Sunday, March 10, 2024 (Court Day #634)

Today is the day of the time change—”spring forward”—meaning we all have to get up an hour earlier. It’s brutal. While I was driving to Derby Park under cloudy skies with a 52° temperature, I had to wonder how many people would be there at 9 o’clock since yesterday at this hour it was 8 o’clock. My expectation was that people would sleep in a little bit later.

Today would be my third day playing in four days. That’s good, we’ll see if I can get my play back up to snuff. It’s been frustrating.

Eyewear

I learned this week that Anna Leigh Waters—the 16-year-old phenom and the #1 women’s player in the world—always sports eyewear when she plays. I also learned that her glasses are prescription. I’m wondering a little bit since I’m slightly nearsighted, if it would help to have prescription protective eyewear to play. Generally, I don’t think the corrective aspect of it would make much difference to me—I don’t wear glasses except when I feel like it and it’s convenient, maybe when watching TV in our living room or when I remember to bring them to a conference and have to look at projected slides. The hardest thing for me is playing under lights, which completely messes up my depth perception at times. Regardless, I nearly never play without eye protection—I think it’s been 2-3 times in 4-5 years and it was always against beginners. One very near miss and that was all I needed to get my act together.

Newbies

The funnest part of today’s session was teaching some new players at 11:30 a.m. There was John, who is in his mid-30s, and his friend Natalia who said she was 28, and yet another beginner who showed up named David—a retired UCSC astrophysicist professor. When I asked, David said that he does now the father of a friend of mine, another retired UCSC astrophysicist professor, Dr. Peter Bodenheimer. John and Natalia had wooden paddles that they had purchased as part of a cheap set. David have been gifted a paddle by a family—a nice one, a Ben Johns signature Joola paddle. All three had never played before, so I went through the normal stuff such as a non-volley zone, the double bounce rule, the two types of serves, how to hold the paddle, etc. They all did pretty well. After the explanations and warming up with dinking, I only played a few points in a game with them before I had to leave to teach out at Willowbrook. I had asked Ted earlier in the morning if he would be around at noon and I asked if he would close he agreed.

What a typical day looks like at Derby. This photo was taken by someone else and shared on Instagram.

While I won a lot of games today, it was kind of a boring outing. For most of the morning, I was unquestionably the best player there out of 40 people. A little bit later on, Bob Hansen showed up then Hugh and Brandon . . . so there were more stronger players. The dream game would’ve been the four of us , but that didn’t lineup. Only now, much later, do I realize that maybe I should’ve started a box in blue (4.0+) and then waited for the others to come off of the court and force the game that way. I imagine Bob would’ve been up for it. I half expected him to leave after experiencing some of the lower skills games. Truth be told, I wasn’t the site coordinator, I’d probably have headed to Brommer Park to get in some stronger games. Unfortunately, the club has a hard time finding people to commit to being a coordinator for every week. There are plenty of players willing to be back up site coordinators without the responsibility of week to week, but that only goes so far.

Willowbrook Class

I taught my class today then I also taught Sean’s class today since he’s out of town. Then Sean will cover my March 24 class since I’ll be out of town. (It’s a wash.) So I had two in a row this afternoon. It’s always bittersweet wrapping up a class. After the second class today, one student shared, “You are a great coach.” Then another chimed in, “You are a wealth of information!” Those are the moments that make coaching worthwhile.

Monday, March 11, 2024 (No Play)

Yesterday, I reached out to Joola yesterday to see if I qualified for a discount with my various pickleball roles. They got back to me and offered at 10% discount. Nothing like some of the discounts offered from other manufacturers, but better than a sharp stick to the eye.

Backpack

I’m on a quest to find my perfect pickleball backpack. There are things I like and dislike about every one I’ve found so far. A key for me is I nearly always hang mine on a fence, so it has to be very functional for a vertical orientation. The Joola was very promising, with a lot of pockets, but the zippers and pockets are more designed for use when the bag is set down horizontally. The quest continues!

Number of days on a court: 634
Number of total hours: 2,745
Number of paid coaching hours: 21.5

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