Author: andrewlenz (Page 145 of 328)

Friday, August 5, 2022 (Court Day #529)

This morning the back of my hand was aching a little bit as it has been last night. However, I didn’t affect my play at all today and I didn’t even notice it.

This morning I need to make a stop at work and take care of some unfinished business which delayed me a fair amount. I arrived at Brommer Park about 9:50 a.m. and took the very last parking place in the parking lot. It would turn out to be the lighter attendance day, although everything is relative. At the peak there was about 15 people waiting to get onto one of the 8 courts. 8×4=32. 32+15=47. 47 is still a lot of people, but I’ve seen nearly 60 people at Brommer on holidays.

Wind

Things got kind of windy towards later morning and wreaking havoc on some of my shots. Serves going long, opponents’ shots changing mid-flight.

Tournament?

I asked Jason if he plays tournaments, and he said he never has, but he was interested and I got his number.

Today was a mixed bag of play, although overall I left the courts at 12:20 p.m. feeling pretty good.

Where Have the Elites Gone?

Some of the really elite players have not been appearing in recent months. Dan Bliss blames this on ”skill creep” where intermediate players are signing up as advanced and the advanced players getting bored/disappointed with the competition as a result . . . so they stop showing up. I’m not an advanced player in Dan’s eyes, but I understand the problem. I’m pushing the skill level found at Derby Park. There are enough strong players to get some good games, but not enough to make sure weaker players don’t end up mixed in. And often there will only be one player who is better than me. And sometimes, it’ll just be me at the top of the pyramid.

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Saturday, August 6, 2022 (No Play)

Greg, A long-time friend of my wife, messaged me from San Diego:
‘Dude, literal headline on the new down here this morning…”S.D. TENNIS COMMUNITY FENDS OFF PICKLEBALL TAKE OVER ATTEMPT.” What the heck?’

Here’s the newscast:
Pickleball players stage takeover of Peninsula Tennis Club to make a point

After looking into it, a local group of pickleball players staged a protest at an Ocean Beach tennis facility, refusing to get off the courts there. The city permit for the facility had expired and the PB players are trying to get the city to convert the courts to pickleball courts. The story goes that San Diego has not a single permanent pickleball court for its population of 1.4 million people. By comparison, locally, Scotts Valley, with a population of 12,000 has four permanent courts. Using the same ratio, SD should have 400 pickleball courts!

On the flip side, consider the City of Santa Cruz has no permanent courts, though Derby Park has six temporary courts and two very sturdy rolling pickleball nets. The City of Santa Cruz has work to do too.

Number of days on a court: 529
Number of total hours: 2,423.5

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Thursday, August 4, 2022 (Court Day #528)

I left work relatively early and arrived at Skypark at about 6:10 p.m. Seven courts were in use and eventually a temporary net was later set up for an eighth court as well.

Tonight was a mix of games with weaker players and also games that were great against stronger players. I played the better end of the spectrum tonight, making some really good shots.

Matt Smith is a total banger—it’s very good for me to play against him. One of my biggest challenges is judging the trajectory of out balls. That is a major Achilles’ Heel for me, that is, hitting balls that would otherwise land out and end the rally. The other issue is doing a better job hugging the sideline and preventing passing shots. As in previous games, Matt Smith successfully hit at least two passing shots along my right sideline out of my reach for winners. After each shot, Matt made eye contact with a knowing smile on his face. Yep, that’s something I need to fix.

The back of my right hand is aching a little bit. I have to keep an eye on it. Hopefully it doesn’t get worse, it does worry me a little bit.

The last game ended at 9:29 p.m., one minute before the lights with click off.

Number of days on a court: 528
Number of total hours: 2,421

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

Tuesday, August 2, 2022 (Court Day #527)

I left work and arrived at Skypark shortly after 6:30 p.m. As seems typical lately, parking lot was completely full. The funny thing was there were no temporary nets set up and the only pickleball courts that were in use were the four permanent courts. Light crowd.

Matt Smith was there with his wife Carolyn and Tim F. was there as well, however they said they’ve been there since 3:30 p.m. and were done playing and leaving shortly after I arrived.

I played a couple games against David and his girlfriend Minori with Christina as my partner. They won the first game, and we won the second game. Those were good warm-up games.

Newbie Max

There is a player there named Max, the middle-aged man about my height, who said he’d started playing a month ago. I asked him if he wanted advice during our game together against Wendy and Paul and he said he did. So I gently I gave him pointers here and there. Such as if you have one opponent who is back and one who is forward, hit the ball to the player who’s back. There are some rare exceptions to this—like in a tournament when a much weaker player is at the net—but you generally want to hit to the player who is back and keep them back away from the net.

When I stopped between points to educate Max, Wendy wanted to hear what I was telling him so she could learn too. She also had some questions about court positioning, and I told her to shift toward the ball and close up the middle and leave the far sideline open instead. You don’t want to give your opponent the easy shot down the middle or the near slideline but you can leave in the difficult risky shot with the sharp angle.

Max told me that I was very, very patient and very kind helping him learn the game and giving him tips. He said he played with some people previously who are not very happy about playing with him. I told him I was a USA Pickleball Ambassador. Wendy said she didn’t know I was one and said that I had earned my title tonight. She also complimented that I’m perfect for the job.

Wendy told Max, “You are are very fortunate to be able to play with players of this caliber.” A nice thing to overhear, though everything is relative, of course. There are players in my area would destroy me on a court.

Fun & Challenging Games

The games of the night though, were the ones played with young David and Paul W. and John. (John’s wife Peggy was not there tonight; he said that she had tendinitis in her wrist.) The first two games Paul and myself against John and David, and in the last game was David and myself against John and Paul. I did make some mistakes but overall I was playing pretty well even though I starting to get a little tired towards the end. They were close games. I believe I was on the winning side for two of the three games. Maybe it was three of three, can’t remember. But they were fun and challenging games where you had to focus. We finished play at 9:15 p.m.

Number of days on a court: 527
Number of total hours: 2,418.5

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