Friday, May 10, 2019 (Court Day #265)
Day 26 playing left-handed. Tennis elbow.
I got to Brommer Park about 9:05 a.m. under cloudy skies. I probably could have switched to clear safety glasses, but I wore my sunglasses all morning.
My serving took a turn for the worst today. I missed probably a dozen serves. I even dropped one into the kitchen on the other side of the net . . . that’s supremely rare! Once, when I apologized to Grita, my partner, for missing the serve she chuckled and said that if she was playing left-handed she couldn’t probably even get it over the net. It’s nice to have an understanding partner!
I was able to play a couple games with Jane as my partner and one game against. Rich was my partner for that one. He can have a wicked serve when he wants. When we were behind, he called on that and had at least one ace and forced a few failed returns. We ended up winning.
It was a mixed morning of a handful of highlight shots and frustrating moments.
I had a first today. I played my first game of singles left-handed. I played against Joe, a guy I’d never met before. I believe he’s new, but is a solid 3.0 player already. I lost 11-9, but heck, I was playing left-handed!
The last game was Adrian (a true lefty) and me against Rob and Joe. It was funny. I hit a ball wide to the left. On the next point, Adrian hit one wide right. I said something about the lefties hitting the balls wide. He laughed and said something to the effect of, “But I have no excuse!”
Oleg and his partner getting in a bonus game while his wife Olga and Adrian watch.
It was about 12:40. As I was about get to my car when Greg Jiles (from Monterey) offered, “I’ve been watching. You’re getting pretty good with that left hand.” Now, everything is relative. Greg is a 4.5/5.0 player and has been playing for 40 years. I’ve been playing for less than 28 months—and the last four have been left-handed. (And as I mentioned in my last post, today marked the milestone of me playing 10% of all of my outings as a lefty.) Greg said he was amazed how well I was doing lefty. “Are you ambidextrous?” “No, just really coordinated.” Greg, of course, could take me apart regardless. “Some of the pros use both hands.” We chatted another minute about it and then said our goodbyes. I like Greg. He’s an easy-going positive guy.
Today, I wasn’t happy with my play. I probably won’t be happy until I can play as well lefty as righty. Ok. I still wouldn’t be content. I always want to play better than I do, regardless. If I never made any errors, instead forced errors, and was a 6.0 world champion year after year, I might be satisfied. In onegame as my partner, Jane commented on a great shot I made in a rally. There was no caveat that it was made left-handed. It was a great shot, that happened to be made by a guy using his off hand. I just need a lot more of those.
Number of days on a court: 265
Number of total hours: 726.5
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