Tuesday, May 7, 2024 (Court Day #656)

At 6:55 p.m., I was walking through the Skypark playground on my way to the courts—I’m being nice to the neighbors and have started parking that quarter mile away and hoofing it in. It’s not that long of a walk, though it can feel long . . . it’s less than five minutes. It was sunny for my trek, though with long shadows.

Games

I was invited into a game in very short order. Gregg asked me to play with him against two young guys that I don’t know. I hadn’t seen Gregg in many months. They were good warm-up games, nothing to write home about.

Then I was a game with Gregg against Spencer and his friend Mo. Mo is not tall, but she can pack a wallop with her shots. Spencer can be always counted on to play well.

I played well in those games.

First-Rate Games

The games of the night were Matt Babb and myself playing against the two Tims—Tim Handley and Tim Feickert. The two Tim clobbered us in the first game, beating us 11–3.

But fortunately, they were willing to roll it back and we played a second game. This time the outcome was entirely different with Matt and myself won the game by several points. That was a surprise upset.

After that, all four of us wanted to play a third time—for the unspoken ‘best two out of three’—which we did. Matt and I were leading 5-1 in that game over the two Tims when they came back to win. I made three errors in a row that gave them points later in the game. Nonetheless, I was happy I was playing fairly well against some stiff competition in those games.

More Games

The next game with Spencer and myself playing against Tim Handley and Miguel. Spencer wasn’t playing quite as well as I was expecting him to, and Miguel was playing much better than I was expecting. As a result, the game was pretty close, but Spencer and I did win.

Skinny Singles

After that, Tim was done for the night, as was Miguel. Spencer still wanted to play and we had about 10 minutes before the lights clicked off at 9:30. He asked if anyone wanted to play singles. I hesitated. Singles are a lot of running and my surgically-cleaned right knee was already not feeling 100%. With no takers, he followed up by offering skinny singles and that I took him up on. Spencer scored a lot of points and it was it 1-6. But as I started to adjust the game, I started scoring some points I climbed up and the score 7–10 when the lights clicked off. Spencer said, “Once you started figuring out the game, he started kicking my ass.” I don’t know about that, but I was playing much better than I had started.

Mauricio Drilling

Mauricio stopped me and said that our tentative plan for meeting tomorrow morning to drill was not going to work because he was very likely going to have to drive to San Francisco. However, he suggested Friday morning would work after he dropped off his kids at school. When I asked him how long it took him to take his kids to school, I heard 50 minutes. But that couldn’t be right, so I asked him, “15?” He said, “No, 50.” I asked how far is it was and he said it was about a mile and a half. Huh? I was wondering “why would it take so long to drive a mile and a half” but it turns out he walks instead in order to give himself time to chat with his kids, then he turns around and walks home alone afterwards. Regardless, our new plan is to meet at 8:45 a.m. on Friday morning and drill. That’ll be good, that’s the day before René and I will have our tournament at Brommer Park.

Hangin’

After the lights went out, for about 15 minutes, I talked to the guys who were hanging out. Ofer was asking how I felt about my new Gearbox paddle. I told him that the first night that I played with it, I really loved it. The second time out and beyond, I don’t notice a difference as much, but I do like the paddle and I’m sticking with it. He said that he had tried it and didn’t like it. Same with Spencer.

Cannon Fodder

Mike—who has been known to play shirtless—asked how my teaching was going. I told him that I have my last group in Aptos and then my June classes will be at Skypark. I told him that I have been teaching beginner classes, but I’ll be teaching a new “advanced beginner” class with the goal of taking the students from being “canon fodder” to being closer to intermediate players. Mike chuckled and shared what Max had told him a few months ago. After I came back from my 6-month knee surgery absence, I told Max that he was “no longer canon fodder”. Apparently, Max wasn’t too sure what to make of that. Mike said he had assured Max, “I’m pretty sure that’s a compliment.” Yes, it was definitely intended as a compliment! Max improved to an intermediate player in that time period!

Pathway Home

At 9:55 p.m., exactly three hours after I arrived, I was walking the darkness along the path back to my car by the Skypark field and I used the light on my phone to help guide my way since it was quite dark.

Wednesday, May 8, 2024 (No Play)

My knee is bothering me a bit today. I iced it last night. I’m sure the games with the two Tims and the skinny singles game took their toll. I’m planning to play with René tomorrow night to get ready for Saturday’s tournament, so hopefully, it’ll bounce back instead of getting worse.

Number of days on a court: 656
Number of total hours: 2,808.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 33

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