Month: October 2017 (Page 4 of 5)

Tuesday, October 10, 2017 (Court Day #80)

Mark (Maree’s husband) organized a game with just Eric and Ted and me. I was delayed at work and arrived at 5:10 instead of 5:00. The others were already there warming up with dinking. Mark had brought his own personal net.

We spent about two hours rotating partners and playing game after game. I started out playing extremely well then lapsed into a more average performance. I am still definitely improving overall, though. And I had my moments of highlight shots and rallies.

We all made dumb errors at times. Hitting an occasional slam into the net, popping up shots, hitting returns too long. But we’re solid players. Even Ted, who needs to develop his short game, is not a bad player.

I’ll admit I had two failed around-the-post shots. The balls weren’t dinked quite wide enough to make the shots and the balls ended up hitting the net posts. Drat.

We stopped play at 6:55. It was starting to get dark, since sunset was at 6:38. It was an enjoyable evening.

Number of days on a court: 80
Number of total hours: 231

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

Sunday, October 8, 2017 (Court Day #79)

Today was the first day of my responsibility to open and close Derby Park as the site coordinator. I was there by 8:45 to get ready for the 9:00 starting time.

Getting Bumped

Someone was there already. I headed over to the two storage bins. A tennis player was on the other side of the fence inside. Drat. “Good morning. The courts are reserved for pickleball this morning until noon.” The man unleashed a slew of four-letter expletives saying he was going to be playing a USTA match against someone coming from out of town. I suggested perhaps playing at the Meder Street courts. “I don’t have a car!” He complained about the pickleball lines on the tennis courts and the noise from the balls (he said he lives nearby). “Who says it’s reserved?”, he growled. “The city.” “The city? They are going to hear from me!” He started ranting again and dug in his heels saying that he was going to stay and play on the courts regardless of any reservation. I politely and calmly explained, “We’re expecting about 40 people. You can play until it gets busy but then we’ll have to kick you off.” He was very angry. His partner then showed up and he asked him if he’d give him a ride to a nearby court. And off they went. Man. Baptism by fire. But I was very patient and didn’t raise my voice or get defensive.

While we officially have the court from 7:30-noon on Wednesday and Sunday, we schedule only 9-noon on those days. Six hours. Assuming 12 hours of average daylight, that’s 84 hours per week of available time. We take 6 of those hours or about 7%. Or about 12% of each weekend’s daylight hours. There are plenty of other times for tennis. And other places.

Getting Ready

I cleared the court of debris with the blower as best I could and Grita showed up and started setting up the first net.

An early game was Dean and me against Grita and Susie. It was back and forth though they lead for most of the game. Still Dean and I pulled off a win. I played pretty well. Dean was warming up and took on his regular self as the game progressed.

Afterward, Dean shared that I might have better success with a slightly rotated grip, that is, the “V” at the base of my thumb lined up with the top left ridge of the handle—in other words permanently rotating the grip so that the top of the paddle face is more forward on backhands to keep the ball from popping up. He said he even goes farther, the ridge between the widest edge of the handle and the angled edge. Being that Eric and I have a tournament in a week, I don’t want to experiment with my grip right now, but it’s something to try afterward.

The Franklin X Deception

Eric and I played a number of games over the morning, including a game against Kent and his wife CeCe. Kent brought one of the relatively new Franklin X balls to use. It’s one of those harder bouncier balls. It took some adjustment. Eric and both hit some long and dropped a few into the net. We ended up losing, but it was a back and forth and fairly well-matched game. If I were pressed to say, Kent appeared to be the strongest player on the court for that game.

Oh, one memorable moment was some deception. I was at the net to the left side. The ball had been popped up quite high and was dropping short into the kitchen. Cece was directly in front of me and Kent was diagonal, both at the baseline. I made a big windup, swinging my paddle way back for the hard, deep forehand hit . . . then softly dropped the ball short over the net. Winner.

One game that Eric and I played was against Bruce and Olga. They put up surprisingly strong resistance, but we did win. Notable in the game was me slamming a ball that grazed Olga’s cheek. She was fine, but it gave us all pause for a moment! I need to be more careful.

Underdogs

The last game of the day was against Stuart and Oleg. As Eric explained to them, “It’s time for us to get schooled.” Stuart and Oleg routinely sign up in red (advanced) on the schedule board. It was a back and forth game. But it didn’t go as one would expect. Eric and I won 11-4. That was a surprise. We played quite well.

Amazingly, it was already 1:04 when we called it a day. That time went by fast! It took another ten minutes for those of us still around to stow the last net, count the donations, and lock up the storage boxes. Off to watch the Raiders game, they were already down 14-0 to the Ravens only four minutes into the 1st quarter when I home. Ugh. This was going to be a painful football game to watch!

Number of days on a court: 79
Number of total hours: 229

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

Friday, October 6, 2017 (Court Day #78)

I arrived at Brommer Park a few minutes before 9 a.m. There were a few people setting up.

I played a game with a white-haired fellow named Karl who lives in Capitola—mid-60s, I’d guess—against Joellen, a new person, and Terry (Gary’s wife). Karl and I lost—11-7, I think—but on the upside, I made no unforced errors in the game. Zero. No bad serves. No hits into the net. No long hits. If I popped one up, but was because Karl hit a drive to an opponent at the net instead of a drop. Karl needs to develop his short game. Very nice guy. He asked me about paddle grips between games and I shared what I know . . . overgrips, Continental grip vs. others, how to know if the grip is too small or too big.

Eric and I played a game against some people (can’t remember) and we lost.

Our opponents took the lead 2-0 but then Eric and I scored 11 straight points to win 11-2.

We played against female Terry and Joyce who took a 3-0 lead, but then Eric and I scored 11 straight points to win 11-3. Partway through that game, Terry Long came along and sat on the wall off the end of the net. Shortly after, his wife Karen joined him. After one shot where I backhanded a shot to my right down and off the court for a winner, I looked over smiling to see the two of them silently nodding in unison. Not too long after, Eric served from my right. Terry hit a high return and I ran up and hit it for a deep return. Good hit. I heard hooting and laughing from my left. What? Karen kidded, “It must be a newbie player, he forgot to let it bounce!” Rats! I spaced! Lame!

The last game was Eric and me against Ted and Terry. It was another lopsided game that was never in doubt.

It’s hard to keep track. I played 10-15 games over the course of the three hours.

Tournament

John P. said he was on the waiting list for the Los Gatos tournament, so he and his partner Tom are both on it. Melody said she and her partner dropped out after talking to the organizers. She felt the two of them would be frustrated with the event and felt like they wanted to just play socially than deal with that. It looks like it’ll be a very odd duck tournament that I talked Eric into!

Thed (“Ted”) said he felt that Eric and I would probably do well.

Shoes

It’s a new experience for me. I have white tennis shoes that look sparkling brand new from the top, but the tread is almost gone on the bottom and, inside both, the heel of the insert has worn through!

Number of days on a court: 78
Number of total hours: 225

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