Month: June 2024 (Page 2 of 4)

Tuesday, June 18, 2024 (Court Day #676)

I flew into Las Vegas a little before 2 p.m. and paid the $15 to get from the airport to the Flamingo Hotel via a generic shuttle bus. While the hotel receptionist told me that my room was ready, they wouldn’t let me check in 90 minutes early without paying an extra $23. Forget that! So I headed to trade show area’s registration desk and they were happy to park my backpack and duffle bag behind their counter. I picked up my badge and sat in on a hands-on workshop demonstrating Swiss-made gouache paint . . . it is an art materials trade show after all.

Dinner

After a stop in my room on the third floor to settle in with my things, the show host company had an opening mixer at the Sol Mexican restaurant down the street starting at 6 p.m. It was mostly a standing dinner, though there were a handful of spots to sit and eat with a plate on your lap. It was fun to catch up with people.

At about 8:10 p.m., I opted to walk the two blocks back to the hotel and see about squeezing in some pickleball.

I changed, confirmed the courts address, and made my way to the ‘taxi and ride share’ area outside. Conveniently, I’d received a Lyft coupon in my email that would expire the last day of the show. It was warm, even in shorts and a T-shirt.

The app estimated the ETA at 4 minutes, but turned in about 15 minutes as my driver passed by my street and kept going. Unfortunately, there was road construction going on and I suspect the driver just thought “no way” and bailed out. Lyft assigned me a new driver at 9:00 p.m. and the estimated 3 minutes was actually closer to 10. Court time was ticking away, so it seemed like forever!

Sunset Park

Finally, at 9:33 p.m., I was walking through the chain link gate into Sunset Park’s pickleball courts.

I’d been told by the moderator of the Las Vegas pickleball Facebook group to go to the four challenge courts on the far side—the question was, where were those exactly.

I introduced myself to some random players. One fellow asked my rating. “4.0.” He pointed down the walkway. Ah. The challenge courts.

Challenge Courts

Once there, I was chatting with a guy about the local play and he shared, “some professionals play over there,” pointing across the complex. That would not be me!

He added, “They are going to be adding more courts.” Wow. My home, Santa Cruz County, is so far behind in public courts. There are only four public permanent lighted courts in the county and the lights go off at 8:30 p.m. except Friday and Saturday when you get an extra hour. There are also four other permanent courts and fourteen dual-striped courts spread around at parks but all with no lights.

First Game

I played with a man named Trent against Matt and An. (Pronounced “ah-n”.) We lost 5-11. An was the best of the players that I watched tonight. 4.3? 4.5? I don’t know. Good player. When I asked my partner Trent about his background, Trent explained he is primarily a tennis player who also plays some pickleball.

So, at Sunset Park, if you win, you stay for two games, then come off if too many are waiting. It wasn’t clear to me what was “too many”.

There was a pair of guys were using two sets of paddles. They left a set of junk paddles at a court to reserve a spot but were playing elsewhere with different paddles. Then they showed up at the court and swapped those paddles with the ones they’d just been playing with. I gather this is frowned upon here, but there’s no one to police and enforce the local etiquette. It certainly annoyed me. I was waiting a good while to get back onto a court and these guys were gaming the system to double their playing time at the risk of delaying other people’s games. Others were asking around trying to find the “missing” players.

The Laughing Lion

I played with a young guy named Stan. I was told that Stan has a YouTube channel. Stan said his channel features Las Vegas and is called “The Laughing Lion”. He also said he did a video about the pickleball convention held recently here.

[I left Stan my card and he emailed me his videos…
Las Vegas youtube channel: youtube.com/@thelaughinglion
Vegas Pickleball channel: youtube.com/@vegaspickleball ]

Second Game

Stan and I played a game as teammates. In a surprise, our would-be opponents had just beat Matt and An, a strong team.

Ours would be a close game.

One opponent did hit me two or three times with the ball over the course of the game. When hit him with the ball later, Stan was pretty amused and commented on the retribution.

I was on the left side and Stan was on the right. They popped up a ball and I hit it to the sideline. The player directly across from me called ball in, and I shared that I thought it was just out. My partner thought that it was out but his partner thought it was in. This pretty amusing. In the end, we give them the benefit of the doubt and let the call stand out.

We had been up 9-6, but they came back and were leading 11-10.

They thought a rally was over. Much like my game recently with John Connors, there was a fire fight at the net where I was defending. The balls were coming down fast. Somehow, with my right hand stretched out low to the right and the backside of my hand awkwardly facing the net, I managed to get the ball back over and they couldn’t return it, so we won that rally.

Stan and I went on to win 13-11.

Later note: In Stan’s email the next day, he said, “Hey buddy, It was great to meet you last night at Sunset Park. You saved our last game with that unbelievable defensive volley and we won by a slim margin. Nice work! That was my 11th match of the night and I was so tired.”

That last game wrapped up at 10:57 p.m. The lights clicked off at 11 p.m. sharp and a uniformed official came around right then to lock up the courts and the bathrooms.

In my 90 minutes at Sunset Park, I got in just two games. That’s a whole lot of waiting.

“Home, James”

The Lyft driver told me that it’s great weather right now—in the mid to high 80s—and it’s supposed to be 108°F later is week.

The rides cost about $15 to get to the courts and about $25 to get back around 11:30 p.m.

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And here’s Stan’s video of the pickleball convention held recently in Las Vegas, it’s on his main Las Vegas channel, not his pickleball channel:

Number of days on a court: 676
Number of total hours: 2,862
Number of paid coaching hours: 43.5

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

Sunday, June 16, 2024 (Court Day #675)

As I drove to open up Derby park, I knew it was going to be a warm one. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was already 61°F.

Not that I was particularly concerned, but I knew that in the afternoon for my two classes at Skypark, it was going to be rather toasty.

Elbow

Tennis elbow does seem to be making a comeback. That’s unfortunate, I really like this new Gen 3 Gearbox Pro paddle, but it doesn’t seem to be agreeing with my arm.

Sighting

As I was driving down Swift Street, I noticed a man riding a bike with a large afro. Sure enough, that was Brandon, the post-doctoral student who comes to play frequently. He was at Brommer Park playing yesterday morning too.

Games

I had an assortment of games, most were not particularly notable.

Ted and I played against Brandon and Rick Arnold. They targeted Ted mercilessly, especially Rick. We lost 5-11.

Lou

Dan Dewey introduced me to his friend Lou. Dan said the two of them played a lot of tennis with just each other during the height of the pandemic. (Much like Eric Schmidt and John P., who played skinny singles only with themselves during the same time.) Lou and I played against Dan and Brandon. We lost 6-11. For whatever reason, my drop shots were being unusually unreliable today.

The last game of the day was Adrian and myself against Brandon and lefty “linebacker” Aaron. We won 12-10. That was a good game. There was one dink battle where I was dinking backhand to Aaron’s forehand crosscourt. Back and forth, I pushed, push, then there was an opening between Brandon and Aaron. I drove the ball off the bounce between them—winner. Adrian chimed in, “That was textbook.”

I left at 12:03 p.m., I had lunch to eat and classes to teach starting at 1:30 p.m.

Classes

Today was the second meeting of my two back-to-back classes at Skypark.

Lindsay of Rec.us had requested photos of my classes either today or before my 4-week classes ended. So I asked one of my beginner students, before she left, to take some photos of my second class, the Advanced Beginner class. Here are a few…

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Monday, June 17, 2024 (No Play)

Ben Johns made an appearance on the front page of The Washington Times over the weekend. Pickleball is getting more and more mainstream:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/06/14/ben-johns-pickleball-superstar

Oh, and here’s an article on Ben Johns from 2019, I stumbled upon while searching for the one above:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/he-picked-up-pickleball-a-few-years-ago-now-he-is-the-national-champion/2019/12/19/9c833572-16c2-11ea-8406-df3c54b3253e_story.html

Vegas

Tomorrow, I fly to Las Vegas for a trade show. I’m hoping to get in some play there. I’ll definitely be bringing at least some minimal gear with me . . . one paddle, SCPC cap, court shoes, socks, shorts, one of my SCPC shirts, forearm strap.

Number of days on a court: 675
Number of total hours: 2,860.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 43.5

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

Friday, June 14, 2024 (Court Day #674)

As the club secretary, I needed to be at the 12:15 p.m. monthly meeting. I might as well take the morning off from work and play. I pulled up to Brommer Park at 9:34 a.m. under partly cloudy skies. It was 59°F, but soon it would be clear skies and warmer temperatures. I lucked out and there was just one parking spot right at the courts. Nice. If the lot was empty, that was the exact spot I would have picked!

Almost all my games were challenging, which is great. I was playing well, though not quite as well as last night.

Tennis Elbow Back?

I really like this new Gearbox paddle, however, it seems as though I’m having little twinges of tennis elbow symptoms. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten golfer elbow before but the inside of my right elbow has been acting up a little bit. Same with the top of my forearm. But it’s just twinges. It’s nothing to worry about . . . yet. It does have me considering going back to a Players Rogue 2 paddle. Or maybe getting Players’ new gel core paddle. We will see.

Games

I played with Brandon against John Connors and a man named Shaun, whom I’d never met. It was a good game. I can’t recall who won, other than it was close. Maybe it was us, maybe it wasn’t. Regardless, it was about the experience of a good game where the ball comes back.

There was one rally where it was one of those how you don’t know how you pulled off what you did. I was on the left. John was straight ahead. Shaun was diagonal from me and we were all at the net. There was a high ball on their side. There was was a slam down at me by Shaun, followed by another from John—I was low and my paddle was lower!—then another from John but now the ball was high enough for me to drive it between them . . . for a winner. “I thought that was over after my first slam!”, shared Shaun. They were impressed. Heck, I was impressed!

Communication?

Shaun was my partner for one game. I was on the right. An opponent lobbed directly over my head. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get it. I immediately shifted left get out of the way and to cover for my partner going after that lob to hit with his forehand. But, no. I turned around and he hadn’t moved. Rally over. I would have expected any advanced partner to just go after that lob. I was mildly annoyed in passing, but I hadn’t yelled “switch”, so I have to accept at least some—or maybe a lot—of the responsibility.

Just like the last time that I played against John Connors, afterward, he told me, “You played well.”

Board Meeting

Today was the monthly Santa Cruz Pickleball Club board meeting. Dan Bliss didn’t make it and Kristin Long had an appointment outside the area and couldn’t make it either. For the rest of us, the meeting lasted about an hour and forty minutes and we were out shortly after 2 p.m. One problem we are having is some of the players aren’t doing the $2 donation. As it is, we are not covering the costs associated with reserving the Skypark courts on Saturday mornings. If someone comes and sets up camp in the tennis court that is dual striped for pickleball, without that club reservation, half the pickleball courts would be unavailable.

Paddle Wars

I found out that Selkirk issued a statement yesterday supporting USA Pickleball and integrity in paddle manufacturing.

STATEMENT RELEASE 06.13.24
EQUIPMENT STANDARDS & THE FUTURE SUGGESS OF PICKLEBALL
As with any sport, maintaining high standards and enforcing rules is essential to ensuring fair play and the sport’s integrity. We encourage all pickleball equipment manufacturers and the general pickleball community to support USA Pickleball (USAP) in their recent efforts to enforce the current rules, as well as hold manufacturers to higher quality standards.

In pickleball, it has become a common issue that the production models of paddles differ from those that were originally approved in testing.
Enforcing the rules and ensuring a level playing field is critical to the current and future integrity of the sport.
SELKIRK

Obviously, this is in response to the Joola’s lawsuit against USA Pickleball.

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Saturday, June 15, 2024 (No Play)

The one thing about coaching professionally on weekends with regular classes is it’s often “do teaching or do tournaments”. Tournaments are almost always on weekends. Mixed doubles is often on Sundays, so there’s still a chance for doing men’s doubles on a Saturday, though I regularly work that day.

Number of days on a court: 674
Number of total hours: 2,857.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 40.5

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