Author: andrewlenz (Page 83 of 327)

Tuesday, August 20, 2024 (Court Day #704)

I arrived at Skypark at about 6:45 p.m. The courts were busy and, as is commonplace for the last few months, the whiteboard was out to organize the wait for courts.

Games

I almost immediately got into a game, as I joined Mauricio, Marco, Mike (nearing retirement) in a game. Mike would be my partner. They had all played a game already and they asked if I wanted to warm up and I told them “no” since it would take me a few games to get going regardless. Mike started out pretty well but I was missing some shots. Marco and Mauricio pulled out ahead by a number points. But then I started dialing my game in a little bit and Mike and I clawed back to even out the score. I started playing very, very well, we came back and won the game. While tapping paddles, Mauricio commended our comeback to Mike, who said, “That was all Andrew.” 

Binh & Shawnte

Binh and I played against Shawnte and Francis. Shawnte was the strongest and Francis was the least strong, but the difference between Shawnte and us was not as much as between us and Francis. I told Binh I was going to try to hit more to Shawnte. Shawnte wasn’t trying his hardest, that happens not infrequently when playing against good players but your partner is down a skill level … you just take the game for entertainment and don’t try all out to win which you know will be almost impossible.

Coasting

I got into a game with Francis against Mav and Beth. (I met Mav last week, he’s the PE major at SJSU.) They started out a little bit ahead after Francis missed a couple of shots, but then we went on to win. Mav and Beth were leaving too many opportunities for me.

Ethan, Caitlin, Nick

The next game was Ethan and Caitlin against myself and their friend Nick. Ethan, of course, was the strongest player, followed by me… and I’ll probably give the edge to Nick over Cait. Ethan was taking it pretty easy with some exceptions. I tried to hit more to Ethan to keep the game more interesting. He and I had two or three pretty fun rallies in that game. Nick and I won the game although Ethan was not trying his hardest.

Bad in the Good

Paul Winn and myself played a game against Tim Feickert and Matt Babb as it was starting to get dark. I was not playing as well in this game. I was forcing speedups. That’s not going to work against Tim and Matt. The changing lighting didn’t help me in judging the ball, but that was only a small part of the equation of my playing poorly. A lot of it was shot selection and needing to be more patient instead of forcing things.

We played a second game and finished about 60 seconds before the lights clicked off right after 8:30 p.m. I didn’t stay long and instead said my goodbyes to everyone.

If I had left about 8 p.m., I would have been happy. But I was not pleased with those last two games. I thought I was awful.

Agassi

It was announced yesterday that retired #1 ranked tennis pro and Olympic gold medalist Andre Agassi has signed a promotional contract with Joola. Expect to see “AGASSI” Joola paddles in the not too distant future!

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Wednesday, August 21, 2024 (No Play)

Yesterday, an article appeared about Novak Djokovic:
“…the defending U.S. Open champion and 24-time Grand Slam winner, will face Sinner in The HEAD NYC Mash Up on Thursday ahead of the start of the Open on Monday.”

Today, another article appeared saying fans were encouraging Djokovic to pull out of the pickleball event:
“@IbrahimKhory penned: ‘Noooooooo. Please Novak, nooooo. I hate this sport.’ Tennis fan @2016daz exclaimed: ‘Nooooooo! That’s the worst racquet sport ever.'”

At least Mr. Khory called pickleball a sport. Some haters call it a “hobby,” so at least there is a little victory there! Ha!

Number of days on a court: 704
Number of total hours: 2,930
Number of paid coaching hours: 66.5

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

Sunday, August 18, 2024 (Court Day #703)

By 8:45 a.m., I was in my car and on my way to Brommer Park. It was sunny and already warm. At least, warm for a warning in Santa Cruz, that is, in the high 60s.

I had to be a little more careful about how long I stayed since I had the first day of my new classes at Skypark. I have an Intermediate class starting at 1:30 p.m., which is a class that I have not previously taught. (I also have an Advanced Beginner class starting at 3 p.m.) There is no curriculum provided by Rec.us—which is contracted with the City of Scotts Valley—it’s entirely up to the instructors to come up with material to teach. I’m kind of surprised that my Intermediate class didn’t sell out. There are so many local players who would benefit from the instruction. Oh, well. Not everyone is serious about getting better.

This week, on Tuesday and Thursday nights at Skypark, I felt that I was playing subpar. It was a little depressing. As I drove to Brommer Park, I was hoping that my play would return to more of a common level for me.

Games

Aside for one or two games today, all the games were pretty decent—though mostly games with 3.5 players.

I got the games with Ying, Pauly, Trevor Fish, one game with Art. There were players that I wish I had gotten been able to get into games with such as Oscar, Binh, Conner, and some others.

I left the courts feeling that I played ok. Not horrible. Not great. But ok. Satisfactory, leaning towards ‘blah.’

I played a few games with Hugh, those are fun. He was a mix of great angle shots for winners combined with inexplicable shots into the net. He was just really inconsistent, though his play got better over the course of the morning.

Aaron

Aaron Hicks came today. I’d never seen Aaron at Brommer and very rarely ever see him outside of Skypark. He played pretty well today . He’s come a long way since he started.

Mistakes

My mistakes today included driving short shots into the net. Serving returns too long. Not staying focused and thinking about other things in the middle of the game and thus adversely affecting performance. I generally did a pretty good job of handling speedups at me while at the net, but there were a couple—maybe three—that either I couldn’t handle well or didn’t handle at all. There is a speed up from Hugh across from me while I was on my left, and I did hit the ball back down, but it landed about 3 inches outside the sideline, so my partner and I lost the rally.

I mentioned it before, but I really need to get out and drill. Playing only gets you so far when it comes to improvement. The problem is chunks of time. A 6-day workweek doesn’t leave a lot of free hours.

I will share a simple thing that brought me some satisfaction. In one of the games, we were in a dink battle with me on the right. And I dinked crosscourt and my opponent had to adjust and take the ball near the back of his right foot. Satisfaction was knowing that his return shot had to be entirely defensive and there is no way he could attack that ball. I was thinking, “That was a extremely effective dink.”

Sean Promotion

On the Nextdoor app, I got a notice that popped up about pickleball. It was Sean Lynch sharing a photo of himself in advertising pickleball lessons. Good for him. I know he’s been trying hard to get additional private students. I’m too busy running a company to have the free time to do that. One day per week teaching is plenty for me.

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Monday, August 19, 2024 (No Play)

Here’s humorous reel about how to become a pro pickleball player:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9x4ooaPohA
“Genetics, height, D1 tennis background, no job, private court, drilling partner with no job…”

Number of days on a court: 703
Number of total hours: 2,928.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 66.5

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

Thursday, August 15, 2024 (Court Day #702)

Guinness World Records

So, back in April, at least two world records were set. The first, says:
“The fastest pickleball hit (male) is 60 mph (95.56 km/h), and was achieved by Riley Casey (USA) in Mesa, Arizona, USA, on 7 April 2024.”
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/505349-fastest-pickleball-hit-male

The second, says:
“The most successful blindfolded pickleball serves in one minute is 41, and was achieved by Timothy Holt (USA) in Venice, Florida, USA on 21 April 2024.”
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/754254-most-successful-blindfolded-pickleball-serves-in-one-minute

Now, I heard somewhere along the line that a pickleball has been hit at least 70MPH. I’m kind of curious how many blindfolded pickleball serves I could get in a row, or in one minute. I can definitely do a number, since I’ve done successful serves with my eyes closed.

Pickleball in the Olympics

With the Olympics taking place recently, adding pickleball as an event in a future olympiad is a hot topic. Here are a couple of articles talking about it…

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2024/08/09/pickleball-olympics-seymour-rifkin

https://www.11alive.com/article/sports/olympics/why-isnt-pickleball-in-the-olympics/85-8c1671c1-1e83-45b6-8f72-38e42ddc6042

One hurdle is that there are multiple international federations/governing bodies for pickleball. The relatively venerable IPF (formerly the IFP), the World Pickleball Federation, and I believe there are some other upstarts as well. The IOC has to deal with just one and that needs to be settled first.

Also, a sport must be “practiced by men in at least 75 countries across four continents and by women in at least 40 countries across three continents” to be included in the Olympics. Some organizations claim over 75 and some claim under 75.

Revisiting Matthew Perry’s Post-Pickleball Death

So, this week, five people were charged in the ketamine overdose death last year of TV star Matthew Perry. We were originally told that he fell asleep in his hot tub after playing pickleball earlier in the day and it was an accidental drowning. Instead, he had multiple illegal injections of ketamine that day. It’s not a secret that he had addiction issues that he was fighting. Though the public persona was apparently one of being past addiction:
“At the time of his death, Perry was sober for almost 2 years, taking it day by day to overcome The Big Terrible Thing.”
From: stigmaunraveled.blog/p/matthew-perry-and-the-big-terrible
But that turned out to be fiction. Regardless, pickleball had nothing to do with Perry’s death, not even making him tired.

Knee

As I was walking the dog this morning, my right knee was sore. I’ve been icing it, but maybe it needs a rest, which I probably won’t give it!

Off to Skypark

As I left work and headed to Scotts Valley, it was sunny and warm.

Parking was insane. I saw people parking 2-3 blocks away and walking in dressed for sports and each carrying a backpack or a paddle. I circled through the lot next to the courts then gave up and drove back through stoplights and around to the parking near the soccer fields a five minute walk away. I was at the courts at 6:55 p.m.

By the time I walked back to the courts, there was one spot open and two cars just about to leave. It figures!

Ray, one of my students, was there playing. He said that Mary, another of my students, had just left.

And?

So, it’s 8:55 p.m. I’m in my car driving home after leaving Skypark, dictating to my phone. There were about a dozen people still there when I left in the dark. At the moment, I’m feeling a depressed. The last game, was Spencer and Jax against Marco and myself. We were trying to squeeze in one last game before the lights clicked off. When the lights did go out, Marco and I were down 0–4. And this was not on Marco. This is on me. Granted, it was twilight and growing darker by the minute—not my best performance time. This was my first game of the night with fully like-skill players. In all the previous games, I was the best player on the court. Unquestionably. While that is all fine and dandy, it makes me sloppy and unfocused. Once the lights turned off, it was far too dark to attempt to play. I didn’t play that great on Tuesday night either. I’m in a bit of a slump. It’s depressing.

Ok. More about tonight…

I partnered with a San Jose State student who is studying Parks & Recreation, Mav—short for Maverick. We won, but it wasn’t a strong game. I missed a few shots that I should not have, like a high shot that I hit out. After the game, I was telling Mav that I played badly in that first game. He said, “I thought you played great!” I told him a few of my errors and how I usually play better.

Isaiah

I met a new guy tonight, Isaiah. Isaiah has a really nice slices and played pretty well. For that one game, he was second best player, behind me. He’s tall and fit with curly blond hair. When we were talking after the game was over, he said that he had played fantastic in that game. I asked a lot of questions. He said he’s playing pickleball due to injuries in tennis. He said he was on his college tennis team and is a tennis pro. He said we was an assistant tennis coach at UCSC last year. He said with his injuries, he can barely get through his tennis lessons. He said he needs to work on his shot selection and I would agree. Although, he still has a little execution issues as well, as expected. But . . . if he sticks with it, he will be quite good at pickleball.

Kiko and Tristan were playing singles tennis on the empty court in between their pickleball games. I’ve never seen anyone doing that before. Both looked pretty decent at it, not that I’m an expert. 

After Dark

The older, trim Mike who was there on Tuesday, was back again tonight. A woman, who I believe was his wife, was pouring champagne into little plastic cups for people to celebrate his last stockholder financial presentation due to his retirement planned at the end of the year. Good for him. Rachel—and I think perhaps Aaron too–were sharing some cups of beer, which I declined. A little champagne is good enough for me.

As I mentioned, there was a group of players still hanging out when I left. I wanted to get home, eat, and ice my knee.

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Friday, August 16, 2024 (No Play)

The PPA posted a very curious comment to Instagram today . . . you can click on the image to take you to the comments/discussion:

What does this mean? I know some female pickleball pros complained last year about serves being too much of a weapon. The big debate in the pickleball world continues to be “hot” paddles. Maybe this is exacerbating the problem as it is perceived.

Number of days on a court: 702
Number of total hours: 2,925.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 63.5

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