Month: May 2022 (Page 2 of 4)

Sunday, May 22, 2022 (Court Day #498)

When I arrived at Derby Park at 8:50 a.m., there were already seven players there. That is a first. A handful, sure, but seven? Mark G. was drilling with Dave Cox on one court, a game was going on with Larry and Janet and a couple of others, then there was another female player who was simply hanging around waiting for the club session to formally start. It was 53°F and overcast, but it would burn off later for a nice day.

The first games were decent, but then I got into games that were not very challenging.

Newbies

As I was hanging around waiting for my red/advanced box to come up, a woman stopped me, “Are you the one in charge?” I said I was. ”I thought that recognized you from the website.” It turns out she (Lori) and her husband, Scott, were brand new players. They’d heard about the game, knew next to nothing about it, and came to check it out. I got them club paddles and had them hit a ball back and forth out on the grassy area, then came back and explained the basic rules. I then had them watch while I got into my already scheduled game. That was a fun game of Eric and me against Rick and René.

Someone stopped me after that game and pointed out another brand new player, Sonya. I signed up the four of us in a box for an instructional game. That took probably 45 minutes all told…between drilling and then playing.

Come on now.

My last game of the day was a good one. I was paired with a player who generally doesn’t come to Derby. He played well today, but I believe I’m a better player on average. That didn’t stop him from criticizing my play if I made a questionable strategic choice—like driving at Rick from the kitchen line—or I otherwise helped lose a point. When he made a poor shot or missed an opportunity, I didn’t criticize him. Instead, when he made good shot, I complimented him. That is my way. He knows what he did wrong. He doesn’t need me to point it out. When, after one rally, he gave me a hard time for not getting to a shot when he was off the court (and he was a bit slow getting back on)—and I was already fully into his side of the court—René countered on my behalf, “There’s only so much of the court Andrew can cover!”

When the game was done, he called another player over to the court then turned to me and said, “Thanks for playing.” Not, “I’d like to play with so-and-so, do you mind?”, instead he forced me off the court. I had a family party to get to anyway, but still…I took it as rude. You don’t invite someone else to replace a player who may not wish to be replaced. That is very presumptuous. And who says you get to stay on the court?

Fulfilling my site coordinators duties, I made sure everything was stowed in the bins then headed home, annoyed, leaving a couple of games still going on the city-owned nets.

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Monday, May 23, 2022 (No Play)

I emailed the player who made what I considered the rude move, explaining my thoughts on the matter. He did apologize twice in his reply for his “misstep” and that it wasn’t personal. I’m closing the book on that episode and moving on.

Number of days on a court: 498
Number of total hours: 2,327.5

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Thursday, May 19, 2022 (Court Day #497)

I was able to leave work on a tight schedule, and arrived at Skypark a few minutes after 6:30 p.m. I was able to get into a game fairly quickly because there were three people waiting to play and they already started setting up a net.

So I joined Matt and Scott and Adrian and Adrian and I teamed up. I didn’t do the greatest in that game—in particular, my dropshots were high—but I played ok. It was definitely a warm-up game.

I went on to play some other games with Scott and Wendy and David from Aptos, nothing too significant. David had some nice shots. He played pretty well. Still, 3.0, but nice. A tip of the cap.

Rockin’ It

The games of the night or when Paul arrived just about as it was getting dark and the two of us played against Casey and his dad Tim. Those three games were awesome. I believe Paul and I won every game. I was playing very, very well. I was pretty delighted with my play in those.

Winding Down

After Tim and Casey left, the last two games of the night were with Paul and the young guy named Mike and Paul’s friend Dan. The first game was Mike and me against Paul and Dan. These were kind of wind-down games. Paul could tell that I didn’t care as much about this game and that came out after a few points. There was a ball that dropped short over the net and I didn’t make a complete effort to get to it and, as a result, I was about a foot short of the ball. Paul said, “So Andrew, are you gonna play in this game?” I took the game a little bit more seriously after that. A little bit. A few points later, Paul made a bad shot and I asked him if he was going to play. He laughed. “Touche!” We squeezed in one final game and wrapped it up just before the lights went off at 9:30 p.m.

The games with Paul against Tim and Casey very much made the night worth it.

Icing

Like usual, I iced my right elbow when I got home.

Association Renewal

I got an email from USA Pickleball just before I left for Skypark about my annual membership renewal.

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Saturday, May 21, 2022 (No Play)

I renewed my USA Pickleball Association membership today. $35. I’m good for another year. Did I get a discount for being a USA Pickleball ambassador? Nope.

Number of days on a court: 497
Number of total hours: 2,323.5

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Tuesday, May 17, 2022 (Court Day #496)

It’s always fun when a celebrity says they like pickleball. On Sunday, Drew Brees, future NFL Hall of Fame quarterback chimed in as a fan of pickleball via Twitter.

I looked online and this was not his first connection with pickleball. I did a Google search and found this:
https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/from-the-nfl-to-pickleball/

Skypark

I left work a little early and was able to get to Skypark by 6:30. The lot was full, so I parked off the pavement under a tree. The courts were very busy.

When I asked, Matt and Paul told me they won a gold medal in 3.0 this past weekend in the Monterey tournament. I’m very happy for them. Paul talked down the win, saying there were only six teams and all the age groups were mixed, meaning they were mostly playing against older men with only one 19+ team. Still, a win is a win. Congrats, guys!

Eric (Ann’s husband) and I played Matt and Paul and beat them twice, though the games were close.

Eric and I then played against Matt S. and Tim. It was a back and forth game with some long rallies. Paul—who was waiting to get into a game with some of our players—said that the game took 30 minutes. Eric and I lost 11-13. Drat. I really wanted to win that one.

Wendy and New Guys

Since Matt S. and Tim won, they earned the right to stay and play. Eric and I shuffled off. I sat for a bit on the bench then saw a game break up. It was Wendy with two you new guys, Stohrs and Evan. (Pronounced “Stairs”.) Stohrs said he was named after a doctor. Wendy asked to play with me as her partner. We won 11-3. I believe I missed 2-3 shots the entire game and it was mostly due to being lazy.

Wendy wanted to play one more game, a rematch, so we switched sides and played again. I told them that I’d play left-handed. When they balked a bit—how to feel bad, right? get beaten by someone playing lefty?—I told them that I had gotten tennis elbow super bad and played lefty for two years. I made a few more mistakes than normal, but Wendy was in awe. ”I can’t even hit the ball at all left-handed!” It’s good for me to play lefty now and then to keep that skill. Wendy and I still won, but this game was closer by a few points.

Harder Games

Tim and I played against Eric and Scott. It was getting dark. After playing lefty against weak players and the change in light, I was making a ton of mistakes . . . I’d hit a ball too high and Eric would slam it off the court. This happened at least 3-4 times. I’ll admit I was starting to get frustrated with my crummy play. We did come partially back but still lost by a few points.

I played with Ann against Eric and Scott and Ann played well. We won by a wide margin. Things simply went our way. I haven’t played with Ann for a while. She’s gotten much better. A far cry from how she complained some early on that she was only coming to pickleball because Eric was making her.

Next, I played with Janet against Scott and Eric. She was playing really well, we were far ahead! A shocker. But then Janet started making more mistakes and they came back and won. Ah, well. So close.

Number of days on a court: 496
Number of total hours: 2,320.5

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