Author: andrewlenz (Page 50 of 327)

Sunday, May 18, 2025 (Court Day #804)

As I drove to go play, leaving my house just before 8:30 a.m., I was simply thinking “This is going to be an absolute beautiful day.” While it hadn’t hit 60° yet, the sun was shining and there wasn’t a single cloud to be seen in the sky.

Brommer

I arrived at Brommer Park at 8:42 a.m. Five minutes after I got there and was waiting around, Kim arrived and when I asked if she wanted to warm up, she agreed.

Today was a really good day. I spent very little time sitting on the wall waiting to play and there were courts open the entire morning.

The young Andy (curly brown hair) was there again today and we teamed up against Dean and Dan Bliss. I asked Andy about his sports background and be said he grew up playing hockey in Fresno.

Those are some pretty fun games with Andy, Dean, and Dan. The first game was pretty close and honestly I can’t remember if we won or lost. In the second game, they started out ahead but then Andy and I pulled things together and dominated the rest of the game to win.

There was only one game today that I considered disposable and I played the majority of that game left-handed. I was paired with Art against Tony and a woman named Michelle whom I didn’t know. I played lefty until they were ahead 8-5 and then switched to my right hand. But Art was making too many errors to recover and win… it wasn’t his best game. That happens sometimes when you are playing against weaker players which makes the game less interesting.

The rest of the games were more challenging.

I left at 12:06 p.m., I had to get home to get ready to teach.

At Class

In my Advanced Beginner classes this afternoon, I was running a drill. I had one player at the net tossing a ball to a partner across the net in the transition zone, who would then attempt to volley the ball back over the net and into the non-volley zone. This proved to be a difficult drill for my students. One of my students wanted to test me and asked me to do the drill. Five balls were tossed to me and every single one I hit right back into the kitchen. Another student blurted out, “Of course, they are all perfect! Ok, enough of drilling for Andrew!” It’s nice when you live up to being legitimate in front of your students!

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Monday, May 19, 2025 (No Play)

There was a post on Facebook in The Pickleball Clinic group about ball speeds in different sports:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepickleballclinic/permalink/1728311134561054

Here’s the meat of the post:

The Speed of a Pickleball vs. Balls from Other Sports

In a recent exhibition event held in China, pro pickleballers including Ben Johns, Tyson McGuffin, Anna Bright, and Chao Yi Wang had a friendly competition to see who could hit the fastest serve.
On the women’s side, Chao Yi Wang clocked the fastest serve at 59.03 mph, and on the men’s side, Ben Johns registered the fastest serve at 68.35 mph.

To put it in perspective, here are the highest-ever recorded speeds of balls in other sports:
Football throw: 62 mph
Baseball pitch: 105 mph
Hockey slap shot: 109 mph
Tennis serve: 163 mph
Golf drive: 240mph
Badminton smash: 351mph

Number of days on a court: 804
Number of total hours: 3,156
Number of paid coaching hours: 135.5

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

Thursday, May 15, 2025 (Court Day #803)

My wife or daughter sent this to me. Dr. Sagar Desai, an orthopedic surgeon, shares why about a quarter of his patients are pickleball players:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIbcEMKAXqW

Here’s another one from the doctor featured in the above video:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DJXiIWqP2c-

The lesson? Warm up. Know your limits.

After Work

I was delayed at work by a customer who wanted to pick something up 15 minutes after closing time… but, of course, I took care of her. After that, I dropped off my brother Matt at my parents’ house and headed out to Scotts Valley to go play.

Skypark

It was beautiful clear skies and 66° when I arrived at the courts sometime around 7 p.m., give or take.

There was a very convenient parking spot next to the court when I arrived. As you would expect with easy parking, it meant a light crowd with only maximum of about half a dozen people waiting at a time. I got right into a game and rolled from game to game to game.

Games

My first game was a disaster. I was missing shots right and left. I let two or three shots go by me that landed literally on the sidelines—though I was thinking, “Sooner or later, when your opponent is painting the lines, one of those balls is going to land out.” And the next one did!

The second game was a little bit better, as was the third. By the fourth game, I was dialed in and playing well. After some quick net work on my part, Aaron Hicks kidded, “We need to start calling you ‘Handrew’!”

The last game was John and myself against Ben and tall, thin Mike C. Midway through the game after I made a couple of mistakes, John encouraged me, “I need you to carry us!“ I did tighten things back up, but it wasn’t enough. We ended up losing 8–11. We checked the time to see if we could fit in another game, but it was already 8:31 p.m. I knew the lights would be going off within two minutes.

I played on courts tonight with Aaron Hicks, tall and thin Mike C., a guy named Phil, Ben, John (whose friend is Gabi), Paul Winn. Aaron is a far cry from when he started. He made an outstanding shot tonight.

The great thing about pickleball is it doesn’t matter if you are old or young, an immigrant or a native, a man or a woman, have a thick accent or no accent, are tall or short, liberal or conservative, a believer or an atheist– it all doesn’t matter. It’s a community.

Knee

My right knee—the one I had surgery on—rarely bothers me while playing. But later in the evening, I noticed it. Hopefully, it returns to normal quickly.

Pro Domination—ouch!

A PPA tournament is going on this weekend in Atlanta. It popped up on social media that Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns beat Riley Newman and his sister Lindsey Newman in two games taking only 15 minutes and not allowing the siblings to score even a single point. That’s painful. Being that I had a group dinner—about a dozen people—with Riley and Lindsey about a year ago, I’m sympathetic. Here’s a video:

Mini Tennis?

Federico Staksrud, who captured the #1 singles ranking from Ben Johns, complained that singles pickleball “has become mini tennis.” One of the things special about pickleball is the net play and the related strategies. Paddles evolving to have more grit allows for more topspin and therefore hitting harder… it becomes more dangerous to advance to the net and perhaps open up lanes for passing shots. Here’s a full article:
https://www.timesnownews.com/sports/pickleball/world-no-1-federico-staksrud-expresses-concern-over-singles-pickleball-say-has-become-mini-tennis-article-151644427

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Saturday, May 17, 2025 (No Play)

My niece, Gigi, had her First Communion today down in Corralitos. Afterward, we headed to Aldridge Lane County Park nearby for a picnic to celebrate. While there, I noticed a sign stapled to a post. It was from Rec.us looking for instructors to teach tennis at the single tennis court there. Rec is the company that I’m contracted with to teach pickleball at Skypark. Corralitos is part of the County of Santa Cruz (just very south), as is Willowbrook Park in Aptos.

Number of days on a court: 803
Number of total hours: 3,152.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 135.5

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

Monday, May 12, 2025 (Court Day #802)

There was rain this morning so club play at Brommer Park got canceled. Unfortunate, since today is our monthly board meeting and I could’ve gotten in a good amount of play. As it was, I got there at 11:15 a.m. with the hopes that the courts would be dry enough to at least drill, if not play altogether.

It was in the mid 60s and mostly cloudy, although sun would periodically pop through.

First Game

There was one game going on and two guys hitting a ball back and forth on a different court, plus a regular named Dina and me, who had arrived. I asked Dina if she wanted to play and she nodded. Then I also asked the two guys and they said yes, so we had ourselves a game.

Divvying up teams, Dina said she is the weakest player. I teamed up with a guy named Sean. (Sean later told me that his last name is Leonetti.) The other fellow, whose name is Lubko, teamed up with Dina. I overheard Lubko telling Dina that his name is Chech.

Sean and I won 11-6, not a huge surprise with Dina’s admission. Lubko is strong player. I’d rank us: Lubko, me, Sean, Dina.

More Games

After that game, Dina stepped out and an unfamiliar man named Eric, who Sean knew and who had arrived mid-game, stepped in to replace her.

Eric is a good player and given that he has a tendency to stay back at the baseline, I have a strong suspicion that he has played a lot of tennis.

Eric and I teamed up against Lubko and Sean and won 11–7.

We played a second game and the outcome was exactly the same as the first game, 11–7.

Board Meeting Time

I checked the time. 12:05 p.m. With the monthly pickleball club board meeting starting in 10 minutes, there wasn’t a comfortable amount of time to start another game.

So done at 12:05, it was.

There for the meeting, George Propper was eating a sandwich and watching from the bench above the courts. I walked up to sit next to him since we had a few minutes. He paid me a compliment, “You’ve gotten better. You are very consistent.”

We started our board meeting at 12:17 p.m. we talked about the website, upcoming social events, upcoming training sessions for members and some other club business. We adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m.

Post Meeting Games

From there, I made my way back to the courts. I ended up playing a game with Art against two young guys, one of which is named Andy, who has curly brown hair and thin facial hair. Art and I got absolutely clobbered. We lost 0-11.

We switch sides and played again and this time the outcome is exactly the same with Art and I losing 0-11. Well, that’s a first. I’ve never lost two games in a row without scoring a point. Sure, it’d be easy to blame the wind, which was blowing the ball all over the place, but both teams were dealing with that.

Most young players that I don’t know generally turn out to be not that good. However, that was not the case with these two young guys. Especially Andy. They were simply not making a lot of errors, plus making good shots. To be completely honest, I was getting frustrated with my own play. Sure, I just sat for an hour and probably needed to warm back up, but boy, that was embarrassing. I’m still trying to figure out if the two young players are that good or if I was just playing that poorly!

We played a third game, this time I played with Andy and Art played with the other fellow. It was a very even game and I can’t remember if we win or lost but I think it was 11–9 with a lot of back-and-forth. Andy made more errors in that game—he was complaining to himself—maybe my subpar play was rubbing off on him!

Art and I played a game against Dave Cox and Robin. The two of them are preparing for a tournament. We took a strong lead before they came back, but then we finish them off, winning by a couple of points.

In the next game, I paired with Wendy against Dave and Robin. Wendy thanked me in advance for letting her play with me. It was fairly close most of the game with the lead going back-and-forth but they pulled ahead and won 11–7. Wendy played reasonably well. Sure, she made some mistakes, but she did a good job getting the ball back over the net pretty consistently.

I checked the time. 2:57 p.m. I was tired and ready to go.

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Wednesday, May 14, 2025 (No Play)

I had my hands full last night, so I didn’t get to Skypark to play.

I found this short clip quite funny. Have you ever had a try and convince someone to join a game to complete a doubles pairing?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJHIY7HKtKz

Number of days on a court: 802
Number of total hours: 3,151
Number of paid coaching hours: 135.5

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