Author: andrewlenz (Page 258 of 331)

Thursday, September 27, 2018 (Court Day #204)

I awoke with a rather sore back. In particular, near the small of my back on the right side plus my right glute muscle. It was enough that I was wondering if I should take a few days off from pickleball. I took an ibuprofen and went to work.

Tournament

John P. FaceTimed me, “I need to get your number so I can just call you instead.” We talked about the tournament. He hadn’t received the message back from the director, so I forwarded that to him. She had said we’d have five teams in our round robin and maybe the advanced (4.0) team would be added to our group. So John was a firm “go”. (Tomorrow would have been the last day to cancel and get a refund.) John also asked about us playing in a tournament in San Juan Batista the following weekend (October 14), saying it might be too much. But I said, “Sure!”

Skypark

A couple of my staff wanted to meet with me after work without any notice, but this was unusual and obviously important, so I agreed. It took about 45 minutes and made me fairly late to Scotts Valley. I don’t recall the precise time, but after a pit stop at home and a couple ibuprofen, I arrived around 7:15, I believe.

On the far side of the net: Larry, Bruce (dark), Allan, Olga, Oleg. Near side: Sharyl, Terry, Wayne.

Aside from missing a few balls due to being unable to judge depth under the lights, I played pretty darned well. Sure, I messed up some shots, but far more were solid.

Kris and I played my first game against older Chris (tall tennis player)—not Chris Yoder—and a woman I don’t know. Kris and I won 11-4, if I recall correctly.

Wayne and I played a game against Oleg and Larry. It was a good combination for me, I got to play against the two strongest of the three. We lost, as was expected, but it wasn’t a horrible loss.

Olga and I played against Beth Black and Bruce. We won.

Terry (Laura’s husband) and I played against Beth and Olga. Olga has improved a whole lot lately. Sure, she has off games, but she continues to improve. Terry yelled to Olga, “You’re like playing against a backboard!” It was close, but I think we lost that one.

The last two games were Mark Dettle and me against Oleg and Olga. Mark and I won both games. I was playing extremely well. Oleg is such a competitor, he wasn’t happy with the loss. He’s always such a challenge to play against.

I was pleased with my performance tonight. It was a bit surprising given my back. But it loosened up over the 100 minutes of play or so. And it was an evening of all  good games.

I was in my car just before 9 p.m. I drove home content.

Number of days on a court: 204
Number of total hours: 565.5

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Wednesday, September 26, 2018 (Court Day #203)

I got a call this morning from the organizer of the Livermore tournament. I asked, “Is this about moving Men’s Doubles to Sunday?” She replied in the affirmative. I told her that it was fine by me, but I still needed to hear back from my partner, John. She asked me to let her know when I found out, to which I agreed.

Derby

I arrived at Derby Park a few minutes after 9 a.m. John P. was setting up for an absent Dave Allenbaugh. Overcast but a bit warmer than Sunday. It was slow to build up. It took about half an hour to get to a dozen players.

Of note today was John P. and I played quite a number of games together to get ready for the tournament.

We played a game against Eric and Dave Cox and John and I were handed a 11-5 loss. Eric was on fire in that game. It was about the best I’d seen him play.

We went on to have three games against Eric and Allan and won all three. The last game was close, but I’ll admit that I was starting to drag at that point. Eric had the advantage of showing up around 10 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. There was a rally in that game where I make a shot where you think, “That was insanely good, how did I do that?”

I was about to leave, I already had my backpack over my shoulder when John stopped me. He’d lined up a game against Terry Long and Stuart. Terry was reeling in his 5.0 status to make more of a learning game. I could easily tell when he passed on opportunities to end the point. There was a point where I didn’t track enough and left a hole between John and me. Another time, I was adding topspin to a volley at the net—a difficult shot—and it didn’t drop down enough instead made for a easy winner for Terry. After that one, Terry told me, “Either drive or drop those.” I wish Terry would have played a bit more like a 5.0 player, but John and made plenty of errors as it was. John and I did “win” the second game, but the score was meaningless. Terry was there simply to help us improve via advice. He’s a good man.

Oh. And I got hit on the chin again with a ball bouncing off my paddle. Never, then three times in two outings!

Number of days on a court: 203
Number of total hours: 564

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

Sunday, September 23, 2018 (Court Day #202)

As I settled in for bed last night, I took measure of my maladies. Sore back. Sore upper right arm—it felt as if someone had slugged me or I’d had a inoculation injection there. (Probably a mis-performed slam.) Three days straight of pickleball was taking its toll and a day of recovery was not enough. After waking up, I did have a fleeting thought of not wanting to go. That was the body talking, not the spirit! Nonetheless, I’d be out there again today.

Nick (blue) and Tami up from Monterey again of some pickleball action! Tami was the first one on the court today!

I got to Derby about 10 to 9. It was overcast and chilly, but it’d burn off a few hours later.

John P. played very, very well. For a while now, I’d eclipsed his level play. There wasn’t much of a difference between our performances today.

We had game against Dean and Oleg and we managed an 11-7 lost. Dean didn’t seem to be playing his hardest, but there were shots in that game where he was not holding back. That’s what I like. Give me 100%. If we lose 11-0, so be it.

After a winning point, John turned to me and said, “You out-Oleged Oleg.”  It was a short return, I drove the ball hard at Oleg a few inches over the net and his return didn’t make it back over. Such a rarity, it’s nice when it happens!

I was ready to head home after an intense game when John and I ended up in one additional last game with Olga and Stuart. Boy. After a few points, I was dead on my feet. I was so tired. I got my workout today!

The last game ended just before 1:30. 4 1/2 hours of play today.

Tournament

I finished up my registration for the Livermore tournament by submitting payment. I’m not sure what happened with the setup, but on PickleballTournaments.com, the registration was messed up. It required a person to sign up for every possible event . . . Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles of all skill levels! After some emails, John and my registration was corrected. (He’d been running into the same issues.)

Tuesday, September 25, 2018 (No play day)

Vía en email blast, Mark Renneson of Third Shot Sports shared a story of being rejected for certification as a pickleball instructor. (You can read his story here.) In it, he linked to the required video that he submitted for consideration.

As of now, I haven’t watched the whole thing, but for someone addicted to pickleball, it may be of interest to see what is going through his mind in evaluating and instructing a new pickleball player.

Also, posted to the Pickleball Forum on Facebook, was a link to an article talking about Bill Gates (of Microsoft fame) and his wife playing pickleball—back when they were dating! That’s a long time. Here’s the link:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/25/billionaires-bill-and-melinda-gates-like-to-play-pickleball-for-fun.html

Number of days on a court: 202
Number of total hours: 560.5

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