Author: andrewlenz (Page 64 of 327)

Friday, January 17, 2025 (Court Day #761)

My wife flew out for her “girls’ weekend” in Palm Springs this morning, which means that I am on dog duty for the next few days. My brother John texted me this afternoon asking if anyone was playing tonight. I told him that it would have to be 7:30 p.m. for me and he said that would work for him. Fortunately, the Skypark lights stay on until 9:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

When I got home after work shortly after 6:30 p.m., our younger dog Pepper was slightly freaked out and shaking. (They are demolishing a house three doors down that was destroyed in a fire a little over a year ago.) She also wouldn’t eat her dinner. So I took her for a walk. Pepper was on a mission, walking the fastest that I’ve ever seen her. I was feeling the burn in my calves as I tried to keep up! She was on a tear for about 20 minutes. When she led us back to our driveway, she circled for a minute and then apparently decided that she wanted to do the same walk again! I let her go halfway down the block but then I stopped her and carried her back home. She was no longer shaking and ate her dinner. Finally, I could get to pickleball!

Skypark

I pulled into the Skypark lot at 7:47 p.m., there were a few empty spots.

When I walked in, there was a game going on between Jax and Sam against Diego and Spencer. Those were the only familiar faces. There was also a group of 20-year-olds on one court and three people on another court. When John arrived about five minutes later, it didn’t make much sense for John and myself to go ask a group of three if they’d like to play, so we opted to drill.

We started with straight-head dinking and then crosscourt backhand dinking. I was coaching him through the process.

Spencer’s group wrapped up their game and headed out.

Serve Drilling

I then had John work on serving and I took the opportunity for myself to try out a drop serve with an intense slice. I have to admit, if I’m going to do a slice like that, it’s going to take a whole lot more practice! Most of my chop serves ended up in the net!

Drive Drilling

At this point, I gave John my protective glasses and I had him stay at the kitchen and I was hitting forehands and backhand drives at him as hard as I could. He did a pretty good job making contact with the balls. He got most of them back over the net and into the court, but some landed in his side of the net or flew out. Most were not in great control… yet!

Skinny Singles

Next, I had us play a game of skinny singles where for even scores we played diagonally and if one of us was serving with an odd score we shifted over after serving and just played straight across from each other.

I did win 11–0, but there were three or four sideouts. Mid-game, John had shared, “Even though I’m losing, I’m having fun!” That’s what we want!

After the skinny singles game, John said he was burnt out, so he called it a night. (John is an early riser.) I checked the time and it was 9:15 p.m. We’d been there for an hour and a half.

It was an enjoyable and productive outing.

Once we were in the parking lot, we stopped and chatted for 15 minutes or so, then we went our separate ways, never to see each other again. Dun, dun, dun! Kidding. I see John all the time! Ha ha!

Number of days on a court: 761
Number of total hours: 3,067.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 105.5

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

Thursday, January 16, 2025 (Court Day #760)

I ordered a pair of Kitchen Blockers after work right before I left. I’m curious to try them out for eye protection versus the cheap clear plastic safety glasses I’ve been using. [They later send me a 10% off discount code to share: ANDREW10.]

Skypark

Arrived at 7:04 p.m. at Skypark. It was busy enough that I had to park down the street and around the corner. It was 54°F and the air was still.

Games

In my first game, I played with a guy named Jeff against Mark (the cook) and Sam with the Indian accent. Surprisingly, Sam did not lob much at all in this game unlike Tuesday. (Good for me, he was deadly at his lobs!) My playing this game was absolutely horrible… well, for me anyway—more is expected of a 4.0 level player. As far as I can tell, Jeff is more like a 3.0. We were down by quite a bit, and then Mark started making a number of mistakes and we clawed our way back into the game only to lose in the end. That’s a game that I’d happy was not recorded.

My last three games were paired with Anthony against tall lefty Aaron B. and David L.

In the first game, Anthony and I got clobbered, something like 11–3. Anthony apologized in the middle of that game for costing us points.

We switched sides and played again but this time Anthony and I won 11–5.

We switched sides again and played a rubber match. In this one, I kept track of my errors and I made half a dozen (or fewer) errors in this entire game. Some lost rallies were simply just great shots by opponents—one of which was a great crosscourt dink by Aaron that was too sharp and long and out of my reach for a winner. We lost this game by a solid margin, but still a fun game. Anthony is a good guy.

We wrapped up just before the lights clicked off at 8:30 p.m.

Fire!

As we were all gathering up to head out, David shared a photo that a friend sent him. The battery facility at Moss Landing (about half an hour south of Santa Cruz) was on fire. If it isn’t still the biggest energy storage in California, it’s the second one. Lithium ion batteries. Those will be extremely difficult to extinguish.

Here’s a link to an article, it’ll likely continue to get updated:
https://www.ksbw.com/article/smoke-fire-moss-landing-battery-facility-water-testing/63486518

Number of days on a court: 760
Number of total hours: 3,066
Number of paid coaching hours: 105.5

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

Tuesday, January 14, 2025 (Court Day #759)

When I arrived at Skypark at 6:48 p.m, it was a chilly 48°F. I was tired and the thought of going straight home after work and resting crossed my mind. But no. There was one spot open in the parking lot and it was the best spot right near the gate. Nice!

Games

My first game was with tall Nick, whom I usually see at Brommer, versus Kirby and a Latino guy named Chris, whom I don’t believe I’d met before. That said, I’d apparently forgotten that I’d met Kirby. He obviously remembered me. He asked if I was the coordinator at Derby Park. (Yes, for nearly 7 years before I gave it up in the fall last year.)

Kirby played very well. He’s a force. Sure, he hit some long, but he has really good power. Nick and I won 11-6.

Next up was Chris and me against Mauricio (in his first game) and Nick. We lost 11-8.

We played again and this time, Chris and I lost 11-4 to Mauricio and Nick. Chris made a lot of errors and there was only so much I could do. 

Breaking Balls

We broke two balls in that game. Cold temperatures tend to do that. Mauricio dashed off to get a new ball and I was holding the one that had a massive split in it. While waiting, a ball from Mike Sullivan’s court rolled onto our court. Being a prankster, I tossed him the bad ball. He was just about to serve when I called over, “You might want to check that ball for cracks!” Being a smart guy, he instantly figured out what I’d done and laughed. I walked over and traded balls with him, showing him the giant crack in the ball I’d originally given him.

There were about eight people waiting to get into games when I got there. About halfway through my time there, you could more or less just walk back onto a court for another game.

Sam the Lobster

Mauricio and I played against a new guy to me, Sam (who has an Indian accent) as well as Scott. Sam was lobbing probably even most of his shots, but he’s also excellent at it with a lot of spin and landing the ball near the corners and/or baseline. Boy, what a frustrating game. Run back, work back to the kitchen, run back, work back to the kitchen… repeat. We lost 11–5 or something horrible like that.

We had a rematch and Mauricio stated with a smile, “We’re not going to lose this game.” And we didn’t. We won 11 –1. Afterwards, I told Sam at the net with a broad grin, “I feel a lot better now!”

My last game of the night was with Sam against Mauricio and Manda. We were rushing to get the game done before the lights clicked off at 8:30. Sam and I were up 7-1, but then they went on a run and got within one point. It was a pretty hysterical game and Sam and I were busting up laughing. We went on to win 11–8. That was the last game not the last two games.

And?

I thought that I was playing quite well tonight up until the latter half of the evening when I started making errors. I slammed a shot long instance to set up for a winner.

Mike’s Tournament

Mike Sullivan invited me to a private tournament on Monday afternoon, it’s Martin Luther King Day. I’m scheduled to work that day, well it’s kind of funny because I’m scheduled to work pretty much every day, we’ll see what I can pull off. Mike says that he has 4 courts reserved at Willowbrook that day. Unfortunately, we moved our SCPC board meeting to Monday afternoon.

Balls

Here’s an interesting video on how balls are made.

Good Mindset

Here’s a good video. Excitement versus anxiety and how to switch feelings to your advantage:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBg167yPnDm/
What’s interesting is that used this exact approach when I was coaching my very first Parks & Rec class in 2023. I was feeling some anxiousness about it on that day, but I told myself, “You got this. You know this inside and out. It’ll be fun. It’s exciting.” It was so much better.

Number of days on a court: 759
Number of total hours: 3,064.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 105.5

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