Sunday, October 26, 2025 (Court Day #866)

It was 55° and overcast as I headed to Brommer Park. There’s currently a 23% chance of rain at 5 p.m. this afternoon and a  lower chance at 4 p.m. I’m teaching today and my second class doesn’t end until 4:30 p.m., making things a little bit interesting. Cancel my classes now and reschedule? Proceed with the class? In the end, this morning I sent an email to my students, letting them know that my plan is to proceed with classes.

Brommer Park

I pulled in at 9:36 a.m. and the lot was about two-thirds full.

When I walked in, Mike sullivan— apparently having just finished a game–was standing by the sliding divider between the two halves of the courts. He asked if I’d like to warm up, and I agreed, and we found an empty court. The courts wouldn’t completely fill up for another hour.

Games

After not too long, Mike Sullivan and I found ourselves in a game against Kyle (a regular at Brommer) and Mike Cattivara from Boulder Creek who rarely comes to Brommer, but I’ve seen frequently at Skypark. He explained that it’s a bit of a drive for him from his house to Brommer. Mike and I lost 8-11.

Next, Mike S. and I won 11-8 against Mike C. and guy named Tim who has wicked backhands.

Mike C. & Me

Then Mike C. and I teamed up and won 11-0 versus Mike S. and Trevor.

Then we took on Mike S. and his friend Hans and won 11-3.

We had a rematch and again, Mike C. and I won 11-3. They initially went up 2-0 but we were ahead 10-2 before they scored again.

During post-game paddle tap, Mike S. said, “You guys are on fire.”

Mike C. told me, “I could get used to playing with you!” He said we have a natural fit. And it’s true, our games mesh well.

Next Games

Sean and I lost 5-11 against Jordan and Hans. We had lots of errors in this game, especially me.

I won with Tim (he’s the husband of Rebecca Ramos who I know from work) 11-7 against Conner M. and Mike O’Brien. 

I left at 12:02 p.m. The clock was ticking to get home, eat, and get out to teach.

Teaching

As my first class started at 1:30 pm., there was a very light mist coming down. It seems like that for about 45 minutes then it started coming down a little bit heavier. Then, by 2:30, real rain and I cancelled my class in the middle of a drill and sent everyone home.

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Monday, October 27, 2025 (No Play)

Halloween is right around the corner. Someone posted a fake “Self-Rated 4.0 Player” costume!

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Tuesday, October 28, 2025 (No Play)

Dwayne Gingrich, a pickleball coach who I agree with sometimes and disagree with sometimes, shared a fascinating study done about the influence of perception and the mind. Mindset is important!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQW39yZCd-l

Pickleball Kingdom

Pickleball Kingdom franchises their brand to over 350 pickleball businesses. That’s a lot! Well, one of the franchisees in Plano, Texas, filed for bankruptcy last month saying that Pickleball Kingdom didn’t provide enough support for the money they were paid. Ok. But then they reopened a few weeks later as the Lone Star Pickleball Club. So Pickleball Kingdom then sued them to keep the facility from reopening.

Here you can track the progress of the case… though you may need to be part of the legal system to understand it!
https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/60491696/Pickleball_Kingdom_Franchising,_LLC_v_PK_Plano_LLC

You figure maybe the franchisee got whatever they wanted in terms of startup help, then didn’t want to cough up the ongoing fees and wanted out of the contract.

Toronto and Pickleball Noise

Same story. New place. Pickleball making a racket and annoying the neighbors, this time in Canada:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sports-recreation-toronto-city-council-9.6932605

Number of days on a court: 866
Number of total hours: 3,311.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 179

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

Saturday, October 25, 2025 (Court Day #865)

Thursday night, Mike sullivan sent out a text blast to a bunch of people trying to put together a foursome for this morning for his reserved court from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Brommer Park. He was bringing his friend from Truckee named Hans.

Charles Overbeck texted Friday morning that he would play and I chimed in less than 10 minutes later saying that I’d join the group.

Today

It was completely overcast and 57°F with a 17% chance of rain. Overcast is good, that means no sun in your eyes! Rain not so much! But we were fine.

While on the road, I texted Mike and told him that I might be five minutes late. I’m definitely not a morning person and after getting only a little bit over six hours of sleep, I was not moving quickly.

There was the faintest of mist on my windshield as I drove. It was hardly anything to worry about though.

Brommer

I pulled into the parking lot at Brommer Park at 8:01 a.m.—traffic lights cycle quickly early on a Saturday morning!

Sure enough, Mike was there on his reserved court along with Hans. They were warming up with Kyle, a regular at Brommer.

Games

Kyle and I teamed up and played against Hans and Mike. Charles arrived mid-game and once the score got to 6, Kyle stepped out. Charles and I went on to win 11-6.

We switched things up and this time Charles paired with Mike. Hans and I lost 6-11.

Charles and I lost 5-11 to Mike and Hans.

Mike and I won 11-8.

Hans and I won 11-8

Charles and I won 11-9.

Mike and lost 1-11. (Ouch! Sometime, games just go bad!)

After that disaster, we had to have a rematch. We were ahead in that one, but they tied it up 8-8, then they went on to win 11-8.

Charles shared, “Andrew has gotten better …. [turning to me with a smile] as much as I hate to admit it.” Ah, those backhanded compliments!

4 wins, 4 losses, but all fun. A pretty well-balanced group. Charles is still the strongest player.

We were done at 10:35 a.m.

As Charles and I walked to the parking lot, he told me, “You played really well today.” I didn’t feel like I was playing that great, although I did start to play better after my fourth game. It generally does take me a few games to really start going.

And?

My defense off of attacks is getting better and better. Resets continue to improve.

I got a few points off of my serves today, mostly returns into the net. Hans commented how my serves “don’t come back up”. That’s the topspin.

Hans is a lefty and there were two or three shots where I accidentally set them up for winners—which would not have been the case had Hans been a righty! Something to remember during a game!

It was nice seeing Charles again, it had been a while. He retired in January and says that he plays Tuesday and Thursday mornings at Bromer. Of course, I work at those times!

NFL Pickleball

Star defensive lineman Micah Parsons is a big pickleball addict. The Kitchen posted an article about it a few weeks ago that I previously missed:
https://thekitchenpickle.com/blogs/news/micah-parsons-pickleball-nfl-green-bay-packers-dallas-cowboys

CBS also did a piece on him and pickleball back in July:

Yeah. Pickleball is for just old unathletic people… NOT!

Number of days on a court: 865
Number of total hours: 3,309
Number of paid coaching hours: 178

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

Thursday, October 23, 2025 (Court Day #864)

It is getting dark so early these days. After work, I stopped by my parents. My brother Mike is in town from Washington State for a couple of weeks and he’s helping my sister organize and de-clutter my parents’ house. My parents—mostly my dad—have collected a lot of things over the 50 years that they have lived there. It may have been a mistake to introduce my dad to eBay, but that is a story for another time! Regardless, I left my parents’ house with the back of my car full of garbage bags and recycling.

Sports Cam

I had ordered a thumb-size sports camera, but the description was confusing and I accidentally got the 1080P model instead of the 4K model. (The title specifically said “4K” but one of the options was apparently a 1080P model.)

Today, I sent one of my staff to the post office with it to be returned.

Recently, we received two or three packages via USPS to our business, each containing multiple bottles of male health supplements addressed for a guy we’ve never heard of. I think it may be one of those scams where they send products to random people so that they can write their own positive reviews on Amazon… in any case, the bottles are on their way back to Amazon. Those went to the post office with my staff today too. They have gone whence they came!

Skypark

I arrived at Skypark at 7 p.m. and David L. pulled into the parking lot right after me. Attendance was light and there were courts open when I arrived. Daniel Borlean was there and he asked if I wanted to warm up, which of course, I did. Mauricio arrived a moment later and jumped onto our court next to me and warmed up against Scott.

After about five minutes of warming up, we got into a game against Daniel and Scott. Mauricio and I lost the first game by a significant margin. Then the second, and the third. By the fourth game, we were fully warmed up and playing a bit better and won that one. Quite a turnabout. Going from getting completely clobbered to winning. After that, Daniel decided to leave.

Mauricio and I played a game against David and Scott. It was a close game but we lost.

In that game against Scott and David, Scott got me on a number of lobs which were miserable under the lights. Almost no matter where you were against a lob, you were looking up into the lights.

Rose and Megan

The last game was me pairing up with a woman named Rose against Mauricio and Megan. Megan has good spins and angles, but also likes to drive and speed up shots to me, which is a mistake. Those are my strengths. Fast hands and handling fast drives. My partner Rose obviously has a tennis background since she has a habit of staying at the baseline. Nonetheless, to my surprise, we won that game. After one fast exchange at the net that I won off my two initial transition zone resets, Rose was impressed: “S—t!” That’s the best kind of praise. Like after hitting a winners against Matt Smith a few years ago, and he’d rattle off a series of 4-letter words in my direction! Heh. 

And?

Mistakes I was making tonight included hitting returns too long, hitting a lob or two too deep, and those were the only two that I tried. I also I hit a couple of my serves too long. I hit the white tape a couple of times. I hit some drop shots either too low into the net or some too high which were slammed off the court. But my drops did improve over the course of the evening.

The next time that I’m at the optometrist, I swear, I’m going to look into prescription protective goggles and see if that will help me under the lights. Judging depth is difficult for me at night.

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Friday, October 24, 2025 (No Play)

Back on September 11, I shared a New York Times article about pickleball courts taking over tennis courts. Here is some more on growth of pickleball courts in the USA—as you can see, not all were originally tennis courts:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOhioiqDO7P

UPA Paddle Fines

The umbrella company of the PPA Tour, the UPA, is cracking down on paddles—in particular, gritty paddles—as their new standards are rolled out to limit power and spin on paddles. They are getting serious, even threatening $50,000 fines for companies providing illegal paddles to sponsored players:
https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/pro-paddles-are-still-failing-onsite-testing-repeat-offenders-could-face-50k-fines

A First! Singles Only!

Lifetime sponsored the first-ever singles only pro pickleball tournament. It was held October 15-19 in Georgia:
https://ltopen.lifetime.life

They had a $250,00 prize purse with a $50,00 grand prize for each of the mens and womens top finisher from a 128-person qualifier. Those top finishers were Chris Haworth and Lea Jansen.

Ah. I just found a video by Zane Navratil about the event.

And an article too:
https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/haworth-and-jansen-take-home-50k-each-in-the-first-ever-life-time-open/

Number of days on a court: 864
Number of total hours: 3,306.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 178

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