Sunday, March 3, 2024 (Court Day #631)

It rained this morning around 6 a.m. and I sent out an email notice delaying play at Derby Park until 10 a.m. When I decided to cancel altogether and I was about to click “send”, it started raining! I amended my message to reflect that and club play was officially off the table for today.

Class

The next question was my class at 1:30 p.m. Sean texted me about his class after mine. Go or no go? My wife said it was supposed to start raining about 6 p.m. The next question was the courts. I had Jesse—a former student who lives across the street from Willowbrook Park—check for me. He said three of of the four courts were pretty dry and there was a group out playing a game. Class was on!

When I arrived at 1 p.m., there were two puddles on our two reserved courts.
Henri was already there with a towel that I’d asked students to bring. With that, I was able to take care of two small puddles.

The crazy thing was it ended up lightly raining off and on during the class. I just had to shake my head. My students were amazingly good sports and were keen on continuing to learn. One did opt to step under a tree during one heavier precipitation moment, but it lightened up a few minutes later. I was texting Sean with updates. I told him that had I known the amount of rain, I would have not held class. Sean said he was going to cancel his class.

Games

After class was done, four students stayed and played a game. Former club site coordinator Jim Del Porto was here with a few other players. I asked if I could jump in for a game. The first game went pretty well. The second game was a disaster on my part. I was partnered with Maia against Jim and a woman whose name I forget—I’m not sure if I’d played with her before. Jim and partner were targeting Maia like crazy. I jumped to my right to poach a ball near the kitchen line and hit the ball into the net. I missed a few other shots. It was bad. Maia even kidded me, “Your students are paying to get this kind of certified instruction?” I laughed. I said, “That’s what I get for working with beginners for two hours!”

Nonetheless, I was frustrated and annoyed with my play. I need to get out and play and drill. I feel between rain and injuries and overall lack of play, I’m regressing.

Tennis Pro Pickleball Slur

A tennis pro used pickleball as an insult:
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/tennis/1873241/Andrey-Rublev-disqualified-reilly-opelka-pickleball
To quote the article:
Responding to a post about the disqualification on Instagram, Opelka said: “Bush league. Linesman should get demoted to pickleball ASAP.”

Hey, Opelka, you don’t have to be a butthead.

Monday, March 4, 2024 (No Play)

I never did hear back from the man who reached out to me about lessons via PPR. On Friday, second person, a woman, also reached out through PPR. I wrote back. Still radio silence. Weird. If I reach out to a coach and got an email back, I’d at least reply and say that I was not interested, found a better time fit, whatever. I can only just shrug my shoulders.

Genie Bouchard Video

Not to attack Genie Bouchard, no doubt in short order she’ll be a far better pickleball player than I will be—and maybe she is already—but it appears as though she believed all the tennis player propaganda about how pickleball is easy and that she should could just show up and dominate:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2LRexFy1EI/?igsh=ZWMyNDBlOTQyNg==
But that wasn’t the case. To make matters worse, the PPA pre-qualified her for the later rounds, bumping out more qualified players.

Some comments on that post:

selten_fotog:
“A baseball pro cant walk into a cricket pro game and become a pro without spending countless hours mastering the new craft. Sure the similarities of hitting a round ball with a stick are similar but that’s where it ends. Totally different game.”

chaaaise:
“Sock made the transition fairly well.”
[This is a reference to former tennis player Jack Sock.]

selten_fotog:
“Sock didn’t walk onto the court with the naive level of elitist arrogance that she did. So disrespectful of a high level Pickleball Pro to do that to him, I felt terrible for Loong. I do think all the tennis pros who were cringing by their TV stands did get an impressive look at the insane skill and atheism of one of Pickleballs freak athletes so he repped Pickleball well!”
[Buchard was partnered with Tyler Loong.]

Now, I have no idea about Genie Buchard’s preparation or regard for the game of pickleball. But it’s pretty clear she wasn’t ready to be in the final rounds of a pro pickleball tournament. And she wouldn’t have been, but getting a famous name on a court brings eyeballs and eyeballs means money when it comes to advertising.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024 (No Play)

The Engage backpack was supposed to come today but when I checked the tracking, UPS said there was some delay . . . with no explanation. I just checked again and now it’s showing that it’s supposed to arrive tomorrow. We’ll see!

Famous Relatives

And… just for kicks. I use an online system called Family Tree to dabble in genealogy. And genealogy is fun at times. I got an email from the system and here are some of my relatives from closest to most distant…

The Wright Brothers
Benjamin Franklin
George Washington
Susan B. Anthony
Abraham Lincoln
Charles Dickens
Emily Dickinson
Franklin Roosevelt
Helen Keller
Jane Austen
Winston Churchill
Lucille Ball
Walt Disney
Elvis Presley
John Wayne
Princess Diana
Queen Elizabeth (and the Royal Family, of course!)
Shirley Temple
Babe Ruth
Mohammad Ali (We have common ancestor in the 1500s!)

I’ve known about Washington for decades—my grandfather shared that with me nearly 40 years ago—but all the rest were new to me. Franklin and Washington are the same in terms of closeness of my relationship to them. And the Wright Brothers are one generation closer than those other two. That was perhaps the biggest surprise.

Number of days on a court: 631
Number of total hours: 2,737
Number of paid coaching hours: 18.5

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