Author: andrewlenz (Page 178 of 329)

Sunday, November 14, 2021 (Court Day #434)

As I drove to Derby Park to open and set up, my right arm was acting up a bit with certain motions on the steering wheel—it’s slightly sore. But not enough to keep me from playing mostly comfortably right-handed today, As I walked in at 8:45, Maia was there hitting a ball back and forth with an older man that I don’t know.

It was already sunny and it was a warm day that other players commented on the heat. We are so spoiled. It’s in the 70s and we’re complaining about it being hot in the middle of November!

Once 10 a.m. rolled around and players were signing up in skill-based colors, I was signing up in red (advanced) mostly with Eric S., Ted B., and Rick.

Ted commented that I was playing really well. He again later praised my net play.

Kids

I looked over to a court near the end and Allan K. was playing with a number of boys, I’d guess between 8 and 10 years old. It brought up an interesting dilemma, that is, they are too young to legally sign the release that the club requires to play during their time (time which is an agreement with the city) and the boys had no legal guardian with them. We want to be welcoming and grow the sport, but the trick is, what if they got seriously hurt? Who do we call after an ambulance? We’d have no one to contact. This will need to be addressed by the SCPC board.

Matt and Sara

The new taller guy with the gray mustache, Matt, was back. This time, he brought his college-aged daughter, Sara. Sara goes to Sacramento State and plays on their D1 soccer team. She’s also a Biology major with medical school aspirations—just a few years behind my own Biology/PreMed-track daughter Charlotte. Med school is super competitive. Charlotte was telling me she applied to school with 190 openings but a whopping 17,000 applications! Sara did ok. Natural athletic ability.

Net Time

Shortly after 12:30, I started taking down nets. Three were on vacant courts. Eric and Ted helped. This new group of players aren’t stepping up to chip in. Old hands are more altruistic and ask to take down nets at the end of the session.

After stowing the club nets, I got talked into another few games and it wasn’t until almost 2 p.m. before I left. A big chunk of my day at the pickleball court!

Mistakes

I think my most chronic error today—and it was only once or twice an hour—was hitting service returns too long. And I’ve mentioned this before, but a slice service return needs to be a full and no-holds-barred commitment, otherwise . . . out the ball goes!

Arm

When I got home, I could feel my arm. It’s a combination of soreness on the inside of my elbow and a little of my tennis elbow. A few hours later, I iced my arm—one cooling pack on the outside of my arm, another on the inside.

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Monday, November 15, 2021 (No Play)

My right arm is experiencing more pain on the inside of my elbow than the outside or the top of my forearm. Unexpected, but better than a relapse of intense forearm pain.

One question puzzling me is, am I as good a player as pre-arm problems or am I now starting to exceed where I was two years ago? Or am I still working back up to my prior skill level? My sense is I may be about back to where I was. Better? Hard to say. I do have some new weapons . . . such as an overhead shot lefty or an even more solid lefty dink for those crosscourt dinks. I guess if I ever get the yips right-handed, I can switch to left. But better righty? Not sure yet.

Number of days on a court: 434
Number of total hours: 2,136.5

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

Thursday, November 11, 2021 (Court Day #433)

It was a stunningly beautiful day today. As I drove to Skypark in the dark, my car read 60°. The time change was last Sunday, so the sun is long set by the time work wraps up these days. When I got to the courts a few minutes after 6:30, parking was overflowing well into the neighboring streets. I parked in an unorthodox fashion next to the walking path. I wasn’t the only one parking weirdly, cars were jammed in next to trees, for example.

There were a couple of dads and two young kids playing tennis. Then there were over 30 pickleball players. What is nutty is I had never seen nearly half of these players before! So many new faces!

Once I got into a game, I was rolling from one to next until the lights went off at 9:30. While I wasn’t perfect, I was playing very, very well. I was pleased.

I got to play in a game with Tim against Mike B. and Mark Dettle. Mark was playing some of his better play tonight. That was a really fun game. It was a battle. Mike is always a formidable opponent.

Maia asked if I’d mind giving her a ride to downtown Santa Cruz, I agreed and that apparently allowed her to play later into the evening. We ended up playing a series of games with Tim and Paul, then with Paul and his friend Eric—me swapping between Maia and Eric as my partners. Maia mentioned to Tim that I had been coaching her and a few others on Tuesday. I was impressed with her progress. “I’m officially addicted,” she shared. I chuckled, “Welcome to the club!”

Analysing Play

When I lose rallies, I try to take a few seconds to figure out what went wrong. Sometimes, it’s obvious, like a dink into the net. (Though I still don’t know why that happens sometimes!) Other times, like on a couple of shots from Mark Dettle tonight, the ball came to my upper paddle arm which is always awkward. A “chicken wing” shot. I have to wonder if I’m missing opportunities by not hitting more to my opponent’s paddle side between the hip and armpit when I’m attacking dinks at the net. Something to keep in mind.

Arm

My right arm felt pretty good. Nonetheless, I iced it anyway.

As I was about to crawl into bed, I checked my phone. There were a few texts—my wife reminding me to take our 6-month-old corgi puppy Pepper to the vet tomorrow morning, my bagpiping mentor saying he’d come by after work tomorrow to play along with me and one of my staff who is a current student of his—and one of those texts was Kristin L. more or less apologizing for her play and telling me that I’m a “great player”. Heck, I have bad days too. All good.

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Friday, November 12, 2021 (No Play)

Today, the club sent out a notice that Derby Park will be closed a couple of days—Wednesday and Thursday—next week while the city repairs the cracks in the courts there. The surface definitely needs some TLC!

Number of days on a court: 433
Number of total hours: 2,131.5

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

Tuesday, November 9 , 2021 (Court Day #432)

It rained today. There was a text strand of a bunch of pickleball players who frequent Skypark in the evenings. Someone said the rain had stopped in Scotts Valley, another said he was going to check the courts . . . it all sounded like things were a go. Judging from the weather, I wasn’t convinced, but I’m always optimistic. Ominously, there were only four cars in the parking lot when I pulled in about 6:45 p.m. Not a good sign.

There was a man I didn’t know sitting and watching Larry L., Sabina, Maia, and Vanessa. (Mia is propounded “my-ah”.) Right before he left mere minutes after I arrived, the man said they had been there since 5:30 . Since they’d already been playing over an hour, the rest were happy enough to allow me to rotate in.

The courts weren’t entirely dry but I didn’t slip during my two hours of play. There is always that risk—we all knew that—and indeed, Sabina did slip and fall while dashing and reaching during one rally, but she was no worse for the wear. (Considering that she’s on the local roller derby team where they crash into each other intentionally, I suspect she’s used to bumps and bruises and falling.) The courts gradually got more and more dry and slipping faded away as a concern.

Taking It Easy

It was obvious to me that Larry was taking it easy on the ladies like I was. Larry and I are both significantly better than the ladies . . . but they are all pretty new after all. I opted to play lefty. Larry was pretty tired and took off about an hour after I arrived.

As the evening went on, Sabina chuckled, “He’s playing offhanded and he’s still kicking our asses.” I had to hold back a laugh after that one. She had no idea. I was working very hard to merely keep the ball in play and not hit winners!

I used various scenarios as lessons here and there. Some I waited until games were over. They all seemed appreciative of the coaching moments. Maia said Larry had four of them drilling at the NVZ line (less risk of slipping) with a one player dinking, another volleying, another driving, another resetting. I suspect there were some challenges accomplishing that, but nonetheless, drills are always good regardless of skill level and abilities.

Arm

I took every shot tonight left-handed tonight, so my right arm got a break. My right was feeling pretty good—knock on wood—so it probably would have been fine getting used.

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Wednesday, November 10, 2021 (No Play)

This link below was suggested on the Pickleball Forums on Facebook—for videos of busy pickleball courts and unused tennis courts. One of the videos that I’m sure they were referring to is actually our local Brommer Park!
https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/163889547-brommer-park-santa-cruz-california-full-pickleball-courts-sm

Number of days on a court: 432
Number of total hours: 2,128.5

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