This was the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club’s second time taking part in the annual Santa Cruz Downtown Holiday Parade. While it rained this morning, it had cleared by the time participants started to arrive and congregate. I got to our designated spot—we were group #61—around 8:45 a.m.
I’d brought a backup paddle and ball. I wasn’t going to bring my #1 paddle! Some others did the same thing, bringing paddles they didn’t care as much about.
There was no drizzle this year so we had a bit better turnout than our first attempt. There were a lot of conversations while we waited, mostly about pickleball, of course.
As I’d arranged, volunteers Jeff Hotchkiss and Sean McElhaney appeared with the temporary portable net made from PVC pipe. They also brought a metal pipe to which our club banner got secured through its grommets with plastic zip ties. The metal pipe didn’t sag like the PVC pipe last year. This was a much better solution. There’s no teacher like experience!
Early arrivers chatting it up—including young Declan, Paul Winn’s son!
Paul and his son Declan spent some time knocking a pickleball against hard wall of the building . . . though the bike rack made for an obstacle. I joined Declan for a few minutes before it exceeded my attention span.
SCPC President Mark Dettle and VP Jackie Signor scope out the staging.Group photo op!Yeah, we’re having a good time!Gearing up to go! That’s me standing in front at the moment of Rachel Kuo’s photo.SCPC board members Jackie and Barb were the first rotation carrying the banner.Just before we step into the parade in earnest, doing some warm up! (That’s net creator Jeff Hotchkiss in blue on the far side.)
The parade kicked off at 10 a.m., but with us as group nearer the end—there were 70-some-odd groups—it wasn’t until shortly after 10:30 that we were ushered up to the actual parade route and presented to the crowd lining the street.
And off we go! Demonstration game in progress! Jump, Jessie, jump!
Along the route, myself, Mark, Jeff, Jessie, Paul and his son Declan and, at times, Linda hit a pickleball back and forth over our demonstration net.
A very festive Sean McElhaney stewarding the net!In the heart of Pacific Avenue, the crowd enjoying the show!
I don’t know which woman it was in our group but she started us with a chant of “1… 2… 3…” then we all yelled “PICKLEBALL!”, much to the delight of the crowd.
Barb and Linda leading the way!An official photo shared with the community by the downtown association.Another official photo shared with the community.
Much like last year, we again received a fabulous reception from both the crowds lining the sidewalks and the parade announcers every few blocks over their loudspeakers. We gave a lot of families a very happy exposure to pickleball.
After the parade, I got stopped by a couple asking how to start playing. Of course, I took the time to answer and directed them to the club website.
Video
The Santa Cruz Downtown Association shared video of the parade. I made this link below take you right to the section highlighting our SCPC participation. I get a few seconds of “airtime”! LOL!
And?
It was a fun and enjoyable experience. And my staff at work didn’t begrudge me the morning off. They know I work at lot.
Number of days on a court: 612 Number of total hours: 2,681 Number of paid coaching hours: 5
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I left Santa Cruz about 10:40 a.m., headed north over the Santa Cruz Mountains, and arrived at the Sunnyvale Tennis Center in the Silicon Valley at 11:30 a.m. It was a slightly overcast but mostly sunny day with little to no breeze. Walking in, to be honest, I was anxious about getting dirty looks from tennis players as a pickleball usurper. I could see that there were some tennis games going on. But my concern was unnecessary, they had four permanent pickleball courts and another four that were dual striped on a tennis court.
What would be our warmup courts. The yellow stripes are for pickleball.
There were a few players hitting a ball back and forth on a pickleball court and one fellow standing next to a table outside those courts who appeared to be waiting for something. I wasn’t sure if he was the instructor or a tennis player or what. (Later, I learned that this was Ori, another PPR candidate.) Moments later, a large man walked up, dressed in a black polo shirt, and a black baseball cap. His name tag said Ali and his shirt and cap were embroidered with “PPR.” Ah! This was obviously our instructor! He asked if I was there for the certification program I confirmed “yes” and then he asked me my name. “Andrew.” We had a short conversation. Ali lives very close and was relishing his short commute. When I asked, Ali said there would be 13 people coming to his workshop.
Warming Up
The courts that were going to be holding the certification workshop upon were being used by unrelated pickleball players until our starting time of noon, so Ali had us warm up on the other dual-striped courts. We’d be joining the four that been there already.
I stepped onto an empty court and an older Korean man named Luc—pronounced just like “Luke”—walked over. He and I warmed up. Then a 20-something fellow named Ryan joined us. Ryan said he’d gone to Santa Clara University on a tennis scholarship. I asked if Santa Clara was a D2 or D3 program and Ryan told me that, in fact, it was a D1 program. Shortly after, a woman in a sporty skirt and outfit joined us. She appeared to be in her mid-50s and went by “Ad”, the abbreviation of her name. (Later, when I told her that I’m from Santa Cruz, she asked, “Do you know Jane Prince?” “Yes! I definitely know Jane.”)
Program Start
At noon, Ali announced that is time to move onto our reserved courts for the program. I’ll admit that I was a little anxious. I wasn’t sure what to expect. We all grabbed our things and moved onto the permanent dedicated pickleball courts. What was very impressive, was Ali had memorized all of our names by the start of the program. I think he may have forgotten one but it’s nonetheless quite a feat . . . and a goal for all instructors! (I will say, I greeted all eight of my parks & rec students by name at the second class a week after the first.) We had Luc, Ryan, “Ad” (Adriana), Lisa P., Lisa Z., Carrie, Kazuki, Amir, Oscar, Luke, Kevin, and Ori—and me, of course. Several candidates were instructors for Lifetime Activities (like Ali): Luke, Amir, Kevin and Oscar. (Ori is the pickleball pro at the newly openedThe Hub in Alameda . . . which I didn’t even know existed until today! Ryan is also an instructor somewhere and his employers wanted him to get certified.
Games
Ali had us order ourselves into a line by birthday (disregarding the year). My birthday is during the summer, so I was in the middle of the line. He broke the line into three smaller groups of four, plus one extra person. Then Ali directed each foursome onto their own court to play doubles games to 5 points. Each group would play three games, and at the end, Ali wanted to know how many “stars” we achieved. Each game in which you were on the winning team would provide you a “star”. In the first round, I was partnered—in turn—with Ad, Luke, Amir. Amir didn’t win any games, so the rest of us all got two stars.
Since our court had finished our round of games first, Ali swapped out Amir for another professional tennis instructor, Kevin. This time Luke got three stars in the remaining players each got one. (Ali made the observation that there are only two mathematical possibilities: 3 players get 2 stars and 1 player gets 0 stars -or- 1 player get 3 stars and 3 players get 1 star. So, consider that two stars are awarded for each game, so for three games, six total stars are distributed over four players. It wasn’t discussed, but the only way to further evaluate players by results alone would be to either add more rotations or to take score differentials into account.)
This was all with the intent of judging how well we play . . . this was the skill level evaluation portion of the workshop, obviously. I didn’t keep track of him at all, but Ali must have been watching the games on the three courts.
Introductions
Once done with the games, we gathered up and then went through introductions. Each person gave their name, their pickleball background, and their coaching background. When I said that I’ve been playing for seven years, there is an audible reaction from the group indicating that they were impressed with that length of time. Ali had also asked about any injuries or medical conditions we were dealing with. I shared that I’d had knee surgery in June and was very recently working my way back onto the courts.
That’s Ali in black on the left. I was originally standing to Ryan’s (in white shirt and black beanie) left.
It was a diverse group in terms of experience. One woman had been playing pickleball for only a year, Lisa Z. There was a very experienced tennis coach who had been playing pickleball for a week, Amir. Luc had been a pro badminton player and coach in Korea. And though I didn’t know it at the time, also in the group was a 6.0 rated pro level player, that is, Ryan. (I later looked up Ryan and found a video of Ryan and his partner playing against the Johns brothers!)
Coaching Advice
After the introductions, we took a quick bathroom and water break, then Ali launched into a wide range of assorted advice based on his experience as a coach. This ranged from making sure to learn your students’ names to having plastic cone targets to use for drilling.
He suggested attaching value to good behavior such as providing points in a game. He mentioned “live ball coaching” vs. “fed ball coaching”. He suggested variety in warm ups and variety in drills. This went on for a couple of hours.
Occasionally, one of us would throw out our own helpful tidbits. I think it was Luke who shared that pyramid targets (three balls as a base, one on top) are great for kids since they “explode” when hit and they get really excited. But Ali did nearly all the talking.
This by far was the main thrust of the day. While some candidates sat, there was a fair amount of standing around and listening. And that was fine, it was all valuable information. I stood the entire time, though I moved into what little sun there was peeking through the trees. Regardless, it was worth standing in the chill . . . I was one of only two candidates wearing shorts at that point. And I was the only one without long sleeves available—my typical pickleball attire had some shortcomings!
Ali sharing his tools of the trade.
Live Coaching Evaluation
The last portion of the afternoon, around 4 p.m., was our individual live coaching evaluations. This, by far, was the most stressful part of the experience. We were given the opportunity to pick a skill we wanted to coach for the evaluation. Given the number of people and the limited amount of time, Ali had three live coaching sessions going on at the same time. On three courts, there were two groups of four and one group of five. Ali moved from court to court observing and asking questions of the “students” about the “coach”—did he do this? what did he do about that?—and making notes. All of us were nervous about being evaluated, but we did fine.
It was starting to get dark. Ryan had to leave right at 5 p.m. and he was done with his coaching evaluation, so Ali shifted Amir from the group of five to our group. We stopped and did a quick group photo before Ryan departed.
The group. That’s me in blue in the center.
Nearly everyone was gone by 5:15 p.m. although a few of us—including me—volunteered to stay later and act as students for Amir’s evaluation. Amir did a fabulous job. His extensive professional coaching experience showed.
Overtime
After the official program concluded, one participant, Carrie, asked Ali about lobs. This was fortuitous, considering that one of my students had emailed me last night asking about lobs. The more perspectives on teaching something, the better. Carrie and I stuck around for about 20 minutes while Ali kindly explained, then demonstrated, how he’d teach defending lobs. Since our reservation had ended, we had to leave the court and we finished talking off to the side while Ali sorted his cones by color for storage. I said my goodbyes and Carrie and I left Ali alone to take care of his things. (We both offered help, but he turned us down . . . I’m sure he had a specific way and system of doing things.) Ali did share with us that we had all passed our coaching evaluations—that’s a relief!
Dinner Time!
It was 6:31 p.m. when I texted my son Nicholas that I was done and would be heading his way to join him for dinner in Santa Clara—Mongolian BBQ! It would be a relaxing change of pace after today. (And sadly, no, it didn’t quite live up to my memory of the last time I had Mongolian BBQ about 30 years ago!)
Number of days on a court: 612 Number of total hours: 2,681 Number of paid coaching hours: 5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
With my PPR coaching certification workshop coming up on Friday and they said they will be evaluating my play there—though there was talk of using UTPR or DUPR ratings—I felt it would be wise to get in some gameplay. I had physical therapy and Scotts Valley anyway at 5:30 p.m., so once I was done about an hour later, I just hopped in the car and drove across the road to the courts.
Skypark
Even with the November chill in the air where you could see your breath, things were hopping and they were using the sign-up board.
It was super fun getting to see a lot of the regulars there. There is David and Max and Tiffany and her twin sister Nicole, and Larry Y. and Mike. Also, there was Sean Lynch, who is teaching the other pickleball class through Santa Cruz County Parks & Rec at Willowbrook on Sundays immediately after my class. I didn’t get a chance to play with him tonight. I hear he’s a banger with little soft game, while I may have played with him in the past, I don’t recall doing so.
Overall, I was disappointed in my play as evening . . . not a surprise, given this is my second outing in three months and minimal play in the last six months. My play was kind of sloppy and I hit a few shots wide trying for winners. There is also an overhead that I jumped up, swung, and the ball landed about three feet in front of me. I’m not sure that I’ve ever done that before! It was rather embarrassing, but fortunately I was playing with a fun group of people.
This play went on over the three hour stretch that I was there. My play improved to the point where I starting to get happier with it. I need to be patient with myself.
There are a couple of noticeable changes over the last six months. One is Pauly has gotten much better. He has some side spin his drives and has better serves too. I noticed was Max has some pretty good spin on his serves . . . much like the banana shot I was talking about in one of my last few posts, that’s what he’s using. One thing is, Max is consistently using that one serve and that makes him predictable. I was taking half a step to the right. There was one where he switched it up and served it barely in reach of my backhand and got me—point! Although that was only once over the course of the night. All the rest of his serves were curving off to my right. Nonetheless, it’s a good weapon that he’s developed.
There is young woman there, but I don’t believe that I played with before it seems that she knew the fellow name Spencer. Her name is Sam. She somewhat short and stocky and has an obviously strong tennis background. She didn’t have much of a soft game, but her drives and scoops are excellent.
I was in a game with Brandon against David and Max when the lights clicked off at 9:30 p.m. The score was tied 10-10. It was very entertaining and challenging game.
My surgery knee was not very happy by the end of the three hours. As I walked to my car, I was significantly hurting on the inside of my right knee. Also the back of my right hand and my right wrist were aching a bit.
Wednesday, November 29, 2023 (No Play)
My knee is sore this morning with certain motions, but is much better than last night.
“Researchers also saw a steady increase in the popularity of pickleball workouts, with pickleball workouts surpassing tennis workouts for the first time. Utah took the top spot as the state with the most recorded pickleball workouts per capita in the study. The research found that both pickleball and tennis workouts were popular across all adult ages, and both were more popular with men than women.”
“The average peak heart rate was nine beats per minute faster during tennis workouts, which averaged 152 beats per minute, compared to 143 beats per minute in pickleball.”
A incredibly strong growth trend for pickleball. Tennis appears stable. It’s interesting to see the peaks and valleys of weather on the chart . . . dipping in winter and peaking in summer.
Thursday, November 30, 2023 (No Play)
Tonight, around 8 p.m., I discovered that there are an additional two hours of videos that I was supposed to watch before the coaching certification workshop tomorrow. Oops. Cramming…
Number of days on a court: 611 Number of total hours: 2,680 Number of paid coaching hours: 5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
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