Month: November 2022 (Page 1 of 2)

Tuesday, November 29, 2022 (Court Day #564)

I left work and arrived at Skypark at 6:40 p.m. It was quite cold and I was wearing just shorts and a T-shirt and my hands were freezing. Well, not literally freezing but very cold. You could easily see your breath, for instance. At least 3-4 times tonight, I got the question, “Aren’t you cold?”

Brace, Brace, Brace

I was like the bionic man. I had my tennis elbow band on my forearm, the brace on my right knee, and a wrist brace. The thing I hate about the wrist brace is that the paddle rests in my hand differently against the brace wrapped around my palm and—as much as I try to adjust for it—it changes the angle of the paddle.

Flush This One

I played pretty darn horribly. Particularly of note, I played a game with Avery against Casey and his dad Tim. Every single point that Tim and Casey earned was due to my error. Avery played a clean game. Casey and Tim won 11-0. I can’t say that Avery and I lost 11-0, because that would not be fair to Avery. It was all me.

I played a little bit better later in the evening, but that’s not saying much. I played with Nicole against David and Minori and Nicole and I won. Nicole was ready to go home and left. David, Minori, and myself were the three people out, so we had to wait for someone else.

Hungry?

I ended up in a game with Max and Minori had to be talked into playing that game since she was quite hungry and ready to go eat. The funny thing is after we finished that first game of Max and I against David and her, Minori immediately went to the other side of the net and got ready to play another game! So much for hunger overriding the desire to play pickleball!

When I left Scotts Valley the monitor on my car read 39°F, or another way to say it, it’s 7° above freezing. No wonder my hands were cold! Play wrapped up at 9:30 p.m.

Parade Count Down

It’s looking like it might rain the day of the downtown holiday parade this Saturday. I’m hoping that doesn’t scare away club members and we end up with a sparse showing.

Number of days on a court: 564
Number of total hours: 2,530.5

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Sunday, November 27, 2022 (Court Day #563)

I arrived early at Derby Park to set up. The weather was nice for a late November day. I was in my normal attire of a T-shirt and shorts and was quite comfortable.

When I got to Derby, I realized that I had forgotten my knee brace. I happened to mention it to Ted and he dug one out of his backpack. “I haven’t used it for three years.” He kindly offered it to me and it provides far more support and compression than the one that I was given from my dad. It also does a better job staying in place and sliding down far more gradually.

Advanced players were slim to none, though Eric S. arrived around 10 a.m. Later, Rob A. arrived, but I didn’t get the opportunity to play with him. Rob mentioned that knee braces help him avoid aches and pains.

I left about a quarter to noon to meet up with my son. I asked Ted if I could borrow his knee support for a few weeks and he agreed. A good guy, Ted.

Holiday Parade

Tonight, I sent out a notice to the entire club providing details about our participation in the annual downtown holiday parade on this coming Saturday, December 3. (I had sent out a “save the date” email a week and a half ago on November 16.) I’m hoping that good number of people will respond that they are coming . . . it’d look bad if we only have a few people in the parade!

Number of days on a court: 563
Number of total hours: 2,527.5

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

Thursday, November 24, 2022 (Court Day #562)

I was worried about my wrist yesterday. I tweaked it playing Thursday night, and it was mildly bothering me this morning, but not too bad. I texted Eric S., my former tournament partner, to see if he wanted to drill a Derby Park this morning. He was on a long phone call so we met at 11:10 a.m.

Derby Neighbor

As I was on the path walking in to the park, stopped and asked a neighbor if she was the one who posted on Facebook and emailed the club board about a player running a stop sign and speeding and nearly hitting her while she was walking her dog. She said she was. Christy. We chatted for about five minutes. I told her I know the player and that we’d sent out a email notice to the entire club about driving carefully. Christy said she’d come out and played pickleball a couple of times. I explained how it works for new players, the signup board, etc.

Drilling

Eric and I drilled for about half an hour or so and then started at game of skinny singles with us alternating sides of the court so that we’d be playing diagonal as well as straight on against each other, depending on the score and who was serving. Eric beat me 11-7 in the first game and then we switched sides and he beat me 11-3 in the second game. Obviously, I was not playing that great.\

Visitors

As we were working through that second game, a young woman, who I guess is about 30, named Mickie arrived with her mom Janet and her dad. Her dad just watched from the bench with an occasional comment. After Eric and finished our second game, we accepted Mickie’s request and then played a doubles game.

Mickie said she grew up in Newport Beach but lives in New York now. She also said her friend, a woman, was CEO of DUPR when the very recent merger happened. That’s quite a connection. [Later, I looked up the CEO and her name is Jillian Braverman, that must be Mickie’s friend.]

Eric played with Mickie and I played with Janet. Mickie was sporting a bandaged right thumb since she said that she’d cut it recently and the doctor told her to not play pickleball but the addiction is strong and so she was playing anyway. Janet told me that she’s been only been playing for two months. Yes, a couple of times I had to remind Janet where to be on the court for service. Midway through this game, my wrist started to flare up again. Mickie and Eric went to a quick lead but Janet and I climbed back and took the lead 9-8. Janet was really hoping to beat her daughter but that would not be the case as Eric and Mickey scored the next three points and won the game.

In that game I had three drop shots crosscourt to Mickie’s forehand that were too high. She angled all three off the court for winners, out of my reach. I need to get these drops back up to snuff.

Eric left to go cook—it is Thanksgiving after all—but Mickie and her parents stayed. Mickie was drilling with Janet. I stuck around another 10 minutes or so and gave some pointers and explained to them Terry Long‘s “work up to the net” drill. I explained to Janet that she was moving through her drop shots and also not moving up after the shot.
Mickie complimented, “You are a really good coach.” Nice to hear!

Play ended 12:25 and I left at 12:40.

When I got home, showered, got ready to head to a big thanksgiving family gathering at my cousin’s restaurant in Monterey. I’d be wearing a Black Ice pack on my wrist while driving. An annoying injury!

Number of days on a court: 562
Number of total hours: 2,524.5

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