With the time change two days ago, as I drove to Skypark at 6:45 p.m., it was still sunny. The sun was on its way to setting, and you couldn’t see the sun through the trees, but it was still light. As I left work, my car thermometer read 63°F, but by the time I got to Scotts Valley it was reading 57°. The equinox is in about a week and a half and then we’ll leave winter behind and head into spring. With it being lighter later, it’ll start to warm up a little bit. Parking will probably become more and more of a problem at Skypark as the weather gets better.
As luck would have it, a car pulled out of the parking lot just in time for me to take that spot . . . leaving the car that was following me with no option but the park out in the neighborhood somewhere.
Shortly before 7 p.m., I walked onto the courts.
No tennis players and about-to-be-overly-full pickleball courts.
The two tennis courts were empty and there were maybe half a dozen players waiting to get into pickleball games. Tim, Casey‘s dad, was setting up a net. And it wasn’t too long before all the courts were full and people waiting to get on.
Over the course of the session, there were a few games that were very “disposable”, but most were good games. I spent a good chunk of the evening frustrated and disappointed in my play. Everything was a little bit off. But I only had three or four drop shots into the net and if I missed any of my serves, it was only one or two. I only hit the net tape once. I did have one leaping poach towards the end of the evening where I hit the ball out past the baseline and lost the rally.
As the evening wrapped up, I felt a little bit better about my play. I headed home with the sense that I seem to be heading in the right direction. There wasn’t a massive improvement in play, though I was playing slightly better than I have been recently. I will emphasize the word slightly”.
The lights clicked off shortly after 9:30 p.m. and that was that.
Number of days on a court: 635 Number of total hours: 2,747.5 Number of paid coaching hours: 21.5
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Today is the day of the time change—”spring forward”—meaning we all have to get up an hour earlier. It’s brutal. While I was driving to Derby Park under cloudy skies with a 52° temperature, I had to wonder how many people would be there at 9 o’clock since yesterday at this hour it was 8 o’clock. My expectation was that people would sleep in a little bit later.
Today would be my third day playing in four days. That’s good, we’ll see if I can get my play back up to snuff. It’s been frustrating.
Eyewear
I learned this week that Anna Leigh Waters—the 16-year-old phenom and the #1 women’s player in the world—always sports eyewear when she plays. I also learned that her glasses are prescription. I’m wondering a little bit since I’m slightly nearsighted, if it would help to have prescription protective eyewear to play. Generally, I don’t think the corrective aspect of it would make much difference to me—I don’t wear glasses except when I feel like it and it’s convenient, maybe when watching TV in our living room or when I remember to bring them to a conference and have to look at projected slides. The hardest thing for me is playing under lights, which completely messes up my depth perception at times. Regardless, I nearly never play without eye protection—I think it’s been 2-3 times in 4-5 years and it was always against beginners. One very near miss and that was all I needed to get my act together.
Newbies
The funnest part of today’s session was teaching some new players at 11:30 a.m. There was John, who is in his mid-30s, and his friend Natalia who said she was 28, and yet another beginner who showed up named David—a retired UCSC astrophysicist professor. When I asked, David said that he does now the father of a friend of mine, another retired UCSC astrophysicist professor, Dr. Peter Bodenheimer. John and Natalia had wooden paddles that they had purchased as part of a cheap set. David have been gifted a paddle by a family—a nice one, a Ben Johns signature Joola paddle. All three had never played before, so I went through the normal stuff such as a non-volley zone, the double bounce rule, the two types of serves, how to hold the paddle, etc. They all did pretty well. After the explanations and warming up with dinking, I only played a few points in a game with them before I had to leave to teach out at Willowbrook. I had asked Ted earlier in the morning if he would be around at noon and I asked if he would close he agreed.
What a typical day looks like at Derby. This photo was taken by someone else and shared on Instagram.
While I won a lot of games today, it was kind of a boring outing. For most of the morning, I was unquestionably the best player there out of 40 people. A little bit later on, Bob Hansen showed up then Hugh and Brandon . . . so there were more stronger players. The dream game would’ve been the four of us , but that didn’t lineup. Only now, much later, do I realize that maybe I should’ve started a box in blue (4.0+) and then waited for the others to come off of the court and force the game that way. I imagine Bob would’ve been up for it. I half expected him to leave after experiencing some of the lower skills games. Truth be told, I wasn’t the site coordinator, I’d probably have headed to Brommer Park to get in some stronger games. Unfortunately, the club has a hard time finding people to commit to being a coordinator for every week. There are plenty of players willing to be back up site coordinators without the responsibility of week to week, but that only goes so far.
Willowbrook Class
I taught my class today then I also taught Sean’s class today since he’s out of town. Then Sean will cover my March 24 class since I’ll be out of town. (It’s a wash.) So I had two in a row this afternoon. It’s always bittersweet wrapping up a class. After the second class today, one student shared, “You are a great coach.” Then another chimed in, “You are a wealth of information!” Those are the moments that make coaching worthwhile.
Monday, March 11, 2024 (No Play)
Yesterday, I reached out to Joola yesterday to see if I qualified for a discount with my various pickleball roles. They got back to me and offered at 10% discount. Nothing like some of the discounts offered from other manufacturers, but better than a sharp stick to the eye.
Backpack
I’m on a quest to find my perfect pickleball backpack. There are things I like and dislike about every one I’ve found so far. A key for me is I nearly always hang mine on a fence, so it has to be very functional for a vertical orientation. The Joola was very promising, with a lot of pockets, but the zippers and pockets are more designed for use when the bag is set down horizontally. The quest continues!
Number of days on a court: 634 Number of total hours: 2,745 Number of paid coaching hours: 21.5
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René asked a couple days ago if I was gonna be playing today or not. Staffing is in pretty good shape at work. I did have to let go a new hire had been with us about a week. It wasn’t working out as well as we had hoped. There’s nothing too major, but a number of little red flags accumulated into enough of a problem. I figured it would be better to nip it in the bud. But even with him gone and one of my staff testing positive with COVID today and being out, we still have enough staff and experience there. There are no “fires” to put out, so figured I’d take the opportunity to get out and play a little bit . . . hopefully, better than I did Thursday night.
The inside of my right knee continues to be a little uncomfortable at times but also perfectly fine other times.
Brommer Park
I left my house at 8:50 a.m. under hazy clouds. There was a temperature in the mid 50s.
I pulled into the Brommer Park lot a few minutes after 9 a.m. and there was plenty of parking. I got into a game fairly quickly and played ok. Barely ok.
In that first game, I partnered with a regular, Paul, and he asked my name. “Andrew.” “What’s your last name?” “Lenz.” “Oh, you’re famous.” I laughed! (Not so famous that he didn’t have to ask my name!)
Over the course of the morning, I was disappointed and frustrated in my play. Some shots were too high. I had serves and returns and other shots into the net. I popped the ball up to my opponents. For the last game, I played a game with a fellow named Marco against Dieter and René. Marco wasn’t playing stellar, but I felt primarily responsible for a loss 2–11. In that last game, I was dragging due to lack of energy probably from me not eating breakfast and I didn’t bring any snacks today.
All that said, I definitely moments of good play. There was a game where René and I played against Mauricio—my nearby neighbor—and Evon (“Ah-von”). After a net battle, Evon told me, “Andrew, he have really fast hands.” I’d never played with Evon, he’s a good player.
Drilling with Mauricio?
Mauricio was there, and I talked to him about the shared court behind his house. He said the court isn’t good enough to play a game on, but it is adequate for drilling.
Mauricio says that the company that he works for is based on the East Coast so he typically starts work between 6 and 6:30 a.m. That’s fairly early for me. If I got up up at 6:30 every day, there’s little doubt that I’d be sleep deprived on a regular basis.
There are no ifs, ands, or buts. I really need to start drilling if I’m going to get better. The lack of consistent play in the last nine months has been detrimental to my performance. I’ll just have to take my lumps until I work my way back to playing well consistently.
I checked the time 11:48 a.m. After the poor performance of that last game, and lack of energy, I decided to call it a day and head home then to work.
Number of days on a court: 633 Number of total hours: 2,742 Number of paid coaching hours: 17
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