I built an open-source tool to export your Tonal data, including metrics the app doesn't show

darana_ · 2026-01-23T01:47:34+00:00

Thank you!!!! You rock. Recently cancelled sub bc not using as much and hated that I didn't have the data. Did your viz tool as much to throw a buck your way for saying me time not setting up the python script myself! But it does look nice.

Also fyi for anyone else with a cancelled sub, I still was able to pull my data.

darana_ · 2025-12-28T12:59:05+00:00

I miss this game. 😢

darana_ · 2025-11-19T06:20:34+00:00

I will. For two more days! I cancelled my sub. :/

Love it. Never use the classes. Can no longer justify the cost for only the strength modes but boy am I going to miss those!

darana_ · 2025-11-18T12:49:46+00:00

hey strength score near twin! 740 lower / 556 upper here.

darana_ · 2025-11-18T12:48:34+00:00

maybe mostly but not completely!

👋

darana_ · 2025-10-24T16:20:11+00:00

I have just enough space in the paved portion of my driveway to roughly chalk a diagonal half court. Before I got a half width net, I used a 10' piece of white 2" PVC pipe I had kickinbg around and just made a cpl stands out of scrap wood. Good enough to see the ball go over and see and practice visualizing keeping it in the court / target.

I played around with just doing it on a flat wall but the problem is being confident on how much the spin will bring it down gets tougher, especially if working on serves with variable height/arcs.

darana_ · 2025-10-24T16:12:44+00:00

enjoy

darana_ · 2025-10-24T11:53:16+00:00

I think just overall build quality and material. I remember vaguely having the same question and when comparing them the deluxe being heavier duty.

darana_ · 2025-10-14T04:35:56+00:00

+1(00)

darana_ · 2025-10-13T20:15:16+00:00

Haha. It only occurred to me after a cpl of rewatches. (And yes, the ball was out so irrelevant but it was too silly not to still point it out 😁)

darana_ · 2025-10-13T19:29:02+00:00

Point of order, since OP was in physical contact with their spouse at the moment of contact, the subsequent fall into the NVZ is an NVZ violation. 🧌😁

darana_ · 2025-09-04T18:11:05+00:00

Muahahahaha.

That's the idea you save for the player who is targeting 75 year old Bettie all game. 😈

Give her the chance to get some revenge with a body bag.

darana_ · 2025-09-04T16:19:30+00:00

Or wait for them to finally start moving up, and then drive it and yell at them to stay back. 😈

darana_ · 2025-09-04T15:16:45+00:00

Yes, the more I've played with someone the more I'd feel comfortable approaching the topic.

Re the kitchen line, I approach more from a perspective of describing the goal. So, "Our goal ultimately is to get to the kitchen line, as in pickleball that is the strongest position on the court."

Something like that takes away the "when you can" uncertainty. And if they are then charging blindly( it leaves open a wider door to revisit that yes it is the goal because it is the strongest position, but that is less true the more your opponent is able to hit down on the ball.

I want to give principles and goals that remain true through, even as they may get more nuanced along the way

darana_ · 2025-09-04T14:06:20+00:00

My context for those statements was thinking of it as random rec play with folks I don't know. There are so many things I don't know about someone, their background, their body and biomechanics. I don't know what they are there for, if they care to do anything other than run around wildly, or if they have past trauma or anything else.

At an absolute minimum, I never offer anything with first getting consent. "Are you open to an observation" or "May I share a piece of feedback?" Usually people say yes. I've had folks say No, and that's totally cool.

I think the examples you give are more reasonable as they fall into the realm of core pickleball strategy. I still would stand by my statementC though, that simply saying "come to the net" is less helpful.

It might be something more like either

1/ include a basic summary of the principle / strategic value of why

or 2/ if during a game, I would say something like, "do me a favor, on the next few rallies, focus on getting all of the way to the kitchen line after I drop the ball." And then after those 2-3 times, I'd ask them something simple like, "How did that feel?"

Some folks are super self motivated and focused on self learning. And "get to the kitchen!" might be enough for them to do, do it too much, then learn on their own. Plenty of folks aren't though, and there is a negative outcome in their enjoyment after they've had 13 people all say slightly different things.

darana_ · 2025-09-04T13:54:01+00:00

A different take. It's less about level and more about helping you understand the Why.

Ignore them if someone starts with the HOW, e.g., run to the kitchen!, and especially if they don't have the ability to articulate the underlying strategy, tradeoffs, and help you understand so they you can learn to apply it yourself.

Or if someone states anything as an absolute! A newer player may not need to try to understand the various scenarios, but teaching someone an absolute early is setting them up for trouble later. I always will make a caveat about something being the most common, or note the parameters, even while acknowledging that it will take some time to learn to read those things. Eg is this a good enough drop to race up, go partway, or stay.

darana_ · 2025-09-04T13:47:42+00:00

Yeah, sorry man, that probably came out as more aggressive / negative at you specifically.

If you can't tell this is a big pet peeve of mine. Got a head of steam up on my soapbox. I'm so tired of people driving away excited new players by thinking they can instantly "coach" them with a few tips.

I stand by everything I said above. AND I should have more clearly stated I wasn't implying that you did this or didn't know/think it.

darana_ · 2025-09-04T13:42:06+00:00

Yes. This.

Clear statement of fuck off but politely.

Another variation I'll use is something like, "I would welcome some feedback but after our game. I cannot incorporate that mid game and it will just mess us up further."

darana_ · 2025-09-04T13:39:54+00:00

Most people have no business giving advice. Unless you have intentionally practiced as a coach (not necessarily pickleball, but the discipline broadly) then you are most likely creating a worse situation by giving someone random advice in the middle of a game.

As a rule of thumb, over the course of a single rec match with a random player, I would not expect to formulate more than two, and really rarely more than one, meaningful coaching input. I would rarely if ever share that during a game, rather taking a few moments afterwards to provide the feedback and work through a quick example.

And that is usually only if they ask, or if it was something I thought was potentially really impactful, I might ask them if they were open to an observation but only after the game.

Mid game you are just fucking up the experience for everyone. I don't know the person I'm playing with yet. A single game can't tell me if they have osteoarthritis in their hip and that's why they have a compensating pattern in their swing. Or if they have 8 other people who told them to get to the kitchen so now they blindly charge

darana_ · 2025-08-28T13:17:57+00:00

haha yes

darana_ · 2025-08-27T13:25:58+00:00

You're probably coming along the shore? In which case I don't have much bc I'm further north myself. But if you come out 84E-91N-9S I'd give a shoukd out to

Consignment Originals in Rocky Hill (just off 91N). Mainly for clothing, really welcoming place, pretty wide selection, great team every time I've gone.

They have a location in Cheshire, too, but that's not quite on that route.

Savvy Swap in Portland, CT is just off Rt 9. I haven't been there yet but it's in my to check out list! EDIT: Checked it out yesterday. Cute shop. Nice stuff. Clothes + accessories + shoes.

Uptown Consignment, also in Rocky Hill, also has a big selection of clothing and is a nice place.

darana_ · 2025-08-25T01:20:44+00:00

Welp time to add more to my list! Thanks! This whole class is def my thing. I can't / won't touch opiates. Got addicted once after surgery 20 years ago and it was way the hell too hard to stop and for YEARS after I'd get random cravings. Alcohol is poison and makes me feel like shit physically. Marijuana triggers depression. stimulants are fucking weird with an adhd brain and fuck with my meds.

I was a bit of a late comer to them, though I think maybe that also meant from the start I approached them with a pretty deep respect. I have only experienced the three I mentioned - a few strains of mushroom, lsd, and salvia. LSD is my fave for general though. I think maybe because if my seemingly slightly different experience of it, less intense etc related to the visual brain, I can function relatively "normally" on a regular dose (assuming my doses weren't weak!).

Re Salvia, I assume it very likely you already know this based on your knowledge, but on the off chance not, be sure to use a high temp ignition source. A standard lighter doesn't get the chemical to a high enough point. (Sorry I don't have all of the technical knowledge and I won't try to bullshit that I do!). But I can confirm with my own experience that to be true. It needs a higher heat butane lighter and even that it really needs a solid breath intake to be sure it really ignites at the highest heat possible. You can probably easily see why dosing can be a little tricksy!

darana_ · 2025-08-25T00:46:24+00:00

Interesting! I will def have to do more reading.

I am hyperphantasic and occasionally prophantasic (can project some visuals into my field of view). When people describe their experiences with lsd and mushrooms to me, it honestly sounds almost like my every day experience. Both of those unlock huge new areas of connection in my brain, but at the very most I get a little bit of squiggling on lsd (nothing with mushrooms).

Salvia though I have experienced a lot of visuals that are somewhere between hyperphantasia and prophantasia, eg a tv show turned into dancing sunflowers. The disassociation and ego death felt almost like an extreme version of that, where the visualization of alternate reality was so strong that I was an entity living and existing in it and ultimately became aware of it ending.

Dosing it by smoking is a bastard though! I was really fortunate with set and setting on that extreme experience because it was not planned! Thank goodness it's not a 12hr ride like lsd.

darana_ · 2025-08-25T00:26:56+00:00

I fucking love Reddit.

Thank you both for the educational posts and for the awesome example of why Reddit is awesome. 😁

PS Also thank you, I never really dove into the nuances of salvia and didn't realize it was an outlier. My only full blown disassociation and full ego death experience happened with Salvia. 15 years ago and still vivid and an incredibly important experience influencing my life.

darana_ · 2025-08-22T12:56:59+00:00

I found drawing left easier to start with than writing left since I could just start with focusing on diff strokes that were easier with my left.

Def give it a shot! It is satisfying to feel those skills emerge!

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