. When I reached for my sunglasses and was to put them on top of my head, the frame snapped right near the nose. That’s a spot where no amount of tape will fix it. So annoying. I grabbed a different pair of sunglasses that I had previously taped above the right ear as a stopgap measure. Those would have to do!
The sky was full of puffy thin clouds with patches of blue. It was 50°F . . . a little bit colder than perfect pickleball weather, but it would get warmer as the morning stretched on.
The 49ers got blown out in the playoffs last night, leaving no team with Bay Area connections buying for a Super Bowl appearance, unfortunately. The Raiders, formerly located in the East Bay in Oakland, and now Las Vegas, were eliminated pretty early in the ceiling season in fact that’s the number one overall pick having been deemed the worst team in the NFL. A sad state of affairs, but no games to interfere with pickleball!
Brommer Park
I arrived at Brommer a few minutes after 8 a.m., the guys were already there warming up with Kyle. Kyle stepped out when I got there.
I won my first two games. First with Brian, then with Mauricio (11-4) shown in this video:
Midway in our game, the 9 a.m. court reservation group claimed the court, so we moved to another.
Lost third game 7-11. Me Mike. (Got half game on video.)
Mauricio and I lost 0-11. Ouch. What’s funny is that this is the exact combination that won 11-4. This was a complete flip.
Brian and I won 11-8. We came back from 0-4. It was a rough start, but we got it going.
More Games
Ken and I paired up and lost 6-11 against Allison and Alex. I hadn’t played with Allison before. She often shows up and plays in a group of women at Brommer on one of the reserved courts. She’s not flashy but does a good job getting the ball back over the net.
We played again with a similar outcome, losing 7-11 against Allison and Alex.
Mario and I played against Alex and Mike but lost 6-11.
More Games
The guy named Mickey and I played two games against a young Asian fellow named David, who I didn’t know, and another young Asian guy named Kai. David has really good serves and hard drives, he is a high 3.5 or maybe a 4.0.
The last game was Kai and myself against Marquis and Mickey. Even with me intentionally hitting more shots too Marquis, we won. Kai is a decent 3.5 player. Mickey is more of a high-level 3.0.
Toward the end of the session, I was pretty tired and not moving quickly.
I checked the time after the last game, 11:56 a.m. It was time for me to go home and have lunch and get ready to teach.
I felt that I played ok today. Not great, but ok.
Paddle Testing
USA Pickleball has announced that they will be doing field testing of paddles at Golden Ticket events. There are so many fake paddles coming out of China. Some are showing a “USA Pickleball approved” logo even though they did not go through the approval process. They are fraudulent. It cost nothing to illicitly add an approved logo. Other fake paddles are knockoffs of known brands and even have the brand name on the paddle but use different materials and construction. The association, in conjunction with paddle manufacturers, have decided to take a stand and do something about it.
Distant Line Calls
I was running a drill with my students today which required calling a ball in or out along the baseline. That was not the main point of the drill, but an opportunity presented itself when a student standing outside the net post called a ball in and a student observing behind the baseline called the ball out.
I told them a story from years ago when my partner and I were standing at the baseline and our opponent hit a ball a couple of inches beyond the court. We called the ball out. Our opponent, who was at least 44 feet away, got quite upset and claimed that his ball was in. My partner and I were in the perfect position to observe the ball—we were standing on either side where the ball bounced. It was close, but there was no question that the ball had bounced outside of the court.
I told my students to always accept an opponent’s call in situations like that. There’s no way you are going to be able to make a better call from 5-10 times further away and from a poorer viewing angle.
On the flipside, I told them to never assume that a ball you’ve hit is out when it’s a close call and, instead, just continue to play. There have been instances where I thought that either my serve or my return had bounced just outside the baseline, but we played on. Again, my opponent is always a much better judge of a baseline call when they are far closer to the bounce than I am.
Wednesday, January 21, 2026 (No Play)
My back was bothering me so I didn’t play last night.
PPA Singles Experiment
PPA is experimenting with new court dimensions for singles by eliminating 1.5 feet off of each sideline of the court to help keep the rallies going longer: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTyEgCRkcZj I’m of a mind that the court is already smaller than a tennis court, and the ball slower. Why change? It seems this is more a response to more powerful paddles than anything else.
Pro Advice
Pro Hanna Blatt shared some good advice on social media:
I wish someone told me this when I went pro: 1. Patience is key 2. Winning comes from patterns, not power 3. The first 3 shots decide more points than long rallies 4. Be confident in your shots 5. Paddle face angle > swing speed 6. More margin = fewer errors 7. Grip pressure changes everything (soft hands win) 8. Confidence comes from repetition, not talent 9. The best paddle is the one you trust under pressure
I can’t say that I disagree with any of those.
Friday, January 23, 2026 (No Play)
Upset. Camden Chaffin defeated Frederico Staksrud in singles. Camden is ranked 44th in the world at only 14-years-old and Federico is ranked #2. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DT0n5E6EaSk
Typti
Typti, a new sport played on pickleball courts, is starting to gain a little traction. I’ll talk more about it soon. I heard about it last year from a tennis instructor who attended a racquet sport conference, but this is the first I’ve seen or heard anything since: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTv_8UeCmCy
New Pickleball Ratings Record on Network TV
The PPA Masters was the most watched program at the time of broadcast. 791,000 average viewers. 1.05 peak viewers. It beat out college basketball games on NBC and ESPN and also an NBA game on Amazon Prime: https://www.instagram.com/p/DT3N-d9kQOI
Recent Comments