I was about to leave work at 6:15 p.m. and head to Skypark, but when I asked my nephew if he’d be willing to close the family business, he said that he wasn’t feeling well. So instead, I stayed to close up and then gave him a ride home, then I left his house at 6:30 p.m.
It was a warm 70°F. It has been warm for the last week and a half or so.
Injuries
My right knee continues to bother me. As a matter of course, for as long as I remember, I typically take stairs two at a time, but that’s not something that I can do right now. There’s too much discomfort.
The plantar fasciitis in my left foot seems to be very mild right now. As is the tennis elbow in my right arm. I only notice something in my elbow for very specific and, not particularly common, movements.
Weight
I’ve decided that I am on a diet again. Over the weekend, I weighed in the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life. Too many sweets! I should lose at least 40 pounds, and 50 would be better. There are downsides to being an adult, such as they’re being no one there to tell you you shouldn’t have that second piece of cake or that large Slurpee or a couple of those big cookies at work brought by someone.
Teaching
I have two 4-week pickleball classes starting again this Sunday. I really enjoy teaching, but at certain point I may value my free time higher. I could see doing coaching after I retire. But there’s no telling how many years away that will be. Probably 6 to 10 years.
I hadn’t shared it before, but every time I drive into the Skypark neighbourhood, I start playing paying very close attention to empty parking spots along the way in case I need to go back out and find a spot.
Games
Alec and I won 11-0 again two very young guys Blaine and L-something. We almost had a ‘golden pickle’ but I hit a ball into the net.
Then we won again 11-0 versus Adam and short lefty Eric. This time Alec hit the ball into the net though we weren’t the first servers anyway… so no chance at a golden pickle regardless.
I was chatting with Adam after that game, “Alec only made one mistake that whole game… wait. You made NO mistakes. He hit it into the net!”
Aaron’s Brother Mike
Aaron Hicks brought his brother Mike. Mike says that he moves a lot for work in various states in the country but is currently staying with family between his mom’s house in Soquel and Aaron‘s house.
Mike has pretty good hand eye coordination. He hasn’t developed a good strategy and tends to be on the wrong place in the court. He doesn’t come up to the net and doesn’t cover the middle properly.
I was being a bit lazy while also not hitting optimal shots to try to keep the game challenging. I was also doing a little bit of testing with slice and spin on some shots.
Don’t Fall In!
One funny moment was when I hit a shot and was pinwheeling my arms to keep from falling into the kitchen. Matt Babb saw that and when he got the ball next, he hit it to me. Fortunately, I was able to handle the shot and still get balanced and not fall in!
We finished up the last game a few minutes before the lights went out.
Tonight was one of those nights where you could just not get all four players to be good enough for a challenging game.
Teaching
It’s kind of funny, yesterday I discovered that I was missing one of my students in my beginner class in advanced beginner class. They were both sold down quite some time ago. But now with class starting this Sunday, I saw that I had a spot open in my beginner class. What’s crazy is that I receive no notification from the City of Scotts Valley that I now had a vacancy again in my class. It was pretty much happenstance that I noticed. I had a browser tab left open at work in one of my various browser windows and I just happened to see it while closing up various tabs. Jenn, one of the staff there, said that she would look into it and get me the current rosters for the classes. Today, I checked the class again and it said that the class was full. I sent her an email asking about an updated roster that included the new student, assuming that it wasn’t some weird software glitch.
Wednesday, July 29, 2026 (No Play)
I woke up this morning and the plantar fasciitis in my left foot tight was mildly, very mildly painful.
I was up early and dropped off my wife, my son, my son’s girlfriend, and a family friend for the big annual Wharf to Wharf race. Unlike last year, I didn’t even bother going by Brommer Park to see if I could play there. The evening before the race, the runners plant cars in the parking lot and all around the side streets since the park is fairly close to the finishing line. Unfortunately, that leaves no parking for anyone who would like to use the park.
So instead, I simply went home and took our two dogs for a long walk. A little bit before 9:30 a.m., I was on my way to Derby Park. It had been hot all week and today was also expected to be a warm one. Any clouds were low and mostly offshore and breaking up. There was no fog to keep us cool, but at least we were starting at 64°F.
Derby Park
When I pulled up on the streets outside Derby Park, there were still vestiges of fog barely reaching to the court. Par for the course for many months now, there was mild pain in my right knee with every step.
Dieter showed up today, it was nice to be able to play against him. He’s always a good challenge.
Ted B. adds his name to my box at 10:50 a.m. with Tom S. behind him.
I left just before 1:30 p.m. I had no games today where all four players were 4.0 or higher. The games were challenging at the end only because I was so tired. I didn’t want to move. Even after two hours, I was starting to get tired and by four hours, I was dragging on my feet.
The PPA is notorious for their exclusive contracts with pro players. As far as I know, Anna Leigh Waters is the only PPA signed player with an exclusion clause that allows her to play at USA Pickleball‘s Nationals every year. If pro player goes off and plays in a tournament outside of the PPA umbrella without permission, they can be fined and suspended. And in some cases, the contract can be severed.
Number of days on a court: 947 Number of total hours: 3,504 Number of paid coaching hours: 221.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
I left work early to have dinner with my wife. We got home with time for me to still get some play in. I left my house at 6:32 p.m. It was still sunny but thankfully it had cooled down to 70°F after being a rather warm day.
While driving to Scotts Valley, I felt like a whale. I was full of a large hamburger, garlic fries – including some that my wife didn’t finish of hers – as well as a margarita in about 2/3 of a very rich chocolate mousse cake for dessert. I felt inclined to just curl up in a ball and not move, but they’re only so many days I can get out and play pickleball!
Injuries
The plantar fasciitis in my left foot continues to linger, but it seems to be gradually improving. My right shoulder is about 95% back to normal. My right knee, which had the meniscus surgery, continues to be mildly problematic. Enough so that I opted to wear my knee brace tonight. I suspect the knee is trending more towards a replacement than healing on its own.
Pro Upset
A bit of a surprise in the pickleball universe, the women’s doubles match with Anna Leigh Waters on the team lost. No, this was not a normal tournament, this was Major League Pickleball where ALW doesn’t have the luxury of picking her partner. An interesting twist, the team that she lost to included her regular doubles partner Anna Bright. Anna and her partner relentlessly targeted ALW’s partner Jorga. ALW was simply not given opportunities to hit the ball. But this is tournament strategy. It’s cutthroat. There is no mercy. The weaker player is targeted. ALW’s opponents just took this to the limit.
Skypark
Today was fun. Aside from a couple of games, most of the games were pretty challenging.
It wasn’t too crowded. I was able to roll from game to game to game.
Paul Winn and I played a couple of games against lefty Aaron B. and Daniel Borlean. We lost first game and won the second. Aaron wasn’t interested in third game and found some new players to play with.
My first few games were a little rough but my play got better and better.
Matt Babb and I played against Daniel and Chuck. It was Matt’s first game but we still won.
Daniel Borlean and I took on Chuck and short lefty Eric. The first game they came back and made a go of it but we still won. We played it again and this time Daniel and I clobbered them.
Ashley’s Brother
Tonight, Daniel Borlean and I played a couple of games against Ashley and his visiting brother Leslie. Leslie comes from a strong table tennis background. Ashley said that he and Leslie have been drilling pretty much every day this past week. Leslie played really well for having only played for one week. He has a little bit of work to do regarding court positioning, and there was one time when he volleyed while inside the kitchen that his brother called him on, but nonetheless, Leslie did quite well. I would say he was already playing at a 3.5 level. Impressive. Ashley said Leslie is big into sports. Leslie said he also plays basketball and some other sport name that I didn’t recognize or didn’t catch.
Daniel and I won the first game, then we relaxed a bit too much in the second game and lost. We had to do the rubber match which Daniel and I won with, I believe, final score of 11-5 or 11-6.
The lights clicked out mid-game, but there was still enough light to continue to play and we were able to wrap up that last game.
I felt like a sloth on the court tonight, but I played recently well. Reasonably.
Knee
I don’t usually feel my right knee while playing, but tonight there is some movement that tweaked it. By the time I got home, my knee was starting to bother me more.
Wednesday, July 15, 2026 (No Play)
It’s been a few years since my knee has flared up like this. The pain in my right knee was keeping me from falling asleep and woke me up a few times during the night.
Today, I was trying not to limp. Walking hurt. Regardless of my efforts, one of my staff asked if I was limping. In the afternoon, I was turning and my knee felt for an instant like it was going to buckle. Not good!
Electric shock
Last year in August, a pickleball player, Renee Love, down in Chula Vista (near my mother-in-law in San Diego) was rendered unconscious when she bumped into a chain-link fence. An electrician was working on 110-volt light pole wiring and inadvertently connected it to the fence behind the court, essentially making an electric fence. Ow. Love is now suing the City of Chula Vista.
While my knee is still unusually sore, it was a bit easier to fall asleep last night compared to the night before. It has improved some, but it continues to ache.
Joola Lawsuit
Joola has expanded their lawsuit to include Gearbox: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Da3FP6BMuYI The poster’s contention is that some of the construction of the Gearbox paddle actually predates Joola’s patent, invalidating at least portions of the patent and, therefore, the lawsuit.
Shopping
While my wife and I were out shopping—well, she was shopping, I was tagging along—we found a pickleball dog bed at Marshall’s.
I was much more interested in it than my wife was, unfortunately. But what was interesting was their choice of words: pickle, dink, kitchen—I get those. But “carry”? What an obscure word to pick! Serve, drop, drive… there are a bunch of other much more common ones!
Friday, July 17, 2026 (No Play)
Brandon, Sean Lynch’s brother, stopped by my work looking for some pens. He said that he’s temporarily back in the area.
USAP Oops
Someone at USA Pickleball made an error with this posting. It’s not very clear. It looks like the gray is supposed to be the kitchen area, which means that all of the balls are legal: https://www.instagram.com/p/Da6HhEzkrJ4
One could argue that it’s talking a serve, but given that they are claiming that the ball labeled “3” is “in”, they are treating the line between the blue and the gray as a sideline, but it’s confusing. If they removed the perimeter white line in this diagram, it would make more sense. Sloppy.
That time that ALW almost lost… Jared of the The Kitchen interviewed Brooke Buckner this month. They talked about her match in 2024 against Anna Leigh Waters where Brooke won the first game 11-4. Brooke was then up 9-4 in the second game and was just two points away from winning the match. But ALW came back, won that game then won the next game 11-5 to win the match. “It ain’t over, ’til it’s over!” https://www.instagram.com/p/DbCY1dJkWdR
Tuesday, July 21, 2026 (no play)
Millions of people use digital devices to keep track of the number of steps that they take during the course of a day. Someone did an analysis and figured out typical number of steps taken during a hour of pickleball, that is, about 2,700 steps during an hour of doubles: https://www.instagram.com/p/Da51hikxo-E
My right knee continues to hurt with every step. But it is improving.
The last couple of nights I’ve worn my foot support for plantar fasciitis, I’m starting to think this foot pain may be around for a while.
VAIR
I mentioned this before, but there is a rating system competing with DUPR, a company named VAIR. Their domain, vairified.com, was first registered in March 2024, but I’d only heard about it this year. It got a mention on social media here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DbEOD8bD2LN.
Bizarro Clouds!
Late this afternoon, we had the weirdest clouds that I’d ever seen. These kinds of formations are supremely rare in Santa Cruz.
There is a new company, BounceBack Pickle, that is recycling old pickleballs into new pickleballs, a noble effort: https://www.bouncebackpickle.com
Partners Series
Watched the first episode of Partners, it was worth watching. I’ll eventually watch more of them.
Friday, July 24, 2026 (No Play)
DUPR is feeling the heat from competition—VAIR—which has been using artificial intelligence to analyze gameplay with regard to determining a person’s rating. DUPR has decided to start using A.I. themselves: https://www.instagram.com/p/DbL4cZpCT-M
The Dink Movie
So, The Dink movie released today. I watched it. It was ok-ish. Not outright awful, but predictable. I will admit there were a couple of spots where I laughed out loud, but those were buried by the overall “get me out of here” feeling. I’d skip it unless you want to be able to talk about it from experience.
Pro player Zane Navratil shared his take (negative) and I couldn’t help but comment on his Instagram post…
You can step through the kitchen and if both feel are on the ground prior to hitting the ball, it’s legal. It looks legal—barely legal—to me. A ref might call it a fault though. It’s very hard to see in real time.
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