Tuesday, December 30, 2025 (Court Day #887)

This morning, I woke up with a little bit of a cough, but it doesn’t seem to be anything serious. Pickleball is supposed to be one of the safest sports when it comes to illness transmission, but nonetheless, I used some hand sanitizer before I left work, just in case.

Unless something unusual happens, tonight will be my last pickleball outing of the year 2025.

While we are a week past the winter solstice, it is still—of course—quite dark early in the evening. And it was a nippy 57° as I drove to Scotts Valley.

Teaching

My teaching is supposed to resume with a new series of classes this Sunday, but rain is expected to hit tomorrow and continue for quite some time, including through this weekend. I reached out to Rec.us this afternoon to get an updated list of students since I will need to reach out to them one way or another with regard to this weekend.

Monkey

When I was a kid, on Christmas Eve, my grandfather would play a tune on a tin whistle in time with a battery-operated monkey which would clang miniature cymbals together. And if you happened to whack the monkey on the head, its eyes would budge out and its lips would pull back exposing its teeth and it would screech a few times, then return to clanging the cymbals. When we were cleaning my parents’ house a month or so ago, I rescued the monkey along with its hand-knitted matching Christmas beanie.

I brought the monkey on Christmas Eve this year to the annual gathering at my parents’ house and set it on the mantle during dinner festivities. The next generation thought that the monkey looks nefarious, but to my generation, it brings back fond memories! As I drove along tonight, I could hear the monkey’s cymbals rattling since the toy hadn’t made it out of the back of my car yet.

Skypark

I arrived at Skypark at 6:55 p.m.

My first game was teamed up with lefty Aaron B. against Matt and Paul. That was a fun game. Surprisingly, I started out playing quite well in that game only to get a little more sloppy in the second half. Aaron and I won, regardless, by a few points.

Once the game was done, Aaron said he had to leave, stating that he had been there since 3:30 p.m. Lucky guy, I was knee-deep at work at that time.

Alex, the bird researcher, jumped in and replaced Aaron as my partner.

We lost the first game, won the second, then lost the third. Aside from the first game, which was a lopsided result, the rest of the games were pretty close.

We wrapped our play at 8:28 p.m.

It was 52°F when I left. I kept my sweatshirt on the entire time tonight.

As common with night play with me, I felt that I played below average.

Talking Smack

Pickleball players generally don’t go out of their way to mock tennis players for the sport of their choice. But there sure are tennis players that like to attack pickleball, like this guy:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSvpV5XEso7

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Thursday, January 1, 2026 (No Play) – New Years Day

I woke up unquestionably sick today. Congested, fatigued, sick. At least it was wet outside and it was unlikely that I’d get to play anyway.

No Respect

Remember when I said that pickleball players don’t bash tennis players for their sport, but tennis players bash pickleball players? Yeah, here’s another:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRuq3YgDwWP

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Friday, January 2, 2026 (No Play)

Anna Bright shared 26 things you can do to get better in pickleball this year. I feel this is worth sharing…

Here’s Part 1:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DS_IBrDDvIw

And Part 2:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTBuNHXjgOc

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Sunday, January 4, 2026 (No Play)

I was supposed to start my new round of classes today, but rain prevented it. I notified all my students in advance that we’d be starting classes one week later. I’m still not over the bug I caught, but I was well enough to go into work for a short time yesterday. My voice was a bit weird due to the chest congestion, but I was mostly sequestered in my office anyway.

Dwayne Gingrich

Dwayne is a popular coach on social media who isn’t afraid to counter conventional wisdom. He’s got some confidence too, or he wouldn’t post a video like this of him messing up!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTD5RLGEprC

I commented on it:

This usually happens after I hit some kind of highlight shot. Then this happens. Then you hear the words, “same guy.“

Dwayne replied to my comment with a series of laughing face emojis!

Genie Bouchard

Former tennis pro turned pickleball pro Genie Bouchard was interviewed by Jared of The Kitchen:

Movie Review

So the Lifetime network came out with that Pickleball Christmas movie that aired last month. Well, some guys watched it and shared their comments. I enjoyed this! (It’s not a surprise that they had some critical things to say!)

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Monday, January 5, 2026 (No Play)

Social media is abuzz speculating who is going to be the new paddle sponsor for Women’s #1 player Anna Leigh Waters:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTJL9ySkk9C

Pro Tour Shenanigans?

Did I talk about this already? There were several pro players that went overseas and played exhibition games as part of a tournament in Asia. The PPA was not happy about it and voided their contracts saying proper permission was needed to participate in events not under the PPA purview. But there is speculation that the players were dumped because, unlike other players, these particular players had not agreed to the new contract pay structure rolled out after the PPA/MLP merger. They were getting paid more than other players and many see this situation as a good excuse for the PPA to drop them. Some question, for instance, if top players Ben Johns or Anna Lee Waters had done the same thing, would they have been dropped? (Probably not!)

Number of days on a court: 887
Number of total hours: 3,357.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 185.5

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

Sunday, December 28, 2025 (Court Day #886)

Yesterday I was working, so no pickleball for me then. Organized club play over at Skypark yesterday had been delayed an hour due to wet courts. I also heard that Brommer Park was very busy later on.

Today, it was sunny without a cloud in the sky, but it was still brisk in the mid-50s.

While sitting earlier this morning, I noticed that my right knee was bothering me. Like Friday, and it decided to wear my knee brace again. I will admit that I’m slightly vain and don’t want to end up with one tan leg and one pale leg due to the knee brace!

Brommer

I pulled into the parking lot at 9:50 a.m. and the lot was a little bit over half full.

Alec and I lost to Austin and Jesse, something like 7-11. But we won the rematch 11–5.

While I was at the net and left-hand side, Jesse ripped a crosscourt drive that I couldn’t handle. The shot came right between my hip and my armpit of my paddle side, making it very difficult to handle. I complimented him about the shot. But Jesse told me, “You had your paddle down! Every time you have your paddle down, I’m going to drive it!” This is why it’s so important to record games of yourself and analyze. I didn’t realize that I was keeping my paddle down while at the net. I don’t know if it’s something that I do all the time, or if it is something I only do when I’m tired. Regardless, it’s something to try to be aware of and think about.

It was busy today, with relatively long waits.

I called it a day at 1:57 p.m. after 4 hours of play.

As I drove away, I was of a mixed mind. Today was a combination of solid play, highlight shots, and horrible shots.

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Monday, December 29, 2025 (No Play)

Womens #1 player Anna Leigh Waters has been removed from the Paddletek website. ALW has been sponsored by Paddletek her entire pro career. There is some speculation that she’ll sign with Joola, but who knows.

Trend in Grumpiness?

One commentary on the state of recreational play. (Warning: language not for kids.)
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSv_oiylE8S

Number of days on a court: 886
Number of total hours: 3,356
Number of paid coaching hours: 185.5

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

Friday, December 26, 2025 (Court Day #885)

It has been raining a lot recently, including last night, but this morning, we had a lull. It was sunny and in the low 60s. There are clouds in the north and clouds in the south, but hardly any clouds actually over us.

While there was no cancellation notice sent out, I wasn’t convinced that club play was actually going on at Brommer Park. But it had been a while since I’d played and I really wanted to get out. I figured that even if club play was not going on, there would be players out at least drilling at Brommer if the courts were too wet.

Brommer

I arrived at Brommer Park at 10:25 a.m. The clouds were definitely blowing in and the rain was expected around 1 p.m. according to my wife.

There were empty courts when I arrived, and I assumed that it was just rec play, but that turned out not to be the case. I went to hang up my backpack when a woman on the court informed me, “Gloves going on.”
I was very confused. “Gloves?”
“Club is going on.”
Ah! That makes so much more sense!

There was indeed club play going on with signups. Between games, there either no waits at all or the waits were very short. Often times the wait involved waiting for a fourth player to go fill one of the open courts.

As I continued to play, my performance got better and better. It started out pretty rough.

First Game: Illegal

In my first game was playing against a guy I’ve never seen before. His serves were difficult to handle with unusual spin. It was a bit puzzling. But then I figured out that he was serving illegally. He was doing a volley serve, but he was swinging from high to low and putting significant backspin on the ball. I let it go during the game, but once the game was complete, I brought it to his attention. He asked why it was illegal and I explained. He said he’d switch to a drop serve.

Second Game: Illegal

He and I teamed up in the next game and I noticed him doing the drop serve, but that was also illegal because he was throwing the ball down instead of just opening his fingers and let gravity do its job. Then, during the game, he went back to his illegal volley serve. But it is rec play, I really don’t care a whole lot. Making the serve to me more difficult is fine by me when there is nothing on the line other than getting better and/or having fun.

Tournament for C & J

Chayton mentioned that he and Jordan are playing together at a tournament in Monterey in the 4.5 level in a few weeks. Chayton said that they were planning to stack, with Jordan on the left and he on the right. He said Jordan has some very nice backhand crosscourt shots and he prefers playing on the right anyway.

Tim F. and I were playing against Brendan Fish and Ken, the regular. We barely lost the first game and we played a rematch. We won 11–3. Just as we were serving the last ball, drizzle started coming down. By the time that we finish the game and I got to my backpack and pulled out my car keys, it was starting to come down pretty heavily. The last game finished up at 1:55 p.m. 

It was windy like crazy today. It made some shots unpredictable. 

My mini-vacation of two days off ends and it’s back to work tomorrow.

Pickleball Gift

Yesterday, my lone Christmas present pertaining to pickleball, was a gift from my wife—a 2026 pickleball calendar featuring literally pickle cartoon characters saying cliché pickleball jokes, such as, “I have a dinking problem!”

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Saturday, December 27, 2025 (No Play)

A local news station interviewed an 85-year-old national champion in Maumelle, Arkansas, kind of fun:
https://youtu.be/nj8P3J3EDGs

New Rule Book

UPA Pickleball has released their new rulebook for 2026:
https://usapickleball.org/docs/rules/USAP-Official-Rulebook.pdf

And the change document which outlines the—well—changes!
https://usapickleball.org/docs/rules/USAP-Rulebook-Change-Document.pdf

Number of days on a court: 885
Number of total hours: 3,352
Number of paid coaching hours: 185.5

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