Month: October 2017 (Page 2 of 5)

Sunday, October 22, 2017 (Court Day #85)

The weather predictions for today was 75, but it was 54 on my way to the court. I was opening, so I needed be there early.  I got there at 8:50 a.m. and was the first one. Thankfully, there were no tennis players there to verbally abuse me for reminding them that the courts are reserved until noon.

So, there I was, ready to set up. I push down on the handle and pull. It won’t budge. I try it again. No dice. “This is not good.” I looked up the number and called Parks & Rec, hoping. No dice. I looked to see if I had Dave Allenbaugh’s phone number in my phone. Nope. Then I called John P., explaining the gate was still locked. “Did you try lifting the handle up instead of down? That’s usually it.” Drat. Deja Vu. I had the feeling that I’d forgotten that. Bingo.

I unlocked the storage bins and found that the battery pack for the blower was dead. Hmmm. I had the foresight to bring a broom, though I’d it in the car in case I felt it was absolutely necessary. But the courts weren’t too bad. And a paddle works to “shoo away” leaves if you fan them quickly!

The day started out “eh” in terms of performance. Average. But I ended stronger in terms of play.

I saw Janet for the first time in a couple weeks. Since I’ve been playing Brommer on Fridays when she’s working instead of Thursday nights in Scotts Valley, and I missed Sunday last week, it’d been a while. Poor Janet, she tweaked her back in one of her first couple games and sat on the bench and didn’t play again. I can completely sympathize, since my own still isn’t fully healed for a very similar lower back injury.

Stuart called over during one game. “Andrew! Are you the site supervisor today? There’s someone going through the bins.” Sure enough, a woman was rummaging through one of them. Turns out it was a woman who first played at Brommer on Friday. I had her–Debra–sign the waiver, then I talked to her for a minute and asked Marianne to try to see if she could get her in a game. Not long after, I saw Debra playing.

Later, after a game I was in finished, I saw that Eric was playing “2 on 1” against Marianne and Debra. I joined in as Debra’s partner. After a couple points, I told Eric that I’d returned his hit left handed. “We should play the whole game like that,” he suggested. “Sure!” And we did. It was good practice for us. It was amusing that Debra was impressed with some of Eric and my haphazard lefty shots. She has no idea! But she’ll learn! Anyway, I did serve two lefty serves out. Maybe I should have gone to a lefty backhand serve instead of a lefty basic underhand serve. Something to try in the future.

In a later game, I had a successful around the post shot, but the ball had landed just outside the sideline so it didn’t count. Rats.

There was one game where there was some great piece of advice or insight that I wanted to share here–but for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was! Maybe next time.

The last two games were Eric and me again Jukka and Ted. The first game ended 11-4 in our favor. Wanted a rematch, we switched sides and won again, 11-6. I think Yukka was a little rusty. Eric and I both played well.

Play wrapped up about 12:45, and after stowing all the equipment, Eric, Ted and I headed over to Burger for lunch. One thing that came up in conversation was that the middle skill level group is too big. There are some of us that are knocking on the door of “advanced” on good days and those that really should be down a level. Perhaps a formalized club grading system would be good? (Rather than leaving it to the individuals.)

SCPC Website

I took a look at the courts page on the club website. I have a new persona:

Yes, that’s Alan’s photo, not mine! “Daaaaaave!” I dropped Dave a note asking if he’d received the picture I’d sent a week or two ago. He said he had and that he’d swap it out the next day. Thanks, Dave!

Number of days on a court: 85
Number of total hours: 242

Click here to start at the beginning of this blog: PickleballJourney

Friday, October 20, 2017 (Court Day #84)

Descent Day. That’s not decent, it’s descent. As in going down. All that stuff I said about reaching the next level . . . I question all of that today.

There were at least half a dozen returns of serve that I simply hit back into the net. Yes, they were low and fast, but still . . . not good.

It had rained overnight and I was checking email to see if the gathering had been canceled or not. No message. I looked out the bathroom window and saw sun. Well, that is always a good sign! I would give it a shot. The odds were good that at least someone would be at the courts.

I arrived and Brommer at 9:00 a.m. sharp. Leslie, Stuart and Dean were blowing, wiping, and setting up. I jumped in and helped where I could too.  There were still wet areas on the court. It would be a lower attendance day and we would never set up the 8th court. I think between the cooler temperatures and the precipitation, some people stayed away.

Eric, like me, sometimes hits balls that would otherwise be heading out of the court. Eric refers to this as the “lizard brain” taking over. Not the high functioning brain that would logically decide to let it the ball go, but the instinctual brain that says, “Swat it!”

After ducking a ball that was heading out, Eric said, “Lizard brain override!” That’s what we all need more of. Lizard brain override.

It got very windy as the morning progressed. This was definitely one of the 2-3 most windy conditions that I’ve played in.

If today was a movie, today would be the day that the Major League Baseball scout shows up and the prospect has a bad day pitching and the scout thinks, “What’s all the fuss about. Why did I waste my time?” Hopefully, today was just a bad day and not a regression. Not that I’m prospect for the U.S. Pickleball Olympic Team. (Which is impossible since there is no such thing and there are probably half a million people out there better than I am at pickleball!)

I got to play with Chuck today. “We haven’t played together for a long time!”, he said. “Probably something like four months.” It was Susi and John P. Versus Chuck and me. Figuring Susi was the strongest player, I suggested that since it seemed to me to be the most balanced team. Chuck and I are pretty evenly matched. And it was a very close back and forth game. In the end, Chuck and I snuck out with an 11-9 win. But it easily could have gone the other way.

I left Brommer at 12:15 p.m.

Number of days on a court: 84
Number of total hours: 238.5

Click here to start at the beginning of this blog: PickleballJourney