Adventures of Andrew Lenz and a Yellow Ball

Author: andrewlenz (Page 6 of 327)

DUPR Reset, PB in downtown San Diego, Vandalism, Return to Classes

Monday, May 25, 2026 (Court Day #934) Memorial Day

I got up in the middle of the night and there was pain running along the underside of my left foot. This has to be plantar fasciitis. This is a novel thing for me and I hope that it goes away soon. It’s really annoying.

Binh texted me about 8:45 a.m. asking if club play was cancelled at Brommer Park. (I’m assuming he let his club membership lapse or he would have received an email notice!) I told him that the club never cancels play for holidays, and I added that I was personally planning to play at Derby Park. He was ready to join me at Derby Park until his fiancé explained that she wanted him to stay and entertain family until they were gone. I told Binh I’d be at Derby Park for a few hours regardless.

I pulled out of my neighborhood at 9:33 a.m. It was completely overcast and 61°F. The sky looked like it was threatening to rain a little bit. 

To continue to help with my recent occurrence of mild tennis elbow, I played every shot lefty today. As typical for me playing lefty, today was a mix of highlight shots and inexplicable wild shots. In a game with a man named Rick against Larry, tall Larry of Lloyd’s Tire Service and Joel, Joel twice said that I have fast hands. And that was playing lefty!

It was mostly routine games today. I left about 11:45 a.m. Things to do, people to see.

Eastern U.S. Vandalism

So, a man went out and cut pickleball nets at two different parks in Pennsylvania after he hurt himself playing and figured no one else should be allowed to play either! Wow.
https://6abc.com/post/man-charged-vandalizing-parks-pocono-township-allegedly-told-police-was-due-pickleball-injury/19166821


Wednesday, May 27, 2026 (No Play)

Here is a clip from the new pickleball movie appearing on Apple TV, The Dink:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY0WlASPmVy
I don’t have night hopes for it being a good film, but who knows. It won’t be available for viewing until July 24, so we have about two months yet.

Automated Line Calling System

Owl A.I. is implementing a new digital line calling system for MLP tournaments this year. Given all the complaints about “hooking” (intentionally mis-calling line calls in your own favor), this will be a step forward!


Sunday, May 31, 2026 (No Play)

Here’s a quick video about a doctor who treats tennis elbow for pro pickleball players:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY7qbj6JIHJ


Wednesday, June 3, 2026 (No Play)

Pickleball returns to downtown San Diego after an apparently successful appearance last year. My mother-in-law lives maybe 10 blocks from where this is held, so it’d be easy to get there if I were to go down to participate.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZGqTQNNSyU

“Gaslamp Urban Pickleball returns July 30 with 8 outdoor pickleball courts in the heart of the Gaslamp Quarter. Enjoy social play, music, giveaways, the Game Day Market, the Zero Proof Garden, and summer fun all season long.

Whether you’re an experienced pickleball player or trying pickleball for the first time, this is one of the most unique pickleball events in San Diego.

Every Thursday | July 30 – September 3 4 PM – Sunset
Gaslamp Quarter, Downtown San Diego”


Friday, June 5, 2026 (No Play)

Anna Leigh Waters again on national media, this time on CBS Sunday morning. 


Saturday, June 6, 2026 (No Play)

The “DUPR Reset” statistics are in.
Over 400,000 matches were submitted during the reset window. 53% of players received a boost. (Meaning nearly half had no boost and kept their previous rating.)
Of those who did increase, 91% moved by just 0.3 points or less.
It was also reported that 8% of boosted participants saw an increase between 0.3 and 0.5 points.
That leaves 1% (100% – 91% – 8%). So 1% saw an increase of over 0.5 points. (Most likely, these are lower rated players who were playing few games.) There is some mysterious rounding going on since DUPR specifically states the 91% and 8% figures. But they also say that “less than 1.5%” had a 0.5 to 1.0 increase and 0.1% (1 out of every 1,000) increased by more than 1.0.

To make this more understandable with a little rounding, let’s say just 20 players participated. 10 players got no boost. 10 players got a boost. 9 players got either a 0.1 or 0.2 boost. 1 player got 0.3, 0.4, or 0.5 boost.

DUPR has an article about the results here:
https://www.dupr.com/post/the-dupr-reset-is-complete-heres-what-the-data-shows


Sunday, June 7, 2026 (No Play)

Today was my first day of summer classes. I have two full beginner classes. It’s odd. A few months ago, I couldn’t get signups for a beginner class and changed it to an intermediate class. Then, now, I filled up two beginner classes. Go figure.

Unlike most morning before teaching, I didn’t play today. This morning there was an ice cream social for an elderly religious sister, Sr. Noella, who is moving back to her home state of Michigan. She sang out our wedding back in ’94 and I’ve gotten to know her some over the years. We also have some common friends—she knew my grandmother and knows my parents—and she worked as a nurse at the hospital where my children were born and I remember her checking in on when my daughter was born over 25 years ago.

Teaching

Two of my 1:30 p.m. students couldn’t make the first class and one couldn’t make the second class. The second class was kind of rowdy!

1:30 p.m. class.
3:00 p.m. class.

It was fun to get out and teach again after a two-month break.

Number of days on a court: 934
Number of total hours: 3,474
Number of paid coaching hours: 212.5

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

Sunday at Derby, Plantar Fasciitis

Sunday, May 24, 2026 (Court Day #933)

It was completely overcast and 59° when I left my house a few minutes after 9 a.m. While I barely feel it, tennis elbow continues to be a concern so I’m going to play left-handed again today. There’s no point in going to Brommer Park seeking higher level play, so Derby it is.

It’s been over a week since I’ve played last. And that last time was in St. Louis, Missouri. All the traveling that I have been doing has been providing more recovery time for my body.

Plantar Fasciitis?

What is curious, is that a couple of days ago, there was some pain running underneath the length of my left foot. I’ve never had plantar fasciitis, but I suspect that that may be what this is. I’m hoping that it will just go away, but I may need to do some research to see what will help it.

Derby Park

I walked up the gate at 9:15 a.m. Two of the courts were still empty.

Even with me playing lefty for all the games today, Mark G. and I won 11-8 against Marin and Bihn.

Marin and I lost 8-11 versus Charles Overbeck and Anne. Charles, of course, is still a very strong player with a very long reach!

Charles and I lost 3-11 versus Marin and Scott. Not my best game. Charles is always patient with my lefty playing. He saw it before some years ago when I had really bad chronic tennis elbow.

The Derby scene at 11:19 a.m.

Marin and I played a game against Jeff and his brother Scott. I decided to play that game right-handed. Marin and I took a big lead only to lose 11-9.
Jeff and Scott got dialed in and they were painting the lines like crazy.

I left shortly after 12:30 p.m. With all the clouds moving offshore, it got sunny and warmed up to 66°.

Number of days on a court: 933
Number of total hours: 3,472
Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5

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

Pickleball in St. Louis, ALW, MLB

Thursday, May 14, 2026 (Court Day #930)

After waking up about 3:15 a.m. to get to the airport and fly St. Louis, I landed about 1:30 p.m. local time. My cousin John kindly battled very long line of cars to pick me up. (The airport there is poorly designed with a massive bottleneck for picking up passengers!) I hadn’t see John since our grandfather’s funeral in 2006 when John came out to California to honor his namesake, John Lenz II. I had reached out in February to let him know that I was coming and to see if we could hang out some.

John is the GM of the private Algonquin Golf Club which also features a $3.3 million Racquet Center built in 2022 with tennis courts and pickleball courts.

I later learned that it costs $75,000 for the club initiation fee and $1,400/month for ongoing membership. ($16,800/year.) This is outside of my budget, but on the flip side, housing and the cost of living is far lower here compared to my California coast. Here, the median home price is about $250,000. The median home price in Santa Cruz is currently $1.4 million. My wife and I could buy 4-5 homes here in St. Louis for the value of our pretty average 1700 sq.ft. house on a small lot back home.

A month ago, John had connected me via text with his Director of Racquets, Brian Pillar, who is a certified coach for tennis as well as pickleball. Brian kindly said he’d find players and get a game together for me.

The Club

Next to the courts, the parking lot was pretty full. John told me that a pro-am golf tournament was going on. John took me to the racquet center pro shop and introduced me in person to Brian, then John headed off to meetings.

Brian had arranged a doubles game from 5-6 p.m. (That’s why I caught super early flight… to get in some pickleball!) There would be a little wait.

It was just Brian and myself in the pro shop for a couple hours. We were chatting off and on while he was doing work on his laptop and not answering the phone.

Fun candle holders in their pro shop!

Brian is a super nice guy. It became clear during our discussions that his first love is unquestionably tennis.

New Arrival

About 4:30 p.m., a man named Barry Stone entered the pro shop. Brian obviously knew him and Barry was talking about getting back from a trip. Barry is not just a pickleball players, but is also a golfer.

Play Time!

At 4:38 p.m., Barry and I went out and started warming up one of the two empty pickleball courts.

Barry on the court!

The courts are beautiful. Good nets, good surface. It was warm and a touch muggy but not too bad. 

Brian came out and after we warmed up for a bit, we played two on one, with me covering half of my side against Brian and Barry. I was up 8-1 when a fourth showed up, Eric. Eric is about six foot. Brian is a little shorter than I am and Barry and I are about the same average U.S. male height.

After a couple of games, Dave arrived. Brian had said earlier that Dave is a really strong player. Brian bowed out when Dave arrived.

We played a few games, rotating partners. John arrived after his meeting to check on things. John asked Brian how I was going and Brian said I hadn’t lost a game. I corrected the group that I had lost one.

The sun was getting lower in the sky but it was still a bit hot and Brian wanted to shift over to the partially shaded court. I’m not a big fan of that kind of lighting, but I’ll admit that the shade was nice.

Around 6 p.m. a few people arrived on the other court. Brian said they were having a lesson.

There was one rally with Barry on my right covering the sideline and I left a little too much room to my right and left the middle open. Eric took advantage and hit a winner. Oops. I was kicking myself. My later games were not as strong as my earlier games, which is kind of funny since I had not played right-handed for about two weeks. You’d expect my later games to be better as I got reacclimated to righty. But I may have relaxed too much also!

At 6:18 p.m, people were done. I would have played longer but one can’t play alone… plus John was patiently waiting.

Me, Dave, Eric, and Barry.
Me and Brian recorded for posterity.

It was a great group of fun guys. And I can see why everyone likes Brian!

[Later note: The evening after the trade show ended on May 19, John took me to a St. Louis Cardinals game. While there, he shared that Brian told him that I’m a good player and have fast hands. Nice to hear.]

OGs of Pickleball

In this list, I’ve met three. Kyle Yates, Ben Johns, Morgan Evans. I’ve seen Tyson McGuffin play in person. I haven’t met Jennifer Lucore, but we’ve corresponded a few times over the years. I remember being told that Scott Moore came to Santa Cruz one time to run a clinic, but that was before I started playing in 2017.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYXS4oQEThX

Aireo and Nico

Our local Bay Area-based paddle maker, Aireo, made an appearance on a Nico the Lefty social media post of his top paddles of May 2026. That’s good exposure for them! Nico has come out of nowhere and is now a cohost on Zane Navratil’s podcast.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYV-ybmEfic/?img_index=5

Anna Leigh Waters on NBC

Young phenom player, current #1 female player in the world, Anna Leigh Waters, continues to make appearances in the mainstream media, this time on NBC News. Pickleball is continuing to get noticed.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYZvJb8GpC0

Tennis Elbow Advice

With me battling mind tennis elbow, here’s some good advice on how to fix it:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYXF6bqkdV2

And here’s my article about my own experiences and advice for pickleball elbow:
https://pickleballjourney.com/pickleball-elbow-advice/

New Courts Opening Up 

Glorya Jean Tate Park, down in Marina, has two new public pickleball courts that are set to open on June 6. Not that I’ll likely use them anytime in the near future, they are a little less than an hour of driving to the south of me.

Marina courts under construction.

Friday, May 22, 2026 (No Play)

Here’s a new story about pickleball problems in Cupertino about 40 minutes north of me:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYXlC04I-NI
“Cupertino officials are moving forward with measures to reduce noise from the city’s growing pickleball scene after nearby residents complained about constant sound from courts at parks and schools. Proposed solutions include sound barriers, restricted playing hours and possible court modifications as the city tries to balance recreation demand with neighborhood concerns.”

Pickleball Video Game

There’s a pickleball video game coming out which utilizes a special paddle with sensors.
https://www.msn.com/en-in/lifestyle/smart-living/this-company-wants-you-to-play-pickleball-from-the-comfort-of-your-home-here-s-how-they-re-doing-it/ar-AA23ELGq

Andrew MIA?

I should mention that Matt Babb kindly reached out a few days ago checking on me since he hadn’t seen me in a few weeks at Skypark. I explained that I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and I’m also dealing with a little bit of tennis elbow. It was very nice of him to reach out.


Saturday, May 23, 2026 (No Play)

Pickleball has invaded Major League Baseball! The Milwaukee Brewers installed a court during spring training!

Here’s an article about it:
https://www.brewcrewball.com/milwaukee-brewers-news/80241/how-pickleball-has-swept-up-brewers-coaches-and-keeps-them-sharp

“The game that has swept the nation over the past couple of years has swept up the Milwaukee Brewers coaching staff and is showing no signs of stopping. From the coaches to the front office, pickleball has been the way to bring the organization closer together, fuel their competitive fire, and keep their minds sharp.”

Pickleball is not a Sport!

Show this to anyone who says the pickleball is not athletic!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYjsTg2k5ZS/
I’ve never given anyone the middle finger in my life, but here’s my version, haters!

Number of days on a court: 932
Number of total hours: 3,469
Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5

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

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