Adventures of Andrew Lenz and a Yellow Ball

Month: February 2020 (Page 2 of 4)

Line Call

February 17, 2020 (Court Day #339)
Presidents Day

47 degrees. Overcast. There was mist on my windshield as I drove to Brommer Park. I arrived a few minutes after 9:00 and I was expecting it to be busy off the bat due to the holiday, but the parking lot had a mere handful of cars in it. As I walked toward the courts and turned the storage building, I could see I was player number 9. Odd man out. I was thinking, “Where is everyone?”

Leslie and her visiting nephew Justin taking on Wayne and Tim on the near court.

It would get very busy later though. We had at least 50 people today!

I was in a game against Allan and Tristan. After we played out a point, I walked up to the net and told Tristan, “In a tournament, your serve would have been a fault. Your foot was past the centerline. You need to be between the imaginary extension of the two lines. I’m not going to call you on it here though.” Allan wasn’t convinced. “When I started, I was told I could be anywhere along the baseline.” “No, it’s a fault.” Alan replied, “I’ll ask someone.” I was mildly annoyed and amused. “I’ve read the 2020 rulebook, the 2019 rulebook, the 2018 rulebook, the 2017 rulebook. It’s a fault.” To Allan’s credit, he did come to me later and admitted, “I asked 40 people and you were right.” I kidded, “It’s nice to be right once in a while!”

There was an older man named Ray whom I’d never seen before. After a game together, I told him I wasn’t left-handed. At first, he thought I was joking, but then I told him about my tennis elbow. He said he’d had it himself and went to a local man who used “trigger point therapy” to fix his tennis elbow. Ray said it fixed his problem. Ray had used a tennis ball to massage his forearm. He showed me what he did, which was rubbing a ball between the forearm braced against your body and a wall, I borrowed a club pickleball and we used a wall outside the court to demonstrate. The ball is supposed to help breakdown the bumps on the muscle. You find the spot and hold it until your fingers tingle. The concept is similar to the plastic self-massager that I bought on eBay.

The last three games were Olga and Juls against me and tall lefty Gregg. (I haven’t seen “3G” Gregg in months.) We lost the first, won the second decisively, and lost the third.

It was a enjoyable long session of four and a half hours under beautiful skies—it had gotten nice! Out about 1:30 p.m.!

Number of days on a court: 339
Number of total hours: 956.5

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Sunday, February 16, 2020 (Court Day #338)

When I arrived at Derby Park to set up right before 9 a.m., Wayne was already inside stretching this legs. The courts were only a little in need of blowing off. Before I even started on that, my co-worker, Alain, arrived for his first adult outing of pickleball. He said he’d been exposed to it back in school as a child.

Alain at work. Little did he know I’d convert him into a pickleball

Alain is very fast. He said he ran a 4.3 40—that is, he ran a 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds. That’s among the fastest times for NFL prospects. In other words, he can get around the court really quickly!

Alain did very well. He needs to learn to get to the net and not run in right after the serve and not back up from the net once he’s there, but he’s got excellent hand-eye coordination and is amazingly fast. He has a high ceiling. He said he really enjoyed playing and says he’ll probably come back every Sunday!

In the midst of the session I did something I wasn’t supposed to. There was a lob over my right shoulder and I switched the paddle to my right hand and hit it back. I did it gently and it didn’t hurt. “All right!”, I thought. So there was another lob later and I switched again. Only this time, it was significantly painful. Arg! I. Must. Not. Use. My. Right. Hand!

There was a couple who came, Melissa and Jeff. They said they came about a year ago. Beginners. After partnering with her, Melissa said, “I’d hate to see you play with your right hand!”

The last game of the day was Shawnte and me against Stuart and Sue. That was a great game. One point had over 20 hits in it. There were some nice long rallies. It was a close, fun game.

With it being a colder winter day—it started in the high 40s—attendance was fewer, about 30 people. Things were wrapped up about noon.

Number of days on a court: 338
Number of total hours: 952

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

Brrr. Cold.

Thursday, February 13, 2020 (Court Day #337)

I was debating what I was doing tonight. I had a few options. After a long day at work, I wasn’t too keen on sitting through a meeting, even if it was charity work and not demanding. I told my wife I might just stay home. “Why don’t you go play pickleball?” Well. Why not?

I arrived at Skypark at 7:10 and there was a parking spot right next to the courts. Nice.

The crew in full swing, playing on five courts.

The games were all fun, even if some were with poor players.

I got in three really good games with Mike as my partner against Stuart and Tristan. (Mike was Kristin’s tournament partner at the Cabrillo Tournament last year. He has a slight southern drawl.) Mike and I lost the first two each by 5 or 6 points. Stuart and Tristan are not weak players. It be safe to say I was mostly responsible for our bad showing in the first two games.

Mike and I won the first point in the third game. Then another. Then soon we were up 8-3. Mike then made a number of mistakes. I added a lesser number. We ended up losing 13-11. Fun game though. And I played reasonably well in that game. Dinking is not a weakness in my lefty game. Stuart specifically mentioned that slamming lefty is not a problem. He did say I need to finish my strokes with my paddle face pointing where I want the ball to go and to push through the ball. Good advice when shots are not going where they are supposed to. (Not so good if you are putting spin on the ball though.)

At 8:50 p.m., once we finished the third game, Stuart was done. Janet was waiting to take Tristan home. Kristin asked Janet to close so she could go home. I spent the entire evening wearing a sweatshirt, that’s rare. It was nippy!

Saturday, February 15, 2020 (No Play)

I introduced a new staff member at work, Alain (pronounced “uh-lane”), to the idea of playing pickleball. In the past, he’d played basketball and football. He’s not a tall man, but he’s fit. I invited him to come on Sunday morning and offered for him to try my paddles. I told him his wife could come but he said was would rather stay home and read a book—sounds like my wife!

I got an email today regarding the Golden State Games. Maybe I should count my blessings that I’m injured. They moved the date so it conflicts with the big anniversary event at work. I have to be at work the weekend of the tournament. Hopefully, that won’t be a conflict in future years, but I may never be able to play in that tournament again if it stays on the first weekend in August.

Number of days on a court: 337
Number of total hours: 949.5

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

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