Friday, December 14, 2018 (Court Day #234)

Rain was predicted. Originally, it was around 10, then it got pushed back to 11:30. I arrived at Brommer Park at 9 a.m. I was the seventh person there. It was overcast but I was still wearing sunglasses for eye protection.

Warmup

I was soon warming up with John P. and the short redhead, Di. My dropshots were practically nonexistent. They were all going into the net. It was bad. Barb R. walked up. She realized that she had no glasses on, she said, “I’ve been hit in the eye three times. I don’t play without glasses anymore.” She got her protective eyewear and came back and we were soon in a game. My play wasn’t any better in a live game—it was definitely off.

Stuart called over to me from his game across the divider, “Are you going all Hollywood on us?” Yeah, my sunglasses. I overheard from the other court, “Hiding the black eye from us!”

Ted, Chris, Grita and Dave Allenbaugh get a mid-morning game in.

Elite Game

”We can play with these guys.” It was Dean talking to Leslie about me and Barb R. Ugh. Perfect timing. Playing with two strong players when my play is awful. That will make a good impression. Sigh. Oh, well. My play was crappy. I completely whiffed on one backhand shot trying to return a shot from Dean. I think I had one good point in the whole game. Embarrassing.

It got darker. I took off my sunglasses. I had a second free pair of sunglasses I got at a trade show. They are obnoxious bright silver. I pushed out the lenses. I did a quick test with a ball to see how far close it could get to my eyeball while wearing them. Hmmm. Not perfect, but it’d provide some protection. I’ll need to pick up some better clear protective glasses.

My right arm is still suffering from tennis elbow. Not fun. Certain shots are painful. I ended up rubbing my elbow a few times over the course of the morning.

Stuart asked, “Will those glasses prevent the ball from getting to your eyes?” I told him that it might not, but it was better than nothing and that I need to make a run to a local store to pick some up.

Getting to the Line

Later, I was in a game with some other intermediates. I was the strongest player on the court. I was at the kitchen line. My partner was receiving. She hit a deep return. Great. Then the other team hit the ball hard right back where it can come from. I turned. Huh? Where was my partner? *grumble* Still at the baseline! What the heck? How to lose at pickleball—stay at the baseline. I realized if we wanted to stay in this rec game, I was going to have to play very well and maybe be a bit more aggressive poaching shots. I did play much better in this game. We did lose, but it was close. And my partner did some up to the net sometimes, but not nearly as quickly and as often as she should.

What I noticed today was me not properly tracking to my right to close up the middle of the court. There were probably three shots down the middle where I was diagonal from the hitter, meaning they were my responsibility. Something to work on.

It Arrives

It started to very lightly mist. John P. slid a little while running down a ball at the net. “I’m done. I don’t want to get hurt.” We stopped the game. 11:15. All the courts cleared. A few people decided they wanted to go back out and continue to play anyway. Good luck with that.

As I was driving home, it was a downpour. 11:30. I hope those overly optimistic players got off the courts and into their cars in time!

Overview

There are good days and bad days. The overall trajectory of skill is up, however, there are days of sliding down. Today was one of those sliding days. It’s a natural progression in developing any physical skill, of course, but it feels lousy nonetheless.

Number of days on a court: 234
Number of total hours: 640

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Wednesday, December 12, 2018 (Court Day #233)

Last night, I checked my pickleball backpack for sunglasses. Two pairs. Good. At some point, I’ll need to solve the problem of eye protection while playing at night or non-sunglasses conditions. My left eye seems fine, pressure from a finger causes no discomfort and bright light has no negative effect.

I got to Derby Park a few minutes after 9 a.m. While it had been in the 40s around 8 a.m., it was going to be a nice sunny day.

I was in a game with Rick against George and Ted B. Afterward, George told me, “You played really well. You made some excellent shots.”
I downplayed it, “I made some really bad shots too.”
He countered, “But the good ones were deliberate and intentioned.”

Oleg and his wife Olga showed up mid–morning. Oleg signed up in the advanced color of red and I added my name under his. Tom Sherwood asked and I said, “Sure, sign up, we need four.” Grita added her name. I opted to play with Tom. Grita likes to win and was happy to play with Oleg, the strongest player. I don’t care if I lose, I want to go against the strongest competition. I really like Tom, he’s a good guy, he’s just not as strong of a player, he’s a solid 3.0. After a failed shot, Tom said, “I should probably just go home!” We lost 11-3 or 11-4 or something. It was lopsided. Still, I got a few good shots in.

Oleg lobbing on George and Chris while his partner Jane looks on.

I finished up shortly after noon to head home then to work. (Work is getting busy with Christmas only two  weeks away.)

There were three shots today where I completely whiffed on the ball. I thought I told was the sunglasses, but maybe it’s the tennis elbow that’s dragging on. Odd, regardless.

It’s supposed to rain this weekend.

Number of days on a court: 23
Number of total hours: 638

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Sunday, December 9, 2018 (Court Day #232)

I checked the temperature. 44°F. Brrr. Cold. My big concern was how my tennis elbow was going to hold up. A smaller concern was my right ankle. I got to the courts at 8:50. John P. appeared a few minutes later, then Dave Allenbaugh showed up. We had three site coordinators. Nice. (Ok, John is technically a backup.) David commented, “The courts are a mess!” A bunch of pine needles had blown onto the courts. I used up my battery and, fortunately, Dave had brought his as well so I used his to finish the job.

I got into a few mostly unmemorable games. I did get in a game of Kim and Marianne against me and Chris. This wasn’t memorable for the challenge but just that it was dorky. Marianne is 2.5 level player. Kim, I’d call a 4.0, I’m a solid 3.5, and Chris I’d call a 3.0 knocking on the door of 3.5—he has moments of very good play (from his tennis background) and others of not so good. Like me, but at a slightly lower level. Anyway, we didn’t want to hurt Marianne and took it a bit easy. It was fun just because it was relaxed.

I had a first time visitor, Christian from Watsonville, sign the liability waiver. I signed him up in a court box and added myself. About two seconds later, I realized that I had previously signed up in a waiting box. Duh. (Distracted!) And I was on not too much longer with Marianne, Binh, and someone I can’t recall. Why doesn’t that stick in my mind? Read on.

Holy Crap!

Binh and Marianne were teamed up. We were a few points in and we were all at the net. The ball was hit a bit too high by my partner. Binh, directly across from me, wound up his backhand and drove the ball hard at my chest. It happened so quick. The ball grazed the top edge of my paddle and ricocheted up and hit me square in my left eyeball. My paddle was instantly falling to the ground and my hands were to my eye. How bad was this? I’d heard stories about detached retinas and other severe eye injuries. I opened my eye, I could see. That was a big relief. It still hurt, but, yes, I had vision. Whew. After assuring my game mates—especially Binh—that I was ok, I picked up my paddle and told them that I was going to take care of my eye.

From my backpack, I removed my water bottle that I had filled at home with ice and water and used it to ice my eye. While I was sitting with the bottle resting against my eye socket, Carrie asked how I was. I let her know that I’d be fine. She said, “You are regularly playing against tough players, they hit hard.”

A touch swollen. Someone said they could see the circular mark of the ball on my cheek. Coincidentally, Marianne and Binh caught playing their next game in the background. 

Karl offered me his safety glasses if I wanted to keep playing. Carrie offered me several sets of sunglasses she kept producing out of her bag. Stuart had me try on a couple of his yellow-tinted sunglasses. Dean checked on me, as did others. Pickleball really is a community.

I asked John P. to close and he was willing. I stayed another few more minutes debating then opted to just head home at 10:30.

My eyeball felt, like, well, when it does when you get whacked in the eyeball. It aches a bit. And my cheek was sporting a little welt. All told, I dodged a bullet. From here on out, sunglasses or protective eyewear.

The incident could have been a blessing in disguise. 1) Making me take eye protection far more seriously. 2) Forcing me to rest my tennis elbow. 3) Forcing me to rest my ankle. 4) Spending more time with my wife on her birthday weekend. (Probably, not in that order!)

Still, a bummer to have to call my day short as we head into winter and the constant threat of rain.

Monday, December 10, 2018 (No Play)

This morning as I dried my face after my shower, the pressure on my eyelid hurt some. My left eyeball was still very sensitive. I checked the dilation of my pupils in the mirror and they were equal. Well, that’s good.

When I got into my car to drive work, the brightness of the sun caused just a bit of pain in my left eye.

Eye protection going forward, no question. I don’t want to go through this kind of scare again—or worse. I’m a convert.

Number of days on a court: 232
Number of total hours: 635

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