Author: andrewlenz (Page 16 of 327)

Sunday, March 1, 2026 (Court Day #906)

The same four of us from last Sunday arranged to meet at 8 a.m. again at Brommer Park on a reserved court today… Mike Sullivan, Mauricio Cuervo, Ben David.

The streak of beautiful days in the 70s appears to have come to a halt. It was completely overcast and 57°F this morning as I headed to the courts to meet up with the guys.

I was rather tired this morning, my daughter Charlotte flew home last night only to turn around at 5 a.m. with her friend to drive to Las Cruces, New Mexico, to her medical school. It took me about an hour to get back to sleep. I definitely got less sleep that I am accustomed to.

Brommer Park

I pulled into the parking lot at 7:57 a.m., then walked to the far end to our reserved court. Ben was in a game with JP, Kirk, and Gary when I arrived.

Games

I was going to video record more games today, but the rubber band broke that was part of my makeshift harness for attaching the camera to the fence. Alas.

Mike and I lost 5-11.

Mauricio and I won 11-3.

I teamed up with Ben. We were up 6-0, but found ourselves at 7-8 later in the game, but pulled off a win 11-7.

Mike and I won 11-1.

Mauricio and I lost 4-11.

Ben and I won 11-2

Mike and I lost 3-11. I was getting tired. Mauricio was playing very well in this game.  

Mauricio and I lost 5-11. 

Ben I lost 7-11.

In the last game, Mike and I won 12–10.

I told them that I would need to leave at 10:45 a.m. to get to an 11 o’clock appointment on the westside of Santa Cruz. Unfortunately, this last game almost went over 20 minutes and it was 10:57 a.m. when I checked my phone for the time. Time to go!!

I was kind of glad that I had an appointment, I was already really tired. On the drive back to the westside, I felt like it was almost ready to take a nap. This is practically unheard of for me!

Games Summary

Ben has come out strong the last two outings. There were too many unforced errors on my part. It’s kind of funny. Ben had six wins out of the ten games, but he won two games with me, two with Mike, and two with Mauricio.

Tournament Invite

Dave Cox contacted me and asked if I wanted to play with him in the Monterey tournament in October. I had to let him know that I’ve already signed up with someone else.

Teaching

 I had two new classes to teach starting today. My handler for Rec.us, Nazarena, was pushing me to accept two additional students into the Advanced Beginner class, but it would be awkward for a number of reasons. It works so well when I have full sets of doubles for games. Having 10 students means that I have two students who can’t participate in 4-person games. So I told her that I did not want to accept two more students, even though it would mean more money for me. I’d rather give the existing students that I have a better experience and also reduce my stress.

Today, Nazarena texted saying she was thinking of starting another Advanced Beginner class in the middle of the month, in two weeks. That would mean I would have two weeks of teaching for 4 1/2 hours straight on a Sunday afternoon until 6 p.m. The big question is even if that class would fill. I suspect that it wouldn’t.

It was funny, in my Advanced Beginner class today, I started with introductions, followed by a detailed review of the serving rules, then I explained some strategic background pertaining to the drills would be running. At which point, one of my students exclaimed, “Wow! I got my money’s worth in the first 15 minutes!” This is pleasing for an instructor to hear, of course!

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Monday, March 2, 2026 (No Play)

Ben Johns on being successful and how to win:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVOifLyDhtv

Tennis pro Nick Kyrgois out playing pickleball and having a good time:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVZZdelDg_g

Number of days on a court: 906
Number of total hours: 3,400.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 200.5

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

Thursday, February 26, 2026 (Court Day #905)

Today, I got an automated email blast from pickleball.com (which has gobbled up pickleballtournaments.com) alerting me to tournaments that are quite a number of hours away from me. This prompted me to submit a contact form to them suggesting that they have settings allowing users to select criteria to limit which tournaments we would be receiving notifications for. I suggested some criteria, including distance, events offered, ratings offered, but also exceptions on a distance limit based on special tournaments, such as Golden ticket events. We will see if they get back to me or not.

DUPR Reset

This week, DUPR sent out a notice saying that users could opt to have a rating reset over a 2-month period. As long as you played eight games recorded into their system during their time window (March 16 – May 17), they would base your rating on only those 8+ games and jettison your previous rating. If your rating were to do down, you could not accept the “reset” and keep your old rating. At first, I thought this was free. But apparently not. It costs $34.99 per player to participate in the reset.

Some people are arguing that DUPR is merely making you pay to fix a problem with their algorithm—that is, if their system was better, then your rating would be correct in the first place!

The biggest problem with DUPR is it no one wants to play with a player who has a lower rating. There’s more likelihood of your rating going down when playing with a lower-ranked player. If you beat a lower-ranked player, it’s still possible that your rating might go down. The system determines based on their algorithm the margin by which you should be beating your opponents. If you don’t meet or exceed those expectations, you rating will go down. Now, if you play a player who has a higher rating than you, and even if you don’t win, but you do well enough, your rating will go up. If you beat a higher rated player, your rating is guaranteed to go up. There’s a big incentive to play against players who are better than you.

Skypark

When I left work, it was an astonishing 73°F. That’s kind of crazy for a February evening. I arrived at the Skypark courts at 6:35 p.m.

Games

Paul and I played against Ashley and Sunny. We won 11-9.

We had a rematch and this time Paul and I won 11-0. I scored at least five points off of my serves that weren’t returned over the net.

I got into a game with a young lefty named Ethan who paired with Paul. I paired with Chuck. We won 11-0. I’ve never won two games in a row 11-0. Ethan said this was his first game ever losing 0-11. Well, we both had firsts. Mine was more pleasant, of course!

The consolation for Ethan was they won the rematch 4-11. Basically, an 18-point swing from one game to the next! Talk about momentum!

Mauricio and I played against Aaron Hicks and Paul and we won 11-8.

We lost 12-10 on rematch. I was not playing my best in that game.

I was leading 8-6 with Shreyas vs. Aaron H. and lefty Ethan when the lights clicked off. I’d seen Shreyas around the past six months or so, but I’d never played with him. He has an Indian accent. Nice guy.

It was still 64° when I left after 8:30 p.m.

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Friday, February 27, 2026 (No Play)

I received an email this morning from a woman named Patty who works for pickleball.com. She was responding to my inquiry yesterday. She said that the tournaments shown depends on the location setting of my browser. Of course, this makes no sense given that I was talking about an email that I received from them and it has nothing to do with a visit to their website. She went on to say that there is no way to set a radius for notifications on tournaments.

New Quiet Paddle

Today, Owl Sport announced a new paddle, the Talon X1. They state that it is the only paddle in the world that has approved PCOR 0.43 compliance as well as being sanctioned for USAP pro tournaments as well as also being part of USAP’s Quiet category.

DUPR

Speaking of DUPR, they just announced a wheelchair rating system:
https://www.dupr.com/post/dupr-announces-dedicated-wheelchair-pickleball-rating-system-to-debut-at-2026-us-open

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Saturday, February 28, 2026 (No Play)

Today, I signed up for a tournament to be held on Saturday, October 24 in Monterey. I talked to Mike Cattivera and he was interested in partnering up as long as nothing comes up between now and then. It is half a year away, after all!

Number of days on a court: 905
Number of total hours: 3,397.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 197.5

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

Tuesday, February 24, 2026 (Court Day #904)

For once, I really did leave work a little bit early, and I was on my way to Scotts Valley before 6 p.m. It was 63° and overcast with rain looming in the forecast. According to my wife this morning, I might be able to play tonight since rain was originally projected to start about 4 p.m. but that start time was continuing to push out.

When I checked again this afternoon, it was showing a steep climb in the likelihood of rain at 9 p.m. and not much earlier. Hopefully, that would manifest affect itself in reality since the court lights will be off by then.

Teaching

The last spot in my Beginner class was filled this afternoon meaning that both of my classes starting on Sunday are now completely sold out. This is good for me, both in terms of getting the maximum compensation for my time, as well as not having unbalanced pairs, which is problematic. When I have to fill in during drills for a missing student, it makes it more difficult for me to get around and really coach properly.

On My Way

A change, it was still light outside as I drove. And the time change is coming in a couple of weeks, which means I have to get up an hour earlier, but also means we will have light in the evenings, which will be a nice plus.

As I drove into the Skypark neighborhood, there were so few cars parked on the streets coming in that I literally checked my phone to make sure that it was Tuesday! When I got to the parking lot for the courts, there were plenty of spaces and I picked the best spot very closest to the gate. It seems that the threat of rain kept people away.

Skypark

The courts weren’t full and Paul Winn was also an odd man out, so I warmed up with him until we gained two partners to play. I played with a woman named Jen against Paul and a woman named Blake. (Both of whom I’d never met.) I overheard Blake and Jen talking, and Blake plays in Kristin Long‘s women’s league. I would say Jen and Blake are both high 3.0 level players.

I played with a low-level regular, Linda, against Heidi (who’s on the Scotts Valley Parks & Rec commission) and Jens.

Game of the night: Alec and I lost to Spencer and Marquis 7-11. Alec and I were ahead 6–4 at one point, but we couldn’t hold onto the lead. Later, Mike asked how we had done against Spencer and Marquis and when I told him the score, he made an approving noise and said, “That’s respectable!” though I know we got at least one free(ish) point off of Spencer because I overheard him telling Marquis that he was trying some particular shot.

Ashley, Alec, Mike

Alec and I played a game against Mike “Beefcake” O’Brien and Ashley. Ashley has always been one of those names that can be used with males and females, though seems a trend in my lifetime has been towards use with females. In any case, this Ashley, who has been coming to the courts for a number of years, is unabashedly a 6-foot-plus guy. I played against Ashley on Sunday and he played really well. Mike was the least strong player of the group and I figured Ashley would be a good pairing with him to balance the teams.

While I figured that Alec and I would win this game, it was much closer than I was expecting. They came back from being down and made a game of it.

I have to say that Ashley is—by far—the most deceptive player I’ve seen with regard to his shots. For instance, Alec popped up a couple of balls while I Ashley and I were both on the left side of the court. Each time, Ashley looked like he was going to hit those shots to the middle, but at the last second he turned his paddle inside out and hit a passing shot down the line off to my left for a winner. This is just an example. There were other shots too, and the same thing had been happening on Sunday as well. It doesn’t hurt that he’s over 6 foot and has a long wingspan. Honestly, I’m jealous of Ashley deception skills. It’s a talent that I would really like to develop for myself!

The last two games were with Thad (Mike’s friend) against Alec and Mike. We found ourselves down by quite a bit. Thad was missing a lot of shots. He said that he was tired, and that I totally understand. By this time, it was 8 p.m. after a long day. We came back surprisingly and made a close game of it.

We switched sides for what would be the last game of the night. This time, it was more lopsided in their favor.

And?

I felt so-so about my play tonight.

Number of days on a court: 904
Number of total hours: 3,395.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 197.5

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