Sunday, August 17, 2025 (Court Day #841)
My brother John reached out to me last night and was asking about playing. I told him “My plan was to go to Brommer, but I would go to Derby if you wanted to play.” The level of play at Brommer would be too intense for John, so Derby it was.
Derby Park
It was a sunny and warm morning and I arrived a few minutes after 10 a.m. It was a club day, so Derby Park was busy. While John was searching for a parking spot, I signed the two of us up in green (intermediate), which was the lowest skill level in use today. (It’s a common state of affairs that all players think they are better than they are, so no one was signed up in the recreational 2.5 level.) After John walked in, we still had to wait about 10 minutes to get into a game.
Ellen, one of the regulars stopped and asked me why I was “slumming.” I chuckled and explained to her that I was signing up in lower levels because I was playing with my brother.
John and I played a game against Ellen H. and a tall guy named Jon. I was unquestionably the best player and John was unquestionably the worst. It was a good balance. Honestly, I can’t remember if we won or lost. I was not playing my hardest and was intentionally leaving winners on the table to keep the rallies going. After that game was done, John said that his groin muscle was still not 100% healed and he felt it a couple of times during the game. John apologized and said that he was going to leave and give himself another week of healing before trying to play again.
On My Own
John leaving left me free to sign up in higher level games.
The best game was after I started signing up in blue (which is supposed to be 4.0+ but is typically more like 3.5) and I was playing with Cary against Marin (Soji’s Scottish husband) and a tall guy named Todd. Cary is an interesting mismatch of skills, hitting a combination of really good shots but also bad shots.
Young Ben was there today along with Frabrizio and Alex— and I saw Rick Arnold once when he was out on a court in a game—though I did not get to play with any of them… except for Frabrizio in my next to last game, when he paired up with Jessie against Rick Abend and myself. By the time I played that game, I was 2 1/2 hours in and starting to get tired. I was intentionally hitting my returns to Frabrizio who is the stronger of the two players.
My last game was paired with Ted against Rick Abend and Cary. After Ted made a series of errors, we found ourselves down 0–3. We manage to come back and take a lead, but I was getting exhausted and disinterested and I started making inexcusable errors. I would’ve needed to be on my a game if we were going to win that one. We didn’t. While my brain wanted to play, I also knew that I was really tired and needed to stop.
Kudos
As I was walking out and heading home a few minutes after 1 p.m., four of the five women that I had a private lesson for a week ago were walking in. They stopped and said hello, then Kay went on to tell me how much better they are playing now after they had taken a lesson with me. Of course, what coach doesn’t love hearing that? They said they wanted to play for another month or so and then have another lesson. That should be fun.
And?
How did I feel about my play today? The word that popped into my head was disenchanted.” I felt that I played OK, at least up until the point where I was getting really tired. I’m sure the day would’ve been much more fun for me had I gone to Brommer has originally planned.
Number of days on a court: 841
Number of total hours: 3,255
Number of paid coaching hours: 161.5
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