Sunday, June 9, 2024 (Court Day #671)

In my ongoing battle with those who say to never switch hands, here is elite pro Riley Newman doing exactly that, switching to his left hand to make a shot:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7-W1JRga5U

Derby

Somehow, today I was just moving slowly and got a late start and ended up walking into the courts just before 9 a.m. Fortunately, when I arrived, the bins are already open the dry erase board was up and the one net that needs to be set up was already up. Later, I learned Barb Gerry had opened up the bins for me and I thanked her. It’s embarrassing to be late to set up as the site coordinator. It wouldn’t be the last embarrassing moment for me today, unfortunately.

14 players inside waiting along the fence.

It was extremely busy today—51 players at one count—with long waits. With so many people, there was no question that I had to make the games to 9 and win by 1, instead of playing 11 win by 2.

22 more players waiting to play outside the courts.

It had started at 61° and overcast. At about 11 a.m., the clouds burned off. It was much cooler today than a few days ago when it got up into low 80s.

There was one game where J.J. and I played against Brandon and Glenn. I’ve been playing really well, but this game everything seem to be going wrong. I returned at least two or three serves passed the baseline. That was miserable. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. After waiting probably 20 minutes to get into the game, it was a lopsided quick one where J.J. and I lost 1-9 or 3–9. It was bad.

All the rest of the games, I played just fine.

I only got into one game that would be considered a truly advanced game. All the rest of them had at least one intermediate player.

My last game ran until 12:14 p.m., and Rick A.—who I asked to close for me—wanted me to take the donation money with me and that took another bit of time so I didn’t get home from the courts until 12:30. Then I had to immediately turn around after a very quick lunch to get to teach classes at Skypark in Scotts Valley.

Skypark Classes

Today was my first day teaching in Scotts valley instead of in Aptos at Willowbrook Park. I left my house shortly before 1 p.m., later than I wanted but my wife had moved my coaching clipboard and I couldn’t find it without a hunt. (It has been slid into a cubby under the computer desk.) Still, I was at the courts about 10 minutes before my class was to start.

After the Advanced Beginner class, Katie told me that my class went really well and she couldn’t be happier. That’s very nice to hear. I did tell that that while I’ve subbed for more advanced classes, this was the first time teaching this exact class.

Everything did go really well, though it was noticeably warmer than Aptos. At least there was no traffic getting home. Though I did have 43 text messages when I was done teaching! Boy.

Monday, June 10, 2024 (No Play)

I found out that a week and a half ago, Harvard Medical School released an article regarding eye protection in pickleball:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/protect-your-eyes-when-playing-pickleball
A key paragraph:
“Researchers cited numerous types of pickleball-related eye damage, such as corneal abrasions (scratching of the eye surface), retinal tears or detachment, Berlin’s edema (damage to the retina’s outer layers, causing decreased vision for several hours), and hyphema (bleeding in the front chamber of the eye that can lead to glaucoma).”

Another sense of vindication that I always wear eye protection while playing!

Number of days on a court: 671
Number of total hours: 2,851
Number of paid coaching hours: 40.5

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.