Friday, March 12, 2021 (No Play)

This afternoon, I got a text from Leslie. She said the board (of the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club) had met and she was asking if, when official club play restarts, I’d be willing to resume my role as a site coordinator . . . meaning setting up and taking down nets weekly, managing a crowd of players, all that. She added that they didn’t know when the county would lift the pandemic restrictions, maybe summer. After a brief pause to consider, I responded that I would provided there were no major changes—who knows what life unexpectedly grows at us?

There’s a strong chance of rain on Sunday, but it’s looking like afternoon, so morning play may be ok. Fingers crossed.

I told Brett at work that I’d give him a ride to pickleball Sunday morning. If things go according to plan, there will be four of us from work there!

World Pickleball Rankings

A few days back, March 7 to be exact, PickleballTournaments.com sent out an email saying World Pickleball Rankings are live:
“The World Pickleball Rankings will encompass 29 tournaments over the course of year. Open and Senior Open players will be able to earn points based on tournament placement and number of wins. Major tournaments will provide bonus points. The top 10 tournament results will be factored for each player. The first tournament results are now posted.”
It included a link to the informational page:
https://www.pickleballtournaments.com/ranking.pl

Here are the rankings when I first looked:
https://d19tk3kcca881p.cloudfront.net/wpr/cumulative/2021-02-28.pdf

PT

I went to physical therapy for my shoulder surgery yesterday morning. I met with James, one of the owners of the clinic. He had me do some things, then told me to forget all the exercises that I’ve been doing. I’m not progressing as much as I should be.

Sunday, March 14, 2021 (Court Day #362)

I texted Brett a few times to see if we were still on, but to no avail. Today was the day of the time change, so if there were any day to give him some slack, it’s a Sunday morning with an hour’s loss of sleep! I stalled a bit. He texted that he was running late. I arrived at work and waited for about five minutes then texted him saying that I could meet him along the way of his walk there. I texted Charlotte that I was going to be a few minutes late, to which she replied that she was already there. I didn’t hear back from Brett, but figured I’d head along his route and see if I could spot him. I did, picked him up, and we are at Brommer Street Park at about 9:10. Alain would be joining us after his morning obligations.

Just Three

Brett, Charlotte, and I warmed up then played a fumbling game of 2 on 1. Fumbling as I wasn’t paying too much attention and I was more or less running the game. Brett, when he was learning with others, wasn’t really following the rules. They served overhead, didn’t have a NVZ, used a larger court, and used rally scoring . . . and God knows what else. After playing with Charlotte more, I think she’s more of maybe even a 2.0 player. We’re still working on keeping score, dinking without popping up the ball, lining up in the right place on the court, not volleying the return of serve, and other things. Brett too. It was me and two beginners. I asked Jason if he wanted to play, but he wanted to wait for a better game.

It was a light turnout. Maybe the chill and time change scared off players. No Mark. No Wayne. No Binh. No Shawnte. No Dave Cox.

First Real Game of the Day

After about an hour or so, Karen—spaghetti strap Karen, not Karen Long—arrived and I asked if she’d be willing to join us. She was and we had a fourth. We played a couple of games and she did her best to get Brett up to speed.

Knee

On a rally where I went for an ATP on a angled shot from Alain, I tweaked my right knee. The one that had been bothering me last summer. I missed the ATP too, it sailed about 5-6 inches too wide.

More Games

I asked Olga if she’d be willing to be our fourth. She agreed. She was taking it really easy on Charlotte. When I hit a winner, Olga smiled and questioned, “This is a learning game…” Oops. Rightfully admonished. If you could call it that. A gentle and kind reminder of what we were there for. After that, I kept the ball in play, hitting patty cake shots to Brett. Charlotte and Brett got to partake—if artificially—in some longer rallies.

Alain wanted to play a game with Brett against Alan K. and me. I asked if he wanted a real game. Alain said, “That’s how we get better!” Alan and I won the first game 11-3, then the second 11-2. No goose eggs. Alan and I made our own errors to give away points. Well, and Alain did win a few when given the opportunity. He’s unquestionably the strongest player of my three staff members.

A Couple Typical Games

Later, I got in a couple of games with Alan K. against Art and Karen. (Alain and Brett drilled on an adjacent court.) We lost the first game by 2-3 points and were losing the second game 7-0. But in a lesson I pointed out to Alain and Brett, we came back to 8-8, then went on to win 11-8—yep, an 11-1 run of points. Never give up on a game.

During one of the games Karen made a faux complaint about a slam I did. “I’m playing left-handed, what more do you want?”, I retorted. She shrugged that off and said I had lefty dialed in. I still beg to differ—and know better—but still it’s nice to hear.

One interesting thing for me to note is that I won a few points today with shots with too much spin for my opponents to handle. Yes, with me playing left-handed. Taking a step back, that’s pretty amazing.

I checked the time. 12:57. I exclaimed to Brett, “That went fast! Four hours!”

That evening, I was icing my right knee—the inside was aching. So annoying. Is another surgery in my future?

Monday, March 15, 2021 (No Play)

Last night, my knee was aching pretty good. Today, it’s the outside of my knee that is hurting more. Go figure.

An ad came up for a free training video from Scott’s Moore which required you to put in your email address. I figured that I could always unsubscribe from whatever email solicitations they’d be sending me. I watched about 5-7 minutes of the video and gave up after it was giving really basic information. I’ve been playing for 4 years now and studying the game. I don’t need basic strategies. But in an email I received last night, he was promoting an insole called AirFeet and how it helped his knees. I did my due diligence of reading reviews then bought a display pair off of eBay for half the retail price.

Number of days on a court: 362
Number of total hours: 1,024.5

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