Friday, August 2, 2019 (Court Day #290)

50th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

I arrived at Brommer about 9:15.

The view of Brommer Street Park early in the session.

As a player, you have good days and you have bad days. Today, it was the latter.

My second game of the day was with Allan against two local newbies from Boony Doon, Steve and Gloria. They said they’d played “family pickleball” but this was their second foray into club play. Their first time playing was at Derby Park . . . no doubt, two days ago when I accidentally went to Brommer instead of Derby. They are maybe 2.5 level players. We won 11-2. A ways to go, though Gloria made 2-3 great crosscourt sideline winners. Later, in the waiting area, as part of a discussion with them, I shared, “. . . and Allan and I look it easy on you . . . maybe I shouldn’t tell you that.”

There was a man and woman visiting, not a couple, though they knew each other. Her name was Katie and she was down from Sacramento. The man didn’t give his name nor where he was from. I’d put Katie in her mid-30s, but it’s hard to tell. When I suggested Derby Park for play on Sunday, she said she’d be leaving on Sunday but that she gets down every few months. I didn’t get to play with either of them.

Mid-morning, I noticed that it was hurting to put weight on the ball of my left foot. I played through it and during my next break, I removed my shoe and found that where I’d worn through the shoe insole and made a hole, the edge of the hole had flipped over in one spot and doubled up. Ow. I fixed that and all was ok after that.

Olga and I played a game against Cal and Gregg (“3g”). We got slaughtered, 11-0. We shouldn’t have gotten slaughtered. I made an inordinate number of mistakes and when I didn’t make them, Olga made them. Olga and I are typically both better players than Gregg. And while Cal is a strong player, he’s not Terry Long or Dean. We just made too many unforced errors. We gave that game away. It happens sometimes.

The last game of the day was Cal and me against Oleg and Olga. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seemed that Cal was hitting the ball more to Olga. I remember one game a month or two ago where I was the weaker player and Cal targeted me over and over—at least according to my partner. It’s a tournament mentality to attack the weaker opponent. It’s also good for the weaker player—if they pay attention to what’s happening and learn from it.

Cal and I lead most of the game but we lost 12-10. I made a few too many mistakes at the end.

I made two shots right-handed today. I can’t remember the first, but the second was when Oleg lobbed deep to the baseline down the middle. I raced back, switched the paddle to my right hand then turned and hit a drive that cleared the top of the net by a mere 2-3 inches. (This was a conscious decision.) To Olga’s credit, she managed to get it back over the net to Cal’s side. It was a short return and Cal couldn’t get to it and we lost the point. I was lucky to get the ball back to the net, but had I had more time, maybe I could have lobbed it deep back or done a traditional drop shot. But Olga just made a great return.

I got most of my serves in today, that was good. But overall, it was a frustrating and depressing day. Far too many drop shots into the net. Or shots that were too attackable. Perhaps one or two where I hadn’t tracked quite enough and left a hole down the middle. Maybe I should keep better track.

I left about 12:20. Home then work.

Number of days on a court: 290
Number of total hours: 799.5

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Thursday, August 1, 2019 (Court Day #289)

49th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

This morning, I emailed Carrie to see if she’d want to be my pickleball partner for the Cabrillo Tournament. And I got a surprise. The registration deadline is tomorrow! Time is of the essence! A little less than four hours later, I got the positive response from Carrie, “I’m honored you asked me! What time? I think I can do it.” I gave her what information that I had and set her about registering.

There was a bit of a problem getting the system to let her pick me as a partner, even with her husband’s help. I logged in myself and there were two entries for Carrie. One that I had done as the placeholder and another that Carrie had done for herself. I edited my entry and when I clicked on “this person” button it took me to a blank page. I switched from the Chrome browser to Firefox. Same problem. I eventually got it to work in Safari, but there were still parts of the page that were overlapping and were partially unreadable. They have some kinks to work out on this new tournaments website! Anyway, once I did that, I let Carrie know and she was able to complete the process.

Scotts Valley

The local radio newstalk station, KSCO, was hosting a mixer for Think Local First, a business organization that—as you would probably guess—promotes people shopping locally instead of sending money out of the area where it doesn’t circulate and benefit the local economy. The mixer was from 5-7 p.m. and included food, wine, and beer . . . and local well water provided by one of the local water districts. At work, I cut a picture framing mat with windows spelling out the name of the late afternoon radio show, I put it in a frame, wrapped it all up, and bought it to the event where I got there about 5:40. When the opportunity presented itself, I sat down at the table with the radio host where he was interviewing guests as they happened to appear. I put on the headset and had him unwrap the present. He was surprised and delighted. We spent a few minutes talking about my family’s business before it was time for a national news/commercial break.

I ate and hung out for a while, then left about 6:45. I quickly changed at home then dashed off to Scotts Valley. I arrived about 7:20. The courts were busy, though they didn’t set up the last two courts—the 7th and 8th courts, so they only had six, but that was enough.

My evening was spent as the strongest player on the court in each game. Not the ideal. Sometimes, it’s like going through the motions. You aren’t as focused. Still, you can work on your game and try not to make mistakes.

Newbie Bill and I won a game against Gregg and Carol. This is completely nutty. Bill is super nice, but he’s probably a 2.0 level player. He readily admits that he’s got limited mobility and has a hard time bending over. And that’s ok. He’s out playing. I give him a lot of credit. And he had a few points where he was able to get a a series of balls back over the net when I thought the point would be over. And he made some point-ending lobs. Kudos. I don’t know how many games he gets to win, but I was happy for him.

Rochelle and Colleen hamming it up for the camera.

Wayne and I played two games against Gregg and his tournament partner, Carol. (Funny, Gregg officially lists himself as “3g” for the Cabrillo tournament—that’s how he signs up on the court reservation boards!) Wayne and I won the first game, 11-0. The second, they played a bit better, we stepped it down and we won 11-9.

I was hoping, hoping, hoping to get into a stronger game, maybe with Binh or Stuart or Colleen or Mark G. or George or Tristan or Bruce or Larry or Kristin but it didn’t work out. As long as no one calls in sick at work tomorrow morning, I may be able to play at Brommer.

I think I only missed one, maybe two serves tonight. That’s promising.

Janet asked about how my arm was coming along. As I told her maybe a few more months, I swung my backpack over my left shoulder with my right arm. “See? That just hurt my arm a bit. It’s not bad, but it’s slightly painful. I can feel it.”

Shoes

The second pair of Kirkland court shoes that I bought off of eBay arrived today. The package was on the kitchen table when I made the quick stop to change before heading to Scotts Valley. These shoes look in good shape too. There’s a touch of thin dust/dirt on the sole of one shoe, but other than that, they look new, as they should. I checked eBay for a third pair, but the next pair for sale is twice the cost of the two that I already bought. I’ll wait and check in the future sometime. And who knows, maybe Costco will make them available again on their website or in their store.

Tournament

I checked online and it looks all legit for Carrie and me for August 10:

I’m not sure why my age has some red age bracket info after it, but nonetheless, we’re on there as one of the teams. What’s funny, is depending on who things play out, there’s a chance that I might end up playing against Colleen with whom I won a silver medal at the San Juan Tournament in November. That’d be weird. Colleen is a great practice foil and partner, she’s really good about getting balls back over the net. She’ll be a real challenge if we end up playing against her.

There are seven teams in our 3.5 50-59 bracket, so I believe that defaults to a double-elimination instead of round robin.

Yes, it’ll be Carrie’s first tournament. Yes, I’ll be playing with left hand instead of my natural right hand. Do I expect to win. No way. Medal? Maybe . . . I think there’s an outside chance. Three of the other six teams are from outside the area and I don’t know them. They might be great. Dunno. We’ll see.

Later on in the afternoon, Carrie had sent another email message:
“I’m honored you asked and I will do my best!”

Carrie, that’s all we can ever ask of any of us. If we play our best and we finish 7th out of seven teams, I’ll be happy.

Number of days on a court: 289
Number of total hours: 796.5

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Wednesday, July 31, 2019 (Court Day #288)

48th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

I had one of my staff called in sick and I had some communicating to do prior to making a determination of me playing today or having to go to work. But we had just enough people. It was misting and I needed to turn on my windshield wipers on the way. I arrived at Brommer Park at about 9:20. There were only nine people there. Odd. It wasn’t that wet. But maybe it scared everyone off. Or was there some major news event? Like another 9/11 or something. I’ve never seen turnout this light on a club day.

One court had Leslie, Dan Bliss, Oleg, and Jane. A strong court. Another was a group of intermediate women. Patty, Di, and a couple of others that I didn’t stop to get a close enough look at—women I might not have known the names for anyway.

Allan Cable was the odd, ninth man out. He was as happy to see me as I was him. We warmed up and drilled a little bit. Nancy—who was Allan’s tournament partner—showed up about 15-20 minutes later. Soon after, a woman named Jackie appeared. Jackie is tall for a woman. Maybe even 5’10”.

We ended up playing five games of Jackie and me against Allan and Nancy. Jackie and I won the first game 11-2. Early in that game, I had three rocket drives mere inches over the net that they couldn’t successfully return. (I would have been proud to have hit those with my right hand!) Jackie and I won the next two games as well, though by less of a margin. Allan and Nancy won the fourth game 12-10. I made just too many mistakes. Granted, they weren’t all me, but it’s bad when we lose several points in a row due to me. Jackie and I did go on to make up for the bad game and won the last game 11-6, bringing our total to 4 games to 1 game. No question which team was better on the day.

I did fairly well serving. In one of the later games, I missed a serve, too far to the left past the sideline. (Usually, when serving to that court and missing, it’s too far to the right instead.) Jackie said, “I think that’s the first serve you’ve missed all morning.” I missed three more in that game after that. I find that when I hit up on the ball with more lift, I tend to be more accurate. I have to say, for me, serving lefty is by far the hardest part of the game when switching hands. It’s such a pain.

Olga showed up. Allan had to leave to receive a delivery of lumber at his house, so Olga jumped in and took his place. Jackie and I won yet another game, 11-6. Afterward, Olga said, “I think you are ready for tournaments.” Maybe she forgot that we separately won gold medals last month in San Juan Bautista—her in women’s doubles and me in men’s doubles. I was “ready” for that tournament . . . at least in 3.0. Olga won a gold medal this past week in a tournament, she and Patty played in 3.0. That medal was her third gold in the last couple of months. I told her that she really should be in 3.5.

That last game wrapped up around 11:30, and I left about 11:40. Home, then work.

I was still wondering where everyone was. So weird.

Later, I realized what happened. Duh. So simple! Club play was at DERBY PARK today, NOT BROMMER PARK! No wonder there were so few people! Silly! No wonder we only had 13 people there! It wasn’t the correct location!

Tournament – Mixed Doubles

It occurred to me that since men’s doubles is on Sunday instead of Saturday and I’m scheduled off on Saturday, the day of mixed doubles, if I could find a female partner, I could enter that event at the Cabrillo Tournament.

I went to the list of players at PickleballTournaments.com and figured out who was not playing but that I had contact information for. They finally redesigned and updated that website. It’s about time. Now, we’ll just have to see where the problems are with the new system, but maybe they nailed it. We’ll see.

My first stop was Sycha. Sycha is a strong intermediate player who could relate to my need to play left-handed, since she did the same thing, swapping hands while an injury healed. Unfortunately, Sycha replied that she was jammed with family stuff and couldn’t play.

Next stop, Angie. Also a strong intermediate player. I Facebook-messaged Angie and she was very quick getting back to me, saying that she was traveling and in France. Ironically, she suggested asking Sycha! She made another reply and asked about my injury and shared that she’s currently dealing with a similar issue in her arm. I was bummed to hear that. I don’t wish this on anyone!

So, two potential female partners down. Ideally, you want to pick someone who isn’t too far from your own skill level. Too far off and it’s not fun for them or for you. Weaker partners get targeted in tournaments. That’s just the way it is. I think I’ll ask Carrie. She’s not as strong of a player as Sycha or Angie, but she has played almost a year and a half now and has gotten pretty decent. I wouldn’t consider her a weak player. She’s not ready to jump to 4.0 and might even be considered a 3.0 player, but—aside from being a nice person—would be one of the strongest available partners.

Number of days on a court: 288
Number of total hours: 795

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