Author: andrewlenz (Page 238 of 330)

Friday, May 3, 2019 (Court Day #262)

Day 23 playing left-handed. Tennis elbow.

I pulled into Brommer Park a few minutes after 9 a.m. Kim was walking in with her little dog about 20 feet in front of me. No games were going yet, just a few courts of warming up players and a net or two being set up in addition to the four permanent courts.

Claire

A middle-aged woman with cropped hair was warming up with Chris. I’d never seen her before. She introduced herself as Claire and she said she’s local but only plays at Brommer once or twice a month. She played at the recent Paso Robles tournament. We ended up playing as a team in my first game of the day. She has solid forehand and backhand strokes. That was a frustrating game—as they would prove to be during the course of the morning, my drop shots were consistently bad. Forehand, backhand, didn’t matter. I was hitting far too softly. Claire and I only lost by a couple of points. She wasn’t perfect, but the vast bulk of the errors were on me.

Of note, after one point, Claire said something to the effect of, “Don’t stop on your way to the net.” I didn’t say anything, but my first thought was the damaged ego thought, “There must have been some good reason I stopped.” And, honestly, I suspect there may have been. Maybe I thought the shot was attackable and about to be slammed back. But it’s very possible that I just errantly stopped too soon. Stuart also said that to me this week, “Get to the net!” I know for a fact some of those times I was either stopping instead of moving through a shot or expecting a ball to come back very fast. Regardless, this is something I’m going to have to investigate. Probably with the use of video.

Adrian

In a later game, Adrian and I had a fierce volley battle at the net. After the ball careened back and forth a number of times, Adrian hit it into the net. “Jesus, Andrew, left-handed!” He was obviously impressed.

Sacramento Doug

Doug and his wife were still in town visiting from Sacramento. I signed up in a box with them—unknowingly, since I didn’t know their names—and ended up in a game with them along with a younger fellow with an unusual name that escapes me at the moment—”Sante” maybe. He said this was his fifth time out, four at Skypark in Scotts Valley and this his first time here. After a volley battle at the net between Doug and me, his wife blurted out, “I’d hate to see him playing right-handed!”

But, for every great shot, there was a completely lame shot that ended up in the net or sailing off into Never Never Land somewhere. I missed a 3-4 serves today. Not bad. I figure not worse than most players today—miss one serve every game or two. One was when I was serving to a lefty—a “real” lefty—and trying to land it near his backhand . . . instead, it landed across the centerline in the wrong service court. Accuracy is still not there yet with my left-handed serving.

With the stiffer competition at Brommer, it’s a wake up call on progress. Yes, I’m very much improving playing left-handed, but lots of work to do yet. I really miss using my dominant right arm.

It was time to go. 12:11. Home, lunch, shower, work. In that order!

Number of days on a court: 262
Number of total hours: 717

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Wednesday, May 1, 2019 (Court Day #261)

Day 22 playing left-handed.

I arrived at Derby Park at 9:15. My wife had forgotten her water bottle, so I ran it by her work before heading to play.

Today, was a pretty good day. Almost all of  my serves were in. I was involved with some really good rallies. All the while playing left-handed. I had my frustrating moments, for sure, but overall, not bad.

Rich and I played two games against Grita and Wendy. Rich and I were leading in both games, but lost both by a couple of points.

After one contended point at the net against Wendy, Rich commended me, “That was 5.0 left handed play right there!”

Wendy was pretty funny. As we all walked off the court toward the gate to sign up for our next games, Rich had told her that I’m not left-handed. She didn’t believe him and turned to me and asked if I was really right-handed. I told her that I was, but she was still skeptical so asked Rich again, “Is he really not left-handed?”

Far court: Karl, Tom S., Stuart, someone. Near: Mike, Diane P., John P., Wayne.

Two middle-aged women appeared at the doorway into the courts. Cathy and, the shorter of the two, Lauren. Both were very pleasant. Dave Allenbaugh was there as the site coordinator, but I asked them if they were there to play. They said they were interested and came to watch. I spent about 10-15 minutes explaining the basic rules, scoring, and a little history of the game. I had them sign the waiver. Dave later took them under his wing and played a game with them.

There was also an older couple visiting from Sacramento. The man said their daughter went to school here and they’ve always liked to visit Santa Cruz. They said they looked up where to play and came to Derby. Isn’t the internet great?

We had some strong players today. Dean, Dave DiBiase, Oleg, Stuart—and visitor Greg, the strongest of the bunch who had come again with his partner Dee. Right-handed, I might have had enough courage to squeeze into a game. But not playing lefty. Dave DiBiase called over and teased, “We were just commenting on how your form looks better when you are playing left-handed!” I responded, “I don’t know about that!”

Some progress. A ways to go, but progress playing left handed.

in other news, the U.S. Open is going on in Florida this week. *sigh*

Number of days on a court: 261
Number of total hours: 714

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Sunday, April 28, 2019 (Court Day #260)

Today was Day 21 playing left-handed.

I arrived at Derby Park about 15 minutes before opening time. Some jerk left an empty 2-liter plastic 7-up bottle and a tray of partially-eaten grocery store deli sandwich strewn on the court. There was a flow of spilled brown liquid along the base of tennis net as well. Lovely. Just what I want to deal with as I blow off and set up the courts.

Newbie Chris

Cal showed up early with a newbie named Chris—probably as pupil of his. I’d put Chris in his late 60s or early 70s. There was a woman named Carol whom I’d also never met. When I asked Cal if Chris has signed the waiver, Cal said that this was Chris’ second time out and had signed it previously. I was surprised with Chris—while he made some bad newbie shots, he made some wicked passing shots. He’ll likely need to develop his short game, but he’s already has a solid basic for his groundstrokes.

Monterey Visitors Greg & Dee

There was also a couple I’d never seen. Greg and Dee. Greg is about 6’ with salt and pepper shaggy hair. Dee has a shoulder-length mane of white hair. Greg said they’ve been in Monterey in a mobile home for about five years. They appear to be in their late 50s. Greg asked about Terry. I said that my understanding is that Terry and Karen bought another home in Arizona and had been spending their time there. (They will likely be back very soon when the heat rolls in for summer.) I watched Greg from afar. I’d only seen that kind of serve once before—Terry Long. Hard whipping action resulting in a very fast ball. It took a lot of focus to return those while playing left-handed and even then I lost at least one or two into the net each of the three games I played against him! I asked Greg later if he played tournaments. He said he had. I asked if he was a 4.0 or 4.5 player. He said he was the same as Terry, a 5.0, but he’d dropped to 4.5 due to an injury to his upper paddle arm.

I haven’t played right-handed for almost four months. It’s frustrating at times, but I can manage in the mix with the middle skill group of the club. While playing left-handed, I can clobber the base-level players. Advanced players can take me apart when I’m playing lefty.

Today was a better day serving. I think I missed only 4-5 over nearly 3 1/2 hours. We only had about 30 players today at peak, so there was very little waiting time—if any—between games.

During a game, near the end of the day, with most of the nets down, I raced after a ball quickly rolling across the entire width of the courts. I caught up, and absentmindedly switched hands and whacked the ball back toward our court using my right handed. Ouch! I’d been harboring hopes that my tennis elbow was getting significantly better, but it’s not even close where I’d hoped if a simple action like that cause noticeable pain. Rats.

Greg recommended athletic tape to help absorb the ball impact before it reaches the elbow. Dee showed the tape on her wrist. Greg then very generously gave me two small rolls of athletic tape he said he got from the dollar store. Each looked like it had a few feet on it.

By 12:22 p.m., everyone was done.

Number of days on a court: 260
Number of total hours: 711

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