Month: November 2017 (Page 2 of 3)

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

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

Friday, November 10, 2017 (Court Day #92)

I arrived at Brommer Park at 8:53 a.m. Dean was out blowing leaves off of the courts.

We had a couple of very good players visiting from Monterey. Sean, I believe was the man’s name and I didn’t hear his wife’s name. He’s a tall young guy with 5.0 ranking. The couple played with Dean, John Connor, the Longs and the advanced players. Someone said the couple had played at the state championship and that it was a humbling experience. I was thinking, “Humbling? Just how good must the best players be? Holy cow!”

Today was a down day. No great performances by me. Nothing to write home about. Perhaps the most significant event of the day was wearing the socks my wife bought me that just cover the foot and don’t go up the ankle. These are even shorter than the pairs I also bought, but they worked fine. Another 200+ hours and my “chicken leg tan” should be all better!

Target the best?

In an early mixed-skill levels game, one of the four was “Player A”. Player A is an advanced player. Player A was paired with a significantly weaker player, as are the odds in mixed play. I don’t think I’d ever played with Player A, but judging from the reaction of the others, Player A was/is very good. I was also paired with a weaker player, not that it matters much. We played the game. There were times when there wasn’t an obvious advantage for me to hit to one versus the other, that I hit to Player A. When Player A was at the net but Player A’s partner was at the baseline, I hit to the partner—though I remember making a shot exactly like that and thinking “maybe I should just hit it to Player A anyway”. It would be a dumb shot to make in terms of the score, but in terms of improving skill level by playing against a better player, it would be wise. I’ve talked about this before.

Anyway, Player A came to me after the game and suggested that I hit to Player A more. “Forget the score. Hit to the strong player. Then the better players will want to play with you more.”

I think there are three steps or phases/situations:

1) You avoid the best opponent to win. (Fine in a tournament, not in rec play.)

2) You don’t favor either player and hit where normal strategy would dictate. (Ok, but not taking full advantage of a learning opportunity.)

3) You intentionally hit a lot more shots to the best opponent to push your “skill envelope”. (Best for rec play.)

What I was doing was situation 2. I was absolutely not avoiding Player A. However, while I did intentionally hit maybe 2-3 shots to Player A when both were at the baseline, I was not taking full advantage of the opportunity by avoiding Player A’s partner.

Now, I can’t remember what my partner was doing. Maybe he was doing situation 1, making it seem worse for Player A.

This situation today does provide yet another perspective to the game where I was playing with Terry and Karen Long and John Connors, where I was seeing less targets and my partner Karen was seeing more. Terry was seeking the toughest game situation and was avoiding the weak player (me). That’s good and bad for me. It keeps me from being embarrassed (good!) but also means I get tested less (bad). There were shots that Terry could have taken that likely would have ended the point had he hit it to me, so he didn’t. It did make for a longer and more balanced game.

Drills

On the Pickleball Forum on Facebook, Ernie Medina Jr. posted a short video of drill at a workshop. Here’s what the it looked like:

The sequence for the participant went like this:

– Serve three balls—it appears the serves should land long, near the center line, then short;

– Three lobs are fed over the net to the participant who aims back at a inflated waist-high target;

– Three simulated dinks are tossed which are lobbed back over both the regular net and an additional special higher net and into a hula-hoop ring set on the court near the baseline;

– Lastly, three more simulated dinks are tossed that must be dinged back through a ring positioned just above top of the net.

The 2-minute video is here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1340630926008388/permalink/1731772993560844/

Funny Guy

Last night, someone posted in the same group seeking advice. I shared some excellent thoughts…

Number of days on a court: 92
Number of total hours: 259

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

Sunday, November 5, 2017 (Not a court day)

As I type this, I’m 30-some-odd thousand feet in the air flying back from Louisiana–New Orleans to be exact–when I was for work. Trade show. Most of the time was spent inside listening to sales pitches. But the host distributor fed us well in the evenings. Last year, I made my first trek to Bourbon Street. Some people love it. To me, the smell of vomit and urine and the tourist trap shops made it a “one and done” experience, so, after a fun dinner on a paddleboat last night, I gave the after-party in the heart of the French Quarter a miss and headed back on the 10:30 p.m. chartered bus back to the hotel.

About two weeks in advance of this trip, I posted on the Pickleball Forum on Facebook asking about playing in New Orleans. The response was underwhelming, so my paddle and gear stayed in California.

The night before flying out, I got a message from Beth Black asking if I wanted to play the next morning with her along with Kevin and his wife Bev. This is a nice little feather in my cap. Beth is a 4.0 rated USAPA player—though she considers herself more of a 3.5 these days as tournaments have drawn stiffer competition—and Kevin and Bev are both strong intermediate players. To be invited means I’ve garnered some respect for my play. Or maybe everyone else was busy, but still, I’ll take it.

This month-old 737-800 (or 737-MAX8, not sure which) aircraft is noticeably quieter than other planes. Though maybe it’s because I’m sitting in front of the wings for a change! But I suspect it’s overall quieter.

I may play tomorrow morning, it’ll depend on when a sales rep is showing up. I’m waiting to hear back from her. If not tomorrow, then Wednesday, though we’re expecting rain mid-week. Dave Allenbaugh sent out a club email on Friday morning saying that Brommer was being delayed an hour back in California due to rain. It getting to be “that” season. We’ll see how this goes. Given that I’m only 9 months plus a week into pickleball, I haven’t experienced a full year of seasons yet.

Monday, November 6, 2017 (Court Day #91)

After a week with no pickleball, I was really looking forward to getting back on the court. Today, I wore shorter socks for the first time. This is to make my wife happier with my distinct tan line and move to farther down my leg—improving the “chicken leg”!

I arrived at Brommer a few minutes before 9. Leslie had the backpack model blower on and was going to town clearing leaves.

I got called over by Mike to fill out four for the first game of the day. Oy. My day started with some subpar play. I was rusty.

I played a couple of games with a woman named Tricia who is from Los Gatos. She was a solid player. I think she’s a little but better than I am. I served 3-4 balls long in a game with her as my partner. I think the Onix ball was newer and we had the wind at my back. It was a bit frustrating. We ended up losing 12-10. That game was my fault. Bad serves, a few hits too high that got slammed back. Rusty. I was worse play than typical of me.

The game of the day was Grita and myself against Kevin and Chuck. Grita was signed up in red, as was Kevin and Chuck in intermediate blue. I asked Grita if I could join their game. Within a color group, you just sign up and no one will complain. Sign up above your color group without asking, that’s trouble. Grita said, “Sure!” We got a court and Grita said we’d play together. She followed with, “They’ll be a tough match.” But I played my best of the morning and Grita was her normal self. Midway through the game, Grita made a comment that reflected her being impressed with my play. The game was never in question, Grita and I won 11-4 or something. I did play well. For one brief shining moment, one could argue I played the best on the court in that game.

The last game of my day was Lauren and me against Alan and Tom S. They pulled out ahead by a couple of points, then we battled back to a solid lead, only to lose when they made a long run at the end. Lauren has been not playing for some time—a few months—due to some health issue. It’ll take her a while to get back in the swing of things.

Shortly after 11:30, I departed for home then work. I got quite a few goodbyes from people. That was nice. Being part of a community. Beth asked if I wanted to play tomorrow morning, but I told her it’d depend on work. I do have to put my hours in to get work done. It already piles up as it is. I have a lot of pending projects that need to get done. Still, I’m tempted to play anyway!

Today? Ok play. Started poor and got better. I was a bit tired at the end. I think the time change, the jet-lag, the fire alarm going off at 5 a.m. in the hotel—all took their toll. 2.5 hours of playing was plenty today. Though I want to get back out already!

Number of days on a court: 91
Number of total hours: 256

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