Sunday, April 23, 2017 (Court Day #19)
I arrived at Derby Park shortly before 9 a.m. to find Dave Allenbaugh and a woman who introduced herself as Vencia setting up the first nets. Maree knew Vencia though I don’t remember seeing her before. I helped set up a few nets myself and got invited into the first game by Dave.
The Signup Board
In a previous post, I’d mentioned the signup board used for rotating onto courts. Here’s a photo of it:
Busy!
Today was a busy day with people wanting to get on a court and play. Around 10 o’clock, Dave announced games would be “played to 9, win by 1”. This lasted for about an hour before the dozen or so people waiting thinned down to something more manageable. This was a far cry from yesterday morning in Scotts Valley when courts sat idle while people stood by and chatted.
Eric and I played a game against Maree and Jerry. There was a sequence where Jerry lobbed it while Maree was still back. From the left side of the court, I hit reached up and got the lob, but instead of hitting it back to Maree where Jerry couldn’t get it, I hit it to the middle within reach of Jerry who hit a passing shot right between Eric and me. I did manage to get a paddle on it but the ball went right back into the net.
On the next point, I returned a ball to Maree who was at the net instead of correctly hitting it Jerry who was still at the baseline. I know better! I made a nice unreturnable crosscourt drop (glory), followed by a slam right into my own side of the net (junk).
Now, what’s interesting, is there was a later lob while I was on the right side of the court. Again, instead of hitting it to Maree who was back, I hit it crosscourt to Jerry who was at the kitchen line. Same mistake. Eric and I still won the point, but it I made it hard on ourselves.
Me (near right) hitting high crosscourt on a lob return instead of to the baseline. Oops.
As the morning progressed, the wind picked up. It’s the windiest it’s been in my nearly three months of playing. Lobs went out of control, serves veered wildly, drop shots fell short, a net blew over! And the wind kept changing direction. It was blowing at my back then later in the game, into my face. As Rick said, it was like playing against an unseen third opponent.
John, Dave (Dave C., former neighbor), Bruce and some others were there, but I didn’t get to play with them. That’s just the way the ball bounces. (I know, bad cliche pun!)
What did I learn today?
• Slamming the ball at people’s feet is actually quite effective.
• Repeatedly lobbing in gusty conditions hoping for a better result each time is a bad strategy.
• Too often, I’m still underpowering soft shots into the net when on the move.
• If you are going to slam down the middle aim to a spot safely inside the court instead of right near the baseline where if you miss slightly long it’ll be out.
• It’s more important to keep the ball in play than to hit a ball hard or soft.
I finally remembered to give John P. his borrowed paddle back—one less thing to carry in my backpack!
I played two last games with Dave, Jerry, and Rick. We were all pretty tired by that point. Dave may not be fast, but he makes up with it in consistent serves and strategic shot placement.
After things broke up about 12:15, Eric, Ted, Rick and I headed a nearby Mexican food place for lunch. I went for a burrito this time instead of their burger—I stuck with tradition!
Ready for a Break?
I’ll admit, after playing four times in five days and five times in eight days has made me fatigued. I can recuperate a few days. Though, I have to admit, this afternoon I spent about 10 minutes in my garage working on my dink and to also see if I could pull off what Mark Renneson does in this video that I watched last night:
Nope. As you’d expect, it’s much harder than Mark makes it look. Even with me using opponents tossing/hitting the ball to me for me to serve as practice for this drill today, I still can’t do it. Talk to me in a year!
Number of days on a court: 19
Number of total hours: 55
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