Thursday, May 9, 2019 (Court Day #264)
Day 25 playing left-handed. Tennis elbow.
So, I get home from work for a pitstop on my way to pickleball in Scotts Valley. I was sporting a headache so I had a good excuse to leave work right at 6 p.m. and have my (subordinate) manager close instead of me staying late like I often do. I had visited the hardware store at lunchtime and picked up a replacement rubber seal for our home’s toilet tank’s filler valve. It was running, so I turned off the valve when I left for work that morning and told my wife about it.
I cut open the rubber seal package, popping out the seal. I took the lid off the tank and placed it on the toilet lid. I popped off the valve top to get to the seal…
BOOM!
There was water shooting EVERYWHERE! I jammed the valve back down as best I could with my right hand and urgently reached down with my left to turn off the valve. Yep. It needed to be closed. My wife had turned the water back on!!!! There was water sprayed on the wall, on the shower door, on the floor, on the bottom of the medicine cabinet, all over my face and jacket—everywhere! “Oh, I had to use it.” (Um, there’s a second bathroom outside our bedroom door, 10 feet over.) *sigh* Yes, I should have checked first, but still… oy.
Skypark
I arrived at about 6:40 p.m. It was still light and just over 60 degrees. It’s been getting dark after 8 p.m. these days. There were four or five courts set up. The game right by the entry gate just happened to need a fourth player! Nice! I teamed up with a regular named Susan. I had seen her on numerous occasions but never learned her name. We played against Melody and a woman I’d never seen before. Susan and I beat Melody and her partner. Susan and I had taken a solid lead, let them almost catch up, then finished them off. Even lefty, I was playing quite well. I’m getting to the point now where sometimes I don’t even bother to explain I’m right-handed. In harder games, I will usually tell my partner at the outset and. sooner or later, my opponents.
I’d decided yesterday that I am going to play the Cabrillo Tournament. To hell with my official USAPA rating. If it goes down because I’m playing lefty, it goes down! It’s all about fun, right? That’s the bottom line. It’ll be Binh and me, though I hadn’t told him so yet. I told him tonight and he is ready to go. “How do I sign up?” I explained the process.
Binh and I played against two women, April and another one, I think she said her name was Diane. Binh and I split up, I took April. It became apparent that both were weak players. Binh and I were hitting lollipop shots to keep the ball in play. Afterward, I found out that it’s was April’s first time out! And probably the other woman too. Good thing we took it easier on them! I felt bad for a few of the shots I made! Had I known, I would have played easier earlier in the game! Oops.
Binh and I played against Melody and Greg. We should have clobbered them, but lost 13-11. Midway though the game, Binh suggested stacking. (Mel accidentally called it “poaching” twice though corrected herself each time.) We did mess it up a couple of times, with the wrong person receiving/serving—deadly in a tournament—but once we did stacked, we started scoring points at a rapid clip. We played much better with our two forehands in the middle.
Binh and I played another game against Oleg and a woman I didn’t know. Oleg was the far stronger player. There were some shots that I should have let go that Oleg powered as drives that would have sailed out. But there were some strong drives that I managed with my left hand just fine. I played ok. Not ideal, but for a lefty, pretty darn good. I’m making progress for sure.
Binh and I had our last game against Mark G. (Maree’s husband) and firefighter Rob—my tournament partner from the Golden State Championship last year. Even with me playing lefty against two solid players, Binh and I were neck and neck against them, eventually losing 11-7, but it as a battle. I had this amazing backhand drop shot just over the net from the baseline corner off a lob from Mark. It was a thing of absolute beauty. I couldn’t have hit it better with my right hand. Binh and I were stacking in that game and did a far better job of it. If I got confused, Binh was right there to get me in the right place. If Binh got confused, then I was right there to point to the correct spot for him. It worked well.
I do need to figure out something. Rob made a couple of shots toward my left armpit and I tried to hit the ball with my paddle pointed toward the net. This is crazy. That’s the least possible surface area for the ball to possibly hit! I ended up getting whacked in the index finger knuckle—it felt like a bee sting! (Yes, I’ve been stung by a bee, though it’s been almost 40 years . . . one never forgets though!) Granted, it’s a “chicken wing” shot that’s hard even from one’s dominant hand, but the angle of my paddle has to be better. And some of my drop shots are still falling short of the net. I have to dial that in.
My serves continue to get stronger. Yes, I missed three of them tonight, but they are getting deeper and are continuing to be more consistent. There were also a few high shots were instead of successfully slamming them, they sailed long out the back of the court—paddle angle!
My right ankle bothered me a couple instances tonight. Not particularly painful, but I noticed it briefly, other than that it was fine. It’s been acting funny the last week or two. And my back is doing better. It wasn’t as fatigued tonight.
With the next outing, I will have played 10% of all of my pickleball days playing left-handed instead of right-handed. A quirky milestone that I never dreamed I’d have. Four months of varying frustration as I start over using my left arm.
Holding out my right arm fully straight still hurts. Then bending my hand up at the wrist and flexing it back toward my elbow causes more pain. I think I’m getting noticeably better, but then that test dramatically indicates just how far I have yet to go before I’m back to normal. I think I might be better by August, but after that test . . . I don’t know. Another six months? God knows. Maybe it’s better if I don’t know now long it is. I’ve pretty much settled into the notion of making the best of it as it is. Playing left-handed. I’ll just get as good as I can get. When the time comes, I’ll switch back. And there’s plenty yet to do to get as good using my left as my right. Plenty.
Postscript
At 11 p.m., after writing the above, I got a call from our business’s alarm monitoring company. Fire alarm. From the same sensor that had a false alarm while I was in Spain. I immediately drove to work. Yep. False alarm.
SCFD Engine 3113 calling it a night.
I apologized to the very nice and understanding firefighters. So much for them—or me—getting to sleep in a timely fashion. Oh, well.
Number of days on a court: 264
Number of total hours: 723
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