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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Traveling Home
Posted on March 3, 2021 by Ching under Travel.
Pictures on our trip home…
I’m so glad I arranged for a car service because the Uber situation in Phoenix is quite horrendous. Drivers just cancel your trip at random. Our Execucar driver actually arrived at the hotel a half hour early. Thankfully, Karen and I were both ready. We arrived at the Phoenix airport around the time he was supposed to pick us up at the hotel.
I breezed through security since I have TSA pre-check and then waited for Karen to go through the regular line because they wouldn’t let her through with me. The flight from Phoenix to Houston was uneventful but it did include inflight entertainment. Karen and I watched Me Before You on the plane. I’d never seen it before and it was really good. Made me cry – bawl, actually.
We had a long enough layover in Houston for a quick lunch. Went to the food court and had Panda Express and then when I got to our gate, look who I found.
It turns out Pat’s earlier flight got canceled and he got rebooked on our flight.
Here’s a pic of Karen and Pat boarding.
Our plane to Wichita was a really tiny one.
I’m not sure what happened but somehow Karen and I weren’t seated together and Pat ended up in the seat in front of mine.
I’m not a huge fan of having to wear a mask for hours on end but I guess that’s what we have to do now in the age of COVID.
Karen was so ready to de-plane.
Pat’s ride ended up falling through so we gave him a ride home. After taking care of the girls and starting a load of laundry, it was of to Chicken N Pickle — my home away from home — for a flight of margaritas because it happened to be National Margarita Day. It was so popular they ran out of paddles for the paddle flights.
The flavors were (from left) strawberry, jalapeno, peach and regular lime. They were a delicious and satisfying way to end my first out of town tournament weekend. Until next time. GNG.
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Final Dinner in Phoenix
Posted on March 2, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We were supposed to go to some place called Barrio Queen but due to a bit of miscommunication we ended up at BJ’s Brewhouse at the Desert Ridge shopping center. I didn’t mind it either way. I love Mexican food so I didn’t mind going to Barrio Queen. When we ended up at BJ’s, I was fine with it too. BJ’s is one of those reliable chains that has something for everyone. I think Karen was a tad disappointed because she wanted to go somewhere that we didn’t have in Wichita but we weren’t likely to get in on such short notice.
Besides we had a wonderful time at dinner. I got to meet her sister in law Martha (Ted’s sister), her husband George, and their daughter Kristen. They were lovely and it was nice of them to pick us up from our hotel and take us to dinner. And, I really appreciated them letting me tag along.
Here are some pictures of our food…
On the way back to our hotel after dinner, we drove through this area called High Street. It’s really neat with lots of interesting shops and restaurants. Other than that, we called it an early evening and spent the night packing and getting ready for the trip home. The weekend went by much too quickly.
Now that PPA Arizona is behind me, I’ve got my sights on APP Delray Beach Open in a few weeks. Brian will be traveling with me this time. I’m super excited and can’t hardly wait! Until then, 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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