Author: andrewlenz (Page 48 of 327)

Sunday, June 8, 2025 (Court Day #811)

In the news, a $60,000 deflection testing machine (for paddles) went missing after an MLP event. It was stolen, along with a computer and some tools, from the moving truck between Austin, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona, which is the location of the next MLP event. The police are investigating. What’s also interesting, is that they have a handheld deflection testing machine that reportedly has accuracy within 2% of the much bigger testing machine. Apparently, it’s also a very quick test that can be done in seconds.

Vulcan Purchase

Vulcan, known for their ball that is used by MLP (via sponsorship), was acquired by a group that owns an MLP team.

Here’s some tidbits from the article:

 The latest industry move came today 5/29/25, as Stack Athletics (currently a wholly owned subsidiary of The Picklr) and the Chaifetz Group announced the intention to acquire Vulcan Sporting Good’s Pickleball product lines of business and form a new company named “Stack Vulcan.”

For the Chaifetz Group (who made a strategic investment to facilitate the acquisition and who will acquire a seat on the newly created Board of Directors), this adds to their growing pickleball portfolio, which now includes the St. Louis Shock MLP team, shares of UPA and DUPR that came with their MLP team, and prior investments in both The Picklr and Pickletile…

Here’s a link to a full article:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/toddboss/2025/05/29/stack-athletics-and-chaifetz-group-acquire-vulcan-pickleball

Knee

My right knee continues to bother me some so it was another court day with a knee brace again.

Brommer

It was overcast and 57° when I left my house this morning.

I stepped out of my car at Brommer Park at 9:06 a.m. The courts were empty, but what was unusual was that they stayed that way! Someone said that tennis finals of the French Open were on. Another said that there was a tournament happening down at Chamisal this weekend.

I got into some games against Dave Ryan. Dave is consistently better than I am. He’s got to be a 4.5 or near to it. Sure, he makes some errors now and then, but less frequently than the rest of us.

Knock in the Head?

There was a guy named John who was visiting from Santa Monica. While he and I were teamed up against Dave and whomever he had as a partner at that moment, John asked how often softballs come on the courts. A bit puzzled, we looked up and there was a guy in baseball attire having batting practice up on the field. That was the first time I’ve ever seen an adult there hitting and maybe the first time I’ve ever seen anyone hitting there. John said down in Santa Monica, they get fly balls frequently and everyone knows which way to run when someone yells out a warning! Dave said that now he’s got something new to be worried about! Getting hit the head with an errant fly ball!

JP and I played against “islander” William and John from Santa Monica. It was William’s first game of the day, and John—while a decent player—is not someone I’d prefer to take into a tournament as a partner. JP and I won.

The Girls

During the last game with William, young Gabi had arrived with a friend whose name who turned out to be Kelsey. When John and William left, we invited the two young ladies to play with us. JP and I split and I played with Kelsey who was the weaker player. In the first game, JP and I were both taking it easy on them. But every once in a while there be a shot that was just be too juicy to pass up. Kelsey and I won the first game, which was close. We switched sides and played again with a similar results. At this point, Gabi and I were watching the clock. She had 10 minutes before she had to leave and I would need to get home to have lunch and get out to teach. I told Gabi to set a 10 minute timer on her phone. Kelsey and I had a strong lead when Gabi timer went off. Those were entertaining throwaway games.

So Quiet

When we left, there was only one court in use and it was an inexperienced family of three—a dad and two kids—using mass market paddles.

I’d never seen Brommer so quiet. Ever. Ok, well, aside from after dark! But during the day, especially on a weekend? Never.

I headed home, then went off to teach pickleball for three hours.

Spotted!

Oh, while out teaching at Skypark this afternoon, local “OG” players David Black and his wife Beth were out drilling on one of the other courts. That’s twice that I’ve seen them in a week after not seeming them much in a long time. A treat!

Number of days on a court: 811
Number of total hours: 3,177
Number of paid coaching hours: 141.5

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

Sunday, June 1, 2025 (Court Day #809)

My wife Kristen is friends with Julie, the wife of my doctor. Julie and her husband are on vacation in Japan with their kids and Julie spotted this new food item and she shared the news with Kristen. Yes, Burger King has unveiled a “Pickleball Burger” in Japan! I have to laugh. Climbing on the pickleball popularity train!

Burger King Japan adds a Pickleball Burger to the menu… but what’s so pickleball about it?

The article explains that Burger King has entered a sponsorship agreement with Pickleball Japan Federation.

Nicholas

My son Nicholas came to town for the weekend and I noticed that brought along his Engage pickleball backpack which I’ve given to him as a gift. That was an obvious sign that he was hoping to play. Knowing that he is not comfortable with the level of play at Brommer Park, we piled into the car shortly after 8:30 a.m. and I took him down to Derby Park instead.

Derby

We arrived around 8:40 a.m. and easily found parking on the street near the entrance. There are two or three games going already. Nicholas and I were able to get onto a court and warm up with a young Black gentleman named Aaron. Aaron said that he had not been playing for very long, but after playing with him, it was obvious he had some kind of racket sport background. When I asked him, he said that he had played racquetball.

Being that Aaron had said that he was new, I opted to partner with him against Brian and Nicholas. For being new, Aaron played really well. He was already a high 3.0 level player if not a low 3.5. He had very strong parts of his game and also weak parts of his game nut that comes from being a new player. Aaron and I won that game handily. I think the final score was 11–2 or 11–4.

The way that the game rotations formed up, I was out of sync with any of the strong players. Tall Charles O. arrived later on in the morning. Tony Sloss was there, but we didn’t connect up for a game either. I could’ve not signed up and waited, but that would’ve easily meant losing 15 to 20 minutes of play.

My last game was paired up with Ted against Rick Abend and Charles D. The best rally of the game was the very first rally. There are a few good rallies, but most rallies were pretty short.

That last game ended about 11:55 a.m. Nicholas had kindly not signed up so that I’d be able to leave on time and go teach my classes at Skypark.

It was a wrap!

Number of days on a court: 809
Number of total hours: 3,172
Number of paid coaching hours: 138.5

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

Monday, May 26, 2025 (Court Day #808)

The Santa Cruz Pickleball Club—mostly my doing—had arranged with Matthias, co-founder of Aireo Sports, to have another paddle fundraising day for the SCPC today. On Saturday afternoon at work, I loaded a table and a chair into my Toyota Highlander for him to use.

On My Way

Today, I was out of the house by 8 a.m. sharp and was on my way to work to take care of a few things—including updating the phone message for being closed on the holiday!—then continued on my way to Brommer Park.

This morning, in my haste and scrambling to get out the door, I realized that I had forgotten to put on my right knee brace. I did ice my knee yesterday when I got home from playing and my knee wasn’t giving me too much trouble, though it has been stiff and mildly painful when walking after sitting for a while.

Brommer

I let Mattias know after I’d set the table and chair for him and his Aireo paddles, and he got back to me saying he’d be arriving around 9:30 a.m. I figured that I might as well get into some games. The games were of little note though. I was either the best player in each game or perhaps I was one of two much stronger players. The waits were a bit long too. And the skill levels signups have gotten worse. We had 3.0 players signing up in the color designated for 4.0+.

During a game with her when I rolled a dink from the right side through the middle for a winner, Juls exclaimed, “You hit that from so far below the net! That’s how you tell the really good players!”

In one game with me on the left, I hit a backhand drop shot off a crosscourt slam with my back to the net, contacting the ball outside the court… the ball dropped nicely into the kitchen. I think any pro would have been proud of that shot. The difference is being able to repeated it over and over!

Done

I helped Matthias move his paddles back to his car and reloaded the table and chair into the back of my car. Matthias seemed pleased with paddle sales. Then I said my goodbyes and I left Brommer Park a few minutes before 1 p.m. I had to pick up some paintings from my uncle in Capitola for work.

Number of days on a court: 808
Number of total hours: 3,169
Number of paid coaching hours: 135.5

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