Sunday, August 19, 2018 (Court Day #184)
I arrived at Derby Park at 8:55 under morning fog and a few people were already milling around. Early birds! It got busy quick. It wasn’t long before I had to announce “Play to 9, win by 1!”
We had 10 first-time visitors at Derby. (Most were new players, but some had played a few times before.) Debby and Doug, out for the first time ever who I taught during a learning game. Russ, same story but taught by Mark (Maree’s husband). Nick and Tammi, tennis players and new to the game, but played first at Skypark this week. Jim C., Julianne and Dayra, Jean M., Sue S. Ten first-time visitors. A lot!
Dan, the skateboarder, and his wife Sarah were back. Dan’s friend Dillon was there too. He’d played Thursday night in Scotts Valley. When I asked, Dan said they’d been playing every day! It’d be nice to have that light of a work schedule!
Allan (right), Robin (bright skirt), Karen (not Karen Long), and crowd waiting to play. Jean, a first time visitor to Derby, is in the blue.
First time visitors Tammi and Nick take on shirtless skateboarder friends, Dan (left) and Dillon (right).
There weren’t all that many really good players there. Oleg arrived later in the morning. Stuart was there. But there was no Eric, no Brennan. Josh (the former UCSC tennis player) and Cameron were there and they are always worth a decent game. But even with the shortage of strong players, I felt that I got some games that were opportunities to improve.
Sure, I had the newbie game with Debby, Doug and Julianne where I tried to hit shots that were easy for them to deal with.
There was another game where I was teamed with Karen against Tom M. and first-time visitor Dayna (from Las Selva Beach in the south county). Dayna had played some before but is not a particularly strong player. I pulled a “Terry/Bryan” and tried to do in that game what they’d do in games against me . . . that is, pass on winning shots to just keep the ball in play. Don’t hit winners or even hard shots, just let the opponents mess up, if that’s what they end up doing. Occasionally, I’d lose a point after passing on a winner, but still, there was no question that Karen and I would win that game!
So?
How did I feel about today? Dunno. Over the last year, I’ve felt that I’ve gradually and steadily improved. But I feel like I’ve slipped lately. I’m making a conscious effort now to try and be better about my shot selection. Nonetheless, I’m still making bad shots. Too often, I’m not really thinking, just hitting. Trying to do slice returns on serves that are too low. Trying to drive a shot while at the kitchen line but the ball bounces too low and it ends up in the net. Driving shots while moving forward and having them end up in the wrong place—like in the net.
But I felt that the day was a step in the right direction. Back toward being a better player. I need to keep thinking . . . pick targets. Be wise about when I try tricky shots.
Dan paid me a nice compliment today in one game with him. “You are like playing against a backboard!”
It was 1:51 when I checked my phone when I was about to leave. Nearly 5 hours at the courts, with about 4 1/2 hours of play.
Number of days on a court: 184
Number of total hours: 511
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