Wednesday, June 28, 2017 (Court Day #40)

After much debate, I arrived at Derby Park at 9:00 a.m. I’m the boss, so pickleball is a balance of work obligations and responsibilities as well as sanity and health. I opted to stay only two hours instead of my usual three since there were things waiting for me at work… ad scheduling, invoice review, staff hiring, etc. Ugh.

After partnering with Mike against Maree and Ted in a game that we won, Mike complimented my overall play. He’s always good about critiquing and being forthright voicing dismay with his partnèrs—putuated with an occasional “nice shot”, so a compliment after a game is high praise.

Playing against Mike, I served an ace. One I would have been unable even to return myself—being younger and quicker. It was low, fast, and right in the near left corner. But, the day I can get one of those without missing any serves at all, I’ll celebrate.

I played decently, but not fantastic today. One thing that made an impression on me was playing with my former neighbor Dave. The third shot. I can’t keep doing what I’m doing—third shot drives. That’s what killed me playing against Cathy and Kim last week. As Dave said today, if they are at the net (or just about) you can get a mouthful of pickleball! The third shot drive can be effective against weaker opponents, but against stronger opponents such as Dale (visiting from Santa Rosa), it can be a gift-wrapped winner for them. I need to start attempting more third shot drops. Bottom line. Dave said, “There you did it. You can do it. You just need to do it more.” (Third shot drop. But it’s a hard to execute shot. Drives are super easy—just not often wise.)

It’s funny. I was thinking, “Boy. Am I a banger?” Maybe to an extent, I am. (“Where are those third shot drops?”) Though I’m not afraid of the soft game. I did force Dale into a failed return on a cross-court backhand dink. That felt nice. (Though I did miss one of those in an early game on the day—I’ll claim I wasn’t warmed up yet!)
My hips were aching and I could feel them while playing—more so as the morning progressed. I’ll probably opt out of playing in Scotts Valley tomorrow night since we have a softball game Friday night and I don’t want to be hobbling around in the outfield!

Number of days on a court: 40
Number of total hours: 113