Month: August 2021 (Page 2 of 3)

Tuesday, August 17, 2021 (Court Day #402)

I got to Skypark right after 6:30 p.m. It was sunny and warm.

Sharyl was waiting and asked if I wanted to warm up, so we did. Soon Maria joined us. I can’t recall who Sharyl’s partner ended up being in my first game. (It was either Mark, Mike, or Larry . . . not exactly super helpful for you, I know!) Afterward, Maria said I played very well. It didn’t feel that way. I felt that I made a more than normal number of errors—for me anyway.

This was a “eh” kind of night. I played ok-ish. It’s wasn’t a depressing performance overall, but I wasn’t pleased either. And I have a harder time judging the ball in space under lights at night.

Areas to work on:
• Keeping drop shots low but also over the net. (Over is kind of important!)
• Not trying to backspin my deep/high service returns.
• Not hitting the “white tape of doom” with the ball. (See item #1 in this list.)

It seemed like at least once or twice a game that one of my shots would hit the white net tape. That’s got to stop.

Mike B. is a reliably really good player. He’s a good measuring stick for play. My last Skypark outing, I felt that I edged him in terms of performance, but tonight, it seemed that he got the better of me. An example was me being a bit too far from the right sideline and him hitting a dynamite topspin drive out of my reach for a winner.

Out at 9:00 p.m.

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Friday, August 20, 2021 (No Play)

I popped Karen Long a follow up email about her thoughts on me becoming a USAPA Ambassador. She gave a solid endorsement though suggested that I check with Steve Sutton (Western Region Director) about current expectations of time commitment.

I contacted Steve and he said to apply. So I did, with the USAPA online form. Now, I wait. If they take me, great. If not, great, I keep less responsibilities.

Number of days on a court: 402
Number of total hours: 2,044

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

Sunday, August 15, 2021 (Court Day #401)

It was overcast and lightly misting when I arrived at Brommer Park at 9 a.m. It would burn off later. Just like last Sunday, Craig was sitting on the wall waiting. I settled in then asked him if he wanted to warm up, and we did.

Mark G. showed up and joined on Craig’s side as we continued to warm up. Rick and Renee arrived and Rick joined on my side while Renee found a sweatshirt to place over her cold legs while waiting.

My warm up with Craig was a reminder of how successful it can be to dink at your opponent’s feet. It’s a tough shot when the ball is at your toes. I was trying to dink at Craig’s and Mark’s toes. Mark was better at getting the back back but even a few of his ended up in the net.

I think Rick and won that game, but regardless, the game was not lopsided and it was a good one.

There were four visitors from Fresno. One was an African-American woman named Karen. Karen had good form and ripped at least three dynamite passing shots down the right sideline—two against me! It turns out Karen is a former college level tennis player…she said junior college, but still, she’s turned that experience into very good pickleball skills. She has the strongest serves that I’ve seen from a female. She may have gotten me on one of them. She was very pleasant. I’d love to have her visit again.

In that game against Karen, I played my worst game righty since my “restart” a little less than two months ago. I haven’t felt this way after a right-handed game in a very, very long time. I was depressed, disappointed, disgusted, and some other negative emotions all rolled into one.

I did get to have a rematch against Karen. She had Patty as her partner and I had Mark G. Mark and I took a 6-2 lead. They eventually pulled within two points but Mark and I pulled off a win. What a fun game! And I was back to playing my regular solid self. A good place to finish the day.

1:30 p.m. and it was time to go.

Number of days on a court: 401
Number of total hours: 2,041.5

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

Tuesday, August 10, 2021 (Court Day #400)

I got one of my staff to close the family business and I was able to leave earlier than normal. I arrived at Skypark at 6:30.

The first game was with Janet against Rich (tall, not Renee’s boyfriend) and Mike B. I always enjoy Mike’s southern drawl—plus, he plays well! Not long after, Tristan arrived. Even at just 17, Tristan has become a very strong player and I love playing against strong players. Tristan has filled out into an adult body, instead of a skinny kid.

Adrian’s Serves

Later in the evening, I was paired with Rich against Adrian and Tristan. Adrian got point after point by serving very fast and low serves. I’d love to play against that more often, I’ll have to ask him to serve fast when I play against him.

I got Tristan twice tonight on hard crosscourt forehand drives—right to left—that were barely over the net. (It’s my old college tennis class experience.)

Service Ace

I pulled out my spin serve right to left to outside front corner of the service box that aced Tristan. Terry said, “Andrew, do that again!” It was pretty obvious that Terry didn’t believe it was intentional and that she thought it was a mis-hit. I did a few more standard serves then when it was right to left again, I aced Tristan again on the same serve. I smiled and pointed at Terry and said, “See? It was on purpose!” But it’s high risk, so it don’t want to do it all the time. It has to “feel” right. When it feels right, I make a high percentage of those, 80% or more.

Woops

Disappointing, I did make a switch to my left hand on a crosscourt dink I popped the ball up and Rich nearly killed Janet, my partner for that earlier game. I’m kind of annoyed that I didn’t pull that off. Playing lefty for two years, I should have made that shot.

I did get the sense tonight that Tristan wasn’t playing as hard as he could. (That’s not to say he didn’t try very hard to return my aces!) It could very well have been like me when I play against weaker players . . . I relax a bit and make mistakes I wouldn’t make otherwise.

The last five of us left 8:50. I went home, had dinner then iced my elbow.

Tonight was pickleball outing #400. And it was fun evening.

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Wednesday, August 11, 2021 (No Play)

Steve Sutton is the Western Region Director for the USAPA. He accidentally sent out an email intended for USAPA Ambassadors to all members. This started a conversation where he invited me to consider becoming an ambassador since “we need more good ambassadors in Santa Cruz”. I looked online and it only lists Karen Long as the ambassador for our area. Terry and Karen are highly instrumental in pickleball starting in Santa Cruz and Karen is currently the president of the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club. But they are gone a big part of the year.

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Friday, August 13, 2021 (No Play)

I emailed Steve and Karen separately about me becoming a USAPA ambassador. I have yet to hear back from either one. Steve, I’m sure is busy. He accidentally emailed thousands of people. Karen, not sure. Emails sometimes get filtered as spam. Dunno.

Number of days on a court: 400
Number of total hours: 2,037

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