Hobbies

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Learning to Play Singles

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies.

A couple of years after learning to play pickleball and playing mostly doubles, I finally learned to play singles. I generally didn’t play singles before because it’s too much work. You have to cover the entire court by yourself and, at first, it was just a lot chasing after the ball which made it not as much fun as playing doubles. However, after finding other people who know how to play singles and experiencing some really good singles rallies, I found it can be a lot of fun. Other reasons I like playing singles include not having to find a partner and it’s a great workout. I feel like a game of singles is almost as much workout as an entire hour of playing doubles in terms of effort.

My new found love for singles led me to joining my first singles pickleball league at Chicken N Pickle (it was also their first time offering it) and playing singles in a tournament. One of my goals for this year is learn how to play singles and get better at it. I’m happy to report that I’m making good progress.

The first ever singles league at Chicken N Pickle consisted of all levels from both genders. Out of the 14 players signed up, 6 were women and 8 were men. We all played one another regardless of gender during the regular session but were divided by gender on tournament night. The plan was to have the 8 guys play against each other and then the 6 women play against each other.

However, on the night of the tournament, a bunch of people were gone. I’m not sure what was going on with the men because only 4 or 5 guys showed up. In the women’s division — Greta was sick, Parrish was in Florida, Bayli forgot, and I’m not sure what happened to Barb. Since only Anna and I showed up for the tournament, we automatically got first and second.

I knew I didn’t stand a chance but we still played for it. We played a best 2 out of 3 (which surprisingly went to 3 games: 11-9, 9-11, and 11-6) and one game to 15 (Anna creamed me on this game).

You can watch our games (and some of the guys’ games) here:

I lost but I was super proud of myself for having enough energy to play all of those games because I’m usually done after a couple of games. I’ve often joked that, if I can’t win a match in two games, I will probably lose because I never have enough energy for a third game. I was also quite surprised that I was able to keep up with Anna because, being a former tennis player, she is amazing at singles. She did tell me afterwards that I was better than some of the guys that she’s played against in the league which was a huge compliment and almost a better reward than the gift card I won for being the default runner up.

Despite knowing that I only have stamina for a handful of games, I still signed up to play singles at the PPA tournament in Arizona. I mean, I was going all that way and it was only $15 more to enter so I figured I might as well.

I played five matches on my journey to silver. True to form, my matches consisted of only two games each time. I either won in two or lost in two — which was perfect for me because that’s really all the energy I can muster. We did take extra long timeouts, though. Pat (or of our pro friends) came and found my court and cheering section and totally made fun of our long timeouts which we completely abused. There wasn’t much talk about pickleball strategy during the timeouts. We talked about dinner, going to the lazy river, what we were wearing the next day — everything but. It was hilarious!

To be fair, I didn’t call the timeouts on most of these so I had to wait for the other player (who called the timeout) to say they were ready to resume. That’s a key difference between reffed games and not reffed games. When you don’t have a ref, no one is enforcing the clock (timeouts are only supposed to be 60 seconds in duration and then you have two-minute break when you change sides between games). I appreciated the longer break too so I didn’t complain. LOL.

Speaking of refs, I had my first experience with reffed matches in Arizona. It’s so different and helpful in some ways and not helpful in others. I learned so much. For instance, I learned that the ref can’t really help much with line calls. They’re really only calling the score, ensuring that you’re serving from the correct position (or you’re the correct server in doubles), and watching for foot faults. The don’t chime in on line calls unless they specifically saw the ball land and most of the time they’re not looking. It was a learning experience for me.

Anyway, I had a blast playing singles and even made a new friend. This is Jimena Monetti from Gilbert, Arizona. She took gold and I got silver. Coincidentally, I think we were the two oldest players in our division (I’m older than her) and we also play with the same paddle.

It’s interesting that I used to hate playing singles when I first started playing pickleball but now I’ve learned to love it. I signed up for singles league again this session and I can’t wait to play singles at my next tournament in Florida.

Until then. GNG.

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Chicken N Pickle Mixed Competitive Leagues

Posted on March 5, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Things to Do.

Mixed competitive league night at Chicken N Pickle is one of my favorites. I’ve played it in when it was on a Thursday night, Sunday night, and now it’s on Tuesday nights. I’ve played in it with different partners.

Tom was my first competitive league partner and together we were “Asian Invasion”. He is my absolute favorite because he is a joy to play with. The best part about playing with Tom is that he’s made me love playing with lefties, which is a complete 180 from how I felt about lefties a year ago. I used to not like playing with them because I would get confused which balls were mine to take and which weren’t. But now I see playing with a lefty is more advantageous than not and I look forward to partnering up with lefty partners these days.

It was also my time playing with Tom that’s helped me get better at stacking and switching. I’ve learned so much from the times we’ve played together.

Steve Vetter was my next partner after Tom. There are no pictures of us from league because Steve hates pictures and matching outfits. He is also very good and fun to play with but pictures and matching outfits are kind of my thing so I felt like we were very incompatible. He at least let me name our team “Vetter Luck Next Time” so that was fun. I love clever team names.

My next partner Jacob Thompson (from last session). I hadn’t really played with him much but I’d played with his dad Rick Thompson a lot over the summer when we were playing at 5 AM before work. Jacob was a really good sport. We wore our league shirts every night we played together and he didn’t complain about them.

He let me name our team Short Stack – a name I borrowed from when Jocelyn Devilliers and Matt Conrad were playing together. I think it fit because I’m short and we stack. Jacob is also a lefty so it made perfect sense for us to stack and I felt it was very effective. I’m also playing with a lefty in Delray Beach for women’s doubles so it was great practice. I also had a bit of fun with our team shirts. I had “Shorty” printed on the back of my shirt and “Lefty” on Jacob’s.

My latest partner is Dave New. We are playing in the current session as “New-B” for his last name and the first initial of my last name. It’s also a pun on the word “newbie” so whenever people ask who we are or who they’re playing against they’ll say the “New-Bs” – I’m so nerdy, I know. I love puns!

Our first night of league was Tuesday. Dave cracked me up because he said he meant to sign up for the mid-level league and not the toughest one. He thought Mixed Advanced was higher than the Mixed Competitive league so that’s why he wanted to play in Mixed Competitive. It sure sounds like it but it’s actually the reverse. Mixed Advanced is in between Mixed Intermediate and Mixed Competitive so the Mixed Competitive league is the most challenging league at Chicken N Pickle. Though, honestly, none of the mixed leagues at Chicken N Pickle are really all that competitive. The best mixed league available right now in the area is the Monday night mixed league at Nahola.

I guess Dave wanted to pay in Mixed Advanced but he’s stuck with me now. Although I have noticed that a lot of the same people will play in both leagues. I feel like if you’re not quite sure where you fit skill-level-wise then it makes perfect sense to play in multiple leagues until you find the correct fit. I just kind of got stuck playing in Mixed Competitive because there was no Mixed Advanced group at the time and I had already outgrown the intermediate group but I will really play in any league that my partners want to play in. I just want to play.

Until next time. GNG.

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Pro Mixed Doubles Day

Posted on March 1, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.

Here are some awesome courtside photos from pro mixed doubles day on Sunday.

Kasandra Gehrke and partner John Cincola

Lindsey and Riley Newman

Jocelyn Devilliers and Michelle Esquivel

Ben Johns and Simone Jardim

Kyle Yates and Anna Leigh Waters

Yes, we were really this close to the players.

Matt Wright and Lucy Kovalova

Had so much fun watching pro mixed doubles on Sunday.

We wore our “I Love Lucy” shirts and got a pic the woman herself.

Sunday was so much fun but also bittersweet because it was our last day in Phoenix. The entire weekend was a blast and it was the most amazing first tournament experience ever. I can’t wait until the next one!

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Pro Doubles Day

Posted on March 1, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.

Saturday was men’s and women’s pro doubles day. It was a really long day. The guys started playing at 8 AM and didn’t finish until almost 10 o’clock in the evening. Saturday was also the day that I played mixed and even though I didn’t do well in my event I had a lot of fun spectating. We also got a ton of great pics.

Here are a couple of pics from my mandatory player orientation for mixed doubles on Saturday. This is how they start all of the events.

Karen, Chandi, Krista, and I with our #1 female pickleball idol, Lucy Kovalova.

Karen and I also got pics with Dayne Gingrich (left) and Dave Weinbach (right).

And also with our favorite men’s doubles team, the #WichitaBoys aka #TeamModel aka #TeamEurope — Patrick Smith (in white) and Jocelyn Devilliers (in blue).

I also got some awesome pics courtside. This is team Waters, Leigh (left) and daughter Anna Leigh (right).

Kyle Yates and Matt Wright — this is the first time I’ve seen them play together again since the Franklin Pickleball Masters pickleball invitational tournament at Chicken N Pickle almost two years ago.

Lucy and Simone, who I like to call team #Lucimone, are the most dominant women’s doubles team and super fun to watch.

#TeamSelkirk’s Tyson McGuffin and Riley Newman.

The #CaliforniaBoys DJ Young and Callan Dawson pictured below both play for #TeamProkennex.

#TeamUtah’s Tyler Loong and Spencer Smith were so much fun to watch.

Our #WichitaBoys in action — Pat in white and Jocelyn in blue.

Chandi and Krista made a Jocelyn sandwich to keep him warm.

Arizona gets really cold at night. Pat was nice enough to let us borrow his clothes to keep warm. Karen got his pants and I got his pullover jacket. Jocelyn also let Karen borrow his hoodie. Our boys are the sweetest.

Though I didn’t do well, it was a very successful tournament day for the Wichita crew. Lucy and Simone took gold in women’s pro doubles and Jocelyn and Pat took silver in men’s pro doubles. It was totally worth sitting in the freezing cold to watch.

More from the PPA Arizona tournament next time. Until then GNG.

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Late Night Practice

Posted on February 28, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.

Dylan Frazier and Chris Heck arrived in Phoenix on Friday night and went straight to the pickleball courts. We got to watch their practice session with Matt Wright and Kyle Yates.

The funny part about this is that I think Chris only told me where they would be so I would take pictures but the best part is I got to meet a little chess master and had a fun little game of chess.