Tuesday, April 28, 2026 (Court Day #928)
My wife’s cousin Krag and I set off from his house in Anchorage a little after 9 a.m. for what would be my first pickleball game ever in the State of Alaska. It was raining, so it would be an indoor facility.
While Krag is not stranger to pickleball, but had never been to the courts suggested by his friends. Taking longer than Krag expected, the GPS guided us to a commercial-looking building. We walked in the door and found a room of about a dozen high school aged kids seated around various round tables. Krag inquired, “We’re looking for pickleball…” One young lady, amused, yet helpful, suggested we wanted the Anchorage Recreation Center (ARC) not the “The Arc of Anchorage”. We’d accidentally gone about 10 minutes in the wrong direction to a school!
We got back into Krag’s large white pickup and punched in the new GPS destination.
Anchorage Recreation Center
It was still lightly raining about 10 minutes later when we arrived at the correct ARC building around 9:30 a.m.
We walked in and Krag paid the 20 bucks for the two of us to get in—I covered the cost of our later family brewery outing later in return—then we turned right into the hallway leading to the big gym.
Inside was a wood floor striped in a variety colors for various sports and it was also striped with white tape specifically for pickleball. I could tell that the tape had been there for a while… it was wearing along some edges.
In the middle of the gym hung a heavy fabric divider, leaving about a 2” gap above the floor, too narrow for balls to get under. On each side of the divider were three portable pickleball nets set up.
Krag and I put our bags along the wall and I changed into my court shoes. With all the gravel and grit spread on the Alaskan roads during winter, changing shoes is pretty much a given around here.
Chad
Krag’s friend Chad finished up a game and Krag introduced me to him. Chad later told me that he’s known Krag since high school.
What’s funny is that Chad was sporting a black “ARC Pickleball” T-shirt, but he explained that it wasn’t named for this complex. It’s actually from North Carolina… maybe “Appalachian” is in that “ARC” somewhere. (Later I found this.)
I’ll note that when I shook hands with Chad, a surprise, my forearm hurt a little like when I had tennis elbow. My elbow has been acting up lately, it seems I should consider wearing my forearm strap again.
Paddle Rack
At this facility, they use a very space-efficient and compact paddle rack. It’s a piece of long flat wood with two parallel rows of vertical dowels, with gaps just wide enough to comfortably place a paddle set on its edge. There was a “Next Game” sign mounted to an oversized straw which moved down four dowels when each group goes on.
When it is the next group’s turn, someone holds up the four paddles hoping the owners will recognize them and retrieve them. Given the big space and the long waits, this was typically only successful after a minute or two or three. Most players were waiting at one of the two opposite ends of the gym, while the rack was in the middle. That, long with the loud environment, makes getting the next game going a bit of a challenge.
Once you got your paddle, then you would have to figure out where your group went… which could be on either side of the curtain plus maybe your group had already shifted over if another group was already going out. Plus you may not even know what the people in your group look like!
Their are obviously satisfied with their system, but I’d almost be tempted to have two paddle racks, one at either end of the gym near the waiting areas. Maybe divided by 3.0-3.5 and 3.5-4.0+. That would reduce the somewhat chaotic nature of finding paddle owners and courts.
First Game
My first game was with Krag against a man named Filo and a woman named Anna. We lost 7-11. Krag, for not playing for several months and relatively dabbling in pickleball, did just fine. Solid 3.0 with flashes of 3.5. Krag played on his tennis team in high school, playing mostly doubles, so he has solid hand-eye coordination.
The red-orange indoor ball felt heavier than a standard outdoor ball and more rubbery. It very much took me a little getting used to.
Krag and I stacked our paddles again.
We would be in a game with a music teacher named Matt originally from Washington State and a guy named Chase. (Matt later told me that he doesn’t know Chase.)
Since they had over 20 paddles waiting, a woman announced rally scoring, playing to 15, win by 2. It was weird getting used to rally scoring. I knew of it, but never used it. (Here are official USA Pickleball rally scoring instructions.) Each team only got one server. Then the next time that same team scored, the other teammate would serve according their score, like singles. When you lost your serve, the other team would get the serve… and a point!
Krag and I won that game, 16-14. The other thing is with rally scoring is you can’t win if you aren’t serving. This gives the other team more of a chance to catch up. I’m not convinced at all that “play to 15 rally scoring, win by two, can’t win unless serving” is actually faster! I think they’d be far better off in terms of faster games by simply playing to 9 with standard scoring.
Krag left around 11 a.m. for haircut. He’d come back to get me later.
It got pretty warm in the gym, there wasn’t much air circulation.
On My Own
I found Chad and told him that I’d wait for him to finish his game so we could play together.
The next game is another lesson of “not judging a book by its cover” in pickleball. We’d be going up against “Dr. Mike” (a mostly-retired family medicine and sports medicine doctor) who I’d guess is approaching 70, and Kim—who I later learned is a 72-year-old former D1 college tennis player. Mike was sporting an assortment of shoulder support straps… he’d had rotator cuff surgery some months back. Chad did warn me before the game that they are good players.
Chad and I were up 11-2 or something and we both walked to the net thinking that the game was over but it was still “to 15” rally scoring, not “to 11” rally scoring. Being that you have to win on your serve, getting those final points can be difficult. The other team is twice as likely to earn points. I think it was 14-4, but we had taken the foot off the gas and, yes, getting points was harder. Kim was getting really nice low backhand digs. It was impressive. She’s got angles and spin. Nonetheless, Chad and I prevailed, 15-10.
Next!
For the next game, we would be playing Luke and David. Chad told me that David is at least a 4.2 and Luke is a 4.5+.
This game, Chad and I were the ones benefiting from the “freeze” of only winning on your serve. This game was back and forth with the score close. We’d be down, then tie it up. Get down, then we’d tie it up. Though we did spend most of the game with the lower score.
During one rally, I’m almost positive that David was toying with me. He was dinking/resetting higher shots, but then he popped one up and I put it away hard down the middle. He was either uncomfortable attacking—unlikely—or taking it easier on us. (Here in Santa Cruz, Marquis does that sometimes… he won’t attack shots that I’d expect others to—he waits for shots that he can really slam down on.)
Chad and I lost 12-15. It wasn’t as close as the score makes it sound. (“Thanks, rally freeze!”)
Chad and I played another and lost 7-11 against a stocky tattooed dude named Simi and a young tall guy, Nathan. We were ahead, but they came back. One memorable moment was when Simi threw his cap off the court literally in the middle of a rally, which completely distracted me and I messed up that shot. If it were at tournament, we would 100% be replaying that rally!! As it was, I just let it go.
Chad said he had work to do and he departed at 12:11 p.m.
New Partner, Nathan
Nathan asked if I wanted to play again and I readily agreed. We waited our turn—a bit faster given that the crowd had thinned some by now—then took the court against Simi and Filo. (I had played against Filo in my very first game today.) We won 11-7.
While we were waiting, one player was needed as a fourth for a game. Nathan offered it to me. He said he was thinking of leaving anyway. I accepted.
Simi
I teamed up with Simi. We took a lead against an Asian couple, but they came back and won.
With the clock ticking, Simi suggested we play again. I was expecting to switch sides, but we simply started the game in the same positions.
There were 2-3 speedups at me that the ball glanced off the edge of my paddle and sailed off the court wildly. Those didn’t “compute” to me. Ball, lighting, something made things different enough that I got into that unexpected and rare circumstance several times. I went to hit the ball and it wasn’t quite where I expected.
We ran out of time midgame, when the staff closed down the session at 12:45 p.m.
Krag had returned. We headed out and he took a quick photo of me in front of the facility.
Krag wanted another photo in the opposite direction with the mountains in the background.
Thursday, April 30, 2026 (No Play)
This is a very impressive—if short—rally clip, even before the erne shot:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXu0egaESUz/
Saturday, May 2, 2026 (No Play)
Two days ago, there was a tragic crash of a small plane killing five people who are heading to a pickleball tournament.
https://www.wtoc.com/2026/05/01/cessna-plane-crash-texas-kills-all-5-board-county-official-says/
[Later Note: Here is a follow up article about what happened:
https://nypost.com/2026/05/16/us-news/cause-of-deadly-plane-crash-carrying-pickleball-players-to-texas-tournament-revealed/]
For us, it’s five random people. For a family, it’s a brother, sister, dad, mom, cousin. In 2010, our family lost my nephew Peter, which made national news:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/motorbike-racer-peter-lenz-13-killed-at-indy/
To nearly everyone, he was just a name in the news. For us, there was nothing closer to home.
(More about Peter.)
Tweener
In case you were wondering, here is how to execute a tweeter shot:
https://pickleballunion.com/how-to-hit-a-pickleball-tweener/
Number of days on a court: 928
Number of total hours: 3,458
Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5
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