As my workday was winding down, I was feeling unusually exhausted. I was quite tempted just to go home and lie down, but pickleball is fun once I get started and I can always use the exercise.
At quarter after 6 p.m., I was driving away from work and heading to Scotts Valley. It had been quite a warm day and it was still 75°F.
It has been a full week since I took a serious tumble when my right leg landed on my paddle. I still have a large welt on my thigh just above my knee.
Skypark
There was still lots of parking in the lot when I arrived and an empty court. It seemed that the heat was keeping people home.
I don’t sweat a whole lot, but I definitely was this evening, it was very muggy.
Alfred was there tonight. I hadn’t seen him in months. He was playing with his friend named Anderson. Alfred was the better of the two players, but Anderson definitely held his own.
My play tonight was far from stellar. There are nights where you think, “Why am I even bothering to play?” Tonight was one of those. Sure, I had my moments of good quality play, but overall, it was subpar and I’d rather just forget the evening!
Surprise!
A young Asian guy came tonight named Jared. I overheard that Jared recognized Alfred from classes at UCSC. Jared wasn’t too keen on playing with our group, he said, “I don’t think that I can hang with you guys.” In his bag were an assortment of very cheap mass-market paddles and the balls that I saw were actually indoor balls with a larger holes. As long as it’s not all the time, I don’t mind ‘taking one for the team’ and playing with newer players as my partner. Jared and I played together against Alfred and Anderson.
Well, Jared played just fine! He’s easily a 3.5 level player. Not only did we hang, and I won the game. Towards the end of the game, I got points on consecutive serves that Anderson then Alfred hit back into the net. In a tournament, I would’ve kept going, but instead, I changed up the serve a little bit to make it slightly less difficult. Alfred has some really good serves himself. He serves fast and deep. It’s a good challenge. Alfred has quick hands, pretty much every time I drove at him, he was able to hit it back for a winner.
And?
My biggest issues for tonight were hitting shots too high, and making ill-advised speedups. Failing on speedups can often be a case of underestimating opponents, which was happening tonight. Also, I slammed a few overheads into the net. It was bad all around!
Tonight was bad. I always play worse under the lights, but I was also exhausted.
Wednesday, September 9, 2026 (No Play)
Today was one of the handful of days that I can remember where Santa Cruz has crept over 100°. My car was still reading 106° at 6:44 p.m. I checked online and it said temperatures peaked at 101°, but that always depends on where those weather stations are. My car was parked above a black asphalt parking lot, that could have added 5°. Nonetheless, hot.
Number of days on a court: 963 Number of total hours: 3,537 Number of paid coaching hours: 231.5
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I spent the last four days in the Bay Area helping run bagpiping and drumming competitions at the Caledonian Club of San Francisco Scottish Games held annually in Pleasanton. I’m pretty beat. I was up late on Thursday, then up early on Friday morning compiling soloist information for the pro piping competition—nothing like learning getting assigned something at the last minute—then I was up at 6 a.m. Saturday and Sunday to get ready and transport the international judges from the hotel to the fairgrounds. Then I was the primary announcer for the pipe band competition. John Biggar, who has done the band announcing for decades wandered off to attend to other things and left me to go it alone at times. It was a fun and enjoyable weekend, though there are a lot of work.
Me at the microphone with announcing veteran John Biggar (light blue) and newbie Hal.
Ouch
I really did a number on my right knee last Tuesday night when I fell on my paddle while going for an ATP. There is still a large welt about an inch above my right knee cap. Surprisingly, there isn’t a whole lot of discoloration, just the big lump and scab where the skin broke. Thankfully, I had my knee brace on, and that must’ve softened and dispersed the blow slightly. The knee brace is primarily just stretchy fabric so it’s not like it made a huge difference, but I’m sure it helped a little.
Nice Day
It was 64° and a perfectly clear sky as I made my way to the courts. With the direct sun, it felt quite a bit warmer than it was.
Being that it was a holiday, I expected the courts to be busy. I had a number of options… Derby Park and Skypark with no organized play, or Willowbrook and Brommer both with organized club play on Mondays. The best bet for the strongest play was Brommer, so that’s where headed. But I expected the waits to be long.
Brommer Park
I pulled in at 9:27 a.m. and took one of the last of two parking spots. Oscar and cohorts were in the process of leaving as I arrived.
The scene as I walked in.
Games
Club play was underway, so the signup board to get onto courts was in effect. I played a couple of warm up games of mixed skill.
At 10 a.m., the various colored pens appeared to denote the assorted skill levels. I signed up in blue, which is supposed to be 4.0+.
Skill Games
I played with a woman named Sam against Mo and Ken Lancaster, the fellow who organizes some local tournaments. It was a close game. We lost 9-11.
We played again and lost the rematch 6-11.
This time, I played against Sam instead of with her. Ashley D’souza and I beat Shawnté and Sam 11-3. That was with me trying to hit more to Shawnté.
Shawnté gave me a compliment, telling me that I have hard, fast serves. He explained that his shoulder is recovering from an injury and otherwise he would’ve been able to return the two serves of mine that didn’t make it back over the net.
Mo and I lost 4-11 against Paul and Ashley. I hadn’t seen Paul for quite some time. He is in his mid 70s, and said that he hasn’t been playing for a couple of years due to a back injury. That said, he played really well.
Mo, Kim, Oscar
Mo told me that she is no longer playing with Spencer in tournaments at The Hub—the indoor facility in Campbell. She says that she can’t hang in the 4.5 tournaments that Spencer is playing. Instead, Spencer has been playing with Aaron Bartley’s wife Kim. Mo said that Kim is better than her husband and was very likely the best player out on the courts today. At that given time, Sean Lynch and Kiko and some of the other stronger players were not there yet. Mo was saying that Kim can speed up just about anything and hit hard with accuracy and topspin to keep the ball from going out. Mo added that she’s been playing mixed tournaments with Oscar and gender doubles with Kim.
The last game wrapped up, and when I checked the time, it was 12:15 p.m. I was supposed to be at a family birthday party for my niece at noon. Oops. Somehow, I lost about 30 minutes of time! Time to go!!
Pro Shocker
Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns were taken down in the semi-finals over the weekend in PPA National Championships. Those two have been a steamroller for quite a while. https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc7LUffDh8D/ They were beaten by Jorja Johnson and JW Johnson.
At 5:30 p.m., I hopped onto a private Zoom meeting which included Scotts Valley Parks & Recreation division head Allison, the P&R commission chairman, a couple of parks consultants from the Bay Area, Santa Cruz Pickleball Club president Mark Dettle, and a fellow named Lance—who I suspect works for the City of Scotts Valley.
We spent the next 45 minutes discussing how pickleball works at the Skypark courts for the three hours of weekly organized club play as well as just general public usage the rest of the time. The pickleball classes that I am teaching at the courts also came up in conversation. The primary function of the meeting was to provide insight for the consultants about what we would like to see for pickleball in the new Skypark master plan. Of course, there are the limits of funding, land, and impact on the surrounding neighborhood.
Injuries
Aside from mild plantar fasciitis in my left foot—which I barely notice most of the time—and the chronic varying pain in my right knee, I’m doing pretty well.
Skypark
It was sunny in 68° when I pulled into Skypark at 6:45 p.m. With the new lighting schedule, I would only be able to play for a little bit over an hour. It hardly seems worth the time—about 30 minutes total driving for about 60 minutes of play—but given that I’m going to be having a very busy week helping run the piping and drumming competitions at the highland games up in Pleasanton this weekend, I won’t be able to play pickleball at least until Monday and possibly Tuesday, so I wanted to get in whatever play I could get in.
As expected, the lights clicked off at 8:05 p.m. We were trying to squeeze in the last bit of a game.
I was tired tonight and not moving nearly as fast as I should’ve been.
There are no games tonight with all strong players. It was a more relaxed evening of play.
Missing Cap
Frabrizio is bummed because he left his black PPA cap at Skypark a week ago and no one has turned it in. He posted on Facebook that it was missing, but no one replied saying they had it.
Serious Tumble
The biggest event tonight was me going for a wide crosscourt shot to attempt an ATP and while on the run, my foot clipped the net post on the adjacent court sending me into a tumble. I didn’t break anything, but my left hip was a touch sore—though not nearly as sore as the outside of my right knee, which took the brunt of my roll. After my fall, I got up and was immediately back into the game…. though I was understandably distracted. The palm of my left hand was bruised near the base of my thumb as well. Driving home, my right knee was aching. Aaron Hicks recommended getting into a hot tub. That sounded like a good idea to increase blood circulation and I did that. When I got home and took off my knee brace… wow. Right above my knee, it had swollen up like an orange! I don’t ever remember having an injury resulting in swelling like this. Ow.
New Pickleball Venue
The Ace Pickleball Club in San Jose is opening in a couple of weeks. Here was a video explaining the different tiers of membership: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dcj8zKkhz_6 The entry level is $79 per month, which allows for four visits, in other words, about $20 per visit. The top end membership is $179 per month and allows unlimited visits.
That’s not for me. The Hub in Campbell is closer—about 40 minutes from my house—and I still have never been in that facility. I do want to check out The Hub at some point though.
Wednesday, September 2, 2026 (No Play)
This morning, when I woke up, my right thigh was still very swollen right above my right knee where I fell on my paddle. It’s pretty obvious what happened since there is a perfect line mark. It explains why when I fell, I had the feeling of tumbling out of control. I usually fall into a controlled roll. Landing with most of my weight, if not all of it, on my paddle was an unexpected variable, not that I had more than a split instant to process what was happening. Regardless, aside from a sore left palm, a bruise on my left hip bone, and a big lump on my leg, I am no worse for the wear. I will count my blessings!
Today, I’m heading up to the Bay Area to help coordinate the bagpiping and drumming at the annual highland games held in Pleasanton. I won’t be playing any pickleball until Monday at the soonest.
My knee is still swollen—though not nearly as bad—two days later:
They don’t start talking about pickleball until 4 minutes and 42 seconds into the clip so feel free to skip to that part if you’re only interested in their pickleball discussion.
He says that he is “not a pickleball hater” and goes on that there are tennis players who are pickleball haters, and pickleball players who are tennis haters. I’m not saying that he’s wrong, but to kind of treat them as equal size camps as wildly accurate. They are far more tennis players going out of their way to bash pickleball than pickleball players bashing tennis.
Number of days on a court: 961 Number of total hours: 3,532.5 Number of paid coaching hours: 231.5
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