Sunday, October 13, 2024 (Court Day #727)
It was a sunny day with a bank of clouds far off in the distance and the temperature in the mid 60s—quite pleasant for pickleball. I pulled into the Brommer Park lot a few minutes before 9 a.m.
First Game
My first game was Brenden Zimmer and myself against Jason Brown and lefty Asian Dave, whom I may have seen before, but I don’t think I’ve ever played with him. Dave is a very good player. (I always feel weird referring to a player by race, but it does help identify who I’m talking about!) We were down by a wide margin but then we went on a run and just about tied it up. But we lost 11-8. It was both Brenden’s and my first game and I jumped in with just a few dinks as warm-up. Nothing like not warming up to have a good excuse losing!
Zach
Tennis/pickleball coach Zach and I played together for the first time. We were up 6-2 against Dave Ryan and Fernando. We fell apart. Zach and I were both making errors and lost 11-6. Quite the collapse. I’ll admit that I was somewhat distracted once moving to the court right next to the wall full of people waiting. I did have one stunningly good rally in there though. Fast hands. René commented on it later.
Team Jordan
Jordan and I played against lefty Asian Dave and Asian James. I think I’ve seen James around before, but I don’t think we’ve ever played. We got killed 11-2. Dave and James are both really good. They are both close to 4.5 or higher—or they just had an exceptional day.
Yoder Sighting
Dan Bliss and I were up 6-4 against Chris Yoder and tall Sean from Camarillo and they won 11-6. Dan wasn’t playing his best and I went from playing great to missing shots… plus they simply started playing better. It was nice to see Chris. It’s not often given he lives in San Juan Bautista. Plus he’s a very strong player.
Camarillo
Camarillo Sean and I teamed up and played against René and Jordan. We lost 11-6.
Camarillo Sean said that he has only been playing for nine months but had a lot of tennis experience plus experience with other ball sports as well. Sean has a really good forehand drive that he’ll occasionally hit long. He still has a lot of work to do on his soft game. And he needs to learn how to do resets. And he needs to get much stronger at dinking. But for only having only played nine months, Sean did extremely well today. His racquet experience really shows.
Then we had a rematch against Jordan and René. This was a pretty close game but with score tried near the end at 8–8, Sean made a couple of errors and then they were up 10–8. I was on the left and Jordan served an oddly loopy ball to my backhand that hit the left sideline. Unfortunately, I returned the ball into the net and the game was over with them winning 11–8.
Time to Go
We finished that game and I checked the time. It was 12:01 p.m. Perfect. Time for me to go home and get ready for teaching.
And?
Today was good. I got into some games with players who were much better than I am. And that is why I drive all the way to Brommer Park these days instead of going to Derby Park. It’s an ego booster to be a the best player at a particular venue, but it’s not the best skill booster.
I felt that I played ok. I had some moments of stellar play and some moments where it was completely lame, but on average, I felt played satisfactorily.
When I left, I was sweating though it was only 68°F. But, hey, I’d been running around in the sun, after all!
Number of days on a court: 727
Number of total hours: 2,984
Number of paid coaching hours: 84.5
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