Author: andrewlenz (Page 295 of 331)

Friday, November 10, 2017 (Court Day #92)

I arrived at Brommer Park at 8:53 a.m. Dean was out blowing leaves off of the courts.

We had a couple of very good players visiting from Monterey. Sean, I believe was the man’s name and I didn’t hear his wife’s name. He’s a tall young guy with 5.0 ranking. The couple played with Dean, John Connor, the Longs and the advanced players. Someone said the couple had played at the state championship and that it was a humbling experience. I was thinking, “Humbling? Just how good must the best players be? Holy cow!”

Today was a down day. No great performances by me. Nothing to write home about. Perhaps the most significant event of the day was wearing the socks my wife bought me that just cover the foot and don’t go up the ankle. These are even shorter than the pairs I also bought, but they worked fine. Another 200+ hours and my “chicken leg tan” should be all better!

Target the best?

In an early mixed-skill levels game, one of the four was “Player A”. Player A is an advanced player. Player A was paired with a significantly weaker player, as are the odds in mixed play. I don’t think I’d ever played with Player A, but judging from the reaction of the others, Player A was/is very good. I was also paired with a weaker player, not that it matters much. We played the game. There were times when there wasn’t an obvious advantage for me to hit to one versus the other, that I hit to Player A. When Player A was at the net but Player A’s partner was at the baseline, I hit to the partner—though I remember making a shot exactly like that and thinking “maybe I should just hit it to Player A anyway”. It would be a dumb shot to make in terms of the score, but in terms of improving skill level by playing against a better player, it would be wise. I’ve talked about this before.

Anyway, Player A came to me after the game and suggested that I hit to Player A more. “Forget the score. Hit to the strong player. Then the better players will want to play with you more.”

I think there are three steps or phases/situations:

1) You avoid the best opponent to win. (Fine in a tournament, not in rec play.)

2) You don’t favor either player and hit where normal strategy would dictate. (Ok, but not taking full advantage of a learning opportunity.)

3) You intentionally hit a lot more shots to the best opponent to push your “skill envelope”. (Best for rec play.)

What I was doing was situation 2. I was absolutely not avoiding Player A. However, while I did intentionally hit maybe 2-3 shots to Player A when both were at the baseline, I was not taking full advantage of the opportunity by avoiding Player A’s partner.

Now, I can’t remember what my partner was doing. Maybe he was doing situation 1, making it seem worse for Player A.

This situation today does provide yet another perspective to the game where I was playing with Terry and Karen Long and John Connors, where I was seeing less targets and my partner Karen was seeing more. Terry was seeking the toughest game situation and was avoiding the weak player (me). That’s good and bad for me. It keeps me from being embarrassed (good!) but also means I get tested less (bad). There were shots that Terry could have taken that likely would have ended the point had he hit it to me, so he didn’t. It did make for a longer and more balanced game.

Drills

On the Pickleball Forum on Facebook, Ernie Medina Jr. posted a short video of drill at a workshop. Here’s what the it looked like:

The sequence for the participant went like this:

– Serve three balls—it appears the serves should land long, near the center line, then short;

– Three lobs are fed over the net to the participant who aims back at a inflated waist-high target;

– Three simulated dinks are tossed which are lobbed back over both the regular net and an additional special higher net and into a hula-hoop ring set on the court near the baseline;

– Lastly, three more simulated dinks are tossed that must be dinged back through a ring positioned just above top of the net.

The 2-minute video is here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1340630926008388/permalink/1731772993560844/

Funny Guy

Last night, someone posted in the same group seeking advice. I shared some excellent thoughts…

Number of days on a court: 92
Number of total hours: 259

Click here to start at the beginning of this blog: PickleballJourney

Sunday, November 5, 2017 (Not a court day)

As I type this, I’m 30-some-odd thousand feet in the air flying back from Louisiana–New Orleans to be exact–when I was for work. Trade show. Most of the time was spent inside listening to sales pitches. But the host distributor fed us well in the evenings. Last year, I made my first trek to Bourbon Street. Some people love it. To me, the smell of vomit and urine and the tourist trap shops made it a “one and done” experience, so, after a fun dinner on a paddleboat last night, I gave the after-party in the heart of the French Quarter a miss and headed back on the 10:30 p.m. chartered bus back to the hotel.

About two weeks in advance of this trip, I posted on the Pickleball Forum on Facebook asking about playing in New Orleans. The response was underwhelming, so my paddle and gear stayed in California.

The night before flying out, I got a message from Beth Black asking if I wanted to play the next morning with her along with Kevin and his wife Bev. This is a nice little feather in my cap. Beth is a 4.0 rated USAPA player—though she considers herself more of a 3.5 these days as tournaments have drawn stiffer competition—and Kevin and Bev are both strong intermediate players. To be invited means I’ve garnered some respect for my play. Or maybe everyone else was busy, but still, I’ll take it.

This month-old 737-800 (or 737-MAX8, not sure which) aircraft is noticeably quieter than other planes. Though maybe it’s because I’m sitting in front of the wings for a change! But I suspect it’s overall quieter.

I may play tomorrow morning, it’ll depend on when a sales rep is showing up. I’m waiting to hear back from her. If not tomorrow, then Wednesday, though we’re expecting rain mid-week. Dave Allenbaugh sent out a club email on Friday morning saying that Brommer was being delayed an hour back in California due to rain. It getting to be “that” season. We’ll see how this goes. Given that I’m only 9 months plus a week into pickleball, I haven’t experienced a full year of seasons yet.

Monday, November 6, 2017 (Court Day #91)

After a week with no pickleball, I was really looking forward to getting back on the court. Today, I wore shorter socks for the first time. This is to make my wife happier with my distinct tan line and move to farther down my leg—improving the “chicken leg”!

I arrived at Brommer a few minutes before 9. Leslie had the backpack model blower on and was going to town clearing leaves.

I got called over by Mike to fill out four for the first game of the day. Oy. My day started with some subpar play. I was rusty.

I played a couple of games with a woman named Tricia who is from Los Gatos. She was a solid player. I think she’s a little but better than I am. I served 3-4 balls long in a game with her as my partner. I think the Onix ball was newer and we had the wind at my back. It was a bit frustrating. We ended up losing 12-10. That game was my fault. Bad serves, a few hits too high that got slammed back. Rusty. I was worse play than typical of me.

The game of the day was Grita and myself against Kevin and Chuck. Grita was signed up in red, as was Kevin and Chuck in intermediate blue. I asked Grita if I could join their game. Within a color group, you just sign up and no one will complain. Sign up above your color group without asking, that’s trouble. Grita said, “Sure!” We got a court and Grita said we’d play together. She followed with, “They’ll be a tough match.” But I played my best of the morning and Grita was her normal self. Midway through the game, Grita made a comment that reflected her being impressed with my play. The game was never in question, Grita and I won 11-4 or something. I did play well. For one brief shining moment, one could argue I played the best on the court in that game.

The last game of my day was Lauren and me against Alan and Tom S. They pulled out ahead by a couple of points, then we battled back to a solid lead, only to lose when they made a long run at the end. Lauren has been not playing for some time—a few months—due to some health issue. It’ll take her a while to get back in the swing of things.

Shortly after 11:30, I departed for home then work. I got quite a few goodbyes from people. That was nice. Being part of a community. Beth asked if I wanted to play tomorrow morning, but I told her it’d depend on work. I do have to put my hours in to get work done. It already piles up as it is. I have a lot of pending projects that need to get done. Still, I’m tempted to play anyway!

Today? Ok play. Started poor and got better. I was a bit tired at the end. I think the time change, the jet-lag, the fire alarm going off at 5 a.m. in the hotel—all took their toll. 2.5 hours of playing was plenty today. Though I want to get back out already!

Number of days on a court: 91
Number of total hours: 256

Click here to start at the beginning of this blog: PickleballJourney

Monday, October 30, 2017 (Court Day #90)

I arrived at Brommer Park at about 8:40 a.m. It was overcast and in the mid-50s with only an intermittent slight breeze.

Today was the big dress up club party!

You can see me in my blue Star Trek tunic (fourth from the left). Terry Long is the pickle at the far left.

I ended up warming up with Dean. What an eye opener. Even simple dinking cross-court, he was taking me apart. Looking back, we were using a harder ball which has more springiness, so I was popping the dinks up more, but still he was volleying them out of the air and placing them perfectly at my left foot where I would either backhand it into the net or pop it up again. Miserable. Stuart noticed and after Dean opted to go help finish setting up, suggested I try a slightly bigger wrapping on my handle and perhaps a paddle with a bit more heft. He loaned me a paddle for a game that was 8 and some odd ounces. I have to admit I did like the slightly heavier paddle. I might have to pick up one of those and see.

We rolled into a game of Stuart and Tom S. (rainbow wig) against me and Leslie (I think), who lasted a few points but was needed elsewhere to organize. Karen Long (cat costume) jumped in as my partner to finish the game. We finished the game—it was not taken very seriously–then we all gathered up for a big group photo.

We played a rotational series. The courts were filled randomly with women then men were randomly filled in as their partners. We were short a couple of women, so there were a couple of men that filled out the two courts missing women. Each game lasted 12 minutes. The team ahead at the end of the allotted time won. The losing team stayed and split up. The winning team rotated clockwise to the next court and split up–each partner teaming up with one of the losers that stayed on the court. There was a 3 minute break between matches and a 10 minute break mid-morning. We started about 9:30 and played until about 11:45, playing 8 matches.

Break time! I’m sandwiched between Stuart (“Where’s Waldo?”) and Chuck, who’s dressed up as a gangster. Yes, I’m sporting black socks and black athletic shoes–hey, I wanted to be as authentic as I could get!
I won four matches, advancing after each. Then I lost two. Then won the next two.

The first game was Kevin and me against Dave A. and Kevin’s  wife Bev. With the shortage of women, Kevin (wearing a nightgown and wolf makeup and wig) got tagged to fill in a woman spot. It was a close match, 8-8 at the time of the 12-minute whistle, but It was my serve (8-8-2), we won the point and advanced from “Court 8” to “Court 1”.

Per the rules, Kevin and I split up. Kevin was paired with Lisa–a novice–and I was paired with English-accent Allan (also filling in for the shortage of women). Allan had painted his own skeleton costume (on black clothing) from scratch with a yellow pickleball as a heart. It was impressive! As you might expect, Allan and I won handily and advanced to Court 2.

In my third game, I found myself paired with Gary (who traded his long black rocker wig for a cap) against Allan and Karen. Not Karen Long, but blonde Karen who was wearing a mid-thigh military camouflage shirt/dress. Gary played about as best as I’ve seen him play and so he and I moved on to Court 3. Memorable in this game is i lobbed. I don’t lob very much these days, but they were running in and I had the ball, so up it went. Winner.

On Court 3, I teamed up with Sycha. Sycha is a strong intermediate left handed player. I can’t recall our opponents, but we won and advanced. “That’s the first time that I’ve won today!”, she said. She must have either had some very tough competition or weaker partners!

Onto Court 4, for game 5. I knew this was going to be trouble from the git-go. Sycha was teamed up with lefty Steve dressed impeccably as Fred Flintstone. Steve is very strong intermediate player. He’s got a great ground game with hard hits. If I have any edge over Steve, it might be the soft game and maybe strategy. If I had to pick a partner myself, I’d likely take him over me. Barbara was my partner. We scored points, but in the end, I think we lost by a 2:1 ratio. It’s rare to be playing against a team of both lefties. I’d dink to Steve’s backhand then realize it’s his forehand. Duh. I did that at least 2-3 times. Barb had her challenges too. My first loss of the day.

Still on Court 4, I was teamed back up with Allan once again against Dave Black and Barb R. Barb seemed to play a bit better with Dave–maybe going against righties, maybe that Dave is a stronger player than me, maybe the swap of the side of the court. Regardless, this was a battle. Each side clawed for points. At the whistle, it was 6-6. Dave placed a ball where I ended up popping it up and he hit it between Allan and me for the game winner. Rats.

Game 7 on Court 4. I was getting tied of Court 4. Gary had worked his way up and had won his last game with Bev. Bev became my partner and Gary became Allan’s. This one was painful. We had to play the full 12 minutes and even not focusing as much toward the end, Bev and I won 15-1. For whatever reason, the Andrew/Bev combination was a perfect storm for this game.

On to Court 5 for the 8th and final game of the day. Barb and I were down 9-3 against Bev and lefty Steve until I went on a run–serving to backhands the whole way–until we won 10-9 as time ran out. A nice way to finish up the morning. A win!

John P. as Edward Sissorhands and Dave Allenbaugh as a reefer-smoking hippy.

Play was followed by a potluck with an amazing amount of great food and delightful socializing.

Number of days on a court: 90
Number of total hours: 253.5

Click here to start at the beginning of this blog: PickleballJourney