Sunday, December 24, 2017 (Court Day #104)

Last Thursday, December 21

I quickly changed into shorts and hopping back in the car to head to Scotts Valley after work. The car thermometer read 45°F. Chilly, but I’d warm up. I pulled into the courts at 6:33 and found, unusually, that there were a few parking spots empty. But cold probably frightened some people off. Uh, oh. There were no people nor action at the far end of the courts past the tennis players. Not good. I figured I’d wait a few minutes and see if things would get started. Rolando pulled up. We hung out for about 10 minutes talking pickleball then called it a night. I got Rolando’s cell number in case we wanted to meet up and play soemtime. I texted Eric—I had mentioned in an email mid-afternoon that I’d be playing in Scotts Valley—in case he was planning to show up. About 10 p.m., Eric emailed me, “Dude, you need to get on Sharyl’s email list.” He’d also included her email message from that morning saying they were canceling! Rats. I dropped Sharyl a message asking to be put on the list and she got back to me saying she would.

Battle of the Sexes

YouTube suggested a video for me. Scott Moore and Steve Dawson versus Simone Jardim and Corrine Carr-Siebenschein. The women are the top doubles team and the men are 55 and 56 senior players who weren’t regular partners. It’s interesting to watch the strategies and the amazing skill during volley rallies and resetting the point after a slam.

Tournament Research

With the Livermore tournament coming up, I asked Jerry Louis and Beth Black their feelings on what level Eric and I should sign up for: 3.0 or 3.5?

Jerry said we are “solid 3.5” players and should sign up as such. He said, “you wouldn’t get any satisfaction from success beating up weaker [true 3.0] players.”

Beth, however, felt the grades are getting tougher and she’s seen some really good 3.0 players. Given that, she recommended signing up as 3.0 and have a “positive experience” where we might medal.

Boy. Two different opinions. So I emailed the Longs to see what Terry and Karen had to say.

Karen suggested, “If the draw is large in Livermore, I’d vote for you to start at 3.0 because you’d have a good chance at running across high level 3.0’s. If it’s a small draw you may be better off starting off at 3.5 to get the competition you want.”

Terry offered, “How about you start at 3.0 in Livermore and see how you do. If you dominate then move up to 3.5 at Paso.”

After taking to Eric, we opted to sign up for 3.0. That’s where we will start.

An Hour To Kill

With work open from 11-3:30, I figured I had just enough time to get an hour of pickleball in. I told John P. last night I could open the courts after all, but he’d still have to lock up. He said he’d be there at 8:30 regardless.

The car thermometer read 49°. Chilly but no breeze. John and I walked up to the courts from opposite directions as the same time, 8:35. We set up the nets and got things ready. Visor Tom was the first arriver. Then Rolando who would be my partner against John and Tom. I was thinking, “I’m a strong player. I’ll be in a tournament in two months.” Not so much. Rolando and I lost 11-0.

Dialing in the hard ball distance was difficult for me. What I need to do, for early games, is not try to win points but instead to try not to lose them. What does that mean? Hitting more toward the center of the court. Not necessarily at the center, but away from the edges.

I played a game with Mike against Ray and—boy, I can’t recall. Anyway, in that game I made my share of mistakes, but Mike paid me several compliments, like “That’s a really hard shot to make.”

My last game before dashing off a few minutes after 10 a.m. was with Tom against Kim and Robin. It was my best game of the day. There were some great rallies: rally, lob, back to the net, volley battle, etc. Nice.

Beep. Beep. Beep. John P.’s watch was going off. “Time for you to go to work!” He’d set it for me. I finished up my game and a few minutes after 10 a.m., I was off.

Number of days on a court: 104
Number of total hours: 292.5

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