Category: Pickleball (Page 108 of 324)

Sunday, March 10, 2024 (Court Day #634)

Today is the day of the time change—”spring forward”—meaning we all have to get up an hour earlier. It’s brutal. While I was driving to Derby Park under cloudy skies with a 52° temperature, I had to wonder how many people would be there at 9 o’clock since yesterday at this hour it was 8 o’clock. My expectation was that people would sleep in a little bit later.

Today would be my third day playing in four days. That’s good, we’ll see if I can get my play back up to snuff. It’s been frustrating.

Eyewear

I learned this week that Anna Leigh Waters—the 16-year-old phenom and the #1 women’s player in the world—always sports eyewear when she plays. I also learned that her glasses are prescription. I’m wondering a little bit since I’m slightly nearsighted, if it would help to have prescription protective eyewear to play. Generally, I don’t think the corrective aspect of it would make much difference to me—I don’t wear glasses except when I feel like it and it’s convenient, maybe when watching TV in our living room or when I remember to bring them to a conference and have to look at projected slides. The hardest thing for me is playing under lights, which completely messes up my depth perception at times. Regardless, I nearly never play without eye protection—I think it’s been 2-3 times in 4-5 years and it was always against beginners. One very near miss and that was all I needed to get my act together.

Newbies

The funnest part of today’s session was teaching some new players at 11:30 a.m. There was John, who is in his mid-30s, and his friend Natalia who said she was 28, and yet another beginner who showed up named David—a retired UCSC astrophysicist professor. When I asked, David said that he does now the father of a friend of mine, another retired UCSC astrophysicist professor, Dr. Peter Bodenheimer. John and Natalia had wooden paddles that they had purchased as part of a cheap set. David have been gifted a paddle by a family—a nice one, a Ben Johns signature Joola paddle. All three had never played before, so I went through the normal stuff such as a non-volley zone, the double bounce rule, the two types of serves, how to hold the paddle, etc. They all did pretty well. After the explanations and warming up with dinking, I only played a few points in a game with them before I had to leave to teach out at Willowbrook. I had asked Ted earlier in the morning if he would be around at noon and I asked if he would close he agreed.

While I won a lot of games today, it was kind of a boring outing. For most of the morning, I was unquestionably the best player there out of 40 people. A little bit later on, Bob Hansen showed up then Hugh and Brandon . . . so there were more stronger players. The dream game would’ve been the four of us , but that didn’t lineup. Only now, much later, do I realize that maybe I should’ve started a box in blue (4.0+) and then waited for the others to come off of the court and force the game that way. I imagine Bob would’ve been up for it. I half expected him to leave after experiencing some of the lower skills games. Truth be told, I wasn’t the site coordinator, I’d probably have headed to Brommer Park to get in some stronger games. Unfortunately, the club has a hard time finding people to commit to being a coordinator for every week. There are plenty of players willing to be back up site coordinators without the responsibility of week to week, but that only goes so far.

Willowbrook Class

I taught my class today then I also taught Sean’s class today since he’s out of town. Then Sean will cover my March 24 class since I’ll be out of town. (It’s a wash.) So I had two in a row this afternoon. It’s always bittersweet wrapping up a class. After the second class today, one student shared, “You are a great coach.” Then another chimed in, “You are a wealth of information!” Those are the moments that make coaching worthwhile.

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Monday, March 11, 2024 (No Play)

Yesterday, I reached out to Joola yesterday to see if I qualified for a discount with my various pickleball roles. They got back to me and offered at 10% discount. Nothing like some of the discounts offered from other manufacturers, but better than a sharp stick to the eye.

Backpack

I’m on a quest to find my perfect pickleball backpack. There are things I like and dislike about every one I’ve found so far. A key for me is I nearly always hang mine on a fence, so it has to be very functional for a vertical orientation. The Joola was very promising, with a lot of pockets, but the zippers and pockets are more designed for use when the bag is set down horizontally. The quest continues!

Number of days on a court: 634
Number of total hours: 2,745
Number of paid coaching hours: 21.5

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

Saturday, March 9, 2024 (Court Day #633)

René asked a couple days ago if I was gonna be playing today or not. Staffing is in pretty good shape at work. I did have to let go a new hire had been with us about a week. It wasn’t working out as well as we had hoped. There’s nothing too major, but a number of little red flags accumulated into enough of a problem. I figured it would be better to nip it in the bud. But even with him gone and one of my staff testing positive with COVID today and being out, we still have enough staff and experience there. There are no “fires” to put out, so figured I’d take the opportunity to get out and play a little bit . . . hopefully, better than I did Thursday night.

The inside of my right knee continues to be a little uncomfortable at times but also perfectly fine other times.

Brommer Park

I left my house at 8:50 a.m. under hazy clouds. There was a temperature in the mid 50s.

I pulled into the Brommer Park lot a few minutes after 9 a.m. and there was plenty of parking. I got into a game fairly quickly and played ok. Barely ok.

In that first game, I partnered with a regular, Paul, and he asked my name. “Andrew.”
“What’s your last name?”
“Lenz.”
“Oh, you’re famous.”
I laughed! (Not so famous that he didn’t have to ask my name!)

Over the course of the morning, I was disappointed and frustrated in my play. Some shots were too high. I had serves and returns and other shots into the net. I popped the ball up to my opponents. For the last game, I played a game with a fellow named Marco against Dieter and René. Marco wasn’t playing stellar, but I felt primarily responsible for a loss 2–11. In that last game, I was dragging due to lack of energy probably from me not eating breakfast and I didn’t bring any snacks today.

All that said, I definitely moments of good play. There was a game where René and I played against Mauricio—my nearby neighbor—and Evon (“Ah-von”). After a net battle, Evon told me, “Andrew, he have really fast hands.” I’d never played with Evon, he’s a good player.

Drilling with Mauricio?

Mauricio was there, and I talked to him about the shared court behind his house. He said the court isn’t good enough to play a game on, but it is adequate for drilling.

Mauricio says that the company that he works for is based on the East Coast so he typically starts work between 6 and 6:30 a.m. That’s fairly early for me. If I got up up at 6:30 every day, there’s little doubt that I’d be sleep deprived on a regular basis. 

There are no ifs, ands, or buts. I really need to start drilling if I’m going to get better. The lack of consistent play in the last nine months has been detrimental to my performance. I’ll just have to take my lumps until I work my way back to playing well consistently.

I checked the time 11:48 a.m. After the poor performance of that last game, and lack of energy, I decided to call it a day and head home then to work.

Number of days on a court: 633
Number of total hours: 2,742
Number of paid coaching hours: 17

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

Thursday, March 7, 2024 (Court Day #632)

Today was the 4-hour Santa Cruz Pickleball Club Board “retreat” . . . basically, a long meeting, spanning from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with a brief lunch break. We covered a lot of ground, but there is a bunch of work to do. After our president, Mark Dettle, had some opening remarks, as Secretary, I launched into a review of the survey we sent out to our membership. The survey covered some biographical information about each respondent along with guidance for on how to prioritize our efforts. There’s no question that adding new courts is the priority. Another insight is that players would rather pay $2 for each outing than have a higher annual membership fee.

Backpack

My Engage backpack was delivered today while I was at the board meeting. I thought I’d asked for it to be shipped to my work, but instead it was delivered to the porch of my house. Later in the afternoon, my wife told me that it arrived, so it hadn’t been stolen. Fortunately, things getting stolen off of porches is uncommon in my neighborhood, but it does happen.

Skypark

The time change is coming this weekend and though I hate getting up an hour earlier, it’s going to be nice having more light in the evening. As I was driving to Skypark, while it was dark, there is still an inkling of light in the sky at 6:45 p.m. My car’s dashboard thermometer read 54°F. That’s not a big surprise, since we’re still in winter for another couple of weeks. Next week, also being an hour later, it’s also going be warmer later.

Last night, I went to a concert in downtown Santa Cruz. I parked at work and walked 10 to 15 blocks to performance location. About halfway through my trek, the interior of my right knee began to hurt a little bit. Tonight, it was mildly aching when had my right foot on the gas pedal or the brake. I’ve been wearing the knee brace at Ted gave me at nearly every pickleball play outing that I’ve had—with the exception of a couple outings.

I pulled up to the courts at 6:50 p.m. I found a place to park in the paved lot over in the corner although it wasn’t striped as an official spot. Nonetheless, I was happy that I didn’t have to drive around the neighborhood trying to find a place.

It was busy, but on the lighter end of attendance.

First Game

I got into a game right off the bat with Matt Babb and David with Casey as my partner. I told Casey that does it take me about three games to get warmed up. Casey smiled and announced to our opponents across the net, “Does anyone else want to play with Andrew?“ I busted up laughing.

As expected, I didn’t play that great and Casey and I lost by a significant margin. The second game was slightly better, but still bad on my part.

In the third game, it was Matt and me against Casey and his dad, Tim. That game I started to dial things in but Matt and I still lost 7-11.

I played a game with Mark Dettle against Mauricio and Diego. We took a quick lead but then Mark started missing shots. We ended up losing.

Overall, I was not happy with my play tonight. I was disappointed.

Maurcio and Diego

Mauricio had carpooled with Diego to Skypark, and when it came time for Mauricio to get home to his fiancé, he suggested to Diego that I could give Diego a ride home. I agreed.

After the lights went off, I drove Diego home which is about 2 to 3 minutes from my house, a mere few blocks away. The company was welcome, it kept my mind busy and not feeling depressed on my way home.

But after I dropped off Diego, that’s when the “play depression“ set in.

Bleh

Today was pretty miserable. Some examples of my play tonight:

• I hit the white tape at the top of the net at least 2-3 times.
• Maybe half a dozen of my drop shots ended up in the net.
• I had 2–3 overhead slams that I hit into my side of the net.
• With Matt as my partner, there is a lob where we both raced back where I had the forehand and defensively lobbed it back… right past my opponents baseline and out! Arg.
• I hit a few of my serves out.
• On either a third shot, or a fifth shot, I lobbed from the baseline (dumb), and it wasn’t nearly deep enough and Mauricio hit it hard, and my partner couldn’t get it back over the net as a result.

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Friday, March 8, 2024. (No Play)

I made this morning was one of residual frustration. I want to play better than I am. Talking to Diego last night, he was very interested in drilling with me when I suggested that. He said that he’s not up early, so realistically, it probably have to be after work.

When I mentioned the shared tennis court behind Mauricio and Shay’s house, Diego told me that the court there is not in very good condition. When I asked for more information, he says it is not just that it’s cracked, it’s that the ground is even because tree roots are pushing the surface up. So, unfortunately, it’s a bad place to drill and play.

Engage Backpack

Boy, buying a backpack by mail is proving to be a drag. The Engage backpack is really well made. Heavy material. Some insulation in a few compartments. But… it has no hanging hook—I have to add a carabiner—and more of a concern, not enough small pockets. It has one small pocket. There are two long thin pockets on the sides, but if you want to organize keys, sunscreen, pens, starting server band, protective glasses, snack bars, and an assortment of other bits, then it’ll be a bit of a mess.

Number of days on a court: 632
Number of total hours: 2,739.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 17

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