Category: Pickleball (Page 5 of 331)

Tuesday, September 1, 2026 (Court Day #961)

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.

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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!

Lifetime Ball vs. New Franklin

Here’s another comparison of the Lifetime ball versus the new Franklin X-44:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcyQ6i3RZ2p

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Thursday, September 3, 2026 (No Play)

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:

Pickleball or the Olympics?

This is pretty wild, the opening ceremony of the 2026 Pickleball World Cup:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcymZeNPs-q
That’s quite some pomp and circumstance.

Vandalism

Pickleball players cars are getting vandalized in Erie, Pennsylvania:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcytCi4R-Ea

Here a guy turned off the main power to a commercial pickleball facility:
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DajXk9ZR3Bk/

Big Balls

Toledo just installed with what is believed to be the largest pickleball in the world:
https://www.13abc.com/2026/08/13/worlds-largest-pickleball-just-might-be-toledo

Rules, Rules, Rules

The Pickleheads newsletter included a rules question. I got it correct, but half of respondents got the answer incorrect. A sad state of affairs.

Funny

This clip is pretty hilarious, so how do you feel after playing pickleball for hours?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dcugab1Oh_5

Tennis Coach on Pickleball

Pro tennis coach Brad Gilbert talks about pickleball:
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/08/31/pro-tennis-coach-brad-gilbert-on-the-2026-u-s-open-rise-of-pickleball-and-future-of-tennis.html

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

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

Sunday, August 30, 2026 (Court Day #960)

Being that I had no obligations this afternoon, that is, I’m not teaching, there would be no limit to how long I could stay and play. I ended up staying up after midnight watching and making notes about a work-related video, so I slept in this morning. I woke up for good about 8:45 a.m.

It was 63° and sunny as I made my way to play. There were a few stray puffy clouds, but they were primarily off the coast.

Injuries

The plantar fasciitis in my left foot flares up, then almost goes away, but generally doesn’t bother me. My right knee continues to bother me. Last night, while walking downhill towards downtown to have dinner with my brother and my wife, my knee was complaining. One of the things I can be thankful for is that while playing, my knee and the plantar fasciitis rarely bothers me.

Brommer Park

I pulled in at exactly 9:30 a.m. to find that there were still a handful of parking spots open.

I ended up in a game with a man named Adrian from San Jose. We get visitors at Brommer fairly frequently. 

Mickey and I played together against a team of Hing and Cesar. They got clobbered. They scored three points. I will say there were a handful of good rallies, however.

Nasty Nelsons

Dan Dewey told me that the title of this blog entry should be Nasty Nelsons. Here’s why!

Dan and I were playing a game against Kim and Anthony. On the first serve of the game, I went for a nasty nelson aiming for Anthony. I missed. Dan and I pulled out to a very significant lead over time. Each time I was to serve, I went for a nasty nelson. There was at least five or six in a row, based on their score, most of those were headed for Kim. I missed on every single one.

As I was about to serve again, I was across from Kim and Kim said, “If you go for a nasty Nelson one more time…” She had a smile on her face, but I wasn’t sure if she was getting annoyed or not, so I served normally from there on out. Even with me throwing away a bunch of serves on nasty nelson attempts, Dan and I still walked away with a solid win. Our win came on a dink battle where Dan hit a ball a little bit high and Kim drove the ball very hard at me. Afterward, Anthony said that he thought at that moment that the rally was over, but instead, I punched the ball pack at Kim with a slight downward angle and she hit the ball back into the net. We won that rally and won the game.

In one game, I was playing with Mickey and I went for a forehand in the middle, but Mickey went for it with his backhand and hit my finger. My finger was sore as I drove home.

Barlows

Jon Barlow and his son Ryan came today shortly after noon. I have played with Ryan before but it had been quite some time. He and I teamed up against his dad and Kim. Ryan is a lefty and we did a half stack. Ryan started out a little bit rough—it was his first game after all—and he was making a fair number of errors and admitted as much. As a result, we found ourselves down, but then he started to dial things and we started closing the gap. We were down 1-10, but then got within a few points before losing the game. Had the game been to 15 instead of 11, we might’ve carried our momentum to a win, but that was not to be the case.

I finished up my last game at 1:40 p.m.

And?

Overall, I felt happy about my play today. They were a number of shots where I impressed myself. On the flipside, there were a few shots after which I was musing, “What the heck was I thinking?” like when I hit a crosscourt speedup where the ball was too low so the ball merely went up to Mickey‘s forehand which he hit for a winner. Those are the ones where you kick yourself. Over the course of the four hours, there was one, maybe two, lobs where I hit them too short and they were hit off the court at an angle for a winner.

I’m at the point now where progressing mostly isn’t about hitting good shots when you have time and preparation. It’s been hitting good shots while being uncomfortable and off-balance as well as making good split-second decisions at the net.

I don’t mention it in these blog posts, but as a matter of course, if I’m going up against two players of unequal skill, I will go out of my way to try and hit more balls to the stronger player. Sure, it’s nice to win games, but I would rather lose and be challenged then to win and not be.

Balls

Franklin has a new ball coming out, the X-44:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcrQZiTyjQq

And ball density test on Franklin X-40, new Franklin (X-44), Lifetime Pro 48:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcsA7zmRf_E

Number of days on a court: 960
Number of total hours: 3,531.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 231.5

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

Thursday, August 27, 2026 (Court Day #959)

I left work as quickly as I possibly could, leaving my nephew to lock up the family business. When I left, I dropped off my other nephew Thomas—who has been temporarily helping at work before he goes off to college—at Nob Hill Foods in Scotts Valley to meet up with his dad, my brother John.

The weather was really strange. When drove through the Skypark neighborhood, it was overcast but still a really warm 79°F. It was also muggy. Someone told me that there was a 20% chance of rain today, though that did not happen.

Skypark

At 6:33 p.m., I was walking into the Skypark courts. It was busy but not crazy. 

When I arrived, I got into a game with Jerry against Ashley and a young Asian woman I not seen before. She had good serves and a really good two-handed backhand. Jerry was not playing a very clean game. It was his first game and my first game as well. Jerry likes to drive everything. Jerry announced, “Well, we know I am the problem!”

Turnout continues to be fairly light. When looked across the courts around 7 p.m., there were only about five people waiting to get into a game.

Alec and I got into a game with Ashlee and a woman named Vanda. Alec and I had a decisive win in the first game winning 11-5.

We played a second game and found ourselves down 2-9. We battled our way back to 7-9, but then they scored another point and made it 10-7 in their favor. They were about to serve when the lights clicked off at 8:05 p.m.

And?

By the time I got into that last game, I was dragging. There were also a couple of shots that I misjudged the ball under the lights and mishit the ball.

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Saturday, August 29, 2026 (No Play)

My eBay order of three pairs of sunglasses arrived in the mail today. I should be set for quite a while—provided I don’t take too many more pickleballs to the face!

Number of days on a court: 959
Number of total hours: 3,527.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 231.5

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