Month: August 2021 (Page 3 of 3)

Sunday, August 8, 2021 (Court Day #399)

It would be a short morning, I needed to leave after just an hour for a family function. I arrived at Brommer Park at 9:00 a.m. I was expecting Alain, my former co-worker, but I found out later that he overslept since he had been up until 4 a.m. Heck, I’d oversleep too!

Mike K. was sitting outside the fence in his portable chair and I invited him to warm up with me and he readily agreed. Craig—whose name I’d forgotten—was already inside sitting on the wall. While the three of us warmed up, Sycha arrived but she passed us and walked over to the court where women were in a game. Mike invited her into a game with us while she was waiting.

First Game

My first game would be Sycha and me versus Mike and Craig. It was never close. We won 11-4. Sycha kindly commented, “You are playing so consistently.” To which I explained, “I’m playing righty. “
“It’s been a year?”
“Two years.”
“It seems like you haven’t missed a beat.”

Down the Middle

For the next game, Sycha went off to join the women but Hue had arrived—with his small dog in tow—and joined our court. Craig suggested I play with Hue; Craig felt he made too many mistakes and wanted to spare Mike suffering through another game with him. So, it was Craig and me against Mike and Hue. Mike was funny . . . after the latest winner down the middle, he exclaimed, “Damn it, Andrew! You haven’t missed one of those yet!” It was a good game. Craig and I pulled ahead, they caught back up, but then we finished off the game.

Another Level

We rotated partners so it was Hue and me against Craig and Mike. During the game when we were about to serve, Hue turned to me and said, “I was playing in a ladder on Friday [elsewhere] and I was holding my own—but you guys play at a whole ‘nother level.” Hue and I went on to win.

Dean

Dean arrived. It’s always great to play against Dean. He’s such a good player. Hue and I played against Dean and Craig. Dean tried a “no looky” on me. We were all at the net when Hue hit a ‘too high’ dink. I was on the right and Dean was across from me. Dean was very much selling a crosscourt shot but at the last instant he directed the ball off to my right. I whipped my paddle over and whacked the ball crosscourt and into Craig’s chest. Point over. Dean had tried this several years ago against me. Last time, I’d hit a passing shot off his left side for a winner. Andrew 2, Dean no-looky 0. Ha! But overall, Dean 291, Andrew 3. (I made that up, but you get the idea.) As for this game, it was close, but Hue and I lost 12-10.

Checked the time, it was 10:06 a.m. Time to hit the road.

As I started to walk out, saying goodbyes, Dean said, “You’re leaving and taking your highlight play with you?”
“You have plenty of highlight play for all of us, Dean!”

Advice

Dean had offered two pieces of advice that stuck with me during the game.

One was hitting my drop shots higher. “Counterintuitive, I know, but you want them to hit the ball on the bounce.” Something to work on. The “goldilocks zone” of higher but not too high.

The second was on a crosscourt dink he made to my left. I was considering an ATP with it and waited on the shot, but I judged that it wasn’t going go out wide enough to get a proper angle back into the court, so I changed my mind and had to hit the ball up—it was a bad shot and got attacked. Dean said that if I’d taken another step and let the ball drop more, I would have had the ATP and it would have been nearly indefensible. My ego says I made a good decision and couldn’t have pulled off the ATP. My brain says, maybe he was right, he was observing and not actively in the shot and maybe could make a better judgement. Then my brain and ego say that it’s hard to judge distance and angles along the line of ball travel. Regardless, his advice is very good. Wait as long as you can for an ATP and hit the ball when it’s low.

This was a fabulous day of good games and I played extremely well.

Number of days on a court: 399
Number of total hours: 2,035

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

Thursday, August 5, 2021 (Court Day #398)

I had to stay a bit late for work and didn’t get to Skypark until 7:00 p.m. Three courts had games going and Janet was sitting on the ground waiting as the “odd man out.” I asked if she wanted to warm up with me and while she had already played, she said yes. Janet has gotten so much better than four years ago. Not quite to the level where I’d necessarily want her as a partner in 3.5 mixed doubles, but if I were playing 3.0, very possibly. Janet mentioned that this was her last year teaching, then when she retires in June and she and her husband Bruce would be moving away to a more affordable area. Such a bummer. She will be the second of a regular couple to move away—along with Olga and Oleg moving very soon. Janet did say that regardless of where they go, there will be pickleball!

I played all my games lefty tonight. I’m just being careful with that right elbow.

I played a few games then found myself just dragging. Dra-gging. Like, not wanting to move dragging. I was trying to understand why this was. Why am I so tired? Then I figured it out. My entire food consumption for the day was about 400 calories. Not enough!

There was a couple older women whom I’d never met who said they’d been playing for 3 months. They had signed up for a pickleball camp and it turned out it was for intermediate players and they were both brand new players! She said they’d learned a lot about what not to do!

I was preparing to head out but got talked into a game with Janet, Jacquie, and her husband Larry as my partner. It was a back and forth game. Game point was me executing a lefty backhand ATP off a crosscourt dink by Janet. It was a thing of beauty, passing Jacquie at knee level or lower.

9:30 p.m. and it was time to go.

Home

I used my newly-acquired used massage gun again tonight. The battery held up again without dying. I suspect that the battery level indicator is broken. Still, for about $50 for the unit, charger, attachments, case, I’m happy with the purchase.

Number of days on a court: 398
Number of total hours: 2,034

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

Sunday, August 1, 2021 (Court Day #397)

I took it a little slow this morning and leisurely arrived at Brommer Park at 9:30. It was overcast with no breeze. With my tennis elbow a worry, I opted to play nearly all the day lefthanded. I warmed up with Mike from Pacific Grove for about 30 minutes since there was an unusually light crowd. His wife Barb was in a game on an adjacent court. When I mentioned the Charmisal tournament last weekend, Mike said he was supposed to play in it in 4.0 Men’s Doubles, but his partner canceled the morning of the tournament. Mike said he usually plays in 3.5, but it was either 4.0 or not at all.

Local Winners

Oh, I should mention a surprise. The Santa Cruz Pickleball club sent out an email this morning sharing that John P. and Jon (white trim beard, boisterous) won 3.5 Men’s Doubles at Charmisal. I’m shocked, actually. (Olga and I had beaten John and Barb S. 11-2 in a warm-up game the day after John’s win and that loss was not all on Barb!) I kind of wonder if Eric had played with me instead of Allen Goldberg, if Eric and I would have won it. Alas, we will never know. But congrats to John and Jon! Excellent job representing Santa Cruz pickleball!

The SCPC also shared that Tom Sherwood and Karl Shubert won gold at the Pacific Northwest Classic in Bend, Oregon in the 3.0, 65+ men’s doubles. Congrats to Tom and Karl too!

Ken and Hui

Around 10 a.m., a couple arrived whom I had never seen before. A very tall fellow, Ken, and his much shorter Asian wife, Hui. (Hui is pronounced “Way”.) When I asked where they were from, they said they very recently moved to town from Los Altos. Today was their second outing at Brommer, she said.

Mike and I took on Ken and Hui. Mike and I won all three games that we played, but they made a good showing. When I served a precision ace to the outside front corner right-to-left against Hui, Mike looked at me and said, “I thought you said serving lefthanded was hard!” (I had shared earlier that serving was the hardest part of me learning to play lefty.) I smiled and said, “I didn’t say that I was still bad!”

I wasn’t going to bring it up to Ken and Hui that I’d played lefty but we were talking injuries or something and I mentioned that I was playing lefty. Hui said, “And you are right-handed? You can’t tell.” “I’m much better with my right.” Truth be told, right now, it seems that my warmed-up left is probably as good as cold right.

I had good game after good game today. There were no games where I felt I was with weak players. The crowd was thin and so I only had so spend short bits of time waiting for a game.

The Daves

The last three games of the day, I played right-handed. I played with David Black against Rick and his girlfriend Renee. After a few points, “Did you switch on us?”, Rick asked rhetorically with a big smile. Yep. In my first righty game with David Black, I had to turn to him and excuse a few bad shots with, “Maybe I did need to warm up righty.” When Rick slammed a shot to my feet, I don’t know how I got that back over, but magic things happen when I play right handed. That garnered some positive comments and stunned looks from those on my court. We won that point.

Rick slammed a shot angled off the court to my right. I had anticipated his shot and barely got there in time but managed a good shot back over the net. Had I been playing lefty I couldn’t have made that shot. It’s shots like that one that make me want to play righty so badly.

Then I got into a game with Dave DiBiase as my partner. BiBiase likes to power his shots. Hard and fast at his opponents and it can work. The problem is sometimes the opponents can handle power well.

I checked the time: 1:42. There were plenty of players still around. I could have gotten another game after a short wait, but I could hear my wife’s voice saying how I haven’t been home much this past week. Time to go.

Incident

Rick shared that last Sunday there was an incident where Greg (tall, white ponytail) got frustrated after losing a game and hurtled his paddle into the net in disgust. But he missed. He hit Rick square in the jaw with his paddle. Fortunately, Rick is ok other than his jaw is still sore a week later. I’ve also seen Oleg throw paddles in frustration but never in the direction of anyone. Obviously, throwing paddles can be dangerous and is poor sportsmanship. I can understand the frustration and I’ve never seen Greg be mad or unpleasant in a game, but we always need to be careful. I mentioned it here at the time, but about a year ago a top pro lost a doubles game and slammed a ball that had popped after the point was over and that ball hit her unwitting opponent—who was already celebrating with her partner—square in the eye. Careful, folks.

Home

This video popped up somewhere . . . social media or a YouTube suggestion. Nice point:

---

Monday, August 2, 2021 (No Play)

The used Toloco T11 Pro wireless massage gun I bought on eBay showed up today. I tried it tonight and I can see how it could help things heal. I used it very briefly on my left thigh, then longer on my right forearm, my left forearm, and my two calves. Then the battery died—while the LED indicator still read a full “99”. Uh, oh. Not good. I found the company online and submitted a contact form asking if this behavior meant a bad battery.

---

Tuesday, August 3, 2021 (No Play)

I was all set to play in Skypark tonight. I had everything in my car ready to go after work. But . . . my daughter texted me. She wanted me to proofread another batch of her medical school application essays, and it had to be tonight. Oh, well. I can always play another night.

As for good news, I charged the cordless massage gun overnight and tried it again tonight for at least as long as last night’s test run. Tonight, the battery didn’t die. I’ll use it again tomorrow night and see if the battery holds up.

Toloco did get back to me this morning asking for my order number and “a video”. The temptation to put an old VCR tape in the mail was strong, but instead I wrote back reiterating that my T11 unit was used, not purchased new from them. I have yet to receive a followup reply.

Number of days on a court: 397
Number of total hours: 2,031.5

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