Thursday, February 3, 2022 (Court Day #464)
Last night, the three vaccine shots hit me. I was shivering in bed even with two heated rice bags, so I almost certainly had a mild fever. Also my body ached and I was overly exhausted.
As my workday wound down today and my body still had mild aching, I was torn between going to play pickleball and going home to curl up in bed! In the end, I opted to get exercise. (When I went to the doctor yesterday and the nurse checked my vitals, she said my blood pressure was good—114 over 75—and my pulse was good, 63 BPM…I figure pickleball is at least partly responsible for those healthy numbers.)
Skypark
When I arrived at Skypark about 6:30 p.m., the lot was full so I parked in an unorthodox manner off the paved areas. I hopefully neighbors would prefer that versus me taking up a space in front of their home, but there’s always a chance that someone might call the po-po and I get a ticket.
Texas Mike (a.k.a. Mike B.) wanted to play a game as my partner. Before we kicked it off with the first serve, he told me, ”I’m not reaching very far for things.” Mike has a right shoulder issue and he’s going to visit the PT tomorrow for it. I was expecting us to win this game and I was not expecting it to be close. We’d be playing Matt (of Matt and Paul) and Robin whom I don’t believe I’d played with before. Matt is coming along, but Mike and I are both better. And Robin didn’t exactly look formidable. If I was hoping to impress Mike to have him consider me as tournament partner someday, this game was not the way to do it. We both didn’t play our best and fell behind. It wasn’t looking good. Robin is far better than one would think at first glance. But Mike and I clawed back and won a game that I believe should have never been in jeopardy.
Surprise!
Over the years, you’d think I’d learn to not judge the skill of a player by his or her appearance. Tonight, there was Robin and John. John plays at Derby Park now and then, so he’s a familiar face, though we rarely play on the same court. Robin—John’s partner—is about 5’2″, probably about 60-years-old with long, gray hair . . . not a six-five muscular figure of power. But Robin can get the ball back over the net and she has a wicked crosscourt angled dropshot! She got me on one and got Texas Mike on one too. Not bad.
After Mike hit John with a ball, Robin told him that it was a good shot and that “we were drilling that at the camp.” I don’t know what camp she was talking about, but I like that—hitting a ball where it is awkward for the other player to return it. I’m not talking court placement, I’m talking aiming for an opponent’s armpit or hip.
Play wrapped up about 9 p.m.
Mike, Robin, John and I stuck around and chatted for a few minutes. Robin and John live in a housing complex on the lower westside. Robin was spearhead of having a private pickleball court (lines with a rolling net) installed there recently. They invite players to play with them there. In fact, Mike was invited to play with them through another player and this lead to a surprised Robin: “Oh, you’re Texas Mike!” I told them about an app which helps rate you since you enter game scores after rec play. I couldn’t remember the name of the app though!
What did I learn?
I’m a nice guy, sometimes too nice. When I decide to poach and use a forehand to take to a shot that’s a little on my partner’s side, part of me feels bad and I hesitate and that leads to errors. That happened tonight with John. I took the shot, didn’t 100% commit and hit the ball into the net. Lovely.
Arm
My arm has been holding up surprisingly well considering the abuse I’ve been giving it. There was one slam that I felt pain on the inside of my elbow at that instant.
The App
This was the site/app I was trying to remember:
https://www.dupr.gg
I mentioned it in an earlier post.
Saturday, February 4, 2022 (No Play)
Fun news today, Washington State is about to make pickleball their official state sport. Here in California, the state sport is surfing. (The wetsuit was invented here in Santa Cruz by the grandfather of one of my son’s former classmates.) Pickleball has its origins in the Pacific Northwest, so it only makes sense that it should be recognized up there:
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/make-homegrown-pickleball-official-sport-of-wa-state
Video
This popped up on my YouTube suggestions. I watched this a little differtnly. In dink battles, how deep does that ball land? I pick a player, focus on her and before she hits the ball, i decide what shot would I select to hit? If she does something else, did it work? Did she miss an opportunity?
Koop seemed overly aggressive early on (i only watched about 15 minutes, though i jumped back a number of times to rewatch rallies.)
Saturday, February 5, 2022 (No Play)
There’s a new rule in 2022. And it’s kind of important for tournaments. The basic gist is this. If the wrong score is called and the ball is served, you play through. If you stop play for the call of a wrong score, you lose the point. (Kind of stinks in my book, but that’s the new rule.) If the serving team are in the wrong positions for the score and they serve, you can stop play since a fault has occurred and the rally is over.
Video
Another night, another partial watching of a pro game. What did I learn from watching? Sometimes even the pros hit drop shots into the net, In the second game, Smith hits far too many dinks into the net.
Number of days on a court: 464
Number of total hours: 2,224
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