Monday, February 21, 2022 (Court Day #471) – Presidents Day

My new shoes are hurting my big toes. I had another pair of court shoes (my wife had put them out in the garage at some point) with the permanent insoles worn through in the front and the back., though the tread on the bottoms is still in really good shape. I used those today instead.

My forearm is giving slight tennis elbow signals, but not enough to keep me from playing.

Brommer

I pulled into the lot at Brommer Park at 8:50 a.m. It was sunny, but it was a nippy 50°. Most players had layers to keep warm. I didn’t bother, sticking with just shorts and a T-shirt knowing I’d warm up soon enough. And I did. After a few games, I was fine.

As 10 a.m. rolled around, Leslie and “John” were signed up in a box in red. I added myself and a man named Ken rounded out the foursome. I’d met Ken and his Asian wife at Brommer last year sometime. I didn’t know this John, I’d never seen him before. About 5’10”, about 240 pounds, I guess. Ken and I took on Leslie and John. John did not play well at all, maybe a 3.0 level. Definitely not at a advanced/red level. Ken and I won 11-2 and the result was not all on Leslie by any stretch.

I felt I was playing well. I started a box in red. I’d never done that before. I knew there was always a possibility of someone not agreeing, but maybe not. Sometimes, you have to try.

Ken added himself to my box, along with someone else—whom I can’t remember over my 4 1/2 hours of games—and then Tom S. asked if he could join my box. I told him ok. In the game, there was such a violent volley rally that at the end of it, the players waiting behind the chain link fence all cheered. That was unexpected but fun. Too bad my reset dink hit the white tape to end that rally.

Put in my Place

I overheard Dan Bliss talking to Leslie about players signing up in as red when they aren’t. I poked into the conversation while passing by concurring, thinking about that lopsided game with John.

But then Dan Bliss came to me. “You can’t start a box in red. You are a blue. If you want to ask first, then you can add yourself to a red box.” Bummer. I knew I was borderline, but I figured I could generally pass as the bottom cusp of advanced. I told him, “I accept that.” And I do. I don’t want advanced players grumpy at me for not wanting to play with me and having to wait until my box is filled before starting their own. I’ve been in Dan’s shoes, having to be the “bad guy”. I was calm, respectful, and polite in my conversation with him. (And Dan has done a ton for the club and developing pickleball locally. Respect.)

I did ask Dan if he’d played with me lately . . . it was rhetorical, I knew he hadn’t. (There are rarely proper “cross skill level” games where skills can be properly evaluated.) He said he’d talked to players who had and also watched my play. I explained that blue is often not a challenge for me. He asked if I’d played with a man whose name meant nothing to me, but the point was obvious, that I couldn’t hold my own with that player. And Dan is undoubtedly right. Though I did counter with the argument that red isn’t just 5.0 players, there’s a range of 4.0 to 5.0.

A player, overhearing, visiting from out of town whom I’d played with recently, who had been playing in red this morning told me quietly, “I’d take you over some of these red players.” Nice to hear, but doesn’t do me any good.

Perhaps it was arrogant of me to sign up in red. I probably should just earn my stripes so there is no question come the day when I can start a box in red.

The morning went on. There were some blue boxes that I passed signing up in, waiting for a better game. Blue is far more of a “mess” than red is. It’s “skill creep”. Black (3.0 0 and down) signs up as blue (3.5), blue doesn’t want to play with them, so they want to sign up in red (4.0+).

Good Game

As the session started to wind down, I played in a game with Charles as my partner against Dave D. and Jason. I was really impressed with Charles’ play today. He has a very reliable slice return.

I was on the right side of the court at the net. A ball arrived in front of me diagonally from Jason. It wasn’t high enough to hit down upon. In that brief instant, I had a choice: drive at Dave W. across from me and hope he couldn’t handle it, or just dink the ball. I chose the smart play and dropped the ball over the net. Dave tried a crosscourt dink, but it failed ended up in the net. Talk about instant positive reinforcement for making a wise decision!

Charles and I were doing well, but I made a series of mistakes all in a row and gave the game away. I apologized to Charles.

Drilling

While we waited to get into a game, Jason asked if I wanted to drill. I agreed. He asked what I wanted to work on and I said backhand crosscourt dinks. And we did. Jason is pretty reliable with those shots. Me, it can be a weakness. Jason made some observations, such as bend my knees to get lower on the ball. Someone else had told me to bend my knees more in the past . . . Terry Long, maybe? I don’t recall. But obviously, something I need—kneed? kidding—to work on.

Last Game

The closing game of the day was John B. (he won a gold medal in 3.5 last year) and Rob A. versus Jason and myself. It was a challenging game with some very good rallies. We won 12-10. A surprise. Maybe they had a off game, maybe they were taking it easy, or maybe Jason and I played that well. That game ended shortly after 1:30 p.m.

Pro Lesson

Someone had invited a 5.0 player, “Preston”, to give private group lessons. I don’t know Preston, but I was told he’s a spikeball champion and takes pickleball lessons from Ben Johns. They were off in a corner, eight players at a time for a 90 minute lesson. John P. showed up shortly before 2 p.m. to get in on it. I didn’t receive an invitation to the lessons. While in the parking lot chatting with Rick A., Ted walked up. He’d been in on one of those groups. I asked, “Was it worth it?”
“Not really.”
“Oh?”
“It was too basic. I was grouped newer players.”
Too bad. I’ll have to ask John P. what he learned from his group lesson.

What did I learn today?

Humility? Patience? I need to drill.

Tuesday, February 22, 2022 (No Play)

Normally, I would play tonight. In fact, I’d packed my things to head to Scotts Valley right from work. But a few things. We had a late customer at work. I was fighting a mild headache. My right forearm was very faintly complaining. My mother-in-law had flown in today and there was a little unspoken pressure to be home—like a text from my wife: “you are going to pickleball?” It was also pretty cold . . . at least for us, especially since we had summer-like temperatures a few days ago. Around 6 p.m., the weather app on my phone was saying it ”feels like” 10 degrees above freezing and it was only going to get colder. This was from the paper today:

Missing Paddle

I noticed that I had only two paddles in my backpack instead of the normal three. Where did I put my Tempest Wave paddle? I loaned it to John at Skypark a week ago, but I’m sure I got it back . . . I think. Doubt was creeping in. Did someone steal it from my backpack at Brommer when I wasn’t looking?

Drilling

I talked to Eric and he said after the time change and there is light in the evening, he’d be happy to drill with me. We live less than a mile from each other and Derby Park is probably another mile or so, so it’d be convenient.

Wednesday, February 23, 2022 (No Play)

I found a new Facebook group that appeals greatly to my nerdy side:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/propickleballstats/

From Jim Ramsey:

***STATS BREAKDOWN***
National Championships, Indian Wells California, December 2021.
Women’s Doubles Final: Anna Leigh Waters and Leigh Waters defeated Lea Jansen and Irina Tereschenko, 11-2, 11-2, 11-5.

RALLIES:
82 rallies.
696 shots.
8.5 shots per rally.
55/82 rallies were 9 shots or less. (67%)
27/82 rallies were 10 shots or more. (3%)
Shortest: 1 shot (2), 2 shots (3), 3 shots (13), 4 shots (12). (24% of the rallies were four shots or fewer.)
Longest: 50, 36, 32, 18, 18, 18, 17.

THIRD SHOTS:
A.L. Waters: 3 drops, 14 drives. (17% drops)
L. Waters: 9 drops, 19 drives. (32% drops)
Waters/Waters: 12 drops, 33 drives. (26% drops)
Jansen: 11 drops, 5 drives. (68% drops)
Tereschenko: 10 drops, 4 drives (71% drops)
Jansen/Tereschenko: 21 drops, 9 drives. (70% drops)
Third Shot Totals: 33 drops, 42 drives (44% drops)

SPEED-UPS:
I counted the instances when a regular dinking rally was accelerated, and the ensuing hand-battle led directly to the end of the rally, or the first speed-up was a winner or hit out. (therefore, not including speedups that were eventually re-set during the same rally.) Here are those “starts”, and the ensuing result for that team.
A.L. Waters: initiated and won 2, initiated and lost 1.
L. Waters: initiated and won 6, initiated and lost 2.
Waters/Waters: initiated and won 8, initiated and lost 3. (72% success)
Jansen: initiated and won 4, initiated and lost 3.
Tereschenko: initiated and won 1, initiated and lost 2.
Jansen/Tereschenko: initiated and won 5, initiated and lost 5. (50% success rate)
Speed-up Totals: In the instances I counted, the team that initiated the speed-up won 13 and lost 8, for a 61% success rate.

DINKS INTO THE NET: (Unstressed, “regular” dinks. Not speed-ups, blocks, etc.).
A.L. Waters: 0.
L. Waters: 0.
Jansen: 1.
Tereschenko: 2.
Totals: 3 of 82 rallies ended with a dink into the net. (3%)

CLEAN WINNERS: (No net-cord, no opponent’s paddle).
A.L. Waters: 5.
L. Waters: 2.
Jansen: 3.
Tereschenko: 1.
(13% of the rallies ended with a clean winner)

OFFENSIVE LOBS: none.

HIDDEN STAT OF THE MATCH:
Three times Lea Jansen did not keep a service return in play. Nine times the Waters team hit a third shot drive, and the Jansen/Tereschenko team volleyed it into the net (ending the rally at four shots). Those “two and fours” accounted for 12 of the 33 points for the Waters team.
These stats were taken from an ESPNU broadcast (screenshot included). There were a few rallies what were not shown in their entirety, because the “on air” was on a replay rather than live action. I did the best I could in those situations, and taking notes as a whole.Take from this what you see fit. I offer this without conclusions or bias. I hope it helps provide more context to the sport we all enjoy so much. I will provide similar breakdowns for other matches soon. Jim.
(entered Feb 17, 2022)

App

Also posted to that FB group, there’s a python app of some kind written by Alex Spancake that allows for entry of game stats:
https://github.com/aspancake/pickle-data-entry-ui


Number of days on a court: 471
Number of total hours: 2,247

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