Sunday, March 22, 2026 (Court Day #916)

I made my way to Brommer Park at 9 a.m. As I walked out my front door, it was 57°F, but it felt quite a bit warmer in the direct sunlight. It cooled down yesterday, but overall it’s been a fairly toasty week with the temperatures in the 80s.

Brommer

I pulled into the Brommer parking lot at 9:16 a.m. There were still traces of the fog, but I expected that to burn off in very short order. The question I was mulling was how warm it would get today.

Games

My first game was with Kyle against Zach and his wife Julie. (Rarely play with Zach and Julie, I think they are very early birds.) I did my best to try to keep the game close. Kyle was grumbling at himself, he was making a fair number of errors.

Kyle and I played together again and this time before the game, he asked me what he should do. I told him that it’s far better to get the ball over the net and have one more shot than to force it and drive hard into the net and have the rally be over.

Reserved Games

Rick Arnold arrived and he was looking for some players to join him and René on the #3 court he had reserved from 10 a.m. until noon. He invited me, then Dan Dewey was invited to be our fourth. These would be some fun games.

Rick and I played against René and Dan. We lost 4-11.

We had a rematch and this time it was closer, 8-11.

In our third game, it was a switch. We won 11-2. René kind of lost focus in that game.

We changed our partners and this time I was playing with René.

René and I won 11-8. We have been leading 8–1, but we were able to stall their comeback and win.

Rene and I lost the next one 4-11.

In our third and last game together, early in the game, we were down 2-8 but I got really focused. I did not want to lose this game. René was pretty happy with my play. At one point, she said, “Wow, Andrew! Beast mode!” René and I won that last game 11-9.

René told me that people should only speed up against me if they want to practice having the ball come back. She said, “You are like a Wall!”

After one rally when René and I were getting attacked in the backcourt, René complemented me my defense. I handled several high-speed slams in a row, my reset off one was really, really good. 

I have to say, Dan is extremely effective with his lobs. He’s got good topspin and his height and placement are excellent. You really have to hustle to get back and have a chance to return the ball.

We had some really great rallies in some of those games.

Daydreaming

My problem during most games is it they tend to move rather slowly, and my brain starts to wander. The rally will start. I’ll be daydreaming about something else. I think this is one of the reasons that I tend to play better in tournaments. I tend to stay more focused.

I left at 12:05 p.m.—I had to get home then to teaching. By this time it was completely sunny and it was in the mid 60s. It was a beautiful day.

Knee

I was feeling my right knee a bit in the last couple of games, so I iced it when I got home. I was wearing the cooling wrap as I drove from my house to Scotts Valley to teach.

Teaching

At Skypark after teaching, I was chatting with Marco and Christina who were drilling. In the conversation, I shared that Matt Babb recently told me that his DUPR rating is too high, 4.7—“He’s not a 4.7,” Marco interjected—and that Matt would like to get it down to where it should be. “He should call me!”, laughed Marco. I told Marco that that is pretty much what I told Matt myself!

Line Calls

This is a good video about line calls:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVqCPh5jUo6

Hilarious!

A new pandemic is on the loose!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWKYU09kppL

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Monday, March 23, 2026 (No Play)

Articles regarding pickleball in jails and prisons, pop up now and then. I believe it’s good. It breaks down boundaries by helping socializations outside of natural groups. It’s common in prison for prisoners to continue gang affiliation or to build groups solely based on race.
https://www.newson6.com/tulsa-oklahoma-news/pickleball-for-prisoners-oklahoma-doc-introducing-inmate-games-with-the-goal-of-rehabilitation

Someday, if I have enough time, I think bringing pickleball to incarcerated individuals, maybe juveniles is something that I’d like to do. Maybe after I retire. I don’t have the time nor flexibility in my schedule now, unfortunately.

Number of days on a court: 916
Number of total hours: 3,425
Number of paid coaching hours: 209.5

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

Thursday, March 19, 2026 (Court Day #915)

I left work and headed to Scotts Valley. Shockingly even with the sun lower in the sky, it was still 88°. I can’t even remember last time it was that hot at this time of the day.

Skypark

There were more players in courts tonight, but it wasn’t too bad. The waits were generally pretty short.

I had an assortment of games tonight—nothing stellar.

Mid-evening, I bumped into Jess who I had played with a little bit on Sunday afternoon. I would either put her in a high 3.0 or a low 3.5. She has very good drives and is able to handle hard shots coming at her for midcourt, but she has no soft game to speak of. Jess and I played a game against Aaron Hicks and River and we took a substantial lead. They started making a comeback but then we finished them off 11–9.

I was in the middle of a game with a woman named Val, who I might have seen around but never played with before, against River and Rachel Kuo when the lights clicked off at 8:30 p.m.

And?

I wasn’t super thrilled with my play tonight, but it wasn’t horrible.

I earned at least half a dozen points off of serves of mine that didn’t get returned over the net. Those were low and fast.

I hit a couple of high balls into the net—giving up probable winners. I attempted 2-3 speedups where the ball was too low—ending the rally.  I missed 3-4 serves tonight while trying to be tricky. 

I have little work to do on court positioning at times, covering the middle.

I had a bit of a scare, one of my Aireo demo paddles was missing from my bag. I looked around, but it turned out that Humad had been trying one out and hadn’t returned it to my bag yet. Humad is a good guy, he wasn’t trying anything sneaky.

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Friday, March 20, 2026 (No Play)

We had really big news in the Lenz Family this morning. Today was the national “Match Day” for those graduating for medical school. My daughter Charlotte got her first choice for her residency, orthopedic surgery down in Ventura. She is super excited about the program there and it’s still sinking in. Only three of her graduating class medical school (Burrell) matched an orthopedic surgery. It’s the 4th hardest specialty to match for residency, so she is thrilled. Last year, she earned “Student Doctor of the Year” and “Student Researcher of the Year” from Burrell, the first time in school history that both were awarded to the same student. (Each award is picked by a different committee, so there’s no “cross-talk”.)

Paddle Maker Bankrupt

Gamma Sports has filed for bankruptcy. Explosive growth only lasts so long as other businesses jump into the field and add competition:
https://usaherald.com/gamma-sports-files-chapter-11-despite-pickleball-boom

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Saturday, March 21, 2026 (No Play)

Bad news here in Northern California. The $1.5 million pickleball courts have been shut down in Martinez. The Hidden Valley courts were built about a year ago, but the neighbors complained so much that the Martinez City Council voted to close down the new courts. Martinez is about 90 minutes of driving away. Here’s an article about it:
https://abc7news.com/post/pickleball-debate-martinez-votes-shut-down-courts-noise-complaints/18733338

Nadal’s Pickleball Connection

Rafael Nadal’s is building a new tennis center in the Dominican Republic, and yes, it has pickleball!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DV9F2HrEX1W/

Number of days on a court: 915
Number of total hours: 3,422
Number of paid coaching hours: 206.5

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

Sunday, March 15, 2026 (Court Day #914)

When I left my house shortly before 8:30 a.m., the sun was trying to break through the foggy haze. While it was 52°, the weather prediction this morning was for the high today to be in the mid-70s. It was going to be a beautiful day.

Today was my sixth day playing in eight days. That’s the most playing I’ve done in an eight-day stretch in quite a long time. I can feel it a little bit in my right knee and also, somewhat surprisingly, a little bit in my right elbow where the bones meet. Though both are mild and are nothing that would keep me off of a court.

Brommer

I pulled into the Brommer parking lot at 8:35 a.m. and I got into a game pretty quickly.

I would be playing with Brian and Kim, frequent regulars at Brommer Park, and our fourth would be John. I don’t know John’s last name, but he makes appearances now and then. John is a big dude—about 6-foot and stocky. This time he had his young son in tow. When I asked, he said that he had four children, three daughters and a seven-year-old son who is there happily hanging out on the wall while his dad played. Like Ashley, John has some really nice deceptive inside-out shots.

Brian and I teamed up and played against John and Kim. John was the best player of all of us. I would put him at a high 4.0 or even a 4.5 level player. Brian and I lost 7-11.

We asked if John wanted to play again, but he said that he was going to wait. Apparently, he wanted to get mixed in with other—maybe better—players.

The rest of us decided to go onto a court and hit the ball back-and-forth until someone decided to join us. There were a couple of other players that were on the wall, but they were taking a break and we’re not interested in getting into a game right then. It’s not like we were worse players, the ones on the wall were equal or weaker than our three. Fortunately, Mo arrived and we waved her over, so we had ourselves a game.

This turned out to be a well-balanced and long game. In the end, Kim and I won 13–11.

Kim, Dan, Brian

The next game was Kim and myself playing against Dan and Brian. Dan was playing very well. Kim and I lost 5-11.

We played a rematch, and this time the result was even worse, with Kim and I losing 1–11. I felt myself getting frustrated in that game—it wasn’t frustration with my partner or frustration with my opponents, it was frustration with me hitting attackable shots. That’s not to say I felt that I was mostly responsible for the loss—I didn’t—but I certainly played my part.

Fortunately, we played a third time and this time, while we did lose, it was a highly respectable outcome with the final score 10–12.

Dan and Me

Dan and I teamed up and played against Ed and the very tall Dave. I like playing games with Dave, he’s very upbeat and personable. Ed was also playing very well today, the best I’ve seen him play. Dave’s got a good reach and he got shots back over the net that I was expecting not to come back. He also puts good spin on the ball. Dan and I won 11-8, but it was a battle.

Dan and I played together again and won 11-6 versus Ken and lefty Greg. I was expecting us to win that game, but we did have to come back from being down to do it.

Dan and I played together one more time and we won 11-3 versus Ken and whomever his partner was for that game. I don’t recall. Maybe it was Greg again.

Last Game

In my last game of the day, Mickey and I lost to Dan and Ken 6-11. 

It was now 11:50 a.m. and I needed to get home to get ready to teach.

Pickleball Royalty?

Bob Hansen, the former UCSC tennis coach, stopped by to see a fellow named Morgan play. Morgan is 57 and was playing with Casey, Sean, and Dave Van Ness, the Cabrillo tennis coach.

Bob was saying that Morgan was a student of his decades ago, while he was at UCSC. He said that Morgan, while in high school, played quarterback for football basketball and tennis. Morgan wanted to play football in college, but they told them told him that he was too small. So Morgan came to UCSC which had no football team. He decided that he wanted to play tennis for the university, but—as Bob shared—Morgan didn’t make the cut. But Morgan was persistent and continued trying the next year. Bob said that because he kicked a player off of his team right right before, Morgan got to play for UCSC in nationals.

From there, Bob said the Morgan’s trajectory was just up and up and up and up. Morgan became one of the top tennis players collegiate tennis players in the country. Later, he did the pro tennis circuit for a while.

The years later, he played pickleball a few times then decided he wanted to play in the pro nationals. However it went, Morgan is now a top ranked senior pro pickleball player.

Bob was pointing out to me that Morgan would switch up his backhand—sometimes he slices and sometimes he comes over the top for topspin. The point of that, of course, is to throw off his opponents. Watching him, there is no question that he is a very good player.

And?

I felt that I was playing reasonably well today. I did slam two high balls into the net to may have otherwise been winners. I hit a handful of shots long over the course of the morning. My main issue today was hitting my drop shots too high. But better are too high than too low! With too high, you always get at least one more opportunity to get the ball back over the net.

Teaching and More Games

After my class ended, there was a player at the end of the courts that one of my advanced beginner students pointed out as being very good. Of course, I was intrigued and couldn’t help myself and walked up afterward my classes were done and asked the three standing there if they wanted to have a game.

There was a guy named Karl, Christen (a woman, tall and thin, pronounced “Kristen”), and a short athletic woman named Jess. Jess was the woman pointed out by one of my students.

We warmed up for about 15 minutes and then got into a game. Karl wanted to play with Christen, so I played with Jess. We played a game we won 11-4. Then we played a rematch and we won 11-1.

We mixed up partners and this time I played with Christen. This was a much closer combination did Christen and I won 11–8.

The three of them don’t have my soft game. I think they’re used to their drives and slams overpowering whatever opponent that they have. Instead, I didn’t have much trouble handling 99% of them. Karl drove one shot right at me and I had my paddle facing tip facing exactly towards the ball which flew past my paddle and hit me squarely in the chin. That was a weird one.

[Later note: I actually had a mark on my chin for a couple of days from that!]

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Monday, March 16, 2026 (No Play)

Selkirk was the first paddle company to come out with a patent design with an open throat, that is, an opening in the paddle just about the handle loosely resembling a smiley face.

Well, there’s a new paddle company releasing a paddle that expands on this open throat design.

KOBO Thunder AXE Infinity Pickleball Paddle

Here’s what they say:
“Designed through a rare collaboration between an aerospace engineer, a race-team graphic designer, and a padel paddle designer, Thunder AXE Infinity blends aerodynamic science, structural innovation, and elite-level feel into one futuristic performance weapon.”

And all yours for about $400!

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Tuesday, March 17, 2026 (No Play)

Timex, the famous watch company, released several Snoopy pickleball watches this month:
https://timex.com/pages/search-results?q=pickleball

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Wednesday, March 18, 2026 (No Play)

USA Pickleball wasn’t fooling about them doing paddle testing at tournaments. Here’s some photos of them in action:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DWCcqbrErbV

And this is exactly why you wear eye protection. It’s always a shot that you don’t expect that causes damage:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DV6N4_ekdwi

Here’s an example of pros (the nearside is #1 Anna Leigh Waters) playing in high winds. Watch that ball curve!
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2119450465539799

Number of days on a court: 914
Number of total hours: 3,420.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 206.5

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