Sunday, September 15, 2024 (Court Day #717)
I arrived at Brommer Park at 10:10 a.m. It was partly cloudy today and about 70°F with a small breeze. It was a nice day.
It was kind of funny, I had a ‘jacket and tie’ charity function in the morning and I was secretly wearing my pickleball shorts and T-shirt under my formal clothes! Those, I peeled off in the Brommer Park lot, changed my socks and shoes and I was ready without having to spend an extra half hour to go home to change—less time driving, more time playing!
Parking was easy, but the flipside of that was getting into a game was not as easy. There were a couple of empty courts and a lack of players. But once I got into a game, it was nearly nonstop until I left.
First Game
My first game was a great one. I played with a guy I’d never met, John Alden, against Kyle (whom I had forgotten, but he remembered me) and Australian Josh, the spin-master!
This game was a battle.
Josh wound up and a fired a very hard drive from the his baseline while I was across from him at the net. With my backhand, I drove the ball off the court for a winner. I got kudos from our players for that one. My partner jubilantly exclaimed, “What was that?!?”
Another ball was coming to my backhand along the left sideline. Josh ran to the net but crept a little to the middle so I hit a hard backhand passing shot drive for a winner. He was able to make contact with the ball but it flew up wildly into the next court. I don’t think he was expecting a shot like that from a backhand.
After spending a long time at 9-7, John and I won 11-9 against Josh and Kyle. Not bad, considering John and I went into the game cold with no warm-up. That was the game of the day for sure.
Next Game
John and I played another game together, this time against tall lefty Greg and a fellow named Rick. We picked up another win 11-8. I wasn’t playing as sharp in this game. I was missing shots I should’ve made. I definitely had too many balls into the white tape or the net. Even one or two in a game is painful, but more than that is bad.
Eyeballs
I was in a game today when the ball deflected off of one player’s paddle, flew sideways, and hit the player’s partner’s protective glasses. And that’s the thing. The times that I’ve seen a ball hit a player in the face, it’s been off of that player’s own paddle or partner’s paddle, or some ricochet as opposed to a ball coming from an opponent’s paddle. “That’s why I always wear glasses!” Smart man.
David
David Lai arrived—a regular at Skypark—and we played against John A. and Greg. We won 11-5.
William
The last game was William and myself against David L. and a guy I had never met named Eric. The game would’ve been more balanced had Eric played with William and I had played with David, but as it was David and Eric lost 11–3. This was my first time on a court with William. He’s a very strong player. Eric, on the other hand, is probably a 3.0 or barely a 3.5.
I left at 11:45 a.m. I had to walk away from a game partnered with William against Drew and his female friend. Bummer. That would have been a good game.
All the games that I played today were decent as far as the challenge.
Well?
There was only about an hour and a half of play for me today, but it was well worth it.
You know the games are better when you hit a ball that you expect to be a winner, but then the ball comes back. Those are the fun ones.
I got home, had lunch, did some final tweaking of my Intermediate class curriculum, then headed to Scotts Valley to teach my two classes.
Coaching
Today was the last meetings of my two 4-week classes. It was a cooler day, so that was nice. The classes went well and my students were pleased. It was a warm fuzzy feeling when I got a round of applause after my Intermediate class. Usually it’s smiles and “thank you”s and waves. And a number asked about an “Advanced Intermediate” class. That doesn’t exist… yet!
Monday, September 16, 2024 (No Play)
I believe I forgot to share this photo. This is from a Santa Cruz Pickleball Club event the middle of last month. I didn’t attend it—I was working—but Pam shared this photo online. (Click on the image for a higher resolution version.)
There are currently over 400 paying members of the club, so the 40 players in the photo are less than one-tenth. I know only about 15 of these people by name. There has been a lot of new players over the last few years!
Tuesday, September 17, 2024 (No Play)
The back of my right hand is bothering me a little, so I’m going to take it easy and not play tonight.
I got a really nice testimonial from one of my students today:
"I was nervous to sign up for the Advance Beginner Pickleball class with Andrew Lenz because I'm new at the sport of Pickleball (took a beginner class a month earlier with a different instructor), and I'm an older gal so I wasn't sure if I could physically and mentally keep up with the class. I didn't want to let others down in the class due to my limited skill level. This let down did not happen!
In fact, I never even mentioned my trepidations because Andrew teaches his class that well. I completely forgot I was a newbie and I just had fun! I gained new skills and confidence and friends, and I even stopped some habits that just weren't working.
Andrew walked around to each participant during the class and was quick to spend time with us on anything he noticed. I truly felt like I was just where I needed to be, and I felt like I was on the inside taking this class because Andrew knows so much and has been teaching in our community for a quite while. For example, I use a drop serve. He was fine with that - in fact, he encouraged it and that made me feel legitimate!
Andrew is also a kind person and a direct person, which is incredibly refreshing that someone can be both. At one point in a drill, he grabbed a ball and whacked it with the paddle aimed right at me. In the drill, I was acting afraid of getting hit by the ball and it was impeding my ability to keep my eyes focused on the ball. The ball hit me square on and it did not hurt. Helpful communication, don't you think? LOL
Andrew spoke about each drill before we did them; explaining fully where we would stand, what the opponent would be trying to do, what we are attempting to do, what things we might focus on, and what additional skills we'd be developing, i.e., fast hands, quicker reaction time, better paddle timing and placement, etc. When I was unable to successfully complete the maneuver, he kindly stepped in and demonstrated so we could get a feel of what was to happen, and what would happen next. Love that!
What I would say I liked most from his class (besides his real-life examples of skills used in tournaments):
He teaches class conventionally - with a clipboard of drills and an attendance list. I like this for the obvious reason that drills make us better players. And use of the attendance list was so he could provide a substitute player if someone was going to be absent in the following class. I can't thank him enough for this because I don't want to lose the instructor's attention while he takes the place of an absent classmate. (Thank you Andrew's son, a very competent substitute player!)
And finally, Andrew was always willing and ready to answer our questions. Even questions outside the scope of this class he would take a few minutes to answer.
With the internet full of pickleball training videos, his taking the time for answering questions was so helpful to me! I would sometimes not be clear on a strategy or concept and I could ask Andrew and he would always be willing to clarify and offer answers. (Thank you so very much, Andrew!)
I look forward to taking an intermediate class with Andrew Lenz in the very near future!"
Wow. Great to hear. Encouragement from students means a lot.
Banning Courts?
The town of Ross, about two hours north of here in California, west of San Rafael, is considering banning private pickleball courts due to noise concerns. You can read about it here:
https://www.marinij.com/2024/09/14/ross-considers-ban-on-private-pickleball-courts/
Empty Nest
Here is a humorous article about a woman’s husband getting hooked by pickleball:
https://www.today.com/life/essay-life/confessions-pickleball-widow-rcna170895
Wednesday, September 18, 2024 (No Play)
A couple of days ago, I registered with Selkirk as PPR instructor for their special pricing program. A visiting group reached out to me about giving them a private lesson and they don’t know if the vacation house where they are staying—with a private pickleball court—has paddles and how many. I used to have about half a dozen paddles, but three of them are in the possession of my son and my daughter—one lives out of town and the other out of state—and my wife… who had claimed the paddle that I loaned her but she hasn’t played once since she took a class with me months ago! Anyway, I need a few loaner paddles.
I never received an email from Selkirk saying that my registration went through and the teacher code didn’t work when I went to buy the set of 4 entry-level Nexus paddles for the express purpose of loaning to students.
I called Selkirk today and the nice woman said that my registration was in their system as complete and the code should work. I hung up and tried it. Nope. I called back and had to leave a message. I got a call back about half an hour later from a guy named Dalton and it turns out that the codes from PPR and the code on Selkirk’s own page were last year’s! Dalton took my order over the phone just to be safe and then emailed me the current set of 2024 discount codes.
I should point out that while part of my duties as SCPC Secretary is answering club emails, including inquiries for coaches once in a while. I always provide a list of instructors (with my name last) and/or direct them online where they can look up instructors. It would be unethical for me to say, “Oh, hey, you can hire me!” I don’t do that. I want to be able to sleep at night!
Hand
The back of my right hand was bugging while shaving this morning. Thursday night I have a nonprofit board meeting, so Sunday will likely be my next day of playing. That should give my hand a good break—a full week.
Crazy Story
This week some crackpot took some shots at former president Trump while he was in Florida. It turns out the would-be assassin was a regular pickleball player while living in Hawaii:
Alleged Trump Gunman Was My Hawaii Pickleball Partner
https://www.thedailybeast.com/alleged-trump-gunman-was-my-hawaii-pickleball-partner
Nearby Noise News
Saratoga is about 40 minutes from me. Another news story about how pickleball noise is affecting neighbors. Saratoga is spending a bunch to add noise barriers and a timer lock to remediate pickleball.
Pickleball rule-breakers and fence climbers at Saratoga courts lead to $100,000 budget resolution:
Here’s another link in case the one above is blocked:
The story goes that players are bringing their own lights to play after sunset. And a neighbor claims that they climb the fence when the gate is locked so they can play anyway. And it’s noisy. In the article, a USA Pickleball Ambassador is quoted as saying that the planned sound barriers may make it louder inside the courts and damage players’ hearing. I’ve never heard of such a thing, but maybe it’s legitimate.
I haven’t been to those courts at El Quito Park, but fence looks at least 8-9 feet high. I know a few players who might climb it to play, but sure as hell not me! No thanks! I’ll leave that to the 20-something players. (Plus I likely wouldn’t break the rules anyway.)
Weird Pickleball
My brother Matt twisted his ankle so I have him a ride home to my parents’ house after work. While there, my dad said he had what he thought was a pickleball and he went to find it so he could give it to me.
Um, yeah. No, dad. Not a pickleball. I told him I thought it might be a ball for racquetball.
Thursday, September 19, 2024 (No Play)
My brother John texted me this morning while I was out walking the dog:
What’s crazy is my brother has played more than me this week! This week, I’ve only played Sunday. Who would have thunk it.
Selkirk Paddles
I got a email notice that my Selkirk paddle order has shipped and to top it off, they opted to send it FedEx 2-day shipping since they knew I need the order for a coaching session. Their codes—including one on their own website—were outdated so it seems that they are making amends. That’s good customer service!
Hawaii Court Drama
So in Hawaii, some local pickleball players want to convert one of the tennis courts to some additional pickleball courts. As you’d imagine, the tennis players are not thrilled with the idea. Tennis players don’t rotate of their courts nearly as fast as pickleball players do.
Number of days on a court: 717
Number of total hours: 2,961.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 75.5
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