Newbies

Wednesday, August 21, 2019 (Court Day #297)

56th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

Today started out sunny. There was no fog to keep us cool at the courts. I arrived around 9:30—one of my staff was going to be a no-show and I had to confirm we’d have adequate staffing. (I checked with the one least likely to work as planned, but he was coming.) Also, my wife had left her lunch on the kitchen counter when she left to teach the first day of 1st grade. Oops. I ran that to school and dropped it off with her.

From right to left: Joe, the newbie guy (white), Tim pointing at Eric, Tristan (blond hair) standing next to Patty, Art (white) with is back turned, Jeanne talking to Ted B., Ron (dark clothes) and blocked behind Jeanne is Gary, Terry’s husband.

The game of the day was Eric and me playing against Trevor and Rich. Eric and I lead most of the game, but my game fell apart a bit at the end and Trevor and Rich won by a couple of points. Trevor is a solid 3.5 and Rich, on good days, can pass as a 4.0. I don’t know Trevor other than I think I’ve seen him a few times in recent weeks. This was my first game with him. I played pretty darn well up until the last few points. Taking a step back, it’s pretty amazing that I held my own in this game playing left-handed. Right?

Today, I hit one ball back to someone absentmindedly using my right arm and that was a mistake. This morning, my arm had no longer felt like a constant charlie horse in my forearm. Well, that’s back. Stinks.

There were a couple of first-timers today. A young guy with an unusual name from a European country with a tennis background and a tall woman named Cheryl who said she played a little pickleball as a kid in Seattle. She mentioned something about her grandson, so likely she’s at least in her 50s. Both of them have good hand-eye coordination and can get the ball back over the net. It’s just learning the rules and strategy and developing pickleball-specific skills. As site coordinator, Eric S. provided the basics.

The last game of the day was Eric and Jeanne against me and Cheryl, the newbie. In this case, it was good that they were hitting to the weaker partner on my team—I don’t need the practice! It was a throw-away instructional game.

My serving was better today. Thank goodness. It’s been crummy lately.

Number of days on a court: 297
Number of total hours: 822

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