Monday, July 4, 2022 (Court Day #510)

After Friday when parking was nearly gone today, I arrived at 8:45. My first game was with Jason against Shawnte and Hemme. It was a good, fairly balanced game.

It was a very busy day with close to 60 people there.

Paul and friend Matt came from Scotts Valley, they were both off from work for the holiday, like me.

Miserable

I ended up partnering with a woman named Lena (Lay-nah) who is a strong player. I’d say 4.0. She and I played against Shawnte and René. I played a horrible game. Dropshots too high, a few dinks into the net, it was bad. Not the way to make an good impression on a strong player I’ve never played with. After that game, exasperated, I mentioned how rotten I had played. Rene was encouraging, “Don’t worry, we know that you are a good player.”

The crowd thinned out so there were only 15-20 players waiting to get on courts.

Advanced Player or Not?

There was some discussion brought up by Dan about players signing up outside of their true skill. I asked about John P. signing up in red. Dan said John is rated a “numerical 4.0”. When John and I played together in tournaments, opponents would pick on him, but he’s has improved in recent years. The thing is, John plays in the 60+ age bracket in tournaments. A 4.0 60+ is not going to be the same as a 20-year-old 4.0. Melody was a 4.0 in her age bracket in women’s doubles, but I’d compare her to a 3.0 open bracket player. That’s not to say I believe John is a 3.0, I don’t. But I do believe he’d be a 3.5 if he were competing with 30-somethings.

Art and Alan (orange shirt), Colleen (flag shirt) and Allan, and others waiting.

My last game was René and Shawnte against Charles and myself. It was a close back and forth game. Charles and I won that one. There was one moment I particularly remember, after Shawnte rocketed a shot at the net right at me and I returned it to his feet for a winner. Shawnte was hard on himself but Rene said, “Don’t blame yourself, Andrew just has super fast hands.” Nice to hear.

It was 12:45 and time to go, I had things to do at home and my wife and I would be heading to my parents for a 4th of July party with my extended family.

Today, my biggest problem was my dropshots sailing high and getting slammed off the court. I have to dial that in.

Tuesday, July 5, 2022 (Afternoon)

After talking to another player today, the feeling is that my netplay was stronger than John P.’s but he has caught up with my skill level “at the line”. But that we both suffer from a “wide range” between good games and bad games. John and I both need to work on our consistency.

This is where my bout with tennis elbow is frustrating. My skill improvement stalled out as I played lefty for about three years. But all I can do is look forward and actually commit to drilling and working on my pickleball skills.


Number of days on a court: 510
Number of total hours: 2,359

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