Author: andrewlenz (Page 150 of 328)

Sunday, July 10, 2022 (Court Day #514)

When I got to Derby Park about 8:50 a.m. there was game going on one of the crummy city-provided nets while Mark G. was kindly blowing off the courts with his personal blower that he brought from home. He wasn’t sure if we had replaced the club blower that was in the club storage box that was stolen in recent weeks.

I played pretty well today with no super eventful games. It was nice to see Binh again, I hadn’t played with him for probably at least six months and maybe a year. I did get a game against him. He played with Ted and I played with Eric S. Binh made some nice shots. He did try a couple of lobs over my head while I was at the net, but I just jumped up and slammed them back for winners.

Visitor from D.C.

The sun came out, through it was still pretty mild temperatures. We had a fellow named Chime (chim-ee) from Washington D.C. visiting family. He said the weather here is amazing. Yep, not as hot, not as muggy, not as many bugs.

Confidence

Eric S. and I were playing a game against Rick and his girlfriend René. Since the morning was so crowded, we were playing to 9 instead of 11, win by 1. The score was 8-2 with us down. But I was supremely confident. It may not have been reasonable, but I had no doubt in my mind we could win. I turned to Eric at the baseline and told him right before we were about to serve, “As Charles told me about a week ago, ‘this game is eminently winnable’.” We went on a run of points, had a side out, then once we had the serve again, we went on to win that game 9-8.

Drama

There is ongoing drama going on with players being told where they belong in the skill hierarchy. The woman I told recently that she needed to sign up in intermediate, not advanced, pleaded her case with me again. I told her to write to the board (of the club) and explain her issue. I also told her, that I’d play a game against her and see how she did. “But you can’t judge by just one game, people are nervous in those situations.” I agreed with that.

I did play a game with against her later, she played with Mark G. and I played with a guy named Mike—about 60, sporting a sleeveless T-shirt—who is either a strong 3.0 or a weak 3.5, he’s a fence straddler. I think I’d consider him a strong intermediate versus a weak advanced. At Brommer, Mike would be an intermediate, no question. The woman turned to Mark and said, “Andrew has been on fire, I was watching him earlier.” It was no contest. Mike played about as good as Mark and I was playing well. It was lopsided and the woman left after the post-game paddle tap without speaking to me. She’s not a bad player—has a solid hard game—but not enough control or soft game to be an advanced player, in my opinion. But I’ll, sure, withhold “final” judgement until I see another game.

Elbow

My right elbow is bothering me a little bit. It has me slightly concerned, but I expect the discomfort to go away. I have been playing quite a bit the last week or so after getting back the European trip my wife and I took.

I headed home shortly after 1:30 p.m.

Sunday Cartoon

Pickleball is hitting the mainstream. A third recent cartoon appeared in the funnies today:

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Monday, July 11, 2022 (No play)

The Focus Training Paddle arrived today.

My first observation is that it is very top heavy. And perhaps heavy in general—I’ll need to weigh it. I’ll also need to add a layer of grip tape to it since the handle is too narrow for my liking.

Number of days on a court: 514
Number of total hours: 2,372

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Friday, July 8, 2022 (Court Day #513)

I arranged to take the morning off from work, and I left my house about 8:55 a.m. It was quite warm outside already with the sun brightly shining. 

I have to say my arm is holding up amazingly well. I’m experiencing some pain on the inside of my elbow, however the outside of my elbow where I was having tennis elbow problems is doing great—especially considering how much I been playing the past week. The back of my right hand is having a little bit of periodic minor pain with certain motions and that worries me a little bit that it may suddenly flare up again to be quite painful, but so far it’s doing well.

I pulled into the parking lot at 9:09 a.m. Seven courts had games going and the eighth had Dean and Dan Bliss drilling on it.

Advanced? Not So Much.

I got into some unmemorable games in the mixed skill time until 10 a.m. when I saw that there was an advanced box that contained Leslie, Dan Bliss, and someone named Rob. It turns out this particular Rob is a shorter fellow was visiting from Alameda. Rob said he was a 3.5 player who is a 4.0 on a good day, I told him I was in the same boat. Before I put my name into the box as the fourth player, I walked over to where Dan and Leslie were sitting and I asked them if I could join their box. Leslie said yes, but Dan hesitated a second then agreed. I said to Dan, “You hesitated, it’s OK if you say no.” Then he said that he did hesitate but he was OK playing with me.

When the court opened up Leslie and I faced off against Rob and Dan. Rob played very poorly, maybe not even at a 3.0 level. He apologized to Dan after the game. Leslie and I won the game in a very lopsided manner. I had a very solid performance missing making very few errors. As they walked back to the waiting area, Dan talked to Rob about signing up in an appropriate color, and in this particular case Dan meant intermediate blue, not advanced red. Rob gave some pushback and convinced Dan to let him play another game in red.

Next

We went on to play another game, this time with Tony S. as my partner against Rob and Dan. Rob played better—which probably would’ve been hard not to do—and it was a good back-and-forth game which Tony and I won. I had another very respectable performance in that game. I successfully pulled off a couple of very difficult shots in that game and after each of them Tony played me a compliment. Nice.  After that game, in the waiting area, Dan smiled and said, “That was a fun game.” I concurred, “That was a fun game.”

More

At noon, I played a game with the same Rob against René and her boyfriend Rick. One game with Rob and one against Rob. Rob was on the losing side each time. By that time both René and I were dragging. We were leading 8-0 and let them catch up quite a bit until we finally wrapped it up 11-7.

It was about 12:40 p.m. by the time that I left.

Number of days on a court: 513
Number of total hours: 2,367.5

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Thursday, July 7, 2022 (Court Day #512)

I arrived at Skypark after work at about 6:40 p.m. Things were hopping and the lot was full. I set up a net with Matt then we warmed up and drilled together. After about five or ten minutes, Matt’s friend Paul showed up and I ended up in a game with David from Aptos against Matt and Paul. That was a pretty fun game and wasn’t too out of balance. David apologized afterwards for his errors, but heck, it was a warm-up game.

My next game is with fire fighter Matt Smith against Matt and Paul. We won thaf game fairly decisively.

Good Games

I played a number of games with Texas Mike against Dan, a strong player whom I played with on Tuesday, with René as his partner. Those are some pretty fun games. We split the games in that configuration, then René and I played against Mike and Dan. René and I took a big lead and they nearly tied up the game but René and I then wrapped it up winning 11-8.

Pendulum Up!

What a difference two days makes! I walked off the courts Tuesday night feeling really, really depressed about my skills. Tonight, I was playing extremely sharp, hitting very, very few shots into the net or out or too high. It was great. I’m very pleased.

Number of days on a court: 512
Number of total hours: 2,364

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