Author: andrewlenz (Page 187 of 329)

Sunday, August 29, 2021 (Court Day #406)

Given that last week I had to wait a while for more players to arrive, I took it a bit slower and got to Brommer Park at 9:15. As I was parking, I saw Shawnte walking in. A few minutes later, I found him sitting on the top step outside the courts. All four permanent courts were full of people I didn’t know. (Amazing. Yes, pickleball is growing!) Nearly all were older folks. A temporary net was set up away from the other games and had the normal foursome of early ladies, Kristin L., Barb R., etc.

Shawnte said he was waiting for Hemi to show up so they could drill as they had planned, but that wasn’t going to happen. Hemi arrived a few minutes later. We chatted for a few minutes, then Shawnte noticed that a woman had waved us over to their court. We go to the far side and the woman said that they were done. We started with some dinking drills then Steve arrived and we had ourselves a game.

Steve and I ‘walked away’ with the first game against Shawnte and Hemi. We switched sides and I made a lot more mistakes in this one. I turned to Steve and said, “If this was a tournament, I’d call timeout right now!” We lost that second game barely, then played a third which we won.

Lina

One of Shawnte’s 11 o’clock foursome arrived. Her name is Lina, probably mid-50s. She has a slight accent that I can’t place. Since the others hadn’t arrived yet, Shawnte and Lina started a game against Steve and me. Lina is a strong player and this was a fun game where I had to play well. Steve and I were leading 9-4 when Lina called it after an anxious Jane reminded Lina for the 3rd or 4th time they were supposed to start their own game at 11 a.m.

Into the Net

So, today I hit an overhead slam into the net in a game with Karen as my partner. I hate that. A shot that goes from a likely winner to a 100% loser. Today—after 4 1/2 years—I realized how/why it happens. You are looking up at the ball. You don’t have the net in your line of sight. Of course, my engineering brain kicks in for a solution . . . “should I be looking at the net?” Duh. No. Just be aware and hit the ball deeper. Think, don’t just get excited and react.

Game with John P.

John P. and I played a game against Art B. and Karen. I hadn’t played with John for months. John was obviously taking it easy on them—there was an easily attackable ball and John merely knocked it back over the net. A few points later there was a high ball at the net and I backhand smashed it at Art’s feet. We got back to the baseline and John said, “I thought we were taking it easy on them.” (We never actually discussed that.) I jokingly replied, “If I wasn’t taking it easy on them, I’d have hit him in the face!” (Looking back, maybe saying that was kind of lame of me!) I told John I was switching to playing lefty and played lefty the remainder of the game. John and I were taking it pretty easy—I was playing lazily—and they caught back up 7-7. John said, “Ok, we can play now.” And we won 11-7, with me still playing lefty.

Oh, and in that game, I wound up and drove a backhand rocket low over the net to Karen. Rally over. I think that’s a remnant of those college PE tennis classes I took as a senior back when dinosaurs rules the earth.

The Ben Johns Story

Shawnte was on the court next to us during my game with John P. and Shawnte mentioned something about Ben Johns to his courtmates. (Currently, Ben is the #1 ranked player in the world.) I called over feigning indignation, “I’ve met Ben Johns and you are not him!” (I briefly talked to Ben at the Golden State Pickleball Championship about three years ago. “Why do you want my autograph? I’m just a scrub.” He was easy-going.) Shawnte explained something about some shot that Ben does. Jane laughingly shared, “Ben Johns was in my hotel room once . . . he was lost!” After both games were done and I was about to leave, I walked over to Shawnte and said, “Ben, I just want to say how much I am a fan . . . can I get an autograph?” Jane laughed and Shawnte looked confused. (He thought I had said “Bihn”—whom I haven’t seen for at least a month, by the way.) Jane went on to tell her story about being in Hawaii for a tournament and staying in a condo. She was talking to a friend when they turned around and—surprise—Ben Johns was suddenly in their living room. “Is so-and-so here?” (Jane explained that all the condos looked the same.) She told him “no” but they got into a conversation about how he started with pickleball and how Ben was his brother’s tennis training partner. “…who is now Ben’s doubles partner,” Jane said. I concurred and went on to say how down-to-earth Ben is. Not egotistical at all.

I checked the time: 12:20. I was supposed to be home, shower, then to a birthday party for a friend at 1 p.m. Time to go!

Lesson for Today

Trust your partner. There’s a saying, “Don’t poach unless it’s a winner.” In a game today with Karen as my partner, I got far too aggressive, reached way over to my right and clipped the ball with the far edge of my paddle, sending the ball flying out the side of the court. Rally lost. I apologized to Karen. Bad decision—obviously. There was a shot in a game with Steve that, had I let it go, he would have been in position to make a good shot instead of me making a bad shot. Trust your partner.

That said, lesser players will be out of position and leave easy shots down the middle. One needs to cover the sideline and the partner needs to scoot over and close the middle. Leave open the hard angled shot, not the middle open.

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Monday, August 30, 2021 (No Play)

Today, I received an email from Dan M., the PT assistant. He said he had lost my business card but found it again and was interested in playing. I explained the skill levels often associated with the various local courts and offered some times. Hopefully, we’ll connect and work out a time to play.

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Tuesday, August 31, 2021 (No Play)

I forgot to mention previously. At dinner a week ago, when I told my wife Kristen that Casey’s wife had purchased a pickleball paddle for him for Fathers Day, stunned, Kristen stared at me then blurted out, “She’s delusional!” Then she added, “Just wait until that new baby is mobile!” I shared that story with Tim (Casey’s dad) and Tim laughed.

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Wednesday, September 1, 2021 (No Play)

I received an email from an out-of-town player named Joe Mcdonald. He is going to be in my area this weekend and was referred to me for advice on where to play. Joe is also a regular reader of this blog. (Hi, Joe!) Joe is the athletic director and coach at a school about an hour north of me. He shared that he wrote an article about his experiences so far:
https://www.pickleballuniversity.com/home/why-pickleball-is-a-sport-for-all-according-to-a-coach
I believe that his experiences mirror thousands, if not millions, of others. No wonder pickleball is growing so fast! What’s not in his article is that he’s already played a couple of tournaments is playing at a 3.5-4.0 level already—no doubt his past training for squash, racquetball, and tennis. Nice work, Joe!

Ben Johns Streak Broken

I just saw that Ben Johns’ winning streak of 170 matches ended recently when he lost to JW Johnson. He dropped into the consolation bracket for a second chance at a gold medal but lost to Spencer Smith. From no losses for a very long time to two losses in one day. Ouch.

Number of days on a court: 406
Number of total hours: 2,055

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Thursday, August 26, 2021 (Court Day #405)

I picked up my daughter Charlotte from work, ran her home, then ran out to Skypark. I arrived at 6:40 p.m. Eric S. and I had texted back and forth earlier today with him finally saying he was coming tonight. That is always awesome. Eric is a strong player.

When I arrived there were two tennis players and a ton of pickleball players—about 25 of them. Eric was already there, but involved in a game on the far side.

Kristin L. was one point into a new game with Mike B. against Mark D. and Barb B. when she very generously offered her place in the game. How thoughtful! I walked over into the game without warm up and I was optimistically thinking Mike and I would walk away with this one, but I hit a would-be winner past the baseline, slammed another into the net, hit yet another wide outside the sideline, and otherwise made a few mistakes. Playing with a good player as your partner magnifies those mistakes, but Mike is a great guy and never says an unkind word. We did go on to win, even with my “first game” errors.

Mike and I also played a game against Terry S. and Kristin L. We won 11-5.

Game of the Day

The game I most enjoyed was me and Eric versus Mike B. and Adrian. Eric and I scored a point as the first servers and never were behind. We won 11-5. Eric and I naturally mesh very well together. (We should given that we played a few tournaments together!)

There were two particularly memorable shots. One was an overhead slam that I switched to lefty and hit the ball to Adrian’s feet for a winner. (Eric and Adrian were both to my left side.) Another was more basic, a service return came between us (me on the left) and I said, “I got it.” I can’t tell you how many times “I got it” results in a horrible shot! This time though, I executed a lovely cross court drop shot, Mike popped it up just enough for me to attack it for a winner. Success!

I’ll digress a bit and share a memory. At least three years ago, Eric and I were partnered in game, with me on the right. The opponent across from me lobbed toward Eric but I switched to my left hand and took the ball over the middle . . . my shot sailed wildly high and wide of the court. “Did you switch to your left hand for that shot?”, Eric asked, bemused—and probably disgusted. I should have let that one go and trusted my partner to get it. Tonight, there were two things different. One, the lob was angled at me. And, two, I’ve had over two years of practice playing lefty. These days might I take a middle shot heading to my prepared partner, even with my developed lefty skills? I’d hope not . . . unless I felt I had an obvious winner.

We started a game of Eric and Larry vs. me and Tim. A few points in, Eric jumped up, hit a winner past me, but landed on his ankle wrong and ended up sitting on the ground. Someone retrieved an instance ice pack for him. Unfortunately, Eric hobbled out and headed for home. He was concerned, but apparently this has happened before with his ankle, so the injury didn’t freak him out.

Josh

One of the recent “clan” of young guys is tall fellow named Josh. Josh said this was his second time out. He and I played against Tim and John (relatively new guy). I asked Josh before the first serve if he was interested in me giving him advice. He eagerly agreed and so 3-4 times during the game I’d did so.

My key points to Josh were, surprise, get up to the net (#1 among rookies), keep the ball low, return deep and—one I seem to need more work on myself at times—placement over power!

We played two games and lost both to Tim and John. Not a shock. Tim said he’d been playing a year and a half. (Honestly, he’s darn good for a year and a half.) John is a decent player, if not polished yet.

Matt & Paul

Josh’s friends Matt and Paul (the taller of the two) had been playing singles but were resting. Tim and I invited them into a game. They said they weren’t 100% up on all the rules, so we explained as needed. We were just a few rallies into the game when we were plunged into darkness at 9 p.m. sharp. Paul said he had contacted the City of Scotts Valley about resetting the time back to 9:30, but as Matt speculated, “One part-time guy probably won’t get to it right away.”

Chicken Wing

There will be good indefensible shots. I was feeling bad about not being able to return a shot when I realized that the ball hit my arm about 3 inches above my armpit. It was a chicken wing shot. It’s very hard to return a ball when it is arriving somewhere between your hip and your shoulder of your paddle arm. I have to just relax and accept that there’s not always anything that I can do.

Serving

I am secretly proud of my serving variety. I can hit the ball just about wherever I want: receiver’s backhand or forehand, add spin, drop it short. And I mix them up—including lob serves. In the game against Eric, he was at the baseline. I dropped my serve over the net just past the kitchen line for an unreturnable serve. “Sneaky!”, exclaimed Eric. Ace.

Ice

More icing with my cold pack tonight. I have to be careful. Playing every two days can start to take its toll with my propensity for tennis elbow.

USAPA Sportsmanship Guide

USA Pickleball sent out a newsletter today. Nothing earth shattering, but the most interesting one thing I found it was their new Sportsmanship Guide:
https://usapickleball.org/member-news/usa-pickleball-sportsmanship-guide/

It’s kind of sad that they have to put something like this out. And I have a feeling that the people who actually need it will never see it.

I’ll share one story. The guide does say to let people know if a ball is rolling onto their court during play and otherwise let play continue if there is no risk. Excellent advice. Here’s a twist. I was at Brommer Park a couple of months ago and our ball rolled into an adjacent court. Those players weren’t in a rally on that court and were just standing out of position and chatting and they were not about to resume play. I walked over to retrieve the slow rolling ball and the woman (whom I had never seen before) gave me a dirty look then angrily berated me for not calling “ball” to let them know. Seriously? Rather than giving me the benefit of the doubt, she assumed that I was being irresponsible. I explained, “You aren’t playing right now…” She wouldn’t have it and added another negative comment. I just let it go and moved back to my court. Honestly, I was very annoyed with her. I was hoping to go up to her and introduce myself and say, “My name is Andrew, I think we got off on the wrong foot..” but she left before our game finished. Maybe it stemmed from her being mad at herself or her partner for not playing well. Regardless, I didn’t think what she did was very nice. Always be kind.

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Friday, August 27, 2021 (No Play)

So here I am, 10:43 p.m. YouTube offered up a tennis U.S. Open semi-final from 1980 with Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe. Very evenly matched. In the tie-breaker, after over four hours of play, Connors hits an easy volley—a would-be winner—into the net. Soon after, he hits a would-be passing shot winner too long past the baseline. Granted, he was exhausted. But he was also a world-class pro. Occasional mistakes by me hitting a shot long or into the net have to be expected. That’s not an excuse to not try to improve my game, but mistakes will happen. I can’t be too hard on myself and expect perfection. I remember a fantastic quote from a legendary football coach:

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.“

Vince Lombardi

So, my additional lesson is, chase perfection, but don’t be dejected if you don’t attain it. Even pros make mistakes.

Number of days on a court: 405
Number of total hours: 2,052

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Tuesday, August 24, 2021 (Court Day #404)

We’re now two months past the longest day of the year and between that and the trace smoke in the air from the massive West Coast fires north of us, it was starting to get dark earlier than I expected. I arrived at Skypark at 6:40 p.m. to longer shadows.

Tonight was fun. I had good games. I played “lights out” in a game with Jeanne as my partner against Tim (moved from SoCal) and Terry S. my dropshots were great, everything was “on” and I made very few mistakes.

One thing that Jeanne does which doesn’t help her game is for high balls, she backs up and takes them on the bounce. If she could just slam it out of the air, it would be far, far more difficult for her opponents to handle. There may be a valid reason she doesn’t—shoulder issue, depth perception problem—but otherwise, it’s a missed opportunity.

PT Connection

There was a tall man playing on a court who looked familiar—he reminded me of the physical therapist who has been working on my shoulder for all of this year, but I wasn’t sure. I overheard Tim—the good player who moved to our area to be near his son and family—telling someone that the tall player was his son. I was briefly sitting between games and I heard the name “Casey.” Ah. I turned to Tim standing next to me and asked, “Is your son a PT?” “Yes, he is.” A big grin crossed my face: “He’s my doctor!”

When Casey came off the court, I greeted him, “Casey!” and went onto explain that I didn’t recognize him with him looking so serious. “And you’ve never seen my full face!” True, since we’d only seen each other in a medical setting, masks were always required. His wife KD has been playing pickleball and bought him his own paddle for Father’s Day. I’m pretty sure the KD I’d met a couple of months ago at Skypark was Casey’s wife.

I was able to play a game against Casey. Jeanne was my partner and Terry was his. Casey is incredibly quick. And being 6’4″ (give or take), he has a long reach! I hit a couple of shots thinking they’d be winners, but Casey was able to sprint, reach out his long arm and return the ball. At least one of them lead to a pop up that I backhanded to his partner’s feet for a winner, but his other “good get” lead to another long rally. I explained to Jeanne and Terry that Casey is a former professional athlete. (He was drafted by the Kansas City Royals, though his MLB pitching career was cut short by a shoulder injury.) It was a close game.

I told Casey, “Your dad is a better player than you, but you are very quick!” He chuckled and claimed, “Give me two weeks!”

Closing Time!

All the court lights abruptly snapped off at 9:00 p.m. though they are supposed to stay on until 9:30.

Ice

I probably should have iced my shoulder when I got home, but unlike my Black Ice velcro strap I used for my forearm, I don’t have a convenient means of icing my shoulder while lying in bed gearing down for sleep. As it was, I just iced my arm to keep tennis elbow at bay.

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Wednesday, August 25, 2021 (No Play)

I had a PT appointment this morning at 10 a.m. with Casey. We did normal PT stuff about range of motion, exercises, etc. And we talked about pickleball! He said his dad moved up permanently (from near Edwards Airforce Base) to help Casey and his wife with their new daughter.

I had brought a small tape measure from work and asked Casey to put his foot against the wall like mine and stretch out to see how much difference there was in the reach between us. The assistant Dan laughed, “I know how this is going to go!” He measured and announced, “13 1/2 inches.” (Dan later said Casey was leaning a bit more, but Casey still probably has about a foot longer reach.) That helps in getting to balls angling off the court!

I told Dan, the PT assistant, that he should play pickleball too . . . then they shared that Dan had his first outing in the last few days with Casey! Dan directed my exercises and then as I left, after he expressed interest, I gave him my business card and told him to email me about playing tomorrow night.

Fame and Pickleball

Julian Edelman is 35-year-old retired professional American football player. He was a very successful wide receiver with the New England Patriots. (Yes, the team that was fined by the NFL for secretly recording their future opponents practices. That cloud lingers.) He shared some photos and a video on Instagram of him playing singles pickleball. Good for him! Amusingly, one video he shared was of himself running up and slamming a winner . . . but ending up in the kitchen in clear violation of the non-volley zone rule. Oops!

Nonetheless, it’s fun to see famous people playing pickleball!

Thoughts

I may have mentioned it before, but one of my fears is losing the skill I have developed playing left-handed for a couple of years. There were a couple of shots yesterday night where afterward, I wondered if I should have switched to lefty. Am I missing opportunities to take a shot lefty and missed having a better result?

Number of days on a court: 404
Number of total hours: 2,049.5

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