Tuesday, March 12, 2024 (Court Day #635)

With the time change two days ago, as I drove to Skypark at 6:45 p.m., it was still sunny. The sun was on its way to setting, and you couldn’t see the sun through the trees, but it was still light. As I left work, my car thermometer read 63°F, but by the time I got to Scotts Valley it was reading 57°. The equinox is in about a week and a half and then we’ll leave winter behind and head into spring. With it being lighter later, it’ll start to warm up a little bit. Parking will probably become more and more of a problem at Skypark as the weather gets better.

As luck would have it, a car pulled out of the parking lot just in time for me to take that spot . . . leaving the car that was following me with no option but the park out in the neighborhood somewhere.

Shortly before 7 p.m., I walked onto the courts. 

No tennis players and about-to-be-overly-full pickleball courts.

The two tennis courts were empty and there were maybe half a dozen players waiting to get into pickleball games. Tim, Casey‘s dad, was setting up a net. And it wasn’t too long before all the courts were full and people waiting to get on.

Over the course of the session, there were a few games that were very “disposable”, but most were good games. I spent a good chunk of the evening frustrated and disappointed in my play. Everything was a little bit off. But I only had three or four drop shots into the net and if I missed any of my serves, it was only one or two. I only hit the net tape once. I did have one leaping poach towards the end of the evening where I hit the ball out past the baseline and lost the rally.

As the evening wrapped up, I felt a little bit better about my play. I headed home with the sense that I seem to be heading in the right direction. There wasn’t a massive improvement in play, though I was playing slightly better than I have been recently. I will emphasize the word slightly”.

The lights clicked off shortly after 9:30 p.m. and that was that.

Number of days on a court: 635
Number of total hours: 2,747.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 21.5

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