Sunday, August 22, 2021 (Court Day #403)

It was drizzly and in the low 60s when I arrived at Brommer Park around 9:30 a.m. Three courts were full of doubles and a fourth had two older gentlemen playing singles. Boy. The sunbirds were waiting for nicer weather to play! I waited at least 20 minutes for another human to appear. In this case, Rick and his girlfriend Renee. 5-10 minutes later Steve came. Barb R., alert and kind as ever, called over and offered her portable net. I got it from her car then Rick and I set it up. Of course, about five minutes into warmup using that net, the singles game ended and that permanent court cleared!

Light crowd at 9:30.

Steve’s drops during warm up were consistently great. Mine were miserable. Too high or too low. They did get a little better, but so many months of playing only lefty has left my right a little rusty in some aspects.

On one court, a group of four older women were playing. While I have to give them kudos for playing, it seemed like each shot was an underhand pop up. They’d be eaten alive by nearly anyone else. But, I have to think, pro players would likely think the same about my own level of play!

I played a lot with Rick, Renee, and Steve. We rotated partners after each game. Fun times.

After an intense volley rally between myself and Rick, Renee mentioned that she was in awe of the skill involved. And, heck, we’re not pro players. But that’s one thing that strongly differentiates tennis and pickleball . . . the high speed net rallies.

Chris

Chris L. had appeared with his girlfriend Barbara and they warmed up on an empty court. When Steve left, Chris became my partner for two games, we won both. Chris is a very competitive guy and hates to lose—even in rec play. After you make an error as Chris’ partner, you’ll occasionally hear advice, a grunt, or exasperated body language. Me? I don’t mind losing if I played well and learned something. If I lose while playing badly, that’s just depressing. Regardless, if my partner makes a mistake, I try to share encouragement, “So close!” “I made that mistake already in this game.” “Ooooo, just two inches higher!” For me, an encouraging partner brings out my best play. Negative reinforcement from my partner, while perhaps accurate, stress me out, damages my focus, and typically makes me play worse.

Chris said that he’s moving to Georgia. It sounded like he hasn’t picked an exact spot yet, other than he wanted to find a place that “has good pickleball.”

That reminds me, I heard this week that Wayne moved to North Carolina during the pandemic. That’s a bummer. I’ll miss Wayne’s sense of humor and “banger” style of play.

Out just before 1:00 p.m.

Home

Very late at night, I received an email from a woman named Robin who said she’d reviewed my USAPA ambassador application and was forwarding it to the western directors, but she wanted to make sure the email I used was not my work email address. I let her know it wasn’t.


Monday, August 23, 2021 (No Play)

This “chainsaw serve” video appeared in front of my eyeballs somewhere. It’s a 4.5 gold medal match in Utah.

4.5 is very much above my skill level—I’m probably a 4.0 on my best day—so I’m not going to speculate or criticize the losing team for maybe occasionally making things harder on themselves. Rumor has it that this “chainsaw serve”—which is a byproduct of allowances made in the pandemic to allow a server to not touch the ball—will return to illegal status next year. Spinning the ball off the paddle during the toss helps create even more spin.


Number of days on a court: 403
Number of total hours: 2,047

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