Thursday, January 8, 2025 (Court Day #888)

In the last 24 hours, it went public that #1 pro women’s player Anna Leigh Waters has signed with Franklin. That’s a big change since she had been with Paddletek for years.
https://youtu.be/hKzgHNGLsOU

New Year

Tonight was my first day playing since last year. Between rain and illness, there was a forced break. That sounds dramatic, but we’re only talking about a week!

While I am sure that I’m no longer contagious after nine days, I’m still having to clear my throat from drainage—I still have a little bit of chest congestion.

I was tired and tempted just to head home instead of playing, but I could use the exercise.

I drove to Scotts Valley in the dark after work, my car thermometer was reading 46°F. Good thing I brought my sweatshirt!

Skypark

Commensurate with the easy parking situation, there were empty courts.

Matt Babb and I warmed up a little until Paul got out of a game then Matt and Paul played against Connor and myself.

We played five games. Conner and I lost the first four in a lopsided fashion. At night it takes me a number of games to get my mojo.

In the last game, we are ahead 9–6 when the lights clicked off at 8:30 p.m. as I was I was finally starting to dial things in.

In the first game, Paul hit a hard shot right at me and the ball hit my hand. I didn’t think too much of it until I looked down and blood was running down my knuckle. I licked the blood off below my knuckle a couple of times and once the game was done, I got a Band-Aid out of my wallet in my backpack. There weren’t any more blood issues after that. During the next game, Matt commented, “It’s like a battlefield over here.” Yes, they were about a dozen blood drips on that side of the court. Oops. I made the point of smearing them later with my foot until they were no longer visible.

And?

If we hadn’t had that last game, I wouldn’t have went home completely dejected about my play. However, I was really starting to play better in that last one.

Number of days on a court: 888
Number of total hours: 3,359
Number of paid coaching hours: 185.5

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