Fiend at Court Unplugged
In the earliest days of this site, I posed the rhetorical question, “How do I not routinely carry a socket wrench in my bag to adjust net tension?” That quote came from “I just can’t handle the tension!” which was published on January 9, 2020 and discussed the rules around the proper tension for the net. At the time, I lamented that I had never seen a USTA umpire check the tension of the net prior to the match.
Earlier this week, my brother was kind enough to feed me some balls. I have a really nice portable ball hopper that I received as a Christmas gift from that same brother a couple of years ago. In addition to balls, there were two other items in the hopper. Cones and a wrench. As a former tennis teaching professional, my brother put the cones to immediate use as he fed me balls. However, he was confounded by the wrench. There is a simple explanation. *Expletive* pickleball.
I now carry a wrench with me at all times. The proper storage location is in the cargo bay of my car. In reality, it spends most of the time in the bottom of my ball hopper. That practice is driven by the pickleball players at the public park courts that I frequent. They routinely lower the tension of the nets on the tennis courts to the point that they are unacceptably short for tennis.
It makes me cranky. The lowering of the net wouldn’t bother me as much if they ever bothered to return the net to proper tennis configuration. At the same time, I do have the concern that the constant dramatic adjustment of the net cord will accelerate mechanical failure of the net post gears. That’s a lose-lose scenario.
So now I carry a wrench as a standard part of my tennis gear. I probably will for the rest of my tennis life. The only surprising factor of this development is that it was induced by pickleball. I remain insensitive to the tension of the net until it reaches a point of sagging to unacceptable heights.
*Expletive* pickleball.
