Adventures of Andrew Lenz and a Yellow Ball

Month: May 2018 (Page 2 of 2)

On Fire.

Thursday, May 10, 2018 (Court Days #149)

I wasn’t able to get away from work until after 6:30. In the four days that I’ve worked this week, I’ve already topped 40 hours. 9, 10 and 11-hour days. I raced home, changed, took some ibuprofen for my sore back, and dashed out the door to Scotts Valley.

Things were hopping by the time I got to Skypark at 7 p.m. They had five courts set up and were setting up a sixth.

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I started out playing solidly and my play progressively got better and better.

Larry and and a three game winning streak against three different sets of opponents: Colleen and Lauren, Alan and Larry’s wife Sue, Terri and Mark Dettle.

I was making an effort to work on my forehand slice service return and successfully executed the majority of them. They were effective sometimes my opponent would hit them into the net.

Larry and I stayed as a team and played against Kent and Rob. Rob has really been improving. Larry and I found ourselves down 0-4. It wasn’t looking good. But then we crept back into the game and tied it up 4-4. It was a battle. Then we found ourselves down 9-5. If they got two more points it would be over. But we weren’t going to do down easily. Soon, we were leading 10-9! One point was all we needed. Nope. 10-10. Then 11-11. Then 12-12. It just keep going. There were some great rallies and a few surprising great shots. Eventually, Larry made a couple of errors and down we went, 14-12. Wow. Good one!

Rob and I weren’t ready to be done and teamed up against Oleg and his wife Olga for one last game. Mark Dettle—responsible for closing up—said we could play. Rob and I were on fire. We pulled out ahead and rocketed convincingly to an 11-2 win in short order. Oleg is a competitor and I know he was disappointed with their play. Neither of them were playing their best.

It was just about 9 p.m. when we cleared out the last court. Fun one.

I chatted with Rob afterward for a couple minutes. His firefighter tournament is coming up very soon. When I told him that he has improved a lot, he said that he’s not softening his game when playing with weaker players. I told him that’s good because if he’s not trying as hard, he’s robbing his opponents of the opportunity to play with a stronger player and get better. If he keeps at it, Rob will become very, very good.

Number of days on a court: 149
Number of total hours: 419

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The Drop is Back! (Sort of)

Sunday, May 6, 2018 (Court Day #148)

Sitting early this morning, my back was sore and stiff. It reminds me of when I first started playing pickleball and my back was regularly fatigued. But this is the residual from the pulled muscle in my back from 4 weeks ago.

I pulled up at Derby Park at 8:45 a.m. and Mark (Maree’s husband) was already there. I hadn’t seen Mark for at least a month. I realized that in my haste to get to Derby before John P.—John texted me and said he’d be there by 8:45—I had, for a second time, forgotten the battery for the blower. I unlocked the storage boxes for Mark and he got about to setting up the nets while I headed back home to pick up the battery. *sigh* I was back at 9 a.m.

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Lauren, Robin, Terri, new guy, Ray, George, Cameron, Marianne, Olga, and a man’s back.

I played a little better today. In one game, Rob and I played against James (back after not playing much lately he said) and Oleg. Amazingly, late in the game, Rob and I were ahead by two points. In the end, we lost 11-9. Still, considering the skill were against, that was completely unexpected. We switched sides and had a rematch, this time we  lost 11-1 or something—very lopsided!

My drop shot did make a return appearance. That’s good news!

Oleg, Olga and I went to Mexican food after pickleball. We got there about 1 p.m. Nothing really of note there other than Oleg volunteered that I’ve improved my play a lot. Nice to hear.

Number of days on a court: 148
Number of total hours: 417

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Squeezing in Some Games

Thursday, May 3, 2018 (Court Day #147)

Work has been seriously short-staffed, especially short on experienced staff in our framing department. I’ve gone from acting as a consulting master framer for trickier projects to that as well as being on the front lines answering the phone and waiting on customers. As a result, it may be some time before I get to take time off during the day for pickleball. It was god while it lasted. *sigh* But evenings and Sundays when our family business is closed are mostly fair game for pickleball.

Night Ball

A few minutes after 7 p.m., I pulled into Skypark in Scotts Valley. Tennis was hopping, including on a court lined for pickleball. I plopped myself on the bench and put on my right ankle brace. Then marveled at the fact that I was once again the only person sitting out waiting for a game. Alan called over. “Andrew! Are you just going to sit there or are you going to join us?” Well, what do you know? Not all the four pickleball courts were full! I was a third, joining Alan and Lauren (petite, dark hair). After doing some 2 on one points, we eventually, we got a fourth and had a game.

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Alan and I played a game against Oleg and Lauren. That was a challenging game. Fun.

Unfortunately, the city had changed the lock for the court lights control box and Mark Dettle didn’t have a key. We’d have only until the natural light failed.

Olga and I played a game against Janet and an older woman I’ve seen maybe once before. Nice lady, just not very skilled. Janet wasn’t too keen with the teams—rightly so—we had the best to players on one side, but it offered to play left handed. “Only if you do that the whole game!” Which I did. Serving was the hardest part, followed by a lefty backhand-—both something I’d never use in a real game. Even with that, Olga and I fairly easily won.

The last game was Rob (firefighter) and me against Mark Dettle and Janet’s husband Bruce. Rob and I took a quick and solid lead, 7-0, before they scored a point. We had moved the last net under a feeble light next to the gate nearest the pickleball storage box. At 6, we’d switched. Rob and I managed to allow our opponents back in the game. (Ok, Rob would admit it was more him than me!) They nearly tied up the game before service went back and forth a few times before Rob Andy I wrapped up the win. That was a fun one in the deepening darkness.

It was shortly after 8:30 when that last game ended.

Insights

That tournament gave me a new perspective on competition. Eric and I rarely face competition as strong as what we faced at Paso Robles. It was a more powerful game than we typically see. Oleg is the closest we’d typically play against in terms of ball accuracy and speed. Even then, I’d rather face Oleg than Vinny and Kevin, who we faced in our first match in Paso.

in one of the games, I felt pain in my right ankle. It’d been a while since I’d expericned that, but it goes to show that there is still healing to do there, My back was still tight and sore. Boy, it’s taking time for things to get back to normal. I don’t feel old really, but my body is telling me that I’m solidly middle-aged!

Number of days on a court: 147
Number of total hours: 413.5

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

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