Author: andrewlenz (Page 321 of 331)

Wednesday, April 26, 2017 (Court Day #20)

There’s nothing black, but I couldn’t help the title! Ready to play again! I got up, looked out our kitchen window—gray skies. Then my wife’s fancy weather tracker in the kitchen shared the outside temperature: 57°. A bit nippy. And it was lightly drizzling.

That 10% was enough!

After taking a few minutes to copy over a couple of videos for Eric onto a data stick, I got to the Derby Park courts at 9:10. Some courts were good to go and for others, the nets were still being set up. The courts were very plainly wet. This was a novelty for me; they’d always been fairly dry. (Except one time near the fence when I slipped.) Not too long after, my friend John ended up on his backside after slipping. No serious damage though, thank goodness. It was inevitable someone would lose their feet.

The courts very gradually dried out after the drizzle stopped after about 45 minutes. There was no waiting today—except for maybe a partner—only about 20 people showed up with the subpar weather.

I played a few games with Eric and recorded a few games. I played ok, but dropped a few balls into the net. I teamed up with Tom S. for a game and he asked to let him know if I saw anything in the video that he could improve on. Speaking of Tom, I haven’t seen young Tom and Ileana for a while. I’m sure players come and go. I’ll be missing some days in the next couple months due to travel, but missing pickleball is not by choice!

Playing on the Big Courts

The last two games of my day were with Kent, Jane, and Stuart. Jane, I’d seen around, but I’d never played with her. Jane circulates in the “big boy games”. I was surprised to learn later that she started playing shortly after me—but she came right from an active tennis life. She didn’t remember seeing me around before—there are generally a lot of people around—then after I told her I started at the end of January, she wondered why we’d never previously played a game together. “Because I stink.” I didn’t say that, but I’m not at the level she plays.

The first of the two games was Kent and me versus Jane and Stuart. All of them are solid players. They get to write their names in red on the court assignments dry-erase board. Jane and Stuart were leading something like 5-0 then Kent and I worked our way back. We still lost by 3—or maybe 5—points, but I held my own. I’d say it was my best played game of the day. Of course, I hit a couple shots just high enough to get smacked back at high speed, but I don’t think I hit more than one ball into the net.

In the second game, I was paired with Stuart. Stuart—like Kent—was helpful with advice. Stuart was a bit distracted during the game (walking over to talk to someone right in the middle before that person left, for example) and wasn’t playing focused. It’s also hard to play your best when your partner keeps messing up—like hitting three shots in a row into the net! Stuart emphasized getting up to the kitchen as quickly as possible . . . and fully up to kitchen. When I missed returning one shot down the middle after racing to the net, he said, “Look where your foot is.” My left foot was about a foot behind my right foot which was toeing the line. “That’s enough to keep you from reaching the ball. After each missed shot, it’s good to assess where your feet are and where they should have been.” (I get his point. In that instance, however, unless I was playing left handed, it would have been a slight disadvantage to have my left foot at the line since I’d have to twist my body a bit more on the backhand reach.)

Stuart also suggested essentially lobbing on the return of serve: “They have to let it bounce, you might as well give yourself plenty of time to get to the line.” I do have a tendency to smack it back low and fast. I’ve heard Stuart’s advice before elsewhere, I just don’t follow it. I should try that. He also said, “Don’t worry about keeping the same distance from the net as your partner—that’s for higher levels. What if you partner doesn’t move up to the net? Just move up anyway.”

The session wrapped up about noon and away I went. I’m ready to play again. My mojo is back! In black!

Number of days on a court: 20
Number of total hours: 58

Monday, April 24, 2017

I found my limit. Playing pickleball four times in five days was it. I woke up this morning with no burning desire to go out and play. As I type this, about 9:30 p.m., that feeling is slightly coming back. I suspect it’ll be back in time for Wednesday morning.

Live and In Person!

I’m sure, however, you have a burning desire to throw away 14 minutes of your life and watch one of my pickleball games. The video starts out a little shaky due to the wind, but it stabilizes, don’t worry.

(I’m the guy in the tan cap and tan shorts.) It’s less interesting game, not a lot of rallies. If you watch the game, you can see the things I was talking about in yesterday’s blog. The point that starts at 2:20 is so indicative of a consistent error—a failed drop shot, not always from the baseline, sometimes while in motion to the kitchen. (I can occasionally make them, like the point starting at 7:19. And I make a really nice crosscourt drop shot at 7:40.) I could go on about mistakes, there are plenty there to critique. All of four of us have had better games. The wind didn’t help either!

New Toy

I ordered a factory-refurbished AKASO EK7000 4K WIFI Sports Action Camera for $51.95 off of eBay. Buying a refurbished one saved about 40% off the regular price. It’s supposed to be here next week on Tuesday.

[… minutes pass …]

Ok. I just ordered a 32GB memory stick for it ($17). I realized that they likely weren’t going to include memory for it and I was right! It should be here before the camera gets here. I’m curious to see the difference in the video quality. It also comes with a remote to turn it off and on, that could be very handy!

Pickleball Can Save Your Life

I watched a video last night featuring a guy who lives about about an hour and a half north of here. He says that pickleball saved his life. It looks from my poking around the interwebs that his teenage son got hooked on the game as well.

As an aside, it’s stories that like that that make me very wary of riding bicycles around in high traffic areas. It’s been a while since I’ve ridden my bike to work . . . of course, that’s why my wife encouraged me to try out pickleball with our friend John!

Number of days on a court: 19 (still)
Number of total hours: 55 (still)

Sunday, April 23, 2017 (Court Day #19)

I arrived at Derby Park shortly before 9 a.m. to find Dave Allenbaugh and a woman who introduced herself as Vencia setting up the first nets. Maree knew Vencia though I don’t remember seeing her before. I helped set up a few nets myself and got invited into the first game by Dave.

The Signup Board

In a previous post, I’d mentioned the signup board used for rotating onto courts. Here’s a photo of it:

Busy!

Today was a busy day with people wanting to get on a court and play. Around 10 o’clock, Dave announced games would be “played to 9, win by 1”. This lasted for about an hour before the dozen or so people waiting thinned down to something more manageable. This was a far cry from yesterday morning in Scotts Valley when courts sat idle while people stood by and chatted.

Eric and I played a game against Maree and Jerry. There was a sequence where Jerry lobbed it while Maree was still back. From the left side of the court, I hit reached up and got the lob, but instead of hitting it back to Maree where Jerry couldn’t get it, I hit it to the middle within reach of Jerry who hit a passing shot right between Eric and me. I did manage to get a paddle on it but the ball went right back into the net.

On the next point, I returned a ball to Maree who was at the net instead of correctly hitting it Jerry who was still at the baseline. I know better! I made a nice unreturnable crosscourt drop (glory), followed by a slam right into my own side of the net (junk).

Now, what’s interesting, is there was a later lob while I was on the right side of the court. Again, instead of hitting it to Maree who was back, I hit it crosscourt to Jerry who was at the kitchen line. Same mistake. Eric and I still won the point, but it I made it hard on ourselves.

Me (near right) hitting high crosscourt on a lob return instead of to the baseline. Oops.

As the morning progressed, the wind picked up. It’s the windiest it’s been in my nearly three months of playing. Lobs went out of control, serves veered wildly, drop shots fell short, a net blew over! And the wind kept changing direction. It was blowing at my back then later in the game, into my face. As Rick said, it was like playing against an unseen third opponent.

John, Dave (Dave C., former neighbor), Bruce and some others were there, but I didn’t get to play with them. That’s just the way the ball bounces. (I know, bad cliche pun!)

What did I learn today?

• Slamming the ball at people’s feet is actually quite effective.
• Repeatedly lobbing in gusty conditions hoping for a better result each time is a bad strategy.
• Too often, I’m still underpowering soft shots into the net when on the move.
• If you are going to slam down the middle aim to a spot safely inside the court instead of right near the baseline where if you miss slightly long it’ll be out.
• It’s more important to keep the ball in play than to hit a ball hard or soft.

I finally remembered to give John P. his borrowed paddle back—one less thing to carry in my backpack!

I played two last games with Dave, Jerry, and Rick. We were all pretty tired by that point. Dave may not be fast, but he makes up with it in consistent serves and strategic shot placement.

After things broke up about 12:15, Eric, Ted, Rick and I headed a nearby Mexican food place for lunch. I went for a burrito this time instead of their burger—I stuck with tradition!

Ready for a Break?

I’ll admit, after playing four times in five days and five times in eight days has made me fatigued. I can recuperate a few days. Though, I have to admit, this afternoon I spent about 10 minutes in my garage working on my dink and to also see if I could pull off what Mark Renneson does in this video that I watched last night:

Nope. As you’d expect, it’s much harder than Mark makes it look. Even with me using opponents tossing/hitting the ball to me for me to serve as practice for this drill today, I still can’t do it. Talk to me in a year!

Number of days on a court: 19
Number of total hours: 55