Sunday, June 30, 2024 (Court Day #680)

At 8:40 a.m., I was on my way to Derby Park to open up the courts. My house, which is at a higher elevation, was sunny, however, as I drove down to Derby Park, I drove into a fog bank. But my car thermometer read 59°F. Generally, if it’s anything close to about 60°F, it ends up being a pretty warm day.

Erin, the daughter of some close friends, graduated from UCLA recently and her parents were throwing a party to celebrate today from noon until 4 p.m. With me teaching two classes in Scotts Valley this afternoon starting at 1:30 p.m., if I left Derby Park at noon there will be no way I can make an appearance at the party so I arranged for Rick Abend to take over as site coordinator mid-session to close up for me so I could leave early.

Games

There’s a young woman named Janaye, who is from Seattle but staying in Capitola the next two months, who was here playing. I teamed up with her against Allan Klass and another fellow who I don’t know. Janaye is very athletic and makes great contact with the ball. She obviously has a tennis background since she drives nearly every shot and stays back at the baseline unless the ball is short and forces her to come forward to get it. She’ll figure out pickleball with time.

The clouds burned off and the sun came up out sun came out midmorning, bringing the temperature up to 68°F. Pretty pleasant, really, for pickleball weather, although I prefer a little bit cooler . . . and with clouds, ideally.

Skill Creep

After about a 6-month absence, Adrian was there today and he pointed out the nearly everyone was signing up in red, the “advanced” level. I told Adrian and Barb G. that I was tempted to remove the red Advanced pen and just leave the black and green pens for 3.0 and lower. Red is supposed to be 3.5 rating or higher but almost all of the players signing up in red are 3.0 or lower.

There were no games in my two hours of play that had all four players of 3.5 or higher. And the thing about frequently playing with weaker players is you tend to get sloppy and lazy. I don’t mind now and then—it’s “paying it forward”—but doing it a lot makes you get comfortable with strategies which will not work against stronger players.

Party

I left just after 11 a.m. to head home, prepare for teaching, then drive out to the party in Aptos to the party. It turns out the husband Richard told people a 1 p.m. start and the wife Laurie was telling people a 12 p.m. start! At about 12:10 p.m., I was the first one there. I help set up and Richard barbequed a sausage for me. At 12:55 p.m., I launched into Highway 1 North traffic to get to Scotts Valley.

Teaching

Today was the last day of the 4-week classes. The first class (Beginners) was uneventful and the second was too . . . until about 20 minutes before the Advanced Beginner class was done, Katie unfortunately tweaked her right leg during an instructional game and was hobbling. She sat out the rest of the class, so I jumped in and played a few rallies with Lindsay against the two tall guys, Todd and Glenn. During one rally Glenn had a great lob to our baseline, I ran back and hit the ball back over the net. Once the rally was done, Lindsey complimented my speed. “You spend a lot of time just standing around coaching, but you can move!”

My Advanced Beginner class went until 4:37 p.m. . . . I let them run long to finish up games.

After that, I did a final class wrap-up said my goodbyes and I spoke individually to a couple of people who came up to me after. Lindsay, who is a PA for a living, said that she’d be happy to talk to my daughter Charlotte anytime, if it could help her with her medical school studies . . . but Lindsay figures that Charlotte is “already way past” her.

It’s always bittersweet when classes end. You get to know people and some you may rarely see or even never see again.

Bonus Games!

As I was packed up and getting ready to go, there are three young guys asking if I wanted to join their game. I texted to see if my wife was still at the party, which she was, though she was leaving soon. There was no point rushing out to Aptos to get to a party that’s breaking up. I agreed to play.

There is Jonathan—who plays now and then at Skypark on Tuesday and Thursday nights—and he had a couple of friends there, Cody and David. I put the three of them at about 30-years-old. Cody is tall, has brown hair and sports a matching full beard. David is a taller, slender African-American man. He can really rip his serves. Cody is quick, getting to a ball that’s hit very short even when he’s starting at the baseline.

One of my Advanced Beginner students, Glenn, was sitting on the bench nearby watching. You always want to do well when your student is watching! He chimed in before I started, “They are really good players.” He’d been watching them.

Cody and I teamed up against David and Jonathan and lost a very close game. I played well, but made a few mistakes . . . it was my first game, after all. After they hit a winner, I caught Glenn’s eye and said, “That was on me. That was a positioning error, I should have been half a step to the right to cover the middle.”

We played a rubber match and this time Cody and I blew them out 11-5. I made very, very few errors.

At 5:15 p.m., my water bottle was empty and it was in the 80s and very hot in the sun on a court surface. I was dripping sweat and I was feeling very warm. I decided it was time to go.

Those are a couple of good fun games. It’s a sign of respect when your opponents hit the ball more to your partner than you!

Added Lesson

I stopped Glenn in the parking lot and pointed out what my opponents could have done to get a better result. One of which was, power does no good if the ball ends up in the net! “Placement over power.” A saying that I share a lot on the courts.

Monday, July 1, 2024 (No Play)

From Reddit … humbled by senior citizen … yeah …

So funny! These stories pop up not too infrequently!

Number of days on a court: 680
Number of total hours: 2,874
Number of paid coaching hours: 49.5

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