Category: Pickleball (Page 51 of 323)

Sunday, May 11, 2025 (Court Day #801)

When I left my house at 8:29 a.m., it was sunny and already in the low 60s. I knew it was going to be a warm day. For Mother’s Day, my mom asked for her boys to spend some time doing yard work behind my parents’ house, so I couldn’t stay indefinitely playing pickleball.

Brommer

I pulled into the half-full parking lot at Brommer Park at 8:42 a.m. It wasn’t too long before I got into my first game with Kim against Larry and Ying. We lost 8-11.

We had a rematch. This time, Kim had had enough and complained to our opponents, “It feels like I’m playing singles!” She told them, “Andrew is here too!” Yeah, Kim was getting targeted. We lost 6-11.

I played with Oscar vs. Kyle and bearded young guy with black hair. I asked the young guy his name and it was unusual and, unfortunately, somewhat easy enough to forget! It was a name that rhymed with Ariel. Oscar and I did win that game, but it was barely.

Thumb Damage

I played with Kyle as my partner. I don’t remember anything about the game against Marco and Kim other than me reaching in and hitting forehand on a high shot in the middle and Kyle arrived a split second later and hit me with his paddle square on my right thumb knuckle and creating a 1/2” flap of skin. Ouch. It stung like the dickens. I ripped off the skin flap, threw it on the ground—I know, gross—and continued the game, hoping the game would end quickly and I wouldn’t bleed too much. A few rallies later, the game ended and I used a bandage out of my wallet to seal up the blood. That’ll take some time to heal. Probably at least a week.

Art and I played a game against René and Rick. I’d take René or Rick over Art in terms of skill, but it was their first game and they lost 11-6.

Sean Lynch and I teamed up against Marco and Kim. They won the first then we won second one 13-11. I didn’t think those game should have been that close, but we didn’t target Kim.

Jordan and I lost 7-11 versus Sean and tall, bald lefty Dave. That was a great game. It was a challenging game and balls just kept coming back. It was awesome!

I played a game with Mike Berger against Jackie and Owen, the UCSC student. They won 11-9. Jackie is a strong player, it was a case of whose partner was weaker in that game.

I played with a tennis player, Aaron, against tall, lefty Dave and a young woman named Taylor. Aaron and I got clobbered.

Shawnté and I lost a close game against Dave and Taylor. Shawnté later admitted that he had been taking it easy. And I was getting tired. Not the best combination.

But we got more focused in the second game and won the rematch 11-4.

I should’ve brought a second water bottle today. I completely drained the only one that I brought. It was 79°F when I left for the day.

I had to change the bandages on my thumb several times in the afternoon as the blood soaked them. Yep. It’ll take some time to heal.

Eye Protection

Why I wear eyewear while playing:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG8jSJDALye/

Rallie Ball Machine

As I’d previously mentioned, I emailed Eric Benson, the founder of Rallie Pickleball, about the need for some corrections in his ball machine manual. He got back to me this morning accepting my offer to rework his manual in exchange for undetermined compensation at a later date. Now, we’ll just have to work out logistics…

Number of days on a court: 801
Number of total hours: 3,149
Number of paid coaching hours: 135.5

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

Thursday, May 8, 2025 (Court Day #800)

I received emails from Franklin Sports and also Rallie Pickleball informing me that my deliveries would be coming tomorrow. It couldn’t be timed any better with the new ball machine and the balls for that machine coming on the same day. Included in the Rallie email was a link to their owner’s manual. The manual includes an admonishment to read it before trying to use the machine. I’ll definitely do that!

Skypark

When I arrived at Skypark after work, I was warming up when I noticed Spencer coming through the gate. I ran over to my backpack and pulled out the Owl Silent Storm paddle for him to try.  He and I had already talked about it before, so I didn’t leave my warmup people alone for too long.

Games

In my first game, tall, lefty Brenden Zimmer and I played together and lost 0-11 to David L. and Gabe. It was a complete mess.

However, we did win the rematch 11-6. Redemption!

Midway through the evening I could see that Spencer was playing with his own Owl paddle and not the one that I’ve given him to try. That told me something right there.

Ouch

In one game, David ran up and drove a shallow ball right at me that hit my chin. It was in an awkward spot and I was in the midst of rotating my paddle when the ball flew by it and to my face. (My chin was also hit by Marco on Tuesday, but that was off the edge of my paddle.)

On the court next to the last game I was playing, Max drove a shot and hit Mike O’Brien in the eye. It was another instance of frequent reminders why I wear eye protection. Mike immediately stopped playing, doubled over, then wandered around assessing any damage. It turned out he was ok. Bullet dodged.

And?

I played a mix of games tonight, none of which were with all strong players. As always, a mix for at least one or two players Barry of the 3.0 or 3.5 level players.

I played in a variety of games that included David, Manda, Quentin, John (the young guy who is friend with Gabi), Max, Mauricio, Brendan Zimmer.

Owl Paddle

At the end of the evening, asked Spencer about my new Owl paddle. He told me that he didn’t like the weight of it. I told him that it seemed top heavy and he agreed. He did say the surface was very plush and that one could probably get crazy spin with that paddle.

As I walked to my car as the lights clicked off at 8:30 p.m., I could still see a little glimmer of light on the horizon. Next month will be the summer equinox with the longest day of the year.

My car thermometer was reading 70° when I left Skypark. I was definitely sweaty and sticky.

It wasn’t until later that it occurred to me that I’d hit 800 outings of pickleball. A big milestone!

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Friday, May 8, 2025. (No play)

Today, sure enough, as the tracking predicted, the Rallie ball machine and the 100 Franklin balls deliveries appeared today. The balls came before I got home for lunch. The box was smaller than I had originally estimated.

I got a notice a bit later about the ball machine delivery that included a photo.

My wife let me know that the box was heavy and she moved it into the garage.

I started reading the digital version of the manual and noticed a number of minor errors and inconsistencies. I emailed Eric Benson, the owner of Rallie Pickleball, about it offering an exchange of my services editing in exchange for some unspecified future compensation, maybe an accessory or subscription at no charge.

Third Shot Analysis

A Reddit user by the name of SanguineSpring shared some analysis of third shots across various skill levels:

[Analysis] Third Shot Drive Effectiveness by DUPR Level
byu/SanguineSpring inPickleball

I’m a data nerd, so I always find those interesting.

Here’s his analysis about drives versus drops in general:

[Analysis] Third Shot Drives–Miss More and Win More
byu/SanguineSpring inPickleball

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Saturday, May 10, 2025. (No play)

Eric from Rallie got back to me and said he was busy with family activities but would like to take me up on my offer to edit his manual and we’d connect more about it soon.

Star Wars Connection

More Jedi pickleball:
|https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJOaeFbzSLs/

Number of days on a court: 800
Number of total hours: 3,145
Number of paid coaching hours: 135.5

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

Tuesday, May 6, 2025 (Court Day #799)

Late this afternoon, I got a shipping confirmation email from Franklin Sports that the 100 balls that I had ordered are on their way. That’s good news.

Skypark

It was 61°F and a patchy sky when I pulled into a spot in the dirt just outside the parking lot at 6:30 p.m. after work.

It was a surprisingly light turnout. Francis was on his way out as I was on my way in. He stopped and asked if I had joined the La Madrona Athletic Club. I told him that my wife had but I was not a member since it’d be so rare that I would actually use that facility. I added that the competition is better at Skypark than at La Madrona anyway. I’m assuming that Francis is a member there. He said that they are trying to get better players to show up there.

Games

Kirby and I won 11-2 over lefty Eric and Hispanic Chris. Kirby and I probably should have split up, we were the strongest players.

I got into a game with Marco against Tim Handley and Kirby. Marco and I barely lost the first game 11-13.

In the second game, Marco and I won. It was something like 11-8.

It was a very light crowd tonight. If we did fill up all the courts, it was barely. The Golden State Warriors had a playoff game tonight. As I was in the midst of a game, Tim F. announced that the Warriors were “destroying” their opponents (the Timberwolves) by a score of 21-20. Wait… what? 1 point? That was amusing!

Next

We played a rubber match at Tim H.’s suggestion. This time I made more errors and Marco and I lost that one. But we had some really, really good rallies. At the end of one such long rally, Kirby and I were at the net, and Kirby drove a speedup that was easily going to fly quite long… but I misjudged it and reached up and hit the ball which glanced off my paddle wildly and landed out somewhere. Matt Babb and his group of players had just finished their game and were waiting to pass through to the waiting area. They watched most of the rally and at the end, Matt exclaimed, “Oh, Andrew!” Yep. I blew that one. Out ball.

Tim H. said his toe is hurting that he needed to sit out and be done for the night.

Manda

So we got Manda to join us and he teamed up with Marco against Kirby and myself. That seemed like the most balanced grouping. I thought that we should’ve won the first game, but we didn’t. It was close, but we did lose. Marco hit a speedup from the net at me and the ball ricocheted off the edge of my paddle and into my chin. Ouch.

(We looked over and Tim H. was in a game partnered with a young blonde woman. I guess his toe wasn’t hurting too much!)

We played a rematch and this time Kirby and I won in a fashion that I thought we should’ve won the first game, winning 11–7. We had been winning at 8–3 but then they came back and got within 3 points.

The last game wrapped up right at 8:30 p.m. I helped move the new rolling nets to their spots. (It’s soooo much faster and easier than disassembling and bagging portable nets!) The lights clicked off at 8:33 p.m. as I was in my car.

As I was driving phone at home, I asked my phone about the game score. It said the Warriors were winning 83-68 with 9 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Looking good for the “home” team!

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Wednesday, May 7, 2025 (No Play)

Early this morning, I was thinking about the challenges of a ball machine and a small backyard. I was thinking I may want to create a stand that I can roll the machine up onto so it can get the ball over the net when there’s not much space between the machine and the net. It would probably need to be collapsible to keep my wife happy… the yard needs to be presentable once in a blue moon for guests, after all. (Plus she hates anything clutter.)

Jedi Net Battle

I thought this was cool and sent it to Matt and Paul this morning:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJPnkzkBlTY

Weird Paddle

There’s this new paddle that has come out and it’s approved by the USAP. It has an off-angle handle. It’s bizarre. There’s a tiny bit of information about it here:
https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/wild-looking-paddle-granted-approval-by-usa-pickleball

Hilarious

Here is some great pickleball-inspired relationship advice:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJCBFIYJKPT/

Number of days on a court: 799
Number of total hours: 3,143
Number of paid coaching hours: 135.5

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