Sunday, September 12, 2021 (Court Day #410)
Right before I was heading to play, I remembered that I needed to fix the modification to my Bandit forearm strap. I had added some foam padding to it with some cloth tape, but after a couple of years of abuse, the tape failed. I reattached the padding with new gaffers tape and I was good to go. The point of the padding is to apply more targeted pressure the forearm muscle and further reduce strain on the tendon at the elbow.
It started out overcast but it burnt off later and we had a wonderful, sunny day. I arrived at Brommer Park at about 9:15 and the parking lot was thinner than typical. It’s a tournament weekend, so some players were off competing.
Sacramento Contingent
Even with many stronger players off at a tournament, I got in some good games regardless. There was a group from Sacramento staying at a local beach house: Jim, Lexi and her fiancée whose name I forget . . . Kevin? We’ll call him Kevin for sake of having a name for him.
Jim and “Kevin” were 4.0 players. Kevin said they took up pickleball during the pandemic. I told him he was really good for having only played a little over a year. He said he played a lot of tennis and another paddle sport and that helped.
The visitors put me in my place. Any small error, they took advantage of. I wasn’t playing badly, I just wasn’t as consistently good.
SwiftNet
Today, I had my first chance to try and set of one of those new “SwiftNet” portable nets. As we gave up winging it and reverted to the instruction sheet, the woman who owned it and was letting us use it trotted over and helped us finish. It is pretty quick to set up, no doubt. There’s a red stripe on the center Velcro strap that probably determines the correct center height, but I think the owner overdid it as it seemed too low until we adjusted it. They are pricey at $350 new. Later when the woman was leaving and took her net, it turned out that Art B. had another of the exact same model net! It was easy to set it up the second time!
Another Andrew
There was a tall younger fellow named Andrew. It was the first time in my pickleball experience that there is another player with my name. Andrew and I played a few games against Jon B. and a young fellow named Nate who lives a block away from Willowbrook. Nate said the play at Brommer is much stronger. Yep. We played a couple of fantastic games with long rallies.
Cathy and Rich
There was a couple there whom I’d never seen, Rich and Cathy. Around fifty and heavier-set. I was paired with a woman named Ellen against this new couple. I think I’d seen Ellen before, but I’d never played with her. Our first game was won 11-0. I played lefty in second game and we won 11-3 or something. I later played with Rich against two stronger players and he is much better than teaming with Cathy seemed to make him.
I got in some really great strong games to finish off the day. I played a few games against Jon B. I can see why John P. and he won that 3.5 gold medal about a month ago. Jon is a very solid player. He’s awesome to play against.
Tournament with Dave?
As I was driving away from the courts, I got a call from Dave Cox. He asked about my arm then asked if I was interested in playing in a tournament in two weeks. I told him I’d been talking to a guy Clayton about doing tournaments, but nothing was firm yet. I also told him Saturdays were a long shot with working being so demanding right now.
Review
I have to start recording my games. I need to drill and I need to figure out where I need the most work. Drop shots are a weakness, but I could be missing other opportunities for improvement.
Number of days on a court: 410
Number of total hours: 2,067
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