Wednesday, July 31, 2019 (Court Day #288)

48th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

I had one of my staff called in sick and I had some communicating to do prior to making a determination of me playing today or having to go to work. But we had just enough people. It was misting and I needed to turn on my windshield wipers on the way. I arrived at Brommer Park at about 9:20. There were only nine people there. Odd. It wasn’t that wet. But maybe it scared everyone off. Or was there some major news event? Like another 9/11 or something. I’ve never seen turnout this light on a club day.

One court had Leslie, Dan Bliss, Oleg, and Jane. A strong court. Another was a group of intermediate women. Patty, Di, and a couple of others that I didn’t stop to get a close enough look at—women I might not have known the names for anyway.

Allan Cable was the odd, ninth man out. He was as happy to see me as I was him. We warmed up and drilled a little bit. Nancy—who was Allan’s tournament partner—showed up about 15-20 minutes later. Soon after, a woman named Jackie appeared. Jackie is tall for a woman. Maybe even 5’10”.

We ended up playing five games of Jackie and me against Allan and Nancy. Jackie and I won the first game 11-2. Early in that game, I had three rocket drives mere inches over the net that they couldn’t successfully return. (I would have been proud to have hit those with my right hand!) Jackie and I won the next two games as well, though by less of a margin. Allan and Nancy won the fourth game 12-10. I made just too many mistakes. Granted, they weren’t all me, but it’s bad when we lose several points in a row due to me. Jackie and I did go on to make up for the bad game and won the last game 11-6, bringing our total to 4 games to 1 game. No question which team was better on the day.

I did fairly well serving. In one of the later games, I missed a serve, too far to the left past the sideline. (Usually, when serving to that court and missing, it’s too far to the right instead.) Jackie said, “I think that’s the first serve you’ve missed all morning.” I missed three more in that game after that. I find that when I hit up on the ball with more lift, I tend to be more accurate. I have to say, for me, serving lefty is by far the hardest part of the game when switching hands. It’s such a pain.

Olga showed up. Allan had to leave to receive a delivery of lumber at his house, so Olga jumped in and took his place. Jackie and I won yet another game, 11-6. Afterward, Olga said, “I think you are ready for tournaments.” Maybe she forgot that we separately won gold medals last month in San Juan Bautista—her in women’s doubles and me in men’s doubles. I was “ready” for that tournament . . . at least in 3.0. Olga won a gold medal this past week in a tournament, she and Patty played in 3.0. That medal was her third gold in the last couple of months. I told her that she really should be in 3.5.

That last game wrapped up around 11:30, and I left about 11:40. Home, then work.

I was still wondering where everyone was. So weird.

Later, I realized what happened. Duh. So simple! Club play was at DERBY PARK today, NOT BROMMER PARK! No wonder there were so few people! Silly! No wonder we only had 13 people there! It wasn’t the correct location!

 


Tournament – Mixed Doubles

It occurred to me that since men’s doubles is on Sunday instead of Saturday and I’m scheduled off on Saturday, the day of mixed doubles, if I could find a female partner, I could enter that event at the Cabrillo Tournament.

I went to the list of players at PickleballTournaments.com and figured out who was not playing but that I had contact information for. They finally redesigned and updated that website. It’s about time. Now, we’ll just have to see where the problems are with the new system, but maybe they nailed it. We’ll see.

My first stop was Sycha. Sycha is a strong intermediate player who could relate to my need to play left-handed, since she did the same thing, swapping hands while an injury healed. Unfortunately, Sycha replied that she was jammed with family stuff and couldn’t play.

Next stop, Angie. Also a strong intermediate player. I Facebook-messaged Angie and she was very quick getting back to me, saying that she was traveling and in France. Ironically, she suggested asking Sycha! She made another reply and asked about my injury and shared that she’s currently dealing with a similar issue in her arm. I was bummed to hear that. I don’t wish this on anyone!

So, two potential female partners down. Ideally, you want to pick someone who isn’t too far from your own skill level. Too far off and it’s not fun for them or for you. Weaker partners get targeted in tournaments. That’s just the way it is. I think I’ll ask Carrie. She’s not as strong of a player as Sycha or Angie, but she has played almost a year and a half now and has gotten pretty decent. I wouldn’t consider her a weak player. She’s not ready to jump to 4.0 and might even be considered a 3.0 player, but—aside from being a nice person—would be one of the strongest available partners.

Number of days on a court: 288
Number of total hours: 795

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