Author: andrewlenz (Page 15 of 327)

Sunday, March 8, 2026 (Court Day #909)

Mauricio arranged a foursome for this morning, but this time Mike Sullivan was out of town so it would Frabrizio playing with Mauricio, Ben, and me.

The spring time change was today so it felt like an especially early morning! I was already running a few minutes late when I realized that I left my phone inside the house I had to go back and grab it. Oops.

Into the Sun

One big annoyance this morning with the time change is that I was driving into the sun when it was still low in the sky. It reminds me of years ago when someone was telling me that she would commute to Monterey for work every day. She told me that she would be driving into the sun in the morning and then also driving into the sun in the evening and how unpleasant that was. That commute is 45 minutes to an hour, but my “commute“ this morning was only about 10 minutes. I can very much sympathize with her annoying commute to Monterey!

Right Knee

My right knee is bothering me a little bit yesterday and more so this morning. Putting weight on my knee a certain way was causing a little bit of pain, and while I was driving I was feeling a mild bee sting sensation to the upper left side of my right kneecap.

Brommer Park

I pulled into Brommer at 8:05 a.m. Considering the time and the time change, it wasn’t a surprise that there were less than ten cars in the parking lot.

Game 1:
Even with the advantage of the sun in the eyes of our opponents, Mauricio and I lost this first game 6-11.  We did drag it out once they were ahead 10-5 and forced a number of service swaps before they finally closed out the game.

Game 2:
Frabrizio and I lost 3-11. I was still warming up and made a sad number of errors. This loss as on me, not Frabrizio.

Game 3:
Ben and I won 11-5.

Game 4: (Labeled “Game 1” of the videos.)
Mauricio and I lost 1-11. I have a synopsis below. This isn’t every single rally, but does include how they got their points with some additional notes… the dash (-) in front is a point in their favor.

– Mauricio hits ball into net. (0:10) 1-0
– Mauricio hits ball into net. (0:26) 2-0
– Frabrizio’s ball dribbles over net. (0:39) 3-0
– Andrew ball into net after ball to my feet. (0:56) 4-0
[side out at 0-4]
Andrew hits bad high drive, Mauricio pops up a volley, Frabrizio slams it. (1:31) 0-4
Andrew hits a really bad lob, bad from there. (1:55) 0-4
[side out 0-4]
– Andrew chicken wings 4th shot past the baseline. (2:12) 5-0
– Mauricio pops up shot. (2:35) 6-0
– Andrew backhand shot out past the baseline. (3:15) 7-0
– Mauricio returns serve into the net. (3:40) 8-0
– Andrew does a speed up that sails long past the baseline. (4:00) 9-0
– While at the net, Andrew hits a fast out ball which then sails long. (4:26) 10-0
[side out]
– Andrew hits Ben’s out ball speed up at my face. (5:15) 0-10
And on.
So with Ben and Frabrizio winning 10-0, there was a lot of back and forth for several minutes where we scored one point and they don’t score at all.
– Mauricio hits a failed chicken wing shot off a drive from Frabrizio into the net, ending the game.

I played so badly in this game. I was “grabbing at points” instead of being patient and taking solid opportunities. A lesson there.

Game 5: (Labeled “Game 2” of the videos.)
Frabrizio and I won 11-9.

Game 6: (Labeled “Game 3” of the videos.)
Ben I lost 10-12 after leading most of the game.

Game 7: (Labeled “Game 4” of the videos.)
Frabrizio and I won 11-5.

More Games

My courtmates left, so I found new partners to play with.

Mo and I lost a lot to Dan Dewey and a partner.

Hispanic Tony and I won against Mo and tall Dave 11-5. We had to stage a comeback to win.

Tony and I then lost 3-11 to Mo and Rick. As I closed in three hours of play, I was starting to get tired and a touch lazy.

Then Tony and I won 11-5 in the rematch.

The rubber match, we won again 11-8. There’s nothing like winning the last two of three games to make up for a 3-11 loss in the first game!

In those games against Mo, she had at least three or four shots that she drove and her ball landed literally on the sidelines. Those are hard to defend. She had those dialed in today.

Done

When I left at 11:35 a.m., surprisingly, 5 of the 8 courts were open.

It was an absolutely gorgeous sunny 72° day as I drove home.

Number of days on a court: 909
Number of total hours: 3,408.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 203.5

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

Thursday, March 5, 2026 (Court Day #908)

Lou Holtz, famous one-time head coach of the Notre Dame football team which he took to a national championship, gave a what looks like a commencement speech in his elder years. If you want a little inspiration in your day, watch this:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1855140311871749

This video short mocking pickleball partners is pretty funny:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUbW3qtkqW_

Probing Your Opponents

Jordan Briones sent out an article in his newsletter and this jumped out at me:
“I’ll intentionally send a few balls there [middle] early to see who takes it. Once I know which player is more aggressive, I can start targeting the other player’s inside foot and keep the pressure on.”

It’s one thing to know which of your two opponents is the weaker player. But there are more aspects to it. It’s also figuring out specifically what they are weaker at.

Classes

I sent out a reminder to my students that the time change will be this Sunday and that if they don’t change their clocks, they would be an hour late to class. When it comes to teaching, I don’t like unknowns. I like my students to be on time and to give me advance warning if they can’t make a class. One of my Advanced Beginner students said she wouldn’t be able to make class this weekend, so I’ve already arranged for someone to fill in and balance the drilling pairs.

Skypark

I left work early. It was a beautiful day, in the mid 60s and sunny without a cloud in the sky. It had been kind of blustery earlier, but the wind seemed to be calming down.

The courts were full and there are very few people waiting. I had two options. One would be to wait and hopefully break up a group coming off of a court or, two, to jump in with whoever happen to be available. I chose the latter.

Games

I paired with a young woman named Sierra against her friend Jonah, who paired up with regular Gowa. I would put the youngsters at a low 3.0 rating.

In games like this, there’s a question of how you want to play. Do you want to simply keep the rallies going and leave winners on the table? Or do you want to give them a true experience of playing against a stronger player? Sometimes it’s not fair to give them a false sense of security. I certainly wasn’t out for blood in this game, but I did hit winners when they were obvious. After Sierra and I had won the game (solidly), I asked Jonah if he wanted a tip. He said yes, then I went on to explain “shading” to him. There were a number of times during the game, where he had left the middle wide open because he wasn’t shifting over to the side with the ball.

More Games

The level of the games that I was getting into were so poor and strong groups coming off were just sticking together, that I was considering leaving. Instead, I sat on the bench and decided to be picky about who I was going to play with. As I was sitting Aaron Huang and Frabrizio arrived. This was good news. Now we just needed a fourth. Fortunately, young Jordan finished up a game and joined us.

Jordan and I won against Fabrizio and Aaron 11-4. We did a rematch and we won again 11-7.

We mixed things up, with me playing with Aaron. We lost, with Jordan and Fabrizio winning 12-10.

But Aaron and I won the next one 11-6. Aaron and I finished up our win about a minute before the lights clicked off. I’m glad I stayed—those last few games made the trip to Scotts Valley worth it.

And?

I felt really good about my play tonight. 

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Friday, March 6, 2026 (No Play)

How Andre Agassi’s life has been changed by pickleball:
https://fb.watch/FHnZo1xqLO/?mibextid=wwXIfr&fs=e

Pro Mixed

I was talking recently about men taking over the court in mixed doubles—sometimes to the detriment of their game, but sometimes not. What is surprising is how much a male can get away with when it comes to hogging the court. Here’s a screenshot example.

The male player is literally past the female player and partly over her sideline, leaving the court almost entirely uncovered. If I recall correctly, I believe they managed to get back into their positions and continue this rally even with this wild situation.

Number of days on a court: 908
Number of total hours: 3,405
Number of paid coaching hours: 200.5

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

Tuesday, March 3, 2026 (Court Day #907)

While out walking the dog this morning I came across this article. In it, tennis players, surprise, prefer tennis over pickleball… or at least, believe the tennis is more challenging.
https://www.thetennisgazette.com/news/andre-agassi-gives-his-verdict-on-tennis-and-pickleball-and-reveals-which-sport-is-more-challenging

PPA tour

Cheating has become such an issue in the PPA tour that they’ve come up with penalties for cheating with escalating repercussions.
https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/the-ppa-tour-is-instituting-stricter-cheating-penalties-for-repeat-offenders

PPR players can request a rally review during a game. If a player is found to be making bad calls, there is a scale of penalties:
• 1st Offense – Warning
• 2nd Offense – Point penalty
• 3rd Offense – Game penalty
• 4th Offense – Match penalty

With decent money involved these days, this makes sense.

Skypark

So I had another of what feels like a period of various nonprofit board meetings this afternoon. I returned to work very briefly afterwards, then changed and headed out to Scotts Valley. It’s been getting dark later and will become more so with the time change on this coming Sunday.

I arrived at Skypark around 6:20 p.m.

It was very busy when I arrived and people were using the paddle rack.

Games

My first game was a good one. Young Andy and I lost against Aaron Huang and young Jordan 10-12. 

We had a rematch and lost again 7-11.

More Games

Next up, Mauricio and I won 11-5 versus Savannah and Daniel. 

Then we lost 3-11 to Savannah and Ashley. Ashley is a strong player.

Mauricio and I won 11-7 against Chuck and Ashley. I was trying to hit more to Ashley. 

We had a rematch in and this time Ashley and Chuck won 11–7.

We had a rubber match but time was running out. We served as quickly as we could and the score was tied 8-8 when Mauricio served and the lights clicked out just before a Chuck was about to hit the ball.

It is 55° when I left, but I was sweating and didn’t feel cool at all.

Number of days on a court: 907
Number of total hours: 3,402.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 200.5

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