Sunday, November 12, 2017 (Court Day #93)

I arrived at Derby at about 8:48 a.m. It was in the low 50s. (It would warm up and be a beautiful sunny day in the 60s.) Surprisingly, the bins were already open. John P. and Wayne were already there setting up nets. Nice! I installed the battery I brought from home and got to work blowing off all the courts.

Switching Hands

Today, there were two shots that I realized afterward that I had swapped the paddle to my left hand and successfully hit controlled shots back over the net. They were too quick, I hadn’t even thought about it, the paddle just switched hands. That was neat.

Newbie

A young tall woman named Heather came today. Rolando told her about signing the waiver and helpfully started looking in the official backpack. I came over and pulled out the appropriate clipboard and introduced myself to Heather. Rolando gave her some rule basics and later I asked Ted to hit a ball around with her. Soon, I saw she was in games with people. Excellent!

Full House

A bunch of people arrived mid-morning and we had about 16 people waiting to play. As site supervisor, I yelled out, “Attention! We’re playing to 9!” I don’t know if everyone heard me, but I told each group as they went on and wrote it on the top of the schedule board. I need to find my whistle from coaching 8th grade flag football—or go pick up a new one.

A game with Marianne

Jeff (newer tennis guy) and Peter had signed up in a box. Marianne added her name third at the bottom. I added mine also in intermediate green. “You aren’t a green! You are a red!” (Flattering, I’m not an advanced yet. I’m too inconsistent.) Marianne said, “You all don’t want to play with me, I’ll take my name off.” And she did. I stopped her and insisted she play. We got onto the court and I took Marianne as my partner. “These guys are really good,” she shared. “Nah, we’ll be fine!”, though I wasn’t too sure! Jeff and Peter are both intermediates, Jeff with raw talent and Peter with experience but inconsistent. Marianne is a weak intermediate but has her moments. She’s continued to improve over the months. I have to give credit to Jeff and Peter, they could have just hit every shot to Marianne, but they didn’t. I intentionally hit a bit more often to Jeff (the stronger player) to challenge myself. Marianne and I started behind but soon pulled ahead 4-2. Then 6-2. Then finally 9-2 for a win. Well, that was a surprise!

Chuck was funny in one game. “Andrew, now that I’ve noticed, all I can see is your tan lines!”

Yes, I’ll just have to put up with the tan lines for a while. Hopefully, in six months they’ll be gone . . . I hope!

Blind Lob Return

I was playing a game with Beth Black and there was a lob over our heads. I went back to get it, but I didn’t have time to turn around and face the net. I reached up and swung backward, hitting the ball with the outside face of my paddle, hoping I’d pulled off the shot. I turned around and saw the ball heading back to the center of our opponent’s court. I got away with that one! Fun!

I think that was the game where some shots I expected to be winners got returned anyway. It makes for a fun game that keeps you on your toes! The ball just keeps coming back!

Around the Post!

In the last game of the day, Terry and me against his wife Laura and Ted (Eric’s buddy), I finally had my no-questions-asked definitive around-the-post shot. It was a thing of beauty! Laura had hit the ball shallow to my right off the court and I hit it deep and low past the net post for a winner. Terry said, “And that was well within the court too.” I celebrated with a Rocky pose with my two arms stretched into the air and trot back to the baseline for the next point. Terry and I won 11-9.

Now, the embarrassing thing for me to admit was trying to force two ATP shots earlier in the day from the left side of the court and pounding both hits into the net. Alas, those two should have gone over the net—they didn’t have enough width to go around. Silly.

I checked my phone, 1:13 p.m. Wow. That was a quick four hours!

Work

Through a combination of events, we lost several of my staff in one department. Weekday pickleball will likely be rare in the next two months or until we get more staff hired and trained. (Bummer!) I told Terry that he’d likely be seeing me at Scotts Valley on Thursday nights again.

Number of days on a court: 93
Number of total hours: 263

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