Friday, August 2, 2019 (Court Day #290)

50th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

I arrived at Brommer about 9:15.

img_3806The view of Brommer Street Park early in the session.

As a player, you have good days and you have bad days. Today, it was the latter.

My second game of the day was with Allan against two local newbies from Boony Doon, Steve and Gloria. They said they’d played “family pickleball” but this was their second foray into club play. Their first time playing was at Derby Park . . . no doubt, two days ago when I accidentally went to Brommer instead of Derby. They are maybe 2.5 level players. We won 11-2. A ways to go, though Gloria made 2-3 great crosscourt sideline winners. Later, in the waiting area, as part of a discussion with them, I shared, “. . . and Allan and I look it easy on you . . . maybe I shouldn’t tell you that.”

There was a man and woman visiting, not a couple, though they knew each other. Her name was Katie and she was down from Sacramento. The man didn’t give his name nor where he was from. I’d put Katie in her mid-30s, but it’s hard to tell. When I suggested Derby Park for play on Sunday, she said she’d be leaving on Sunday but that she gets down every few months. I didn’t get to play with either of them.

Mid-morning, I noticed that it was hurting to put weight on the ball of my left foot. I played through it and during my next break, I removed my shoe and found that where I’d worn through the shoe insole and made a hole, the edge of the hole had flipped over in one spot and doubled up. Ow. I fixed that and all was ok after that.

Olga and I played a game against Cal and Gregg (“3g”). We got slaughtered, 11-0. We shouldn’t have gotten slaughtered. I made an inordinate number of mistakes and when I didn’t make them, Olga made them. Olga and I are typically both better players than Gregg. And while Cal is a strong player, he’s not Terry Long or Dean. We just made too many unforced errors. We gave that game away. It happens sometimes.

The last game of the day was Cal and me against Oleg and Olga. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seemed that Cal was hitting the ball more to Olga. I remember one game a month or two ago where I was the weaker player and Cal targeted me over and over—at least according to my partner. It’s a tournament mentality to attack the weaker opponent. It’s also good for the weaker player—if they pay attention to what’s happening and learn from it.

Cal and I lead most of the game but we lost 12-10. I made a few too many mistakes at the end.

I made two shots right-handed today. I can’t remember the first, but the second was when Oleg lobbed deep to the baseline down the middle. I raced back, switched the paddle to my right hand then turned and hit a drive that cleared the top of the net by a mere 2-3 inches. (This was a conscious decision.) To Olga’s credit, she managed to get it back over the net to Cal’s side. It was a short return and Cal couldn’t get to it and we lost the point. I was lucky to get the ball back to the net, but had I had more time, maybe I could have lobbed it deep back or done a traditional drop shot. But Olga just made a great return.

I got most of my serves in today, that was good. But overall, it was a frustrating and depressing day. Far too many drop shots into the net. Or shots that were too attackable. Perhaps one or two where I hadn’t tracked quite enough and left a hole down the middle. Maybe I should keep better track.

I left about 12:20. Home then work.

Number of days on a court: 290
Number of total hours: 799.5

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