Archive for "Hobbies"
Charity Tournament at Chicken N Pickle
Posted on August 17, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
The Downtown Wichita Y’s Men’s Club held a super fun charity tournament at Chicken N Pickle on Saturday. It was a full day affair with competitive teams in the morning and social teams in the afternoon.
Erica and I reversed matched with our Electrum tanks.
Here are some pictures from that day. Above pic is with my partner Chris Wilson and Karen Fox. Karen played in the social but came early to hang out and watch.
Here’s another picture of the three of us with Lesli Toubassi.
Here are some action shots of one of my favorite pickleball couples, Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance.
Here are some action shots of Greta Siemens and Ramon Lozano.
Here are some action shots of Hanbeen You and Kim Knotts.
Here are some action shots of Lori and Dave Belew.
Lesli, Jenny Cole, Scott Wolford, and Tiffany.
Even after we were eliminated from the tournament, we hung around and watch all of the awesome matches. Here’s Chris with Dave Belew (and his wife Lori Belew in background, deeply concentrating on something).
Many of us stayed to watch the championship match.
Scott did a great job of recruiting teams. Lots of really good pickleball players came out to play in this charity tournament which is not usually the case. It’s pretty rare that benefit tournaments attract real pickleball players. You usually end up playing with mostly beginners and maybe a couple of teams who know how to play. I think that’s why the matches were so fun to watch.
I didn’t end up staying for the afternoon portion because Brian and I had plans that night (dinner and baseball) so I didn’t get to watch Karen and her partner Ian Carr take down the championship of the social (drink in hand) tournament. Janelle Lindeman and her partner Devin Hansen took second.
I think everyone had a great time overall. Kudos to the Downtown Wichita Y’s Men’s Club for putting on such a wonderful event. I would totally do this again. Until next time. GNG.
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Friday Night Fun
Posted on August 16, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
I know my definition of fun is probably way different than most. Brian likes to play video games for fun. Some people like to drink for fun. As for me, I just want to play pickleball. And so that’s exactly what I do on Friday nights every weekend.
I keep a pretty predictable schedule. Every Friday I try to hit the open play at Nahola before our 7 PM private group reservation that way I can get almost four solid hours of play on the weekends.
This past Friday, my friend Ramon was in town. There were also several others who don’t normally come who played. It was a busy night for open play.
I didn’t mind it too much because I knew that I would have my two hours after open play when it’s just our group of ten. I like this format because, even though we have two players waiting, the wait is never too long. And when I’m winning, I never have to wait because winners always stay and split. I’ve been playing pretty well the last few months to where I rarely ever lose. Most times I win and only lose when certain match ups happen. I can even win with Eric sometimes, which a year ago would never have happened.
I haven’t had any pickleball lessons in months but I have been playing a lot and since I’ve been playing with various people I’ve often found myself just standing around and not getting hit the ball. This used to frustrate the heck out of me before I knew how to help my partner. Over time I started to figure out what to do to ensure that I also get the ball sometimes.
It used to be I would just give up and hope that the game would end as quickly as possible, which was never any fun. With my new approach, I actually get to play some and even win some games too despite being on the weaker team.
So what am I doing differently? I’m sure you’re wondering. Amazingly enough, all I’ve changed is where I position myself on the court. If my partner is getting 80-90% of the balls, then I start putting myself smack dab in the middle at T. Believe it or not, this makes a huge difference because then it considerably shrinks the other team’s target. Now, instead of having half of the court as their target, their target has diminished to a third or a quarter of the court. This helps me and my team because then I get more of the court so balls will actually come my way sometimes and I can get be part of the rally. And, if they do force the issue and continue to target my partner, since their target is much smaller they are more likely to hit the ball out which earns my team either a point or a sideout.
This new strategy has been super effective and I’m actually winning more on Friday nights. Whereas before, whenever I would get paired up with certain people then I would just rollover and take the loss and wait for the next game. Now, the games are way closer and sometimes my team even wins!
The only downside of getting used to playing this way is sometimes I forget to switch back to normal mode when I’m actually paired up with someone good and I’m taking up too much of the court when I should be. LOL. Now that I know what to do when playing with a weaker partner, I just need to learn to adjust when I’m with a strong partner. Rec is always hard because you’re constantly playing with different people. I like it when I get to play with the same people on a regular basis because then I can get used to how they play and they can get used to how I play and we begin to build that rapport and chemistry on the court. There are some people I just cannot play with, though. Like, that chemistry isn’t happening, no matter what. Thankfully, none of those people are in my regular play groups.
This past weekend was special because my friend Ramon came to visit. It’s kind of a bummer that he didn’t get to play in Rocky Mountain Championships but that was good news for me because then he got to spend time in Wichita. He played in the Nahola open play and then hung out and joined us for dinner after.
I don’t usually go out to dinner with the Friday night crew because I have to teach Aqua Zumba on Saturday mornings but I made an exception this time around. It’s okay to deviate from routines sometimes, specially when friends come to visit.
This is all for now but stay tuned for a few more posts from this weekend. GNG.
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Weekend Pickleball
Posted on August 13, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
My friend Debbie Fanning sets up the best pickleball play groups. I still remember when she first invited me to play in her Friday night group. I was so excited! I also owe her for getting me connected with Tom Pham. I had never played with him before she and Dave started inviting us to play mixed doubles in the bubble at Riverside Tennis Center (RTC) a year ago. If it weren’t for these games, I never would have gotten the idea to team up with Tom last year.
We don’t do mixed during the week anymore because our schedules have diverged. Before I picked up additional classes at VASA, I was playing in multiple leagues so it was hard to play during the week nights. Nowadays the main hurdle with playing during the week is my Aqua Zumba schedule. I teach classes every single week night except for Friday. I have a 6:30 PM Aqua Zumba class at the Harry location on Mondays and Wednesdays and a 5:30 PM Aqua Zumba class at the Woodlawn location on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This makes it nearly impossible to get in any play groups. Even leagues are tricky. I can’t do a league that starts any earlier than 8 PM most of the time.
Anyway, in addition to our fabulous group on Friday night, Debbie has started organizing weekend play. They usually start at 9 or 10 o’clock in the morning, which is impossible for me to make because I have Aqua Zumba on Saturdays (Woodlawn location) and Sundays (Harry location) from 9-10 AM. There were a couple of Saturdays that I piggy-backed off the 10 AM Saturday group and started my group at 10:30 AM just so I could play with them. And then there were a couple of weeks when it was too hot to play outside and Debbie booked courts inside the bubble instead. On those times, the indoor courts at RTC weren’t available until later so I could actually join the fun.
The one day that has always eluded me is Sunday. They usually play from 9-11 AM at Rolling Hills so it’s impossible for me to join them. However, luck was on my side last weekend. The pools at VASA were closed for maintenance so my weekend classes were canceled. I didn’t find out until the weekend so I was on the waiting list but, luckily, there were a couple of cancellations and I managed to in.
I was so excited to finally be able to play with this group that I begged them to take a group picture at the end. I wanted to remember this forever because I wasn’t sure when the stars would align for me to be able to play with them again.
It’s so amazing that Debbie’s groups have grown so much. Our Friday night group is always a standard 10 players. Her weekend groups have gone from 12 players to an average of 16 players to now 24 players routinely playing a ladder format together. Even with that many players, she still ends up with a pretty deep waiting list.
I just love playing with this group. I wish I could play with them more.
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If You Build It, They Will Come
Posted on August 4, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
With my group fitness schedule, it is really hard for me to make leagues and some of my friends’ play times. I still want to play but, often, people want to play at the same time that I’m at work (because lots of pickleball players are either retired, financially independent, or just don’t work) or teaching a class. Last year, I figured that since I have some time before work, why not play at 5 AM? The parks are empty and the weather conditions (with the exception of occasional rainy days) are perfect. It doesn’t really get super hot until about 10 AM and we can wrap up around 7:30 AM, with plenty of time for me to make my 8 AM start.
Last summer, we mostly played at Seneca Park. There were some days when it was rainy and we had to move the game indoors to Jamie’s family’s gym. It worked out pretty well. It started out with just a couple of guys, plus me and another female player. Sometimes it was Karen. Other times it was Kim (Knotts). Then Chase and Logan reached out about playing and we expanded to eight players and two courts. We still did it as a mixed format – so four female players and four male players. It was mostly either four or eight last year and we played all summer long at Seneca Park, peacefully sharing the courts with the morning open play group that arrives around 7 AM. Those were the days…
Since the beginning of the year, I had been anxiously awaiting when the sun would rise earlier and I could resume 5 AM plays. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one. Several others wanted to play in the mornings before work as well. As our group grew to a consistent eight or twelve players, so did the angst of others in the pickleball community.
At first they complained that I was scheduling “private play” (these were originally listed as private sessions on Playtime Scheduler) at a public park. I was accused of only letting higher level players play and that’s why it was private. Supposedly, to keep the lower skilled players out. I honestly didn’t mean to be exclusive and alienate people. I was mainly just inviting those I knew for sure were open and willing to play that early in the day.
To rectify this, I made the games public. But then, when I made the games public, even more players wanted to play so we went from averaging eight to twelve players to twelve to sixteen. In fact, we consistently had twelve players most mornings. I think this made people even more upset. Specially those who can’t get people to play with them at five in the afternoon. Yet here I was and I was getting eleven others to play with me at five in the morning!
They were jealous and pissed and singled me out. Even though the courts were empty (with the exception of one morning, the open play group only needed two courts out of six at most the entire time that we would play), they would not allow us to play our ladder games past 7 AM. They wanted to hoard all six courts for open play even though they had eight to fourteen players at best. So on a good day, they would need only three of the six courts tops. However, because the posted sign said paddle rotation between the hours of 7 AM and 10 AM and 5 PM and 8 PM, they were strictly adhering to those rules even when they didn’t make any sense.
I vented to my friend Chris Heck (and a few others) about the ridiculousness of it all and how I was moving my ladder group to Edgemoor Park where we wouldn’t run into complaints or conflict and Chris went on a rampage. He urged me to stand my ground and not move my game and he started emailing people. He even played with us one morning so they could look the potential complainers (whoever they might be in the face). I think this made some people even more mad because then they emailed the USA Pickleball District Ambassador who lives in Topeka. I suppose so that she could scold me for using common sense and actually utilizing our parks to their full potential. She doesn’t even live here!
Despite all of Chris’ efforts and his support, I eventually moved my ladder group to Edgemoor Park because I was so tired of having to deal with all the conflict. And it’s like one or two people but they just cause so much trouble for everyone. For my own sanity and peace of mind, I caved. Yes, I let them bully me out of Seneca Park. Once we moved to Edge it was actually a lot nicer. We didn’t have to worry about the if people were going to complain about us and were so much more relaxed. When I was at Seneca, I really couldn’t concentrate on playing. I was always concerned with whether the complainers were present in the group and how many people there were and if we needed to wrap up early. I didn’t have to worry about any of those things at Edge. But moving the game to Edge meant I lost some really good players. Seneca was ideal because it was centrally located. A lot of our players who live out West did not want to drive all the way to Edgemoor Park, which is in East Wichita territory. So, moving the ladder group, did not have unintended negative consequences.
There were positive consequences also, however. Moving the group allowed us to grow from an average of twelve players to an average of sixteen and there was one day that we peaked at 26 sign ups! We could potentially fill all six courts. Who knew that there would be that many people wanting to play that early in the morning? It is beyond my wildest imagination. I thought I was lucky to have eight regular players last year.
Now that we are in August, I am done organizing the morning ladder group. The sun doesn’t come up until 6:30 AM these days and it’s too late to start ladder play if we expect to be wrapped up by 7:30 AM. So now, I am starting the countdown to next year. I’m thinking of restarting the ladder immediately after Memorial Day to get two whole months of play. I won’t even bother with Seneca this time, though. We will just make Edgemoor our home base. Until next summer, GNG.
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Making New Friends
Posted on July 23, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
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My morning pickleball play group recently hit an all time high. We broke records this morning when we had enough players for all six courts at Edgemoor. Actually, there were 24 confirmed players and, at one point, we had two more in the waiting list. When I started my early morning play last year, I never imagined that there would be this many people wanting to get up super early to play. I thought I would be lucky to get three others to play with me. Last year we often did get eight players but never in my wildest dreams did I think that I could fill up all six courts at the park. Morning play has not been without its challenges… |
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Play last year at Seneca Park went relatively smoothly but this year our group grew to an average of 8-12 players and some of the players at the park didn’t understand. Because we would often run past the 7 AM hour, even though there were empty courts, they felt like they should be able to rotate in. The challenge with that is because we play a ladder or king of court format, we need an even group of players so we can’t just have random people joining and leaving. There has to be a set number of players for a specific period of time.
First, people complained that I was hosting “private” play at our public parks but, honestly, the only reason that it was private was I was mainly only inviting the people who I knew were open to playing that early in the morning. Since people complained about the games being “private,” I decided to open them up to everyone on Playtime Scheduler. But even that wasn’t sufficient. Please were still unhappy that we were playing at the park. Probably because we were having such a good time and they weren’t because they had to wait for games to finish because they didn’t have an even number of people? Who knows?
Anyway, making the play public is when things really exploded. We ended up with an average of 12 players and sometimes 16. This morning, we hit a record-high of 24 (although I did have three no-shows so we really could only fill five of the courts — which worked out because there was a group of ladies that showed up and they needed the remaining court and, had everyone who wanted to play shown up, there would not have been an empty court for these ladies to use).
Since making the games public, I have met so many new people who I have never met or played with before. Y’all know how much I love meeting new people so I’ve just been eating it up. And then sometimes you meet someone so amazing that you just want to be part of their growth.
EXHIBIT A: Tony Mathews (left) with me and Cameron Tucker and Tyler Smith (in the matching shirts)
This picture was taken at the Wichita Metro Crime Commission benefit tournament at Chicken N Pickle last Sunday, July 18. I had only met Tony a couple of days before but the morning that we met was the same day that I found out from Erica that she couldn’t play with me in the tournament. Tony just happened to be at the right place at the right time and I had a lot of fun playing with him that morning, so I invited him to play in Erica’s place and, as luck would have it, he just happened to be available. It turned out to be a good thing too because he raise way more money for our team than I did.
Anyway, Tony is going to be amazing. He’s only been playing pickleball for two months and he is already really good. It won’t take much to get him to the highest level. I expect his progress to be a lot like Meredith’s, where she basically learned to play the game and within months was competing with highly skilled players.
I’m going to get on Tony’s good side now so that, when he hits the big time, I can say I knew him when. LOL.
On Monday morning, I had the opportunity to meet and play with a young man from Hutchinson, Kansas named Bo Tolbert. This guy is amazing and so much fun to play with. He was looking at getting some pickleball instructor certifications but most of the programs require you to be 21 or over so he can’t do it until next year.
This kid is going to be on his way up, too. He’s a great player now and I can tell that he’s still growing and has the potential to get even better.
Now that I’ve been playing pickleball for a couple of years, I’ve met all sorts of people — all ages, genders, race, people from various backgrounds. I’ve been people who have been playing a long time and others who have only recently picked up the game. I’ve met a lot of players who started playing and immediately got really good (Cody and Meredith) and others who have taken some time to develop their game and others who are still at the same skill level as when I met them a couple of years ago (and there’s nothing wrong with that — some people are content to play with their same play groups and don’t desire to play in tournaments so once they get to a certain level there is no longer that same need or drive to improve).
I am particularly enviously of people who pick up the sport and are instantly amazing at it (ex-tennis players and other really athletic people whose previous sports backgrounds translate well to pickleball) because my progress has been long and arduous and slow as molasses. However, I try to remind myself that it’s not a race. Some people will get there first and some people get there later but, if the desire is there, they do get there eventually. I think the key is to continue to make progress and I feel like that’s what I’m doing. Every day that I play I feel like I am better than the time before. I may not be exponentially better but even the slightest bit of improvement is progress.
So anyway, I’m just going to keep on truckin’ and eventually maybe I’ll wake up and all of a sudden I’m awesome. Ha! Not likely to happen but that won’t stop me from trying. Until next time, GNG.
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