It’s been a whole week since I played. I’m sure it’s not coincidental that my right knee was feeling better this morning and barely hurting when walking.
It was 61°F and completely overcast when I left my house.
Brommer Park
I pulled into the parking lot at 9:27 a.m. and took the only open parking spot. *whew*
Games
My first game was with JP and we lost 10-12 to Zach and Irish Tracy.
I teamed up with an Asian man I’ve seen once or twice before named Hing. We won 11-2 against JP and Eric.
Kim and I teamed up and won 13-11 against JP and Hing. Kim pointed out during that game that I had just hit an outball. Hing had hit the ball hard and it was going up. In some instances, it’s hard to get past “see ball, hit ball!” I do a reasonably good job—though not perfect—of letting balls go that are wide of either sideline. It’s the ones coming faster at the net that are difficult for me. This continues to be my #1 Achilles Heel.
Next up, JP and I played against Mickey and Shreyes and lost 9-11.
John and I won 11-7 against Art and Alex, the bird researcher.
My last game wrapped up at 11:38 a.m. There weren’t enough players for me to get into a game. John had jumped back in to another game and that left Alex, Art, and me. At 11:44 a.m., I figured there wasn’t enough time for me to get in a game before needing to leave around noon. I gathered my things and off I went!
It was still overcast, but it had climbed to 70°F.
Teaching Adventures
With my classes at Skypark in the afternoon, parking was a total nightmare for my students. It was the day of the annual Scotts Valley Art Beer & Wine Festival and there were cars parked everywhere!
Number of days on a court: 954 Number of total hours: 3,517.5 Number of paid coaching hours: 228.5
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I was awake for about three hours in the early morning dwelling on work. It was miserable. I eventually went back to sleep shortly after 7 a.m. Later, I woke back up shortly before 9 a.m. then lounged around groggily in bed.
Pickleball Dream
It’s funny, when I was driving to go play, I remembered a snippet of one of my dreams. This dream involved me arriving to play pickleball and discovering the soles of my shoes being mostly detached and flopping around unusable. I have little doubt that this was work stress manifesting itself in my subconscious.
Injuries
I wake up every morning with very degrees of tightness in my left foot from plantar fasciitis. My right knee has very degrees of pain with each step. It’s usually maybe a 3 out of 10, but sometimes it’ll creep up to a 5 or 6 out of 10 in terms of discomfort.
Brommer Park
It was sunny and 63°F at my house, but Brommer was under fog when I pulled in at 9:55 a.m. The parking lot was completely full. There was a soccer game going on, which is very unusual. I ended up having to park down the block and around the corner and walk to the courts.
It wasn’t a huge delay, I was still walking into the courts at 10 a.m. sharp.
I went from game to game to game today, which was great, and most of the games were at least somewhat challenging. Though there were a couple that were not as much.
Games
My first two or three games were pretty rough. I was not playing very well. Dieter and I played a game against Mickey and a woman named Tracy with a thick Irish accent who I don’t believe I’d ever met before. Dieter and I were initially not expecting much from her. She turned down to be a good player with quick hands.
Mickey and I played it against a middle-aged man named Greg and his friend, also a middle-aged man. Initially, it was close, but then Mickey and I got dialed in and won 11-4. They wanted to rematch, but Mickey was not interested and told them straight that he was interested in playing a higher level game.
The fog burned off and then came back again. It got a little breezy, that was likely pushing the cloud cover around.
Shawnté and I played against Mickey and Jordan Rein. It was back-and-forth game with a lot of rallies that went more than just two or three shots. Shawnté and I lost but the loss wasn’t just on me. Throughout a few games, Shawnte was complaining about his paddle. It’s a year-old Gearbox paddle and Mickey was saying that when Shawnté hit the ball, it sounded inconsistently bad.
There was a guy who came who had not seen for quite some time. Maybe an inch taller than I am, tan and stocky with a Star of David tattoo on his shoulder. His name is John. I told him that I hadn’t seen him for a number of months and he said that it would’ve been a year since he lives in Arizona and he only comes to visit annually! We played against Mickey and Shawnté. We were leading most of the game, but they came back and won.
It was 11:57 a.m. and time for me to get home, eat, and get ready to teach.
Tuesday, August 11, 2026. (No Play)
I didn’t play pickleball tonight, instead I got invited by my brother to go see the new SpiderMan movie (“Spider-Man: Brand New Day”) in the theater along with his son Patrick and daughter Gigi. I was kind of wondering why his two other kids weren’t with us, then I learned that Patrick and Gigi had already seen the movie and this was their second time around. I would give the movie a thumbs up.
Doctor Visit
Today, I had my annual physical with my GP, Dr. Atkinson. Years ago, I suggested that he take up pickleball and it turns out that he finally has. He says he meets up with a group of other dads on Saturday mornings at Derby Park to play. Good for him! We talked about the plantar fasciitis in my left foot and also the pain in my right knee. You recommended some foot stretches and demonstrated one of the ones that he does. He said that he’s been dealing with plantar fasciitis for years. And he said, “You know what makes plantar fasciitis worse? Pickleball!” Well, he has firsthand experience with that! He recommended an inoculation which I opted to get. The nurse came in later and asked which shoulder I wanted the shot since she said that it would hurt for a few days. Of course, I said my left. I don’t want my swinging shoulder to be hurting!
Thursday, August 13, 2026 (No Play)
Mark Dettle forwarded an email announcement to the pickleball club board from Scotts Valley Recreation explaining that the lights at the Skypark Courts will be turning off at 8 p.m. every evening from Sunday, August 17 through Friday, November 13. We knew it was coming, but it’s a disappointment nonetheless.
I had a nonprofit board meeting last night so I didn’t play at Skypark. So neither of my traditional Tuesday or Thursday nights this week.
After optimistically changing into my pickleball gear, I left work around 5:30 p.m. and headed to the big field at Skypark to set up a canopy and table so that our family business could participate in the annual Scotts Valley Art Wine & Beer Festival to be held tomorrow and Sunday. We’d have art activities for kids. One of my staff, Ariana, would be manning the table both days.
That’s our Lenz Arts blue canopy on the left, ready for kids tomorrow!
After getting everything set up—which took about half an hour—I drove around to the courts on the far side of the field. As I slowly rolled through the courts parking lot, I spotted two tennis players and two sole women hitting a pickleball back-and-forth at the far end of the court. Very slim pickin’s! Well, that wasn’t going to fly! I simply continued through the lot and headed home. Fridays are apparently not the nights to try and get pickup games!
Pickleball History
One version of the naming of pickleball… it’s the one that I like to believe myself: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcE6dWUyMZg/ The other version is that the sport was named after the family dog, but one of the founders explained that the dog wasn’t around until later and was named after the game, not vice versa!
Number of days on a court: 953 Number of total hours: 3,515.5 Number of paid coaching hours: 225.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
Over the last few years, there have been a solid number of investors seeking to cash in on the pickleball gold rush. This included building a number of for-profit facilities. But, unfortunately, some of these business plans included highly optimistic expectations for income and, as a result, some of these businesses have already closed. On the flip side, others are now being more cautious. Here’s an article about a South Carolina commercial pickleball project that has been put on hold spending further evaluation of profitability: https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article316760859.html
PPA News
The PPA has announced that in 2027 there will be 20 pro events held in Europe. So . . . there will be a PPA Europe.
After Work
I was on the road after work heading towards Skypark a little bit before 6:30 p.m. It was cloudy, but sunny and 72°F.
Injuries
My right knee continues to bother me, hurting with nearly every step. The plantar fasciitis that I have been dealing with is mild, it hurt a little bit this morning as I walked around after getting up. Mornings are generally the worst, although sometimes it will flare up after an evening pickleball session.
Skypark
I arrived at the courts at 6:35 p.m.
Sunny—the tall Asian guy with long hair—was there tonight. I hadn’t seen him in months. He and I played together against Paul and Aaron Hicks. Aaron was playing pretty well. I felt that I played ok tonight, but for whatever reason, I was having a hard time, especially with the transition into darkness. I always have a harder time judging the position of the ball when it starts to get dark. (And it’s starting to get darker earlier for sure. I was noticing as I was on the freeway driving home, it was definitely far more dark than it was light at 8:40 p.m.) It does make sense, of course, we’re about seven weeks past the longest day of the year.
I played four games with Sunny as my partner. We won the first game 11-6. Then Aaron and Paul won the second game 11-6. We held a rubber match which was a close one, but Sonny and I win again. Then we squeezed in one last game, which ended just before the lights went off. We won that one as well, but those were close back-and-forth games.
We were done at 8:31 p.m.
And?
It seems like my play was just like a little bit off. There are balls that are too low that I attacked into the net. I did miss two serves tonight—one went into the white tape, and the other one landed on the wrong side of the center line when I was trying to go down the middle. There were two or three rallies where I haven’t shifted over to the middle of far enough during a rally and I left too much of a space which Aaron took advantage of.
Still, even with my subpar play, it was good to get out tonight. There were only a few times tonight where I was aware of my knee. The rest of the time I didn’t notice.
Embarrassing
I think this is embarrassing for the pickleball community. This rule question popped up on social media. As you can see, I picked the correct answer. But nearly three-quarters of people got the answer wrong!
Friday, August 7, 2026 (No Play)
This video popped up.
Overall, the idea with this video is good. However, she’s letting him get away with something that I don’t let my students get away with—except for my rank beginners. What is that something? Creeping over to the sideline when you already know that a shot is going to be coming there. Obviously, in a drill, you have the advantage of knowing where the ball is going and you can cheat over. But that’s never where you would stay in a game when a ball is coming from the other sideline. Instead, I force my students to stay more towards the middle where they would be standing in a real game scenario. In a true rally, you would never be standing over by the sideline waiting for a full crosscourt shot. That would leave the middle wide open. It’s unrealistic.
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