Thursay, March 24, 2022 (Court Day #480)

My right elbow where the bones meet was bothering me all day. Even driving home at lunch hurt some. This is very worrisome. I haven’t experienced this many months now. I hope it’s a fluke and gets better quickly. Scary.

Skypark

Arrived at Sky Park about 7 p.m. It was a light crowd and parking was easy. But a few more people were there than Tuesday. There were five courts set up and busy.

Larry and Sam in a hotly contested game against Matt S. and John.

I had to wait about 10 minutes before I was able to get into a game, but my first game was a good one with Tim against Matt S. (retired firefighter) and John, whose girlfriend is Robin. 

They asked if I wanted to warm up and Matt even came to the net expecting me to dink. Tim tried to convince me to take at least 2-3 warmup shots. I turned them down and went right into a game. 

Tim and I clobbered Matt and John—I think they scored just one point. We went on to play a second game and the result was similar, though they scored a few points the second game.

The Compliment

During the first game, Matt S. paid me a supreme compliment. I hit forehand drive from my position at the left of Tim, and the ball rocketed with topspin about two inches over the net between Matt and John. Matt could barely get a paddle on it and my drive was a winner. Matt, in hilarious frustration, with a smile, unleashed a very brief expletive laden rant which included calling me a “m****r f*****g c**k s****r. Tim and I just looked at each other and I doubled up in laugher! Matt’s a good guy. Swears like a sailor, but has a heart of gold.

I got into a series of games with Scott as my partner against Matt and Paul (they have a tournament on Sunday if it doesn’t get rained out) and a game against Randy and Daryl whom I’ve played against once before. Scott and I handily beat Daryl and Randy by a 2:1 margin—good game, but after a few points the result was not in doubt.

Server?

At the start of one game, I asked Matt and Paul who their regular first server is. They looked at each other and Matt said that they didn’t have one. I told them they need to pick player to always be their starting server. There are a few reasons for this but the main one is it always allows the pairing to know where they should be for a given score. After I made that suggestion, Paul was always their starting server.

We finished our last game with a few minutes to spare and the lights clicked off at 9:30. Paul, Matt, Scott and I talked about drilling, tournaments, and other pickleball things until 9:53.

For all the aching leading up to my play tonight, my elbow didn’t bother me a bit.

Tonight, I felt I played really well. My play sagged a bit the last few games, but I was quite delighted with my play prior to that.

Sunday, March 27, 2022 (No Play)

There was enough rain last night to keep the Derby courts wet enough to prevent club play, so I had to cancel it, unfortunately. Later, I texted Eric S. about drilling but he said he was heading home after he had played anyway. He said at 10 a.m. only one court was completely dry—hence, I made a good call—but they did mostly dry out by 11 a.m.

Paul and Matt

Just before 7 p.m., it started to rain as predicted this week. I texted Matt B. to see how Paul W. and he did at their tournament in Sunnyvale. He said it was really windy—I’d though of them when I experienced that here in Santa Cruz—but they’d won four games and lost three. I was expecting them to do better, but they must have had some strong competition. It must have been a large tournament. I’m looking forward to hearing more when I see them next.

Briones Analysis

Jordon Briones recently shared some of his pro games at a recent tournament. I remember watching part of it and recognizing the shot selection errors … or at least not what I would do and the result was bad for his side. (It’s easier to see the shots to make when you are not playing yourself!) Well, Jordon posted a new video breaking down a doubles game shot by shot. It’s nearly an hour, so I didn’t watch all of it (yet?), but still interesting.

One thing he pointed out (at 14m43s) was always ready ready for the attack. This hits home. A week ago, Rob attacked a ball hitting it right at me and winning the point. He told me, “I saw your paddle was down.” I was not ready for an attack.

Jordan went on, saying if you are going to attack a ball below the net and hit it at your opponent’s ”dominant side”—that is, create a chicken wing scenario. Something for me to work on!


Number of days on a court: 480
Number of total hours: 2,273

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