Sunday, August 11, 2024 (Court Day #700)

I had a somewhat leisurely morning. That’s good news for a change after nearly 7 years of opening up Derby Park for club play. It was slightly hazy this morning and in the low 60s… pretty good weather for pickleball play.

René posted on Facebook that she is taking a break from pickleball to allow her shoulder to heal. I replied with a “Good for you.” We all tend to be addicted and want to play… though allowing time for our bodies to heal is often wiser.

I’m still learning the ropes for play at Brommer and figuring out my expectations. So far, the past two Sundays, I haven’t had much problem getting into games and those games were pretty good.

Brommer

I pulled into Brommer park at 10:07 a.m. and there were four empty parking spots. Convenient.

I think on Sundays it will behoove me to get to the courts earlier. Maybe even closer to 8 a.m. Ofer said that he had been there since 8 a.m. and that it was busy then. (And Ofer was still there when I left—that’s at least five hours!)

Oscar was there, along with Kiko, Josh, Drew, and some others. People I would have loved to play with. But it didn’t happen. Aside from Oscar, the rest don’t know my play level. I’m an unknown. When I get a chance to break in, I’ll have to play well or I’ll be shunned and it may be awhile before I get another chance.

Mimi, Rick, Maia

I played in a game against Rick Arnold and woman named Mimi. Mimi is a pretty good player—better than I was expecting. Not as good as René, but a strong player. I was partnered with Maia. Surprisingly, we took a strong lead and went ahead 7-3. They kept the game close and there was only so much I could do when they were obviously targeting my weaker partner. They came back and won.

We played a rubber match of this game. It was entertaining. Mimi commented, “You have really fast hands!” (That’s probably the 100th time I’ve heard that!)

Ofer, Kyle, David

Ofer and I took on a couple 50-ish guys who apparently are friends, Kyle and David. It was a close game but we won.

Brenden, who is the administrator/founder of the Santa Cruz Pickleball Facebook group, asked to play a game with me. (I’m a moderator for that group, Trevor Fish is the only other moderator.) We won 11-0 against Kyle and David. There was one service where they claimed that we were already on the second server (we weren’t) and it was side out, but I told Brenden we were going to win anyway, and we just let it go.

Brenden and David teamed up against Kyle and me. We lost. I didn’t play as well in that game… and of course, Brenden is very much a better than average player. Kyle’s and my play styles didn’t mesh very well. My forehand and his backhand would clack paddles, for instance.

Lefty Game

Pauly and I teamed up against Maia and Ofer. Ofer said, “I don’t think this is a fair combination.” I replied, “I’ll play left-handed.” And I did, every shot. Pauly played his standard righty and was being somewhat silly at times. He attempted 3 or 4 tweener shots and made one, if I remember correctly. He also did a pirouette, spinning around and hitting the ball out of bounds. I had a few “nice shot” compliments from my court-mates—fun to hear when you are playing with your offhand!

All Lefty Game—Kind of…

The last game was against Spencer and Mo. I was playing with lefty Greg, who is a low 3.5 at best. I kidded with Spencer about playing lefty. Spencer switches a lot, playing lefty while on the right to keep his forehand in the middle. Spencer said, “If you play lefty, everyone on the court will be playing lefty!” Mo played really well in that game, even lefty… well enough that I had to switch to my right hand.

At 12:45 p.m., the crowd had cleared out to the point were getting into games was becoming difficult—especially with foursomes immediately launching a new games without taking into account people who were waiting. It was time for me to go.

I was about to leave, I complimented Mo, “Really nice play with your left hand!”
That’s when she reminded me that she’s naturally a lefty!
So hilarious! I went through the whole game thinking Spencer and Mo were both artificially playing lefty. Spencer, yes. Mo, no!

Today was pickleball outing #700! I forgot to mention it to anyone. Another milestone.

Uncle Pickleball Exposure

My 73-year-old uncle Jerry, who lives about 6 hours away, texted me tonight and told me that he was watching pickleball on TV for the first time, “Interesting.” He has sent me some photos of his TV screen showing pickleball last week, but apparently, he didn’t actually watch any of it!

Monday, August 12, 2024 (No Play)

On a whim, I emailed Jerry Louis—part of the Santa Cruz pickleball OG but moved out of state about 5 years ago—and asked him if I could interview him about the history of pickleball in Santa Cruz. He got back to me pretty quickly and said he has a lot of photos and history to share and he wanted my phone number since he prefers texting and chatting over email. I’m looking forward to that!

Number of days on a court: 700
Number of total hours: 2,922
Number of paid coaching hours: 63.5

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