Monday, September 19, 2017 (Court Day #71)
I took a trip to the pacific northwest over the weekend with extended family. We left on Thursday and flew back on Sunday. I knew it was going to be a short and full trip. Nonetheless, I packed a paddle and a ball. Yeah. Call me hooked.
Garage
Last night (Sunday) after getting back from our trip, I spent about 10-15 minutes in the garage hitting a ball in my marked out “net and kitchen”. I spent part of the time hitting with my left hand and switching back and forth between left hand and right hand. I had to get my paddle “fix”!
Brommer
I arrived at Brommer Park at about 9:10. I guess it takes longer to get there than I typically figure… about 15-20 minutes realistically.
Tony
I got to introduce myself to “Tony”. Tony is probably around 30-35 years old. He wears a woven brimmed hat to protect himself from the sun. Tony plays with the advanced players. I see him now and then. He’s been around since I started, though we’d never played. Between 9 and 10 a.m., the single orange pen was out for the schedule board and the red, blue and balcony pens were still stowed away. That’s how I ended up on a court with Tony. He’s fun and upbeat. He laughed at my jokes, so thumbs up to Tony. Tony plays well. I didn’t have him as a partner, only as an opponent, so he kept me on my toes.
Big John
Also got to meet John. John is a regular advanced player. He’s tall and, like me, could stand to lose a few pounds. He’s very good. He’s not super quick on his feet, but he’s very precise and gets around well enough to be a serious weapon. He and I played against a visiting woman Susi and regular Leslie. (Leslie is currently a site supervisor for Brommer.) John and I won pretty solidly. John was most of that win, though I played decently. I did get a “Nice backhands!” from John after I won a quick back-and-forth rally at the net against Leslie. John makes hardly any unforced errors. Early on in the game, John asked me to shift to my right when I was forward on the right side as he was receiving: “I want to be able to hit the ball to her backhand.” He had to remind me once more, but after that I got it. Learned something new today.
Cameron
Another newbie today was Cam. He said he’d played a while back and was returning it the game. I’d put Cam is in his late 20s. Maybe early 30s. Tall, thin, redhead. He said he works for himself doing construction. We played one game as partners and lost convincingly. We played a second and we won by two points. Big improvement. I offered what advice I could during the games. Hit to the opponent who is back. Hold the paddle up in backhand position while at the net. Lobs are low percentage. Driving at a skilled opponent already at the net is low percentage. He’ll do very well with time.
Dipping my toe into games the big boys
Later, I played a game with lefty Steve against Chuck and “Big John”. It’s nice when you are respected enough to be included in a game with advanced players. (That respect may or may not be deserved, but it is what it is.) Steve and I lost 11-6 or something. John is a machine. It’s a good status check to play against really good players. I have work to do!
The last game of the day teamed Stuart and myself against Chuck and the visiting woman, Susi. All the club balls were packed away—by Stuart no less—but Stuart had a ball in his pack. Stuart reappeared with his ball. Orange. It was an indoor Onix ball with larger holes. With it a bit breezy, we knew the ball would present one additional dimension of challenge, but it wasn’t worth the effort to swap it out. I brought one of my own (an Onix Pure) and Chuck said he had one of his own too. Stuart and I won pretty easily. Stuart wanted to make sure that I mentioned in my blog post that he successfully lobbed over Chuck’s head three times. There you go, Stuart! Stuart reminded me to keep my paddle up in the backhand position at the net. You’d think I’d reliably implement advice I give to others! Stuart also thought I should narrow my stance at the net—that I can only lean instead of being able to easily move my feet to get to balls. I really do need to get my video camera back out again.
Site Supervisor
Karen Long said, “I hear you are going to be our new Sunday site coordinator.” “As long as there are backups, I can do it. I can’t open the court every Sunday.” She reassured me that there would be others. “You’ll me for about six months or so. I want to give back. I don’t want to be a mooch all the time.” She laughed at the mooch comment.
Today was a “climb day”. Overall, I played well.
Play wrapped up at 12:45.
Aches and Pains
Overall, health is decent. My hips are hurting a bit again and I have a mild pull in my right groin muscle and left quad, but nothing to keep me from playing. I’m cutting back on soda and sweets and see if I can lose 25 pounds. That’d get me down to “fighting weight”!
Number of days on a court: 71
Number of total hours: 202.5
Click here to start at the beginning of this blog: PickleballJourney
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