Author: andrewlenz (Page 2 of 331)

Sunday, August 30, 2026 (Court Day #960)

Being that I had no obligations this afternoon, that is, I’m not teaching, there would be no limit to how long I could stay and play. I ended up staying up after midnight watching and making notes about a work-related video, so I slept in this morning. I woke up for good about 8:45 a.m.

It was 63° and sunny as I made my way to play. There were a few stray puffy clouds, but they were primarily off the coast.

Injuries

The plantar fasciitis in my left foot flares up, then almost goes away, but generally doesn’t bother me. My right knee continues to bother me. Last night, while walking downhill towards downtown to have dinner with my brother and my wife, my knee was complaining. One of the things I can be thankful for is that while playing, my knee and the plantar fasciitis rarely bothers me.

Brommer Park

I pulled in at exactly 9:30 a.m. to find that there were still a handful of parking spots open.

I ended up in a game with a man named Adrian from San Jose. We get visitors at Brommer fairly frequently. 

Mickey and I played together against a team of Hing and Cesar. They got clobbered. They scored three points. I will say there were a handful of good rallies, however.

Nasty Nelsons

Dan Dewey told me that the title of this blog entry should be Nasty Nelsons. Here’s why!

Dan and I were playing a game against Kim and Anthony. On the first serve of the game, I went for a nasty nelson aiming for Anthony. I missed. Dan and I pulled out to a very significant lead over time. Each time I was to serve, I went for a nasty nelson. There was at least five or six in a row, based on their score, most of those were headed for Kim. I missed on every single one.

As I was about to serve again, I was across from Kim and Kim said, “If you go for a nasty Nelson one more time…” She had a smile on her face, but I wasn’t sure if she was getting annoyed or not, so I served normally from there on out. Even with me throwing away a bunch of serves on nasty nelson attempts, Dan and I still walked away with a solid win. Our win came on a dink battle where Dan hit a ball a little bit high and Kim drove the ball very hard at me. Afterward, Anthony said that he thought at that moment that the rally was over, but instead, I punched the ball pack at Kim with a slight downward angle and she hit the ball back into the net. We won that rally and won the game.

In one game, I was playing with Mickey and I went for a forehand in the middle, but Mickey went for it with his backhand and hit my finger. My finger was sore as I drove home.

Barlows

Jon Barlow and his son Ryan came today shortly after noon. I have played with Ryan before but it had been quite some time. He and I teamed up against his dad and Kim. Ryan is a lefty and we did a half stack. Ryan started out a little bit rough—it was his first game after all—and he was making a fair number of errors and admitted as much. As a result, we found ourselves down, but then he started to dial things and we started closing the gap. We were down 1-10, but then got within a few points before losing the game. Had the game been to 15 instead of 11, we might’ve carried our momentum to a win, but that was not to be the case.

I finished up my last game at 1:40 p.m.

And?

Overall, I felt happy about my play today. They were a number of shots where I impressed myself. On the flipside, there were a few shots after which I was musing, “What the heck was I thinking?” like when I hit a crosscourt speedup where the ball was too low so the ball merely went up to Mickey‘s forehand which he hit for a winner. Those are the ones where you kick yourself. Over the course of the four hours, there was one, maybe two, lobs where I hit them too short and they were hit off the court at an angle for a winner.

I’m at the point now where progressing mostly isn’t about hitting good shots when you have time and preparation. It’s been hitting good shots while being uncomfortable and off-balance as well as making good split-second decisions at the net.

I don’t mention it in these blog posts, but as a matter of course, if I’m going up against two players of unequal skill, I will go out of my way to try and hit more balls to the stronger player. Sure, it’s nice to win games, but I would rather lose and be challenged then to win and not be.

Balls

Franklin has a new ball coming out, the X-44:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcrQZiTyjQq

And ball density test on Franklin X-40, new Franklin (X-44), Lifetime Pro 48:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcsA7zmRf_E

Number of days on a court: 960
Number of total hours: 3,531.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 231.5

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

Thursday, August 27, 2026 (Court Day #959)

I left work as quickly as I possibly could, leaving my nephew to lock up the family business. When I left, I dropped off my other nephew Thomas—who has been temporarily helping at work before he goes off to college—at Nob Hill Foods in Scotts Valley to meet up with his dad, my brother John.

The weather was really strange. When drove through the Skypark neighborhood, it was overcast but still a really warm 79°F. It was also muggy. Someone told me that there was a 20% chance of rain today, though that did not happen.

Skypark

At 6:33 p.m., I was walking into the Skypark courts. It was busy but not crazy. 

When I arrived, I got into a game with Jerry against Ashley and a young Asian woman I not seen before. She had good serves and a really good two-handed backhand. Jerry was not playing a very clean game. It was his first game and my first game as well. Jerry likes to drive everything. Jerry announced, “Well, we know I am the problem!”

Turnout continues to be fairly light. When looked across the courts around 7 p.m., there were only about five people waiting to get into a game.

Alec and I got into a game with Ashlee and a woman named Vanda. Alec and I had a decisive win in the first game winning 11-5.

We played a second game and found ourselves down 2-9. We battled our way back to 7-9, but then they scored another point and made it 10-7 in their favor. They were about to serve when the lights clicked off at 8:05 p.m.

And?

By the time I got into that last game, I was dragging. There were also a couple of shots that I misjudged the ball under the lights and mishit the ball.

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Saturday, August 29, 2026 (No Play)

My eBay order of three pairs of sunglasses arrived in the mail today. I should be set for quite a while—provided I don’t take too many more pickleballs to the face!

Number of days on a court: 959
Number of total hours: 3,527.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 231.5

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

Tuesday, August 25, 2026 (Court Day #958)

At 6:13 p.m., I was pulling out of the parking lot at work. It was a warm 77°F and sunny with high patchy clouds.

Injuries

My right knee is continuing to give me trouble. Though the plantar fasciitis in my left foot has been relatively minimal today.

Lights?

As I drove, I was wondering when the announced change to the lighting would really go into effect. It was supposed to start a week ago, but then the lights stayed on until 8:30 p.m. anyway.

Skypark

As I walked in, I noticed that the posted courts hours on the signs had been changed to rad 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Also, posted on the gate were notices about the trial change to the court hours.

Hmmmmm…

I’m not going to mention any names, but this evening, there was a game that was a fairly close score. I was partnered with a player who was generally considered to be one of the regular stronger players at Skypark. The thing is, he can hit hard, but I kept track of my errors in that game and I had three the entire game. The reason our opponents were even in this game was because my partner was driving shots long and hitting drives and serves into the net. And some drives that were otherwise good, he was too deep in the court or out of position in the ball came back in fashion that made it extremely difficult to get it back over the net. I’m not going to mention this player’s name anywhere in this post.

Shane

A player that has showed marked improvement is Shane. He’s young and athletic and always had that going for him. But he has developed better accuracy in his shots and he has quick hands. He has become formidable. He still needs to work on his consistency, but so do I!

Paul and I played against Shane and Shreyes. We found ourselves down by a significant margin with some errors by me and some errors by Paul. We started dialing things in, crawled within one point, but then went on to lose 8-11.

We are now two months past summer solstice and it’s definitely getting darker earlier. I didn’t check the time but I’m guessing the lights came on around 7:30 p.m. I never play as well outside under lights.

Lights Out!

The lights clicked off at 8:05 p.m., so the new lighting schedule is officially in effect.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2026 (No Play)

Apparently, a pickleball gauntlet has been thrown down by a political commentator:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DcgdOtQlqt3
“Tucker Carlson challenged Mark Cuban to a pickleball match after a scathing clip from Tucker’s podcast dropped and Cuban responded.”

Number of days on a court: 958
Number of total hours: 3,526
Number of paid coaching hours: 231.5

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