Pickleball Journey

Thursday, July 30, 2026 (Court Day #949)

A blast from the past, a few years ago, this clip is reminiscing about the development of the serve:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DbbYAw4kR4Z
At the time, when I saw this going on, I had a choice—learn the ‘chainsaw serve’ myself or trust that it was going to get banned in relatively short order. I chose the latter and my foresight proved to be correct. It got banned in the next rulebook!
They mention Morgan Evans doing this serve to great success, I have a paddle around with his autograph on it.

Classes

The good news is, after one of my students dropped out from injury, another person signed up and filled the class. Both of my classes starting Sunday are now again sold out.

Today

It started cooling down today, but then it got somewhat toasty. As I drove away from work at 6:21 p.m., it was sunny and a warm 75°. There were no clouds to be seen anywhere.

The mild plantar fasciitis in my left foot merely felt tight this morning not painful. While it is still lingering, it definitely feels better than its initial onset.

My right knee is still problematic, but I’m not limping like I was a little over a week ago.

Skypark

The very first game of the night was Paul and myself against two middle-aged women. One obviously came from a tennis background, she had really good drives. The other player wasn’t quite as strong. Paul was making a lot of errors and our opponents took the lead. I believe it was 5-2 in their favor. But then Paul and I went on a roll, winning 11-5.

There is a tall young blond guy there whose name was Cane—or Caine. He said that he’s been out playing with his wife and he is trying to convince her to continue to play. Cane has good hand coordination. He’s just inconsistent and has a fair amount of work to do on strategy and the soft game.

Mike, Ashley, Fabrizio

Frabrizio and Ashley wanted to play together since they have a tournament coming up. Mike C. was there and I grabbed him since we are supposed to play together in October in a tournament.

Mike and I gelled pretty well. There was a couple of shots in the middle where he crept in with his backhand and interfered with my forehand, but that was not happening very often. In the first game, we won 11-2. I was surprised since I was expecting Frabrizio and Ashley to to give us a good run for our money. In the second game, we won again, this time 11-4.

Ashley said we had time for one more. I asked him what time it was and he said 8:23 p.m. That would give us about 10 more minutes of the lights.

We switched sides and for this game they were serving first. After a few sideouts, we found ourselves down 1-6. That was there when the lights went out. There was still some natural light and Ashley asked if we wanted to continue and I know I certainly wanted to and so did Mike. We played for another five minutes or so and it was getting darker. Ashley suggested we shift down to the court next to the gate, which has the one permanent overhead light. The light illuminated mostly their side, giving them had a slight advantage. On our side, the light illuminated to about where our kitchen line was so we had more contrast/shadow on our side.

We started making some progress. We had some momentum closing the gap to 5-9. At this point, Ashley asked if we wanted to stop. I was ready at that point. It was getting hard to see.

Mike and I played pretty well. I tend to communicate a lot with the ball in the middle, half the time calling “yours!”, given that Mike has a long reach and it would be his forehand.

We came to the agreement that I would be the first server and Mike would start on the “hammer” side.

We had some really good firefights and some really good rallies in those last games. Super fun!

It was 8:44 p.m. when I checked the time.

It’s outings like this that keep me going. You drive home thinking, “I can play this game!”

Error Cascade

On occasion, when I don’t have enough students to run to complete doubles games for a class, I’ll do a rotation of players. A student makes an error then they are forced to step out, and someone else will rotate in.

Sometimes, the students are surprised by who I kick out of the game. It’s not always the last player (or the next to last player) who touches—or can’t touch—the ball who is at fault.

This was readily apparent tonight. I would hit a shot too high then five shots later, we would lose the rally. It would be a cascade that was set off by a mistake.

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Friday, July 31, 2026 (No Play)

Just about an hour away from me, rooftop pickleball courts were installed on the top of a 6-story public parking garage in Berkeley:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbejlhfB-Dn

Glasses Fail

Another company decided to compete with KitchenBlockers, the company that first game out with lensless frames for eye protection in pickleball. The company is Dink Eyewear. They sell regular sports glasses too, but after doing some research, I’m less than impressed with their lensless ones, called Shield.

One guy posted on Facebook that the frames snapped and a jagged shard was left as a result. Scary.

One of the reviews on their website says this: “My glasses broke the first time I got hit in the face. I have emailed you three different times and have never gotten a reply and over the course of over a week.”

Another:
“These did not protect my eye at all. I tried them on, tested them out by placing a ball up to my eye and the Shield did not prevent the ball from touching my eye; this was just me testing it, I can’t even imagine the damage that would be done if I wore them in an actual game and took a direct hit to the eye.”

I’d much rather have my eyes protected than look a bit more fashionable! There was also several reviews talking about the glasses warping from heat. Pass.

Number of days on a court: 949
Number of total hours: 3,508
Number of paid coaching hours: 221.5

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.

Tuesday, July 28, 2026 (Court Day #948)

I was about to leave work at 6:15 p.m. and head to Skypark, but when I asked my nephew if he’d be willing to close the family business, he said that he wasn’t feeling well. So instead, I stayed to close up and then gave him a ride home, then I left his house at 6:30 p.m.

It was a warm 70°F. It has been warm for the last week and a half or so.

Injuries

My right knee continues to bother me. As a matter of course, for as long as I remember, I typically take stairs two at a time, but that’s not something that I can do right now. There’s too much discomfort.

The plantar fasciitis in my left foot seems to be very mild right now. As is the tennis elbow in my right arm. I only notice something in my elbow for very specific and, not particularly common, movements.

Weight

I’ve decided that I am on a diet again. Over the weekend, I weighed in the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life. Too many sweets! I should lose at least 40 pounds, and 50 would be better. There are downsides to being an adult, such as they’re being no one there to tell you you shouldn’t have that second piece of cake or that large Slurpee or a couple of those big cookies at work brought by someone.

Teaching

I have two 4-week pickleball classes starting again this Sunday. I really enjoy teaching, but at certain point I may value my free time higher. I could see doing coaching after I retire. But there’s no telling how many years away that will be. Probably 6 to 10 years.

I hadn’t shared it before, but every time I drive into the Skypark neighbourhood, I start playing paying very close attention to empty parking spots along the way in case I need to go back out and find a spot.

Games

Alec and I won 11-0 again two very young guys Blaine and L-something. We almost had a ‘golden pickle’ but I hit a ball into the net.

Then we won again 11-0 versus Adam and short lefty Eric. This time Alec hit the ball into the net though we weren’t the first servers anyway… so no chance at a golden pickle regardless.

I was chatting with Adam after that game, “Alec only made one mistake that whole game… wait. You made NO mistakes. He hit it into the net!”

Aaron’s Brother Mike

Aaron Hicks brought his brother Mike. Mike says that he moves a lot for work in various states in the country but is currently staying with family between his mom’s house in Soquel and Aaron‘s house.

Mike has pretty good hand eye coordination. He hasn’t developed a good strategy and tends to be on the wrong place in the court. He doesn’t come up to the net and doesn’t cover the middle properly.

I was being a bit lazy while also not hitting optimal shots to try to keep the game challenging. I was also doing a little bit of testing with slice and spin on some shots.

Don’t Fall In!

One funny moment was when I hit a shot and was pinwheeling my arms to keep from falling into the kitchen. Matt Babb saw that and when he got the ball next, he hit it to me. Fortunately, I was able to handle the shot and still get balanced and not fall in!

We finished up the last game a few minutes before the lights went out.

Tonight was one of those nights where you could just not get all four players to be good enough for a challenging game.

Teaching

It’s kind of funny, yesterday I discovered that I was missing one of my students in my beginner class in advanced beginner class. They were both sold down quite some time ago. But now with class starting this Sunday, I saw that I had a spot open in my beginner class. What’s crazy is that I receive no notification from the City of Scotts Valley that I now had a vacancy again in my class. It was pretty much happenstance that I noticed. I had a browser tab left open at work in one of my various browser windows and I just happened to see it while closing up various tabs. Jenn, one of the staff there, said that she would look into it and get me the current rosters for the classes. Today, I checked the class again and it said that the class was full. I sent her an email asking about an updated roster that included the new student, assuming that it wasn’t some weird software glitch.

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Wednesday, July 29, 2026 (No Play)

I woke up this morning and the plantar fasciitis in my left foot tight was mildly, very mildly painful.

This business, Dope Pickleball Co., has come out with glitter pickleball:
https://dopepickleball.co/products/high-roller-gold-glitter-infused-pickleball-ball-40-hole-dpb-40x
A sure sign that the game has progressed… getting more and more weird stuff!

Number of days on a court: 948
Number of total hours: 3,506
Number of paid coaching hours: 221.5

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.

Sunday, July 26, 2026 (Court Day #947)

I was up early and dropped off my wife, my son, my son’s girlfriend, and a family friend for the big annual Wharf to Wharf race. Unlike last year, I didn’t even bother going by Brommer Park to see if I could play there. The evening before the race, the runners plant cars in the parking lot and all around the side streets since the park is fairly close to the finishing line. Unfortunately, that leaves no parking for anyone who would like to use the park.

So instead, I simply went home and took our two dogs for a long walk. A little bit before 9:30 a.m., I was on my way to Derby Park. It had been hot all week and today was also expected to be a warm one. Any clouds were low and mostly offshore and breaking up. There was no fog to keep us cool, but at least we were starting at 64°F.

Derby Park

When I pulled up on the streets outside Derby Park, there were still vestiges of fog barely reaching to the court. Par for the course for many months now, there was mild pain in my right knee with every step.

Dieter showed up today, it was nice to be able to play against him. He’s always a good challenge.

I left just before 1:30 p.m. I had no games today where all four players were 4.0 or higher. The games were challenging at the end only because I was so tired. I didn’t want to move. Even after two hours, I was starting to get tired and by four hours, I was dragging on my feet.

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Monday, July 27, 2026 (No Play)

The PPA has entered in agreement with the Pickleball World Cup, allowing signed PPA players to participate:
https://www.msn.com/en-au/sport/tennis/pickleball-world-cup-opens-door-to-ppa-tour-professionals/ar-AA28HXz0

The PPA is notorious for their exclusive contracts with pro players. As far as I know, Anna Leigh Waters is the only PPA signed player with an exclusion clause that allows her to play at USA Pickleball‘s Nationals every year. If pro player goes off and plays in a tournament outside of the PPA umbrella without permission, they can be fined and suspended. And in some cases, the contract can be severed.

Number of days on a court: 947
Number of total hours: 3,504
Number of paid coaching hours: 221.5

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.