Friday, June 4, 2021 (Court Day #381)

I arranged a game tonight at 6:45 p.m. I arrived at Skypark in Scotts Valley straight from work at about 6:35. There were a boatload of tennis players and three unknown pickleball players on a court. On another court, Oleg and Olga were warming up. I joined in. Soon Kristin arrived and not long after was Adrian.

Adrian sat out the first game. Oleg decided to play the whole evening left-handed. Oleg is a strong player so that help even things up a bit. We rotated through partners.

Oleg, Olga, Kristin and Adrian while taking my turn sitting out at 7:38 p.m. (Photo time stamp!)

A tall younger man, Brandon, wandered over from another court and asked if he could play with us. He quietly said that he was better than the players than he’d been playing with. (It turned out that Brandon’s a lower intermediate player, I’d put him at a 3.0.) Adrian told Brandon, “Ask him.” Adrian was pointing to me. Oh, yeah. I organized the gathering. I let Brandon play.

It’s interesting sitting and watching through a full game. Watching a volley rally, I couldn’t help but think, “Hit the ball down!” It seemed too many shots were going back either level or higher than how they came across when there were opportunities to hit the ball down. If you can get your opponent to volley upward, that is when winning shots become available.

Brandon left as soon as it was his turn to sit out a game.

Oleg’s frustration with his left-handed play was obvious, but he wasn’t playing poorly. But I can 100% understand and relate firsthand to his feelings about a shot he knows he could have made right-handed. It is indeed frustrating.

Kristin explained she had a hike to do the next day and left around 8 p.m.

At 8:40 p.m., having just finished a game, Oleg was done. I was ready to play another few games, but it is what it is. We were treated to a beautiful sunset. In a couple of weeks, it will be the longest day of the year, then we will be on to shorter days and darker nights.

As with most outings for me playing lefty, it was a mix of really nice shots and frustrating shots. But it was an enjoyable evening.

Oh, I should mention, this is post 403. A few posts ago, I hit 400. The 400 that I am actually looking forward to is 400 outings. That should happen in the next few months.


Number of days on a court: 381
Number of total hours: 1,083

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