Monday, August 13, 2018 (Court Day #181)

I was all set to head to Brommer Park and get there early. One small problem. The plumbers were coming between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. to work on our home’s broken water main and my wife was running my son up to the university for his summer internship. So instead, I was waiting. And waiting. They arrived shortly after 9 and my wife arrived back about 5 minutes later. After a brief chat with the plumbers—Caleb and Mario—I was off!

I was driving along when I pulled up behind a car. “RN’s RX” is what was on the license plate. The plate frame mentioned pickleball, there was a USAPA sticker in the back window and a pickleball poised on the antenna on the roof. There was little doubt that we were both headed to the same courts and also little doubt that the car belongs to Karen Long, RN! I couldn’t make out who was driving, so I passed the car. Terry, her husband.

Brommer Park

I arrived at Brommer at about 9:30. I could only stay until about 11:15 then I’d have to head home and get ready for work.

Today, I would pass 500 hours on a pickleball court. Quite the milestone!

Before 10 a.m. during a club gathering, it’s mixed play regardless of skill level. The first game of the day was with Leslie, Kent, and a woman who I’d never met before named Nancy.  Nancy is an above average player. Nancy and I were handed a loss, somewhere around 11-5. It was a good challenging game. Kent was playing particularly well.

I was a bit frustrated today. I spent the rest of the morning cycling through weaker games. I love playing and I’m not against playing with observably weaker players now and then to help bring them up. I was a 3.0 myself last year. Heck, I spent part of my morning yesterday teaching rank beginners. The last thing I want to do is be a stuck up player who’s “above” playing with others whom he thinks is “beneath” him.

But I am now a solid 3.5 tournament player and would like to get at least some challenging games in. That said, if I played consistently as well as I am able, I’d be a 4.0, and there is a reason that I’m not a 4.0! I don‘t walk on water—not even close! I blow shots and sometimes make a bad shot selection here and there.

But I would like to frequently be in games where I’m not obviously the strongest player on the court. Today, I did ask at one point to be the fourth in a box with three red names, but I was denied. I get it. Advanced is supposed to be 4.0 and up. Again I’m only a 3.5. They want exactly what I want—a good challenging game.

Announcements

Leslie, as site coordinator at Brommer, interrupted play mid-morning for a group announcement. It was about skill levels and private game etiquette outside of club play times. Terry mentioned the club’s rating committee for those hoping to learn what their skill level is.

I wasn’t convinced as to how much good it will do, however. since 2.5 and 3.0 players just went right back to signing up in Intermediate, which is supposed to be 3.5.

So, as I said, I was in repeated games with weaker players all morning. (After wild points, with the difference in skill levels, I’d get “how did you even manage to just do that?” looks.) I was entering a game with Carl and he told Gene—who’s played for 3 months—my partner for the game, “Andrew just clobbered us twice, you are getting a good partner.” In an effort to win, Carl and Wayne proceeded to avoid hitting to me the whole game. *sigh* (These days, in rec play, I’m either treating my two opposing players equally or intentionally hitting the ball to the better player!)

Frustration

Staffing at work has been so bad the last few months, I haven’t been able to get to Brommer. But the last two times that I’ve been out there, I’ve been seriously tempted to leave early. It’s just not that much fun. It’s like seeing cake (really good players) but not being able to eat any (playing with them) or having a sports car in bumper to bumper traffic. Over at Derby, the Advanced group is usually different since the top players in the club generally don’t come. I’m out there signing up in red with Brennan, Oleg, Eric, sometimes James or Cameron and we have some great games.

I don’t know what the general solution is. For me personally, it’s for me to pay my dues with time and effort and earn my way into a 4.0 rating by getting more consistent. But there are also others right now in my shoes in the twilight zone between the mass chaos of Intermediate (as it stands now) and the . . . well, as Allan alluded to in the group discussion . . . the chaos of Advanced with it’s own wide range of skill levels. If I had my skill set in the 70+ age group, I’d easily be a 4.0 in tournament play.

I don’t want or expect to be in the Brommer Advanced group. But I would like to see better games in the Intermediate group more frequently.

I guess another solution for those of us in limbo is to simply do what Terry suggested against, that is, just wait, get a group of four together and sign up all at once. Or just sit out and wait 10, 15, 20 minutes hoping to get a better game. But, as Terry said, you get less playing time that way, that’s why the club has the board with different skill levels. But it’s not working all that well for Intermediate.

You know, sometimes, I think I take this all too seriously. Ah, well.

I left Brommer at 11:28.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018 (No Court Play)

I received an email when I was at home for lunch from Mofia Pickleball, the husband/wife company, which was at the Golden State Championships in Concord recording all the matches. Just what I needed after yesterday. Exciting! The three matches that Rob and I played were available for analysis.

My internet connection at home is super slow, so I downloaded the 5GB file at work instead. (The work connection is over 8 times faster.)

When I got home, I watched some of the footage. Boy. I knew I was playing badly that day, but seeing it recorded is just depressing. I just have to shake my head. I’ll get it uploaded for you—my dear readers—at some point, but it’ll certainly be for the point of education of others who can learn from my mistakes and not for self-aggrandizement! It’s embarrassing. A cosmic wakeup call:
“Hey! Sometimes you belong with those 3.0 players!”

Number of days on a court: 181
Number of total hours: 501.5

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