Author: andrewlenz (Page 102 of 328)

Thursday, April 25, 2024 (Court Day #650)

I was out walking the dog today and once again took the USA Pickleball Player Rules Test. After over a dozen attempts, I finally got 100%! I’ll admit there were two questions that I wasn’t totally confident in my answer, but still a milestone!

Skypark

Today, I was hired by Rec to do a clinic for beginning players at their afternoon launch event. They hired a different instructor to coach serving in tennis. I was supposed to start teaching at 5 o’clock. I left work and arrived at Skypark about 20-30 minutes early. When I got there, there was a pop-up tent with a couple long tables set up, there were roughly 30 people milling around and talking in little groups. I spotted Mike from Rec behind one of the tables—he had a laptop in front of him and was answering questions. I caught his eye and let him know that I was there. He stopped for a second to let me know that we’d likely be starting late.

Ten minutes after I arrived, they started their presentation. Allison, the head of Parks & Rec for the City of Scott Valley, started talking explaining her role and that she was trying to balance the desires of the pickleball players as well as the neighborhood around the courts. There were a couple of pickleball women who were interrupting with contrary comments or pointed questions. I found it kind of rude. At least let them finish talking first, people! I know I certainly want wouldn’t want someone behaving like that if I was speaking to a group. When she was done speaking, she turned it over to Mike of Rec then Mike’s coworker who did his best answer questions and respond to criticisms. They were all very professional. The only moment of apparent frustration was when Allison broke from her answer to someone to tell another person to please let her finish first. I don’t blame her.

Clinic

Mike wanted to get the clinics going. A woman appeared saying that she was there for my clinic. Her name was Michelle. She said she wasn’t actually a beginner—which is what Rec wanted me to teach—but she was the only one, so we could do whatever Michelle wanted.

As Michelle and I were about to start, a local woman, a certified referee, came over and started grilling me about—as an instructor now—how I was teaching the non-volley zone to my students. I was confused. I had no idea what she was getting at. “That it’s a 2-dimensional space?” I then remembered that I meant to share with her that I got 100% on the player rules test this morning and I did. She just looked at me and told me that doesn’t mean I teach correctly. I can see that in the context, she thought I was defending my knowledge, but I was just sharing my milestone. We went back and forth a bit as I tried to understand what she was after. Eventually, it sounded like she wanted to make sure that I emphasize that players can be in the NVZ whenever they want as long as they are not volleying and that they should go in early if they know the ball is going to bounce in the NVZ. That’s pickleball 101. Yes, I teach that. Every time. In detail. She certainly meant well, but I did feel a touch insulted.

Michelle and I got to work on her dinking and I did my best to kind of correct her form. She was using way too much wrist on her dinks and she was also doing a sidearm motion . . . neither which are good for dinking. And since someone had once said something to her about her serve, she also wanted to know if it was illegal or not. I asked her to do a serve and it seemed fine, if a bit close. Then I recorded her with my iPhone in slow motion and then showed it to her pointing out why her serve was legal. We worked on dinking for a little bit longer and then got into a game with her and a couple of relative newbies. I gave them all a few tips and pointers during the game . . . like trusting your partner and positioning oneself on the court correctly. But just a few, I don’t want to overwhelm people with too many things to adjust.

Standard Games

When we finished that instructional game about 6 p.m., I figured I’d fulfilled my 45-minute obligation to teach and moved on to games for me instead. Mike and his coworker stayed and played a few games before heading back to the Bay Area.

I got into one unmemorable game . . . honesty, typing this two days later, I haven’t the foggiest recollection. Normally, I compose these entries the same day, but not this time.

I spent a good chunk of the evening playing with or against David and Minori with a mix of other players. Ofer and some others. For the most part, it was an evening of challenging games.

I felt overall pretty good about my play. There was a little dip in performance at sunset, but I managed.

The lights clicked off a few minutes after 9:30 p.m. Soon, according to the new city policy, it’ll be 8:30 p.m. for Monday through Thursday and only 9:30 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

When I checked my phone, I had 44 text messages! Family (my parents and siblings) text thread, work, wife, etc. Ugh.

---

Saturday, April 27, 2024 (No Play)

My right knee is bothering me a bit and my lower back is bugging me some too. Sheesh.

Number of days on a court: 650
Number of total hours: 2,794
Number of paid coaching hours: 30

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

Tuesday, April 23, 2024 (Court Day #649)

Today, I was teaching at Chaminade. A woman, Aleksandra, had reached out to me on Facebook asking if I would be willing to teach beginners for her company during a recreational break during their corporate retreat. I debated, then said I would. They hired me for 1 to 3 p.m.

Arrival

I arrived at Chaminade Resort at 12:47 p.m. and texted Aleksandra as requested. Even growing up locally, I’d never been up there, though I know it had at one time been occupied by a religious order and it was named after a Catholic priest. Having prepared via Google Maps, I easily found the tennis courts, which were completely empty. Aleksandra told me that they needed pickleball courts taped out so I had told her to bring blue painter’s tape. (The ideal line width is 2″, but I told her to bring cheaper 1 1/2″ but at least 1″ . . . it’s not a tournament!) I immediately got to work marking out the court dimensions with a pencil. Aleksandra appeared in short order and said that she was going to have someone come help me. Woman named Kim soon appeared and I asked her help hold the end of measuring tape while I marked things out. It wasn’t too long before I realized my quickly-wearing pencil was not going to last so I asked Kim if she could go find some more pencils for me. About five minutes later, a little out of breath, she helpfully returned with a box of chalk. Perfect.

Students

I was supposed to instruct eight students, however, when we started, there were only seven. After about 5 minutes, two decided that they wanted to just hit a ball back-and-forth so walked over to the second court across the tennis net that I had taped out. That left five students. I couldn’t help but think, “Am I a bad teacher? Why are they leaving?”

I talked the remaining students through some basics and then we got to dinking then soft drives to get used to the characteristics of the ball. Then one, Julianne, explained that her back was hurting and that she couldn’t continue. That left four pupils.

Core Group

The good news is that the four that were left were very much interested in learning: Lena, Clarissa, Ann, and Prudence. I put them through a short series of drills, including serving, then serving and returning. It was getting quite breezy, with the net even threatening to tip over at times!

I got them into a game. Each had their strengths and weaknesses but they all enjoyed playing. Lena had a particularly hard time with grasping the scoring, that’s not too abnormal, but she had Clarissa—who pick up on it quickly—as her partner to help. But then Clarissa would hit the ball hard too hard and it’d fly out and rely on Lena to keep rallies going. I got them through two full games, stopping the game as needed to explain and correct things.

At 3:05 p.m., it was time for them to get back and be ready for their 3:15 p.m. restart. They thanked me and Prudence told me that I was a good instructor. It’s not the first time I’ve heard that from a student, but it’s still always nice to hear.

For the next 20 to 30 minutes, I was taking down the two portable nets and pulling the blue tape off the courts. I have to say there’s a part of me that was bummed that I had to pull the tape back up considering how much work it was been to put them down accurately in the first place!

Then it was back to work, where I changed back into work clothes in the bathroom, then started earning my keep again!

Delivery!

My box arrived from Gearbox this morning at work. It sat in my office unopened as I didn’t have time. But I wanted to try out my new paddle tonight. I carefully cut off the heavy paper packaging off the paddle, then put it all back into the box which I carried to the back of my car.

Skypark

My wife had texted late this afternoon asking if I would be heading to Scotts Valley to play—with her blessing. With teaching today, I hadn’t thought about it. I did have all of my gear, so I told her that I would.

Just before 6:30 p.m., I was done with work for the day and on my way to Skypark.

Parking

As I was turning onto the street with the court at the end, there were two guys with pickleball gear, one of which I recognized, walking towards the courts. I slowed down and rolled down my passenger side window and asked “You guys had to park down the street? “ He replied, “Yeah, it’s super busy.“ I voiced my discontent, but since the courts were only another four houses down, I might as well circle through the lot. And with a little bit of luck, apparently someone had just left, so I pulled right into the parking spot next to the courts. It was very convenient. The two guys walked by, “Figures that everyone is leaving now!” A second car pulled out and drove away just then.

It was 6:38 p.m. and it was still pretty light, but overcast and chilly, clocking in at 57°F. It has been chilly and—as I mentioned—very breezy this afternoon. It wasn’t windy tonight, fortunately.

New Paddle

I got out my new Gearbox Pro Power Elongated paddle and peeled the plastic shrink wrap off of the handle. That was all that was left of the packaging I had removed right before I left work.

Larry and some others were eyeing my paddle. Spencer said, “You’ll either love it or hate it.” It’s true, there hasn’t been much in terms of interference from people lately.

Games

My first game was with Larry against Rachel and Paulie. Initially, it was close, then Larry and I walked away with an 11-5 win.

Rachel and I played a game against Ofer and Larry. It was hard to stay in the game with Rachel making a lot of errors. She apologized but started to play better. We were down 1-10 and came back to almost win, losing 9-11. So close.

Tim

I played a few games with Tim F. against Matt and Paul. I really enjoy playing with Tim. He’s got such a positive attitude. Those were fun games. I’ve really got to be more aware of balls that would fly out if I let them. I’d say that’s my #1 weakness …hitting “out balls”. Tim was very polite, but I could tell that he wasn’t thrilled with me doing that—and he did comment a couple of times, like, “That one would have hit the fence!” It was all in good spirits however. But it wasn’t all bad, Tim pointed at me with his paddle after one hand battle and said “Nice play!”

David

Tim had been playing for a while today and said he was done for the night. We got David to take over for him. (David brought Minori tonight, though I didn’t get a game with her.)

By 8:50 p.m., there were four empty courts. People cleared out early.

David and I went on to play four or five games together against Matt and Paul, and they won the first one, but then David and I went to win the next three or four games.

In those later games, Paul was having a hard time returning my serves. After one game ended, he stopped and told me, “Your serves come in low and stay low and even with my putting my paddle down, I still couldn’t get them back.” There were at least three—maybe as many as six—serves over the course of those games that he returned my serves into the net.

We finished about 9:25 p.m., then took down the one portable net that someone had left up.

Paddle

I have to say, I really love this new Gearbox paddle. I was expecting to not like it but with my style of game, this new Gearbox “gen 3” carbon fiber paddle is a good fit. There were a number of drops that I felt were successful that may not have been with my Rogue 2 paddle. The Gearbox sounds different too. I’d hit and instead of a clicking sound, the sound more resembles a thud. A little quieter.

Sure, in the first few games, there were some shots that I was hitting too hard, past the baseline, but then I started getting things dialed in.

I’m going to have to customize the paddle, beef up the handle, maybe a little bit of lead tape, and put on the protective edging tape.

Performance?

I felt happy about my play tonight—that’s a rarity for me playing under lights.

Health

My back is often tight when I get up in the morning, and can get tired, but it never bothers me in games. (Ok, there was those two times when I strained my back on the court, but that was years ago now.) But tonight, after running for an angled ball, I was returned to the the baseline and my back was complaining a little bit. Very unusual. It wasn’t crippling and seems to subside, but still a bit worrisome.

---

Wednesday, April 24, 2024 (No Play)

It’s odd. My leg muscles are sore. Sunday was a bust as far as strong games at Derby. And I just played my normal 2-3 hours at Skypark last night. Nothing unusual. It’s curious.

Another Trip

I’m going to be in Las Vegas for a trade show in June. I reached out today to the USA Pickleball Ambassador for that ZIP code, a woman named Jennifer. I also looked on Places2Play and it says that the Plaza Hotel has pickleball and to email them for information, so I did that today as well. Hopefully, someone will get back to me.

Number of days on a court: 649
Number of total hours: 2,790
Number of paid coaching hours: 29

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

Sunday, April 21, 2024 (Court Day #648)

The stress for me this morning was running around, trying to find my car keys. I always put them in the same place. As I was scrambling and hunting, my wife was out walking the dog with a friend. Her phone was gone, which meant that she had it, and as normal with wives, their phones are designed for making calls, not receiving calls! Yes, that’s a joke, but it’s so typical. She was not responding. I ended up grabbing the backup key without the remote fob.

It was a beautiful morning—sunny and warm. Maybe a bit too warm and a bit too sunny to be perfect pickleball weather. I’d rather have overcast and in the low 60s. My wife, before she left, said the weather prediction would be about 80° today.

Derby

I set up like normal, though being later than normal and arriving at the 9 a.m. opening time instead of early, the courts were already pretty busy and I couldn’t blow them off. Fortunately, they weren’t too bad as far as debris.

With not many truly advanced players, I was signing up in red (3.5). If I signed up in blue (4.0+), I’d have no one to join me.

Later, some better players did show up and I signed up in blue hoping to nab some of them. Josh B. signed up in my box which was ok since Josh is a solid 3.5 player . . . he can get the ball back repeatedly in a firefight at the net. Then we waited and waited. I asked Brandon to sign up with me, but he wanted to play with a lower-skilled woman who was there today. Alas. Then I saw that Glenn and Lisa had signed up in our box. Glenn and Lisa are high 3.0 or low 3.5. Ok. We might be waiting forever otherwise. Glenn wanted to play with Lisa and so Josh and I beat them 11-2. Josh was the one that gave them the 2 points.

Done

At 11:51 a.m., I was in my car and on my way home. The waits had been kind of long, though they were shortening later in the morning. But I really needed to make sure that I was out by noon in order to get home and prep for my class at 1:30 p.m. 

Driving away from Derby, I was kind of unhappy. I was unable to get into any games with all 4.0+ players. The best game was me, one advanced, and two intermediates. 

They are good days and bad days with regard to play at Derby. I think there were enough players there that, had it worked out, I would’ve gotten some very good games, but there just wasn’t enough of us to go around. The emotion was just dissatisfaction. My play was fine, but the challenge was minimal. 

Present

After teaching, I stopped by my parents’ house. My uncle Jerry, my dad’s younger brother, had sent a gift to their house for me.

He had purchased a Flash sweatshirt for me. When I was a kid, The Flash was my favorite superhero and Jerry bought me some Flash comics books. I collected those for years into high school before they started getting expensive and I didn’t have time to go shopping. The sweatshirt is an XL size, a bit big for me, but better too big than too small! Thanks, Uncle Jerry!

Keys

Oh, the car keys. Last night, I had stopped for groceries after work at my wife’s request and, with my hands full of packages, inadvertently left my keys in my pants pocket. My wife kindly decided to wash my jeans but managed to miss the keys and ran them through the washing machine. Oops! The good news is that they amazingly still work! Small blessings!

---

Monday, April 22, 2024 (No Play)

I got a notification that my Gearbox order had been shipped. We’ll see if the paddle is shipping later separately or if it’s in the box.

Number of days on a court: 648
Number of total hours: 2,787.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 26

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