Sunday, May 29, 2022 (Court Day #502)

I walked out the door, and it was going to be a warm day. When I arrived at Derby Park at 8:45 a.m., there was a game going already. I got into my first game and already the back of my right hand was hurting a little bit. As the game went on—or perhaps it was a second game—it got significantly worse. It got to the point where it was quite painful to make shots and I had no choice but to switch to my left hand and play left-handed. I pulled ice out of my water bottle and iced the back of my hand. Barefoot Terry gave me some of her homemade CBD cream for it. (It’s hard to tell how much it helped.) The rest of the session I signed up as an Intermediate player instead of Advanced, and played every shot left-handed.

Today was pretty unmemorable. I suppose it was good to dedicate time to maintaining my lefty skills, but playing righty against strong players is so much more fun.

Did I play well lefty? I could easily hold my own against the intermediate players at Derby today. I was playing a number of games at the end of the session with an older guy named Ricky with wild curly gray hair (I’ve seen him around), and a couple I didn’t know, Ellen and Marc. Ellen was the weakest, so I played with her. After one of my serves where Marc returned the ball into the net, Ellen asked in an astonished voice, “You can spin the ball on a serve left handed??”
“Yes.”
I tried to keep my serves less tricky or the game would have been more boring.

Monday, May 30, 2022 (No Play)

I am so disappointed. After playing so well on Friday morning against the advanced players at Brommer Park, and with the Memorial Day holiday today, I was really, really, looking forward to the challenge and perhaps proving myself against the better players there. Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed. This hand thing is no joke. Not that I own a motorcyle, but the “throttle-up” motion with my right hand is intensely painful on a line between my wrist and my knuckles. About a decade ago, I had “overuse syndrome” (as proved by a nerve conduction test by a neurologist), just shy of carpal tunnel syndrome and I still have around the wrist brace I bought at the time. That prevents me rotating my hand down at the wrist.

Wednesday, June 1, 2022 (No Play)

I’ve been continuing to wear the wrist brace. It’s proving to be invaluable. The injury is improving, but is still bad. I have doubts that it’ll be ready for play on Sunday. I’m thinking this will be a 2-3 week thing. I’ll be heading to Italy with my wife for my first 2-week vacation in 9 years. I’m hoping to play pickleball while there, but I’ll see how my hand feels in a week when I have to pack. There’s no point in lugging a paddle halfway around the globe, if I’m not going to be able to use it.

Insightful video, if like drinking from a firehose!


Number of days on a court: 502
Number of total hours: 2,339

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