Author: andrewlenz (Page 168 of 329)

Thursday, February 3, 2022 (Court Day #464)

Last night, the three vaccine shots hit me. I was shivering in bed even with two heated rice bags, so I almost certainly had a mild fever. Also my body ached and I was overly exhausted.

As my workday wound down today and my body still had mild aching, I was torn between going to play pickleball and going home to curl up in bed! In the end, I opted to get exercise. (When I went to the doctor yesterday and the nurse checked my vitals, she said my blood pressure was good—114 over 75—and my pulse was good, 63 BPM…I figure pickleball is at least partly responsible for those healthy numbers.)

Skypark

When I arrived at Skypark about 6:30 p.m., the lot was full so I parked in an unorthodox manner off the paved areas. I hopefully neighbors would prefer that versus me taking up a space in front of their home, but there’s always a chance that someone might call the po-po and I get a ticket.

Texas Mike (a.k.a. Mike B.) wanted to play a game as my partner. Before we kicked it off with the first serve, he told me, ”I’m not reaching very far for things.” Mike has a right shoulder issue and he’s going to visit the PT tomorrow for it. I was expecting us to win this game and I was not expecting it to be close. We’d be playing Matt (of Matt and Paul) and Robin whom I don’t believe I’d played with before. Matt is coming along, but Mike and I are both better. And Robin didn’t exactly look formidable. If I was hoping to impress Mike to have him consider me as tournament partner someday, this game was not the way to do it. We both didn’t play our best and fell behind. It wasn’t looking good. Robin is far better than one would think at first glance. But Mike and I clawed back and won a game that I believe should have never been in jeopardy.

Surprise!

Over the years, you’d think I’d learn to not judge the skill of a player by his or her appearance. Tonight, there was Robin and John. John plays at Derby Park now and then, so he’s a familiar face, though we rarely play on the same court. Robin—John’s partner—is about 5’2″, probably about 60-years-old with long, gray hair . . . not a six-five muscular figure of power. But Robin can get the ball back over the net and she has a wicked crosscourt angled dropshot! She got me on one and got Texas Mike on one too. Not bad.

After Mike hit John with a ball, Robin told him that it was a good shot and that “we were drilling that at the camp.” I don’t know what camp she was talking about, but I like that—hitting a ball where it is awkward for the other player to return it. I’m not talking court placement, I’m talking aiming for an opponent’s armpit or hip.

Play wrapped up about 9 p.m.

Mike, Robin, John and I stuck around and chatted for a few minutes. Robin and John live in a housing complex on the lower westside. Robin was spearhead of having a private pickleball court (lines with a rolling net) installed there recently. They invite players to play with them there. In fact, Mike was invited to play with them through another player and this lead to a surprised Robin: “Oh, you’re Texas Mike!” I told them about an app which helps rate you since you enter game scores after rec play. I couldn’t remember the name of the app though!

What did I learn?

I’m a nice guy, sometimes too nice. When I decide to poach and use a forehand to take to a shot that’s a little on my partner’s side, part of me feels bad and I hesitate and that leads to errors. That happened tonight with John. I took the shot, didn’t 100% commit and hit the ball into the net. Lovely.

Arm

My arm has been holding up surprisingly well considering the abuse I’ve been giving it. There was one slam that I felt pain on the inside of my elbow at that instant.

The App

This was the site/app I was trying to remember:
https://www.dupr.gg
I mentioned it in an earlier post.

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Saturday, February 4, 2022 (No Play)

Fun news today, Washington State is about to make pickleball their official state sport. Here in California, the state sport is surfing. (The wetsuit was invented here in Santa Cruz by the grandfather of one of my son’s former classmates.) Pickleball has its origins in the Pacific Northwest, so it only makes sense that it should be recognized up there:
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/make-homegrown-pickleball-official-sport-of-wa-state

Video

This popped up on my YouTube suggestions. I watched this a little differtnly. In dink battles, how deep does that ball land? I pick a player, focus on her and before she hits the ball, i decide what shot would I select to hit? If she does something else, did it work? Did she miss an opportunity?

Koop seemed overly aggressive early on (i only watched about 15 minutes, though i jumped back a number of times to rewatch rallies.)

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Saturday, February 5, 2022 (No Play)

There’s a new rule in 2022. And it’s kind of important for tournaments. The basic gist is this. If the wrong score is called and the ball is served, you play through. If you stop play for the call of a wrong score, you lose the point. (Kind of stinks in my book, but that’s the new rule.) If the serving team are in the wrong positions for the score and they serve, you can stop play since a fault has occurred and the rally is over.

Video

Another night, another partial watching of a pro game. What did I learn from watching? Sometimes even the pros hit drop shots into the net, In the second game, Smith hits far too many dinks into the net.

Number of days on a court: 464
Number of total hours: 2,224

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

Tuesday, February 1, 2022 (Court Day #463)

We had a late customer at work so I didn’t get to Skypark until about 7 p.m.

As I walked in, Ann was on a court with a couple other players . . . Mary Beth—who is very new—and Jose, who I believe I’ve seen once or twice before. I played a game lefty with Ann, then a game with Mary Beth righty against Ann and Jose, then a game with a woman named Christy—whose husband Andrew was over on another court playing—against Ann and Jose. During my game with Mary Beth, I shared the strategy of staying closer to your partner and not leaving a gap down the middle. She said, “Just like in volleyball!” I replied, “Oh, I didn’t’ know that.” Who knew? A volleyball and pickleball strategy connection.

Sam and Murphy

I played one more lower skill game with Matt (of Matt and Paul) as my partner. I played lefty. This was against Sam, who has been around a few times now, and his girlfriend Murphy. Both are probably late 20s or early 30s. I’d say Sam is a solid 3.0 level player who regularly got it back over the net and sprinkled in some really excellent shots. Murphy has good hand-eye coordination but is very green yet. Sam was playing well enough that there was a passing thought of the game being in jeopardy, but Matt and I won as you’d expect.

Playing with the big boys

I moved into a game with firefighter Matt S. against Matt and Paul. It can be a challenge going from easy games to ones that can be intense. My play got better as the game went on, but Matt and I still lost. Paul and Matt are getting better and better and better. Both have quick hands . . . I think Paul has the quicker hands but Matt has power and has a bit more reliable shots.

Mark and I played a few games against Matt and Paul. Those were challenging and fun.

What did I learn?

While at the net, I hit two overheads into the net. That drives me crazy! Winners into losers. I have to figure out how to change that.

Arm

The inside of my elbow was sore when driving home, but seems to mostly go away overnight.

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Wednesday, February 2, 2022 a.k.a. “2/2/22” or “02/02/2022” (No Play)

I made a trip to the doctor to get checked out. While there I got a Shingles shot, a tetanus shot, and a flu shot. It’s been seven hours and so far so good. My wife said the second of the two Shingles shots is the one that does people in. We shall see.

Facebook

Tonight, I asked a question of the Pickleball Forums community about hitting overhead slams into the net. As always, you get replies that are snarky and unhelpful, but sometimes you get some with genuinely helpful information.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1340630926008388/permalink/7016379115100179

Number of days on a court: 463
Number of total hours: 2,221.5

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

Sunday, January 30, 2022 (Court Day #462)

Pickleball Anniversary 

Yesterday was my five year anniversary of starting pickleball. January 29, 2017 – January 29, 2022. I guess it stuck!

A man named Douglas from Campbell—about 30 minutes north—emailed the club asking about play at Derby since he could arrive no earlier than 11:30. This message got forwarded to me from Mark, the president, and I wrote back to Douglas giving him the scoop.

Derby

It was sunny but in the low 40s when I arrived to a deserted Derby Park. The players who would beat me there lately were nowhere to be seen. Today is a regional tournament weekend and the crowd was lighter, as I expected, topping out about 30 people. The next person to arrive was a man named Don—I’m guessing mid-40s—who lives in Los Gatos but inherited a beach house in Santa Cruz from his late parents. This was his first visit to Derby. He said he played at Brommer on a club day and it was so well-organized and everyone was so welcoming compared to  San Jose, that he figured that he’d continue to play in Santa Cruz as a regular thing.

My first game was with Don against big-mustache Steve and a woman named Susan I’d never played with. Don and I won that game handily. Susan appears to be a 2.5 level player. No one was waiting, so we decided to play a second game. I told Susan, “I’ll play with you.” With that, Susan’s luck changed and we went ahead 7-0 or thereabouts. Eventually, she made a few mistakes and they scored some points, but we still won a lopsided game. I’d put Don as a middle of the road 3.0 and Steve as a high 3.0.

Rookie Move

I had a deja vu moment playing with Mike K.—a.k.a. Grumpy Mike—deja vu of five years ago in my first few months of playing. I drove the ball at Glenn as Mike was running up to the net and the ball got slammed by Glenn at Mike’s feet. He growled, “Good thing I was running up.” (Sarcasm.) I made a bad strategic decision.

Owwie

Between games, Jason—with a big grin—pointed to my right shin, “Am I responsible for that?” I held out my leg and looked, sure enough, there was a red welt. Ted had popped up the ball and Jason took full advantage—just as I would have myself! My leg had taken the brunt of that shot.

During a game, Jason turned to me, “You shouldn’t be able to hit that—that was below the net!” I was on the right a ball had bounced just high enough to my right that I could lift and apply topspin and drive it between my opponents for a winner. Was it below the net? Maybe.

Jason had a fabulous backhand ATP around the left post against retired firefighter Matt S. “I thought you’d made a mistake!”, exclaimed the surprised Matt. Matt doesn’t see too many ATPs, I guess!

Herd of Newbies

Wandering in between noon and 1 p.m., a group of about a dozen beginners showed up where someone was teaching them to play. I didn’t know anything about it and it wasn’t club sponsored. Club play officially ends at noon, but we generally stick around an extra hour.

Douglas from Campbell never did show up. Too bad.

Arm

My right arm is holding up pretty well. The inside of my elbow was mildly painful when driving to Derby, but very mild and only at certain times.

Evening

I asked online and was provided with a link to the video of Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps and NFL star Larry Fitzgerald playing pickleball as part of a PPA event in Arizona, the 2022 Carvana Desert Ridge Open.

It’s quickly obvious to anyone who plays pickleball even somewhat regularly that the pros are merely keeping ball in play—avoiding on winning shots—and just waiting for Larry or Michael to make mistakes. Larry is decent and almost certainly had prior experience. Michael was horrid and may have never even played pickleball before. It’s entertaining like watching a train wreck. If the players weren’t famous, no one would have watched it.

Number of days on a court: 462
Number of total hours: 2,219.5

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