I had a physical therapist appointment this morning at 8:30. Ruby, the PT, gave me yet another exercise. Reaching out my straight arm in front of me, with my wrist bent down, and placing the back of my hand against the wall making sure my arm is locked straight. It is to stretch out my wrist—obviously, right?
Brommer Park
It was 9:15 by the time I was a Brommer. As I walked up, Greg and his wife Angie called up from a court asking if I’d be in LA next month. “For the graduation?” (Their daughter Lexi is studying English at UCLA and my son Nicholas is there studying Applied Mathematics.) “Yes, we’ll be there!” “We’ll need to meet up!” “Sounds good!” For good measure, I was co-incidentally wearing my Yoda-themed UCLA Bruins T-shirt! (It was a gift from my wife!)
The view of the courts as I walked up at 9:15. Many more players yet to come.
From one court to another, I called over to George that I needed to talk to him. It was a while, but I got a chance, right before his group got called for an open court. “Do the names Rick Dougherty, Charlie Stokes, and Gary mean anything to you?” By the time I’d gotten to “Stokes”, a smile had broken across his face and he’d interjected, “Sure! How…” “We overlapped on the software engineering team at Mountain Computer in 1989!” So, this George Propper was indeed the George Propper who had been a 42-year-old senior engineer while I was a 22-year-old junior engineer. I told him I had only been there a few months over the summer. (As I mentioned previously, it was a temporary position, and I’d turned down the opportunity to make it permanent.) We reminisced a bit, particularly about the co-worker—my immediate supervisor—who had anger management issues, Gary. Neither of us could remember his last name.
I played an assortment of games. My play was marginal. I missed more than my share of serves. But I improved over the morning.
George and I played against Greg—Angie’s husband—and Allan Cable. There were good games. George and I won the first 11-6 and the second game 11-8. I have to say, looking back hours later, that’s quite an accomplishment. Greg and Allan aren’t fantastic players—though Allan has won medals—but they certainly aren’t weak players. With George, I had just beaten them, twice, playing left-handed. That’s an accomplishment. It’s one thing to beat a weaker team, it’s another to beat to decent players. (At my prime right-handed, I was somewhat better than both, but that’s meaningless right now.)
Those two were my last games for the day. I was done about 12:15.
So?
I played ok today. Not so great to start, but I got better as the morning went on. George commented that I’m overall getting better—“not at the same level” (as my normal righty play)—but improving. He said my footwork is holding me back as well as not using my hips for power for my lefty backhand. He was impressed that I didn’t miss any of my service returns.
In the parking lot, George excitedly and proudly shared the previously forgotten last name: “Williams!” “Yes!”, I confirmed with a pleased smile. I’d been wracking my brain for days, trying to remember!
Number of days on a court: 269
Number of total hours: 739
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I had to stay a little late at work and arrived at Scotts Valley shortly before 7:30 p.m.
I got into a game in very short order and played right from game to game until it was time to go.
My first game was with a new fellow, Darren, who lives nearby in Felton. We played against Stuart and Greg. We won, but it was very close.
i finished the night with a few games with Binh as my partner. We stacked again. The first game wasn’t that great, but by the last game, we were playing decently. Binh had a very nice backhand ATP around the left post.
I experimented some with my serve, trying to serve from a more upright position instead of hunching over. I missed a few, but they got better as the evening wore on.
One funny moment was when I hit a service return with a lot of backspin and it flew up and dropped just net and bounced straight back up less than net height. Mark Dettle has no chance! Stuart and a woman clapped from the bench! Of course, it’s a very low percentage shot that fails most of the time by either never crossing the net or inviting your opponent right up to the kitchen. It’s horrible shot-selection. Still it was fun. It the best execution I’ve ever seen of that shot though; a first!
Nothing of great note. Just putting in the necessary hours trying to improve left-handed.
Play wrapped up just before 9 p.m.
Number of days on a court: 268
Number of total hours: 736
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
I pulled into the parking lot at Brommer Park at 9:15 a.m. It was mostly overcast with the sun peeking out now and then over the course of the morning. It was also breezy.
A nice surprise was that Terry and Karen Long were back in town after their extended stay in Arizona. I didn’t get to play with them, but I did get to talk briefly with Karen.
After a game against John P. and Eric, John P. commented, “That left hand is coming along. You’re going to be dangerous ambidextrous.”
I missed an inordinate number of serves today. It was just one of those days when my serve goes haywire.
To gauge where I am in recovery, I placed my paddle in my right hand at arm’s length and raised the paddle at the wrist. Pain in my elbow. Boy. Worse than I thought. I can’t see it being good enough to use by the local August tournament. I just have to shake my head.
The young gentleman who’s name I couldn’t remember was back. His name is Shawnte, pronounced, “Shawn-tay.” I haven’t asked the origin of the name. Joe, the fellow with whom I played singles last week, was also back. Joe is a solid raw blank. His game currently is more appropriate for singles than doubles. His biggest weaknesses are driving the ball to a competent opponent at the net—offering up a winner to them—and not taking advantage of opportunities to get to the net. I told him so. I’ll admit that I was a bit frustrated with his approach to the game, but I didn’t vent that in the slightest other than politely offering suggestions two or three times. I can relate to Mike K. feelings about me when I started two years ago! It’s one thing when a partner is all around weak. But when they can hit the ball consistently, you expect more of them. It’s not fair, but it’s a natural thing. Strategy comes with experience. Joe has the potential to become very good.
Bihn and I played a game against Joyce and a woman whom I’ve only seen around lately named Sue. Binh and I won, but we were behind midway through the game. Joyce and Sue are not a 3.5 level team. They are a 3.0 team. That is not encouraging. Between games, I talked to Binh. “Maybe we should sign up as 3.0.” Binh said he didn’t mind losing and he’d rather have more challenging games. I thinking we may get challenging games in 3.0! If my lefty playing gets more consistent, great, otherwise, I might push to drop into 3.0 so we don’t get eliminated too quickly!
The last game was Binh and me against Tony and Adrian. It was a closely matched game with several lead changes. Binh and I lost 14-12. Adrian and Tony are not 3.5 players. (Yet.) They are 3.0 players. At the moment, I’m thinking Binh and I should move our August tournament registration to 3.0 from 3.5. I will say, there were a few highlight worthy points in that game. I dug out a slam from Tony that I returned crosscourt to Adrian who was also at the kitchen line . . . but bummer is after a flurry of great volley shots, I had the opportunity to finish that point when the ball went high, but merely hit it into the net. Gag.
Rain, Rain, Rain
The weather forecast is looking bad for this weekend.
Saturday, May 18, 2019 (No Play)
Very late in the afternoon, Eric Schmidt texted out to a group of us about a tournament in Monterey the weekend of June 22 & 23. It got excited until I figured out that the event would conflict with my son’s graduation party to be held at our house the same day as the Men’s Doubles.
The weather app on my phone is predicting 100% chance of rain at 8 a.m. tomorrow. I email Dave Allenbaugh and told him to go ahead and send out a SCPC cancelation email tomorrow if it looks the same and not wait for me to make the call.
A week ago, my wife developed a sore throat. Tonight, mine is hurting a bit. I hope it’s just a fluke and not the same thing.
Sunday, May 19, 219 (No Play)
Well, my throat is getting worse. Not a horrible sore throat, but annoying. With the rain, my wife end I made a trip to the Capitola Mall this morning. My wife was buying makeup for my daughter Charlotte who is returning from Spain tomorrow. Why I was there was to pick up new shorts to use for pickleball. My black Champion shorts have developed two small holes near the left pocket. I think they’ve seen about 500 hours of use, so you’d expect some wear and tear! Walking around though, my right ankle was causing me pain. Not good. It’s been bothering me lately. I found a couple of Tek Wear shorts on sale at Kohl’s for $11.99. Perfect. In the retail world, there’s a phrase: “One to show, one to go”—this is more “One to wear, one to wash!”
I realized that I still hadn’t registered for the Cabrillo Tournament, so I signed up. $51.50 . . . . $40 registration, $10 event, $1.50 online payment fee. There are a whole bunch of locals signed up for the tournament, so it’ll be fun. I only wish that I could play right-handed, but I’m thinking that’s not going to happen.
What’s very interesting is that I found out that George’s last name is Propper. (He’s signed up with Mark Girotti—Maree’s husband—in the 60+ bracket of 3.5.) I worked with a George Propper for a short time as a software engineer at Mountain Computer back in 1989. (I was offered a permanent position at Mountain Computer, but I didn’t take it. I was complimented on my coding skills there, but I was ready to be out of a cubicle.) I wonder. It’d be a trip if this George is that George. The odds are extremely good. 30 years removed! I’ll definitely talk to him about that when I see him next. Wow.
Monterey Tournament
So, I took another look at this Monterey tournament. It’s actually in Salinas, though Salinas doesn’t have the appeal of Monterey which conjures thoughts of Cannery Row—made famous by writer John Steinbeck—and art galleries. Salinas conjures thoughts of farming and gangs. It starts at 9 a.m. The party for my son starts at 3 p.m. It’s a one hour drive. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Am I crazy?
Pro Switching Hands
A woman on the Facebook Pickleball Forum who started a discussion if switching hands is legal. (Oh, yes, it is!) One guy, Rich, mentioned a guy named Kurtis Campbell who switches frequently with success. I asked for a video and Rich provided this one—even timestamped with an excellent example at 5:23. (Kurtis is the one with no cap, partnered with Kyle Yates—man, no pressure or anything!)
With no games today, I pulled out our car and spent 15 minutes drilling. (Camera timer!) I did hit 4-5 shots with my right hand just to test and it was manageable. In January, it would have been excruciatingly painful. But I’m not there yet.
Video
I went back and watched a few videos of me playing games left-handed back in March. Pitiful. Granted, I was probably about six weeks into it, but pitiful. And depressing. I was going to upload it, but it’s so bad. But I should. Historical reference, right?
Wednesday, May 22, 2019 (No Play)
The weather finally cleared up today enough to play. However, my sore throat morphed into stuffy sinuses and chest congestion. Miserable. I spent between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. this morning coughing. If I had gone to Derby and played, I would have been in very sorry shape. *cough* *hack*
Number of days on a court: 267
Number of total hours: 734.5
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