Wednesday, January 1, 2020 (Court Day #328)
I arrived at Derby Park at 9:15. I was late, but today was Dave Allenbaugh’s day to open and close.
There was a couple visiting from Idaho. I saw some strong play of theirs in other games and was hoping to get into a game of my own with them. And I did later, with Ted. I told Ted that I would be playing righty since otherwise we’d get wiped out. Nonetheless, I was outclassed, and Ted more so. Part way through the game, Ted unsuccessfully hit the ball 4 or 5 times in a row. They were not making it easy and we lost 11-2 or 11-3. If it recall correctly, the man made every single one of his drop shots. He was easily a 4.0.
There were two shots in that game that were particularly memorable. One was me popping up a dink and him hitting a passing shot out of the reach of my paddle in for a winner down the right sideline. I told him “Merry Christmas!”—I don’t know where that shot came from, it was lame. The second memorable shot was a drop shot he made that was too low for me to attack—we were across from each other, the woman across to my left. I hit it the best place that I could, which was deep in the middle to the woman’s backhand. It was a little of an awkward hit by her but she did get the ball back over the net—the main point though is that my hit was not attackable by her and kept her back . . . it was the best that I could do.
My right elbow was hurting in this match. I should have probably stopped. Being that it was my first game righty since playing Sunday, three days ago, it shows that my three games righty on Sunday did take a toll.
Around noon-ish, give or take, Dave Allenbaugh wanted to leave and asked me if I would close. I was going to see a movie with my family at 3:30, but I’d have plenty of time. I told him I would.
Later on, as things were pretty much done, I was outside the courts talking to Charles when Kat asked for one more game. How could I pass? Kat, Wei, Gregg (not “3G”) and I walked back into the courts. Wei put up a surprisingly good performance—he’s improved a lot!
Wei was really good at disguising the angle of his shots. He would change the angle of his paddle head and turn it so that it would go somewhere you weren’t expecting—”inside-out” shots. It was kind of annoying, but in a good tactical way for him. He’d look like he was hitting a shot to me, but would send it toward Gregg at the last instant.
After a first game loss, my competitive streak came out and I switched to righty for last two games. Kat said, compared my serve “like that game in Harry Potter, the snitch, it moves all over.” Curving serves.
I earned at least four points in the last game off my serve . . . they’d end up in the net or returned deep or wide of the court. Wei and Kat both had problems with my serves, they were either too fast or too curvy or both. Gregg and I won the last two games—the last game solidly.
My wife texted me at 2:30, “You are aware that we have to leave here around 3PM right?” “Walking to car”.
5 hours of pickleball! Woah.
Afterward, I felt a bit bad about pulling out my strong serves on Wei and Kat, but then I thought, “That’s exactly how I want my opponents to play against me—don’t hold back.” That’s how they get better. Make them stretch and grow.
Friday, January 3, 2020 (No Play)
Today, I drove by myself down to the Los Angeles area. It’s about a six hour drive, give or take. Being alone, I get to pick what to listen to and so this was a great opportunity to catch up on Pickleball Kitchen podcasts. I play them back at 1.5x speed which allows me to get through more of them since they take a third less time to listen to!
Joe Baker released a new video this week. He always has good videos, though he’s covered most of the most important advice/basics already in prior videos. What better way to spend time in a hotel room getting ready to go to sleep than watching pickleball videos?
Saturday, January 4, 2020 (No play)
Sitting up in a hotel room bed, waiting for my feet to warm up, YouTube suggested a video. One of Barrett Kincheloe of Pickleball Kitchen.
The video is good, though his tip about drop shots is a bit confusing.
Here was another video that YouTube suggested:
Sunday, January 5, 2020 (No Play)
Today, I was driving back home from Southern California, so more podcasts. One episode about tournaments particularly struck me. In particular, one tip.
Barrett said that he uses the first few points in a game to probe the strengths and weaknesses of an opponent. How to they handle third shot drives? Or backhands?
While I think many of us mentally “log” what is effective or ineffective, doing it in conscious and planned fashion is an excellent strategy.
In one of Barrett’s later podcasts, he specifically mentioned the video I watched last night. He said he was not very clear on his drop shot segment of the video.
Thursday, January 9, 2020 (No Play)
I had an annual physical with my GP. I asked him about getting my elbow “shot up” and he said that studies show that there is an initial faster improvement versus control cases but in the long run, healing was slower than those individuals not given the shot. He recommended against the shot.
I said someone suggested acupuncture. He said he’d done it and had a little improvement with it, so it might be worth trying.
After a little discussion, he gave me a referral to a local sport medicine physical therapy group. He said they are excellent. I’m cautiously hopeful.
Friday, January 10, 2020 (No Play)
I picked up a used Rolflex Pro roller unit for about $40 on eBay and it came a couple of days ago. I used it to massage my right forearm. I don’t know if it’ll make any difference or not, but it’s worth a shot.
Saturday, January 11, 2020 (No Play)
Weird. My forearm and elbow actually hurt more after the massaging last night and this morning with the Rolflex.
Number of days on a court: 328
Number of total hours: 926
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