Saturday, February 5, 2022 (No Play) “Pickleball log supplemental”

I wrote to Karen and Terry Long today asking their advice about coaching or drilling with the intent to improve. Karen was prompt in writing back and, like always, helpful.

She said that aside from herself, the only certified pickleball instructor that she is aware of in our area is Karen Haselden. I’m not sure if I’ve met this other Karen or not, though it’s possible over the last five years that I have. I looked up Karen H. online. She’s an active local tennis player. While she won a gold medal in the “pro” category in a tournament in Hawaii, she competed in 4.0 at nationals last year.

Karen also wrote about some things to consider:
“For example, can you angle off a drive at you? Can you hit a cross court drop shot from baseline? Do you have the patience to “dink” 22 times, moving your opponent around before pulling the trigger? Are you successful with drives or offensive lobs? There are many skills to work on and you can do that with a drill partner, in a coaching session or even in a pickup game.”

I’ll give that some thought…see below.

Sunday, February 6, 2022 (Court Day #465)

With things going on this morning, I arranged for Tom Sherwood to open Derby Park for me. I arrived later at 11 a.m. It was a sunny and beautiful day.

I had challenging games for the next two hours. For example, when I walked up to the court reservation board for the first time, there was a red box with Mark G., Binh, and Renee in it. Bingo! I added my name as the fourth. While waiting, I grabbed a ball and asked John (SV Robin’s boyfriend) to hit the ball back and forth, so we volleyed outside the fence for about five minutes until a court opened for my box of players.

Binh and Mark are playing in a tournament this coming weekend in Monterey, so they played together. I played very well and Renee and I beat them.

The rest of the session was games with Rick, Renee and John.

Lefty Jeff was there, I hadn’t seen him in months and I didn’t get a chance to play with him. And Bryan from San Jose stopped by and played a game with Mark. Bryan is an awesome player and I was hoping to get into a game with him, but it didn’t work out. I could only look longingly across the courts at the game featuring Bryan, Mark, Binh, and Charles.

What did I learn?

Let’s answer Karen’s list of example questions.

“For example, can you angle off a drive at you?“

Have I done it? Yes. Along with dropping an opponent’s drive for a winner just over the net—I did that to firefighter Matt this week at Skypark. (It was followed by some choice swear words from Matt!) Can I off angle drives reliably? I don’t think so, it’s a tough skill when a ball is coming at you at 50-60 MPH. A more typical drive, yes. A very strong drive from a better player? That’s questionable.

“Can you hit a cross court drop shot from baseline?”

Yes. Today, I rarely missed my dropshots . . . I think I hit all my crosscourt drop shots and, in fact, at least one of two of them immediately ended rallies in my favor. I hit far more of these than I miss, but I’m not perfect.

“Do you have the patience to ‘dink’ 22 times, moving your opponent around before pulling the trigger?”

Getting there. Today, I missed THREE—yes, THREE—shots where, while on the right side, I tried to lift and drive a dink between my opponents and hit all three into the net. Renee was very understanding and encouraging as my partner at the time, but I never miss that many! (Jason was impressed with my success on that shot recently.) Regardless, I’m developing my patience.

“Are you successful with drives or offensive lobs? “

Drives? Sometimes, but it depends on how quick my opponent’s hands are. Most effective are when the drives are done from mid-court and the closer the more likely it’ll end the rally. But ending the rally isn’t the only definition of success. If a drive helps you get to the net by forcing a weak return, then that’s success too.

Lobs. I don’t do a lot of lobs. And the ones that I do are hit or miss . . . no pun intended . . . but frequently, my lobs are defensive, not offensive. Like someone slams a ball and I lob it back over his/her head out of desperation—some work and some don’t. Tim and Juls are frequent—and generally good—lobbers. It’s a less frequent part of my repertoire . . . I might do an offensive lob once or twice a game, if that.

Arm

Holding up.


Number of days on a court: 465
Number of total hours: 2,226

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