Sunday, November 10, 2024 (Court Day #739)
As I drove off from my house at 8:55 a.m., it was 59°F and sunny with traces of clouds. Fall has arrived. We had the heaters running at work this week for the first time since spring.
I was exhausted yesterday and was asleep shortly before 10:30 p.m., which is early for me. I woke up around 6:30 a.m. and my wife got up but then I managed to fall back asleep until about 7:45 a.m. I needed to catch up on rest!
Brommer
I pulled into a parking spot at Brommer Park at 9:09 a.m.
I asked the two guys on the wall if they wanted to warm up but they were leaving, So I sat alone. At 9:15 a.m., I was still waiting.
Soon, though, I got into a few games partnered with Kim. I wasn’t thrilled with my play, especially the first 2-3 games.
More Games
I got into some stronger games with René against Jay and Paul Winn. (Paul on a Sunday morning at Brommer is very uncommon.) These were closely matched contests. We barely lost the first and won the second.
The third game I was feeling fatigued for some reason. Out of the blue, René made a comment about feeling really “mellow” about that game. I was falling apart and René was not sharp. We lost 11-4.
A Family Affair
A family was out on a court today with a bunch of little kids. Generally, I don’t care if a group of kids “sit” on a court. Today wasn’t an exception. But I did hear one player complain when the family group wasn’t rotating off like everyone else.
Unexpected Fans
During the last game, Jay was across from me and René was to my right. The court next to us had a group of players that I’d never seen before, and just peripherally, they appeared to be casual recreational players. We had a very long rally. It was probably the best rally of the day and, if not, definitely one of the best ones. Resets off slams, hand battles at the net, dink battles, it was a great long rally. Unfortunately, the ball was coming down fast my forehand, and I was unable to return the ball and it ended up in the net. Once our wild rally was done, we noticed a stray ball had rolled behind our court and they’d been waiting to retrieve it. One of the nearby players, who had been watching, interjected, “So that’s what it’s supposed to look like!” Another chimed in, “We don’t mind waiting for our ball when we get to watch the point like that.”
That last game wrapped up at 11:40 a.m. I was supposed to be meeting a student 20 minutes early to review class material since it was her first day today—she was replacing a student who dropped out. (It turned out that she appeared about class time and didn’t come early after all. I could have squeezed in another game at Brommer. Oh, well.)
And?
My play today started subpar, got much better, then the last game was crappy. I just made too many mistakes.
As was evident today, I still need to be even more aggressive covering the middle.
I don’t know why I was dragging. I was yawning in the car on my way home after playing this morning. That, indeed, is a rarity! I can’t remember ever doing that before.
Friday, November 15, 2024 (No Play)
I spent the first half of this week in on a trip to New Orleans for a trade show. I flew back late Wednesday night. My daughter Charlotte flew in 20 minutes before me from Tucson but she didn’t want to wait for me to get my car from offsite parking so her boyfriend Aidan picked her up instead. My wife Kristen was well asleep by the time I got home.
Instead of playing at Skypark last night, I had dinner at home with Kristen, Charlotte, and Aidan. Pizza and salad. Between Halloween candy over the last few weeks, the trip, pizza, I weighed in at the highest I’ve ever been. Ugh. I really need to cut calories and increase exercise.
Big Time Pickleball
Genie Bouchard hit an ATP in a tournament and it made ESPN’s SportsCenter Top 10. ATPs happen all the time, but as a high-profile convert from tennis, Genie is a celebrity. Sooo… pickleball on SportsCenter. Not bad for merely an “activity” for “old people”. Take that, haters!!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCCfXCrSePc
Video of The World Cup
I hadn’t seen an footage of play at the recent World Cup, but here is a few rallies:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBpaDzBAGS7
(I believe it’s from the gold medal match, but I’m not completely sure.)
Saturday, November 16, 2024 (No Play)
Stolen Storage Box
It seems that our club is not the only one to get a storage bin stolen. A few years ago, the metal bin with all of our gear at Derby Park was ripped off in the middle of the night. A similar thing happened this week in Washington State, unfortunately:
https://www.columbian.com/news/2024/nov/16/were-just-a-target-pickleball-players-call-for-more-security-at-washougal-court-after-theft
Canada Courts Hubbub
In British Columbia, courts were permanently shut down earlier this year. Here are a couple of articles about it. I heard that it’s now going to the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
Sunday, November 17, 2024 (No Play)
With continuing family stuff going on with celebrating my mom’s 80 birthday, I didn’t go play pickleball this morning.
Pickleball Demonstration
That said, I did teach my pickleball classes this afternoon and I will share a story. It’s always embarrassing to be demonstrating a drill or a technique to my class and fumble it. Fortunately, most of the time, it goes well. And today, it went perfect. I was explaining offensive lobs and explained how I was diagonal from my one-time tournament partner with me on the right. I explained that he hit a drop shot and was running in. I told them that I’d lobbed into the far corner and won the rally. I had two students line up as “opponents” and had one crosscourt dink me. I lobbed off the dink and the ball lofted over their heads and dropped perfectly one foot inside the far corner. They were impressed. Could I get that shot most of the time? Probably. Every time that perfect? Nah.
Fight
Ouch. In Mexico, after a match, there was a very brief interaction resulting a player getting kicked in the face and knocked to the ground semi-unconscious:
https://x.com/jordiebarstool/status/1858282121867002034
Seriously. That’s assault.
Pickleball and the NFL?
This evening, I was watching a delayed recording today’s earlier Raiders-Dolphins football game. During the game, the announcers shared some video of themselves out playing pickleball! I took a couple of pictures of the screen with my phone…
Sonic Restaurant Chain with Pickleball Courts?
A Sonic location in Canton, Texas has three pickleball courts that can be reserved using their own phone app.
https://www.dallasites101.com/blog/post/sonic-pickleball-courts-canton-texas
Here’s business-themed podcast video about the Sonic pickleball development. Most of the pickleball related discussion is in the beginning quarter with a brief mention toward the end of the show:
Number of days on a court: 739
Number of total hours: 3,011.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 96.5
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