Month: March 2023 (Page 1 of 3)

Monday, March 27, 2023. (Court Day #587)

This morning, René invited me to come play at Skypark tonight. She said she would be bringing a friend from San Jose who is learning how to play pickleball. She also said there would be a match for our league team tonight with Matt Babb and Evan playing against Nolan and Jim (father of SCALPEL league organizer Conner).

When I arrived all the parking spots in the lot were full, so I parked off the pavement between a rock in a tree. All the permanent courts were full and a temporary net was set up also.

René called me over and she and Avery were sitting on the bench watching the league match featuring two players from our team. I stood next to René and also watched. René told me that our team and won the first game but they now were down in the second game. We watched Matt and Evan play their way back into the game and win the second game and therefore also the match, given it’s “best of three”.

Playing

I rotated into some games playing with Evan and Jim and René as partners. After a few games, Nolan and Evan left for the night and René’s friend Sam came over and played with her against Jim and me. I played that game left-handed, it was good practice for me.

One More!

I gathered all my things and was heading out when Mike asked if I wanted to join him, his son, Colin, and Nicole in a game. That’s pickleball for you. Always one more game!

Colin and I teamed up against Mike and Nicole. They won the first game, Colin and I won the second game And then we played in one final game., it was easy to tell that Colin was not into the game. We lost that final game and it was time to call it a night at 9:20 p.m.

Level of Play

I need help. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know if it’s the wrist brace, or something else, but I’m not playing all that well. It’s frustrating. I guess I just keep plowing ahead in and hope for improvement. It’s so frustrating. No doubt, part of it is simply not being able to play and drill as much as I need to with nursing a bum knee and bum hand/wrist.

Wednesday, March 29, 2023 (No Play)

I stumbled across this amusing Instagram reel (some adult language):
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpMDVvqDpKq/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

It’s not a surprise that even a couple of pro soccers players would have very hard time against two dedicated senior citizen pickleball players!

Number of days on a court: 587
Number of total hours: 2,596.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 2

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

Sunday, March 26, 2023. (Court Day #586)

My sister-in-law texted my wife this morning and shared a featured article that appeared in the San Jose Mercury today. A pickleball advocate up in the Bay Area made it into the Alameda County “Hall of Fame.” Fun.

Here’s the article…

Play

It was very sunny this morning but it was in the low 40s when I left my house. Later, it climbed to perfect pickleball temperatures just under 60°. It was an absolutely beautiful day though it did get to be very windy by midday.

I got Derby Park early to set up. Barb G. and another player were already there. They helped set up.

The back of my right hand is still not feeling the best—especially with only one day of rest—so I played my first few games, left-handed. The additional intent was to make the games more balanced given the mix of average players.

Advanced Play

When 10 o’clock rolled around and I signed up in Advanced game, I switched to playing right handed. On came my forearm strap and wrist brace. (In addition to my right knee brace.) Playing right-handed doesn’t hurt except for hitting shots backhanded which were between somewhat painful to quite painful.

Today, I was playing poorly. I think drop shots into the net swimming, eyeballs into the net, being out of position on the court, just overall not playing the way I should be playing. (Hmmm. I think speech-to-text while in the car messed up that last sentence. You can use your imagination.) That’s been the case for the past week. I just haven’t really been playing very well. No doubt a a result of not getting to play with the rain but also taking a break and giving time for my hand to rest. It was embarrassing at times.

Later on, I got into some good games with Avery, Eric, Charles, and some others. It was 2:15 by the time I got into my car to head home.

Injuries

I’ve really got to give my hand a rest. And my right knee continues to act up. At the end of February, the PT doctor referred me back to the orthopedic surgeon for my knee. I’ve been biding my time hoping that it’ll just heal up—or get worse so surgery is no question. So far, it’s just nagging.

Number of days on a court: 586
Number of total hours: 2,594
Number of paid coaching hours: 2

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

Saturday, March 25, 2023. (Court Day #585)

Today was the day of the league match between myself and René against Jason Brown and Gary. It’s been five days since I last played—I’ve been trying to heal. We had arranged for the match to be at 9 o’clock. René was originally talking about us arriving at 8 a.m. to warm up, however yesterday she suggested 8:30 instead. That was fine by me since I’m not really a morning person. As it was, I had a last-minute work staffing issue to deal with which delayed me about 10 minutes. When I told René, I’d be there 8:40 a.m., she said she was running late as well.

Things were already hopping in Brommer Park when I got there. I saw René at a court getting ready to warm up. With my right hand hurting, she suggested that I play left-handed. So I warmed up playing lefty until I got annoyed with it and opted to try playing right handed, which, of course was more accurate and more powerful. The back of my right hand only hurt when I was hitting backhands. Forehands had a little, if any, pain.

We are playing a couple of warm up games against Kent, who said he had only played four times in the last 3 1/2 months due to injury, and there is another player I didn’t know—I think his name is Gary—he’s probably a 3.0 player. René and I played three games against them. We won the first two games 11-0 and then won the third game in a lopsided fashion as well, although they scored some points.

League Match

René was complaining about not being warmed up enough. It’s true, we hadn’t warmed up against a strong team.

We lost the first match game 11-5 or something. And we never completed the second game. René was feeling overwhelmed with some family issues and couldn’t finish up our match. Alas.

Tim F. and I played a game against Kent and Jason. It was a somewhat close game, but Tim and I won. Tim has been playing very well lately. He’s very consistent. The back of my hand was starting to ache. It was time to go.

I left at 10:20 a.m. Home, then to work.

Number of days on a court: 585
Number of total hours: 2,589
Number of paid coaching hours: 2

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