Thursday, June 15, 2023 (No Play)

This morning was my first PT appointment for my knee. My physical therapist, Jae—pronounced “J”—was new to the practice and has taken over Casey F.’s old office. When I mentioned pickleball, Jae got a little excited. It turns out that he’d discovered the game and recently moved to the area.

What I hadn’t noticed with my knee is that when I lock my leg out straight, there are two protruding lumps where the incisions were made and surgical tools inserted into my knee. Those bumps are barely noticeable when my knee is bent.

The encouraging thing Jae said was “I think we’ll have you back out on the courts in about four weeks.” I hope! It’d be nice to not miss the whole summer.

Jae ran me through some exercises and told me to do them every day.

A Sandwich?

I forgot to mention that Subway recently added a new sandwich to their menu . . . the “Pickleball Club”! The funny thing is that this happened back in March and I didn’t hear about it until about a month ago:
https://newsroom.subway.com/Subway-and-Andy-Roddick-Preview-New-Pickleball-Club-Sandwich-at-the-High-Stakes-and-Star-Studded-Pickleball-Slam

The Onion

Someone told me that satirical website The Onion had a pickleball article and sure enough:
“Things To Never Say To Someone Who Loves Pickleball”
https://www.theonion.com/things-to-never-say-to-someone-who-loves-pickleball-1850540860

This one was hilarious:
“Pickleball players are taking away all the tennis courts from people who need them for gang recruitment.”
Yeah, there are a few barely-used tennis courts around!

Sunday, June 18, 2023 (No Play)

Instead of troubleshooting my home VOIP phone system—which I forgot needs work—I took USA Pickleball’s Player Test. I figured I’m pretty good with rules…

. . . but boy, there were a few obscure questions . . . like, how much time in a refereed match do you have in this particular situation? I was—well—bummed with my score. I’ll admit I missed a new rule change for this year about clothing. And I answered a couple wrong just because I was going too fast, but still it was a sorry situation. I took it again.

I did better the second time—yes, some questions were repeated—but even reading one of the questions wrong, I got 45 out of 50. I feel better now.

It’s good to take the test and get a better understanding of all the rules, not just the common everyday ones.

Monday, June 19, 2023 (No Play)

My daughter Charlotte and her boyfriend Aidan arranged and purchased tickets to take me and Aidan’s dad to an evening San Francisco Giants game.

The Giants were behind against the Padres until the bottom of the 9th when they tied it up 4-4. Then in bottom of the 10th the Giants hit a home run over the wall and into the water—the 102nd “splash” HR—for a walkoff win, 7-4. Great game!

Wednesday, June 21, 2023 (No Play)

It still hurts to walk a little bit, but standing still has gotten fairly comfortable. While lying down, when I try to move my heel toward my butt, I can tell that my knee is still somewhat swollen as I can’t quite get the range of my left leg. In two days, it’ll have been three weeks since my meniscus surgery. It’s getting to the point where I’d almost consider playing, but I’m going to be good and wait until the swelling is gone and all the pain is gone.

Sunday, July 2, 2023 (No Play)

Pam, who along with others, has been helping open Derby Park on Sundays for me while I recover, texted me this morning saying that there were FOUR—not two—rolling nets at Derby this morning. I didn’t have any explanation for her, I can only guess that the City of Santa Cruz decided that two permanent rolling nets was not enough and bought another two. Pretty nifty, if that’s the case.

Thursday, July 6, 2023 (No Play)

I had PT yesterday. My right knee continuing to make progress, though certain motions are still causing pain. Sharp pains will briefly flare up then go away. Aching will less briefly flare up then go away. While the desire to go play is getting stronger—I dreamed about playing earlier this week—I’m being patient.

Oh, at PT, I got my PT doctor’s personal email address. I goal is to connect up with Jae for some pickleball in Scotts Valley. He said he might bring his fiance along too. I don’t think he mentioned her name, now that I think about it.

Crossword Puzzle

Oh, and Mark Renneson of Third Shot Sports sent out a pickleball-themed crossword puzzle. You can find it here:
https://mcusercontent.com/afb81fa7a8532b469f580295e/images/64a6dcaf-5616-b95b-4c69-9921c9a0aa97.png

Saturday, July 8, 2023 (No Play)

So, there’s a ploy that is legal but supremely underhanded. Here’s how it goes:
– The server calls the score;
– The server stops, turns to the partner and says just loud enough to be heard across the net, “Does this look cracked to you?”;
– The server then hits the ball leisurely over the net to the receiver for inspection.
– When the receiver catches the ball, or allows it to bounce twice, the server then calls a fault . . . accurately.

But I believe this should be against the rules. It’s deceitful and poor sportsmanship. (One person online even commented, “It sounds like a cheater.”) It’s intentionally misleading an opponent in a way that’s outside of normal play and expectations.

I consulted a few referees this week and there was disagreement over whether this “trick play” should result in a point or instead result in a replay in an officiated match.

In rec play, among friends . . . ok, maybe. But in a more serious game, I’d be irked out the gills if a server pulled this stunt on me.

Suggested changes to the 2023 rulebook are closed—they closed in May—but I’m maybe thinking about submitting it for next year.

Thursday, July 13, 2023 (No Play)

Yesterday, I had physical therapy again, and the PT doctor gave me a new exercise to work on which involves strengthening my glutes, but also requires more core strength. I have some work to do! The doctor left me with an assistant, who gave me or lead me in a couple of exercises, one of which cause my knee to hurt. Because the receptionist wasn’t there, the assistant walked to the desk to take care of someone and he never came back. With my knee hurting and no guidance, I called it a day and left.

When I drive, moving my foot from the gas pedal to the brake pedal causes some pain in my knee. It’ll be six weeks since surgery as of tomorrow.

Sunday, July 16, 2023 (No Play)

Another article on pickleball injuries. This one was shared in the USA Pickleball Ambassadors’s Facebook group:
https://katiecouric.com/culture/sports/pickleball-injuries-safety/

That article immediately above also links to this pickleball warmup routine:
https://katiecouric.com/video/video/best-pickleball-stretches/

Number of days on a court: 601
Number of total hours: 2,646
Number of paid coaching hours: 2

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