I arrived about 5 minutes after “opening time” of Derby Park to find four players in a game and Mark (who helped mentor me the first day) zipping around getting the final things ready for the masses to arrive.
Tom L. and his friend Ileana, both 20-somethings, were at the courts today. It’s nice not to be the youngest person out there! Tom is the better player of the two and shared that he (or maybe both of them) were playing pickleball other days of the week beyond just Sunday. Unlike some of us . . . namely, me!
My first game or two were disappointments, but as the day progressed, the rust on my paddle wore off and I got back into the groove.
As people departed for the day, leaving courts open, a woman named Lara—who I’d played with—and I did solo drills, dinking the ball left down the net then back right down the net. Then we did another drill, starting close to the net then hitting ground strokes working our way back to the baseline. Lara asked if I had tennis background since I was doing well for only my 4th day on the courts.
As nearly the last to leave—minus one doubles game on a court—Eric stopped me and said he had a net and a friend who plays and he was looking for another person to play during the week sometime. I put my contact information into his phone, explaining that my life is not always my own and work demands set my availability—if someone calls in sick, I’m often trapped and end up working a 6-day workweek. I’d be nice to get in some extra playing time. Maybe I’ll arrange some time off from work during the week so that I can play some mornings, we’ll see!
The following day, Tuesday, February 21, 2017, I wrote my friend John telling him of my efforts to find a local cheap “get me by” paddle. He reminded me that he said he’d loan me one of his extra paddles until I found a good one to purchase for myself. Duh!
I emailed John asking him to drop his extra paddle off at my work the next time he happened to be nearby but not to make a special trip. Of course, it showed up less than three hours later in my office while I was out to lunch. Thanks, John!
John had picked up this paddle from a fellow in the club at a good price. It has seen some use, some dings in the faces are visible in the right light, but it gets the job done.
Paddle Grips
I should point out that the photo shows that the paddle grip is a bit small for my hand. I’ve heard from two sources—one an online paddle retailer video, another from a pickleball instructor in a podcast or YouTube video—that there should be a gap equal to the width of your finger between the ends of your fingers and the meaty part of your thumb. It’s always best to get a paddle with a grip that is too small that too big. Too small, you can put an “overgrip” on it. Too big, you are out of luck unless you shrink your hands in the dryer! An overgrip is a strip of material that you wind around the handle of your paddle.
Here’s a really good video for installing one on a tennis racket:
and here’s a short video that’s not as detailed but specific to pickleball paddles:
The key thing to note is that the handle on a pickleball paddle significantly shorter than that of a tennis racket and you only need about three feet of overgrip for a paddle. Therefore if you use a tennis racket overgrip on your paddle, unless you want to overlap the wraps significantly, you’ll end up with a fair amount of leftover material. Pickleball paddle overgrip is pretty reasonable, typically between $5 and $10 for a package with 2-3 rolls.
Finally, Some Home Practice
With balls, a simulated partial court and a paddle, I got some practice in. Our corgi Oliver didn’t quite know what to make of the clacking noise coming from the garage, but he thankfully stopped barking from inside the house after a few minutes.
So, I’d been watching YouTube videos of top players in championship matches. It’s easy to be critical and think they should be doing even better . . . until you practice it yourself! You’d think it wouldn’t be hard to consistently hit the ball a few inches over the net—you’d think! But not so much. But the percentage of success will follow with practice getting used to the ball and the paddle.
My hope of squeezing in some pickleball on Sunday, February 19 was squashed. I had bit the bullet and signed up for the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club email list previously on Tuesday, February 14. (Hey! St. Valentine’s Day!) The weekend of the 18th was pretty miserable. It was cold and rainy. A club email arrived saying the only two-thirds of the Derby courts would be open on Sunday for only part of the scheduled time due to a flooded court. Given that I had relatives staying at my house from Washington State and the inclement weather, I gave pickleball a miss. I’d have to do without for one weekend. I’d have to get my fix by learning virtually and maybe some practice in my garage. Alas. As it was, I spent part of the day talking to my friend John P. via email about the guys in the club who sold paddles.
I was off from work on Presidents Day, Monday, February 20. I figured I’d spend part of the day scoping out a local sporting goods store, Play It Again Sports in Soquel. I called them up and they assured me that they had pickleball paddles. I’d been researching paddles and was undecided on what model I was willing to spend $100 on, but I wanted to practice on my own without having to borrow a paddle, so I figured I’d see what they had cheap.
A Visit to the Sporting Goods Store
I walked in and a friendly clerk showed me to their pickleball section. I asked him if pickleball seems to be getting more popular. Holding back a laugh, he extended his left arm in the direction of the paddles, “That we have a pickleball section now at all shows that!” They had about a dozen paddles of a few different types.
I explained what I was after and he explained that they stocked low end and high end but no middle range paddles since the pickleball people either wanted super cheap or very serious. I told him what I was after, that is, something nearly disposable since I’d be replacing it shortly. Not wanting to hold him up, I told him that I’d browse their selection. To which he offered, “You can always look online too.” (Uh, kid, don’t you know that sales out of this store that you work for covers your bi-weekly paycheck?)
Their low end paddles were very inexpensive. Only $15, which was great for my price goal. If I’d had no experience, I might have bought one. But these all-wood paddles were heavy. 12 ounces. I was used to a 7 ounce paddle from the ones I borrowed from the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club on Sundays. I didn’t want to practice with a lead weight on a handle!
The top end paddles were $80-$90. One was marked down on sale from $99.95 to $89.95. They were all Onix brand paddles. I’d seen them in my meanderings on the web, but I wasn’t ready to buy. But I was tempted regardless to get a nice paddle.
Instead, I bought a package of pickleballs for $10.
Practice, Rain or Shine
On my trip to the sporting goods store, I stopped by work and picked up a roll of 2″ wide white gaffer’s tape, a heavy-duty cloth tape. My goal was to take advantage of the large plywood panels the previous homeowner had used as doors to the overbuilt cabinets he’d constructed in our garage. I used the full width of the tape on the doors. I placed the top edge of the tape at 36″ . . . if I wanted to get technical, I could have placed it at 34″ to emulate the middle of the net, but I figured it was better to error on the high side (as the net is near the posts) than to err low and find me at a real court later used to a lower net! I ripped the tape in half long ways and used that to simulate the kitchen line on the garage floor at 7 feet from the “net.”
As long as I moved our car out of the space, I had my own little practice area.
And, no, the white bucket you see near right of the photo is not pickleballs. Those are softballs ready for Co-Rec league play in a few months. Managers get to store balls and bats all year for about 3 months of use. (I’m smiling.)
I was ready to practice dinking and maybe volleying. Dinking is part of the “short game,” it’s hitting a ball back and forth from one kitchen across the net into the opponent’s kitchen and back again. You want to keep the ball low over net so you don’t get a mouthful of pickleball smash!
John had picked up this paddle from a fellow in the club at a good price. It has seen some use, some dings in the faces are visible in the right light, but it gets the job done.
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