Thursday, March 5, 2026 (Court Day #908)

Lou Holtz, famous one-time head coach of the Notre Dame football team which he took to a national championship, gave a what looks like a commencement speech in his elder years. If you want a little inspiration in your day, watch this:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1855140311871749

This video short mocking pickleball partners is pretty funny:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUbW3qtkqW_

Probing Your Opponents

Jordan Briones sent out an article in his newsletter and this jumped out at me:
“I’ll intentionally send a few balls there [middle] early to see who takes it. Once I know which player is more aggressive, I can start targeting the other player’s inside foot and keep the pressure on.”

It’s one thing to know which of your two opponents is the weaker player. But there are more aspects to it. It’s also figuring out specifically what they are weaker at.

Classes

I sent out a reminder to my students that the time change will be this Sunday and that if they don’t change their clocks, they would be an hour late to class. When it comes to teaching, I don’t like unknowns. I like my students to be on time and to give me advance warning if they can’t make a class. One of my Advanced Beginner students said she wouldn’t be able to make class this weekend, so I’ve already arranged for someone to fill in and balance the drilling pairs.

Skypark

I left work early. It was a beautiful day, in the mid 60s and sunny without a cloud in the sky. It had been kind of blustery earlier, but the wind seemed to be calming down.

The courts were full and there are very few people waiting. I had two options. One would be to wait and hopefully break up a group coming off of a court or, two, to jump in with whoever happen to be available. I chose the latter.

Games

I paired with a young woman named Sierra against her friend Jonah, who paired up with regular Gowa. I would put the youngsters at a low 3.0 rating.

In games like this, there’s a question of how you want to play. Do you want to simply keep the rallies going and leave winners on the table? Or do you want to give them a true experience of playing against a stronger player? Sometimes it’s not fair to give them a false sense of security. I certainly wasn’t out for blood in this game, but I did hit winners when they were obvious. After Sierra and I had won the game (solidly), I asked Jonah if he wanted a tip. He said yes, then I went on to explain “shading” to him. There were a number of times during the game, where he had left the middle wide open because he wasn’t shifting over to the side with the ball.

More Games

The level of the games that I was getting into were so poor and strong groups coming off were just sticking together, that I was considering leaving. Instead, I sat on the bench and decided to be picky about who I was going to play with. As I was sitting Aaron Huang and Frabrizio arrived. This was good news. Now we just needed a fourth. Fortunately, young Jordan finished up a game and joined us.

Jordan and I won against Fabrizio and Aaron 11-4. We did a rematch and we won again 11-7.

We mixed things up, with me playing with Aaron. We lost, with Jordan and Fabrizio winning 12-10.

But Aaron and I won the next one 11-6. Aaron and I finished up our win about a minute before the lights clicked off. I’m glad I stayed—those last few games made the trip to Scotts Valley worth it.

And?

I felt really good about my play tonight. 

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Friday, March 6, 2026 (No Play)

How Andre Agassi’s life has been changed by pickleball:
https://fb.watch/FHnZo1xqLO/?mibextid=wwXIfr&fs=e

Pro Mixed

I was talking recently about men taking over the court in mixed doubles—sometimes to the detriment of their game, but sometimes not. What is surprising is how much a male can get away with when it comes to hogging the court. Here’s a screenshot example.

The male player is literally past the female player and partly over her sideline, leaving the court almost entirely uncovered. If I recall correctly, I believe they managed to get back into their positions and continue this rally even with this wild situation.

Number of days on a court: 908
Number of total hours: 3,405
Number of paid coaching hours: 200.5

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

Tuesday, March 3, 2026 (Court Day #907)

While out walking the dog this morning I came across this article. In it, tennis players, surprise, prefer tennis over pickleball… or at least, believe the tennis is more challenging.
https://www.thetennisgazette.com/news/andre-agassi-gives-his-verdict-on-tennis-and-pickleball-and-reveals-which-sport-is-more-challenging

PPA tour

Cheating has become such an issue in the PPA tour that they’ve come up with penalties for cheating with escalating repercussions.
https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/the-ppa-tour-is-instituting-stricter-cheating-penalties-for-repeat-offenders

PPR players can request a rally review during a game. If a player is found to be making bad calls, there is a scale of penalties:
• 1st Offense – Warning
• 2nd Offense – Point penalty
• 3rd Offense – Game penalty
• 4th Offense – Match penalty

With decent money involved these days, this makes sense.

Skypark

So I had another of what feels like a period of various nonprofit board meetings this afternoon. I returned to work very briefly afterwards, then changed and headed out to Scotts Valley. It’s been getting dark later and will become more so with the time change on this coming Sunday.

I arrived at Skypark around 6:20 p.m.

It was very busy when I arrived and people were using the paddle rack.

Games

My first game was a good one. Young Andy and I lost against Aaron Huang and young Jordan 10-12. 

We had a rematch and lost again 7-11.

More Games

Next up, Mauricio and I won 11-5 versus Savannah and Daniel. 

Then we lost 3-11 to Savannah and Ashley. Ashley is a strong player.

Mauricio and I won 11-7 against Chuck and Ashley. I was trying to hit more to Ashley. 

We had a rematch in and this time Ashley and Chuck won 11–7.

We had a rubber match but time was running out. We served as quickly as we could and the score was tied 8-8 when Mauricio served and the lights clicked out just before a Chuck was about to hit the ball.

It is 55° when I left, but I was sweating and didn’t feel cool at all.

Number of days on a court: 907
Number of total hours: 3,402.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 200.5

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

Sunday, March 1, 2026 (Court Day #906)

The same four of us from last Sunday arranged to meet at 8 a.m. again at Brommer Park on a reserved court today… Mike Sullivan, Mauricio Cuervo, Ben David.

The streak of beautiful days in the 70s appears to have come to a halt. It was completely overcast and 57°F this morning as I headed to the courts to meet up with the guys.

I was rather tired this morning, my daughter Charlotte flew home last night only to turn around at 5 a.m. with her friend to drive to Las Cruces, New Mexico, to her medical school. It took me about an hour to get back to sleep. I definitely got less sleep that I am accustomed to.

Brommer Park

I pulled into the parking lot at 7:57 a.m., then walked to the far end to our reserved court. Ben was in a game with JP, Kirk, and Gary when I arrived.

Games

I was going to video record more games today, but the rubber band broke that was part of my makeshift harness for attaching the camera to the fence. Alas.

Mike and I lost 5-11.

Mauricio and I won 11-3.

I teamed up with Ben. We were up 6-0, but found ourselves at 7-8 later in the game, but pulled off a win 11-7.

Mike and I won 11-1.

Mauricio and I lost 4-11.

Ben and I won 11-2

Mike and I lost 3-11. I was getting tired. Mauricio was playing very well in this game.  

Mauricio and I lost 5-11. 

Ben I lost 7-11.

In the last game, Mike and I won 12–10.

I told them that I would need to leave at 10:45 a.m. to get to an 11 o’clock appointment on the westside of Santa Cruz. Unfortunately, this last game almost went over 20 minutes and it was 10:57 a.m. when I checked my phone for the time. Time to go!!

I was kind of glad that I had an appointment, I was already really tired. On the drive back to the westside, I felt like it was almost ready to take a nap. This is practically unheard of for me!

Games Summary

Ben has come out strong the last two outings. There were too many unforced errors on my part. It’s kind of funny. Ben had six wins out of the ten games, but he won two games with me, two with Mike, and two with Mauricio.

Tournament Invite

Dave Cox contacted me and asked if I wanted to play with him in the Monterey tournament in October. I had to let him know that I’ve already signed up with someone else.

Teaching

 I had two new classes to teach starting today. My handler for Rec.us, Nazarena, was pushing me to accept two additional students into the Advanced Beginner class, but it would be awkward for a number of reasons. It works so well when I have full sets of doubles for games. Having 10 students means that I have two students who can’t participate in 4-person games. So I told her that I did not want to accept two more students, even though it would mean more money for me. I’d rather give the existing students that I have a better experience and also reduce my stress.

Today, Nazarena texted saying she was thinking of starting another Advanced Beginner class in the middle of the month, in two weeks. That would mean I would have two weeks of teaching for 4 1/2 hours straight on a Sunday afternoon until 6 p.m. The big question is even if that class would fill. I suspect that it wouldn’t.

It was funny, in my Advanced Beginner class today, I started with introductions, followed by a detailed review of the serving rules, then I explained some strategic background pertaining to the drills would be running. At which point, one of my students exclaimed, “Wow! I got my money’s worth in the first 15 minutes!” This is pleasing for an instructor to hear, of course!

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Monday, March 2, 2026 (No Play)

Ben Johns on being successful and how to win:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVOifLyDhtv

Tennis pro Nick Kyrgois out playing pickleball and having a good time:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVZZdelDg_g

Number of days on a court: 906
Number of total hours: 3,400.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 200.5

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