Sunday, March 11, 2018 (Court Day #134)

Today was time change day, meaning I was up an hour earlier to be up at the same time. After a few blocks of driving, I realized that I had forgotten the blower battery and had to go back home. I arrived at Derby Park at about 10 minutes to the 9 a.m. start time. John P. had beaten me to the courts and was just starting to set up. I got the blower out and went about blowing the dozens of worms that had crawled on to the courts during the recent rain. There were a couple of small puddles, we removed the standing water and they had evaporated by mid-morning.

My warm up was sloppy. Dinks in to the net, dinks too high, bad drop shots. Overall noticeably subpar.

Challenging Game

John P. and I had an opportunity to play against Leslie and Oleg. One would expect it to be a lopsided game and it was. Not an easy lopsided game, they had to work their way up but the score was lopsided, basically a 2:1 ratio. John was having even more of an off day than me, I played halfway decently in that game. I tend to play better when it’s a harder game—not always, but more often than not, I do. Heightened focus. There was a shot in that game where Leslie powered one low at my left leg, but I was able to scoop it and return it for a passing shot down her right side along the sideline for a winner. I got a whoop and a congratulatory comment from Kim sitting on the sidelines!

Fatigued

Almost right out of the gate, I was feeling tired. I don’t know if it’s because this was my third time playing in four days, or it was a result of the time change, or maybe I’m fighting a bug. It was enough that after about an hour of play, I had the thought of just calling it a day. But, no. I want to get in as much pickleball as possible!

John from Pleasanton was down in Santa Cruz again. While still relatively new, he has solid ball skills with all this squash experience. Once he gets more strategy down and develops more reliable drops, he’ll be on his way to being a great player. My shot selection is generally pretty good these days, but reliable execution is my challenge.

Wrap-up Games

There was a tall man built like a linebacker with gray hair named Rich—probably late 50s—who played with Jeff against me and Rick (Eric’s friend). Rich hasn’t been around for a while, but I remember him from months back. Rick and I won the game 11-9.

We all decided to have a rematch since it had been pretty balanced—plus we were the last interested players around. This time, however, it was not. Rick and I won 11-1. I was playing well.

We wrapped things up a few minutes after 1 p.m.

My play improved over the course of the day, going from “eh” to decently good. Consistency is “where it’s at”. Something for me to work on.

The Forecast

It’s supposed to rain a lot this week. The next pickleball day may be a full week from now, again on Sunday.

Number of days on a court: 134
Number of total hours: 382.5

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