Brother John!

Monday, July 5, 2021 (Court Day #389)

At our family Independence Day gathering yesterday, I arranged to meet my brother John this morning at Skypark to teach him to play. He only lives five minutes from the courts. It was a work-from-home day for him so he couldn’t stay for a long time. When I got to the courts at 8:45 a.m., he was in his car doing work email. Two courts had a game going and on a third, Janet and Juls were warming up. I hadn’t seen Janet since last year—she’d cut off her long hair in favor of a buzz cut. (Her husband Bruce was working.) I greeted them and told them my brother John would be playing for the first time. John and I warmed up while Janet and Juls continued to warm up next to us.

Janet played with John for his first game. He did really well. Sure, he had a surprisingly hard time serving into the box and even with warning, John forgot and hit 2-3 volleys while in the kitchen. Oops! Though he did realize the fault as soon as he hit those. But he has great hand-eye coordination and is quick getting around the court. Juls made a comment about John being related to me based on his play. (It was meant as compliment!) Juls and I won the game by a wide margin, but, heck, it was John’s very first.

Gary

Serendipitously, Marianne arrived with her son Gary Meyer. Now, Gary was one year ahead of me at Harbor High School, graduating in 1984. My brother John (class of 1987), myself, and Gary all ran track one year together when we all overlapped. Gary earned “Most Improved” for running hurdles. He went from slow to just about in the mix. Kudos for him sticking with it! I was pretty much always in pack with sprints, but only placed in the top three once in high school. (I only ran track in my junior and senior years.) John and I were both fast—John a little faster—but not quite fast enough to win. (Though I did have the fastest shuttle run time in junior high school, so I was quick on starts and stops.) I was always fighting pulls or muscle tears in both my quadriceps in high school. I’d sprint then need a week or more to recover. I was never 100% and couldn’t properly train. It was frustrating. Anyway, enough of that. Gary remembered John and John remembered Gary. They were happy to see each other 37 years later! Both are now sporting a significant amount of gray! (John has a nearly white goatee right now, enough that Juls asked me if John was my older brother…I’m always teasing John, I sometimes introduce him as “my older brother”!) Gary is a super nice and mellow guy.

I played with John for another game or two. One against Gary and his mom. At one point, laughing, John asked me amused, “Are you playing left-handed?” “I’ve been playing lefty all morning.” John has missed out on my tennis elbow and shoulder surgery adventures and me playing lefty for nearly two and a half years!

John did a pretty good job following my early advice about keeping his shots low. And getting up to short shots while coming from the baseline.

Gary was incredulous, “John, today is really your first day playing?”

John stayed about hour and a half before he had to go, though I didn’t check the specific time.

The Return of the Longs

A man walked in. I called over, “Is that Terry Long?” “Hi, Andrew!” (I knew full well it was Terry.) I hadn’t seen Terry in a long time. He and his wife Karen—who was also there—own a second home in Arizona. But it’s summer and very hot out in that state, so they are back in Santa Cruz. They were playing with Leslie and Steve Bachman, both of whom are on the S.C. Pickleball Club board.

I was really hope I’d get into a game with the Longs, but it was not to be. Playing righty—a ‘warmed up’ righty—I could hold my own as well as Leslie or Steve in that game. I say “warmed up” because after playing lefty when I arrived, my first righty game was one in which I was happy to not be playing with the Longs. I would have embarrassed myself! But I got far better as the morning went on.

Scott

I played a game with a man named Scott against Mark Dettle and Kristin L. I’d never met Scott. Scott is pretty decent. He makes strong shots, has quick hands, but then he’ll hit an overhead into the net or hit a shot long. (Like I never do that!) He’s mortal like the rest of us, but a strong intermediate player.

Kristin was funny: “How does it feel to be in your 50s—you are in your 50s, right?—and have all of your hair?” “I count my blessings!” My hair has unquestionably receded some at the temples, but so far, still lots of mostly dark hair. Now, if I could just lose about 25 pounds!

Terry S. and Janet finished up a game against Maria and Larry. Janet offered to sit out and let me in. There was a quick discussion of what the teams should be. I ended up with Terry and she said something to the effect of “everyone would want to be your partner!” It’s nice to be wanted! Terry and I won. Larry makes good use of spin. His shots are annoying—always good, right? I want all my shots to be annoying! I know my serves were, in that game three of them in a row never made it back over the net. I feel that I do a good job of mixing up my serves too . . . hard/fast, spin, angled, lob, etc. One local player was described to me as a “one-trick pony” when it comes to serves—you know what’s coming and have an advantage as a result. I’ve always remembered that.

Marwan

Marwan, a very tall man from out of town who said he is visiting his son and little grandkids, ended up in a game with us. (He said “Marwan” is an Egyptian name.) It was Mark Dettle and me against him and Janet. Mark and I won, but it wasn’t due to Marwan’s play, he’s solid player.

Terry S. (wearing shoes later in the day) replaced Janet and we played again. Mark and I lost. We then had a rematch, swapping sides and we lost again.

A real surprise was Janet and me beating Marwan and Mark 11-4. Janet did surprisingly well. But we swapped sides and the tables turned and then they won by a significant margin. Marwan’s serves are very fast. I might say they are even better than Dean’s serves from yesterday. Marwan pulled off an ace against me . . . and it wasn’t even close. Fast, low, angled off the court. Boy, I’m glad I never saw those in tournaments! Though I wish he was around regularly so I could face those serves more often in rec play. But aside from that one ace, I got all but one of his serves back over the net.

One cool moment was me taking a wide dink from Mark by switching to my left hand, then Marwan deciding to make an upward body shot attack at me after I dinked forward to him. I was fast enough to swap my paddle back to my right hand, make a tiny backswing then slam the ball for a winner. Whew. Close one!

1:08 p.m. and Marwan’s family was waiting for him and Larry was burnt and done for the day. Time to go.

Focus

Greg’s insight yesterday about being more focused after playing offhanded seemed to ring true for me as well. I’m much more deliberate in my shots while playing righty. This is a good thing.

Icing

Once home, I iced my forearm as a precaution and much later, iced my shoulder. My body is quite fatigued after 9 hours of play over two days. Sore back, sore calves, sore hip. For that much play though, my right forearm is holding up surprisingly well. There’s a mild ache at times, sure, but not so bad that shaking hands would cause intense pain like two years ago. Having the forearm strap tight is no doubt helping. Over an hour after play ended, I still had the impression of the strap on my arm. Maybe part of that is dehydration. I don’t sweat all that easily, but I was today! I went through a big water bottle that I had maxed out with ice.

Tonight, I got a group invitation to play tomorrow night at Skypark. My wife is supportive, so I may be playing again!

Number of days on a court: 389
Number of total hours: 2,008

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