Sunday, April 11, 2021 (Court Day #369)

Like last Sunday, my daughter was working today, so I dropped her off before heading to Brommer Street Park. I arrived at 9:05 and three of courts were already in use. It was an overcast day, high-40s, but it would warm up and we’d get clear skies. Great weather for play.

Alain (from work) said he was going to arrive by 8:30, but I told him last night that I’d have to arrive about 9. Rick and Renee appeared and we warmed up. Once Alain arrived at 9:20, we warmed up another few minutes then it was Alain and me versus Rick and Renee. We lost by a lot, but it was a long game of back and forth service changes.

Alain left after one game, saying he couldn’t stay but at least he got one game in. Too bad.

Adam and friend Simon while battling Rick and Renee.

Simon and his friend Adam were waiting. I’d never seen them before. I sat out and let them get in and play. There’s always a question mark when I meet new players. Newbies? Newbies with a strong tennis background? Skilled tournament players?

Olga (far left), Rick and Renee, and on the far side at the right, Bev.

There are very funny conversations you’ll hear on a pickleball court, “Adam is much quicker with his pants off!” Referring to wearing just shorts instead of less-streamlined sweat pants. Depending on the context, men being quick when their pants are off is not a good thing!

Net Loan

Very kindly, Barb R. called to me across the divider from her game in progress and offered me her net. Patty was waiting too, so I got Barb’s car keys, retrieved her net and I set it up with Patty’s help. Then she and I drilled while waiting to get back into a game.

The game on the court that I had left ended and Rick invited me back in. I played with Simon. He’s tall, late 30s, humble and has a good sense of humor. We lost 11-6.

Next was Adam and me against Rick and Renee again. We lost 11-2. Adam can hit a good ball, but needs to work on basic pickleball strategies like staying back after the serve and advancing to net when he should. He’s probably relatively new. (Similar for Simon too.)

I sat out while Simon rotated back in. Simon and Adam lost 11-3. 

Simon and Adam took off, followed by Rick and Renee. Jason and I were left. I walked to the middle where Beth Black was busy swapping phone numbers. Vickie from San Juan Bautista was in the cluster along with Jackie and Dave Black. Vickie said, “You’re Andrew, right? I remember you from San Juan Bautista.” I had a vague recollection of her.

Vickie and Dave would complete our four players. I played three games with Dave Black as my partner against Jason and Vickie. We lost all three, but they were fun competitive games.

Today, there were moments of great play by me—shots I would have been proud to have hit right handed—but also embarrassing shots that were wild. There were a few shots where I got compliments from David or Vickie or Jason. (Like Dave saying, “Nice reset.”) But there was an overhead today where I slammed it on my side of the net—Renee, puzzled, asked Rick, “Did that go under?” Yeaaaaaah. Jason was chagrined as my partner on that one!

Jason had to go so we didn’t have a fourth. David was ready to head out too. I checked my phone. 12:45.

Oooo, something no one wants to see on their phone! 45 text messages! My dad had a successful open heart surgery for a valve replacement a few days ago and this has prompted a periodic flurries of siblings discussion lately.

I looked up Vickie in my previous blog entries and she was an opponent in the tournament right before I developed really bad tennis elbow:
https://pickleballjourney.com/2018/11/17/san-juan-tournament/

I’m slowly getting better left-handed. My serves are getting a bit faster, lower and are less lollipops. I’m still having issues of control. Like I lost 2-3 rallies today when a drive came at me at the net and I intended to drop the ball short over the net but it dropped in front of my feet instead. Ugh.


Thursday, April 15, 2021 (No Play)

A couple of days ago, I visited the sporting goods/camping store next to my work. Out of curiosity, while there, I asked the manager Tony, “Do you have pickleball stuff?” Tony said they got some and showed me the aisle.

I told Tony that I once met and talked to the guy on the ball package label, Ben Johns, and that he’s the top rated singles player in the world right now. (I’m still trying to figure out where the heck I put my paddle with autographs from Ben, Kyle Yates, and Morgan Evans!)

Erne Counterattack!

Someone shared a video on the Pickleball Forum Facebook group. It demonstrated something I’d never seen before. In the screenshots below, Lucy Kovalova (near left) is going for an erne shot and steps across the kitchen in preparation. Riley Newman (near right) sees this and gets aggressive. Rather than dinking the ball, Riley hits a hard two-handed backhand drive right at Lucy. It hits her and the rally is over!

The drive. Ball indicated.
The ball after bouncing off of Lucy’s torso. Ouch. Rally over.

Tonight, I emailed my co-worker Mike A. the address and details for Brommer Street Park for pickleball on Sunday. His first ever outing recently with friends was a good one and he’s interested in playing more.


Friday, April 16, 2021 (No Play)

I had PT this morning. My shoulder still hurts when doing a lot of things—mostly reaching up, out, or back. During my last three PT sessions, they’ve been using what looks like a seatbelt strap secured around their body to pull my upper arm bone (humerus) sideways, almost literally, out of its socket. The idea is to loosen it to give it room so I can raise my arm fully. I still don’t have full range of motion when lifting my right arm, maybe 60%. It’s been five and a half months since the surgery. It feels like it’s taking forever. I am concerned that I’ll never get back my full range of motion—I need to be able to stretch up to reach the ball for overhead slams.

I mentioned to Mike at work that I’d emailed him the pickleball information for Sunday. He suggested that if I don’t go to text him so he knows. I replied, “If I’m not there, I’m in the hospital!” (Madi, one to the new assistants found that amusing—little does she know how close to the truth my statement was!)

The inside of my right knee is aching a bit and when I was taking the stairs two at a time to get to PT, I had to switch to one steps at a time due to pain.

USA Pickleball

The USAPA sent out their April newsletter yesterday. Apparently, April is National Pickleball Month!

This cracks me up. Who comes up with these things? Maybe the USAPA just randomly picked. But, hey, April is also National Andrew Lenz Month, so I can’t complain…

They also announced a new, more interactive process for the annual changes to the rule book:
https://usapickleball.org/news/new-2022-rulebook-revision-process/

They might as well take advantage of modern technology!


Saturday, April 17, 2021 (No Play)

CJ Anderson sent out an newsletter today asking for a reply to her question and her suggested possible answers. Here’s my reply.

How do I measure improvement?

– Increased enjoyment. Not directly. 

– Longer rallies. Not directly. This depends a lot on who else is on the court and may have nothing to do with me. Or longer rallies might just be me hitting easy shots for weak players and avoiding hitting winners.

– Fewer errors. Yes. And fewer errors also leads to my increased enjoyment. If I ever get really good, then it will be less about decreasing errors and more about increasing winners.

– Higher rating. Yes, though I’ve been playing left-handed for almost two years due to tennis elbow in my right arm and, five months ago, rotator cuff shoulder surgery. Tournaments aren’t happening right now.

– Or something else? Acceptance by local recognized higher level players. It’s easy to be hypercritical of oneself and lose the overall perspective of time. For example, I’m still not happy with my left-handed serves, but when I first started serving lefty, I could only get about 1/2 to 2/3 of them in and they were lollipops. Now, I occasionally score points on my lefty serves due to spin or placement . . . they still aren’t super fast, but faulting on a lefty serve is a rarity now. Perspective of growth is important.

Number of days on a court: 369
Number of total hours: 1,049

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