Author: andrewlenz (Page 52 of 327)

Sunday, May 4, 2025 (Court Day #798)

I set my alarm for 7:45 a.m. with the original plan of getting to Brommer Park by 8:30. But between talking with my wife, checking email, tweaking my lesson plans for this afternoon and printing those out, I didn’t leave my house for a while.

It was sunny with some small clouds here and there. My wife Kristen—my resident weather reporter—said it would likely be hot in Scotts Valley when I’d be teaching this afternoon.

One thing I haven’t mentioned, my right knee is been periodically bothering me a little bit over the past month. Nothing too serious. Nothing requiring a brace. I don’t even think I broke out my ice pack for it. A scale of 1 to 10, it’ll put it as a 1 or 2 or sometimes a 3, but it doesn’t last and once playing, I don’t notice it.

Brommer

I pulled in at Brommer Park at 9:04 a.m. The parking lot seemed unusually light—maybe there was a tournament going on.

Games

I was stuck with no one to warm up with.  I ended up in a game with lefty Aaron B. against Kim and Sunday morning regular 3.0 John. Aaron and I started a little slow but then took control of the game and won by a solid margin.

Kim was playing pretty well today. There was a shot that I expected her not to get back over but she did.

I played three games with Kim against Oscar and Diana. We split the first two games and I can’t remember the result of the rubber match, other than it was fun and close.

UCSC Students

Brandon and I played a game against the UCSC computer engineering student named Ben—who was at Derby last week—and his friend Owen, who is a UCSC chemical engineering student. Owen is obviously pretty new. I will put Ben as a low 3.5. If he could reduce his errors from trying/hitting too hard, he could become a 4.0 without too much effort. As it was, Brandon and I won by wide margin. Brandon is still doing post-doctorate research in biology at UC Berkeley. I will say, Brandon is growing his hair out and has an amazing Afro going.

Last Game

I checked the time, 11:45 p.m. I figured I could squeeze in one more game if I wasn’t picky. I randomly threw my paddle into the rack with a group that needed one more player. I ended up playing with Cary against Kirk and tall, bald Andy. They went ahead by quite a bit, but then Cary and I went on a run and won the game 11–9. Cary was the weakest players so I had a lot of ground to make up in that game.

I finished up my last game a few minutes after noon. They were definitely some people with money parked in the lot. There are five Teslas, an Audi, and a couple of BMWs!

Today I felt like I didn’t have a lot of energy. I never got into a game with all 4.0 level players unfortunately.

Hopefully, I can get some better games on my next visit.

I left to go get ready for my three hours of teaching. After some back-and-forth, my wife decided that she would fill-in it might be beginner class to knock off some of the rust. 

More on ALW Outburst

Here’s more discussion about the recent verbal altercation between Anna Leigh Waters and Hayden Patriquin.

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Monday, May 5, 2025. (No Play)

Franklin got back to me with the new USAP Ambassador discount code and so I went ahead and ordered 100 yellow Franklin X balls today. Now I have a quiet paddle, plus 100 balls coming in a few days… I should be ready for the ball machine to arrive. I still need to come up with a ball pickup system so I don’t have to lean over to pick them all up. (Though maybe that’s a good exercise too!) 

Pro Pickleball Pullout

On Friday last week, Ben Johns and his brother Collin pulled out of the MLP event in Columbus—mid-event!—citing bad lighting inside the building. This is a very unusual occurrence.

Pro Sports and Pickleball

Pickleball is getting more and more popular and is making appearances in professional baseball, Formula 1, and elsewhere:
https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/article305718491.html

Number of days on a court: 798
Number of total hours: 3,141
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 1, 2025 (Court Day #797)

Early this morning, I dropped off my brother Matthew at the San Francisco International Airport. On my way up, about a mile south of SFO, I noticed a large building with giant letters on the side announcing “Pickleball and Tennis”. On my way back from the airport, I could see the other side of the building, “Bay Club”. Ah. My sister-in-law and her family are Bay Club members and occasionally play pickleball there. Sooner or later, I’ll have to arrange a trip up and go play with them there.

Ball Pickup

At lunchtime today, watched ball pickup tubes and contraptions. I haven’t decided what design I want to make yet.

Tournament?

In the mid afternoon, an email appeared in my inbox from pickleballtournaments.com suggesting some nearby tournaments this month. On a whim I took a quick look. There are a couple at the end of this month that could work out and be interesting. One is in Sunnyvale. The other one is in Palo Alto at Mitchell Park. I reached out to Binh and he told me tha—aside from the fact that his fiancé didn’t want him to do any tournaments on Memorial Day weekend—he said the tournament in Palo Alto had 371 people signed up for it and already had a waiting list. I will mulch this idea a little more. Unless you’re playing tournaments regularly, sometimes it’s hard to find a good match in a tournament partner… too big of a skill disparity, a personality conflict, too this, too that.

Weather

While I was using my windshield wipers this morning on my trip to San Francisco and back, it was beautiful most of the day.  It was sunny and a very nice 61°F.

Paddle

With my new Rallie ball machine coming next week and my plan to use it in my backyard, as I previously mentioned, I bought a cheap Owl paddle on eBay. New paddles always take a little getting used to.

Tonight, I played with that Owl Silent Storm paddle. It was interesting. I didn’t notice a huge difference in performance with it other than I might have been able to get a little bit more spin with it. It has a traditional stubby/square pickleball paddle shape versus the hybrid longer one that I’m used to. There is only maybe one shot tonight that I would’ve otherwise made had I had my longer paddle.

New Nets

This was my second night playing with the new $900 rolling nets at Skypark. They’re really awesome.

Games

Tonight was pretty unsatisfying with regard to the quality of play. There was one game where Mauricio and I teamed up against one of my former students and an unfamiliar player. Both are 3.0 level players. We beat them 11–0. That game was never in doubt. I think there was two service changes, maybe three, tops.

What’s interesting is observing the strategic errors that some of my partners were making. A common one is coming in after the serve then having to go backwards to hit the third shot. Of course, it’s not my place to try to coach long-time 3.5 level players. It would definitely improve their game though. It’s something I try to drill into my students: “Serve stay, return run!”

Mauricio and I were playing Manda and Scott. They went ahead 5–1, Mauricio and I went on to score the next 10 points and win the game. In that game, Manda failed on two ATP attempts. Then I had an opportunity and made my attempt. I couldn’t help but announce, with a broad smile, “That’s how it’s done!”

In the next game, I paired with Scott and we beat Manda and Mauricio.

But just a few minutes left of light, Mauricio suggested that he and Manda play a rally scoring game to 7 against me and Scott.(Scott and I had just clobbered them. ) it was my first rally scoring game ever. It was really different. It changes your mindset on the value of each rally.

College scholarships 

Apparently, there are some colleges that are now offering pickleball scholarships. Wow.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI3crMlS_M1

I did a quick online search and found at least one example:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/college-scholarships-for-lesser-known-sports
“At Utah Tech University, students can apply for the Pickleball Club Scholarship, which covers up to six credit hours of tuition costs. Selected candidates become part of the team as either a player or officer. Applicants must have at least a 3.0 GPA and commit to volunteering a minimum of 20 hours per semester for club-related projects.”

Agassi and ALW Defeat

Well, with Agassi a relative pickleball newbie and this was his first pro-level tournament, it was unlikely that his doubles success would last. Here’s an article about it from CNN:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/01/sport/andre-agassi-pickleball-us-open-intl-spt
“…the dynamic duo losing out in their next match to [Len] Yang and [Trang] Huynh-McClain in three sets: 11-7, 4-11, 7-11.”

Number of days on a court: 797
Number of total hours: 3,138
Number of paid coaching hours: 132.5

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

Tuesday, April 29, 2025 (Court Day #796)

I was going to try playing with the new cheapo Owl quiet paddle tonight but unfortunately I left it on my dining room table. What I’m really hoping is to get Spencer to play with it for a game so he can compare its performance against his more expensive Owl paddle… but, obviously, that will not be tonight!

It was really nice sunny day today and it was still in the low 60s when I made my way Scotts Valley.

For whatever reason, Tuesday nights at Skypark tends to be busier than Thursday nights.

I walked in and was ready to play by 6:37 p.m.

Games

Aaron B. and I played against Matt Babb and Kirby. Oh my goodness, I was not warmed up. We lost 2-11. There was a highlight though. We had a very long rally. I think it was the longest rally of my life. Unfortunately, on a ball that was just a bit too low, I drove it into the net. My bad.

We had a rematch, but this time, it was a rull reversal and we won 11-2.

We went on to play two more games with the same partners, but for these, Aaron and I lost 9-11 and then 5-11.

At this point, Aaron had to leave so it was the end of our series of games.

New Games

For the next game, Matt and I paired up against Brendan Zimmer and Pauly. Matt and I won that game 11–2.

With 15 minutes of light left, we had time to play just one more game. We switched sides and played again. This time is much closer to the game and when the lights clicked off after 8:30 p.m., the score was tied at 10-10.

I was starting to drag a little bit by that last game.

Owl Paddle and Spencer

On the way to our cars, I told Spencer that I bought an Owl silent paddle for 39 bucks. I told him that I was pretty sure that it’s the mass market version that you would typically find it in Walmart or something. I shared him my plan of having him try it and he said he was actually quite Interested in comparing the two paddles. When I told him the paddle seem a little heavier at 8.8 ounces, he was a bit surprised and Mo also chimed in saying, “Oh, that is heavy.”

Pros Warm-up

This was a unique and valuable video. It the entire warm-up routine of Anna Leigh Waters and mixed doubles partner Ben Johns warming up. Considering they are the #1 pairing in the world, it’s hard to argue with their routine.

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Wednesday, April 30, 2025 (No Play)

Andre Agassi had his first appearance in pro pickleball today at the U.S. Open. He turned 55 yesterday and for his birthday present, he got a win partnering with #1 women’s player Anna Leigh Waters.

https://www.reuters.com/sports/andre-agassi-wins-debut-us-open-pickleball-championships-2025-04-30

They beat a couple of young teens, Stevie Petropouleas (13) and Tristan Dussault (16). Afterward, Agassi was funny, saying, “Coming out here with Anna Leigh, I was more nervous than a gypsy with a mortgage.”

Number of days on a court: 796
Number of total hours: 3,136
Number of paid coaching hours: 132.5

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