Author: andrewlenz (Page 108 of 328)

Saturday, March 9, 2024 (Court Day #633)

René asked a couple days ago if I was gonna be playing today or not. Staffing is in pretty good shape at work. I did have to let go a new hire had been with us about a week. It wasn’t working out as well as we had hoped. There’s nothing too major, but a number of little red flags accumulated into enough of a problem. I figured it would be better to nip it in the bud. But even with him gone and one of my staff testing positive with COVID today and being out, we still have enough staff and experience there. There are no “fires” to put out, so figured I’d take the opportunity to get out and play a little bit . . . hopefully, better than I did Thursday night.

The inside of my right knee continues to be a little uncomfortable at times but also perfectly fine other times.

Brommer Park

I left my house at 8:50 a.m. under hazy clouds. There was a temperature in the mid 50s.

I pulled into the Brommer Park lot a few minutes after 9 a.m. and there was plenty of parking. I got into a game fairly quickly and played ok. Barely ok.

In that first game, I partnered with a regular, Paul, and he asked my name. “Andrew.”
“What’s your last name?”
“Lenz.”
“Oh, you’re famous.”
I laughed! (Not so famous that he didn’t have to ask my name!)

Over the course of the morning, I was disappointed and frustrated in my play. Some shots were too high. I had serves and returns and other shots into the net. I popped the ball up to my opponents. For the last game, I played a game with a fellow named Marco against Dieter and René. Marco wasn’t playing stellar, but I felt primarily responsible for a loss 2–11. In that last game, I was dragging due to lack of energy probably from me not eating breakfast and I didn’t bring any snacks today.

All that said, I definitely moments of good play. There was a game where René and I played against Mauricio—my nearby neighbor—and Evon (“Ah-von”). After a net battle, Evon told me, “Andrew, he have really fast hands.” I’d never played with Evon, he’s a good player.

Drilling with Mauricio?

Mauricio was there, and I talked to him about the shared court behind his house. He said the court isn’t good enough to play a game on, but it is adequate for drilling.

Mauricio says that the company that he works for is based on the East Coast so he typically starts work between 6 and 6:30 a.m. That’s fairly early for me. If I got up up at 6:30 every day, there’s little doubt that I’d be sleep deprived on a regular basis. 

There are no ifs, ands, or buts. I really need to start drilling if I’m going to get better. The lack of consistent play in the last nine months has been detrimental to my performance. I’ll just have to take my lumps until I work my way back to playing well consistently.

I checked the time 11:48 a.m. After the poor performance of that last game, and lack of energy, I decided to call it a day and head home then to work.

Number of days on a court: 633
Number of total hours: 2,742
Number of paid coaching hours: 17

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

Thursday, March 7, 2024 (Court Day #632)

Today was the 4-hour Santa Cruz Pickleball Club Board “retreat” . . . basically, a long meeting, spanning from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with a brief lunch break. We covered a lot of ground, but there is a bunch of work to do. After our president, Mark Dettle, had some opening remarks, as Secretary, I launched into a review of the survey we sent out to our membership. The survey covered some biographical information about each respondent along with guidance for on how to prioritize our efforts. There’s no question that adding new courts is the priority. Another insight is that players would rather pay $2 for each outing than have a higher annual membership fee.

Backpack

My Engage backpack was delivered today while I was at the board meeting. I thought I’d asked for it to be shipped to my work, but instead it was delivered to the porch of my house. Later in the afternoon, my wife told me that it arrived, so it hadn’t been stolen. Fortunately, things getting stolen off of porches is uncommon in my neighborhood, but it does happen.

Skypark

The time change is coming this weekend and though I hate getting up an hour earlier, it’s going to be nice having more light in the evening. As I was driving to Skypark, while it was dark, there is still an inkling of light in the sky at 6:45 p.m. My car’s dashboard thermometer read 54°F. That’s not a big surprise, since we’re still in winter for another couple of weeks. Next week, also being an hour later, it’s also going be warmer later.

Last night, I went to a concert in downtown Santa Cruz. I parked at work and walked 10 to 15 blocks to performance location. About halfway through my trek, the interior of my right knee began to hurt a little bit. Tonight, it was mildly aching when had my right foot on the gas pedal or the brake. I’ve been wearing the knee brace at Ted gave me at nearly every pickleball play outing that I’ve had—with the exception of a couple outings.

I pulled up to the courts at 6:50 p.m. I found a place to park in the paved lot over in the corner although it wasn’t striped as an official spot. Nonetheless, I was happy that I didn’t have to drive around the neighborhood trying to find a place.

It was busy, but on the lighter end of attendance.

First Game

I got into a game right off the bat with Matt Babb and David with Casey as my partner. I told Casey that does it take me about three games to get warmed up. Casey smiled and announced to our opponents across the net, “Does anyone else want to play with Andrew?“ I busted up laughing.

As expected, I didn’t play that great and Casey and I lost by a significant margin. The second game was slightly better, but still bad on my part.

In the third game, it was Matt and me against Casey and his dad, Tim. That game I started to dial things in but Matt and I still lost 7-11.

I played a game with Mark Dettle against Mauricio and Diego. We took a quick lead but then Mark started missing shots. We ended up losing.

Overall, I was not happy with my play tonight. I was disappointed.

Maurcio and Diego

Mauricio had carpooled with Diego to Skypark, and when it came time for Mauricio to get home to his fiancé, he suggested to Diego that I could give Diego a ride home. I agreed.

After the lights went off, I drove Diego home which is about 2 to 3 minutes from my house, a mere few blocks away. The company was welcome, it kept my mind busy and not feeling depressed on my way home.

But after I dropped off Diego, that’s when the “play depression“ set in.

Bleh

Today was pretty miserable. Some examples of my play tonight:

• I hit the white tape at the top of the net at least 2-3 times.
• Maybe half a dozen of my drop shots ended up in the net.
• I had 2–3 overhead slams that I hit into my side of the net.
• With Matt as my partner, there is a lob where we both raced back where I had the forehand and defensively lobbed it back… right past my opponents baseline and out! Arg.
• I hit a few of my serves out.
• On either a third shot, or a fifth shot, I lobbed from the baseline (dumb), and it wasn’t nearly deep enough and Mauricio hit it hard, and my partner couldn’t get it back over the net as a result.

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Friday, March 8, 2024. (No Play)

I made this morning was one of residual frustration. I want to play better than I am. Talking to Diego last night, he was very interested in drilling with me when I suggested that. He said that he’s not up early, so realistically, it probably have to be after work.

When I mentioned the shared tennis court behind Mauricio and Shay’s house, Diego told me that the court there is not in very good condition. When I asked for more information, he says it is not just that it’s cracked, it’s that the ground is even because tree roots are pushing the surface up. So, unfortunately, it’s a bad place to drill and play.

Engage Backpack

Boy, buying a backpack by mail is proving to be a drag. The Engage backpack is really well made. Heavy material. Some insulation in a few compartments. But… it has no hanging hook—I have to add a carabiner—and more of a concern, not enough small pockets. It has one small pocket. There are two long thin pockets on the sides, but if you want to organize keys, sunscreen, pens, starting server band, protective glasses, snack bars, and an assortment of other bits, then it’ll be a bit of a mess.

Number of days on a court: 632
Number of total hours: 2,739.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 17

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

Sunday, March 3, 2024 (Court Day #631)

It rained this morning around 6 a.m. and I sent out an email notice delaying play at Derby Park until 10 a.m. When I decided to cancel altogether and I was about to click “send”, it started raining! I amended my message to reflect that and club play was officially off the table for today.

Class

The next question was my class at 1:30 p.m. Sean texted me about his class after mine. Go or no go? My wife said it was supposed to start raining about 6 p.m. The next question was the courts. I had Jesse—a former student who lives across the street from Willowbrook Park—check for me. He said three of of the four courts were pretty dry and there was a group out playing a game. Class was on!

When I arrived at 1 p.m., there were two puddles on our two reserved courts.
Henri was already there with a towel that I’d asked students to bring. With that, I was able to take care of two small puddles.

The crazy thing was it ended up lightly raining off and on during the class. I just had to shake my head. My students were amazingly good sports and were keen on continuing to learn. One did opt to step under a tree during one heavier precipitation moment, but it lightened up a few minutes later. I was texting Sean with updates. I told him that had I known the amount of rain, I would have not held class. Sean said he was going to cancel his class.

Games

After class was done, four students stayed and played a game. Former club site coordinator Jim Del Porto was here with a few other players. I asked if I could jump in for a game. The first game went pretty well. The second game was a disaster on my part. I was partnered with Maia against Jim and a woman whose name I forget—I’m not sure if I’d played with her before. Jim and partner were targeting Maia like crazy. I jumped to my right to poach a ball near the kitchen line and hit the ball into the net. I missed a few other shots. It was bad. Maia even kidded me, “Your students are paying to get this kind of certified instruction?” I laughed. I said, “That’s what I get for working with beginners for two hours!”

Nonetheless, I was frustrated and annoyed with my play. I need to get out and play and drill. I feel between rain and injuries and overall lack of play, I’m regressing.

Tennis Pro Pickleball Slur

A tennis pro used pickleball as an insult:
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/tennis/1873241/Andrey-Rublev-disqualified-reilly-opelka-pickleball
To quote the article:
Responding to a post about the disqualification on Instagram, Opelka said: “Bush league. Linesman should get demoted to pickleball ASAP.”

Hey, Opelka, you don’t have to be a butthead.

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Monday, March 4, 2024 (No Play)

I never did hear back from the man who reached out to me about lessons via PPR. On Friday, second person, a woman, also reached out through PPR. I wrote back. Still radio silence. Weird. If I reach out to a coach and got an email back, I’d at least reply and say that I was not interested, found a better time fit, whatever. I can only just shrug my shoulders.

Genie Bouchard Video

Not to attack Genie Bouchard, no doubt in short order she’ll be a far better pickleball player than I will be—and maybe she is already—but it appears as though she believed all the tennis player propaganda about how pickleball is easy and that she should could just show up and dominate:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2LRexFy1EI/?igsh=ZWMyNDBlOTQyNg==
But that wasn’t the case. To make matters worse, the PPA pre-qualified her for the later rounds, bumping out more qualified players.

Some comments on that post:

selten_fotog:
“A baseball pro cant walk into a cricket pro game and become a pro without spending countless hours mastering the new craft. Sure the similarities of hitting a round ball with a stick are similar but that’s where it ends. Totally different game.”

chaaaise:
“Sock made the transition fairly well.”
[This is a reference to former tennis player Jack Sock.]

selten_fotog:
“Sock didn’t walk onto the court with the naive level of elitist arrogance that she did. So disrespectful of a high level Pickleball Pro to do that to him, I felt terrible for Loong. I do think all the tennis pros who were cringing by their TV stands did get an impressive look at the insane skill and atheism of one of Pickleballs freak athletes so he repped Pickleball well!”
[Buchard was partnered with Tyler Loong.]

Now, I have no idea about Genie Buchard’s preparation or regard for the game of pickleball. But it’s pretty clear she wasn’t ready to be in the final rounds of a pro pickleball tournament. And she wouldn’t have been, but getting a famous name on a court brings eyeballs and eyeballs means money when it comes to advertising.

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Wednesday, March 6, 2024 (No Play)

The Engage backpack was supposed to come today but when I checked the tracking, UPS said there was some delay . . . with no explanation. I just checked again and now it’s showing that it’s supposed to arrive tomorrow. We’ll see!

Famous Relatives

And… just for kicks. I use an online system called Family Tree to dabble in genealogy. And genealogy is fun at times. I got an email from the system and here are some of my relatives from closest to most distant…

The Wright Brothers
Benjamin Franklin
George Washington
Susan B. Anthony
Abraham Lincoln
Charles Dickens
Emily Dickinson
Franklin Roosevelt
Helen Keller
Jane Austen
Winston Churchill
Lucille Ball
Walt Disney
Elvis Presley
John Wayne
Princess Diana
Queen Elizabeth (and the Royal Family, of course!)
Shirley Temple
Babe Ruth
Mohammad Ali (We have common ancestor in the 1500s!)

I’ve known about Washington for decades—my grandfather shared that with me nearly 40 years ago—but all the rest were new to me. Franklin and Washington are the same in terms of closeness of my relationship to them. And the Wright Brothers are one generation closer than those other two. That was perhaps the biggest surprise.

Number of days on a court: 631
Number of total hours: 2,737
Number of paid coaching hours: 18.5

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