I was supposed to conduct an interview this morning but the interviewee emailed at the last minute saying he had to reschedule because he forgot about a DDS appointment. (I’m not 100% convinced, but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt.) Not long responding the that email, after I realized that this meant I could go to pickleball after all!
Eric had to drive to a meeting about an hour away and couldn’t play, unfortunately.
I played really well this morning. After a particularly good rally on my part taking a point from defense to offense then hitting a winner, I got a “Jesus, Andrew…” from Mike, shaking his head in amazement. Mike and John P. resorted to just hitting to my partner.
There were two advanced players there, Dean (different Dean) and Judy (tall blonde/gray woman). I played with Judy against Dean and Wayne. Dean has a hard serve, so that was good practice. (Judy did too.) I held my own in that game. I caught Dean with hard shots to his feet a couple of times. Regular Dean is a stronger player, but this Dean is unquestionably an advanced player too.
My last two games (I left about 11:30) were not as good . . . I had some sideline issues (out), but dang I was playing really good overall this morning. Coming along.
I think I may have to do an interview on Friday morning, we’ll see.
Number of days on a court: 113
Number of total hours: 319.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
On Friday, in preparation on a whim, I decided to put the link to the Paso Robles registration into my online calendar so it’d be handy when registration came around on February 1. To my horror, the registration date had changed and it was already open! And not only open, but open 9 days prior! WTF! (That’s short for “what the fault?”, of course!) I texted Eric right away telling him the news. I registered myself but couldn’t add my men’s doubles event since my partner didn’t exist as far as the system was concerned. I’d have to wait for Eric to create a profile. The other concern is you had to be a USAPA member to register and Eric wasn’t yet. (I’d joined the USAPA months ago.) Eric said he’d join the USAPA and create his profile, but it’d have to wait until the next morning since he was on the road.
That evening, killing time before falling asleep, i found some pickleball videos. One concludes a fun interview with one of the inventors of pickleball, Barney McCallum.
On Saturday morning, Eric had registered and added me as is partner for 3.0 doubles. I followed suit, paid, and we were golden! That’ll be our first really big outdoor tournament. (Livermore next month will be smaller and indoors.)
On the Court, Sunday
I was moving slowly. I had to open the courts, but I was not rushing as I was well aware of the likely possibility that I would not play today. I arrived about five minutes before opening time and Wayne was there with a fellow that I didn’t recognize. His name was Gideon and he was visiting Santa Cruz with his kindergarten-age son.
I cleared debris off the courts with the blower as people set up nets.
As games had already started, I laced up then fastened up the elastic supports of my new ankle brace. Time and testing would tell four days removed from a audible “crunch” ankle roll was enough.
We had some more new people, Chris and his wife Jennifer, in their 40s, both tennis instructors. And also man named Tim. And a man named Doug. There were beginners, Ken and his wife (I forget her name), an older couple, who live in town. An unfamiliar taller guy named Mike played too. A fair number of new faces today! It was an absolutely fabulous day with beautiful weather. Perfect for pickleball.
Busy courts. (Photo credit to Dave Allenbaugh.) New guy Mike in black toward the left.
The shock of the day was just how well my ankle held up. Sure, there were some drops at the net that I didn’t race up for and some lobs I didn’t bother to race back for, but surprisingly well.
Quite the group waiting to get on an open court! (Photo credit to Dave Allenbaugh.) I’m in the middle of the photo facing the board, but you can only see the top of my cap!
Between a couple of games, I talked to Melody. I told her that the registration had opened for Paso Robles. She winced and said she discovered that she had a conflict and couldn’t play that weekend. But she was interested in playing at the Livermore tournament. I told her that I’d check for any conflicts for the mixed doubles event on Sunday. That might be fun. Easier that trying to coordinate an extra day 2.5 hours away.
Terry’s Group Lesson
Around noon, Terry Long started the limited class Jeanne had arranged with him. The students were me, Eric, Jeanne, Janet, Mara, Tom S., and Karl joined us along with a named Chris who happens to be a tennis instructor.
We spent about an hour going over mostly basics but included individual tweaks for each of us. Terry likes us to serve from near the middle regardless of which side we are serving from. This tends to leave an opening on the backhand side when serving left to right, so I’m not quite yet convinced of this positioning, but Terry is a 5.0 player, so it’s very much worth investigating. The other thing I tend to do is serve with my feet fairly parallel and positioned so a line connecting the front end of my shoes would extend to my target. Terry recommended pointing my left foot toward the target. I suspect this allows for more body rotation. More to check out!
One funny moment. Terry asked, “Who has a good serve?” No one spoke up. Then Janet did. But not for herself. “Andrew has a good serve!” Nice to get some credit!
One key point, Terry said the second shot often determines they outcome of the point. Long, it keeps the serving team at the baseline. Short, it invites the serving team to the kitchen. Long is important. Depth is #1. Positioning the ball toward backhands is #2. But it’s also important to mix things up (left/right) so they don’t always know what to expect. But always depth. (Unless you have an opponent with poor mobility.)
Another thing that Terry mentioned in passing to someone was, “As a 4.0 player you should be spinning every shot.” (He wasn’t talking to a 4.0 player, there weren’t any, but he was making a point.)
We played on one court, rotating off when we made an unforced error. The incentive was to keep playing by not making any of those. I had hopes of staying in but I’d make a mistake and rotate out like everyone else. Maybe a longer time, but I still rotated out.
Where I really need work is returning very hard serves. That was apparent when Chris would serve hard to me and—while I’d get it over the net—it wouldn’t be deep and it wouldn’t be where I wanted it to go. The problem is, the only time you get to work against hard serves is when you play against a hard server! There are only a small handful of those in the club, unfortunately.
“Can’t Get Enough” Games
After the class, a few of us still wanted to play a game. Janet, me, Olga and Mara played. I can’t recall who won, but I believe it was Janet and me.
Mara had to go, but we convinced Oleg to play. Janet and I took he and his wife on. Janet and I won. Then we swapped partners, with me playing with Olga, and Olga and I won. Oleg was taking it a bit easy, I think.
How’d it go?
I was happy with my play today. I made some errors, but I played well. I had a game mid-morning with David Black as my partner against his wife Beth and a man I can’t recall who isn’t an advanced player. I held my own as David’s partner. We won fairly handily. David is a better player than I am, but that didn’t manifest itself much in this game. David wouldn’t have had much to complain about had he been inclined. He made a few mistakes, I made a few mistakes.
Lunch
Woah. I checked the time. 2:46! Late! Oleg, Olga and I went to Mexican food. With no breakfast, I was quite ready to eat!
Number of days on a court: 112
Number of total hours: 317
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
This was a Derby Park day. 50°F, a bit cold, though the sweatshirt lasted one game then came off leaving me in a “pickleball” T-shirt—my new Christmas present from my sister-in-law—and shorts.
Another Upset
Ted B. (Eric’s friend) and I beat Mike and Grita for a surprising upset. It was a tight game, but Ted and I did indeed win. Ted is a bit of a banger, but he played solidly in that game. I had some eye-popping highlight shots that I still can’t figure out how I managed to get them back over the net. We went on to have a rematch—Mike desperately wanted one—and Ted and I lost. We went on for a third game (there were no interested players waiting) and that one was lopsided in their favor. Given he’s in such great shape, it’s easy to forget that Ted is in his 70s. I think we may have worn him out a bit!
Down We Go
I was playing against Jane and Ron with Alan as my partner. (I don’t get to play with Jane all that much, so I was looking forward to it.) It was a close game, though Alan and I were down a couple of points . . . 5-3 or something. Jane hit a cross-court forehand and I moved quickly to my right. *CRUNCH* I was on the ground. The sound had come from me rolling my right ankle. Such a bummer! Someone helped me up. I was too distracted to notice. I was able to put weight on the ankle a bit without dying, so that was a good sign. Kim produced a bag of instant cold and I soon was seated with my right foot up on a chair and my ankle icing.
Tom Sherwood came over after his game finished. “What happened?” “I rolled my ankle.” He pressed on my ankle bone. “Does that hurt?” “No.” “How about this?” He pressed in the soft area on the front of my ankle. “No.” “It’s not broken, it’s just a strain. If you see any blood, that’s ok.” I looked at him puzzled, concerned, and amused. “Blood?” “If your ankle turns blue and purple, that’s ok.” Ah. Jane asked Tom what kind of doctor he was. “Retired!” Then it came out that he used to work in an E.R. over the hill (in the San Jose area). No question of his qualifications to diagnose an ankle. How convenient! Later someone asked about an X-ray for it. Tom said, “No preputable facility would X-ray it. It’s not broken.”
At about a quarter to 12, with Kent and Ted on either side of me to lean on, I hobbled to my car. Thanks, guys!
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Evening. So my ankle is getting better. It still hurts with each step, just below my outside ankle bone, but it is noticeably improved. Certain movements make me gasp, but it’s not as bad as yesterday. I, coincidently, had a previously scheduled annual checkup with my doctor, Dr. Atkinson. Since I was there anyway, he looked over the ankle again and—unsurprisingly—concurred with Dr. Tom’s diagnosis yesterday. Dr. Atkinson copied off some ankle rehabilitation instructions for me. He said as soon as comfortable, to get on the leg and use the ankle so scar tissue doesn’t build up.
He asked me how I did it. I told him I was playing pickleball. By his reaction, he obviously had heard of it before. I went on, “I played over 300 hours last year.” With raised eyebrows and a smile, he said, “300 hours? That’s like an hour a day!”
When I told him my back gets sore from pickleball, he recommended building up my core muscles. Coincidentally, this video was shared tonight on the FB Pickleball Forum, “Pickleball Core Power”. It starts a bit slow, but some exercises are towards the end:
There was also this video. Gee. I never hit a slam into the net. Not. Apropos. I’ll have to try this:
Jeanne has arranged for a small group instruction on Sunday with Terry Long. I’m supposed to be part of that group. We’ll see how it goes. I was out with my daughter Charlotte—she wanted a container of ice cream—and we stopped for batteries at CVS. While there I scoped out and purchased a $38 ankle brace . . . Velcro and elastic. Terry said he had tape to apply to my ankle if it wasn’t ready for Sunday. He also said, “You’ll be fine.” Just rub some dirt on it, right? Fingers crossed!
Oh, speaking of Charlotte, she got an email today notifying her that she made the Dean’s List at Tufts University for the fall 2017 semester. Nice work, Charlotte! And my son Nicholas got straight “A”s at UCLA for the fall quarter which included what my particle physicist professor friend claims was the most difficult math class he took in college, Analysis, which is basically complex calculus proofs. Yes, it’s true. I admit it. I did ask my wife her SAT score on our first date. She did really well—but I still outscored her! (But she rightly points out that her GPA was higher than mine!) We did end up with pretty bright kids.
No Thursday night pickleball for me this week. Alas!
Number of days on a court: 111
Number of total hours: 313
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
Busy courts. (Photo credit to Dave Allenbaugh.) New guy Mike in black toward the left.
Quite the group waiting to get on an open court! (Photo credit to Dave Allenbaugh.) I’m in the middle of the photo facing the board, but you can only see the top of my cap!
Recent Comments