Sunday, June 16, 2024 (Court Day #675)
As I drove to open up Derby park, I knew it was going to be a warm one. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was already 61°F.
Not that I was particularly concerned, but I knew that in the afternoon for my two classes at Skypark, it was going to be rather toasty.
Elbow
Tennis elbow does seem to be making a comeback. That’s unfortunate, I really like this new Gen 3 Gearbox Pro paddle, but it doesn’t seem to be agreeing with my arm.
Sighting
As I was driving down Swift Street, I noticed a man riding a bike with a large afro. Sure enough, that was Brandon, the post-doctoral student who comes to play frequently. He was at Brommer Park playing yesterday morning too.
Games
I had an assortment of games, most were not particularly notable.
Ted and I played against Brandon and Rick Arnold. They targeted Ted mercilessly, especially Rick. We lost 5-11.
Lou
Dan Dewey introduced me to his friend Lou. Dan said the two of them played a lot of tennis with just each other during the height of the pandemic. (Much like Eric Schmidt and John P., who played skinny singles only with themselves during the same time.) Lou and I played against Dan and Brandon. We lost 6-11. For whatever reason, my drop shots were being unusually unreliable today.
The last game of the day was Adrian and myself against Brandon and lefty “linebacker” Aaron. We won 12-10. That was a good game. There was one dink battle where I was dinking backhand to Aaron’s forehand crosscourt. Back and forth, I pushed, push, then there was an opening between Brandon and Aaron. I drove the ball off the bounce between them—winner. Adrian chimed in, “That was textbook.”
I left at 12:03 p.m., I had lunch to eat and classes to teach starting at 1:30 p.m.
Classes
Today was the second meeting of my two back-to-back classes at Skypark.
Lindsay of Rec.us had requested photos of my classes either today or before my 4-week classes ended. So I asked one of my beginner students, before she left, to take some photos of my second class, the Advanced Beginner class. Here are a few…
Monday, June 17, 2024 (No Play)
Ben Johns made an appearance on the front page of The Washington Times over the weekend. Pickleball is getting more and more mainstream:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/06/14/ben-johns-pickleball-superstar
Oh, and here’s an article on Ben Johns from 2019, I stumbled upon while searching for the one above:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/he-picked-up-pickleball-a-few-years-ago-now-he-is-the-national-champion/2019/12/19/9c833572-16c2-11ea-8406-df3c54b3253e_story.html
Vegas
Tomorrow, I fly to Las Vegas for a trade show. I’m hoping to get in some play there. I’ll definitely be bringing at least some minimal gear with me . . . one paddle, SCPC cap, court shoes, socks, shorts, one of my SCPC shirts, forearm strap.
Number of days on a court: 675
Number of total hours: 2,860.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 43.5
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