Month: September 2022 (Page 3 of 6)

Friday, September 16, 2022 (Court Day #549)

The cable running from the antenna in my attic to my television set stopped working for some strange reason. Even crawling underneath the house, I couldn’t determine where there was any problem. However, it had to be replaced with something that was functional. So I made a stop at Santa Cruz Electronics this morning and picked up a new coaxial cable that I could run underneath my house. After that, I headed to Brommer Park knowing that the parking lot would almost certainly be full since it would be 9:30 a.m. when I’d get there.

Brommer Park

Just as I pulled into the full lot, a truck pulled out of a parking spot conveniently leaving me a place to park my car. Good karma, I guess!

I signed up on the scheduling board and waited with a bunch of other people. It was a busy morning with about 20 people in addition to the 32 on the courts.

I got one or two strong games during the session, but that was about it. The rest of the games were marginal with very few rallies of more than a few shots.

Club Shirt

Jackie, one of the board officers, was there selling the pre-ordered club shirts. I asked her if there were any extra and she said there were. I looked through the paper bag and found a silver “Large” men’s shirt and opted to buy it for $25. Now I’ve got my years-old original one in white, the blue one from this batch that was gifted to me from the club for being a site coordinator, and the purchase today of a silver club shirt. Now I have a complete collection.

Fast Hands

I was playing with Hugh against Jackie and Rene and Paul—who had not met before. There is one particularly memorable rally in that game when Jackie and Paul were slamming the ball down at me but I managed to repeatedly get the ball back anyway. I surprised myself. Those were tough shots. Jackie and Paul complimented me after that rally. Hugh thanked me after that game and said it was the first game he had won today.

I headed out from the courts at 12:15 p.m.

UTPR Update

I excitedly checked the USA Pickleball website for my new rating, given my recent tournament with Jason. (The ratings are updated on Fridays.) Sure enough, 3.5.

I was surprised that my two-digit rating was the same, but that’s updated only quarterly. It’ll get updated in a couple of weeks though, October 1.

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Saturday, September 17, 2022 (No Play)

This is an interesting deep-dive breakdown of a single point in a game of 5.0 players by Jordan Briones.

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Sunday, September 18, 2022 (No Play)

Lots of rain today. I sent out first Mailchimp club play cancelation notice by myself. When I was done, I texted Mark and Tony—SCPC board members—letting them know that they didn’t need to lift a finger, but it was done! They were pleased!

Article my wife shared by text on August 25, but I forgot to share it with you, my dear readers, yet:

Pickleball: Sport of Future Injury?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/20/health/pickleball-sports-injury.html

Here’s another link to the article:
https://www.sanjuandailystar.com/post/pickleball-sport-of-the-future-injury

“Achilles’ strains or tears, shoulder problems, rotator cuff injuries, lower back problems such as disc injuries, muscle strains,” said Noe Sariban, a pickleball instructor, former pro player and physical therapist who markets himself as the Pickleball Doctor. And, of course, there’s lateral epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow — now pickleball elbow.

“Pickleball kind of sounds like a game with a silly name, but it’s a sport,” Sariban said. “It’s no bocce ball.”

Number of days on a court: 549
Number of total hours: 2,485

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Thursday, September 15, 2022 (Court Day #548)

Ever since I had asked René to play in a tournament with me but she had already committed to play in it with Rick, she’s been suggesting tournaments for us to play together. I looked at some dates she provided and decided that the Bay Area Senior Games would be a good one. It’s on Sunday, October 2, and since I’m off on Sundays I’m guaranteed to be free that day. It’s kind of funny that they call it a senior games given that it’s 50-years-old and up and not ’65 and up’. I don’t consider myself a senior … yet! Anyway, I registered yesterday morning.

I told René that bagpipe band practice had been canceled for tonight and that I could play at Skypark at 6:45 p.m. (Tuesday, I opted to stay home and do house stuff.) She drove over Highway 17 down to Scotts Valley and she beat me there by a few minutes. We played a number of games together until about 8:30. By that time, we were both obviously tired—very tired.

Against the Big Boys

One really fun game we played was Rene and me against Tristan and Nolan. Nolan is a 4.0 player and Tristan is a 4.5 player. René and I did manage to score 2 points against them, and had a few good rallies—and garnered some compliments in the process—but we got solidly smoked.

The only games that René and I lost tonight were the games against Nolan and Tristan and the last game against Matt and Paul when we are both exhausted.

Tim and Me

Last three games of the night were Tim and myself playing against young Asian David and Scott. They won the first game, we won the second game, and then they won the third game.

I hit a slice drive service return in the last game. The ball hit the top of the net but backspin made it tightly hug the net as it dropped to the ground. It came to a full rest no more than an inch from the net. I’d never seen anything like it. And given the comments from the others on the court, they hadn’t either!

I was so exhausted playing that game…so exhausted. When it came time to tap paddles at the net, I got it within about 3 feet and then went down to my knees and then crawled to the net and then—without looking up—raised my paddle up for them to tap. It was overly dramatic, of course. But I wanted to share the gist of just how tired I was. I can’t remember ever being this tired playing. It was a culmination of having not eaten for about eight hours and also not getting a full night of sleep last night. Still those last games are fun and there were a handful of really good shots that I made that I didn’t think I could’ve made but I did. The last game finished at 9:25 p.m.

Injuries

The outside of my left foot is still bugging me. Yesterday morning, it was very painful to walk on—like a very bad cramp. Also, left hip is still sore from the Monterey tournament with Jason. And my right knee is acting up. I crouched down at work yesterday and getting back up was quite uncomfortable, but it mostly went away after a while. But it can be mildly nagging.

Overall

I was just happy I powered through the evening and played until lights out. That was an accomplishment in and of itself.

Number of days on a court: 548
Number of total hours: 2,482.5

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

Sunday, September 11, 2022 (Court Day #547)

After the tournament yesterday, it was back to the ordinary. I arrived at Derby Park at 8:50 a.m. to find all the courts set up and most in use. Tom Sherwood had not received my message saying my pipe band performance was canceled and I would be at Derby after all to carry out my regular site coordinator duties. Tom had arrived quite early and set up everything well in advance of opening time. He must be a morning person . . . unlike me!

Today was pretty routine. Casey F. made another Sunday Derby appearance. Apparently, Casey had a good enough time that he decided to come back. His dad Tim had other obligations and couldn’t make it today.

Brothers from a Different Mother

I’ll admit I sometimes get Nate and Hugh mixed up. They are about the same height, thin build, fair skinned, roughly the same age. For now, though, Nate is the much stronger player.

Jenna

There wasn’t a ton to note today. I will say that Jenna—whose husband James is back in Britain for now—played very well today. I’d say it was a 3.5 level. She and I took on Allan K. and Ted and we beat them 11-3. She demonstrated very quick hands at the net, returning fast volleys: “I don’t know how I got those!” We’ll see if she can keep it up, but Allan said she’s been getting better and better.

Ying

Also Ying is starting to utilize the soft game a little bit. She still has a habit of driving shots at net-positioned opponents when she should drop and drives shots into the net with too much frequency, but she’s showing improvement. She’s got a reliable block volley drop over the net that’s very effective when her opponents are too far back to get the ball. I told her, “You’re developing a soft game, that’s really good.”

Appreciation from the Bench

I played a game against Scott (usually seen in Scotts Valley—though not in the last few months) and Jenna with Martijn’s wife Sarah as my partner. She said, “I’m not an ‘advanced’ but I’m filling in as a fourth.” Since there was no fourth player, Scott had asked her. I picked the least strong player of the group as my partner. Sarah and I still won. I got some “ooos” and “aaaahs” from the full bench when I hit a low backhand ATP right in front of them. “He probably doesn’t even know he did it,” someone commented. Though I was aware. This was a particularly nice ATP, but yeah, I’m well past the days of getting excited and keeping track of them.

The crowd thinned out early. I think a bunch gave up and didn’t want to wait to play.

“One More Game”

By noon, especially after playing a tournament yesterday and today being three days of solid play in a row, I was tired and going to leave but got talked into a couple more games, these against Charles and Ted with Jeff as my partner. Jeff isn’t super consistent, but occasionally pulls off some amazing angle shots with his ping pong background.

Ted and Charles helped me count the donations and we were all off by 12:30, leaving an unfamiliar man teaching a boy—probably his son or grandson—how to play.

Number of days on a court: 547
Number of total hours: 2,479.5

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