Archive for "Hobbies"
A Day with Lauren and Pat
Posted on July 17, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.
I had the wonderful opportunity to attend Lauren Stratman and Patrick Smith’s pickleball clinic at held at the Oklahoma City Chicken N Pickle this week.
Lesli Toubassi, Will Williams, Bill Schantz, Dan Harris, Barbara Clark and I all made the trip. We got to ride in the fancy schmancy Chicken N Pickle van, which is actually super nice and roomy. The van has tall ceilings. I can stand up all the way and not reach the top. All 6’7″ of Michael Harris almost fits.
The Oklahoma City location is a lot like the Wichita one. They are all very similar really with slight variations to the layout.
I do prefer the court configuration in Wichita but the covered outdoor courts at the OKC location are quite nice. Specially on a hot, sunny day.
Here are some snaps I took during the clinic.
We also took a group photo.
And some fun photos like this Pat sandwich one.
And one with both Lauren and Pat.
There wasn’t really anything new or earth-shattering at the clinic. Much of what we covered were things I had learned or heard from other people already but we did have some super fun drills. I recommend doing these clinics with your doubles partner or a friend so you can learn the drills together and can do them regularly days and weeks and months following the clinic.
It was such an awesome day and I am beyond grateful that I got to participate in it. Until next time, GNG.
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Pretty Picklers Podcast
Posted on July 10, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies.
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A few months ago I had a phone chat with my friend Kerry Shannon, founder of the Pretty Picklers, which we recorded for her Pretty Picklers podcast. That episode finally aired. You can check it out here. I met Kerry when I played in the APP Delray Beach Open tournament earlier this year. I didn’t have a partner and so I reached out to her. She replied and we immediately clicked. We are alike in so many ways. I’m so glad we met. I really didn’t know much about the Pretty Picklers before I met Kerry. I think it’s so awesome that she started this group. Not only are they having fun playing pickleball but these ladies are also making a difference in the community. Kerry also continues to come up with new ideas and new partnerships and I absolutely love that she started a podcast this year. It’s so cool. She’s had some really amazing people as guests and I am completely honored to have been part of it. |
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Fun Pictures from Great Plains Regionals
Posted on July 3, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.
Here are some fun pictures I took at Great Plains Regionals last weekend. Friday was women’s doubles day.
Here’s a pic of Eldonna and her sister Theresa.
Janelle and Karen = Fireball X5.
They won gold in the women’s doubles 3.5 35+ event.
With my partner Kimberly.
Kimberly and I earned silver in the women’s doubles 3.0 35+ but there is no golden ticket for second place. We still had a lot of fun, though.
Kimberly and me with (from left) Chandi, Michelle, Sharon, and Kim.
Chandi and Kim won gold in the women’s doubles 4.0 50+ event.
Saturday was mixed doubles day. There were so many rain delays and they sent so many confusing emails that my partner Ryan and I almost forfeited our first match.
Mixed day was a bit of a bust except for Michelle and Ramon winning gold in 3.5 35+ and Dave and Lori (#TeamBelew) winning gold in 4.5 50+.
Speaking of rain delays, this was Brian pretty much all weekend. On mixed day, it was both wet and cold. Thankfully, Michael brought a nice cozy blanket.
This pic actually remind me of the pic below from St. Louis. At least Brian is smiling in the above photo. Maybe because we are in Colorado. Just kidding!
Anyway, we stayed for Kimberly and Eric’s mixed doubles event. I think they were the last ones in our group who were still playing late in the afternoon.
Although mixed was a bust, we did meet this nice lady Natalie. She shared her wonderful booze with us.
I got a vodka and soda drink while the guys got some unique beers. Natalie had a great beer selection. She was super nice and told us to help ourselves to the cooler.
Anyway, it took quite a bit of convincing to get the guys to move over to the courts where Kimberly and Eric were playing because the guys didn’t want to venture away from the cooler full of booze.
The funny thing is, we had talked about going to the liquor store to buy some booze but then we weren’t sure what the rules were on that with us being at a public park and a college campus. I guess we were meant to have some court-side drinks because the universe brought Natalie and her booze cooler into our lives.
Sunday was men’s doubles day. Since I wasn’t playing, Brian and I spent most of the day sight seeing. We did go back to watch some men’s doubles action later in the day when we found out that Matt (Conrad) and Dave (Belew) were still playing. They would have been finished a lot sooner but there were, once again, multiple rain delays that day.
Monday was men’s and women’s singles day. I ended up taking silver in 3.0 35+. The Canadian lady Pam, who got silver in 3.5 35+ with her husband, ended up beating me. There were six of us in our pool so we were playing a round robin format of one game to 15, win by two (which actually is better for me because singles is a lot of work and best 2 of 3 games to 11 is killer). After four rounds of play, Pam and I were both undefeated. She was my final match.
It was kind of like a championship match, I guess, because whichever one of us won that match would take the gold medal and the other would take the silver. She was way better than me. It wasn’t even a case of I just made more unforced errors than she did, her shots were better – period. She was way better than all of us in that bracket skill-wise.
In hindsight, I wish that I would have played 3.0 19+ because the girl who won gold (Christina) was someone I had beaten in Arizona earlier this year (11-6, 11-2). She got bronze and I got silver. There were only two girls signed up for 3.0 19+ so even though she was 35+ she played in the 19+ bracket. Super smart. Since there’s only three of them competing, everyone was guaranteed a medal. I kinda wish I would have done the same and switched to 19+ also, but then I had no idea I would run into Pam. I feel like I am a pretty good contender in 3.0 35+. I just get really unlucky that I am constantly running into players who are better than me.
I’m going to get a gold medal at one of these big tournaments one of these days. But for now, I suppose I’ll just have to settle for silver.
Speaking of medals, Brian and I finally got tired for hanging them on our stair post and ordered me a display hanger off Amazon. It looks puny right now because there aren’t many medals hanging on it but once it’s filled up I’ll take a pic and post it.
I had a tournament pretty much every weekend last month. I’m taking a break this month and maybe only doing a couple of charity ones. Until next time. GNG.
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Picklemania MMXXI
Posted on July 1, 2021 by Ching under Community, Events, Hobbies.
My Rotary club held our first pickleball fundraising tournament a couple of weeks ago at Terradyne Country Club and it was a huge success. We had a goal of 64 players (32 teams) and we actually had 70 players sign up.
Here are some pictures from the tournament.
We had eight courts for the tournament so we had two brackets going in the morning and also two brackets in the afternoon. In the morning, we had a competitive bracket and also an all women’s bracket.
I loved how some of the ladies wore matching outfits like Michelle Pease and Lesli Toubassi (aka Tou Pease in a Pod).
Karen Fox and Jody Vinson (aka Drop It Like It’s Hot) won the women’s bracket.
As you can tell, we love our Electrum paddles.
After a long championship battle against Kim Knotts and Chris Heck (aka FSU) that ran all the way past lunch, Lori and Dave Belew (aka Notorious D.I.N.K.) won the competitive bracket in the morning.
My friend Erica and I won our bracket in the afternoon, which felt a little silly to me. I think I won’t play in the future. Mostly I signed up because I wasn’t sure if we could get enough players.
Erica and I wore our matching BIA shoes for Steve. LOL.
Mike Ellison and Adam Korfhage (aka Mike and Adam) won the all men’s doubles bracket in the afternoon.
I am so grateful to everyone who played, volunteered, and came out to support our event. I’m look forward to making this an annual fundraising event for our club.
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ICT Classic Pickleball Tournament
Posted on June 22, 2021 by Ching under Events, Hobbies.
The ICT Pickleball Tournament is our big pickeball tournament in Wichita every year. Last year the tournament got pushed to September because of the pandemic but it was as huge success so this year they decided to have it twice, calling the June tournament the ICT Classic and the September tournament the ICT Fall-out.
Here are some fun pictures from the tournament.
Me with Tiffany and Karen
MariAnn and Jody
With Fong and Chef Jen
Brandon and Tommy
Michelle and Krista
Erica and Traci
Kimberly and Brooke
Ramon and Karen
Matt and Sammi
The tournament was a two-day event with men’s and women’s doubles on Saturday, June 12, and mixed doubles on Sunday, June 13. I really only had a mixed partner lined up because Mason asked me to play with him but it was only $5 more to play a second event so I decided to play women’s doubles on Saturday also (knowing it would be crazy with Symphony in the Flint Hills that same night). I originally asked Karen to play 3.5 19+ women’s doubles with me but then she decided she would prefer to play 4.0 50+ with Tiffany so I was left without a partner. I knew that Amy wanted to play in women’s and since I didn’t have a partner, the two of us teamed up last minute.
Amy and I have played a handful of times together but I haven’t played with her quite as much as the other ladies so I figured we would do decent but didn’t expect us to do quite as well as we did. Brian and I had plans to drive an hour and half (almost 2 hours) to Symphony in the Flint Hills that same day and so, when he asked what time I would be home, I told him I would be back by noon — which is reasonable considering we started at 8:30 AM that morning and there were only 7 teams in our bracket. Well, 2:30 PM rolled around and I was still at Riverside Tennis Center.
Amy and I somehow found ourselves in the the championship match against Krista and Michelle. We defeated them earlier in the winner bracket final but they came back with a vengeance and decisively won the best 2 out of 3 games to 11 and also the game to 15, earning the gold medal. They were fierce competitors and truly earned their win!
I didn’t really have the greatest expectations that day. I was just grateful to have a partner and be able to participate. Making the podium was just icing on the cake.
Me and my mixed partner Mason. You can tell the players that teamed up because their outfits coordinated for the most part.
I met Mason during the pickleball event of the 2019 Wichita Corporate Challenge. He was representing his employer and I was representing mine. We were competitors who were united in our common desire to beat the Koch Industries team. Little did we know that Genesis Health Clubs would bring in ringers to win the whole pickleball tournament. Fast forward to two years later when he asked me to play with him in ICT Classic. I’m not sure how many other female players he asked before he got to me but I was flattered to be invited to play.
I don’t get to play with Mason much because our schedules don’t typically align but I have always enjoyed playing with him because he gives me room to play on the court treats me like a true partner and not just a body to take up space. He allows me to play but is there to cover for me when I get myself in a bind. He is super solid and reliable and and encouraging. He did not yell at me one time for making errors, which I was grateful for.
I felt like we played pretty well together, considering we’ve only played together a few times. We didn’t stack and strategize too much but with stacking, practice, and more strategy, I think we would be a really strong contender in this division.
I was super proud of our 0-8 comeback in the first game against Deana and Michael (#TeamOklahoma). We managed to dig deep and win that game 14-12. We didn’t get as far as I hoped we would but our first loss was to the team that won bronze and our second loss was to to the team that won silver (#TeamKC — Williams/Gleason).
I was happy with how we played. It was just unfortunate that we ran into these two teams so soon in the bracket before we could build more momentum behind us. I look forward to battling against these teams again in future tournaments. We didn’t make the podium but I had a lot of fun competing with Mason.
Pickleball peeps are so much fun!
Here’s a link to the full results of the ICT Classic Pickleball Tournament. Last weekend was super hectic with two days of tournaments, Symphony in the Flint Hills, and the happy hour joint birthday celebration at the Belmont but so totally worth it. I live for crazy busy weekend. Until the next one. GNG.
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