Sunday, July 7, 2024. (Court Day #683)
Last night, I had a layer of overgrip to my Rogue 2 paddle handle. I’ve been meaning to do it, I had worn a couple of spots on each side where my thumb rests. Now, the grip is thicker—helps with stress on the arm—and the worn spots are covered up.
My wife and daughter flew out to New Mexico yesterday morning. My daughter is moving from Las Cruces—where her medical school is—to Tucson where she will be doing hospital rotations as part of her third year. Since my wife is gone helping her, I am on dog duty. I asked Barbara Gerry to open up the courts this morning so I could get a bunch of things done, including getting the dogs fed and walked.
As of this morning, my Beginner class starting on Sunday is sold out, however, I still have three of eight slots open in my Advanced Beginner class. I took about 15 minutes this morning to make up a flyer to post a Derby this morning. Hopefully, I can fill those remaining spots. It’s so much easier to teach when you have full balanced courts so I can roam to watch and coach.
Derby
I pulled into the Derby Park neighborhood at about 10:30 a.m. It was cloudy and 61°F. Perfect pickleball weather.
It turned out to be a very busy day with at least 56 people there. That’s about as busy as it gets at Derby. Holiday weekend, I guess.
Rattle
Between games, I noticed that when I wave my Rogue 2 paddle, I can hear something shaking inside of it. I have to contact the Players Pickleball people and see what their policy is for the paddle.
Games
Towards the end of the session, I was in a game with firefighter Rob against Dieter and Brian. Brian was the weakest player of the group and I might give Dieter the nod for being the strongest, though it was close.
There was a pop-up where I was on the left and Dieter was straight ahead of me and slammed the ball down at my feet and he was expecting the rally to be over. Somehow not only did I manage to get my paddle on the ball, but I also did a passing shot down the sideline for a winner. I got a chorus of “nice shot!” and “nice hands!” A little bit later in the game, there was a very similar situation and again Dieter slammed the ball down at me. Only this time, the ball came back and hit him in the chest. After the second shot, Dieter announced, “I’m going to have to change my strategy for those shots!” There was a third slam, but this time, I couldn’t quite get the ball back over the net.
Skill Creep
Biggest annoyance today at the one point later in the session, 2/3 of the boxes signed up on the dry erase board were blue 4.0+. There’s no way there were that many 4.0 level players there. There might have been six, maybe. Maybe. But there is no way there was 20 of them. It was so absurd.
Last Games
I played a few games with James as my partner against a guy Kai and Mike. I don’t know Mike that well but he’s fairly regular. Kai is very quick. He is a good player who has has a complete game. I put him as a solid 3.5 player. He’s not quite ready to be a 4.0 yet. Between games, after asking permission from him, I gave James some tips, like not stepping in after the serve, not backing up when he could just as well volley the ball out of the air, and being patient. Additionally, not inviting opponents to the net by hitting a drop shot while the opponents are at the baseline but close enough to run and get the ball thereby inviting your opponents to a position of power.
I checked my phone. 2:27 p.m. Time to get home and let the dogs out and have breakfast!
Former NFL Quarterback
Tim Tebow, who lead the Denver Broncos to the playoffs some years back, then later returned to the NFL attempting to to play the tight end position, was spotted playing pickleball.
Yes, that’s his foot on the NVZ line. And that was the lesser of his foot faults in the clip. In the video, he does a volley and takes a big ol’ step into the kitchen! Oops!
Star WNBA Rookie
Rookie pro basketball player Caitlin Clark is the buzz of the WNBA right now.
She recently participated in charity pickleball tournament. She should probably stick with basketball. If you watch some of her videos, keep on eye on her flagrant kitchen foot faults!
https://athlonsports.com/wnba/caitlin-clarks-off-court-activity-boyfriend-blowing-up-online
I can’t help but think of a referee I overheard at Chamisal a couple of years go about unofficiated match he was observing from some elevated seating and he was commenting every minute or so about another kitchen violation. Obviously, it’s mostly a newbie issue, but sometimes more experienced players suffer the same issues.
Monday, July 8, 2024 (No Play)
When my wife Kristen helped move my daughter Charlotte into her new apartment in Tucson, she found that the complex has pickleball courts. I’ll have to visit during nicer weather and use their courts! Charlotte spends a whole lot of time in her medical studies, but a break now and then can recharge your brain.
USA Pickleball
USAP has launched a new website for membership. It’s in conjunction with Sport:80 which hosts membership services for a wide variety of sport governing bodies, such as USA Track & Field, USA Archery, USA Water Polo and also many for other countries as well.
There are significant hiccups right now but hopefully, those will be worked out in short order.
Protest in Virginia
Officials in Fairfax County are converting dual-use courts back to just tennis:
“Residents say county workers have taken their nets, scrubbed their stenciled pickleball lines and hired security to be present while workers made the fenced-in area suitable for tennis. Residents, meanwhile, have petitioned community members, consulted with an attorney and even staged a sit-in here, hoping to preserve the area for pickleball.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/07/07/annandale-pickleball-courts-tennis-residents-protest
The decision was driven by neighbors annoyed with the sound of pickleball. Where have we heard that before?
Milestones
I realized that I should hit 3,000 hours on a court playing in by the end of this year.
Number of days on a court: 683
Number of total hours: 2,883
Number of paid coaching hours: 49.5
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