Pickleball Journey

Tuesday, June 30, 2026 (Court Day #942)

Pickleball is spreading over the globe:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DaOcbHrRzGJ
This post says there are now 128 countries with pickleball courts. If I recall correctly, there were 70-some odd countries with governing bodies for pickleball. 128 is not surprising. All it takes is someone with a vacation home in some little country and having a local contractor build a court and—blam!—a new country with a pickleball court! Here’s what this post by thekitchenpickleball says:

“While America leads in pickleball popularity with over 85,000 courts, the sport is spreading rapidly around the world. Courts now exist in 128 countries, per the Pickleheads database. Pickleball has especially exploded in Asia with research from UPA Asia indicating that 812 million people across Asia have played at least once.“

No Break

If I was perhaps a little bit wiser, I might’ve taken tonight off. But we will see how it goes. My right knee was bothering me all day. There’s enough to make me limp a little bit at times, but there were also times where it barely bothered me. But generally, it has been sore.

Skypark

It was sunny in 66° when I arrived in Scotts Valley, and, yes, my knee hurt while walking into the courts at 6:14 p.m.

Games

It was good game after a good game tonight. Paul and I played four games against Gabe and Shreyes. We lost the first game 2–11. We played again and we were leading 8 to 2 but they came back and won that game! I guess Paul and I took our foot off the gas. The third game was also fairly close and Paul and I lost again. Paul wanted to mix up the teams, but I was not having it. I wanted to win a win. We did a fourth game and this time Paul and I won by a wide margin. I felt a bit better with that one.

Paul and I played a game against the guy named Ashton, who had not seen him quite some time, and another young fellow who I had never met before. It was a bit distracting, they were talking quite a bit between points about random stuff. Ashton has an interesting style, he plays in a nonchalant fashion, generally preferring placement over power. It started out pretty even but then as the game went on Paul and I stretched out a lead and won.

David and Adam

David L. arrived and we grabbed him. There was a tall guy named Adam who walked up who I never met before asking if we wanted a fourth. Paul told him, “We were waiting for you!“ Of course, we weren’t actually waiting for him, Paul was showing a warm welcome.

Paul and I continued to play together, and in normal fashion, David was all over the court. Paul and I lost the first game, but then won the second game. We played a third game, which we lost, but they had to work very hard to earn that one. It was side out after side out after side out. The lights went off mid game, but there was still enough natural light to continue until we were finished. We finished up roughly about 8:40 p.m.

Home

When I arrived home, I wrapped my knee with my Black Ice cooling packs. After that, I popped into our hot tub.

In more adventures with injuries, the plantar fasciitis foot support arrived today. It has a stiff, but bendable, metal strip in it along with a whole lot of Velcro straps. I wore it tonight. 

NBA Pickleball

Elite NBA basketball player LeBron James enjoys playing pickleball:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DaQzQiGCfK7
Ok, not really, this is satire. But it’s almost believable. He wouldn’t be the only former pro sports player to a) play pickleball; b) buy or start a pro pickleball team!

Ultimate Pickleball League 

I stumped across a new league. I don’t know how long it has been around, but I suspect not long since I’ve never heard of it. The Ultimate Pickleball League, or UPL, is a semi-pro league design to feed winners in regionals up to national events. (Not that much that unlike USA Pickleball’s golden tickets to Nationals, I suppose.) We’ll see what becomes of it as months and/or years pass. Will it be another flash in the pan?

Ultimate Pickleball League

Number of days on a court: 942
Number of total hours: 3,491.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 221.5

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

Sunday, June 28, 2026 (Court Day #941)

It’s been two months since I’ve been to Brommer Park. Between traveling and wanted to take it easy with various injuries, Derby Park has been by Sunday morning destination.

Injuries

I’m still dealing with this relatively new plantar fasciitis in my left foot, but it seems to be trending in the right direction. The bottom of my left foot is tight when I get up in the morning and walk around, but I wouldn’t call it painful. The tennis elbow in my right arm has been staying at bay. I played my last few outings righty without too much in the way of issues.

Weather

It is mostly overcast in 59° when I left my house. My wife, the weather princess, shared that was supposed to be warm later and almost 80°F. Cooler would be better for my classes in the afternoon, but I would definitely take low 80s versus the 100° day that I had a couple of summers ago while teaching.

Today would be my second outing with this new pair of FILA brand pickleball shoes that had been sitting in my garage for a few years. They feel slightly tight in the toes, but the shoes should wear in at some point. Sooner or later, I’d like to try a pair of shoes with a wider toe box.

Brommer Park

I pulled into the Brommer parking lot at 9:09 a.m. The parking lot was just over half full.

Games

Diana and I played against Mo and the fellow with the hearing aid implant—I don’t recall his name. We won 11-1.

Hispanic Chris and I won 11-4 versus Dean and Tish.

Tish and I lost 11-13 vs. Chris and Che.

Trevor and I won 11-8 against Che and Stoehr.

Stoehr and I won 11-6 versus Taylor and young Marcus. (I made the mistake of underestimating Taylor once before… not this time!)

Second String

Kiko ran over and answered his phone from the middle of a game. It must have been his wife. He announced that he had to go, waved to the court he had come from on his jog to—and out of—the gate.

Sean Lynch was standing there by himself across the net Casey and Marquis. There was a pause as the question was considered of who would replace Kiko in a high-powered game. From someone else on the wall came a yell, “Andrew! Get in there!”

There was some brief hesitation, but we proceeded. Marquis had the game restart at 0-0.

I could tell that they were hitting more to Sean, much like I would do in a game against a team with a weaker player. But is the game went on, I believe that I earned my stripes. I bodybagged Marquis on a speed up from the right side off of a dink. Between rallies, while walking back to the baseline, Sean told me, “Nice dinking.” I did make some errors. I did hit a return long past the baseline, giving them a point. But then again, in uncharacteristic fashion, Sean had three of his returns long of the baseline. (I had a brief passing thought wondering if Sean was throwing the game, but no.) I hit one dink volley that I took far too much off the shot and the ball went nowhere, landing short of the net. (Embarrassing!) During one rally when I was on the left, Casey hit a shot to my right intended for Sean, but I poached the shot and hit the ball down into the middle… Marquis did manage to get that shot back, but it was a pop-up which I then slammed for a winner. Sean and I went on to lose 8-11 against Casey and Marquis. Later on, after the game was done, Sean told me that I had played well.

I had to sit and wait around a little bit for my next game. I chatted with Sean about teaching. He teaches classes at Willowbrook in Aptos which I left to him alone when I moved my teaching from there to Scotts Valley.

Another Aaron

My next game was with Mickey against Dragon and a very tan lefty named Aaron. Aaron can rip shots like nobody’s business. I suspect that he came from a serious tennis background with some kind of training such as he was on a high school or college team. I’ll have to ask him the next time I have the opportunity. This game was never in doubt. We lost either 4-11 or 5-11. It took me a little time to get used to the speed of Aaron’s drives.

My last game was teamed up again with Mickey against Shreyes and a tall older guy whose name I forget. We won 11-6.

I got invited into another game but I checked the time… it was 11:54 a.m. Time for me to get home and get ready to teach.

And?

I would absolutely love to play against Aaron more often. It’s rare that I get to see anyone who can hit a shot that hard. It was awesome! I love the challenge.

It wasn’t nearly as warm as the predictions had projected. It was still only in the high 60s when I left Brommer Park. It was a lovely day.

Teaching then More Games

After teaching ended, and I was giving my farewell talk to my students, Jerry—who is a regular at Skypark—walked up. When I was done, I asked him, “Are you looking for a fourth?“ He said that he was and I decided to join them.

I teamed up with Jerry against his friends, Dan and Ron. Jerry and I lost the first game by a little bit. Jerry is a bit of a banger. He has an Aireo Cyclone paddle, which is very poppy with a lot of power, which makes him even more of a banger.

We switched sides and played it again, but this time Jerry and I won.

We switched sides and played again and Jerry and I won by a little bit of a wider margin.

During one game Dan was telling Ron, “He has super fast hands! It’s annoying!“ It’s not the first time I’ve been described as having fast hands.

We switched things up and this time I played with Ron. If I had to pick one of the three as a tournament partner, I would pick Ron. Jerry would be the next, followed by Dan. That ranking became evident in the last game with Ron and I winning 11-4.

I checked the time, 5:56 p.m. It was definitely time to get home.

It was in the high 70s as I made my way home under clear blue skies.

And?

My right knee was bothering me after the morning session and it was bothering me more after the afternoon session. Plantar fasciitis isn’t too bad, though I could feel it.

Next weekend will be Independence Day. I have a break from classes for a month, with classes resuming the first Sunday in August.

My left foot and my right knee were both kind of painful after the two sessions today. Not exactly a surprise.

Newspaper Insert

There was a newspaper insert today, a magazine featuring regional leisure spaces… and one of the features was a pickleball court in Los Gatos, about 25 minutes from my house.

Here’s a link to the online version of the article. The second half of the article is all pickleball:

Ziplines. Glamping. Pickleball. Inside the trends shaping Bay Area backyard design

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Monday, June 29, 2026 (No Play)

I woke up to minor plantar fasciitis and strange pain in the main part of my left foot out in the direction my little toe. Fortunately, both gradually mostly went away over the course of the day. My right knee continued to bother me all day, however. 

Advantages of Pickleball

The advantages of playing pickleball, this is funny:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaJWF5NSeXc/

New Paddles

Dunlop has entered the pickleball realm and has several paddles newly approved by USA Pickleball.

[Later note: Even in early August, this paddle was not available for shipping.]

Number of days on a court: 941
Number of total hours: 3,489
Number of paid coaching hours: 221.5

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

Thursday, June 25, 2026 (Court Day #940)

The plantar fasciitis in my left foot is improving. Stretching seems to make a huge difference. Last night, I ordered a soft splint, which will keep my foot closer to 90° angle, which keeps the fascia stretched out overnight. The claim is that the fascia heals overnight in a shorter relaxed foot position, then it can tear when stretched out by walking around in the morning. I will say that morning is typically the worst, however, on Sunday afternoon, the pain in my foot was significant. Quite a bit more so than it would typically be in the morning. Regardless, it was a little tight and only very mildly sore as I headed to Scotts Valley tonight.

On My Way

It was sunny and 66° as I drove to Scotts Valley after work. I got one of my staff to close up te business since I haven’t gotten to play much lately and I really want to get in more than my typical 90 minutes tonight.

I realized that forgot my sports sunglasses at home, but I keep a pair of sunglasses for driving in my car regardless, so I used those instead.

Skypark

Being early to the courts was nice, was able to find myself a spot in the parking lot.

I was walking into the courts at 6:06 p.m.

There were three or four games going on, but I was the odd man out. I spent about 10 minutes waiting for someone to show up. Eventually, Aaron Huang arrived and he and I started warming up. Shreyas arrived, and we started warming him up and then Alec finished whatever game he was in and joined us.

I played an assortment of unmemorable games for the two and half hours I was at Skypark.

The lights went out shortly after 8:30 p.m. and we were in the middle of a game. Aaron Hicks and I were playing against Shreyas and short left-handed Eric. We played for about 10 minutes after wrapping up the lopsided win.

I do have to give some credit to Eric. There was one rally where there was a high ball and I slammed that thing really good. But Eric still managed to get the ball back anyway. I’m pretty good about getting slams like that back myself so it was a taste of almost like playing in a mirror.

I was not playing my best tonight, though I was serving pretty well.

Pro Accident

Earlier today at an MLP event in New York, a large baseline LED scoreboard blew over briefly trapping Rachel Rohrabacher’s leg. It looked really bad, but she was relatively ok, though she didn’t return to play.

Here is an articles about it:
https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/baseline-scoreboard-falls-on-player-during-mlp-new-york-match/
…and another…
https://www.timesnownews.com/sports/pickleball/frightening-scene-at-mlp-new-york-as-wind-blows-led-scoreboard-onto-rachel-rohrabacher-article-154784734

And Nico the Lefty’s take on the incident (with a warning that there is foul language):
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaBiWpsyEDS

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Friday, June 26, 2026 (No Play)

It’s seriously getting time to retire one of my pairs of pickleball shoes! (I need a pickleball show sponsor!)

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Saturday, June 27, 2026 (No Play)

Jennifer Lucore, retired pro women’s champion, added a new entry to her blog:
https://allpickleball.com/first-pro-pickleball-tour/
It’s really cool to revisit history. The first pro tournaments were held a few months after I started playing pickleball. Jennifer has a couple of links on that page to blog posts that she made at the time. (At the moment, they say April 2016 and May 2016, but I just emailed her telling her that those are supposed to be 2017.)

A kick is this photo that Jennifer shared as a part of a collage of pro participants:

I commented on Jennifer’s social media post promoting this new blog post. I said, “That kind of looks like Tyson but with no tattoos!” (Granted, I was viewing it on my little phone screen.) She replied, “yes, it’s Tyson”. Wow. Tyson is much more decorative these days.

You can see Tyson’s own take on the passage of time here.

Funny!

Here’s an amusing photo of a future pickleball player in the womb:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZsH8Z-xFMR/

Number of days on a court: 940
Number of total hours: 3,485
Number of paid coaching hours: 218.5

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