Month: December 2021 (Page 3 of 3)

Sunday, December 5, 2021 (Court Day #442)

I got up, put on sunscreen, got ready to head to Derby Park. My court shoes are ready to be replaced, but I’ll probably eek out a few more sessions.

I looked at the temperature outside as I was about to leave. 47°F. Chilly. Overcast. It seems that the non-summer weather has finally arrived to Santa Cruz.

Member Appreciation Day!

When I arrived at 8:40, Tony was parked with a car full of items for a club “Member Appreciation Day” today. I offered and helped carry some things in. Over the session, players helped themselves to bagels, coffee, and chai. I had a bagel and a half myself!

An early newer couple was surprised that I was still just wearing only a T-shirt and shorts. I told them, “I’ll be warm soon enough!” (And I was.)

There were some newbie players on a court with a city net. These days, with four city portable nets available 24/7, it seems there is always someone at the courts before me even with me coming early to set up.

UCSC

Two UC Santa Cruz Physics PhD grad students were there, Evan and Nolan. They came a week or two ago as well, though we didn’t play any games together. Evan is about 6′ and Nolan about 5’8″. They signed up as “advanced”. Evan is a strong player, easily 3.5. Nolan isn’t bad either, but not as strong a player as Evan. While at the net, Evan was taking advantage of my partner’s drives from our baseline, simply angling them off the court or dropping them short. Unless you are dynamite player with rocket forehands, drives from deep in your own side of the court will only get you so far. Once you are against 3.5 or 4.0 players, that game is up and those drives will put you at a disadvantage. (That can change again if you end up in the pros, but that’s darn uncommon!)

Dave Cox and I played Evan and Nolan. We won. Dave outplayed me in that game, it was not my best. Drops a little too high, lobs too short, things were “off” a little bit for me.

Busy

It was busy enough that, midmorning, I blew my whistle and announced that we were switching to “play to 9, win by 1”. There were no complaints, which was nice.

I got some good games in with Eric S. and Ted B. I only played a few games where I played lefty to even it up or otherwise took it easy on my opponents. John P. is continuing to play a two-handed lefty game. He has an odd drop serve where he then serves the ball with both hands on his paddle.

I asked Janet if she’d close up and she agreed. I was off at 12:45 to share the broadcast of Raiders game (kickoff 1:05 p.m.) with my son Nicholas via FaceTime. Maybe I should have stayed and played . . . it was a low-scoring game that the Raiders lost. Bleh. They have lost four of the last five and are in a late season slump for the third year in a row.

Overall?

I felt I did ok. I told Ted that I hadn’t played my best and he said he though I played well today. We can often be our own worst critics.

Number of days on a court: 442
Number of total hours: 2,161.5

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Thursday, December 2, 2021 (Court Day #441)

I arrived at Skypark at 6:30. It was a colder evening, toward the end of the session, you could see your breath of you deeply exhaled.

It was a bit lighter crowd, there were never more than six courts set up. I hadn’t even started to set down my backpack when I got called over into a game with Nancy against Mark Dettle and Kristin L.

I popped around from game to game. Nothing of great note.

I was in a rubber match with Tim against Larry and Paul, we were leading 7-1 when the lights clicked off at 9:30. There was a combined “Awwwwwww…” sounds from 3-4 courts!

And?

I felt ok about my play. Not happy, but not depressed either. There were two shots, me on the right side, dink to my forehand and I thought I had enough lift to make the shots, but both hit the white tape. *sigh*

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Wednesday, December 3, 2021 (No Play)

I recently heard about DUPR ratings. Apparently, that stands for “Dreamland Universal Pickleball Ratings” and their website is here:
https://www.dupr.gg/

They say, “The current rating system throws away significant information from pickleball results. Too often, this results in wildly inaccurate ratings and fails to incentivize higher ranked teams to ever play lower ranked teams.”

And they are right. As the USAPA rating currently stand, a sanctioned tournament where you win 11-0 is treated the same as a 15-13 win. That’s data that should be used, not discarded.

And DUPR wants to have the full rating listed publicly so instead of just 3.0, you’d see 3.499 for a player. (That’s kind of where I am. I haven’t played in a sanctioned tournament in over two years, but eventually, I will. As it stands, I’m hovering just below a 3.5 rating at 3.432, so the USAPA has me shown as a 3.0 player. But I wouldn’t play in a tournament as a 3.0, I don’t feel that’d be fair.)

Maybe not a surprise, I see that the USAPA is looking to update their rating system now . . . though I can’t find the link. They were referring to the initial roll out of the UTPR system as “phase 1”. I don’t recall seeing any previous reference to “phases” of the UTPR system, but there you have it.

This has a good explanation of this new DUPR rating system:
https://www.boiseareapickleball.org/news/12131497
So, you sign up for a free account, and enter your scores into an app when you finish a game—no tournament needed! Once another player on the court verifies the entered result, it becomes official and is reflected in your DUPR rating.

I don’t know how I missed hearing about DUPR. It’s been around at least since April.

Number of days on a court: 441
Number of total hours: 2,157.5

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

Tuesday, November 30, 2021 (Court Day #440)

SCPC Treasurer Dave Witte stopped by my work to pick up several Derby Park court donation envelopes from me. It’s the end of the month and it’s easier for him to reconcile bank statements if he gets all the club donations in. I like Dave. He’s a very nice fellow.

Night Ball

Skypark had 4 tennis players and 36 pickleball players when I arrived at 6:45. There were pickleball players I’d never seen before or didn’t recognize in the slightest. The sport is still growing and growing.

I had a bunch of good games. No holding back tonight.

Mustache Matt was there with his wife, though they had none of their adult children this time.

Great and Nightmares

The game of the night was the last one. Tim and I took on Mike B. and Paul. It was a great game. There was one phenomenal rally. It was 15-20 hits . . . net volleys, reset, dinks, you name it. I think it was the best point I have ever been in. This game was a battle. Later in the game, the score was 10-9, they were up by one point and they had served. The ball went back and forth some, then got popped up and I slammed it—but unlike so many earlier in the evening, this one I over-swung and it rocketed to about 6 inches outside the sideline. ARGGGG! Game over! Lost. Those are ones that you definitely want back!

By 8:45 and there were no more players available to play. I was forced to go home with still 45 minutes of lights left. Ah, well.

My wife had kindly texted, “There is chicken and rice on the top shelf in the refrigerator…” How thoughtful! “…it’s for the dogs, don’t eat it.” LOL! Well, then!

And?

I felt good about my play tonight. I did serve 3-4 serves into the net over the course of two hours. That said, I had more than that which were returned into the net by my opponents. I had at least 5 in one game where Matt and Tim couldn’t get my serves back. I was kind of amazed. I guess my serve can be a bit formidable . . . when it’s not hitting into the net!

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Wednesday, December 1, 2021 (No Play)

Yesterday afternoon, I received an email about a new pickleball magazine, Pickleball Fire, the official magazine of the International Federation of Pickleball (IFP):
https://www.ifpickleball.org/pickleball-fire

It’s always nice to have more resources. I will say that the magazine looks like it was laid out by an amateur and not a professional graphic designer. I haven’t read it yet, hopefully, the content will be better than the design—but that’s the way you always want it.

Number of days on a court: 440
Number of total hours: 2,154.5

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