Month: August 2018 (Page 4 of 5)

Wednesday, August 15, 2018 (Court Day #182)

I had plans in the morning so got to Derby a little before 10 a.m. It was beautiful weather.

Today, was pretty miserable in terms of my play.

It started ok. The first game was Carl and me against Stuart and Brian. (Not Bryan of San Jose—local older Brian.) I made very few mistakes in that game and there were plenty of opportunities of shots to easily make me look good.

But as the morning progressed, as I complained to Cameron, “What am I doing?” I was being aggressive at the wrong times, such as on unattackable drop shots, which ended up popped up for an opponent’s winning shot. What the heck?

I spent the next games trying to be keenly aware of where to hit and what to hit. I need to get back to the soft game.

We had some good players today—Terry Long, Dean, Stuart—and they were signing up in red and I was relegated back to signing up as an Intermediate. (With Stuart’s mobility hampered by his bad knee, unfortunately he’s really playing more as an Intermediate these days, but he’s grannied in as Advanced.) There weren’t enough stronger players to go around, so getting a game with four of them was pretty much out of the question. We did manage to get three in a game once, so that was at least something, I guess.

We had probably 20 people waiting to get onto courts today. Pickleball is popular!

Terry Long had opened the court and was also closing. Surprisingly, he said he’d never opened and closed before. I helped him take care of some things—like where the donation money envelopes were—then left about 12:30 to let him wrap things up, so I could get to work.

Video Review

Eric accepted my request to host Rob and me to review our Concord tournament footage, so we’ll likely be doing that in the next week or two. I’ve only watched a few little bits, but looking at one quick sequence of one of the games, my shot selection is . . . well, “so flipping stupid” was what I said to myself! No wonder we we got eliminated from the tournament. Ugh.

Number of days on a court: 182
Number of total hours: 504

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

Monday, August 13, 2018 (Court Day #181)

I was all set to head to Brommer Park and get there early. One small problem. The plumbers were coming between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. to work on our home’s broken water main and my wife was running my son up to the university for his summer internship. So instead, I was waiting. And waiting. They arrived shortly after 9 and my wife arrived back about 5 minutes later. After a brief chat with the plumbers—Caleb and Mario—I was off!

I was driving along when I pulled up behind a car. “RN’s RX” is what was on the license plate. The plate frame mentioned pickleball, there was a USAPA sticker in the back window and a pickleball poised on the antenna on the roof. There was little doubt that we were both headed to the same courts and also little doubt that the car belongs to Karen Long, RN! I couldn’t make out who was driving, so I passed the car. Terry, her husband.

Brommer Park

I arrived at Brommer at about 9:30. I could only stay until about 11:15 then I’d have to head home and get ready for work.

Today, I would pass 500 hours on a pickleball court. Quite the milestone!

Before 10 a.m. during a club gathering, it’s mixed play regardless of skill level. The first game of the day was with Leslie, Kent, and a woman who I’d never met before named Nancy.  Nancy is an above average player. Nancy and I were handed a loss, somewhere around 11-5. It was a good challenging game. Kent was playing particularly well.

I was a bit frustrated today. I spent the rest of the morning cycling through weaker games. I love playing and I’m not against playing with observably weaker players now and then to help bring them up. I was a 3.0 myself last year. Heck, I spent part of my morning yesterday teaching rank beginners. The last thing I want to do is be a stuck up player who’s “above” playing with others whom he thinks is “beneath” him.

But I am now a solid 3.5 tournament player and would like to get at least some challenging games in. That said, if I played consistently as well as I am able, I’d be a 4.0, and there is a reason that I’m not a 4.0! I don‘t walk on water—not even close! I blow shots and sometimes make a bad shot selection here and there.

But I would like to frequently be in games where I’m not obviously the strongest player on the court. Today, I did ask at one point to be the fourth in a box with three red names, but I was denied. I get it. Advanced is supposed to be 4.0 and up. Again I’m only a 3.5. They want exactly what I want—a good challenging game.

Announcements

Leslie, as site coordinator at Brommer, interrupted play mid-morning for a group announcement. It was about skill levels and private game etiquette outside of club play times. Terry mentioned the club’s rating committee for those hoping to learn what their skill level is.

I wasn’t convinced as to how much good it will do, however. since 2.5 and 3.0 players just went right back to signing up in Intermediate, which is supposed to be 3.5.

So, as I said, I was in repeated games with weaker players all morning. (After wild points, with the difference in skill levels, I’d get “how did you even manage to just do that?” looks.) I was entering a game with Carl and he told Gene—who’s played for 3 months—my partner for the game, “Andrew just clobbered us twice, you are getting a good partner.” In an effort to win, Carl and Wayne proceeded to avoid hitting to me the whole game. *sigh* (These days, in rec play, I’m either treating my two opposing players equally or intentionally hitting the ball to the better player!)

Frustration

Staffing at work has been so bad the last few months, I haven’t been able to get to Brommer. But the last two times that I’ve been out there, I’ve been seriously tempted to leave early. It’s just not that much fun. It’s like seeing cake (really good players) but not being able to eat any (playing with them) or having a sports car in bumper to bumper traffic. Over at Derby, the Advanced group is usually different since the top players in the club generally don’t come. I’m out there signing up in red with Brennan, Oleg, Eric, sometimes James or Cameron and we have some great games.

I don’t know what the general solution is. For me personally, it’s for me to pay my dues with time and effort and earn my way into a 4.0 rating by getting more consistent. But there are also others right now in my shoes in the twilight zone between the mass chaos of Intermediate (as it stands now) and the . . . well, as Allan alluded to in the group discussion . . . the chaos of Advanced with it’s own wide range of skill levels. If I had my skill set in the 70+ age group, I’d easily be a 4.0 in tournament play.

I don’t want or expect to be in the Brommer Advanced group. But I would like to see better games in the Intermediate group more frequently.

I guess another solution for those of us in limbo is to simply do what Terry suggested against, that is, just wait, get a group of four together and sign up all at once. Or just sit out and wait 10, 15, 20 minutes hoping to get a better game. But, as Terry said, you get less playing time that way, that’s why the club has the board with different skill levels. But it’s not working all that well for Intermediate.

You know, sometimes, I think I take this all too seriously. Ah, well.

I left Brommer at 11:28.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018 (No Court Play)

I received an email when I was at home for lunch from Mofia Pickleball, the husband/wife company, which was at the Golden State Championships in Concord recording all the matches. Just what I needed after yesterday. Exciting! The three matches that Rob and I played were available for analysis.

My internet connection at home is super slow, so I downloaded the 5GB file at work instead. (The work connection is over 8 times faster.)

When I got home, I watched some of the footage. Boy. I knew I was playing badly that day, but seeing it recorded is just depressing. I just have to shake my head. I’ll get it uploaded for you—my dear readers—at some point, but it’ll certainly be for the point of education of others who can learn from my mistakes and not for self-aggrandizement! It’s embarrassing. A cosmic wakeup call:
“Hey! Sometimes you belong with those 3.0 players!”

Number of days on a court: 181
Number of total hours: 501.5

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

Sunday, August 12, 2018 (Court Day #180)

Yesterdaay, I notices that I had peeling skin at the base of my right palm. Yep. Right where my paddle rests. It seems I’ve been wearing the skin there for some reason.

This morning, I drove from my warm sunny house to lovely fog-cooled courts at Sgt. Derby Park. I arrived by 8:55 a.m. to find four players waiting for me to open the storage bins. Feast or famine! (No one was there even by 9 a.m., last Sunday.)

I was in a game. There was a shot to our back corner. I had my back to the net, running toward the ball, and flicked my wrist in a low blind desperation shot. I turned back. I heard a voice from behind me. Dean. “That was the perfect shot to do. It was your only option.” He demonstrated with a flick of his wrist. The ball hadn’t cleared the net, but did at least make it to the net. It would have been cool had it been successful!

There were some brand new players, Carol and Deb. I told them that I was already signed up for a game but would explain the game to them once I was done. They hadn’t watched any online videos nor read anything in advance, so they were completely green. I spent about half an hour in a training game with them. After that, they were able to find some players to join them and get onto courts. They aren’t very mobile, but if they stick with it, they may be able to give some 3.0 players some challenges.

Diane P. (pink) partnered with Jerry. Adrian (white shirt) on the right.

Brennan and Leslie took on me and someone else. I can’t remember who my partner was, but we got beat handily. I was not playing great.

Later, Eric and I played Leslie and Asian Dave. we won 11-7. I was playing a bit better.

Rick and Eric played George and me. George and I won. Then we switched and Rick and I played Eric and George. Rick and I won by a wider margin. I was playing very well.

Afternoon

Eric and I were talking about upcoming tournaments. I decided to take a look at my USAPA rating. Still 3.580.

Pretty pitiful. Too bad our Pleasanton gold medal results aren’t included!

Number of days on a court: 180
Number of total hours: 499.5

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