Tuesday, October 15, 2024 (Court Day #728)

It’s definitely getting dark earlier. I wrapped things up at work, changed, and was almost at Scott Valley at 6:45 p.m. Street lights and car headlights were on and it was closer to dark than it was to light.

Skypark

I arrived at Skypark shortly before 7 p.m. I lucked out and there was an open parking spot right next to the courts.

It is really busy with about with at least a dozen people waiting to get onto courts, maybe even 20 people. The dry erase board was up.

Tonight was a bit of a fiasco as far as getting really good games. But I knew what I was getting into signing up with the people that I did.

I tried to make the games as difficult as I could for myself. I played about 90% of the shots left-handed. The last game I was playing against Kyle and his wife Carolyn while partnered with Gowa (pronounced “go ah”). I decided to play that game right-handed, but I told them that I would hit all my shots as drop shots. That’s what I tried to do. There were a few I still hit without thinking in a more normal manner, but when the ball wasn’t coming at my head, and I hit a drop shots and simply tapped high shots into their kitchen.

Finally

When there was about five minutes left, and I quickly got into a game with Spencer against Paul and Alex. That was the best combination players for me all night. I was playing quite well and we were leading by a few points when the lights clicked off.

It was a warm night, in the low 60s. There were several players who were obviously working hard tonight since their shirts were pretty sweaty.

Owl Paddle

A significant note, Spencer was playing with a new Owl paddle, a result of USAP’s Quiet Initiative. It’s pretty amazing how quiet the thing is. The surface of the paddle is covered with felt. Spencer said he had a chance to play with it today and immediately bought one. (I’m assuming the got it at The Hub in Campbell.) He said aside from being very quiet, he says you can add a lot of spin to the ball too. Like anything new, it may take a while to get some traction. But, again, it’s hard to get over how quiet it is.

Number of days on a court: 728
Number of total hours: 2,985.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 84.5

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