Adventures of Andrew Lenz and a Yellow Ball

Category: Pickleball (Page 1 of 251)

Hitting 3,000 Hours at Skypark

Tuesday, October 29, 2024 (Court Day #734)

It seems that fall has finally arrived. It is chilly enough yesterday that I broke out my jacket to wear to work.

I left work early and dropped off some paperwork with my parents. My sister Diane was there helping my mom go through old papers and deciding which ones to shred.

As I drove away from my parents’ home, I spotted Drew throwing a football to little boy across the street from his house. I figure he must’ve just been playing with the neighborhood kids. I don’t think they are related to him at all.

Scotts Valley

As I arrived in Scotts Valley at 6 p.m., the sun could no longer be seen over the hills and it was 63°F.

Pretty much this entire evening I felt that I was playing very poorly. I was not happy.

But the games that made the entire evening worth it was when I teamed up with David L. against Dave Ryan and Jay. Those great games to end the evening. 

I did a beautiful drop shot off Dave’s very deep lob, but I was trying to get back from the fence and Dave simply dinked the ball short over the net for a winner. I should have probably lobbed deep back.

My drop shots weren’t too bad, Jay hit two of my crosscourt drop shots into the net. 

Dave was serving very well. I returned one of his serves beyond the baseline, then my partner David did the same thing, another serve was perfectly right down the middle and the best I could do is return that ball into the net. Dave did get greedy and spun a serve at the sideline to my backhand, but it landed out by a few inches.

I was feeling my right knee in that last game. Shots were pushing angles and speed. It was great to be challenged.

3,000 Hours!

It wasn’t until long after I left that I realized that tonight I hit 3,000 hours at courts. That’s with regularly working 6-days a week. I’m sure retired folks or pro players can hit that in no time. 10 hours a week would be 520 hours a year and 6 years would be 3,120. I’m basically at 7 years, 9 months of playing, or 7 3/4 (7.75) years. 3000 divided by 7.75 = 387 hours per year or 7.44 hours per week or 1.06 hours per day. That includes long breaks when I had shoulder surgery and knee surgery and much reduced play during the pandemic. Not to bad, an hour per day on average. With waiting to play, that might translate to 45-50 minutes of actual play time per day.

Funny

Ever have a rally where you are at a big disadvantage? Use this handy device!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBtev0Ug1BW/
Now, you can have a ball roll onto your court just in time, every time!

Biggest Tournament Ever?

2023 USA Pickleball Nationals had 3,367 players. The U.S. Open this year had 3,074 players. USAP Nationals this year is expecting 2,400 players. The World Championship (PPA) had 3,234 players registered with one week of registration left and they are projecting that they’ll crack 3,500 participants making it the biggest pickleball tournament ever. Yep. Pickleball is growing.

Pickleball Entertainment Coming Again to TV

More folks are trying to cash in on the pickleball explosion…

Celebrity Pickleball Series ‘The Wager,’ Hosted by Jason Kennedy, to Begin Streaming Later This Year
https://variety.com/2024/sports/columns/celebrity-pickleball-series-the-wager-1236189805
“Episodes feature Kennedy and his pickleball partner, PPA pro Wes Burrows, as they compete against film, television and sports stars, including Taylor Lautner, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Shawn Johnson, Rande Gerber, Presley Gerber, Kit Hoover, Austin North, Johnny Lowe, Chandler Parsons, Bill Rancic, Colton Underwood, Golden Tate, David Dobrik and Eric Decker.”

Is it bad that I don’t recognize a single name in that list of celebrities?

Anna Leigh Waters

Interesting and detailed video about the current women’s #1 player in the world.


Wednesday, October 30, 2024 (No Play)

The Dink did a survey. Assuming the survey is truly representative of what’s out there, there was one shock to me.

I’m surprised that any group is still using Dura Fast 40 balls at all, let alone 1 in 20. They break like crazy. The Franklin X has been around for a few years now and is enmeshed with a solid head start. The Vulcan has only been around about a year, as has the Chuck and the S1. The Vulcan has a reputation—or at least initial reputation—of getting out of round quickly, so while it’s the official ball of the PPA ($$$), amateur players have been slow to adopt it… they have a choice, unlike the PPA pros.


Thursday, October 31, 2024 (No Play)

For the last 5-10 years, on Halloween, my wife and I have gone over to her former master teacher’s house for chili and cookies and to hang out. Marion didn’t make cookies this year, but we enjoyed chili while chatting and watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune with them. The visit meant missing pickleball at Skypark tonight, but this would give a recovery break to my knee and my neck.

Not my photo, but , yeah, that’s why I’m not losing weight!

Friday, November 1, 2024 (No Play)

My sister-in-law Liz invited Nicholas—who is in town for an appointment—and me to a glow-in-the-dark pickleball event in San Carlos one week from today. We both agreed to join Liz.

She was complaining to her sister Kristen (my wife) that her husband Steve was telling Liz they were losing because of her. One thing, she was not coming up to the kitchen line. She said she’s afraid of getting hit with the ball. I told her it’s a lightweight ball and won’t hurt much… just make sure to protect your eyes.

Injury

My knee is feeling better, so that’s a plus.

Doppelgänger

Sean McElhaney is known for wearing outrageous attire, especially at parties. I stumbled upon a look-alike online and just had to share it with the local group.

Yep, Sean responded by posting a photo of himself in his own sleeveless pink and bright colors top and shorts! 

Number of days on a court: 734
Number of total hours: 3,000
Number of paid coaching hours: 87.5

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

Pain in the Neck at Brommer

Sunday, October 27, 2024 (Court Day #733)

The right back side of my neck is still sore from Thursday, but it only hurts when turn my head quite far… so I try not to! But it’s not enough to keep me from playing.

I arrived at Brommer Park at 9:23 a.m. It was 63°F and sunny with scattered clouds and a hazy cloud bank hanging over the seashore and beyond.

First Game

My first game was Trevor and me versus Cassidy and Jay, which we won. Jay played pretty well. 

Jay, Jordan, Trevor

Jay and I played against Jordan and Trevor. Jay and I were down, then came back to lead, but then lost by 2-3 points. Jordan is always a good opponent.

We had a rematch and Jay and I won the second game 11-8.

By this time, it was only 10:29 a.m. and I still had plenty of time to play. Today is a break between my 4-week Sunday classes, so I had extra time.

René and I won a game 11-3 over Trevor and Kirk. Maybe we should split up to balance the teams, but René picked.

I was paired with tall lefty Greg. We lost 11-8 against René and Kirk. René made an effort to target me when Greg and I were way down to keep the game more interesting. 

Josh serving while I wait on the wall for a game.

Dave Cox

Dave Cox mentioned earlier in the morning that he wanted to play with me. Later, we teamed up against Josh (Bruce’s son) and white-haired mustache Chris. Chris is tall and probably in his 60s. I don’t remember ever meeting Chris before.

Dave and I went up a lot. But they came back and went ahead 9-8. But in the end, we won 11-9. Afterwards, Chris said that it was a really good game, and I know I certainly enjoyed it too.

‘Eh’ Game

At noon, Mustache Chris and I played against Asian Dave and René. René is still nursing a bum right shoulder. When they started falling behind, René lost interest and focus. And Dave, as a result, was also not totally into it and was playing a little bit lazy. Chris and I won in a lopsided fashion, it is something like 11–3 or 11–4. Too bad.

Beefcake

Mike O’Brien—who seems to have been nicknamed “Beefcake” by some of the girls lately—and I played a game against Kim and Alessandro. It was a fairly close back-and-forth game that Mike and I won.

Last Game

The last game was Mike and myself playing against Marco and a thirty-ish Latino guy named Matthew. Pleasant guy, Matthew. Mike and I lost 11–6. Marco was fresh off a tournament over the hill this morning and was playing very sharp. He said he filled in for Spencer there.

Afterward, Mike shared, “You are really fun to play with.” Nice to hear.

Time Conflicts

I left about 1:15 p.m. I would’ve stayed longer, but there was a man and his sister who were coming from Salinas to buy my daughter’s red Chevy Spark plus the Raiders are playing the Chiefs at 1:25 p.m. I watched the game live for a change instead of watching it on digital delay. (A perk of not teaching pickleball classes this weekend!) The man for the car ended up canceling out due to an emergency with his sister. Too bad, I probably would have stayed to play longer. Ah, well.

And?

Over the course of the four hours of games, I hit one serve long (after some distractions) and one serve into the top of the net.

I slammed one high shot into the net. I hit one backhand volley intended for outside of my opponent’s low backhand about a foot out outside the sideline.

Some of my drops were too high and resulted in a winner for my opponents.

Overall, though, I was happy with my play today.

Ouch

In the last game, the interior of my right knee was giving me mild pain with certain movements.


Monday, October 28, 2024 (No Play)

I must have tweaked my right knee a bit since it was aching a little this morning, though it didn’t bother me at all while I was out walking the dog. Whatever I did, it seems to be mild.

I may just crack 3,000 hours of time at a court at my next outing. That will be a big milestone!

Number of days on a court: 733
Number of total hours: 2,997.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 87.5

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

Nifty Aireo Paddle, Draggin’ at Skypark

Thursday, October 24, 2024 (Court Day #732)

I left work early and arrived at Skypark at 5:45 p.m. It was quite the light crowd, though I still had to park down the street and around the corner. The courts were full, but there were only a handful of people waiting to get on. It did get a bit busier later, when we had about 8–10 people waiting, but it was definitely nowhere near as busy as Tuesday night.

Aireo

I decided to try out this new Aireo paddle. I played with it the entire night and I do like it. Little bit more poppy than my Players Rogue 2 paddle (which is very much a control paddle), but I can put a ton of spin to the ball with the Aireo. Aireo gave me a discount code to share, if anyone reading wants to order one: AL10P.

Arg

I was playing pretty well up until the point where it got dark. Then everything was just a little bit off. With hindsight, aside from just having a harder time judging the ball under lights, it was also probably me adjusting to the new paddle. What I haven’t done in quite a long time, I hit the white tape of the net at least half a dozen times.

I got to sleep after midnight last night and it was dragging a bit on the courts after a couple of hours of play. Maybe that contributed to my woes as well.

David L. was on his game tonight. He’s a great one to play against to develop your skills against aggressive power shots.

We wrapped up my last game with about 5 minutes of lights left, at 8:25 p.m.

Leaf Me Alone

A bit of a funny note, as I left Skypark a small leaf fell on my windshield right in front of my face. It was situated aerodynamically perfect to stay on my windshield, even when traveling on the freeway. It was only when I stopped at the stoplight just a mile from my house that it slid down to rest by my hood. Amusing.

Neck

I tweaked my neck a little bit, so it was painful to turn my head left or right and especially when I tried and lower my chin to my chest. My back was also pretty tight so leaning over to pick up a ball was uncomfortable. As I drove home, I was looking forward to Advil.

I hit a few out balls tonight, and there were also a few shots where I wasn’t position to close up to the middle. Like I tell my students, you want to follow the drive that you hit. To the right side of their court, follow the trajectory toward the right side of the court. Hit to the left side of their court, follow towards the left side of the court. You have to cover the middle.

Normally, I’d be depressed over my play. And I was. But not overly so. Just a bit. Maybe I was too tired to be depressed. Or I knew I was using a different paddle. Or that playing under lights is never my best. Or that my neck hurt. Or that there are ups and downs. Or all the above.

Tennis Worried

This month an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Here are a couple links to parts of the article:
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2024/10/08/tennis-pickleball-courts

A key takeaway is the claim by the U.S. Tennis Association that 10% of America’s tennis courts have been repurposed for pickleball. If I were the tennis guys, I’d be bummed too. What I dispute or at least question is the claim of 24.5 million tennis players and 10 million pickleball players. Based on local activity, it’d be more like a 20:1 ratio of pickleball players to tennis players. But, given, I don’t go where the tennis players go, but I’d be shocked to see 30-50 tennis players gathering daily like you see for pickleball in our area.

Number of days on a court: 732
Number of total hours: 2,993.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 87.5

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

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