Sunday, March 17, 2024 (Court Day #638)

I arrived at Derby Park at 8:45 a.m. The sky was mostly clear, but there was a large bank of ominous clouds floating nearby over the ocean. Fortunately, those would burn off and it turned into a gorgeous sunny day.

Bruce

Today, I got games that were more challenging than Sunday last week. There’s a tall guy named Bruce. I’d only previously seen him at Brommer Park, but this morning, he came to Derby Park. Bruce is a good player with a long reach and is a blast to play against. I was able to play 2-3 games against him. Fun stuff. I think think the feeling is mutual. When I added my name below his in the sign up box, I heard an audible sound of approval from him nearby. Unfortunately, one of our group was a 3.0 signing up as an advanced player. Oh, well. It lead to a lopsided game.

Cimeron, John, J.J.

Cimeron and her husband John were there too. My last game was with her against John and J.J. Cimeron and I won that game 11-9. John and J.J. are primarily bangers.

In that last game, Cimeron was to my right and hit a crosscourt dink that went wide enough that J.J. was able to hit an ATP. The good news is that I anticipated his shot and was able to get my paddle on the ball but the ball ended up in the net. My cohorts on the court seemed pretty impressed regardless that I had almost successfully defended J.J.’s shot.

About five minutes later, a similar thing happened but this time John was the one going for the ATP to my backhand. He hit his low ATP and this time I was able to get the ball back over the net. Unfortunately, my return of the ATP was pretty high, and J.J. was able to do an overhead slam at my feet, which I was unable to return. Still, to be able to return a low and wide ATP as a backhand . . . there has to be some satisfaction in that. Cimeron was funny, “I’m tempted to do more of those to see what you can do with them!”

After the game, Cimeron gave me a compliment, “Your soft game is so consistent.” 

And?

I feel my play is continuing to strengthen and get better. I have been able to play four times in five days and that helps a lot.

I left Derby Park at 11:50 a.m. Ted closed for me so that I could go home and have lunch before heading to Willowbrook to teach this afternoon at 1:30 p.m.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, it was St. Patrick’s Day today. There was an atypical amount of green worn by people on the courts today!

Number of days on a court: 638
Number of total hours: 2,755.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 23

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