I arrived at Brommer Park at about 9:15 to a busy scene. There were six courts in use—4 permanent, 2 temporary—and the last two nets were mere minutes away from being set up.
The scene at my arrival.
I played a game with a woman named Linda against her husband Paul and Mike. She was a good player and her husband wasn’t too far behind. Later in the morning, I saw her signing up on the waiting board as an advanced player (red pen)—not a shock.
Players waiting toward the end of the morning as the crowd thinned out. Peter is in green at the left, Maree in the white hat on the right next to former neighbor Dave with the puppy!
Up until 10 a.m. there was one pen color. The idea being a single hour that all players mix it up, strong with weak, etc. I’ll have to take advantage of that to play with strong players. After 10, there were red (“advanced”), brown (“intermediate advanced”), and orange (“intermediate”). There is some question what I am, but brown seems probably most correct. I feel I’m probably as good as Maree and her husband Mark now and they were using brown.
The last game was Jukka and me versus Grita and Maree. Jukka was a bit rusty and his frequent tennis playing and less frequent pickleball playing showed in him hitting about half a dozen shots long. Jukka is a good player. It was an off day. I apparently forget how strong Grita’s forehand is. Jukka and I lost pretty handily.
We were the last ones to leave at a quarter to 1.
The Takeaways
For today:
– Boy. It’s crazy how effective the third shot drop is. I need to continue to develop that and use it more often.
– Never judge a book by its cover. There was a short fellow named Tom, he’s probably about 5’3″, give or take. He surprised me. He had a killer serve—grunting with each one—and a few of these could only be returned into the net. He also had reliable strokes—with some of his strong forehands clearing the net by only a few inches. When I hit one into the net, I kidded, “And that’s why I’m not a 5.0.” He shared something that included that he’s a 4.0 player—yeah, I believe it. Very solid player.
– Patience is a key virtue in dinking. I have to wait for the clear winner, not the possible winner. For every great sequence of dinking, I have a time when I drive the ball into my side of the net while attempting a low kill shot.
Making progress. But still not really ready for a tournament yet.
Number of days on a court: 44 Number of total hours: 127
A few things to note about this video first. Eric (dark) and I (light) are on the left. John P. and Dave A. (red) are on the right. This is not the best game for Eric. Missing three shots to start the game is not typical. The wind is significant and affected the ball on occasion.
Things to watch for:
At 1:58, I hit the fourth shot as a drive directly at John. This is a mistake. I should have dropped it. As it is, John smacked it back out near my left shoulder and I couldn’t get my paddle in position in time. 2-0.
At 2:17, Eric has made the same mistake twice, that is, not dinking the ball. John smacks it back easily between us. 3-0.
At 2:40, I make a nice drop from the sideline and got into position at the kitchen line.
You can hear the wind gusting at 3:25.
At 3:45, Eric hits the ball too high and John smacks it between us for the third time. 3-0.
At 4:10, John hit it too high and I turn the tables, smacking it between John and Dave. John, being polite, says, “My bad.” (To Dave.) Then to me, “Nice shot.”
At 4:52, I hit a third shot drop into the net. Was it the wind’s fault as Eric gentlemanly suggests? I doubt it. I think I just hit a crappy drop shot!
At 5:02, Eric suggests we go to more of a “drive game” because of the wind. I agree, being down 3-0, we should try something different. It works some, we win the next point.
6:06 starts a good rally which ends when John pops up a drive I make at the net followed by me slamming the ball for a winner. What’s funny about this point is that I hit the return fairly hard but it only makes it partway back to the baseline! Wind in action!
By 6:55, we’re tied up at 3-3. Of the three points we scored, two were from obvious errors each by Dave and John, both hitting one in to the net. Those weren’t quite as much from our new strategy as just unforced errors.
7:40, Eric pops up another one that John slams between us. (Hmmm. Deja vu.)
If you want to see something funny, watch me courteously hit the ball over the net to the server so he can serve. Except the ball lands in the net! Wind!
My most miserable and embarrassing shot of the game comes at 8:58 when I return Dave’s easy serve into the net. Duh.
Hey! “5-4-1.” We’re leading! Then 6-4.
At 9:23, I do a rotten lob that falls far short in the wind and John hits it back at Eric’s feet.
John is a funny guy. At 9:42, he holds up his paddle to prevent the serve for a while. Catching his breath! Ha ha!
10:02. Yeah, that’s the time I smack the ball into the net. Rats.
At 10:36, Eric stretches and makes a great hit back at Dave’s feet for a winner.
At 10:54, you can see where the “drive every shot” strategy is failing. I hit the ball near John’s head and he . . . smacks it between Eric and me for a winner.
11:05, I serve. 7-4-2. We win the point when John hits it just right of the sideline. A discussion ensues when I forget that I served and toss the ball to Eric to serve. But we got it right. 8-4-2.
At 12:27, John make a fantastic lob—in the wind, no less—over my head for a winner. 5-8-1.
At 12:46, the “drive strategy” fails again. I hit it directly to John and I didn’t get my paddle reset fast enough to properly return his hit. Point for them. 6-8-1.
13:07. Another embarrassing return. I attempt a high deep return but it sails left of the court by a wide margin. Ugh. 7-8-1.
13:22. Another “drive strategy” failure. John slams the ball between us. Again. 8-8-1.
At 13:55, I just make a completely boneheaded shot. The idea is correct, angled off the court, but the execution is bad. 9-8-1.
Four points in a row on bad decisions by me. I should have abandoned the “drive strategy” a long time previous.
14:14 starts a nice rally with me sticking with the soft game once it had already started—John made a nice third shot drop. Patience. Eric and I won that one when Dave hit it into the net.
14:48. My drop shot drops. Yeah. Into the net. Grrrrr. 10-8-1.
16:03. I attempt to lob between John and Dave. John jumps up and slams the ball at Eric’s left toe. Game. 11-8-1. Comeback. Drat.
Another Game
Here’s partial game that took place immediately before the above game. My performance is better in this one. I lamely hit a ball into the net as I approach it, I have a serve that blows a bit long (the wind is at my back for the entire game), and I have two high returns that sail long. I have a couple drops that aren’t quite low enough, though those don’t end the point. I do have a great cross-court fifth shot drop (at 8:11) from the baseline into the first half of the kitchen—if only I could do that all the time! Eric and I won 11-5. (And John and Dave are far stronger players than this video shows.)
Now for Something Completely Different
There was a contest on the Facebook pickleball group with the Aspen Kern (who runs it) offering a prize for the best favorite movies. Most answers included real movies. Bah. No fun in that. I offered my own list:
My favorites:
Gone With the Paddle The Wizard of Dinks The Kitchenline Redemption To Kill a Poacher Citizen Pickle It’s a Pickleball Life One Flew over the Pickleball Net Poach Fiction Been-Hurt Dr. Pickleball or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Lob 2017: A Court Odyssey Kitchen Driver A.P. – The Around the Post A Courtline Named Kitchen It Happened One Game The Adventures of Robbin’ Poacher All Quiet on the Western Service Court Mr. Smith goes to Nationals Raging Banger Drop Runner Returner without a Serve A Smash is Born Easy Dinker Who’s Afraid of Lucy Kovalova? The Treasure of the Backhand Volley
Of course, I didn’t win. I never win any of those Facebook contests. Aspen uses tea leaves or dice to figure out the winners.
Number of days on a court: 43 (still) Number of total hours: 123.5 (still)
Today, we had a our make-up class from Jerry Louis. I arrived at Derby Park promptly at 8:30 a.m. to find John P., Eric, Dave A. and Jerry all warming up with dinking.
John P., instructor Jerry Louis, Eric, and Dave Allenbaugh (left to right)
We practiced deep serves, then deep serves with deep returns, then deep serves with deep returns followed by approaching the net wisely and the use of the 3rd shot drop.
Jerry then moved into a dinking drill. Since we weren’t allowed to do any drives, it was an exercise in focus and patience. (Yes, I did hit it into the net a few times!)
Next we did stacking. This was covered in the last class that I went to, so it wasn’t new, but I have to admit, it’s surprisingly easy to get messed up! John and I were partnered as a team with him on the left and me on the right. As it was, we managed to serve to the same side twice. What was comical was that Eric and Dave were lined up with the wrong person receiving but that was moot since once I served from the wrong position, the point was over.
Oh, one great moment. Eric was lined up to return in his right service court opposite my serving position serving right to left. Dave was stacking and was lined up outside the court at the net with his feet almost touching the sideline. Jerry stopped them and started explaining why Dave didn’t want to be there. I knew why since he’d explained it last time. The problem is sometimes the returner has to run up and hit a short serve at that corner and his partner would be in the way (where Dave was standing). Without being prompted, to illustrate the point, I dropped my serve precisely in the corner between where Jerry was explaining and Dave was standing—about 10″ in diagonally from the corner. Jerry chuckled, “That was PERFECT! That’s exactly why. Of course, that is a LOW PERCENTAGE SERVE…” I got the message. Yes, it’s a high risk serve. But it sure felt good! Ha ha ha!
We wrapped up the session at 10:45 a.m. and helped Jerry take his net and ball buckets to his car. Being that it was still pretty early, us four pupils opted to head to the new courts at Brommer to play some real games.
First Visit to Brommer
Boy. The Brommer courts are nice! It would be easy to get spoiled with those courts! There are four permanent courts as you walk in and four additional pickleball courts that are striped but would require portable nets since they share space with a permanent tennis court.
I followed Eric from Derby to Brommer and Dave arrived a few minutes later just after 11 a.m. Just as we were getting worried that John P. might have gone to Willowbrook or somewhere, he arrived in his white minivan.
We rotated players, so we were all partnered with each other at some stage during the session. There were cool breezes, which felt great in the warm sun, but wreaked havoc on lobs and arcing serves or returns.
We finished our last game at 12:45 p.m. I said my goodbyes, hopped in the car and got almost 10 minutes away before I realized I’d left my camera hooked to the fence. *grumble* It was still there when I got back to the park. There were a couple of fellas shooting hoops with a basketball on the courts. (It’s a very multipurpose facility!)
I’ll try to get some video posted.
I have to say, third shot drops are very, very effective when done correctly. I recall one in particular that I hit toward John. I noticed quite clearly that as the ball dropped over, he rotated his paddle from “drive it back” position to “dink it up and back over” position. I’m making progress on using those. I still need to use them more and get better at executing them, but progress! Am I taking my game to the next level? John did offer a compliment out of the blue, “Andrew, you’ve come a long way.”
I’m conducting an interview tomorrow morning at work, so no pickleball for me then. And Thursday night is busy. Maybe Friday morning—it’ll be my birthday after all!
Number of days on a court: 43 Number of total hours: 123.5
The scene at my arrival.
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