Tuesday, August 23, 2022 (Court Day #536)
Rick asked yesterday if I could play with him in a tournament on Sunday, September 4. I told him I probably couldn’t, but I’d check. Rick followed up with me this morning saying he already lined up Jason as his partner. That means that Jason’s tournament with me will be his second, not his very first. That’s probably good for our performance, in that he’ll have more experience. Since the annual big highland games in Pleasanton will be the same Labor Day weekend as Rick’s tournament, it’s probably best to keep my weekend clear.
Double Duty
With a pipe band performance coming up in a couple of weeks, I opted to play bagpipes a little bit after work. (It’s a physical instrument and you have to get your time in.) That meant that I wasn’t at Skypark until 7:30 p.m. The pickleball courts were packed with an additional 10 people waiting to get onto a court, and conversely the tennis courts completely empty.
Tonight was mostly moderate level games without many advanced players. Charles was there as well as Dan the better player, and Matt Smith, as well as Tim—Binh was the only player that I got to play with. Oftentimes, Binh and I would split up in order to make the games more balanced.
Later on, I got some games paired up with Aaron against his friends Matt and Paul. Those were some good games. Aaron has come along way in terms of the level of his play. While I still consider him a weaker 3.0 player, he used to be total cannon fodder, and that is no longer the case. Aaron and I were in a game with Matt and Paul and it undergoing a number of lead changes when the lights clicked off at 9:30. We hung out for about 20 minutes afterwards talking about pickleball.
Wednesday, August 24, 2022 (No Play)
I shared the video from Monday with my courtmates from that day. Binh and Charles had the same reaction I did, that the game is much faster in person and we look slow.
Binh broached the possibility of the two of us playing at Nationals in southern California in November. He’s going to check with Shawnté first, I’m second in line. Of course, there are questions about qualifiers as well these days. You used to be able to just sign up. Now, with the growth of the sport, they need to limit the number of competitors.
Number of days on a court: 536
Number of total hours: 2,445.5
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