Author: andrewlenz (Page 60 of 327)

Friday, February 28, 2025 (Court Day #774)

Today was the big annual meeting of the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club. It was an important meeting, we’d be electing new officers. After doing more last-minute prep for the meeting, I arrived at Derby Park at about 10:30. a.m. I was expecting to find no parking given the time of the morning, however, there was one open spot right at the end when I drove in. My long shot paid off. It’s always a better day when you don’t have to trek in!

Derby Park

It was a organized club play day, so things were pretty busy. There were some good players there, however, I was out of sequence with them. There is also some skill creep going on with weaker player signing up as 4.0 or higher players, a common problem with club play.

Games

Lefty Aaron B. and I played against young Jordan and a guy named Marc. We destroyed them. But, hey, they signed up in 4.0+!

We ended up in a rematch and this time I decided to play with Marc, figuring Aaron and Jordan would be strongest opponent combination. I did still pull off a win with Marc.

After playing the three or four games I was able to get in, I checked the time and was a few minutes after 12 p.m. Our important annual club meeting will be starting at 12:15 p.m. and there is no way I would be able to get in another game… or would I?

Charles, Rick Arnold and Dean were already signed up in a box and Rick asked lefty Aaron, if he would want to join them. Of course, Aaron said yes, but I asked Aaron if he would mind if I jumped in with them because I didn’t have time to play any more games if I had to wait since I had the board meeting starting.

Charles and I were leading, but then I made a few mistakes at the end and we lost 7–11. Even over the age of 70, Dean Kingston is still formidable.

SCPC Annual Meeting

The meeting had to wait for Jackie to get off the court before we could start our meeting because we need a quorum. I understand the siren’s call of “one more game”, but it did keep about 20 people waiting!

We got our meeting called order at about 12:25 p.m.

The big thing was getting our new board officers elected, which we did. I’m now officially the VP of the club. The meeting ran only about an hour.

A Few More Games

As we walked away from the picnic area, Mark asked if I was going to stay and play a few games. Being that it was only shortly after 1:30 p.m. and I told my staff I wouldn’t be to work until about 4 p.m., I figured I could squeeze in some games. (Heck, I work 6 days a week, I need at least some “goof off” time!)

In a game with all board officers, Jackie and I played against Mark and Jessie and beat them 11–0. Nonetheless, it was a fun game.

We rotated partners and I played with Mark and then with Jessie. I was on the winning team every time. Jackie and I were unquestionably the strongest two players.

I played a game with Mark against Conner and his friend Kevin. Conner has known Kevin since high school. Kevin is a tall, blond guy. Conner and I have a very similar skill level and Kevin outplayed Mark. We lost that one.

The next game was Conner and myself played against Brian Hackett (who replaced me as the Site Coordinator at Derby on Sundays, and a large tanned dude named Rob who has shoulder-length curly brown-blond hair. That was a fun game, they played pretty well. If I recall correctly, the final score was 11–6 in our favor.

It was 3:01 p.m. and that was the last game of my day. Home, then a very abbreviated workday.

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Saturday, March 1, 2025 (No Play)

I bit the bullet. I ordered a Rallie ball machine. It’s a new brand on the market, so there are some unknowns, but it looks solid and they were offering $300 off which ended today. As a good husband, I did run it by my wife and she was ok with the purchase given that I make extra money coaching. I tend to be pretty frugal, so we can afford it.

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Sunday, March 2, 2025 (No Play)

This morning, it was pouring rain. I also woke up with a mild sore throat. I cancelled my two afternoon classes and rested in bed then I fell back asleep around 11:30 a.m.

Warriors Halftime Demo

I’ve been working on prepping a promotional video that will be shown at halftime at the local semi-pro basketball game on Friday. Our local G League team is a direct feeder to the Golden State Warriors.

I was researching some club history and I found this old local article from May 21, 2015 about pickleball in Scotts Valley… about 20 months before I started playing myself:
https://pressbanner.com/pickleball-craze-sweeps-scotts-valley/

It says that the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club started “about four years ago”. That would mean 2011. Interesting. That’s as solid as a date that I’ve been able to find.

Number of days on a court: 774
Number of total hours: 3,094
Number of paid coaching hours: 114.5

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

Sunday, February 23, 2025 (Court Day #773)

Today was the first day of my two new sets of 4-week classes. For my Advanced Beginner class, five of the eight students are people who have taken my classes before. That’s fun.

As a matter of course, I pulled out my phone fairly frequently during class to check the time. Aside from knowing how many minutes we have left to cover my material in the class, I check my phone—especially during the first class—to make sure that there’s no one canceling out of the second class. If they cancel out, I need to scramble to line up in a replacement to keep balanced pairs. While checking the time, I noticed that Conner McNicholas was asking if I could join him at Derby Park to drill. I told him that I was teaching, but I could join him around 5 p.m. He said that would be fine. I also explained that my doctor told me not to play until I have no pain. (My left hip is still sore after straining it last weekend moving a very heavy dumpster in the mud!) He shared that his foot was bothering him. That will make us a good pair!

I was demonstrating a technique to one of my students and whatever that motion was, it was pretty painful in my hip. I have to take it pretty easy. At least the pain was mostly there and gone.

When I left Skypark after classes were done, there were six courts in use. Busy for Sunday afternoon, especially when only four courts are permanent and groups had to bring their own nets for the other four!

Drilling

When I walked up to the courts at Derby Park, I was a bit concerned that Conner and I would be able to get a court to drill. It was 5:05 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon, nearing sunset, and yet all the courts had people on them. Fortunately, one of those people on the court by themselves was Conner!

Conner and I started with some straight ahead dinking, periodically interrupted with speedups. We moved on to crosscourt dinking. Conner backed up to work on his transition shots. Then I moved back and he came up for me to work on my transition shots too. We spent about 10 minutes doing hard drives from the baseline. Conner did a few serves to me which led to some baseline rallies. I did a few serves to him as well. For the last five minutes, Conner wanted to work on his backhand flick.

Then a few minutes after 6 p.m., it was time for me to head home… I’d promised my wife that I’d be home for dinner! Plus it was getting dark anyway.

It was a really good drilling session. Conner and I are very similar skill levels.

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Wednesday, February 26, 2025 (No Play)

Today, I pulled up my left leg to punch down on the parking brake and… that did not feel good. It has been eleven days since I heard that pop in my left hip moving a very heavy object. It’s continuing to improve, but I have more time to go for a recovery.

Andre Agassi

This popped up on YouTube. It looked fun, but I haven’t had time to watch more than a minute of it… later!

Number of days on a court: 773
Number of total hours: 3,091
Number of paid coaching hours: 114.5

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

Tuesday, February 11, 2025 (Court Day #772)

I was cold and very tired and I was going back-and-forth debating whether or not to play tonight. Eventually, I opted to play. As I was driving to Scotts Valley, I was still questioning myself whether it was a good idea or not. It was 52°F… not freezing, but not exactly warm either. 

Rain is expected to start tomorrow night and last at least a couple days which will eliminate Thursday night play.

My brother Matt had brought donuts to work. Me, being of little willpower, ate 1 1/2 of them. I’ve been trying to lose weight lately, so running around on the court to compensate for donuts seemed to make sense.

As I approached Skypark, the thermometer in my car dropped to 48°F. Yep, it would be chilly.

Skypark

I arrived at the courts at 6:50 p.m. and I warmed up with Francis a little bit. After a few minutes, Mo and little Scott came out of a game. I grabbed them and Mo and I took on Francis and Scott. It was a thumping with Moe and I winning 11–2.

After that game, Mo said that she was waiting to play a game with Diego and she stepped off the the side. A young fellow named Jordan whom I haven’t seen for months came tonight and I helped him warm up.

More Games

Once Diego was available, Jordan and I paired up against him and Mo. Being that was Jordan‘s first game and he hasn’t played for a while, he was a little rough. We found ourselves down, but crawled back into the game and took a lead, eventually closing out the game with a close win.

The next game, the last game, was Mauricio and myself against Diego and Mo. Mauricio made a lot of mistakes early in the game but redeemed himself as the game went on. About a third of the way through the game it started to sprinkle and people started to leave as their games ended. It took a number of sideouts, but Mauricio and I won 11–8. At 7:47 p.m., we were done.

By the time I was five minutes into my drive home, the sky had opened up and it was raining in earnest.

Even though I only got to play for an hour, I was happy that I went. I played quite well.

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Saturday, February 15, 2025. (No Play)

Ouch. More below.

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Monday, February 17, 2025. Presidents Day. (No Play)

After being on the waiting list for a few years, our number came up at the La Madrona Athletic Club. My wife Kristen was very excited. She wants to use their pool and classes. La Madrona down a side road between Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley, about 10-15 minutes from my house. 

My wife needed to sign paperwork to formally join. I told her that the odds of me using their facility more than a couple times each month were very low and to just sign only herself up. 

I have the day off from work for Presidents’ Day. We drove up, passed the assortment of tennis courts, parked, and found the office. The office manager, Diana, gave us a tour of the upper portion of their campus, which included their swimming pools, saunas, hot tubs, and various workout rooms.

Diana shared that Jane Prince had just been hired as their new pickleball coach. Karen Haselden had left there last year. Good for Jane!

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Tuesday, February 18, 2025 (No Play)

So, Saturday evening, I was moving one of the dumpsters at work, and it was unusually heavy since the items inside had become waterlogged in the rain. The rain had also made the ground soft, which made it even more difficult to move the dumpster. I was giving it my best “heave ho” when I heard a popping noise in my left hip! That is something is always disconcerting! I was able to move the dumpster, but soon after I was hobbling a bit that night. While lying in bed later on my left side, my hip was tender, and I could feel the injured injury area throbbing in time with my pulse. Yesterday, on Monday, I made an appointment for today to get seen.

This morning, I went to the medical clinic and the nurse practitioner poked and prodded, pulled and pushed my leg around, had me walk back-and-forth and move my leg. At the end of all that, she figured it was likely just a strain or mild tear and that it should be completely healed sometime in the next two weeks. She said that if it wasn’t better or got worse than to let her know. She said no pickleball until I can move without any pain. I didn’t ask, but she seemed familiar with pickleball since she immediately knew that the game required a lot of lateral movement. My hip had already improved a little, but I was still far from running out onto a court.

Targeting

Today, the UPA, the umbrella company of the MLP and PPA, announced a new rule penalizing intentionally hitting a ball at an opponent’s head. 

Admirable in theory, but the referees are going to hate it. The USAP has gotten away from rules that may require mind-reading. Sure, there will be blatant instances, but most will be in a gray area where it’s hard to tell. I can already foresee arguments on the courts with refs about this. 

And I should remind everyone that this only affects the MLP and the PPA. 99.9999% of the pickleball playing world is not affected by this new rule. I’m not. I’m a professional businessman. Now, if someone came up to me with a guaranteed 10-year contract paying more than I’m making now to play pickleball that would be hard to turn down. That said, I’m the steward of a half-century old family business, I wouldn’t just lock the door and walk away!

Great Reset

There’s this clip of Anna Leigh Waters hitting an ATP into her opponent. But, what I want to point out is her shot before that. There was a slam to the corner of the court and she hits a fabulous drop shot… not perfect, but extremely difficult.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGPM_XOg-Gl/

No Pickleball

One of my staff, Julia, texted me a photo of a sign that she stumbled across while traveling up north:
“Tennis Only
No Pickleball”

Initially, I was grumbling a bit. But I searched online for the Cameron Park courts (about 25 miles east of Sacramento) and found this…

Yes, that’s four pickleball courts next to the three tennis courts. Not so bad!

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Wednesday, February 19, 2025 (No Play)

I got email Chamisal today promoting a round robin on Saturday, March 22. No medals. No thanks. If I’m going to take time off from work, I want consistent strong competition.

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Saturday, February 22, 2025 (No Play)

Last night, watched August 2018 tournament. Rob Aranda and I partnered up for that one after I’d been only playing for about 18 months. I could see the errors that I was making. Inferior shot selection, poor execution, subpar court positioning, and more. A phrase came to mind: “Embrace the suck”. While it’s interesting to watch, I think it’s too old to really learn from to improve my play.

Ball Machine

I emailed the folks offering the new Rallie ball machine. Within about an hour, Eric Fransen, the owner emailed me back answering all the questions I had sent. Impressive.

Number of days on a court: 772
Number of total hours: 3,090
Number of paid coaching hours: 111.5

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