My hope of squeezing in some pickleball on Sunday, February 19 was squashed. I had bit the bullet and signed up for the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club email list previously on Tuesday, February 14. (Hey! St. Valentine’s Day!) The weekend of the 18th was pretty miserable. It was cold and rainy. A club email arrived saying the only two-thirds of the Derby courts would be open on Sunday for only part of the scheduled time due to a flooded court. Given that I had relatives staying at my house from Washington State and the inclement weather, I gave pickleball a miss. I’d have to do without for one weekend. I’d have to get my fix by learning virtually and maybe some practice in my garage. Alas. As it was, I spent part of the day talking to my friend John P. via email about the guys in the club who sold paddles.
I was off from work on Presidents Day, Monday, February 20. I figured I’d spend part of the day scoping out a local sporting goods store, Play It Again Sports in Soquel. I called them up and they assured me that they had pickleball paddles. I’d been researching paddles and was undecided on what model I was willing to spend $100 on, but I wanted to practice on my own without having to borrow a paddle, so I figured I’d see what they had cheap.
A Visit to the Sporting Goods Store
I walked in and a friendly clerk showed me to their pickleball section. I asked him if pickleball seems to be getting more popular. Holding back a laugh, he extended his left arm in the direction of the paddles, “That we have a pickleball section now at all shows that!” They had about a dozen paddles of a few different types.
I explained what I was after and he explained that they stocked low end and high end but no middle range paddles since the pickleball people either wanted super cheap or very serious. I told him what I was after, that is, something nearly disposable since I’d be replacing it shortly. Not wanting to hold him up, I told him that I’d browse their selection. To which he offered, “You can always look online too.” (Uh, kid, don’t you know that sales out of this store that you work for covers your bi-weekly paycheck?)
Their low end paddles were very inexpensive. Only $15, which was great for my price goal. If I’d had no experience, I might have bought one. But these all-wood paddles were heavy. 12 ounces. I was used to a 7 ounce paddle from the ones I borrowed from the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club on Sundays. I didn’t want to practice with a lead weight on a handle!
The top end paddles were $80-$90. One was marked down on sale from $99.95 to $89.95. They were all Onix brand paddles. I’d seen them in my meanderings on the web, but I wasn’t ready to buy. But I was tempted regardless to get a nice paddle.
Instead, I bought a package of pickleballs for $10.
Practice, Rain or Shine
On my trip to the sporting goods store, I stopped by work and picked up a roll of 2″ wide white gaffer’s tape, a heavy-duty cloth tape. My goal was to take advantage of the large plywood panels the previous homeowner had used as doors to the overbuilt cabinets he’d constructed in our garage. I used the full width of the tape on the doors. I placed the top edge of the tape at 36″ . . . if I wanted to get technical, I could have placed it at 34″ to emulate the middle of the net, but I figured it was better to error on the high side (as the net is near the posts) than to err low and find me at a real court later used to a lower net! I ripped the tape in half long ways and used that to simulate the kitchen line on the garage floor at 7 feet from the “net.”
As long as I moved our car out of the space, I had my own little practice area.
And, no, the white bucket you see near right of the photo is not pickleballs. Those are softballs ready for Co-Rec league play in a few months. Managers get to store balls and bats all year for about 3 months of use. (I’m smiling.)
I was ready to practice dinking and maybe volleying. Dinking is part of the “short game,” it’s hitting a ball back and forth from one kitchen across the net into the opponent’s kitchen and back again. You want to keep the ball low over net so you don’t get a mouthful of pickleball smash!
Now, I just needed a paddle!
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