Since I needed to deliver the refurbished court signup board, I wanted to be Derby early. I took the morning off from work for something else that didn’t work out so … pickleball instead! I arrived at 8:45 a.m. and a number of key pickleball people were already there: Rick (the brand new Wednesday site coordinator), Leslie, Dave Witte, Dave Allenbaugh, John P., and Leslie’s husband Tim who walked in about the same time as me.
Rick on his first day as site coordinator!
Play
I felt very positive about my play today. Leslie runs with the advanced group at Brommer, so when I finish a session feeling I made a good impression of myself, that’s a good day.
I had a great game with Eric S. against Leslie and John P. Eric and I won 11-6 or something thereabouts, we still play well as a team. (I miss the days when Eric and I were tournament partners before he turned 60 and he wanted to play in age brackets!)
There was only one game in the two hours that I felt I might have easily gotten away with playing left-handed—so, strong games today. I had two people ask me or comment to me “You are playing right-handed again? Great!” I hadn’t seen Jerry in two years and Tom B. I hadn’t seen for five months since he, John P., Eric S. and I had gotten together for some Friday night play at Skypark . . . Skypark has gotten busier since then.
Leslie, center, in black, giving instructions and a club membership pitch.
Out at 10:51 a.m. for home then off to work!
Business Cards
When I got home tonight, I found a mysterious box on the dining room table. I opened it and learned that my USA Pickleball business cards arrived. That’s good news, now I can pass them to potential players!
Number of days on a court: 421 Number of total hours: 2,097.5
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I arrived at Skypark about 6:45 p.m. It had been fairly windy earlier but the wind had died down quite a bit . . . still a slightly breezy but not enough to affect play.
Six courts were full and the lights were already on when I arrived—it’s getting dark earlier and earlier! Sharyl and Judy were playing against Kristin L. and Maria. Tim and Janet were on another. Larry L. was around too, but the majority of the players were people I don’t remember seeing before! Crazy. This sport is exploding!
I played one game of Debbie B. and newbie Sabina—has played three months—against Sabina’s friend “Weezy” and me. It turned out to be a more fun and challenging game than I expected. Still 2.5 maybe 3.0, but we had some good points.
Tim, for being in his mid to late 60s, is a very solid player. Not flashy but gets the ball back over the net. He was his normal self tonight.
I was really impressed with Janet, she makes so fewer egregious mistakes than she was making a few years ago. One could make an argument for her being a low 3.5 player . . . but unquestionably a solid 3.0 easily.
Play wrapped up at 9:40 p.m. It was court closing time, the ladies were complaining about being cold, and I was hungry. Aside for the time, I probably would have played more games.
My Play
After playing great as Sunday ended and being really happy with my play, tonight was back to reality. A bit more in the way of “dropshots into the net” . . . some not even making it to the dreaded white tape!
A bright spot was my serving. I did miss 2, maybe 3, serves tonight over the three hours. But I could serve hard and fast and reliably. I overheard Tim commented to his partner about it during one game.
My arm was hurting a bit, but it was the inside of my right elbow, not the typical tennis elbow. I guess that’s good.
Number of days on a court: 420 Number of total hours: 2,095.5
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I arrived at Brommer a few minutes after 9 a.m. under sunny skies. This would be my last day at Brommer before resuming my duties as site coordinator at Derby Park nearer my house. I’m hoping to stronger players will turn up at Derby. Brommer is typically the hub for higher level play.
Mark G. was warming up with a woman I didn’t know. Mark invited me to join them. It turned out that there was a reason that I didn’t know Jenna—she just moved to town. She grew up in Valencia and her parents (in their mid-60s) are fanatical pickleball tournament players. With a degree in Marine Biology, Jenna moved to town for a part-time job teaching middle school kids about the ocean through some educational outreach organization that I’ve never heard of. Jenna has very good hand-eye coordination, but she likes to stay back from the net and is still pretty green. If she sticks with it, she will a solid player.
Today was very light day. We topped out under 25 players. I mentioned to Mark that maybe there was a tournament going on . . . but he said none that he knew of. It was odd that they were so few players.
77-year-old John at the net as his partner Tim M. looks on! Dave Cox on the far court.Chris—seen him a couple times before—and new-to-town Jenna taking on John and Tim.
Play
I played all right early on. Ok. Not great. But not bad either.
Toward the end of the session, I played with Art against Patty and Dave Cox. I was playing fantastically well in our first game. I maybe made one bad shot the whole game. Dave and Art were the weak players in this game. Art and I won. We played a second game . . . early in the game, I made three mistakes in a row, but I dialed it back in and played really well the rest of that game. This game was closer, but Art and I still won. There was one shot where I drove a ball low over the net between Patty (across from me) and Dave (to the right) and neither had a good shot. “That was lucky, Andrew!” It was Patty. But that shot was not luck. It did exactly as I wanted. “Luck? The more I play, the luckier I get!” (I think the actual quote is something like, “The more I practice, the luckier I get.”) A few shots later, I made another shot much like the first with a similar result. More skill than luck. Not that it’s 100% reliable.
Today was an “up day” on the skill growth curve. I was very happy with my play.
Toes Stepped On!
I found a YouTube channel today with the name of . . . yes, Pickleball Journey. It looks to be about 7 months old. Nevermind that I’ve had a blog called that for nearly five years and I’ve had PickleballJourney.com as my website for nearly 3 years now. It make me mildly annoyed. You’d think you’d look around and see if someone else is already using the name you wish to use for “branding” your channel. Maybe he saw mine and it stuck in his subconscious as good one.
Monday, October 11, 2021 (No Play)
I’m now on the Google group/forum/email list for USAPA ambassadors. One digest came in today with a link to an interactive round robin generator found at the Pickleball Tournaments website: Round Robin Chart Generator https://www.pickleballtournaments.com/rrgenerator1.pl
Court Board
I had been asked by Leslie (site director for the club) to refurbish a dry-erase board for use at Derby Park. I finished the lines, then this morning, I came early to work. Being that we run a custom framing shop as part of our business, I headed to our warehouse and cut some old discontinued metal frame moulding to use as a tray for the bottom edge. Aside from bolting it on, it was done by the opening time for our business.
Bolts and locknuts from the hardware store and done!
Number of days on a court: 419 Number of total hours: 2,092.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
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