Month: May 2024 (Page 2 of 6)

Thursday, May 23, 2024 (Court Day #664)

I flew out to Las Cruces yesterday to help pack up my daughter’s apartment. She had an all-day practice test today at school for her medical boards, so I boxed up what was left to pack and moved almost all of it to her friends Kristin’s and Adrienne’s garage. (Kristin is the one who plays pickleball with Charlotte when they aren’t swamped with school.)

Charlotte wanted to join Kristin and Adrienne in seeing a friend this evening, so I grabbed some fast food and was at Apodaca Park by 7:45 p.m. (Charlotte said that local players mostly wait until sunset to play due to the desert heat.) Unlike the early morning session nearly two years ago, I couldn’t park right next to the courts and had to park a little down the side road. As I walked to the courts, I passed a temporary chain link fence and graded dirt. I was told later than this would be additional pickleball courts. I’m jealous!

The Courts

I let myself through the gate and greeted the first person I saw. She volunteered that her name is Maddie and she was from El Paso, but she plays regularly here. Maddie said they weren’t using the paddle rack since it wasn’t too busy. Me, I was seeing 10 people both sitting and standing around not playing. But I guess they each had their groups they were playing with.

I left Maddie as she made motions to into a game and walked over to a group of six young people next to an empty court. There was a man named Isaac who’s in the Air Force and his lady friend. The two had never played before. I explained to them the non-valley zone as well as the double-bounce rule. The other four started a game and Isaac and his friend went to an empty court past the divider to hit the ball back-and-forth to get used to it. I didn’t play with any of that group this evening.

First Games

I got into a conversation with a man named Ron. Ron’s wife Keysha and their son Miles were also there. Miles was off in a game. Ron convinced his wife to join us and I was paired with a young fellow named Jake.

Jake and I lost both games we played. In those two, I hit four balls into the net with unforced errors. That’s not to say the primary reason we lost was me, but I certainly didn’t help things by slamming balls into the net!

Milo and Bennie

I was fortunate enough to get into a game with Ron against Milo and Bennie. Ron warned me: “They are 4.0-4.5.” I said, “So, no speed ups unless it’s high.” Ron corrected, “No speed ups unless it’s a slam.”

We lost 3-11. I missed a couple serves and popped up too many shots. And I think Ron was trying too hard, he’d been very consistent in the earlier games, here he made some uncharacteristic errors. Me? I was still playing in a frustrating fashion. 

We played again and while Ron and I had been up 3-0 in that second game, we lost 11-4. It’s great playing against strong competition, especially competition that is unfamiliar.

It was 9:02 p.m. when we were done with that second game.

Getting to Know the Locals

I learned that Ron’s son Miles just took the MCAT test to get into medical school. Ron and Keysha have another son who is working on his doctorate at MIT.

Bennie is a captain in the U.S. Army. There were a number of players from El Paso, which is about 45 minutes away. Ron told me that they only have four permanent courts in El Paso and the rest are dual-lined courts. The locals here find that astounding. Right now, they’re building a lot of new courts in Las Cruces, not just at the park where I played tonight. I kidded with Bennie, “Well, Texas is so small, I can see how they might have trouble fitting in pickleball courts!”

What’s amazing is Bennie said he’d been playing for about only 8 months. I asked if he has tennis background. “Ping-pong.” Ah. It’s crazy that I’ve been playing for 7 years and he’s been playing for 8 months and he’s already better than I am. How is that fair? Ha! Ah, well.

Ron said that the lights here go off at 10:40 p.m. He said they used to go off at 11:00 but the city changed it so that goes off 20 minutes earlier, though he didn’t give a reason. Maybe there aren’t enough players that late to make it worthwhile.

Ouch

Mid-evening, I noticed that my right ring finger knuckle was tender and purple. Hmmm. It must have been hit with the ball. I didn’t remember the impact.

I played with a guy with an unusual name that goes by simply “E” against Alex and Vanessa. Almost all the players there tonight were quite good. We lost and it was mostly on me.

Alex and I played a last game against E and a quiet young Asian fellow whom I didn’t catch his name. Alex and I won that one. I finished up that last game about 10:15 p.m. No one else was willing to squeeze in one more.

Everyone was watching a foursome play—the only game going, Milo and Vanessa against Bennie and E—and I watched until about 10:30 p.m. then I said my goodbyes. I had to get up early and on the road tomorrow morning. Ron said something about playing again sometime and I asked if he’d be here in a couple of years. He smiled and said, “I’m not going anywhere.” I probably won’t be back in Las Cruces until Charlotte graduates from Burrell College with her medical degree in 2026. The new courts should be long-done by then!

As I waved goodbye to everyone and headed to the gate, Bennie went out of his way to give me a smile and fist bump.

Nice folks.

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Friday, May 24, 2024 (No Play)

As I type this, it’s my daughter’s turn to drive. We’re in the middle of Arizona somewhere in the midst of a 10+ hour trip from Las Cruces to San Diego. We’ll be staying overnight at my mother-in-law’s condo while she’s out of the country site-seeing. My right ring finger is sore to the touch and mildly discolored. Ow.

We stashed some last bit of stuff in Kristin’s garage first thing this morning. Kristin asked me how pickleball went. I told her about the people I met including Ron and Keysha and their son Miles who just took the MCAT… “Oh, I know who Miles is! I didn’t know about he took MCAT!” We talked a bit more and Kristin said, “You know more about them than we do! We just play with them.”

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Saturday, May 25, 2024 (No Play)

Charlotte is taking the first leg driving on day two of our trip home. We’ve been on the road a little over an hour. It’s 8:49 a.m. and we’re heading north on the freeway from San Diego. My right wrist is bothering me a bit with certain motions. Maybe it’s the driving I did for hours yesterday. Or awkward screen time in the car. And my right ring finger knuckle is still pink. I was tempted to try and squeeze in some play last night, but after traveling for 9 1/2 hours, the last thing I wanted to do is get back into the car and drive to courts somewhere. But, regardless, the key fob my mother-in-law had mailed to me a couple weeks ago has a dead battery and we had to wait for a car to pull up behind us to open the gate to the private parking garage under her condo building . . . I wasn’t about to drive off and hassle the garage access again. Instead, it was early to bed after a long day.

We’ve spent a lot of the trip with Charlotte either on her laptop or listening to a series board test review podcasts by a Dr. Goljan. I looked him up and, with some math, I figured out the recording is from 2000. Basic medicine hasn’t changed all that much in the last 24 years. I’m learning more about medicine than I’ve ever wanted…

Number of days on a court: 664
Number of total hours: 2,829.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 36

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

Sunday, May 19, 2024 (Court Day #663)

Unlike yesterday morning, which was a bit misty and wet and threatened to delay club play at Skypark, today, while overcast and rather chilly, was dry as I drove to Derby Park. My nose was noticeably cold, even in my car.

My right knee has been bugging me. I could feel it mildly aching while walking around this morning. I generally wear a knee brace (that Ted gave me) when I play, though I don’t always. But, today, there was no question if I was going to wear it or not—100% yes!

Found Paddle

On Thursday night, as I walked near the courts at Skypark, I found a really nice paddle on the ground next to the path. It had “Kiki” written on it along with a phone number. I meant to call on Friday morning, but I got overwhelmed and completely forgot about it until late last night. I texted the number this morning and we’ll see if I can get this paddle reunited with its owner.

Derby

I arrived at Derby Park about 15 minutes before opening time and got about setting up. There were a few players there knocking a ball around.

Lead Tape

My right wrist was very mildly hurting with specific shots, but it didn’t bother all that much today. I got off to a slow start, missing some shots. Later in the day, I realized that I’d added lead tape to the two lower corners of my new Gearbox paddle. This increases the sweet spot some, but also adds just a little bit of power . . . not that I need more power with this paddle.

Skills

With no 4.0+ players there, I signed up in red. In my first red—advanced—game, I end up switching to left-handed to make the game more balanced. I was partnered with Lester and we were at 7–0 in that game. It was played to 9, win by 1. I think we lost, but it’s good practice to play some lefty now and then.

Some strong players appeared later, but it didn’t work out for me to play with them. Colleen came and Adrian appeared for the first time in a long time. Mark G. was there and I did get to play in a game with him but he was always partnered with a weak player.

There were about 50 people so we had long waits between games. Some players gave up and left.

Jeff was there with his brother Scott. (They look quite alike!) Scott has been coming with Jeff on Sunday for the past month or so.

Newbies

I trained three newbies today: Sean, Scotia, and Fernanda. Sean said he was the #1 pickleball player as a sophomore in high school but it has been 10 years since he’s played. They were an appreciative group.

AWOL Phone

One of the players left his phone on the bench, and when he went back, it was gone. I would hope none of the players intentionally took it and, instead, it was simply picked up an error.

I left Derby Park at 12:20 p.m. I’ll be teaching at Willowbrook this afternoon.

The Wife

My wife Kristen is amusing. Today, for my class, she had purchased a new floral pickleball sling bag.

You have to be fashionable, right? Ha ha!

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Monday, May 20, 2024 (No Play)

My activity today while making and eating my lunch. Ben Johns and his brother Colin were placed into a match against two 5.0 players. Normally, this would be a wipeout, but this was not a normal match. This was an exhibition arranged by Zane Navartil for the benefit of his YouTube viewers. The challenge placed on the Johns brothers was to play . . . left handed. Yes, they are both righties.

Ross

I broke the pair of sunglasses I keep in my car. They inexplicably snapped near the nose. Don’t ask me why. I decided to stop by Ross on my way back to work from lunch to get a new pair. Since I was there anyway, I looked at shoes—and found a pair of Fila court shoes in my size for just $19, woo!—and aside from two pairs of cheap sunglasses, I stopped to see if they had any pickleball gear in their sports section. Surprise! They did. They had a Reebok paddle for $19.

The paddle face was relatively smooth compared to my Gearbox or Players Rogue 2 paddles or I might have been tempted to get it for my family.

French Open gets pickleball

In a week, tennis fans will gather in Paris to witness the French Open. But there is a new twist…

Here’s an article about it:
https://www.timesnownews.com/sports/pickleball/french-open-to-have-a-massive-pickleball-upgrade-details-inside-article-110209285

Wife Pains

My wife Kristen was complaining today about pain in her upper leg and glute muscle from pickleball. Ah, well. One has to expect that when you start using your muscles in new ways.

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Wednesday, May 22, 2024 (No Play)

I’m in New Mexico for about 36 hours to help my daughter move her apartment belongings into storage. I few out today. I was surfing Facebook pickleball groups and a circuitous course brought me to this video:

It was recommended as a drill for newer players. While they did say it was windy, I question their dink targeting skills. I’m tempted to try this when I get home a see if I’m as much better as I think I am.

Number of days on a court: 663
Number of total hours: 2,827
Number of paid coaching hours: 36

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

Thursday, May 16, 2024 (Court Day #662)

The days are flying by this week. This morning, I was planning on not playing tonight. My right knee has been bothering me for the past few days and I figured I would give it some rest. But my wife texted asking if I was going to play and while I was still undecided, I picked up what I needed from home during lunch just in case.

War!

I am so annoyed. Really, really annoyed. The PPA business group announced today that it’s launching a “global governing body” to manage pickleball.

What the hell? For 40 years, there has already been a “governing body” for pickleball. It was originally called the United States of America Pickleball Association (USAPA) and was rebranded a few years ago to USA Pickleball. Internationally, the USAPA was instrumental in founding the International Federation of Pickleball (IFP) to promote the sport worldwide. (The IFP went through some management problems and was relaunched as the International Pickleball Federation or IPF, last year.)

Rather than working with USA Pickleball, the business guys decided they’d just start their own association. What really gets me is them laying claim to the 52% growth of participation in the sport last year. What they don’t say is that the PPA and MLP had almost nothing to do with it. The volunteer network of USA Pickleball ambassadors—like me—have been working hard to grow the sport for years, along with local recreational players. It has been very grassroots, with support from USA Pickleball. A recent survey determined that over 90% of pickleball players have very little interest in pro players and pro matches . . . they just want to get out and play themselves. This is very unlike, say, football, baseball, or basketball where the majority of fans don’t play themselves but like to watch. So, again, the pro leagues have had very little to do with the growth of pickleball, they are just riding the wave but want control the sport anyway. Power grab.

(And just to be clear, I do not officially speak for USA Pickleball. The opinion above is my own.)

Weather and Whether

It h ad beenovercast all day today and a little bit on the chilly side. It was almost enough to make you think it was a late fall instead of spring. It was misting heavily as I drove to Skypark after work, but it was only a brief interlude on the freeway then stopped.

After my performance on Tuesday night, I was dejected about my play. Yesterday, I caught myself thinking, “Why do I play this game?“ But there I was this evening, on my way to Scotts Valley to play once again.

Skypark

I was on the courts shortly before 7 p.m. There weren’t as many people playing tonight as there had been on Tuesday. The whiteboard wasn’t brought out and there was only me and about half a dozen other people who are waiting to get into games.

While I played better tonight, I did hit a ball into the white tape three times and also missed about a half dozen of my serves—about an equal number sailed past the baseline as ended up in the net.

There were two passing shots along the right sideline where I left too much of a gap and my opponent took advantage. I have to trust my partner to cover the middle. I can’t leave the easy straight-ahead shot open. I was probably leaving about 4 feet beyond the reach of my paddle along that sideline. The good news is on a third attempt, I had adjusted and the ball was within my reach, and I took care of it and returned the ball over the net. It was a few minutes before 9:30 p.m. when the last game ended.

Ow.

The most eventful incident tonight was David hitting a hard drive from the kitchen across the net and right into my face. Aaron had popped up the ball and David leap up and slammed it square on my right cheekbone. For ball that is so light, it sure stung for a while! David apologized and felt bad. It wasn’t his fault. It easily could have been me hitting a ball like he did. And that is why I wear eyewear all the time while playing pickleball . . . you never know when you’ll get a ball to the face! My cheekbone mildly stung for a while.

Work to Do

There is still work I need to do in court positioning as well as trusting my partner in the middle. The problem is, when you’re playing with a partner who is weaker—which I think was every game for me this evening—you can’t always count on them to make the shot so there’s a temptation take a backhand shot in the middle instead of leaving it for the forehand of your partner.

I will say that overall, my drop shots are getting better and more consistent with this recent paddle change and tweaking. That’s nice to see.

When I got home after 10 p.m., I iced my knee . . . and iced my cheekbone!

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Saturday, May 18, 2024 (No Play)

No play for me yesterday or today. I have too many of my staff on vacation. We ended up four people short at work today.

New York

My brother John has been in New York City this week for his work. He sent a text to the group text chat with my parents and siblings…

John is a funny guy! I’d read previously about the courts in Central Park. From what I understand they were initially temporary as an experiment, but “stuck”. Regardless, neat that he got to see them in person . . . especially since John has started playing some himself.

Reddit

I recently installed Reddit on my phone to access pickleball discussions. This popped up and I couldn’t help but chuckle given the vocal subset of tennis players who keep talking smack about pickleball.

“…no one in my area seems to play anymore.”
Now, I have played tennis and enjoy tennis and I don’t want to see tennis suffer. But I do enjoy the strategies and skills of pickleball. What was it someone said? “Tennis is checkers, pickleball is chess.” A more physically-demanding and a “higher barrier for entry” checkers, but checkers compared to the “cat and mouse” of pickleball.

UPA-A

The flurry of over the announcement by the for-profit UPA that it’s launching a global association to essentially replace the decades-old non-profit USA Pickleball is continuing. The Pickleball Channel posted a poll today and here are the results…

I have some faith in humanity that only 5% of respondents say that the UPA-A is a good idea.

Number of days on a court: 662
Number of total hours: 2,824
Number of paid coaching hours: 34.5

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