I played tennis recreationally (with family and friends) as a kid and a bit with Megan (my wife) when we were first together in the mid-late 90s. I took up pickleball around 2022 and enjoyed that tremendously for a few years. I liked how easy it was to become at least somewhat good. And it was fun to play with people of a variety of skill levels and athleticism. Megan started playing tennis regularly in 2023. She convinced me to join her on occasion, and by early 2025 I had made the switch. I was finding that pickleball tactics were pretty simple; I was just going up to the "kitchen" and smashing it. We entered our first 6.0 (combined rating) mixed doubles league in the summer of 2025 with me self-rating as a 3.0. We did reasonably well over the year and I got promoted to a 3.5, despite a small sample size. This year I played 6.0 mixed doubles (with another woman), 7.0 mixed doubles with Megan, and 3.5 men's doubles. Here are my USTA match results.
I work as a physics instructor at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon, USA. I am particularly interested in data visualization. So I plan to share insight into tennis, data, and where the two intersect.