Author: andrewlenz (Page 8 of 327)

Sunday, May 3, 2026 (Court Day #929)

I slept in this morning and when I woke up, there was a text from my wife which said it was raining and pickleball would be questionable. There was also an email in my inbox from the pickleball club saying that play at Derby Park had been delayed for an hour. So I figured Brommer Park was likely out of commission also.

By the time I got out of my house around 10:45 a.m., it was overcast but the ground was dry. It was 61° as I made my way to Brommer.

My right knee is acting up and I have very mild tennis elbow going on in my right forearm. To help with the tennis elbow, I added another layer of tape to my paddle grip and my forearm strap will be my friend today.

Brommer Park

I arrived at 11:01 a.m. and the parking lot was about two-thirds full.

OK. Tennis elbow is definitely becoming a thing. I’m not sure what triggered it, but I’m feeling it in my right arm, no question. There was one backhand that I drove hard and I experienced significant pain in my forearm.

Most of my games I got into were reasonably challenging. I will say that after three hours, I was starting to get tired.

Ken

There’s a lefty player who I’ve never seen before named Ken. A little bit over 6 foot with short dark hair. I’m guessing that he’s in his late 30s. He was wearing a tennis T-shirt so I imagine that’s his background. When I asked, he said that he is local, but he usually plays on the westside, no doubt meaning Derby Park. He has a habit of not coming to the net, which is a common tennis practice. Ken was smart—he asked for tips after games. I told him, pickleball players come up, tennis players stay back. He has strong drives, but too many of them either ended up in the net or sailing long.

When I left Brommer at 3:07 p.m. after 4 hours of play, it was still a comfortable 66° and mostly cloudy.

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Tuesday, May 5, 2026 (No Play)

Here’s a short video about the pickleball market slowing down:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXXd0tuEvUP

What interesting is that when he (Dominyck Bullard) starts to talk, he includes this graph:

I tracked down the source (obviously, the page was somewhere on fact.mr):
https://www.factmr.com/report/pickleball-machine-market
It breaks down the pickleball machine market and says:
“The global pickleball machine market is expected to reach USD 35.3 million by 2035, up from USD 15.2 million in 2025.”

The graph includes a scary downturn line. Well, it’s not so scary. It’s the growth. Growth is projected to still be good for pickleball machines—heck, sales are expected to more than double… though we want to take into account inflation, but that’s still an expected 65%-70% adjusted growth over the next 10 years. And their growth downturn doesn’t appear on the graph until 2031, five years into the future… in other words, it merely speculation and could be entirely wrong. The most recent report by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) states that they expect pickleball to continue to grow by a least double digits over the next five years.

The thing is Dominyck goes onto talk nothing about pickleball machines (as mentioned in the graph), but pickleball franchises. Judging from his other social media posts, he comments on a wide variety of sports. I requested his “report” on pickleball, but what I got was an automated response with a link to sign up for his newsletter. I did a search on his website for pickleball, but only a lacrosse article came up. From there, I abandoned the cause. No, I don’t want your newsletter.

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Friday, May 8, 2026 (No Play)

This morning my daughter Charlotte graduated from medical school! Her next stop is five years of orthopedic surgery residency in Southern California.

Yes, I’m the shortest one in my family. My son Nicholas is over 6-foot. My wife Kristen and I almost exactly the same height, but with her and Charlotte wearing high heels, it makes me look a bit like a shrimp!

We traveled on a very short trip to Las Cruces, New Mexico for the graduation. I didn’t feel like dragging my pickleball gear there and playing in their heat. I’ve done that before!

Franchise Challenges

The Picklr franchise financials were shared in Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pickleball/s/E3i28RoREt

The opening paragraph tells the tale…
“Corporate Income Statements:
2023: $2.09M Net Loss
2024: $7.33M Net Loss
2025: $4.44M Net Loss
$13.8M Cumulative Net Loss since inception.“

Here is the report on Wisconsin’s Department of Financial Institutions. The report links to a 265-page PDF going into great detail. In the PDF, it states:
“The total investment necessary to begin operation of a single Picklr franchise is $1,252,400 to $2,077,300. This includes $100,000 that must be paid to the franchisor, or its affiliate(s).”

Here is a particularly insightful comment in the Reddit discussion:
“WearyDragonfruit3668
The cumulative loss number is concerning but not unusual for franchise-led expansion in a category this young. The bigger red flag in the FDD math is the shareholder deficit – that means the operating company can’t absorb another 12-18 months of corporate losses without a capital raise, and a raise in this environment for a fitness-adjacent franchise is going to be expensive. For franchisees, the key question isn’t the corporate loss number, it’s whether unit-level economics at the franchise location are positive after royalties. If the unit-level UFOC [he means FDD, UFOC is the old term] numbers show franchisees losing money after fees, that’s the actual problem. If franchisees are profitable and corporate is losing money subsidizing growth, that’s a different (more recoverable) situation.”

Regardless, I wouldn’t advise anyone starting a The Picklr franchise without very serious reservations!

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Saturday, May 9, 2026 (No Play)

You have to love some of the rules questions that get asked online about pickleball:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/thekitchenPB/permalink/2426604844520547/

“Question.
If a paddle goes into the kitchen without the player touching the ball and the ball goes out. Is it a fault or do they get the point?”

Boy. How about writing your question more clearly? I kind of wonder if this was asked as a joke.

This is my favorite response:
“It all depends. Where was the kayak in all this time?”

Regardless, in case anyone is wondering, here’s my take, just for you:
– It’s the non-volley zone. If you don’t volley (which includes contacting the ball), there’s no fault, regardless of if you, your paddle, or anything you are wearing falls in.
– If the person in question or his partner didn’t serve, then they don’t get any points though they will have won the rally. (Players tend to be loosey-goosey with regard to the terms “point” and “rally”… technically, they are not the same time. Rallies may or may not result in points.)

Later Note from July…

I returned to this above discussion in mid-July.

A man had given his answer to the original poster’s question.

Eric Olson
This rule was changed in 2025.
Previously, if a player dropped their paddle (or anything else attached to their body) into the kitchen while swinging at the ball in an attempt to volley it, it was a fault. This seemed too weird (and too hard for a ref to call), so they changed the definition of a volley to not include anything before contact with the ball. Under the new rule (as of 2025) it is not a fault.

But this is incorrect. So me, wanting peace and better information in the universe, posted my reply:

Andrew Lenz
Eric, I’m 99% sure that’s a misinterpretation of this rule change. I’ve been a pickleball rule nerd for the last 10 years and I don’t believe it was ever a fault to be in or drop anything into the NVZ if you never actually contacted (whiffed) the ball. This particular rule change has to do with what happens BEFORE ball contact. For instance, It used to be if you scraped the kitchen with your paddle right before contact with the ball while volleying, it was a fault. Under the revised 2025 wording, it’s not.
(The prior rule change for covering this was in 2012 which was a few years before I started playing, so I can’t speak to that.)

To which Eric replied:

Eric Olson
Andrew Lenz I think you may be right!

I know.

Number of days on a court: 929
Number of total hours: 3,461
Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5

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

Tuesday, April 28, 2026 (Court Day #928)

My wife’s cousin Krag and I set off from his house in Anchorage a little after 9 a.m. for what would be my first pickleball game ever in the State of Alaska. It was raining, so it would be an indoor facility.

While Krag is not stranger to pickleball, but had never been to the courts suggested by his friends. Taking longer than Krag expected, the GPS guided us to a commercial-looking building. We walked in the door and found a room of about a dozen high school aged kids seated around various round tables. Krag inquired, “We’re looking for pickleball…” One young lady, amused, yet helpful, suggested we wanted the Anchorage Recreation Center (ARC) not the “The Arc of Anchorage”. We’d accidentally gone about 10 minutes in the wrong direction to a school!

We got back into Krag’s large white pickup and punched in the new GPS destination.

Anchorage Recreation Center

It was still lightly raining about 10 minutes later when we arrived at the correct ARC building around 9:30 a.m.

We walked in and Krag paid the 20 bucks for the two of us to get in—I covered the cost of our later family brewery outing later in return—then we turned right into the hallway leading to the big gym.

Inside was a wood floor striped in a variety colors for various sports and it was also striped with white tape specifically for pickleball. I could tell that the tape had been there for a while… it was wearing along some edges.

In the middle of the gym hung a heavy fabric divider, leaving about a 2” gap above the floor, too narrow for balls to get under. On each side of the divider were three portable pickleball nets set up.

Krag and I put our bags along the wall and I changed into my court shoes. With all the gravel and grit spread on the Alaskan roads during winter, changing shoes is pretty much a given around here.

Chad

Krag’s friend Chad finished up a game and Krag introduced me to him. Chad later told me that he’s known Krag since high school.

What’s funny is that Chad was sporting a black “ARC Pickleball” T-shirt, but he explained that it wasn’t named for this complex. It’s actually from North Carolina… maybe “Appalachian” is in that “ARC” somewhere. (Later I found this.)

I’ll note that when I shook hands with Chad, a surprise, my forearm hurt a little like when I had tennis elbow. My elbow has been acting up lately, it seems I should consider wearing my forearm strap again.

Paddle Rack

At this facility, they use a very space-efficient and compact paddle rack. It’s a piece of long flat wood with two parallel rows of vertical dowels, with gaps just wide enough to comfortably place a paddle set on its edge. There was a “Next Game” sign mounted to an oversized straw which moved down four dowels when each group goes on.

When it is the next group’s turn, someone holds up the four paddles hoping the owners will recognize them and retrieve them. Given the big space and the long waits, this was typically only successful after a minute or two or three. Most players were waiting at one of the two opposite ends of the gym, while the rack was in the middle. That, long with the loud environment, makes getting the next game going a bit of a challenge.

Once you got your paddle, then you would have to figure out where your group went… which could be on either side of the curtain plus maybe your group had already shifted over if another group was already going out. Plus you may not even know what the people in your group look like!

Their are obviously satisfied with their system, but I’d almost be tempted to have two paddle racks, one at either end of the gym near the waiting areas. Maybe divided by 3.0-3.5 and 3.5-4.0+. That would reduce the somewhat chaotic nature of finding paddle owners and courts.

First Game

My first game was with Krag against a man named Filo and a woman named Anna. We lost 7-11. Krag, for not playing for several months and relatively dabbling in pickleball, did just fine. Solid 3.0 with flashes of 3.5. Krag played on his tennis team in high school, playing mostly doubles, so he has solid hand-eye coordination.

The red-orange indoor ball felt heavier than a standard outdoor ball and more rubbery. It very much took me a little getting used to.

Krag and I stacked our paddles again.

We would be in a game with a music teacher named Matt originally from Washington State and a guy named Chase. (Matt later told me that he doesn’t know Chase.)

Since they had over 20 paddles waiting, a woman announced rally scoring, playing to 15, win by 2. It was weird getting used to rally scoring. I knew of it, but never used it. (Here are official USA Pickleball rally scoring instructions.) Each team only got one server. Then the next time that same team scored, the other teammate would serve according their score, like singles. When you lost your serve, the other team would get the serve… and a point!

Krag and I won that game, 16-14. The other thing is with rally scoring is you can’t win if you aren’t serving. This gives the other team more of a chance to catch up. I’m not convinced at all that “play to 15 rally scoring, win by two, can’t win unless serving” is actually faster! I think they’d be far better off in terms of faster games by simply playing to 9 with standard scoring.

Krag left around 11 a.m. for haircut. He’d come back to get me later.

It got pretty warm in the gym, there wasn’t much air circulation.

On My Own

I found Chad and told him that I’d wait for him to finish his game so we could play together.

The next game is another lesson of “not judging a book by its cover” in pickleball. We’d be going up against “Dr. Mike” (a mostly-retired family medicine and sports medicine doctor) who I’d guess is approaching 70, and Kim—who I later learned is a 72-year-old former D1 college tennis player. Mike was sporting an assortment of shoulder support straps… he’d had rotator cuff surgery some months back. Chad did warn me before the game that they are good players.

Chad and I were up 11-2 or something and we both walked to the net thinking that the game was over but it was still “to 15” rally scoring, not “to 11” rally scoring. Being that you have to win on your serve, getting those final points can be difficult. The other team is twice as likely to earn points. I think it was 14-4, but we had taken the foot off the gas and, yes, getting points was harder. Kim was getting really nice low backhand digs. It was impressive. She’s got angles and spin. Nonetheless, Chad and I prevailed, 15-10.

Next!

For the next game, we would be playing Luke and David. Chad told me that David is at least a 4.2 and Luke is a 4.5+.

This game, Chad and I were the ones benefiting from the “freeze” of only winning on your serve. This game was back and forth with the score close. We’d be down, then tie it up. Get down, then we’d tie it up. Though we did spend most of the game with the lower score.

During one rally, I’m almost positive that David was toying with me. He was dinking/resetting higher shots, but then he popped one up and I put it away hard down the middle. He was either uncomfortable attacking—unlikely—or taking it easier on us. (Here in Santa Cruz, Marquis does that sometimes… he won’t attack shots that I’d expect others to—he waits for shots that he can really slam down on.)

Chad and I lost 12-15. It wasn’t as close as the score makes it sound. (“Thanks, rally freeze!”)

Chad and I played another and lost 7-11 against a stocky tattooed dude named Simi and a young tall guy, Nathan. We were ahead, but they came back. One memorable moment was when Simi threw his cap off the court literally in the middle of a rally, which completely distracted me and I messed up that shot. If it were at tournament, we would 100% be replaying that rally!! As it was, I just let it go.

Chad said he had work to do and he departed at 12:11 p.m.

New Partner, Nathan

Nathan asked if I wanted to play again and I readily agreed. We waited our turn—a bit faster given that the crowd had thinned some by now—then took the court against Simi and Filo. (I had played against Filo in my very first game today.) We won 11-7.

While we were waiting, one player was needed as a fourth for a game. Nathan offered it to me. He said he was thinking of leaving anyway. I accepted.

Simi

I teamed up with Simi. We took a lead against an Asian couple, but they came back and won.

With the clock ticking, Simi suggested we play again. I was expecting to switch sides, but we simply started the game in the same positions.

There were 2-3 speedups at me that the ball glanced off the edge of my paddle and sailed off the court wildly. Those didn’t “compute” to me. Ball, lighting, something made things different enough that I got into that unexpected and rare circumstance several times. I went to hit the ball and it wasn’t quite where I expected.

We ran out of time midgame, when the staff closed down the session at 12:45 p.m.

Krag had returned. We headed out and he took a quick photo of me in front of the facility.

Krag wanted another photo in the opposite direction with the mountains in the background.

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Thursday, April 30, 2026 (No Play)

This is a very impressive—if short—rally clip, even before the erne shot:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXu0egaESUz/

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Saturday, May 2, 2026 (No Play)

Two days ago, there was a tragic crash of a small plane killing five people who are heading to a pickleball tournament.
https://www.wtoc.com/2026/05/01/cessna-plane-crash-texas-kills-all-5-board-county-official-says/
[Later Note: Here is a follow up article about what happened:
https://nypost.com/2026/05/16/us-news/cause-of-deadly-plane-crash-carrying-pickleball-players-to-texas-tournament-revealed/]
For us, it’s five random people. For a family, it’s a brother, sister, dad, mom, cousin. In 2010, our family lost my nephew Peter, which made national news:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/motorbike-racer-peter-lenz-13-killed-at-indy/
To nearly everyone, he was just a name in the news. For us, there was nothing closer to home.
(More about Peter.)

Tweener

In case you were wondering, here is how to execute a tweeter shot:
https://pickleballunion.com/how-to-hit-a-pickleball-tweener/

Number of days on a court: 928
Number of total hours: 3,458
Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5

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

Sunday, April 19, 2026 (Court Day #927)

In three days, I’ll be flying to Alaska to join up with my daughter Charlotte who flew up there yesterday. It’ll be a very rare vacation for me, spending a full week visiting my wife’s cousins and her aunt in Anchorage. They have some activities planned for us, but honestly, it’ll be nice just to get away from work and hang out with extended family.

Knee

My right knee has been bugging me, but in a different way. It hasn’t been aching as much, but there is the sensation of it being swollen. It’s a bit weird.

No Rush

Since I’m not teaching classes later today, I took it a bit slow this morning, since I could play as long as I wanted. If I needed to leave at noon to get ready to coach, I probably would’ve sprung out of bed and been at Brommer an hour earlier! Instead, I left my house at 9:17 a.m. It was 61° and hazy.

Brommer Park

I pulled in about 9:30 a.m.

In my first game, Dan Dewey and I won close one against René and Rick, 11-9.

And we also won the rematch 11-1.

We switched things up and I played with Rick this time and we won 11-7.

For the next one, I played with René and we lost 7-11. I made a few mistakes in a row at the end, but otherwise I played reasonably well.

New Partners

Rick and René went off to play with some others, so I teamed up with Kirk against Dan and Tony. We found ourselves down 2-10. Not a huge surprise—I’d pick Dan or Tony over Kirk as a tournament partner. But, a shocker, we came back against Dan and Tony won 12-10. I would have bet money that was not going to happen!

I ended up in a game with Marquis against Tony and Anthony. We won 11-2. Marquis and I were both playing well in that game.

Tony and I played against blonde Taylor and Marquis. To keep it more balanced, I played 4-5 rallies lefthanded. Tony and I weren’t taking that game super seriously. But then they went ahead and Tony and I couldn’t turn it back on and went on to lose 6-11! Oops!

In the next game, Mickey and Tony beat Dan and me 11-6. Mickey played very well.

Alessandro and I beat Dan Dewey and little Linda.

Alessandro and I lost to Chris (the tennis player) and bearded tattooed Aaron 6-11. That was a good and tough back-and-forth game. Chris is very formidable and Aaron is a strong player too. 

Evan and I played against Abhi and Ashley. Perhaps a bit of a surprise, Evan and I had a decisive win.

As the session went on, the wind had picked up and affected some rallies by pushing the ball around.

Leaving… Not!

I drank some water, packed up all my gear and put on my backpack and was about to go when Evan called over and asked if I had one more game in me. At that point, I’ve been there almost 5 hours. I would’ve been expected to be completely exhausted at that point, but I wasn’t. Certainly, I was a little tired and starting to drag just a little bit, but I still had some energy.

Evan and I were up 6-2 against tattooed Aaron and tennis Chris. (Chris’ dad Darrell was around somewhere playing too.) We ended up losing 6-11. Kind of a crazy swing in momentum. They had a comeback, but it wasn’t all at once, they did need to earn it. There were a lot of side outs.

As I was walking out of the courts, I said goodbye to Aaron and Chris. Chris called over, “Nice playing.” I’ll take it. High praise from Chris.

Time to Go

I left at 2:40 p.m. under sunny 63° blue skies, a little over 5 hours after I arrived.

As I was pulling out, I stopped to say hello to Shawnté. Shanté said that he had played a couple of games with Oscar starting at 7:50 a.m. but then he left to get some chores done. Now, he was back. He could take my “spot”!

I was really pleased with my play today. Rally-ending errors were limited. 

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Tuesday, April 21, 2026 (No Play)

A PPA referee called a technical warning for blowing on a ball during a rally:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXYGnLEDRyB
What struck me is a comment on this post by OG Kyle Yates:
“First time I did this in 2014, ref called a fault… I petitioned to USAPA afterwards since there was no rule about it at the time. They ruled it was legal, been doing it ever since”

Seattle Courts

Seattle is considering removing a whole lot of pickleball courts:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXZ0QvoCRXp
“If approved, the plan would reduce Seattle’s pickleball courts from 92 to 56. Seven neighborhoods would lose a combined 36 courts as soon as June. Tennis courts would remain largely intact, with 107 courts preserved.”
Ouch!

Classes

A pleasant surprise, not that there have been very many yet, but I have been receiving emails from Scotts Valley’s new software system notifying me of new signups for my classes. I wasn’t expecting to get any such notices when students sign up, so I am pleased.

Yet Another Invented Sport?

OK, now things are just getting crazy. Yet another racquet sport? Like if padel and tennis had a baby?
https://www.instagram.com/p/DWpuy6cDC64

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Wednesday, April 22, 2026 (No Play)

Today, I flew to Alaska to meet up with my daughter and see relatives—my wife’s Aunt Pat (my mother-in-law’s little sister), cousin Nuri, cousin Krag and his wife Joli. This was my first trip to their state. Charlotte and I are staying at Krag’s house. We got a warm welcome!

Krag’s neighborhood has a communal recreation area which includes a tennis court striped for pickleball too… but Krag said that almost no one ever uses it for tennis anymore, only pickleball. We would have gone out and played but the court was covered with snow!

DUPR

So, DUPR has added some new features:
– Mixed-gender rating
– Age-based rating
– Average partner rating
– Average opponent rating
These are all additional data points. I’m not sure what I think of an “age-based rating”, but as long as they keep the true key DUPR rating, I think that’s fine. I think ratings should age irrelevant. Such as, if I end up being a 3.0 when I turn 75 because I’ve slowed down, that’s the way it goes!

Funny!

What archeologists will find in the far future:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXH10XIRHR1

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 Friday, April 24, 2026 (No Play)

Charlotte and I continued to tromp around Alaska with Aunt Pat today. We took a trip to Seward, then took a boat tour around the coast. Cold, windy, and a little wet but the scenery was breathtaking.

Proton is Back

After initially being banned for non-payment of their sponsorship bill, Proton paddles are back for PPA/UPA play:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXcyE8rCSTp

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Monday, April 27, 2026 (No Play)

Today, Charlotte, Pat, Joli, and I drove out to Anchorage to the Matanuska Glacier. The brochures say it’s the largest glacier accessible by car… though there was a short hike and a snowmobile ride involved! As far as sight-seeing, this was the highlight of the trip! Some of the hiking was a little sketchy, but aside from a few slips here and there, everyone managed fine.

Usurper Rules

The UPA-A, the umbrella organization that oversees one pro tour and a handful of their own amateur events, decided to release their own rulebook. Up until a year or so ago, there was one governing body for pickleball in the USA, the venerable non-profit USA Pickleball which has been around for decades. In a power grab, the UPA created their own “governing body” and they have there own new rule book:
https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/pro-pickleball-rulebook-line-calls-paddle-throws-ball-blowing/
This causes all kinds of confusion for amateur players who think this rulebook applies to them—it doesn’t unless they are playing in a PPA tournament.

Number of days on a court: 927
Number of total hours: 3,455
Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5

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