Author: andrewlenz (Page 93 of 328)

Wednesday, June 19, 2024 (Court Day #677)

At the trade show, I was talking to a woman in one booth named Lauren. I brought up pickleball—of course!—and she said that she played and asked my rating. I told her I’m a 4.0. She shared, “I’m somewhere between a 4.0 and a 5.0.” She said she used to play a lot of tennis and doesn’t really have much of a soft game. She lives in Northern California too, so maybe we’ll connect up and play some time.

Sunset Park

I used Uber tonight instead of Lyft. The trade show host gave all the attendees a $30 Uber voucher to get around. I arrived at Sunset Park at 9:02 p.m. Like last night, things were hopping at the courts. 

It was a bit warmer tonight, but still cooler than normal according to the locals. To me, it felt warm no matter what!

First Game

I went to the same court I played on last night. There was a paddle that was placed down by a pleasant petite woman who I think is Filipino. She introduced herself as “Cha Cha.” She kindly said I could join her. We got into a game fairly quickly . . .  ours were the first set of paddles waiting on the ground next to the court.

Unfortunately, we lost in very short order in a lopsided fashion. Cha Cha said that she played poorly in that game. Judging by only that one game, she was the weakest player I’ve seen on the challenge courts, but we all have “off nights” now and then. Maybe she plays better regularly.

After our game, she put down her paddle, and I put down my paddle on the ground behind her, not on top of hers. That indicates that I was willing to wait until after her game instead of playing with her. There was a bit of paddle shuffling going on with random people, and I think someone moved my paddle onto hers. After that last game, I was looking for more of a balanced game. So I told Cha Cha, “I hope you don’t mind, I’m going to move over to this other court.”

The Locals

At 9:25 p.m., I was still waiting for second game. It was taking a while. I was feeling as though I had been waiting half an hour trying to get into my first game, but then I realized that I actually had already played a game. That first game had just been so unsatisfying and short that I simply forgot about it. It was kind of funny in a sad way.

I was chatting a bit with various locals while waiting to get into my next game. I asked a guy named Eric if he’d join me. (My paddle was just sitting there first in line, but with no matching paddle.)

There was a man there, Bennie, and a young blonde woman named Jordan who used to live in Los Vegas but now lives in Arizona. She’s 5’7” and looks about 17 but is 25 and works as a CPA for a living. One of the locals said she is a strong player.

A man showed up and pulled a paddle out of his bag. It appeared to have the top edge cut off—the top was very straight across. Then he started wrapping his paddle with grippy kitchen plastic wrap . . . like you’d put over a casserole dish before putting it in the fridge. I was confused. Was he wrapping it up to ship and sell? Was he literally crazy? (We have some nutty people back home in Santa Cruz—like transients who forget to take their medication or are high on meth—so that’s what crossed my mind!)

Next Game

My game came up. It was to be Eric and me against Bennie and Jordan who had just won their game. Jordan had some really great drops in their game that I’d been watching. I warmed up with Eric for a few minutes while Bennie and Jordan got hydrated.

Eric and I won a close one, 12-10. We got off the court to get some water before our next game. Bennie shared a comment in our direction, “Cowards . . . hitting all your shots to the woman.” Honestly, that had not crossed my mind. And Eric and I did not discuss this—or much of anything else for that matter—as a strategy. Might we have sent more shots to her? Maybe. I couldn’t tell you. 

Next

Next, Eric and I would be playing against the “plastic wrap man” . . . his name is Jason. When I asked Eric about the wrapping, he explained Jason makes his own paddles. But the unorthodox paddle covering didn’t help Jason. Eric and I beat him and his male partner 11-1.

Eric said this would be his last game of the night. I shared with him that it was pretty hot compared to home, I was sweating. 

Having won two games in a row, I was expecting to have to come off, but Eric had said that “unless someone complains, you can just stay on forever.” Ah.

By now, it was 10:04 p.m. The lights would be on for another hour. There were somewhat fewer players waiting. There was a 20-something young fellow who had arrived about 20-30 minutes before. Maybe 6-foot, shaggy blond hair, trim and athletic. His name is Joshua.

Next

Joshua and I would be taking on Bennie and Jordan. After the last game, I was intent on hitting just about every shot to Bennie. And I did. I sent every return to him and most drives. There were a few crosscourt shots that I sent to Jordan, but probably 90% of my shots were to Bennie. Joshua and I won, 11-8. In the end, it didn’t matter than I sent nearly everything to Bennie.

Bugs

There were strange black bugs that that I kept having to kick off of the court. They reminded me of ladybugs in their approximate size and shape. I don’t know what they are, but at least there were only several of these persistent bugs. 

Next

Josh and I next played Jason (“plastic man”) and a man named John.  Kudos to John, he’s a strong player.

Joshua and I were both making unforced errors. Everything that could go wrong as going wrong. We falling behind and falling hard. We were down 0-7! Ouch! Embarrassing!

While on the left, there was one serve I made to Jason where the ball went down the center of the court. Jason tried to run and get it and called it out. I was surprised. Joshua and I looked at each other, then he said to me, “I saw it in.”
“I did too.”
Jason’s partner didn’t say anything either way.
I took a couple to steps toward Jason raised my hands and said, “Your call.” He said it was out. Jason was indeed closer however he was also in a full sprint trying to make that call.

Josh and I started tightening things up and went on a five point run before side out came again. We were playing much better. 

We continued to rack up points while keeping our opponents to just a point after each side out. Soon it was 9-8 and we were ahead. Then 10-10. Then we scored a point. 11-10. Side out. We held them. Joshua and I won 12-10. That was a 12-3 run to come back and win.

We finished that game at 10:55 p.m., five minutes before the lights clicked off.

I got in 2 hours tonight and five games, four of which were strong games. I said my goodbyes. I felt I played pretty well tonight.

Uber

After I used the Uber app to call for a driver, it took a while. As I watched the progress on my phone, the driver went the wrong way, made a U-turn, and generally got lost. But she eventually found me in the parking lot. 

Getting back to the hotel wasn’t much better. We went in circles and she apologized a few times as she missed turns.

I didn’t get back to the hotel until nearly midnight. It was a very long Uber ride. I was beat, but it always takes me a little time to wind down. Last night, I got to sleep sometime between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. and was up at 8 a.m.  I was a little short on rest but so worth it to play again tonight!

Number of days on a court: 677
Number of total hours: 2,864
Number of paid coaching hours: 43.5

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

Tuesday, June 18, 2024 (Court Day #676)

I flew into Las Vegas a little before 2 p.m. and paid the $15 to get from the airport to the Flamingo Hotel via a generic shuttle bus. While the hotel receptionist told me that my room was ready, they wouldn’t let me check in 90 minutes early without paying an extra $23. Forget that! So I headed to trade show area’s registration desk and they were happy to park my backpack and duffle bag behind their counter. I picked up my badge and sat in on a hands-on workshop demonstrating Swiss-made gouache paint . . . it is an art materials trade show after all.

Dinner

After a stop in my room on the third floor to settle in with my things, the show host company had an opening mixer at the Sol Mexican restaurant down the street starting at 6 p.m. It was mostly a standing dinner, though there were a handful of spots to sit and eat with a plate on your lap. It was fun to catch up with people.

At about 8:10 p.m., I opted to walk the two blocks back to the hotel and see about squeezing in some pickleball.

I changed, confirmed the courts address, and made my way to the ‘taxi and ride share’ area outside. Conveniently, I’d received a Lyft coupon in my email that would expire the last day of the show. It was warm, even in shorts and a T-shirt.

The app estimated the ETA at 4 minutes, but turned in about 15 minutes as my driver passed by my street and kept going. Unfortunately, there was road construction going on and I suspect the driver just thought “no way” and bailed out. Lyft assigned me a new driver at 9:00 p.m. and the estimated 3 minutes was actually closer to 10. Court time was ticking away, so it seemed like forever!

Sunset Park

Finally, at 9:33 p.m., I was walking through the chain link gate into Sunset Park’s pickleball courts.

I’d been told by the moderator of the Las Vegas pickleball Facebook group to go to the four challenge courts on the far side—the question was, where were those exactly.

I introduced myself to some random players. One fellow asked my rating. “4.0.” He pointed down the walkway. Ah. The challenge courts.

Challenge Courts

Once there, I was chatting with a guy about the local play and he shared, “some professionals play over there,” pointing across the complex. That would not be me!

He added, “They are going to be adding more courts.” Wow. My home, Santa Cruz County, is so far behind in public courts. There are only four public permanent lighted courts in the county and the lights go off at 8:30 p.m. except Friday and Saturday when you get an extra hour. There are also four other permanent courts and fourteen dual-striped courts spread around at parks but all with no lights.

First Game

I played with a man named Trent against Matt and An. (Pronounced “ah-n”.) We lost 5-11. An was the best of the players that I watched tonight. 4.3? 4.5? I don’t know. Good player. When I asked my partner Trent about his background, Trent explained he is primarily a tennis player who also plays some pickleball.

So, at Sunset Park, if you win, you stay for two games, then come off if too many are waiting. It wasn’t clear to me what was “too many”.

There was a pair of guys were using two sets of paddles. They left a set of junk paddles at a court to reserve a spot but were playing elsewhere with different paddles. Then they showed up at the court and swapped those paddles with the ones they’d just been playing with. I gather this is frowned upon here, but there’s no one to police and enforce the local etiquette. It certainly annoyed me. I was waiting a good while to get back onto a court and these guys were gaming the system to double their playing time at the risk of delaying other people’s games. Others were asking around trying to find the “missing” players.

The Laughing Lion

I played with a young guy named Stan. I was told that Stan has a YouTube channel. Stan said his channel features Las Vegas and is called “The Laughing Lion”. He also said he did a video about the pickleball convention held recently here.

[I left Stan my card and he emailed me his videos…
Las Vegas youtube channel: youtube.com/@thelaughinglion
Vegas Pickleball channel: youtube.com/@vegaspickleball ]

Second Game

Stan and I played a game as teammates. In a surprise, our would-be opponents had just beat Matt and An, a strong team.

Ours would be a close game.

One opponent did hit me two or three times with the ball over the course of the game. When hit him with the ball later, Stan was pretty amused and commented on the retribution.

I was on the left side and Stan was on the right. They popped up a ball and I hit it to the sideline. The player directly across from me called ball in, and I shared that I thought it was just out. My partner thought that it was out but his partner thought it was in. This pretty amusing. In the end, we give them the benefit of the doubt and let the call stand out.

We had been up 9-6, but they came back and were leading 11-10.

They thought a rally was over. Much like my game recently with John Connors, there was a fire fight at the net where I was defending. The balls were coming down fast. Somehow, with my right hand stretched out low to the right and the backside of my hand awkwardly facing the net, I managed to get the ball back over and they couldn’t return it, so we won that rally.

Stan and I went on to win 13-11.

Later note: In Stan’s email the next day, he said, “Hey buddy, It was great to meet you last night at Sunset Park. You saved our last game with that unbelievable defensive volley and we won by a slim margin. Nice work! That was my 11th match of the night and I was so tired.”

That last game wrapped up at 10:57 p.m. The lights clicked off at 11 p.m. sharp and a uniformed official came around right then to lock up the courts and the bathrooms.

In my 90 minutes at Sunset Park, I got in just two games. That’s a whole lot of waiting.

“Home, James”

The Lyft driver told me that it’s great weather right now—in the mid to high 80s—and it’s supposed to be 108°F later is week.

The rides cost about $15 to get to the courts and about $25 to get back around 11:30 p.m.

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And here’s Stan’s video of the pickleball convention held recently in Las Vegas, it’s on his main Las Vegas channel, not his pickleball channel:

Number of days on a court: 676
Number of total hours: 2,862
Number of paid coaching hours: 43.5

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

Sunday, June 16, 2024 (Court Day #675)

As I drove to open up Derby park, I knew it was going to be a warm one. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was already 61°F.

Not that I was particularly concerned, but I knew that in the afternoon for my two classes at Skypark, it was going to be rather toasty.

Elbow

Tennis elbow does seem to be making a comeback. That’s unfortunate, I really like this new Gen 3 Gearbox Pro paddle, but it doesn’t seem to be agreeing with my arm.

Sighting

As I was driving down Swift Street, I noticed a man riding a bike with a large afro. Sure enough, that was Brandon, the post-doctoral student who comes to play frequently. He was at Brommer Park playing yesterday morning too.

Games

I had an assortment of games, most were not particularly notable.

Ted and I played against Brandon and Rick Arnold. They targeted Ted mercilessly, especially Rick. We lost 5-11.

Lou

Dan Dewey introduced me to his friend Lou. Dan said the two of them played a lot of tennis with just each other during the height of the pandemic. (Much like Eric Schmidt and John P., who played skinny singles only with themselves during the same time.) Lou and I played against Dan and Brandon. We lost 6-11. For whatever reason, my drop shots were being unusually unreliable today.

The last game of the day was Adrian and myself against Brandon and lefty “linebacker” Aaron. We won 12-10. That was a good game. There was one dink battle where I was dinking backhand to Aaron’s forehand crosscourt. Back and forth, I pushed, push, then there was an opening between Brandon and Aaron. I drove the ball off the bounce between them—winner. Adrian chimed in, “That was textbook.”

I left at 12:03 p.m., I had lunch to eat and classes to teach starting at 1:30 p.m.

Classes

Today was the second meeting of my two back-to-back classes at Skypark.

Lindsay of Rec.us had requested photos of my classes either today or before my 4-week classes ended. So I asked one of my beginner students, before she left, to take some photos of my second class, the Advanced Beginner class. Here are a few…

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Monday, June 17, 2024 (No Play)

Ben Johns made an appearance on the front page of The Washington Times over the weekend. Pickleball is getting more and more mainstream:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/06/14/ben-johns-pickleball-superstar

Oh, and here’s an article on Ben Johns from 2019, I stumbled upon while searching for the one above:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/he-picked-up-pickleball-a-few-years-ago-now-he-is-the-national-champion/2019/12/19/9c833572-16c2-11ea-8406-df3c54b3253e_story.html

Vegas

Tomorrow, I fly to Las Vegas for a trade show. I’m hoping to get in some play there. I’ll definitely be bringing at least some minimal gear with me . . . one paddle, SCPC cap, court shoes, socks, shorts, one of my SCPC shirts, forearm strap.

Number of days on a court: 675
Number of total hours: 2,860.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 43.5

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