Author: andrewlenz (Page 199 of 329)

Sunday, April 18, 2021 (Court Day #370)

My wife said “It’s chilly but it’ll get nice.” And she was right. As I drove to Brommer Street Park on the freeway, the sky cleared for sun. Nifty!

I arrived at 9 a.m. Mike A. from work came not too long after, but there was someone in each of the four courts. Diane was in one court by herself drilling with a machine. I asked if she’d mind if Mike and I drilled on the part of her court that she wasn’t using. She agreed. Mike and I took left side and did some dinking. Mike has really good hand-eye coordination. I was impressed. Many newbies aren’t very good getting the ball over the net, but he has quick hands. This was his second time ever. We drilled for about 10 minutes.

Rick and Renee arrived. I asked if they wanted to join our court, now that Diane had collected all her balls and headed out. Renee and I played Mike and Rick. Mike did ok, but he’s learning to come up to the net and not step in after a serve, etc. Basic strategies. He stepped into the kitchen on volleys maybe half a dozen times over the morning.

Playing with the Girls

Mike and I stepped out to let Shawnte and Jon B. Get in a game with Rick and Renee. While waiting on the wall, one of the girls called over: “Andrew!” Jackie was taking a break, so they wanted a fourth. I looked at Mike and he said, “Go ahead.” So played with Olga against Patty and . . . spacing on the other woman. Anyway, Patty was doing a good job attacking me with hard shots. Olga and I lost, and that loss was mostly me. They invited me to play another, but I told them that my friend was by himself.

Miles and Alissa

I went over to Mike. A couple that I didn’t know were hitting the ball back and forth. I asked if they wanted to play a game. They introduced themselves, Miles and I think the woman’s name is Alissa, though I can’t recall for sure. Anyway, Miles was the better of the two, but they were both relative novices.

They won the first two games. After the second, at the net, she told me that she had seen my tournament shirt and was thinking, “I’m doing ok against him.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I was intentionally taking it easy on them! Though I did tell her that I was playing left-handed. We played again, and this time, I was taking the game a bit more seriously and Mike and I won the first few points and never looked back. Mike chucked and told them mid-game, “I think mentioning his shirt was a mistake!”

Playin’ with Shawnte

Shawnte and I got a couple of games against Rick and Renee. We tweaked our strategy a bit, stacking, sometimes switching, sometimes not. We won two games in a row, 11-5, 11-4. Shawnte had two great “flying ernes”, sailing through the air over the kitchen and volleying the ball for winner. Impressive.

Shawnte and I also played Allan K. and Dan, we won 11-8. We were up 6-3 and then Shawnte tried a Nasty Nelson against Allan and missed. I tried one against Dan, not looking at him, and missed by about a foot. Later up, when we were up 10-6 or something, I tried another against Dan. This time, the ball headed right for his chest, but he rotated out of the way. “You were a lot closer that time!”, encouraged a smiling Shawnte. Three Nasty Nelsons, but we missed all three! Not the best strategy, maybe only if the receiver isn’t paying attention and looking the wrong way! Shawnte and I won. Probably not a huge surprise.

Shawnte and I lost our third game against Rick and Renee, 11-5. If I were looking for excuses, I’d blame switching from an easier game back to a harder game.

I checked the time. 1:07. I could probably get into some more games, but I figured it would be longer waits. Time to go.

Spotlight on Pickleball

In his newsletter today, Mark Renneson sent out a link this video from CNBC where they did a short feature on pickleball:

There’s that Ben Johns guy again!

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Tuesday, April 20, 2021 (No Play)

I was in my garage doing some PT exercises when I figured I’d look for my autographed paddle. Hmm… Cleats. My softball manager clipboard. Several footballs. Mini orange cones. Pickleballs in a package. Pickleballs in a bag. Loose pickleballs. I think I’m set for those! I thought I found it, but the handle” turned out to be a giant squirt gun. Oh. Maybe the sling bag? Feels like it. Open the zipper…eureka! One long unseen paddle autographed by Kyle Yates, Morgan Evans, and a 19-year-old Ben Johns! A relief!

Number of days on a court: 370
Number of total hours: 1,053

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

Sunday, April 11, 2021 (Court Day #369)

Like last Sunday, my daughter was working today, so I dropped her off before heading to Brommer Street Park. I arrived at 9:05 and three of courts were already in use. It was an overcast day, high-40s, but it would warm up and we’d get clear skies. Great weather for play.

Alain (from work) said he was going to arrive by 8:30, but I told him last night that I’d have to arrive about 9. Rick and Renee appeared and we warmed up. Once Alain arrived at 9:20, we warmed up another few minutes then it was Alain and me versus Rick and Renee. We lost by a lot, but it was a long game of back and forth service changes.

Alain left after one game, saying he couldn’t stay but at least he got one game in. Too bad.

Simon and his friend Adam were waiting. I’d never seen them before. I sat out and let them get in and play. There’s always a question mark when I meet new players. Newbies? Newbies with a strong tennis background? Skilled tournament players?

There are very funny conversations you’ll hear on a pickleball court, “Adam is much quicker with his pants off!” Referring to wearing just shorts instead of less-streamlined sweat pants. Depending on the context, men being quick when their pants are off is not a good thing!

Net Loan

Very kindly, Barb R. called to me across the divider from her game in progress and offered me her net. Patty was waiting too, so I got Barb’s car keys, retrieved her net and I set it up with Patty’s help. Then she and I drilled while waiting to get back into a game.

The game on the court that I had left ended and Rick invited me back in. I played with Simon. He’s tall, late 30s, humble and has a good sense of humor. We lost 11-6.

Next was Adam and me against Rick and Renee again. We lost 11-2. Adam can hit a good ball, but needs to work on basic pickleball strategies like staying back after the serve and advancing to net when he should. He’s probably relatively new. (Similar for Simon too.)

I sat out while Simon rotated back in. Simon and Adam lost 11-3. 

Simon and Adam took off, followed by Rick and Renee. Jason and I were left. I walked to the middle where Beth Black was busy swapping phone numbers. Vickie from San Juan Bautista was in the cluster along with Jackie and Dave Black. Vickie said, “You’re Andrew, right? I remember you from San Juan Bautista.” I had a vague recollection of her.

Vickie and Dave would complete our four players. I played three games with Dave Black as my partner against Jason and Vickie. We lost all three, but they were fun competitive games.

Today, there were moments of great play by me—shots I would have been proud to have hit right handed—but also embarrassing shots that were wild. There were a few shots where I got compliments from David or Vickie or Jason. (Like Dave saying, “Nice reset.”) But there was an overhead today where I slammed it on my side of the net—Renee, puzzled, asked Rick, “Did that go under?” Yeaaaaaah. Jason was chagrined as my partner on that one!

Jason had to go so we didn’t have a fourth. David was ready to head out too. I checked my phone. 12:45.

Oooo, something no one wants to see on their phone! 45 text messages! My dad had a successful open heart surgery for a valve replacement a few days ago and this has prompted a periodic flurries of siblings discussion lately.

I looked up Vickie in my previous blog entries and she was an opponent in the tournament right before I developed really bad tennis elbow:
https://pickleballjourney.com/2018/11/17/san-juan-tournament/

I’m slowly getting better left-handed. My serves are getting a bit faster, lower and are less lollipops. I’m still having issues of control. Like I lost 2-3 rallies today when a drive came at me at the net and I intended to drop the ball short over the net but it dropped in front of my feet instead. Ugh.

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Thursday, April 15, 2021 (No Play)

A couple of days ago, I visited the sporting goods/camping store next to my work. Out of curiosity, while there, I asked the manager Tony, “Do you have pickleball stuff?” Tony said they got some and showed me the aisle.

I told Tony that I once met and talked to the guy on the ball package label, Ben Johns, and that he’s the top rated singles player in the world right now. (I’m still trying to figure out where the heck I put my paddle with autographs from Ben, Kyle Yates, and Morgan Evans!)

Erne Counterattack!

Someone shared a video on the Pickleball Forum Facebook group. It demonstrated something I’d never seen before. In the screenshots below, Lucy Kovalova (near left) is going for an erne shot and steps across the kitchen in preparation. Riley Newman (near right) sees this and gets aggressive. Rather than dinking the ball, Riley hits a hard two-handed backhand drive right at Lucy. It hits her and the rally is over!

Tonight, I emailed my co-worker Mike A. the address and details for Brommer Street Park for pickleball on Sunday. His first ever outing recently with friends was a good one and he’s interested in playing more.

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Friday, April 16, 2021 (No Play)

I had PT this morning. My shoulder still hurts when doing a lot of things—mostly reaching up, out, or back. During my last three PT sessions, they’ve been using what looks like a seatbelt strap secured around their body to pull my upper arm bone (humerus) sideways, almost literally, out of its socket. The idea is to loosen it to give it room so I can raise my arm fully. I still don’t have full range of motion when lifting my right arm, maybe 60%. It’s been five and a half months since the surgery. It feels like it’s taking forever. I am concerned that I’ll never get back my full range of motion—I need to be able to stretch up to reach the ball for overhead slams.

I mentioned to Mike at work that I’d emailed him the pickleball information for Sunday. He suggested that if I don’t go to text him so he knows. I replied, “If I’m not there, I’m in the hospital!” (Madi, one to the new assistants found that amusing—little does she know how close to the truth my statement was!)

The inside of my right knee is aching a bit and when I was taking the stairs two at a time to get to PT, I had to switch to one steps at a time due to pain.

USA Pickleball

The USAPA sent out their April newsletter yesterday. Apparently, April is National Pickleball Month!

This cracks me up. Who comes up with these things? Maybe the USAPA just randomly picked. But, hey, April is also National Andrew Lenz Month, so I can’t complain…

They also announced a new, more interactive process for the annual changes to the rule book:
https://usapickleball.org/news/new-2022-rulebook-revision-process/

They might as well take advantage of modern technology!

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Saturday, April 17, 2021 (No Play)

CJ Anderson sent out an newsletter today asking for a reply to her question and her suggested possible answers. Here’s my reply.

How do I measure improvement?

– Increased enjoyment. Not directly. 

– Longer rallies. Not directly. This depends a lot on who else is on the court and may have nothing to do with me. Or longer rallies might just be me hitting easy shots for weak players and avoiding hitting winners.

– Fewer errors. Yes. And fewer errors also leads to my increased enjoyment. If I ever get really good, then it will be less about decreasing errors and more about increasing winners.

– Higher rating. Yes, though I’ve been playing left-handed for almost two years due to tennis elbow in my right arm and, five months ago, rotator cuff shoulder surgery. Tournaments aren’t happening right now.

– Or something else? Acceptance by local recognized higher level players. It’s easy to be hypercritical of oneself and lose the overall perspective of time. For example, I’m still not happy with my left-handed serves, but when I first started serving lefty, I could only get about 1/2 to 2/3 of them in and they were lollipops. Now, I occasionally score points on my lefty serves due to spin or placement . . . they still aren’t super fast, but faulting on a lefty serve is a rarity now. Perspective of growth is important.

Number of days on a court: 369
Number of total hours: 1,049

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

Wednesday , March 31, 2021 (No Play)

The USAPA posted something on social media suggesting that clubs make sure that they are included on the USAPA’s clubs listing. I checked and they had the old URL for the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club. Unfortunately, as is often the case with volunteer organizations, there was a lapse of attention and the club accidently let its domain name expire. Some shady organization immediately bought it and the only way the SCPC could get their domain back was to pay them $7,000—which was not going to happen! So instead they registered a new domain for the club, SantaCruzPickleball.com. I let Dave Allenbaugh, the club webmaster, know that we need to update the USAPA to the new domain name/URL. He said he thought it had already been fixed, but he said he would take care of it.

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Easter Sunday , April 4, 2021 (Court Day #368)

I received my current issue of Pickleball magazine yesterday, but I haven’t cracked it open yet. And, to tell the truth, I haven’t finished reading the previous issue! Too much work and/or real pickleball lately.

My daughter was working today, so I dropped her off before heading to Brommer Street Park. I arrived at 9:10 and a couple of courts were in use. It was a beautiful day, mid-50s, but it would warm up some. Just about perfect weather.

I hung out about 10 minutes as “#9” watching Dave Black and Olga take on Beth Black and Jackie. Another group was playing a game across the divider. Jason showed up and we warmed up and drilled. Karen arrived—not Karen Long, the other Karen—and sat on the wall waiting for more people. Dean rode up on his bike and talked a bit to Karen. We convinced him to play with us. He teamed up with me versus Jason and Karen. We lost twice. Dean wasn’t happy with his play—he’s challenged by an injury—but he’s not the reason we lost. We won a few points on his serves and he has a great deep slice return of serve.

Dean found a women he knows, Lynn and middle-aged Asian woman visiting from Palo Alto . . . there were a handful of players who had come down. Dean and Lynn warmed up. Jason and I played a game against Lynn and Karen. Lynn is a talented player. We lost 11-5. Lynn is really good. 

I stepped out, and let Jason’s friend Jon B. play against Lynn and Karen. (I didn’t know Jon, but I learned later that he had just moved to the area from Virginia in August.) I have no idea who won that game. Jon is a strong intermediate player, similar to Jason, maybe a bit better.

Alain from work was supposed to come, but he he texted and said he couldn’t make it.

Dave Cox showed up around 10:30 and we drilled while waiting for a game.

Late morning, I played a couple games with a woman named Debbie against Patty and Karen. Debbie has some good fundamental skills, but sometimes backs up from the kitchen line or fails to move forward from the baseline after a deep service return. Patty offered advice to Debbie after a game about moving up and I offered advice about not backing up. Basic strategy stuff.

A breeze picked up and it started affecting games. Deep returns only made it to mid court and from the other side, deep hits would sail long. Lobs were unreliable.

Dingles Drill

Jon and I played a couple of games again Dave and Patty. Those were fun ones. We also did a game of “Dingles” . . . the one with two balls being hit diagonally until one faults then play continues with all four players using one ball but volleys are allowed after three dinks on the remaining ball. It’s good for focus. The problem is see with the game is when the other ball remains on the court and is a safety hazard. It made me nervous on a few occasions.

Shortly after 1 p.m., Dave took off then Patty did too. Jon and I sat on the wall hoping for one last game, but it was slim pickin’s and I figured it was time to get on with my day. Colleen was coaching/advising a couple of players along with a regular whom I’ve seen her drilling with as a mentor.

I got hit hard on the back my left hand twice and once hard on my finger. Those hurt! I don’t know if you can see the bruise in the photo but when I make a fist even hours later the back of my hand hurts.

Maybe it’s karma. I hit both Karen and Patty with volleys. Though they both got it in the torso, not the hands.

Garage Drill

Around 6 p.m., I decided to do a little drilling in my garage . . . with a twist. I used a paddle in both hands! My right should is unhappy with anything but a short backswing, but it seems to handle dinking ok for the most part. My back was very tired/sore and my left knee was a little achy with certain movements.

Today, I felt a bit better with my overall play. There were moments of frustration, but there were shots which showed progress in lefty skills. Like a forehand topspin shot down the middle for a winner off a low dink—I brushed up on the ball, lifting it just over the net. I’m continuing to get a bit more speed on some serves.

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Monday, April 5, 2021 (No Play)

Facebook presented me this to watch. Quite the point!
https://fb.watch/4G8lgngaKF/

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Wednesday, April 7, 2021 (No Play)

I got my first vaccine shot yesterday. Finding appointments was a bit of a challenge . . . the various systems are perplexing. For instance, I went to the app my health provider uses and I answered all their questions and entered my ZIP code and no appointments came up. I changed the desired location and the one I had originally selected came back up with a bunch of appointments. *sigh* From that I hear, I’m not the only one frustrated by the system. Regardless, getting the vaccine puts me a little bit more at ease. I have my second vaccine shot in three weeks.

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Thursday, April 8, 2021 (No Play)

One of my staff, Michael, in his later 50s, said he and his wife had been invited to play pickleball by a couple “Cliff and Dixie” at Derby Park. He said he enjoyed playing. He added that he was told he was very good at serving and that the ball would go where he intended.

Number of days on a court: 368
Number of total hours: 1,045.5

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