Frabrizio texted me this morning, saying, “Now you’re 3.9! Lol let’s get you some more rated matches!” So, 4.044 for a long time, down to 3.3, and now back up to 3.9. Of course, Frabrizio wants me to participate in more of his local rated round robins and mini tournaments. If I was retired, that be pretty easy, but I’m not. I have this thing called work.
It’s easy to get caught up in your DUPR rating when ego gets involved. People look you up on the app and judge you. The problem is when that number doesn’t reflect your true skill level. Do I think that 3.9 is accurate? No, I still think it is a little low, but it’s definitely more accurate than 3.3! I think more accurate would be 4.1 or 4.2, but I would have to play against better players to determine my rating. Maybe it should even be higher than that, I honestly don’t know.
Rain
It rained overnight and the ground was wet. A notice went out that club play at Derby Park was delayed an hour—not that I was heading there, but it’s a good indicator of local weather.
It was still overcast when I made my way to Brommer Park shortly before 10 a.m. It wasn’t cold though, it was still 66°F. That meant it would likely be a bit muggy today.
Brommer Park
I pulled into Brommer at 10:01 a.m. and parking was easy.
Tony and I played against Kim and someone who I forget. Regardless, it was a close game.
Next up, young Jordan and I played against Dan Dewey and Dave Ryan. We lost 7-11. But I had some consolation that outplayed my partner in this one.
Dave and I teamed up and won 11-5 against Shawnté and Jordan.
We had a rematch and we won again 11-6.
Book Covers
Dave Van Ness, the Cabrillo tennis coach, showed up and he and I played a game against Shawnté and a woman named Rachel. Judging a book by its cover, I was expecting Rachael to be a 2.5 level player or maybe a 3.0. I was playing a bit lazily and she took advantage a few times. I had been making an effort to hit more to Shawnté to keep the game from being too boring but turned out Rachael was a decent 3.5 player.
11:54 a.m. and it was time to go. I need to get home, eat, and head to Skypark to teach my pickleball classes.
It is still overcast and 68° when I left. And as I had expected it was definitely humid.
And?
Overall, I felt somewhat satisfied about my play. However, I hit far too many drop shots into the white tape or some even lower into the net. It was annoying.
Frabrizio’s report of my rating climbing back up was accurate. My DUPR reliability score is still very low, at 15%. That means it can still swing up or down relatively easily.
Number of days on a court: 855 Number of total hours: 3,291.5 Number of paid coaching hours: 167.5
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Frabrizio reached out to a number of us via WhatsApp chat last night looking for people to play this morning. I’ve been working a lot and so decided to take the morning off.
I texted Frabrizio this morning and he said that he couldn’t play but he had the court reserved at Brommer from 9 to 11 a.m. and had given the court to Daniel (Borlean), the tennis Daniel from Skypark.
Frabrizio said that Daniel wanted to get a DUPR rating and I figured this could be an opportunity to get my DUPR rating at least somewhat closer to what is should be. (3.3 is not accurate for me!!)
Including me, we had only three people lined up for the court, but I figured we’d pretty easily find someone else to play and fill out a group of doubles.
It was 61°F and overcast and very lightly misting when I left my house.
When I was a few blocks from my house, one of my staff texted, saying that she had a sore throat and was not coming in. I turned my car around figuring I would have to go in to work, but then I realized that we would still have enough staff without her. So I turned my car around again and continued my drive to Brommer.
Brommer Park
I pulled into the parking lot at 9:04 a.m.
Casey Feickert was playing on our reserved court with the number of his compatriots. Daniel and Christine were sitting on the wall waiting to get a foursome together. I let them know that I was there to play on Frabrizio‘s court. They thought this was great, but we still needed that one more player.
There was a guy named Bruce, who I had never seen before, who had just finished up a game on the adjacent court and was looking to play. What’s funny is that he said his DUPR rating was 4.6. But then later, after a number of games, he said his DUPR was really a 3.0.
Warmup Game
For our first game, we agreed that it would be a warm up game and not count for DUPR. Christine and I played against Bruce and Daniel. They took a big lead, then we started coming back but we still lost 7-11.
Frabrizio texted me asking if someone could send him the game results. I told him that I would keep track and send them to him.
DUPR Games
After our warmup game, we rolled into games that “would count.”
Daniel and I lost 9-11 to Bruce Brinkerhoff and Christine.
Bruce and I won 11-5 versus Daniel and Christine. (That’s even with Bruce making more errors in this game.)
Christine and I lost 5-11 to Bruce and Daniel.
Daniel and I won 11-5 versus Casey and Dave Cox.
Casey and I won 11-1 over Daniel and Dave Cox.
A fellow with glasses named Dustin joined us. He’s a UCSC biology student. I suspect he’s either Filipino or Asian, but I didn’t ask. Nice kid. (When we asked for his DUPR, he gave his formal name, Jandel Maranan.)
Dustin and I teamed up and won 11-3 win versus Dave Cox and Daniel.
Daniel and I won 11-8 vs. Dustin and Dave cox.
Dave and I won 11-6 vs. Daniel christine.
Dave and I won 11-5 vs. Jeff Hotchkiss and Daniel.
Dave and I won 11-2 vs. Jeff Hotchkiss and Daniel.
Over the course of the morning for DUPR, I was on the winning team 8 times and on the losing team 2 times. One never knows, but I’d think that would have a positive impact on my DUPR rating.
I left the courts at 11:53 a.m.
And?
I started out a little rough this morning, but, hey, it has been almost a week since I last played. Early on, I had a few shots in the white tape, but after a few games I got it dialed in. As the morning progressed, I played better and better and better.
If I recall correctly, I missed a total of four of my serves. Two into the tape of the net, and two there were a little bit too long.
I felt happy about my play today though. The compliments on my play were flowing freely. It’s always nice to hear.
It was still overcast when I left to go home and get ready for work. It was a little bit muggy and over the three hours or so, sweat went through the entire brim of my cap. That’s a rarity!
Scores for DUPR
At 12:19 p.m., I sent Frabrizio a complete list of games and scores for him to enter into DUPR. (I did ask everyone for permission, no one said no.) That should get Daniel a rating. And I’m very curious how it will impact my own rating. I’ll probably know in the next few days.
Pros in Sacramento
Genie Bouchard lost her first-ever PPA finals match to Katie Fahey. A unique twist to this event is that they were all playing with vintage wood paddles! Singles most translates from tennis to pickleball. Doubles is a very different game. I expect it to take Genie longer to adjust to pickleball doubles than pickleball singles.
Last night, my graduating class from Harbor High School had its 40th reunion. I was one of the two main organizers, along with Julie G., who lives in Colorado these days.
A couple of other local pickleball players were there, Sycha and Rachel. Sycha graduated a year after Rachel and me, but she was one of several from other classes who came.
Sycha, me, Rachel
Targets for Class
I’ve been meaning to finish creating some court target mats for use with my students. The prefab rubber ones are pricey for what they are. Instead, I ordered a roll of grippy mesh material—the kind you put in the bottom for drawers or on shelving to keep things from slipping—in the size that I needed, then I cut that roll into equal size 18-inch square pieces. These have sat around untouched for weeks as I prioritized other things.
This morning, on my way to Brommer, I stopped by work and had our computerized mat cutter cut a 17-inch diameter circle out of a piece of paper chipboard to use as a template. (Since the mesh material was floppy, I couldn’t use the CMC on it directly.) I made three piles of grippy squares, and in turn, using a very sharp blade, I cut each stack into 17-inch circles using my new template. Success! I now have a bunch of targets for my students that cost less than a third of what pre-manufactured rubber ones would cost. Plus, being slightly off-white, they’ll contrast better with the court surface than blue or red or yellow.
Brommer
It was overcast and 63° when I arrived at the courts at 9:53 a.m. The parking lot was maybe half full.
Dave Ryan arrived moments after me and he asked if I wanted to warm up, which I did. We rolled into a game. Dave and I won 11-6 versus Oscar and Kevin. It was a good game.
Kevin joined me in a game against Shawnté and Hemie. We were down 1-5 but came back. I was trying to hit more shots to Shawnté. Shawnté twice intentionally “set up” his partner by hitting a short return to my forehand. I drove both of them for winners. Shawnte told me he wanted Hemie to “punish” me by returning those to my feet. Ah, practice. Ok. We won 11-8.
A dad and his son had reserved the tennis court and that took down four pickleball courts. Karen asked them about their reservation at 10:45 and they said that they had it for another 15 minutes.
Diana
I hadn’t played with Diana for months. She and I played against René and Asian Aaron and won 11-4.
Anthony
Anthony and I lost to Asian Aaron and Alex. It was Anthony’s first game and he went in with very little warm-up. We lost that one badly, I think it may have been 3–11, or 5–11. Anthony was making a lot of errors, but we did win the rematch, 11-6.
Hmmmm…
Oscar wanted me to play with him so—with my agreement—he grabbed my paddle and put it into the rack.
About five or six minutes later, Oscar came over and said we’d been bounced from the group… but then he went on to explain that it wasn’t both of us that were getting pushed out of the foursome, only me. The group ended up being Sean, Dave Ryan, Oscar, and Dave Van Ness, the tennis coach from Cabrillo.
I’d readily admit that the two Daves and Sean are better players than I am. Oscar and I can often be pretty interchangeable—though he’s a bit more consistent than I am—depending on how each of us is playing on a given day. And honestly, I don’t mind them bumping me for a better player. If I were in their shoes, I would want to do the same thing. That said, I wouldn’t pull someone’s paddle without asking them first. That’s a bit presumptuous. It’s never happened before, so if it happens again, I’ll talk to them about it.
The sun broke through the clouds in the middle of my last game.
I left at 11:55 a.m. It was time to leave and get ready to teach.
And?
How did I feel about my play today? I was very happy with my play. I was playing very, very well. Was I perfect? Of course not. But I was consistent in hitting good shots the vast majority of the time. I was playing good defense and generally handling hard drives very well. Over the course of the morning, I earned about half a dozen point simply off my serve. I successfully made some very difficult shots—like hitting a backhand volley reset into the kitchen while stretched out to return a drive down the middle off a high ball. It sounds kind of goofy to say, but that one was a pro level shot. Aaron complimented me on that one along with a few shots during the two games I played against him.
Teaching in Scotts Valley
My classes today got to be the first players on the newly resurfaced courts at Skypark. I have to admit, the courts look really good.
I emailed Allison at Parks & Rec after several people texted me asking about when the courts would open for the general public. She said the City of Scotts Valley is shooting to have them open for everyone by this weekend.
But if you slow it down, more often than not, they are legit. Such as this screenshot I took from the above video…. upward motion, contact at or below the waist, paddle below the wrist. Check, check, check. Legal.
I think the backhand lob smash is by far the best shot. Though ALW’s behind the back spin drop shot was impressive. Their #1, while a nice shot, was one of the least impressive ones, in my opinion.
Hot Day
It was a hot one today. At least for Santa Cruz. Nearly 100 degrees. I think today was the warmest it has gotten this year. (A quick Internet search seems to bear that out.)
As of today, my two mid-October classes are completely sold out three weeks in advance of the start date. That’s a nice thing, no scrambling to fill remaining spots.
Genie Bouchard
Here in California, former tennis pro Genie Bouchard has now qualified for her first pickleball final. She’ll be playing in a couple of days against Kate Fahey: https://www.instagram.com/p/DPFU345Dl8K
College Pickleball
We finally have our first varsity pickleball program! Drury University, a private university located in Springfield, Missouri, is the first. Congrats to them for being a leader! https://www.instagram.com/p/DO_XNKzkVLW/
Number of days on a court: 853 Number of total hours: 3,286.5 Number of paid coaching hours: 164.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
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