Friday, February 16, 2024 (Court Day #626)
Over the course of this week, I’ve been arranging a private group to play at Derby. Monday is Presidents Day so some people are also off from work today such as Jason, Charles, and also my wife. It took a bit of doing since a lot of people already had plans, including other set groups. Later on yesterday, Jason said that Sean was able to play and join us at 8:45 a.m.
Skypark. Nope.
My plan was to play at Skypark last night after work. In fact, I was actually dressed and in my car on the highway heading there directly after work when I got a text from my wife saying that she was throwing up and that I needed to come home and take care of the dogs for her. I took the next freeway overpass, turned around, and headed home. Last night, I slept in a separate room… I didn’t want to catch whatever she had!
Nearly Dead Phone
But when I woke up this morning, I discovered that my phone had not charged. When I turned off the light switch—in what had been my son’s room—it also turned off the outlet that my phone was plugged into. Oops. I had to track down a portable battery or work wouldn’t be able to reach me before too long. (As the boss, I need to be reachable!)
Derby Park
It was overcast, 57°F, and an oddly muggy winter morning. After the battery hunt, I was about five minutes late. I didn’t feel too bad, Sean was just parking ahead of me when I got to Derby Park. Charles and Jason are already on the courts. Jason was in a game with someone and the game wrapped up the immediately when we arrived. Maybe Jason told them that he could only play until we got there. Dunno.
Jason had said yesterday he was expecting us to get our butts kicked against Charles and Sean. (Hey! We did want tough competition to prep for the tournament!) To cap off our choice of opponents, due to COVID and tweaking my back, this was my first time playing in a full three weeks. (Remember, no “warm up” play last night as I’d originally planned!)
Games
In the first game, Jason and I were leading 7-1, but ended up losing 9-11.
We played again and lost 6-11.
The courts had filled up and people were waiting to play. Matt Smith (the retired firefighter) was there—he came over and said “hi” to me, I hadn’t seen him in months—and Matt announced the suggestion that everyone shift courts and come off after games were done. (Like organized club play.) Jason wasn’t too keen about this, but our group abided by the suggestion along with everyone else. The waits were fairly short, thankfully. While off, I asked Sean about if he had tennis background. He said he was on the tennis team at Santa Cruz High School and helped teach at Bob Hansen’s summer tennis camps held on the UCSC campus years ago. Ah! That’s why he caught on to pickleball so relatively quickly.
In the third game, Jason and I were up 6-3, but lost 6-11. Yes, they went on an 8 point run. Sad.
And the next one was even more of a disaster with us losing 1-11. The script flipped. Jason was the stronger player of the two of us initially, but in this game Jason was not playing his best and I was the one playing stronger more consistently.
A consolation was 4-5 of my serves weren’t returned by my opponents. That said, I had a couple serves by my opponents that I messed up the returns. Typically, those are low to my backhand.
Mixing It Up
For the next game, it was decided to mix things up and I played with Sean. Sean and I won that game 11-3.
We switched up again and Sean played with Jason and I played with Charles. Charles made uncharacteristic series of errors and we lost that game. (Heck, I make errors all the time, but Charles is usually pretty reliable, but not in this game—which he even admitted later.)
And it turned out that Jason and I did lose every single game. But it was great! There were some amazing rallies with ATP resets, dink battles, speed-ups with more resets . . . the rallies were great. Super fun games.
Jason had to leave by 11:30 a.m. and indeed left shortly before that. Sean left at the same time.
Extra Innings
Charles and I went on to play a game with Dan, the Mission Hill Junior High School teacher against Allen and Charles. Dan and I won that first game.
The second game was closer. It went to 11-11 and someone eventually won, but honestly, I can’t remember if we won or lost that game—regardless, it was pretty evenly matched.
My last game of the day was playing with Mark G. against Ted B. and Dan. I expecting us to win that game but we didn’t. I was a bit distracted, and Mark wasn’t playing nearly as well as he did in the game right before that when he and Dan had beaten Ted and myself.
Catch
One thing that bugged me—and don’t get me wrong, I really like Dan—but I hit a shot near the right sideline and as the ball was dropping, Dan grabbed it out of the air about shoulder height. I was thinking the ball might have landed in. It was close enough that I was very surprised. I’ve been playing over seven years and never had someone to that. Dan must have seen my face since he looked at me, pointed and nodded indicating that it would have landed out. It’s one thing in rec play if a ball is obviously a good foot or more out, but if it’s inches, let it bounce! (If it’s a tournament, never catch a live ball!)
My back was fatigued and tight by those last few games. But it wasn’t inhibiting my play much. It was much more of an ache than anything resembling a sharp pain.
I left Derby at 12:30 p.m. with half the courts still busy.
Brommer
I told René that I would head to Brommer Park to play with her since we have that tournament a week from tomorrow. I texted her at 12:37 p.m. telling her that I would be there about 1 p.m. . . . and low and behold, I pulled into the lot at 1:02 p.m. There were a few free parking spots.
When I arrived, René was in a game with Caty and a guy named Mark who was visiting from Oakland. Their fourth was a guy I never seen before with long curly red hair. They finished that game but she asked me if I’d mind if she went and played another one with that group and I told her it was fine. I ate the snack bar that I grabbed this morning and washed it down with some of my remaining water.
First Game
My first game was with Lisa, the petite older British woman, against Hugh and John, who normally plays in Scotts Valley. I played decently in that game but we lost.
The Real Stuff
After the game against Hugh and John, I got into a game with René against Mark (from Oakland) and Caty. I’d played with Caty once before. Mark was new to me. I started playing really, really well. René and I were ahead but our opponents came back and won the game.
We went on to play a more games against Mark and Caty. We lost all of them—mostly on me—but it was fun. Long rallies, speed-ups, resets, ATPs. Fun.
Mark made several comments about how I had “fast hands” after some net rallies.
My play got worse and worse over the two hours I played, my back continued to be sore and tight and I just wasn’t playing that great.
Normally, I would be depressed given the deterioration of my play at the end of the two sessions today but I haven’t played pickleball in three weeks. Plus my back is not 100% after pulling it two weeks ago.
I noticed midway through the morning session at Derby Park, but I was having trouble when I took a particularly deep breath. I wonder if this is a consequence of having COVID three weeks ago.
I left the Brommer Park at 3 o’clock, went home, ate, and made a brief appearance at work.
Jennifer Watson asked if I was coaching and I said “yes” and she asked what level I was teaching and I said I was teaching beginners classes. She asked me to contact her and left her card in my backpack.
Boy. I am sore from my 5 1/2 hours of pickleball yesterday. My back is sore, my right glute is sore, my legs are sore and strangely, the muscle above the interior bone on the top of my right forearm is sore. Maybe that’s because yesterday was my first extended session for years without wearing the BAND-IT tennis elbow strap. I did wear my right wrist support and that seems to be working. My wrist feels pretty good.
Mixed Doubles
After talking to René, I decided to cancel my mixed doubles event with her next weekend. With how sore I am today after playing yesterday, my back still not 100%, the rain and lack of time playing together, I can’t imagine that I’d be 100%. I’m sure René was relieved.
Ball Machines
Larry has a ball machine. Shawnté has a ball machine. I’ve been thinking about one for a while. But they aren’t cheap. Most are over $1,000. One recently came out that really impresses me. The Titan ball machine. The problem is that it’s $2,200. Ouch. It’s hard for me to justify that. I guess I’m not the only one who is impressed, even with that price tag, it’s sold out and not available for the next two months.
Over the weekend, I emailed PBAW, the makers of the pickleball backpack my wife and daughter had gifted me for Christmas. I had noticed about a week ago that one of the seams had ripped through. It’s not like I carry a bunch of bricks in it.
Anna, from PBAW, got back to me today, the first day after the holiday, and said they aren’t happy either about me experiencing that problem and said they would swap out my defective bag for a new one. I just need to send the old one back once the new one arrives so they can review it and see what went wrong and how they can improve their product. I told her I’d be happy with that arrangement.
Afternoon Group
Conner M. added me to a WhatsApp group for “late risers” for organized play. He mentioned something about an early group, so I texted him separately about that. He said there’s a group that meets at Brommer at 6:45 a.m. Honestly, it’s harder for me to get away from work in the afternoons. While I don’t naturally get up early, mornings work better for me.
Tourney Prep
I texted Jason tonight to see if we could get some play in before the tournament on Saturday. We ended up settling on drilling at Skypark at 3:30 p.m.
Wednesday, February 21, 2024 (No Play)
I took the rules test again and got an even lower score, 82%. There was one question that I took issue with. I emailed the association test admin this:
“Question #71.
‘If the referee is uncertain whether a server has violated any of the 3 components for a legal volley serve, the referee should immediately stop play and order a re-serve.‘
I said false. The test says it’s true. However, the rules say ‘may’, not ‘should’
I believe this is an error.”
We’ll see what I get back from them, if anything.
Funny!
This reel came up, it’s a clever parody of Kenny Roger’s classic song, “The Gambler”, but this one is called “The Pickler”!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3I8mdePjH5/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D
Backpack
I got a notice that the replacement backpack went out today. That’s quick service from PBAW! One day after our email conversation.
Number of days on a court: 626
Number of total hours: 2,726
Number of paid coaching hours: 15.5
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