Author: andrewlenz (Page 101 of 328)

Friday, May 3, 2024 (Court Day #653)

Ted B. had invited me a few days ago to come play at Derby with a group of guys. They start at 9 a.m., but I arrived at 9:15 a.m. Eric had texted me asking if I was coming. Yes, just moving slowly. It was a partly cloudy morning with the sun peeking through.

Derby

As I walked up to the courts, I was quite surprised. Every single court was being used! Matt Smith, the retired firefighter, was there as was Terry and her husband Gary who are both back from Mexico where they spend the colder months. She said they got back on Sunday and this was her third time out playing since then.

I got into mid-skill games today. I was playing pretty well until a little bit past 11 a.m. when I started to fatigue and the lack of breakfast started making itself known.

Grrrr…

There was a game where Eric S. and I played against John P. and Ted. I hit a winner down the sideline. I was looking right down the line and it was unquestionably landed on the middle of the blue line. I even smiled and pointed down to John indicating it was in. I went back to the baseline expecting a sideout. But Ted and John switched places taking a point. I asked, “Did you call my shot out?” They said it was out. Aside from commenting to Eric about it, I didn’t say anything more, but I was quite annoyed. Yes, it’s their call, but I know my shot was in, I had the best view. There may have been an older guy off on the side who made a call for Ted and John. But he wasn’t looking down the line like I was. Yes, it’s only a game, but I was annoyed by the injustice of it all! Eric and I went on to win the next few rallies, but we ended up losing the game. We shouldn’t have lost but we did—I’d take Eric over John or Ted with no question. I don’t think my annoyance was part of the loss . . . while it wasn’t my best game, I was playing better than Eric in this one.

Eric was there for about an hour and a half before he decided to leave. Matt Smith left not long after. Too bad, they were some of of the stronger players there.

In a game against Allen and Rick A., I scored 3 points in a row off of my serves. It can be embarrassing for me . . . it’s hard to explain. I don’t like to stick out. Rick was asking later about my serves, “It hits the ground and speeds up unexpectedly.” I explained that I come up over the back of the ball to apply topspin.

When tapping paddles after a game later in the morning, Stoehr told me, “You’re a pro.” Oh, yeah, I can totally take down Ben Johns whenever I feel like it. NOT! Though once I was warmed up, I did feel that I was the best player there today. I don’t think I’m conceited, though nearly everyone feels that they are better than they truly are. While playing at Skypark or Brommer, I’m often either just one of a number of good players or even second tier.

The rallies today typically didn’t last more than 3–5 shots . . . long rallies may 8 shots. The rare, very long rallies might be 10 shots.

By 12:35 p.m., I was in my car and pulling out to head home. It turned into a really warm day . . . and unusual for me, I had some sweat stains on my T-shirt. It was home, shower, eat, then to work.

Work

Being I work six days a week, I took a little time to finish up the new dry erase board needed for the new club day at Skypark on Saturdays. I had been going fast and my educated guess on the spacing left a slightly larger box for the right column. Oops. Oh, well. That’s what you get for volunteer labor sometimes! But hey, most players are righties anyway, it could be helpful actually.

Evening Dog Walk

I was out walking the dog and took another crack at the USA Pickleball Player Rules Test. Yep. Another 100% score.

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 (No Play)

Apparently, there was a controversy this past weekend. A female player fell during a mixed doubles match and a male opponent pegged her with the ball—for a winner—while she was still down. Not very chivalrous, but all’s fair in love, war, and pickleball tournaments! Within the rules, of course. And it was. And it was a relatively light hit, not a full-power slam shot. If he hit the ball near her and it bounced off the court, it could be returned by her partner. The only way to easily guarantee ending the rally to his benefit was to have the ball touch her . . . other than her paddle hand. Tournaments are cutthroat. The weakest player will be targeted. No mercy. It’s all out.

Controversial Pro Pickleball Shot Hit At Fallen Opponent Sparks Debate Over Unwritten Rules

Number of days on a court: 653
Number of total hours: 2,800
Number of paid coaching hours: 31.5

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

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 (Court Day #652)

This popped up and I thought it was so apropos and it’s so true:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5tH4sYM6lJ/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Building up your partner on the court will have so many more benefits than criticizing or giving constant suggestions on how to improve his or her play.

Reservation

I opted to actually register for play tonight at Skypark using the new Rec.us system.

I was only number 12 out of 24, so only half the slots were booked.

I could guarantee that there would be more than 12 people there tonight! It seems that players aren’t taking to the online registrations.

Skypark

It was a surprising 70° as I drove from work to Scotts Valley. I decided I would try parking in the parking lot next to the skate park and the soccer field for the first time. I have to admit there’s a bit of a trek. I didn’t time it but it probably took 6-7 minutes to walk the quarter-mile to the courts. [Later note: It’s actually only a 5 minute walk, it always seems longer the first time!] Every minute that I walked, I could feel court time slipping away. I could also see how it would be really dark walking back from the courts after sunset. I got the courts about 10 minutes to 7 p.m.

I got some good games tonight and some marginal games. Overall, I felt that I was playing fairly well. Although I did have some of my returns fly deep. I think I’m still getting used to this new Gearbox power paddle. I never had the yips serving before, but I missed an extraordinary amount of serves tonight. Some into the net, some long, even one or two too far a left or too far right. It was odd.

Chris, Matt, Paul

I got into a good game with Paul and Matt and my partner was a stocky guy named Chris who sports a beard and glasses. This was the first time I played with Chris. I would say a very strong 3.0 or a weak 3.5 player. Chris and and I found ourselves down. I think it was 1–6, and later 3–7. But surprisingly we came back to win 12-10.

In the “rubber match”, Paul and Matt won and as we were walking up to court Chris suggested we play third game since we had split the first two games. But when we got off the court, without asking, Casey had signed up Paul and Matt already to play with his dad Tim and him. Club rules generally don’t apply, so anything goes. With club play, you can’t sign someone up until they’re off the courts. But again, this isn’t club.

I generally had weaker games after that.

I got into a game with Kevin against a guy named Mike—who I didn’t know —and Francis. Francis was the least strong player.

It was a fun evening. I got to play some games later against Tim Handley. Tim is a very worthy adversary. He has a lot of great spin on his shots and has angled spin serves. He got me on two or three of his serves that he curved off to to my right. Impressive.

We were expecting the lights to go off at 8:30 p.m, but they stayed on until 9:30 p.m. I’m not sure when the City of Scotts Valley will be changing it to 8:30 p.m. as they had announced recently.

Siblings

I helped take down the final portable net with Francis locking up the city bin. (There’s a SCPC bin there now too.) Rachael asked if I wanted to ride to my car. Given the distance and the darkness, I decided to take her up on her offer. She had offered once before, but I was only a block and a half away that time, so I had passed. I really appreciated the ride tonight. While in the car, she mentioned something about parking behind her brother. The car in front of us was Francis. I was thinking, “What?“ I asked her if Francis was her brother and she said “Yes, you didn’t know that?” When I asked, she said that Francis is 10 years older than her but also graduated from the same high school, Harbor. Rachel also said that her older sister Irene plays at Derby Park. I don’t think that I’ve played with Irene or I simply don’t remember doing so.

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 (No Play)

Rec sent out an email blast today. The first photo that appears is me with my student that the launch event.

I opted to not go to Skypark tonight so I could stay home and work on the new dry erase court board at my house. (They need a new board for Skypark since Saturdays there are now official club play days.) That’s me, giving up play for the greater good.

Number of days on a court: 652
Number of total hours: 2,796.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 31.5

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

Sunday, April 28, 2024 (Court Day #651)

About a month ago, Yesenia a.ka. “Jessie” had posted on the Facebook group about today being a “swap day” at Derby Park so players could sell or exchange pickleball gear that they no longer wanted. The only thing is, today was the day of the Moneyball tournament at Skypark, so Jessie and others are at Skypark instead. Regardless, I brought two backpacks and a pickleball paddle protective case with a shoulder strap to sell. Using Adobe InDesign, I made up information sheets about the items which I taped to the plastic that they were in. They are all new, they just weren’t exactly what I wanted after I ordered them. I brought those today.

It was a beautiful sunny day today.

Derby Park

I arrived to Derby Park at 8:50 a.m. and got about the setting things up, and blowing off the courts. Val and her husband Stan very kindly set up the one needed portable net.

Especially with a tournament, today was not that great as far as getting strong games. The bright spot was when Hugh arrived. I hadn’t seen him for months.

With Hugh, you have to be very careful about your shots. If you leave them up just a little bit too high, he will take full advantage and make the ball very hard to return. He was great for crosscourt shots as well as drives that hug the sideline. He just needs to be more consistent. Hugh and I were the best players there today out of the 40 or so who came.

My back was tight, I stretched it out while sitting on the bench waiting for a game.

The last game was Hugh and myself against Charles and Ted. Now, this is a different Charles, a local regular, but not the really tall Charles. Hugh and I won, as expected, and the game finished up at 12:02 p.m.

It was time for me to go especially since I needed to get home on time so I could shower because, with a family event at 4 p.m., I wouldn’t have time for that after teaching. I took down the dry erase board, collected the donation money, put the balls away, put away the tote bag containing the waiver sheets, and took down the only portable net and stowed it. I was in my car by 12:15 p.m.

By the end of the session none of my items had sold, so I gathered them up and took them back home.

I continue to be very jealous of the players who can go to Brommer Park and play. Being the best player or one of the two best players, it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. It can be kind of boring. The rallies just don’t last very long.

Class

At 12:45. I was on my way to Aptos to teach. This would be my final class with this group. With all the delays—rain, road closures—we only got three classes instead of four, so I’ll have to cover a little bit more material in a shorter time.

I was expecting seven students. I had asked early on for the students to let me know if they couldn’t make it, but I ended up with just four. It worked out, but still I couldn’t help but think, “Am I a bad teacher? Do they not think it’s worth their time to come?” But Susana was a good balance to my inner insecurity voice, telling me that I’m an great instructor and she’s looking forward to taking more classes with me.

Next month will be my last session at Willowbrook, then I move to Skypark in Scotts Valley in June. I will say, I won’t miss this every Sunday driving back to Santa Cruz after class…

My knee was mildly aching. I should have iced it in the evening, but it slipped my mind.

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Monday, April 29, 2024 (No Play)

With traveling to Las Vegas in June for work, I want to get out and play there. I had reached out to the USA Pickleball ambassador for that ZIP code, but I got no response. Places2Play listed the Plaza Hotel as having play so I reached out to them as it said, but also got no response. I decided to use Facebook instead. On Friday, I joined the Las Vegas Pickleball group and made a post but it was denied by the moderator. The good news is that the moderator, Sheryl, reached out to me a few days ago and asked my skill level. I told her 4.0 and she said I should go to Sunset Park…

Unfortunately, I’ll be traveling or working in the mornings, so evening it will have to be. She did reply that good players come in the evenings too.

Posted in the Las Vegas Sunset Pickleballerz group was this video, which I think is helpful.

I think we should do something like this for the SCPC venues—though probably without the game video at the end!

Number of days on a court: 651
Number of total hours: 2,794
Number of paid coaching hours: 31.5

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