Thursday, March 21, 2018 (Court Day #137)
The rain stopped in the early afternoon as predicted and a message arrived in my inbox from Sharyl saying play was on tonight in Scotts Valley. I’d be doubling up since I have plans to go to Brommer tomorrow morning.
I arrived at Skypark at about 6:40 p.m. There were a couple of games underway. There were three of us waiting to get into a game. The players would top out at a dozen tonight.
“Are you going to share this with the world?” Yes, Mark! Mark and Marie waiting to go. Eric on the far left. Melody between Mark and Eric. Rob—the firefighter—on the far right. Hal—whom I’d never met—was Rob’s partner for their match.
If Monday was a high, tonight was a low. I was unhappy with my play, though it started amazingly well. Colleen and I took on Mark Dettle and Marie. I played flawlessly. Seriously, I didn’t make a single error in that game. (That must be a first.) All my serves were in, my drop shots were—if not perfect, not damaging, my backhands were good, my dinks all where they ended to go. All good. Colleen and I won 11-0. I think they got to serve four times over the course of the game, but it was a dominating game.
I realized during the first game that I had forgotten to put on my ankle brace. In the second game, my ankle reminded me that I had forgotten to put on my ankle brace. Not too bad, but enough momentary pain that I put the brace on after that game ended!
The Slide
And it was all downhill from there.
Eric and I played a game against Marie and Rob, the firefighter. I was expecting a lopsided game. Not that Marie is bad, she’s not. And Rob isn’t bad either, just still pretty new. But Eric and I were behind several times in the game. We eventually did win, but we did not walk away with the game.
Later in the evening, a discussion about player grades came up with Colleen. She said that Eric is a 4.0 player. I told her that the grades aren’t what they used to be. To which she said that the official descriptions of the different grades hasn’t changed. But I said that the completion has gotten harder in tournaments and that a 4.0 a few years back is not a 4.0 these days. Is Eric a 4.0 player? I don’t think so. Getting there, but not yet. He and I are pretty darn close in skill, though I’d give him the edge. Six months from now? Maybe.
My play in the last few games was not where it should have been. Balls hit too deep. Drop shots too high. Taking a gamble on a drive when it should have been a drop shot. Returns too shallow. It went on. There was a drive where I had every belief it was going over until it unexpectedly hit the white tape. And another hit shot that I attempted to volley but when I swung, the ball wasn’t there. The lights are very much an odd factor in night games.
I’m not sure what caused it. The cold? The lights? Being tired from a long day? Not focused? I simply don’t know. Maybe my right shoulder? It’s a little sore, I was talking about that to a customer at work earlier in the day. I haven’t played for three days, but still it was sore. Dunno.
Play wrapped up a few minutes after 9. I chatted with Rob in the parking lot after a few minutes. I told him that he’s coming along. He said he’s playing in a firefighter pickleball tournament in a couple weeks but his main goal is to get better. His wife is an ER nurse who works in San Jose and he wasn’t sure if she’s be home or not. That’d be a crazy life, if the two schedules didn’t line up, you might not see you spouse very much—if at all—in a given week!
My shoulder may be even sorer if I get to Brommer tomorrow morning as planned!
Number of days on a court: 137
Number of total hours: 392
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