Sunday, July 14, 2024. (Court Day #687)
For the first time ever, I found myself already irritated driving to Derby Park to open up the courts. Skill creep is getting under my skin in a big way. When I got there about 8:45 a.m., I wrote a note on the white dry erase board asking everyone to sign up one level below what they did last week and that the blue pen is for 4.0+ tournament players only. A regular, a 3.5 equivalent, signed up in blue. I reminded him blue is reserved for 4.0 tournament players. He said he doesn’t play tournaments. That was that, I thought. I added a big arrow next to my skill level note on the sign up board to call more attention to it.
When I came back out later, there was a new box in blue with the guy’s name right at the top, and Ted (3.0-3.5) and a couple of others, none of which are 4.0 players. There were only 2-3 true 4.0 players there today and since we’d have to play with red players anyway, I pulled the blue pens and wrote “no blue today”. I really wanted to reset the skill levels, it’s been very frustrating with everyone signing up higher than their skill level.
Anyway, while waiting, I see the 3.5 guy walk up to the whiteboard, erase my note on the board, and go to the bin to get blue pens—which I had intentional moved elsewhere—and start walking back to the board with a blue ballpoint pen, which was all he could find. He complained to Val—the Wednesday site coordinator—about why I had any authority to “change the rules.”I calmed smiled and explained that I’m the site coordinator, which he already knew, of course. He ended up leaving in a huff. I understand his frustration, I’m experiencing it myself. We need a reset. That said, if you doesn’t like what the site coordinator is doing, you don’t go rogue and take over, you bring it to the attention of the club board of directors.
Pickleball is supposed to be fun. I typically work six days a week and have limited time to play, I want to get into good games. That is not happening at Derby. It’s a source of frustration for me. Plus, teaching—which I love to do—takes four hours out of my day on Sundays. That’s over seven hours on courts . . . I’d like the easy flexibility to adjust on a given Sunday to keep my wife happy. Something has to change.
“Sick ATP”
I was in a game with Hugh against Larry Yein and someone else that I forget. Larry hit a great sharp crosscourt shot bouncing the ball very wide outside the right sideline. I was in an all-out sprint and was looking away from the net when I hit the ball. Hugh exclaimed, “That was a sick ATP! You need to put that in your blog!” The thing is, I didn’t even see it since it took me a moment to turn and start heading back onto the court! We did lose that rally, but at least I added a few more shots to it. Here you go, Hugh!
Teaching
I left about 12:15 p.m., raced home, ate quickly, changed, grabbed my things and headed to Skypark for my class starting at 1:30 p.m., the first in a 4-week series of both my Beginners class and then Advanced Beginner class.
After teaching, I played two games with some of my students at their prompting. Mary was my partner against Ray and his wife Melaney. I played both games left handed and I was taking it easy on them. Mary and I still won, not that I cared.
Birthdays
My niece and I both have birthdays this month, so my parents arranged for a dinner party tonight. My brother John gifted me with a pickleball action board game. So funny! When you pull the trigger on the plastic “paddle gun,” it flips a mini paddle up with the intention of hitting the plastic pickle on the end of a metal rod that swings back and forth over the net.
Monday, July 15, 2024 (No Play)
Today, I finally did it. I’ve put in nearly seven years as the primary SCPC Site Coordinator for Derby Park on Sundays—since October 2017. Yesterday was the final straw. I’m done. After hinting for months, I notified the board that my last day will be the last Sunday in August. It’s not worth the aggravation and it’s not worth getting games with players who think they are better than they are. Done, done, done. I’ll be free to sleep in on my day off from work. (My workday ends about 6:45 p.m., I’m not an early bird.) I’ll have flexibility to do what I want, and I can arrange private games with better players elsewhere.
Switching Hands
This is exactly when I switch hands in a game. Some pickleball pundits say “never switch hands.” Well, here’s the guy who has been the #1 player in the world for years—up until very recently, now he’s in and out of #1—Ben Johns, doing exactly that. Switching hands!
Paddle Testing
USA Pickleball shared a video of part of their paddle testing equipment which I found interesting, if only a small taste…
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9fmlSBS70I
Rogue 2 Paddle Rattle
Macy at Players Pickleball got back to me today about my paddle:
“About the rattling–check on that edge guard and see if it’s loose anywhere. Otherwise, a little faint “rattling” can occur as when the honeycomb core is created, very tiny bits of polypropylene sometimes become trapped inside the cells of the honeycomb. When you shake it, you might hear a faint rattle sound. The good news is that it’s no cause for concern and won’t affect the performance whatsoever. “
Number of days on a court: 687
Number of total hours: 2,893
Number of paid coaching hours: 52.5
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