Sunday, May 8, 2022 (Court Day #492) – Mother’s Day
My wife and I landed in North Carolina on Friday morning. And my son Nicholas graduated from Duke University yesterday with an E.E Masters in machine learning.
The ceremony didn’t take too long, there were only roughly 150 E.E. masters degrees conferred. They didn’t announce those who did it, but Nicholas was one of a relative handful who earned a GPA of 3.9 or higher. Nicholas was a 4.0 with straight ‘A’s.
Ephesus Park
The last time I was in Durham, I played several times at Ephesus Park in Chapel Hill. I rechecked the forecast this morning. It rained here and there the last couple of days.
Cold, overcast, and breezy. I was hoping there would be enough players there to play with. I didn’t pack a sweatshirt, so I borrowed my son’s UCLA sailing one. It wouldn’t be warming up like a California day!
Since we only had one car, my wife dropped me off at the courts at 9 a.m. with the intent of picking me up at noon. About 10 people were either playing or warming up. There was a good-sized puddle next to a court inside the fence, but the rest was dry.
The first person I talked to was Jack, who is out playing at the age of 82—kudos to Jack! I told Jack the story of me getting beat years ago at Mitchell park in Palo Alto by an 83-year-old on a challenge court.
(Here is that blog entry from about five years ago:
https://pickleballjourney.com/2017/09/25/palo-alto/)
I brought two paddles, my recently renovated Rogue2 and my brand new Rogue2 Carbon. Both are the identical “Hybrid” shape. I opted to play with my new paddle—of course, right?
Jack and I warmed up, dinking. Jack did well, getting all but the hardest shots back. The wind was affecting some shots, even with crosscourt dinking.
When someone said it’ll be warmer tomorrow, Jack shared, “That’s what my wife was suggesting to me. But I told her, ‘I don’t know if I’ll be alive tomorrow, I’m playing today!’”
First Game
I got into a game with Jack against a very tall man named Steve and his wife, whose name escapes me. They are all 3.0 players—well, Jack might be a 2.5. Jack and I lost the first game—the wife apologized to Jack telling him they’d be hitting a lot of balls to him. But late in the second game—the score was very close—she got nauseous and had to walk off the court. Steve apologized on her behalf, but no apology was necessary.
Next Up
Jack and I played next against Linda and Brian. We got clobbered. Linda said she and Brian played a total of three 3.0 tournaments (60+) and medaled in all of them. There was only so much ground I could make up on my side. Still it was fun.
Linda and I played a game against Mike and Melissa. (Linda’s husband Brian got into a different game with some stronger men.) Mike is either a high 3.5 or a 4.0. Linda and I won the first close game but lost the second in a lopsided fashion. Mike is a good player. Give him an inch and he’ll take a mile. A smidge too high—bam!—the point is over. He’s not perfect player, but I wish he was in Santa Cruz, Mike is a very worthy opponent. Melissa was solid too, though not the level of Mike. There was a slam I made and I was thinking it wasn’t going to come back, but Melissa managed to get it back over and I wasn’t ready. Nice, Melissa! (Reminder Lesson: always expect the ball to come back—and never underestimate your opponent!)
Linda and I stepped off, leaving Mike and Melissa to take on some others. I mentioned to Linda that I didn’t see any players from my trip here in March last year. She smiled and waved at the courts saying she wasn’t surprised, there were fewer people out due to the weather. Linda said she’d put her paddle in the next up reservation spot in the fence (next to mine), but she said she would step out if there was a good “guys game” for me.
Stronger Games
And that’s what happened. Linda stepped aside and I played a game with Brian against John and Bill. Brian warned me that John hits really hard, drives everything, and is great with angles. And John was. But we won. It wasn’t easy to handle John’s hard drives, but I managed to get all but 2-3 of them back over in my assorted games against him. John just needs to develop the other aspects of his game.
Brian had to leave, so Brad—a tall lefty—stepped in. We rotated through players.
It briefly drizzled while playing with the guys and later during another game that made the court mildly slippery but we kept playing (no mad attempts for the ball) and it dried out each time after a few minutes.
I kept checking the time and my phone for messages. My wife texted that they would be there at 12:20…I got another couple of games in!
I felt a bit bad for Bill. Bill lost every game regardless of who he had as his partner. He’s a super nice and humble guy. He did pull off some nice shots though.
As the last and rather quick game ended (Brad and I won 11-5), I saw my son’s car pull into the lot. Perfect timing!
I must have hit at least half a dozen, maybe a dozen shots into the white tape over the session today. I have to R-E-S-P-E-C-T the net. This continues to be an issue with my play. If I clean that up, it’ll make a big difference in my game.
Odds are that I’ll never be back to Chapel Hill. With my son now graduated, there will be little reason for me to return. Life moves on. Alas.
Oh, and I absolutely love the new Rogue2 Carbon paddle. Big fan. It played like a dream.
Fancy Attention
Afterward, my wife and mother-in-law and son went to a deli for lunch, then to Golf Galaxy. At my wife’s prompting, Nicholas has played golf as an occasional hobby since he was little. He played on the high school golf team, but didn’t excel. (He was a far better sailor than a golfer.)
My wife’s mom recently got Nicholas golf lessons as a gift. The instructor told Nicholas that he needed to get fitted for clubs, so that’s today’s project.
I have to say, I felt like a fish out of water at the golf store. I know nothing about golf. I played 9 holes once with my in-laws and son. I felt proud of myself I could even hit the ball with a club! I did get better over the 9 holes, but I have no dream of getting good at golfing … I’d much rather be out playing pickleball! I will admit I did try and imagine if that size of store was full of pickleball products instead!
Golf is an expensive sport. Cheaper than racing cars, but boy. Between equipment, green fees, shoes, a person could blow tens of thousands of dollars per year golfing. Pickleball is far cheaper. I can tell you, I’d be playing far less frequently if I had to pay $50-$100 each day I went out!
The fitting golf pro, Jeff, had Nicholas hit a bunch of differently configured 7 irons while getting analyzed by a computer.
The guy was pretty impressed with Nicholas’ drives. “Most people want an extra 10 yards, you don’t need distance.” Nicholas was regularly hitting in the 180 yards range, and some over 200 yards. We looked it up later, and these are pro distances. Male golfers hit an average of 120 yards with a 7 iron. Fortunately for the golfing world, it takes more than good 7 iron drives to win golf games. It’s like a pickleball player with 70MPH forehand drives. A good start, but you need consistent accuracy and a short game too. You need to practice and play more than a handful of times each year to improve too.
I wandered by a stall nearby and this guy was obviously a real golfer.
Monday, May 9, 2022 (No Play)
Coincidentally, while sitting on a flight today, someone posted this article to Facebook comparing pickleball to golf:
https://www.desertsun.com/story/sports/2022/04/22/pickleball-and-golf-some-surprising-similarities/7412288001/
I think its a bit of a stretch, but I guess so…
Some Really Expensive Markers!
Here’s another bit of recent news that I missed. On March 14, a retiree in Denver, Arslan Guney, used a permanent marker to remark court boundary indicators in a gym. The city claimed he had done felony damage to the floor—the Parks & Rec staff used the wrong solvent to remove the marker and stripped the hardwood finish—and issued a warrant for the 71-year-old Gurney’s arrest.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/03/28/pickleball-arrest-felony-drawing-marking/
Gruney turned himself in and, of course, got a mugshot taken.
Guney—called the “Mayor of Pickleball” by his local community—received all kinds of support, as you’d expect. His lawyer released a statement today:
Hopefully, this will be resolved in a reasonable fashion. Given that Guney has offered to pay for damages and do community service, it would be a true travesty of justice if he were to serve any time in prison—let alone three years!
Long post, but hey, what else am I going to do with hours and hours stuck on an airplane?
Number of days on a court: 492
Number of total hours: 2,310
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