Month: May 2022 (Page 4 of 4)

Sunday, May 8, 2022 (Court Day #492) – Mother’s Day

My wife and I landed in North Carolina on Friday morning. And my son Nicholas graduated from Duke University yesterday with an E.E Masters in machine learning.

The ceremony didn’t take too long, there were only roughly 150 E.E. masters degrees conferred. They didn’t announce those who did it, but Nicholas was one of a relative handful who earned a GPA of 3.9 or higher. Nicholas was a 4.0 with straight ‘A’s.

Ephesus Park

The last time I was in Durham, I played several times at Ephesus Park in Chapel Hill. I rechecked the forecast this morning. It rained here and there the last couple of days.

Cold, overcast, and breezy. I was hoping there would be enough players there to play with. I didn’t pack a sweatshirt, so I borrowed my son’s UCLA sailing one. It wouldn’t be warming up like a California day!

Since we only had one car, my wife dropped me off at the courts at 9 a.m. with the intent of picking me up at noon. About 10 people were either playing or warming up. There was a good-sized puddle next to a court inside the fence, but the rest was dry.

The first person I talked to was Jack, who is out playing at the age of 82—kudos to Jack! I told Jack the story of me getting beat years ago at Mitchell park in Palo Alto by an 83-year-old on a challenge court.

(Here is that blog entry from about five years ago:
https://pickleballjourney.com/2017/09/25/palo-alto/)

I brought two paddles, my recently renovated Rogue2 and my brand new Rogue2 Carbon. Both are the identical “Hybrid” shape. I opted to play with my new paddle—of course, right?

Jack and I warmed up, dinking. Jack did well, getting all but the hardest shots back. The wind was affecting some shots, even with crosscourt dinking.

When someone said it’ll be warmer tomorrow, Jack shared, “That’s what my wife was suggesting to me. But I told her, ‘I don’t know if I’ll be alive tomorrow, I’m playing today!’”

First Game

I got into a game with Jack against a very tall man named Steve and his wife, whose name escapes me. They are all 3.0 players—well, Jack might be a 2.5. Jack and I lost the first game—the wife apologized to Jack telling him they’d be hitting a lot of balls to him. But late in the second game—the score was very close—she got nauseous and had to walk off the court. Steve apologized on her behalf, but no apology was necessary.

Next Up

Jack and I played next against Linda and Brian. We got clobbered. Linda said she and Brian played a total of three 3.0 tournaments (60+) and medaled in all of them. There was only so much ground I could make up on my side. Still it was fun.

Linda and I played a game against Mike and Melissa. (Linda’s husband Brian got into a different game with some stronger men.) Mike is either a high 3.5 or a 4.0. Linda and I won the first close game but lost the second in a lopsided fashion. Mike is a good player. Give him an inch and he’ll take a mile. A smidge too high—bam!—the point is over. He’s not perfect player, but I wish he was in Santa Cruz, Mike is a very worthy opponent. Melissa was solid too, though not the level of Mike. There was a slam I made and I was thinking it wasn’t going to come back, but Melissa managed to get it back over and I wasn’t ready. Nice, Melissa! (Reminder Lesson: always expect the ball to come back—and never underestimate your opponent!)

Linda and I stepped off, leaving Mike and Melissa to take on some others. I mentioned to Linda that I didn’t see any players from my trip here in March last year. She smiled and waved at the courts saying she wasn’t surprised, there were fewer people out due to the weather. Linda said she’d put her paddle in the next up reservation spot in the fence (next to mine), but she said she would step out if there was a good “guys game” for me.

Stronger Games

And that’s what happened. Linda stepped aside and I played a game with Brian against John and Bill. Brian warned me that John hits really hard, drives everything, and is great with angles. And John was. But we won. It wasn’t easy to handle John’s hard drives, but I managed to get all but 2-3 of them back over in my assorted games against him. John just needs to develop the other aspects of his game.

Brian had to leave, so Brad—a tall lefty—stepped in. We rotated through players.

It briefly drizzled while playing with the guys and later during another game that made the court mildly slippery but we kept playing (no mad attempts for the ball) and it dried out each time after a few minutes.

I kept checking the time and my phone for messages. My wife texted that they would be there at 12:20…I got another couple of games in!

I felt a bit bad for Bill. Bill lost every game regardless of who he had as his partner. He’s a super nice and humble guy. He did pull off some nice shots though.

As the last and rather quick game ended (Brad and I won 11-5), I saw my son’s car pull into the lot. Perfect timing!

I must have hit at least half a dozen, maybe a dozen shots into the white tape over the session today. I have to R-E-S-P-E-C-T the net. This continues to be an issue with my play. If I clean that up, it’ll make a big difference in my game.

Odds are that I’ll never be back to Chapel Hill. With my son now graduated, there will be little reason for me to return. Life moves on. Alas.

Oh, and I absolutely love the new Rogue2 Carbon paddle. Big fan. It played like a dream.

Fancy Attention

Afterward, my wife and mother-in-law and son went to a deli for lunch, then to Golf Galaxy. At my wife’s prompting, Nicholas has played golf as an occasional hobby since he was little. He played on the high school golf team, but didn’t excel. (He was a far better sailor than a golfer.)

My wife’s mom recently got Nicholas golf lessons as a gift. The instructor told Nicholas that he needed to get fitted for clubs, so that’s today’s project.

I have to say, I felt like a fish out of water at the golf store. I know nothing about golf. I played 9 holes once with my in-laws and son. I felt proud of myself I could even hit the ball with a club! I did get better over the 9 holes, but I have no dream of getting good at golfing … I’d much rather be out playing pickleball! I will admit I did try and imagine if that size of store was full of pickleball products instead!

Golf is an expensive sport. Cheaper than racing cars, but boy. Between equipment, green fees, shoes, a person could blow tens of thousands of dollars per year golfing. Pickleball is far cheaper. I can tell you, I’d be playing far less frequently if I had to pay $50-$100 each day I went out!

The fitting golf pro, Jeff, had Nicholas hit a bunch of differently configured 7 irons while getting analyzed by a computer.

The guy was pretty impressed with Nicholas’ drives. “Most people want an extra 10 yards, you don’t need distance.” Nicholas was regularly hitting in the 180 yards range, and some over 200 yards. We looked it up later, and these are pro distances. Male golfers hit an average of 120 yards with a 7 iron. Fortunately for the golfing world, it takes more than good 7 iron drives to win golf games. It’s like a pickleball player with 70MPH forehand drives. A good start, but you need consistent accuracy and a short game too. You need to practice and play more than a handful of times each year to improve too.

I wandered by a stall nearby and this guy was obviously a real golfer.

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Monday, May 9, 2022 (No Play)

Coincidentally, while sitting on a flight today, someone posted this article to Facebook comparing pickleball to golf:
https://www.desertsun.com/story/sports/2022/04/22/pickleball-and-golf-some-surprising-similarities/7412288001/

I think its a bit of a stretch, but I guess so…

Some Really Expensive Markers!

Here’s another bit of recent news that I missed. On March 14, a retiree in Denver, Arslan Guney, used a permanent marker to remark court boundary indicators in a gym. The city claimed he had done felony damage to the floor—the Parks & Rec staff used the wrong solvent to remove the marker and stripped the hardwood finish—and issued a warrant for the 71-year-old Gurney’s arrest.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/03/28/pickleball-arrest-felony-drawing-marking/

Gruney turned himself in and, of course, got a mugshot taken.

Guney—called the “Mayor of Pickleball” by his local community—received all kinds of support, as you’d expect. His lawyer released a statement today:

Hopefully, this will be resolved in a reasonable fashion. Given that Guney has offered to pay for damages and do community service, it would be a true travesty of justice if he were to serve any time in prison—let alone three years!

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Long post, but hey, what else am I going to do with hours and hours stuck on an airplane?

Number of days on a court: 492
Number of total hours: 2,310

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

Tuesday, May 3, 2022 (Court Day #491)

This afternoon I got notice from Players Pickleball that my repaired paddle and the new carbon paddle will be shipping out today and they sent me a UPS tracking number. My communication with Macy there was excellent. With a little bit of luck, my paddles will arrive before I leave town and head to North Carolina for my son‘s graduation from the masters program at Duke University.

Skypark

It was a very warm day today considering it’s early May, and when I arrived in Skypark after work at about 6:50, it was still warm enough to sweat relatively easily. When I was home for lunch earlier, I packed a water bottle with some ice, so my water was still a little bit cool even after spending an afternoon in my hot car.

My first game was with Matt B. against his friend Paul W. and Eric (husband of Ann). It was a good warm-up game.

Tim and his son Casey walked over right after Matt and I had finished our game and asked to take on the winners. The winners were Matt and myself and I was quite happy that I got into game with Tim and Casey. Those are always good games. Matt and I went on to lose that game but it was very close. Matt stepped out for the next game and his friend Paul became my partner for the next game. This game was not nearly as close, and it was a lopsided loss.

Tim and Casey called it a night. Janet called me over and she and I played against Paulie and his short Swedish friend Maria. Even with me playing lefty and Janet making uncharacterIstic mistakes, we won. Not a surprise. We switched it up with me playing with Maria against Paulie and Janet. Before we started, Maria turned to me and said, ”You’ll have to be patient with me … we played before, you were very patient and kind.” Did we win? No, but it was very close.

The Yreka Connection

The newer player Chandler was back tonight—along with her husband Alec whom I got to meet tonight. I told Chandler that had looked at my dad’s 1960 Yreka High School yearbook—which I did on Sunday night—but I didn’t find anyone with the last name of Lay or Martin—names who Chandler said last week were her relatives and should have graduated that same year with my dad. I did, of course, find my dad’s photo:

I am very familiar with that photograph. When I was young enough to think 19 was old, this graduation photo in a frame in the hallway at my grandparents’ house in the very small town of Montague, California… the population was just over 400 then. Now it has exploded to a whopping 900 people. My grandfather, John Lenz, was mayor of Montague at one point…maybe in the 1960s. My dad claimed they elected him because they wanted my grandfather’s engineering skills for free—John designed dams and assorted water facilities. I believe he designed Montague’s sewage treatment system. My dad said his dad would shake his head when the Army Corps of Engineers would do some project. Like changing the course of a river. The story goes that my grandfather would know to have boulders placed in very specific locations then let the flowing water do the hard work of moving (literally) tons of dirt and shaping land accordingly. Things like that and using the natural flow of water to reduce power usage. The Army would do things the hard way, working against water instead of with it. My grandfather was very intelligent. He didn’t waste words and, while pleasant, you had to prompt most conversations. But I digress!

Last Game

Last game of the night I was partnered again with Swedish Maria. The game was against Matt and his friend Paul, and I was expecting to lose that game fairly badly. But much to all of our surprise, Maria and I went up to lead via score of 7 to 2. But that was not to last and Matt and Paul managed to tie up the score 7-7 when the lights clicked off at 9:30. Maria was doing much better coming up to the net and she definitely has good hand-eye coordination.

Elbow

My elbow seems to be doing a little better today, but I iced it when I got home nonetheless. I checked the UPS tracking tonight and it says my paddles should indeed come on Thursday. Good news.

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022 (No Play)

I checked the UPS tracking on my paddles and they are still expected to be delivered tomorrow.

Online, I saw part of a video clip of a TV interview with famous tennis player, Serena Williams.

I tracked down the interview:
https://youtu.be/WHxwBpxYHFs?t=6m48s
In it, she says she loves pickleball. Ellen Degeneres, the interviewer, then chimes in that she loves it too. The surprise is Serena. Many tennis players are almost embarrassed to admit that they play pickleball. But who is going to try and shame the greatest women’s tennis player of all time because she says she loves pickleball? Yeah, not any sane person!

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Thursday, May 5, 2022 (No Play)

My paddles arrived today!

I was excited, of course. I will admit that when I unwrapped my old paddle, I was disappointed to see that they didn’t put my custom grip wrap back on.

My wife who keeps our house organized, moved my new pickleball grip from a year or two ago to somewhere that I couldn’t find. But she managed to track down a tote bag of my assorted pickleball stuff she hung on a nail in the garage.

The happy news is not only did I have one new handle overgrip for my old paddle, I had three, so more than enough to do both paddles. Excellent!

After wrapping the handles, I realized that I can’t blame Players for not rewrapping my handle. That grip tape is very sticky and after a year and a half, the grip no doubt tore when removing it.

The texture of the face of the new paddle seems a bit more “grippy” than my old paddle. I should have expected that, but I didn’t even think of it. Even if they started the same, you’d expect the face to smooth out with time.

Crazy Questions

Not infrequently, you see questions online which are eye opening. Such as this one…

Yipe! No doubt some know-it-all player somewhere was claiming it’s illegal to return a serve into the kitchen. We have to remember that half the population is below median intelligence. I don’t blame the person asking the question—he’s obviously a newbie—I blame the smarty pants giving out crappy information to others when, in fact, they have no idea what they are talking about!

Flight to North Carolina

How to drive your wife crazy. Say you are going to wear your halloween costume shirt for the cross-country flight! I won’t, of course. But it’s fun to get a rise out of your spouse!

My son Nicholas is graduating from Duke University’s masters program, so we’re traveling for the ceremony. We’re taking a redeye flight tonight. Yes, I’m packing my paddles!

Players Pickleball Coupon Code

Oh, if you like my blog and want to support it and you want to buy a Players pickleball paddle and get a discount for yourself plus also allow me to get a discount on my next purchase from them, you can use this link:
i.refs.cc/EnHVjrYU
(Thanks in advance!)

Number of days on a court: 491
Number of total hours: 2,306.5

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

Sunday, May 1, 2022 (Court Day #490)

I went to put on my court shoes this morning. I’ve been rotating a couple of pairs. The older pair is more comfortable though the permanent insoles were worn through in a couple of places. The newer pair are a bit tight on my big toes so I’ve been breaking them in slowly. I also bought a pair of inexpensive black Fila athletic shoes from Costco recently, but I haven’t tried those yet. (I’m a bit concerned about their lateral support, honestly.) Well, I discovered an issue this morning with the old pair…

…and those shoes are toast. The “tight on the toes” pair it would be!

While filling up my water bottle with ice and water, I saw my wife had bought cake mix! Yum. Hmmm. Wait. Nope. Not for me.

Out the Door

As I walked out the door this morning at 8:39 a.m., I stopped long enough to inform my wife “it’s going to be a warm one today!“ It was already sunny and warm with barely any clouds in the sky.

When I walked up to the courts to set up, a solitary tall visitor, David, was practicing backhand crosscourt shots by himself. I greeted him and he said he was down visiting from Napa with his girlfriend and he came out to play. He said he’s been playing for about 4 months.

Not long after, another visitor, Astin, visiting from Sacramento, appeared. I introduced him to David and they ended up playing a lot together today . . . starting with Mike K. and a regular whom I forget his name. Mike and his partner lost. Aside from David and Astin being about 30-ish and athletic, both are 6’3”! Long reaches cover a lot of sins!

My Games

My first two games were with Twan and Molly. They said today was their second time out playing, and my first time meeting them. I played them lefty and even then, I had to hold back to keep the points from ending too quickly. But they should get to be solid players with some time. Both are very nice people and can hit the ball reliably. When we were done, Twan said, “Thanks for the lesson!”

Skill Level Time

10 a.m. rolled around, meaning everyone was now signing up by skill level. From the bench inside, Ted and another called over wanting me to sign up in their red box. But by the time I got to the board, Ying was signing up with them, taking the last spot. I don’t consider Ying an advanced player. She has virtually no soft game. (Yet.) When I let out an audible “wha…” as she signed up, she explained, “I need to learn how to play with the big boys.” Ah, well. I could have argued, but I opted to wait while she experimented with playing Derby Park’s advanced. I started a new red box. I’ll admit I was slightly annoyed, but, ya know, Ying is not alone, there are others who sign up in red and I think they should be signing up in intermediate blue.

Playing with the Boys

“I understand you two are good enough to sign up in my box.” I was talking to Astin and David. Someone told me they were strong players. They signed up and Allen—who just arrived—made it four. Astin and David took one side and Allen and I took the other. It was Allen’s first game of the day. I went into this game intent not to lose. I didn’t want the newbies to have that satisfaction, so they got my focused tournament mindset. We won 11-9. It was close, but we did lead the whole game. As we walked off, Allen complimented me, “I don’t think you made any errors.” I countered, “I missed two serves long.” But it’s true, I played a very, very good game.

The next game, a rubber match, with Allen now warmed up, we won 11-5. About the time Allen and I were leading 9-2, David said, ”You guys are giving us a clinic.” I eased up a bit, I was feeling bad for them. They scored a few points. Not wanting to allow a comeback, I refocused and we finished off the game.

Strong vs. Weak

Later, ended up in a game of Charles and me against Ted and Ying. Ted wanted to play with Ying. That’s an Andrew move. Picking the weakest player to be your partner and have the best players to play against you. They scored a couple of points and led the game. I told Charles, “I guess I need to take this game a bit more seriously.” Charles replied, ”Why wouldn’t you take this game seriously?” But the next serve was coming and I never answered. As the game went on, Charles and I started piling on points and won a lopsided game—as I expected. Of the players today, one could easily argue Charles and I were the best ones there. It would have been a big upset had we lost.

As I was walking through after finishing a game and Astin was shifting courts with his group, he said with a smile, “Thanks for being so inviting.” Mission accomplished!

René and I played a game again John and Janet. (While René’s boyfriend Rick was there, he said he slept on his neck weird midweek and wasn’t up to playing—he was there just to hang put and support René.) René and I won, not unexpected.

Later, around 1 p.m., when he was heading out, I asked Astin, ”Will we see you again?”
”Most definitely.”

Still a Crowd?

It’s different these days. It’s getting more and more common to have a bunch of players after 1 p.m. It makes it more awkward for me to take down the club nets, leaving the less than stellar city nets. It’s a good problem to have, I suppose.

Iced my arm twice. Once about 4pm. and again about 9 pm. It was bothering me more than normal.

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Monday, May 2, 2022 (No Play)

I got word today from Macy at Players Pickleball that they’d repaired my paddle edging and since I had mentioned buying one of their new carbon paddles if it were available, she inquired exactly what I wanted for the new paddle. I told her I wanted the black grip (though it’ll get covered with overgrip anyway) and the same shape as my existing paddle. The new paddles are on introductory sale of $129 instead of $149. With my referral codes, the price for the new paddle was well under $100—can’t beat that.

Number of days on a court: 490
Number of total hours: 2,304

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