Tuesday, October 1, 2024 (Court Day #721)
Today was a really warm day in the 90s. As I was driving to Scotts Valley at 6:30 p.m., it was already sunset and it had cooled some.
City P&R Meeting
At 1 p.m. today, Mark Dettle, the president of the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club, and I had a virtual meeting with the Parks & Rec Department of the City of Santa Cruz regarding putting in pickleball courts at Depot Park. The meeting lasted about 45 minutes and we talked about how many courts we could fit, the proper orientation of those courts with regard to the sun, possible evening lighting, access and egress, possible neighborhood noise concerns… a wide range of things. If everything goes according to plan and we might have courts there as soon as spring or summer 2025. But you never know.
Tournament
René reached out last week about the tournament being hosted by the Rotary Club at Cabrillo College on Saturday. It’s a fundraising event. René was trying to line up a partner. I reached out to her today and she said that she didn’t have a partner yet. She was a bit concerned about the lack of competition since she knew that there would be at least a few 4.0+ players, but it would probably be pretty light beyond that.
We agreed to partner up and play in the tournament. René texted, “You have hella fast hands so we’re golden.” That’s it, instill confidence in your partner!
Skypark
My first game was with Mauricio against retiring Mike and a woman whom I don’t know. Mike said they were going to play in a tournament together on Saturday so they wanted to pair up. Mike said up front that he expected them to lose. We all did some crosscourt dinks and some drop shots and by the time we finish warming up about five or six minutes later we were already in the last court position. There, we started our game.
This, my first game of the evening, I played extremely well. Surprisingly, Mike and his partner scored a number of points and went ahead. They started targeting Mauricio relentlessly, but even then we eventually made the game close. It was tied up 10–10 in a back-and-forth, long game. In the end, we won 14–12.
More Games
I continued to play very well for another couple of games.
After about an hour, my play started to deteriorate. Mauricio and I played a game against Gabe and Paul W. and got clobbered. Everything that could go wrong, did got wrong. I returned serves long and popped up a few shots, Mauricio was popping up shots or hitting the ball into the net… it was generally bad. We went for a rematch and the result the similar.
Better
Later on, I played better. Rachel and I played a game against Spencer and a woman, maybe it was Christy, I can’t remember. I do remember one rally were the ball got popped up to Spencer directly across from me on the left side while we were both at the NVZ. He slammed the ball down at my feet. I managed to hit a low cross-court shot that landed outside of his partner’s left foot and she couldn’t get the ball back, hitting the ball into the net. Sometimes, you manage shots that are inexplicable. (Yeah, maybe I do have quick hands!)
There was a conversation about getting to the net on the return of serve. Paul was saying if you hit a bad return, it’s best to stop in the transition zone and give yourself time to react to a hard drive. My contention was people to run up until the opponent is about to hit the ball then you split step. “But then, since you are close, you don’t have time to deal with their drives.” “I could probably deal with it anyway.” Paul W. paused, looked at me and said, “You probably could—you were bringing it.” (I had my moments tonight.) There is some validity to Paul’s contention. If your return is absolutely terrible—very high and short—staying back to give yourself some time is probably not a bad idea.
Mauricio definitely had an off night. I typically see him play far better than he did this evening.
Wednesday, October 2, 2024 (No Play)
Today, I noticed that Ernie Medina Jr. posted an article in the USA Pickleball Ambassador’s Facebook group.
Journal of Physical Activity and Health, Volume 21: Issue 9…
Pickleball Participation and the Health and Well-Being of Adults—A Scoping Review
https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jpah/21/9/article-p847.xml
Number of days on a court: 721
Number of total hours: 2,972
Number of paid coaching hours: 78.5
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