Month: April 2017 (Page 6 of 6)

Sunday, April 2, 2017 (Court Day #11)

Panorama of Derby Park

My wife had an unrelated but apropos phrase that happened to apply to my games today: “You have to fail to learn.”

It’d be easy to blame it on my borrowed paddle that has dings in the face and a grip that is too small—except that I’ve been using it for two months and have played better while use it.

It’d be easy to blame my sore right shoulder, sore from hurling the softball yesterday for about half an hour with my college-aged son—except I didn’t even notice the soreness until the last 30-45 minutes and even then it was passing.

This simply has to fall on what’s between the ears.

Arrival

I got to the courts about 9:15 under cloudy skies that would later give way to sunburn. I was a bit late since I was copying game video files over for John. If I had another data stick around, I would have made some copies for Eric too, but as it was, he gave me one when I got to Derby. Anyway, being that I left at 12:20, I still got a solid 3 hours in. Even with the largest crowd I’ve ever seen there—Dave, the SCPC head, loudly announced, “We’re playing games to 9, not 11. We have a lot of people waiting.”—waits weren’t too bad between games.

I played a game with John where I hit a serve low and short and the receiver ran up and returned it into the net. John—cracks me up—said, “Oh, that was sneaky, Andrew. Nice mixing them up. Did you do that on purpose?” “Yep!” There were a few failed returns like that today off of my serves. That’s a plus, right?

My serve dropping just past the kitchen line. (Just right of that white line.) Yes, it was intentional!

But it was just one of those days with more bad than good. I had my moments, but there were too many bad ones that stick in my mind. I’m a perfectionist. I can’t help it.

Hey, Nice…

Later in the morning, it was nice that Bruce and I were able to squeak a game past Ray and his wife Robin, both solid players. I was pretty pleased with myself and Bruce.

…But Back to Reality

But the next game, a tall nice fellow named Jeff along with young Tom L. took Bruce and me apart. Tom is roughly as skilled as I am. Then the following game pitted Jeff and Ileana against Tom and me, figuring it’d be more fair since Ileana was the weakest player of the four. But Jeff is a force of nature. He and Ileana still clobbered us with a final score something like 11-3. Jeff has an excellent command of intense spins and reliable ball placement. He shared that he had a lot of experience with a variety of racket sports . . . as they used say back in the day, “No doy!” (Which translates, “no duh” or “no surprise there”!) Jeff is at least a 4.0 player and maybe a 4.5 player. Heck, maybe even a 5.0.

Frustration and Hours

I have to admit that I’m a bit depressed and frustrated with what felt like a relapse today. But I have to remember that I have a grand total of 10 days and almost exactly 28 hours of playing so far over two months coming into today. What is it that they say? 10,000 hours to truly master something? I have a lot of hours to go.

*sigh*

Shopping

My wife Kristen and I dropped off our son Nicholas at the San Jose Airport to head back to UCLA for the spring quarter. Kristen wanted to stop by Sports Basement to pick up a knee brace. John has her and his wife Diane and myself on the docket for an evening game using  his own portable net and Kristen doesn’t want to run the risk of the pivoting and strain on her knees to affect her running. She found a brace while I checked out their pickleball selection. The clerk apologized in advance as she walked me over. They only had starter paddles and sets. You know, those heavy wood paddles. But I did pick up a new pair of running shoes for the court and—at the prompting of my wife—a pair of socks to at least sometimes replace my standard white “ugly socks”. Maybe I’ll be fashionable!

Number of day on a court: 11
Number of hours: 31

Friday, March 31, 2017

New Paddle Time!

I pulled the trigger at lunch time today. I ordered a new paddle. I decided on the Paddletek Tempest Wave. I also ordered some overgrip to beef up the handle. The SCPC has a deal with Pickleball Central where the purchaser gets a 5% discount and the SCPC gets a 5% cut of the sale. The price on the paddle was $10 more than I could find elsewhere but since the other supplier was here in California, it was more or less of a wash with sales tax, so I opted to get the SCPC their 5% donation and wait an extra day or two for shipping from Washington State. There may be a paddle that’s better for me, but this Paddletek model is popular locally and according to one interview online, it holds up well and doesn’t need replacing as oft as others. I can always sell this one later or save it as a backup. I don’t want to keep using John’s loaner paddle forever!

Videos

I recorded four games on Wednesday morning. I haven’t watched all of them in detail yet, but I very much have a tendency to hit the ball too high that often results in a slam back to my side of the court. There’s a reason that “Keep it low” is a pickleball saying you hear frequently! The last game of the four was lost on a slam down the middle from a hit that I popped up too high. (My teams won the remaining three of the four recorded games, but that can be a function of an opponent’s weak play more than my skill.) If I can eliminate popping a ball up, it’ll make a world of difference in my play. While I’ve won a few points so far on unreturnable serves, serves aren’t a make or break part of the game—oh, you can maybe give yourself an advantage, but you aren’t going to immediately lose the point merely by hitting a serve where you opponent can run up to the kitchen line. But popping up a short lob right in front of your opponent at their kitchen line is asking for big trouble!

Another thing I notice in one video was a point where I favored my forehand in dinking. I moved myself out of position to my left leaving an unreachable gap between my partner and myself (bad), followed by an apparently impatient forehand hit crosscourt too high (bad) that was slammed back down the middle to close out the point. Duh. I was hitting it hard though my contact with the ball was below the top of the net. Notice in this video still (below) where I am (foreground, left, in blue). My forehand followthrough is obvious and my hit is high—you can see the ball right above the centerline across the net. What’s coming is the winner that I was just talking about. Bam. Right down the middle. Rookie move on my part.

Maybe I’ll post the videos to YouTube. They are like watching paint dry, though there are a handful of points that make it to a respectable rally!

Eric (in yellow) did make a perfect crosscourt drop shot from near the baseline to John’s (in white) backhand. It was a thing of beauty! Notice that I (right) am slow getting started to the kitchen line. Proof of yet another thing to work on! (Maybe I was just in stunned awe of Eric’s pro-level execution! Maybe by now I should be used to those appearing from Eric!)

The question is “will I be playing Sunday?” My son Nicholas is flying out Sunday afternoon back to UCLA after spending his spring break in town. Pickleball might be Wednesday next week—though I may have my new paddle by then!