Thursday, May 30, 2024 (Court Day #668)

I had volunteered weeks ago to assist with the “advanced” training session for SCPC members. Shawnte would be the lead instructor. Today was the day that it finally rolled around. And it was a good day for it—sunny and pleasant. As it turned out, this was an “intermediate-advanced” session.

I changed at work then arrived at Derby Park at 3:35 p.m. When I pushed myself out of the car with my right leg, my knee complained. It has been bothering me a bit more than the last week, but that push particularly hurt.

When I walked in the gate, there were a couple young women hitting a ball back and forth on a court. Nearby, a man was lying down on the aluminum bench, his face obscured by a broad-brimmed hat.
“John?”
Yes, it was John Pacholski—my one-time tournament partner and instrumental in me trying pickleball for the first time about 7 1/2 years ago. Puzzled, I told him, “I was expecting to see Shawnte here.”
”Why?”
”Well, it starts at 4, right?”
”4:30.”
”Ahhh…..”

I don’t know why I had 4 p.m. in my head, though that was probably my planned arrival time, not the clinic start time. Obviously, I should have double-checked the time during the intervening weeks!

A Game

Since we were very early, John suggested we play skinny singles. Eric Schmidt and John had played a ton of skinny singles during the pandemic. Playing sounded good to me. We did a combination of cross-court (even score) and straight ahead (odd score). Soon, I was up 4-1. I went on to win 11-1. We finished that game at 4 p.m. Between the skinny singles game and warming up a couple of players shortly after, I figure I got in about half an hour of court/play time.

Clinic

So, the 90-minute training session was scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. Shawnte gave an extra 10 minutes to allow for people running late. Barbara Gerry said there were 17 registered, but when we started, we only had 15.

Before we started, Shawnte gave the four assistants—of which I was one—a very quick overview of what he had planned: warm-up, topspin dinks, ATPs, and stacking. The assistants would be me, Dan Bliss, John Pacholski, and Larry Yien.

Introductions

After we gave plenty of time for students to arrive, Shawnte started introductions, introducing himself, then he gave time for me, Dan, John, and Larry to introduce ourselves. We didn’t take the time for 15 student introductions, and I knew almost all of the students already . . . though there were one or two that I didn’t know.

Warm Up & Sorting

Shawnte asked every student go to a random court which he numbered 1 though 4. He looked around and immediately changed the court numbers so the stronger players would be on courts numbered 1 and 2. Each court had two simultaneous games of skinny singles which was played for about five minutes. After five minutes, the winner would move up half a court and the loser moved down half a court. We did this about four times to sort players so they would be of similar skill level on a given court.

A 16th student, a woman I didn’t know, showed up 15-20 minutes late. Larry then could assume his role as an assistant instead of acting as a student to fill a court.

I ended up instructing on the #1 court with the strongest players. John P. had the next court. Dan covered court #3, and Larry covered court #4.

Drilling Dinks

The first skill activity, we drilled topspin crosscourt dinks. One diagonal pair worked on forehands while the other pair worked on backhands. Then they switched.

Long Time No See

Midway through the session, Tristan showed up with three buddies to play. They settled in on one of the two courts we weren’t using for the clinic. I hadn’t seen Tristan in a long time. He looks like a full adult! I asked him, “What are you now 18? 19?“ He smiled and replied, “20!”

ATPs

Shawnte came to me partway through the session and wanted my opinion if we should cover ATP or stacking, since we didn’t have time for both. I told him ATPs and that’s what we did.

We ran an ATP drill. The ATP drill required the full court. There is the feeder who is trying to hit the ball wide enough for the diagonally opposite player to attempt an ATP, to the defender who would hope to return it to the fourth player. We rotated through backhand ATPs first giving each player a chance to do it, and then we switched and had the players do forehand ATP attempts.

Me instructing Eugene on the finer points of ATP court positioning and preparation.
(And yes, that’s a paddle in the back of my shorts!)

Validation

There was one nice moment, where there was an ATP, an ATP return, then the shot by Eugene, who is properly position and covering the middle and hit a winner. Shawnte complemented Eugene on the shot and Eugene told Shawnte, “Andrew taught me that!“ Validation and success for a student! 

When time ran out, Barbara Gerry gathered everyone for a group photo.

The group. I’m at the lower right, bumping elbows with Shawnte.

Post-Clinic Games

After the session broke up at 6 p.m., some of us wanted to stick around and play some games. (John P. was funny. He smiled and shared, “I’m going to go lick my wounds from skinny singles!”)

Jax and I played a couple of close games against Paulie and Larry.

Then Julianne and I played against Jax and Paulie. I believe we won 11-9 after being down 8-3. But maybe that was a different combination of players. (It’s been a long day!)

I played a game with Misa against Paulie and a fellow named Adam whom I may have seen around before but I don’t really know. It was a very close game. I think we end up winning 14-12. It kept going back-and-forth.

I was missing an unusual number of serves during this session. I missed maybe half a dozen. It was odd.

By 7:06 p.m., I was in the car and on my way to Skypark in Scotts Valley to play more.

Skypark

As I was walking in on the path from the remote parking lot, I was already tired. Maybe it was a lack of sleep. Dunno.

Paddle Reunited

Kiki and I finally connected up and I was able to return her paddle tonight that I found last week. She said it’s not an expensive paddle, she bought it from Jon Barlow for $50. She said Jon has a factory in China knocking off some name brand paddle . . . China is the wild west when it comes to things like that. She remembered me from a few years ago while she and her now ex-boyfriend were playing Sundays at Derby. As much as I try to remember everyone, I honestly, just can’t remember everyone I meet on a court, as much as I try!

Games

Jax and I played a game against David L. (of David and Minori) and Spencer. We got our clocks cleaned, losing 6-11. But we won the rematch 11-2. That felt better!

Tonight was a really fun enjoyable evening. The crowd is a little bit lighter, although they did eventually bring out the white dry-erase board to organize those waiting, but the waits were not very long.

The only game was not as much fun/balace, was the game where I was partnered with the new guy, Jason. Jason did ask me advance if I’d be willing to play with him since he’s a newbie. Of course, I said I would. We teamed up against Tim Fekeirt and a man named Daniel, who is tall and I never met before. I asked Tim about Daniel’s skills . . . part of the pre-game ritual to try and balance teams. Tim said Daniel is new and not very good. Tim, of course, is a very strong player. And . . . it turned out that Daniel is pretty good too. Daniel hit some strong shots and was a steady player, and after Daniel hit a winner, I walked up to the net and—with a big smile—pointed out to Tim, “I thought you said Daniel wasn’t very good!” Tim laughed. He knew that he’d been kidding with me. Jason had more of a soft game than many beginners, but he has a ways ago with that yet. He also has a strong tendency to stay back at the baseline. But Jason is definitely a good rough blank. Lots of potential there.

Last Game

The last game of the night was Rachel and myself against Ofer and big Mike. Initially, the game was close and back-and-forth and then Rachael and I pulled out ahead and won 11-6. I was playing quite well at that point. We squeezed it in just before the lights clicked off shortly after 9:30 p.m.

I got nearly all of my serves in at Skypark, however, I hit at least half a dozen shots into the white tape of the net. That was a bit frustrating, but overall, I was happy with my play tonight.

Saturday, June 1, 2024 (No Play)

I can’t recall if I shared this, but this video popped up during the past week, mocking pickleball:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6L9Wy9u6yz/

Tennis Pro Playing Pickleball

Nick Kyrgios, famous bad-boy pro tennis player, talked some months back about eventually playing pickleball after retiring from tennis. Well, here he is in some recreational setting, playing:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7jrGhhA5vO/
And I’ll note, he switched to his left hand to take a shot. Nice. I’m not the only one!

Sunday, June 2, 2024 (No Play)

I’ve had all kinds of extended family stuff going on this weekend and no teaching this afternoon. Val Rathbone was available to open Derby for me today. It’s probably good. My right wrist is bothering me and my right knee continues to ache more than normal.

Number of days on a court: 668
Number of total hours: 2,843
Number of paid coaching hours: 37.5

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