Month: December 2017 (Page 3 of 4)

Thursday, December 14, 2017 (Court Day #102)

Looking back at Tuesday

On Tuesday evening (December 12), a sizable group of us pickleball people gathered at a wine bar on the wharf to celebrate the release of Kevin Kearney’s new book. Countdown to Z-Day. It was great fun to see players in street clothes. One or two, I didn’t even recognize at first! (Such as Kevin’s wife Bev!) Tim was telling me that Kevin’s book falls into the “comedic thriller” genre . . . a genre I didn’t even know existed!

I bought a copy and Kevin inscribed it. We sometimes get confused for each other—dark hair, similar build, similar height—hence the reference to “Bizarro Kevin”. I think I started the “Bizarro Kevin/Bizarro Andrew” thing, but I can’t remember for certain. It’s been a few months now. Kevin is a good guy.

Thursday Night (Court Day)

I arrived in Scotts Valley about 6:40 pm. The lot was full, so I parked on the dim street that dead ends at the courts. “Hellllo, Andrew!” came a happy voice. It was Rolando.

It was a chilly evening, in the low 50s. I would have been wearing my sweatshirt but in my haste at home after work, I didn’t grab one. But I was warm enough in no time. I played an assortment of games. Kris and me against Terry (Laura’s husband) and someone. Janet and me against Mel and Maria. Depending on the game and my partner, I sometimes notice that the ball doesn’t come to me as often.

Kris came up with a nickname for me she said. The Velvet Hammer. LOL! Maybe “nice but look out for the slams”? I do smack it hard if I’m given a popup ball.

Somewhere along the line, my right glute muscle started nagging me a bit. Nothing serious, just a touch uncomfortable.

Best of Three

Three games near the end were Olga and me against Oleg and Jeanne. They were relatively balanced games and we played three in a row. Oleg and Jeanne won the first. Olga and I had been ahead until Oleg insisted on switching from a soft Pure 2 ball to a hard ball. Olga and I won the second game. And Oleg and Jeanne won the third. Boy, Oleg is a competitor! He can get intense! He does not like to be on a losing team! But he’s a nice guy and a good challenge on the court. My challenge on those games was switching from the soft ball to the hard ball. It’s a different game. I returned a number of serves too deep (out) and some points where I expected them to be over instead bounced high enough to allow the opponent to return the ball over the net—and sometimes even high enough to drive a shot over the net, not just dink!

Last Game

Rolando and Olga and Jeanne and me started a game. Clouds of misty breath in the cold night air was an obvious sight. But we found out that Kris held the responsibility of being the “closer” for the evening. (Mark Dettle didn’t come tonight and Cheryl had already left.) But Kris—being nice—said we could play to 6, so we did. By the time our opponents rolled to a 5-0 lead, I figured it was going to be a quick game! Rolando said, “If we can win this point, we’ll get a shutout and I can brag tomorrow!” But, with service back and forth, Jeanne and I put up a battle and clawed back into the game. Then we tied it up at 5-5. Then pulled ahead at 6-5 and finally won at 7-5. Sorry, Rolando. Not this time! “Serves me right for talking about a shutout!”, he laughed. Pickleball is like that. It ain’t over until it’s over!

We wrapped things up about 9:15. Walking back to our cars, I asked Rolando if he ever thought about entering tournaments. “Nah. I have too much to learn.” But, when I asked him, he admitted that it’d be fun when the time is right. So . . . a possible partner down the road!

I was in my car pulling out at 9:34. Late. But fun!

Club Christmas Party!

The Santa Cruz Pickleball Club hosted it’s annual Christmas party on Friday night, December 15. They had over 70 RSVP and even more showed up. The food was very good, desserts were aplenty, and spirits were high. It’s astonishing how different a lot of the women look all dressed up! Makeup, dresses, and hair down versus ponytails, sunglasses and T-shirts.

I saw Mike midway through the evening:

“Hey Mike! Boy, you look way different . . . ”

“A lot of us do,” Mike interjected.

” . . . wearing makeup!”, he heard me finish my sentence while he was talking. I got a few chuckles from that one!

Eric was there with his wife Ellen. I got a surprise. Eric said, “I need to talk to you about Paso Robles.” “I’m ready!” “You get first dibs.” Paso Robles is the site of pickleball tournaments. Wow. Maybe Eric is interested in playing in a tournament after all! The next one there is in April. Though there’s also a tournament in Livermore in February. Paso Robles is a 2 hour drive. Livermore is about an hour.

One nice compliment came during one of those standing circle chats. John P., Eric, his wife Ellen, Cathy (hang with Kim), Oleg, Olga. Cathy was asking how often we play. I said, “Last night was number 102 since January. What is that? Every three days?” Cathy surprised, responded, “No wonder your drop shots are so good!” Though one has to consider, while we played together a couple weeks ago,  that’s the only time she’s played with me once in the last few months!

Number of days on a court: 102
Number of total hours: 287.5

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Sunday, December 10, 2017 (Court Day #101)

Early this morning, I woke up at 4 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I listened to a couple episodes of a podcast, The Pickleball 5.0 Podcast, that I’d previously subscribed to. It’s pretty basic, the 1st episode was about how the host got into pickleball and about his pickleball Instagram account and the 2nd episode was about how the game of pickleball got its name. The guy is nice—he’s only been playing a few months—but I suspect other podcasts would be more worth my time . . . like the one Mark Renneson just started, Pickleball Problems. But his is not on iTunes yet, so it’s not as easy to listen to was some others. Oh, I fell back asleep about 5:45, only to be back up again about 7:30.

My wife walked into our bedroom. “It’s cold out there.” I pulled out my phone. 45°. Chilly. But the surprise was the projected high for the day. 75°! (It would actually reach past 80°!)

I pulled out my new pair of Costco court shoes. I need to secure the insoles on these now too. I’m thinking of ironing on patches to make the insoles more durable. I wore through the heel on both shoes and partially through the front as well.

Of note today, I hit a sharp dink cross court right to left. Alan took that shot and hit an around-the-post for a winner. (He got a hearty congratulations from me!) Sharp cross-court dinks are not always the best!

There were a couple of newbies there. Pam and Candi. Candi said Dave Allenbaugh has been giving them lessons. I played a game with them and Jeff (the tennis spin guy). I guessed that Candi would be the weaker player (Pam is quite tall) so I took her as my partner. I made an effort to hit a lot to Jeff to make a more interesting game, but I hit some to Pam so she wouldn’t get bored. Even in games with all weaker players, there are skills to work on. It may not be quite as fun, but in my book, there is no such thing as a bad game of pickleball!

Today was a good day. A “climb” day. I missed a small number of my drop shots, but I played well overall. Enough that I was craving stronger competition most of the day. After I signed up on the schedule board, Olga asked, “Why aren’t you signed up as advanced?” I told her, “I’ve been told advanced is supposed to be 4.0 players and above. I’m not a 4.0.” “What do you think you are?” “Probably a 3.5.” But then I added, “Maybe I’m getting closer to a 4.0.” But here’s the rub. There’s “by the book” 4.0 then there’s “tournament” 4.0. I’m certainly not a tournament 4.0. No way. As for the players there today, I was likely one of the top 6. We topped out at about 30 players today. Eric, Oleg, Stuart, Kim, Cathy, maybe another, and me would round out the top. Of those, I only got to play against Eric. (I had Grita as a partner in my first/warm up game.) Bruce made for some decent completion though, he always does. If he had a better soft game, he’d be absolutely deadly, but I think pickleball falls second to playing basketball for him.

After I locked up the club storage bins, Laura and her husband Terry, Oleg and Olga and I headed over to La Cabana for lunch. Ha! Eric was there with Ted finishing up their lunches and across the room was Cathy (who often plays with Kim)! Pickleball central! It was an enjoyable lunch—food and conversation!

After that, putting up Christmas lights!

Number of days on a court: 101
Number of total hours: 285

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Thursday, December 7, 2017 (Court Day #100)

After a quick stop home, I arrived in Scotts Valley at 6:30. The tennis courts seems busier these days, but the tennis players typically take off earlier than the pickleball players. It was in the low 50s and you could see your breath under the lights. Some of the players even sported gloves due to the cold. (Us California people are wimps!) The sweatshirt I was wearing came off after the third or fourth game—leaving me in a T-shirt and shorts. This time around, I was able to get into a game upon arrival as a fourth. Coordinator Mark Dettle was still dutifully blowing pine tree needles off of the courts.

Rolando is definitely coming along. His prior handball experience has given him a big jump start to adjusting to pickleball. He’s starting to get his strategies down. If he keeps progressing like he has, he might just make a good tournament partner this coming year!

In one game, my opponent Lauren was hugging the center line to protect her backhand on my serve. Instead, I served it on the opposite side of the service court for an ace. It’s nice when it works. Janet and I won against Lauren and little Maria.

James, Oleg, Janet

Next to last game was James and me against Oleg and Janet, they lost 11-5. I think we had them down 8-2 before they crept the score closer. I think we may have relaxed a bit! Janet was the weakest player on the court and James the strongest, so the outcome wasn’t too unexpected.

The last game was a good battle. Oleg and me against James and Janet. It was back and forth with neither team pulling out much ahead. It was tied 8-8 and they went on a three point run and we lost 11-8. It just goes to show how strong a player James is. I definitely did not hit just to Janet and occasionally made decisions to hit specifically to James. It made for a more challenging game . . . but Janet is not a pushover. She gets the ball back over the net most of the time, it’s just that a slam can intimidate her and/or she may not have the skill to return tough shots. Like most of the players, she’s improved with time. She’s an intermediate category player.

I guess the good thing is that I wasn’t too far off from the play of Oleg and James. I distinctly remember one net battle between James and me that I won on a downward attack. Any points against James are a small victory!

That last game finished up at 8:30. Aside from Mark and Oleg’s wife Olga, we were the last ones there. While packing up the last net, Janet asked James his age. 43. We all put him younger. I figured 30s myself. But as James said, we’re as young as we are inside.

Wrap up

Tonight was a good night. I played well. Not perfect, but very well. My biggest consistent error was hitting back an opponent’s “Christmas present” high ball into the net on a smash. I did that probably 4-5 times over the course of the evening. Turning a clear winner into a loser! I need to pick a target on slams. Simply hitting down certainly isn’t working!

Surprisingly, I completely forgot that today was my 100th day on a pickleball court until I was driving home. A big milestone has been passed.

Number of days on a court: 100
Number of total hours: 282

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.