Just Let Her Play

Thursday, August 22, 2019 (Court Day #298)

57th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

A man named Gregg whom I don’t know, messaged me on Facebook asking if there was still play at Sgt. Derby on Sunday and that he recently played in Boulder Creek but was looking for somewhere closer to Santa Cruz. I told him “yes” and that there was also play tonight at Skypark in Scotts Valley. I pointed him in the direction of the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club website. We figured out that on our mobile devices—I have an iPhone—that when you tap on “Courts”, the courts page doesn’t load and it just gives you the dropdown menu of “Other places to play” . . . if you happen to tap “Courts” twice, then it loads. Otherwise, you only access non-club court sites. Something to fix! I passed along that bad behavior to Dave Allenbaugh and Karen Long who took over operating the website from Dave.

Skypark

I got to Skypark about 7 p.m. Parking was super hard to find. People were even parked in the weeds and I joined those cars. I quickly got into a game.

Eric—not Eric S.—had brought his partner Ann to pickleball. She and I were playing together against Jeanne and Carol. I gave Ann a couple of pieces of advice during the game, including coming up to the net when the opportunity is there. I paused and added . . . “if you don’t mind me coaching.” No response. I took the silent cue. Just let her play.

Often, in our desire to help others, we can overdo it. It’s recommended that we always remember to ask first before giving advice, even if it’s obvious someone on the court can use that advice. It’s a courtesy. I neglected to do that. It should always start with, “Do you mind if I give you some tips?” Most often, the answer is “Yes, I can use tips please!” But it’s annoying when you don’t ask and the answer would have been “no”.

It turns out that Ann is not addicted like the rest of us and only comes to humor Eric. Maybe she’ll eventually get hooked. She said she’s still waiting for it to be “fun”. For me, it was fun from the first game I played. But it’s not for everyone . . . and I respect that.

Switching Hands

During the evening, Allan K. tracked me down. “You know why you can’t switch hands at a tournament, right?” I was trying to figure out what he meant. I rarely switched hands during a game at the tournament we’d just played in. When he went on, I understood. “You and Binh practiced with you playing left-handed leading up to the tournament. Then you played right-handed and he didn’t know what to do.” Ah. Well, I think there was some of that. Binh is pretty adaptable, but I’m sure switching didn’t help the automatic nature/comfort of us playing together.

The Rest

There was a tall young guy with black hair and a ponytail whose name escapes me. It was fun playing against him, he’s upbeat and easygoing.

There was a very tall man with long light hair who I figured could be the guy who messaged me, but I opted to not go out on a limb and ask.

Things wrapped up and I was in my car shortly after 9 p.m.

Oh. My protective clear eyewear has some scratches. This is even with me storing them in their original “blister” packaging after each use. I’ll either need to buff them out or get new ones. It’s somewhat distracting.

The Pros

While winding down at home after playing in Scotts Valley, I was watching a video on Facebook of a match this week at TOC—Tournament of Champions—in Utah. Simone Jardim and Corrine Carr against Regina Franco and Sarah Ansboury. This annual tournament finishes this weekend.

I didn’t watch the whole video—boy, they women are good!—but I did notice something. While Simone and Corrine were receiving, the partner at the net would place a hand behind her back and signal to the receiver. Here are a couple example photos of Corrine:

The open hand.

The fist.

I was trying to make out what the signal was. Was she indicating one side or the other? Was she indicating who of the two opponents they’d be targeting for this point?

It didn’t take me long to figure it out. An open hand meant, “we’re switching positions after the serve.” A closed fist meant, “we’re staying put.”

My question was why? Were they testing to see if a particular combination of court positions were better than others?

It’s time to contact Mark Renneson of Third Shot Sports!

Friday, August 23, 2019 (No Play)

I wrote Mark Renneson an email tonight about the signaling. (I didn’t get to do that right away.) We’ll see how long it takes him to get back to me.

Saturday, August 24, 2019 (No Play)

Mark got back to me pretty fast, he wrote back today. Here’s his insight:
“Players are always looking for ways to make life harder for their opponents. Switching — especially when it is varied — gives the serving one more thing to worry about when they play their third shot. That can be the difference between hitting a good one or not. This is especially important when one player (CC) is being targeted on the third.”

“CC” being Corrine Carr. Simone is recognized as the top woman singles player—that may have changed recently, but regardless, she’s a force. What Mark is saying, is under normal circumstances where partners are consistently stacking to keep a particular player on the left, for instance, as an opponent you don’t even have to think before you hit—you know that the weaker player will always be on the same side of the court. By your opponent randomly switching, that level of comfort and consistency for your team is gone. Corrine might be on the left this time and maybe the right three points from now. For the switchers, the trick is not also making it hard on themselves in the process!

Number of days on a court: 298
Number of total hours: 824

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