Category: Pickleball (Page 106 of 324)

Friday, March 22, 2024 (Court Day #640)

It was a chilly morning, overcast and 54°F. I fly out early tomorrow morning to head to New Orleans for a trade show and won’t be back until late Wednesday night.

Tennis Elbow?

I’ve been playing more in the last two weeks than I have played in a two weeks period in the past nine months. That is helping me regain my skills. A bit concerning, however, is I have very slight tennis elbow symptoms with very slight soreness in my forearm plus a little bit of soreness when I make certain motions where the two bones meet at my elbow. Hopefully, that won’t develop into anything more serious.

Departure

I left my house at 8:50 a.m., after checking in for my Southwest Airlines flight. Southwest has open boarding, so the earliest you can check in, the better. Even checking in within 30 seconds of the start time, I completely missed the “A group” and end up being assigned B-35. I should still get a reasonable seat with that though.

Brommer

This morning at Brommer Park, it was club play, so it was very organized however I wasn’t be able to stay for the whole session. I had to get home and shower, run my mother-in-law—who is in town—to a tax appointment, and then I had to get out near 41st Avenue for a radio interview on the Think Local First program . . . it’s a chance to promote our family business for free.

Warm Up

When I arrived only half of the courts were full so I warmed up with a regular named Mike T. who sports a white beard. Mike solid 3.5 level player.

During my warm-up with Mike, I was hitting a lot of my drop shots into the white tape. I have some work to do on that. I need to think about where I want the ball to land, not what the ball has to clear or I need to think about a space a foot above the net instead of the net itself. The good news is I nailed—by far—most of my drop shots in actual games.

Games

Mike and I played game against Patty and Gregg, the left-handed player. Well, Patty and Gregg came back to make a game of it, Mike and I still won. Gregg was the weakest player and I was playing very well.

After the first game when Mike and I beat Patty and Gregg, when it came time to sign up for our next game, Patty said “I want to play with you. You know how to play the game.“ That was a nice compliment. She is saying that my game is not one dimensional, She’s complaining about some players: drive, drive, lob. Drive, drive, lob. Drive, drive, lob. And they have no soft game. My game is well-rounded.

Busy

There were some long waits today and court time was at a premium. The clouds are burned off and it got to be pretty nice. The rain was expected later today.

I got into a game with Patty against Leslie and Dan Bliss. This was an all OG game. I definitely wanted to play well in this game—honestly, I felt little anxious—and I did. Patty and I won handily.

My last game of the day was also with Leslie and Dan. We had signed up in blue. My partner would be Mike T. who also signed up in blue. I was a bit surprised if he had done that but that would be the game. (Maybe Mike was having an off day, I don’t play with him enough to know.) Mike was the weakest player on the court. Leslie and Dan won pretty easily but I played well and they complimented my play after the game.

I did miss one of my serves today, but for that one serve that I missed, I had four or five that were returned by the receivers into the net.

I got to my backpack after the last game and checked the time. 11:06 a.m. It was time to boogie.

Radio

I got home, showered, dropped my mother-in-law at her appointment, then I headed out to the studio for the SantaCruzVoice‘s Think Local First radio show. The show features local businesses which are members of Think Local First, a local collective that promotes supporting independent local shops.

The show was originally on KSCO, but when the owner laid off nearly all their staff in favor of mostly syndicated programming, the now-unemployed crew started their own internet radio station. I don’t know their listenership, but appearing on the program is low cost—just my time and gas—and I’m comfortable in a radio studio (I’ve been interviewed maybe half a dozen times on various programs), so there wasn’t much to lose.

While the program went live at 1:06 p.m., I was there about 15-20 minutes early and I ended up sharing thoughts on air while Susan O’Connor Fraser and her husband wrapped up their previous program, Noon Balloon – Eat. Drink. And Be Local. They were talking about the Giant Dipper roller coaster at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and I told them that my uncle had designed the coaster’s sign that’s been hanging there for many decades. And that my great-grandfather had done the concrete work for the carousel there as well. Then we went into the break—national news time and ads.

I felt the nearly hour-long show went really well. It certainly went quickly. Afterward, we said our goodbyes and I made my way to “work work”!

Number of days on a court: 640
Number of total hours: 2,760
Number of paid coaching hours: 24.5

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

Tuesday, March 19, 2024 (Court Day #639)

I realized that while out walking our younger corgi, Pepper, that I could take the USA Pickleball player rules test again on my phone at the same time or simultaneously, if you prefer! Sooner or later, I’ll get every question right. But this time, I got 88%. Invariably, there is one that I read incorrectly, plus others that are specific to tournaments such as technical warnings, how long before no-shows are forfeited, etc.

Coaching Validation!

One of my current students, Susana, came into my work today as a customer. She said that she just got back from Panama this morning so that’s why she missed the first class on Sunday. But her husband did attend. She said that the two of them had taken another class from one (non-Rec) instructor and a single private lesson from another coach, but her husband told her that I was “amazing”. She also commented on the long email with information I had sent out about where to get paddles and appropriate shoes locally, some videos on scoring, information about the local pickleball club, etc. Susana said none of their prior coaches had done that. My goal is to give my students an experience that I’d like to have myself.

Skypark

As I drove to Skypark, I had two concerns. Immediate one was where I would be forced to park. The second one was whether I could start fast or would it take me a number of games to dial in my play. I’ve been playing better the last week, so I hope that I can gear up quickly.

Arrived a few minutes before 7 p.m. and apparently recently someone just left because there was a parking spot right next to the wooden fence which I quickly gobbled up.

Once on the course, someone had the sign-up board hung on the chain link fence which is really good because it was needed!

It was a comfortable night. You couldn’t see your breath at all. And it was very busy. I was talking to Paul W. and he said he counted 20 people waiting and with 32 on the courts—that’s 52 people out playing tonight. Yes, Pickleball continues to grow! There is at least a dozen students there from UCSC and some of them were from a Christian club on campus.

I was playing very well. During one game when we were partnered together, Lester complimented me, “Maybe I should take your class!”

I feel like I’m continuing to play better and better. I will say that tonight I didn’t get to play against a full complement of good players. Nonetheless, there were shots that I got, where I kind of amazed myself. Aside from one game towards the end of the evening, I felt I played pretty well.

Even though I wasn’t hungry at all, I ate a protein bar right after closing time at work. I think I really helped me out as I had more energy through the session and wasn’t dragging at the end.

I missed two of my serves tonight, one was the hair long, and for the other one the receiver’s partner was dancing around at the kitchen line. It’s kind of silly, but I proved to be enough of distraction that I hit the ball into the net.

I walked off the court after my last game, and I asked one of the UCSC students who was sitting on the bench and looking at his phone what time it was. He told me “9:30”. I didn’t believe him. It didn’t seem anything like 9:30. I would’ve figured between 8:30 and 8:45, but he showed me a phone. Sure enough, it was indeed 9:30 p.m.! While it wasn’t technically my responsibility, I immediately got to work putting away some of the unused portable nets. I got the nets stowed and locked up the bin then said my goodbyes and headed home.

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Wednesday, March 20, 2024 (No Play)

So this image popped up on in my YouTube suggested videos:

With “pickleball” in the description, I had to watch the entire interview, linked here:

While they did touch on pickleball briefly in the interview, there was no reference to his “love of pickleball”. There is this note on the video however:
“NOTE: A portion of this video has been trimmed due to broadcast rights.”

Mystery Person

My daughter doesn’t like me to post anything about her on social media. I won’t tell you who this person is, but she listed “pickleball” as part of her hobbies…

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Thursday, March 21, 2024 (No Play)

I went ahead and ordered a Klitch shoe clip today. $14.99 with free shipping. It’ll allow me to clip my shoes to my backpack instead of having to carry them separately . . . much more convenient!

Number of days on a court: 639
Number of total hours: 2,758
Number of paid coaching hours: 24.5

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

Sunday, March 17, 2024 (Court Day #638)

I arrived at Derby Park at 8:45 a.m. The sky was mostly clear, but there was a large bank of ominous clouds floating nearby over the ocean. Fortunately, those would burn off and it turned into a gorgeous sunny day.

Bruce

Today, I got games that were more challenging than Sunday last week. There’s a tall guy named Bruce. I’d only previously seen him at Brommer Park, but this morning, he came to Derby Park. Bruce is a good player with a long reach and is a blast to play against. I was able to play 2-3 games against him. Fun stuff. I think think the feeling is mutual. When I added my name below his in the sign up box, I heard an audible sound of approval from him nearby. Unfortunately, one of our group was a 3.0 signing up as an advanced player. Oh, well. It lead to a lopsided game.

Cimeron, John, J.J.

Cimeron and her husband John were there too. My last game was with her against John and J.J. Cimeron and I won that game 11-9. John and J.J. are primarily bangers.

In that last game, Cimeron was to my right and hit a crosscourt dink that went wide enough that J.J. was able to hit an ATP. The good news is that I anticipated his shot and was able to get my paddle on the ball but the ball ended up in the net. My cohorts on the court seemed pretty impressed regardless that I had almost successfully defended J.J.’s shot.

About five minutes later, a similar thing happened but this time John was the one going for the ATP to my backhand. He hit his low ATP and this time I was able to get the ball back over the net. Unfortunately, my return of the ATP was pretty high, and J.J. was able to do an overhead slam at my feet, which I was unable to return. Still, to be able to return a low and wide ATP as a backhand . . . there has to be some satisfaction in that. Cimeron was funny, “I’m tempted to do more of those to see what you can do with them!”

After the game, Cimeron gave me a compliment, “Your soft game is so consistent.” 

And?

I feel my play is continuing to strengthen and get better. I have been able to play four times in five days and that helps a lot.

I left Derby Park at 11:50 a.m. Ted closed for me so that I could go home and have lunch before heading to Willowbrook to teach this afternoon at 1:30 p.m.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, it was St. Patrick’s Day today. There was an atypical amount of green worn by people on the courts today!

Number of days on a court: 638
Number of total hours: 2,755.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 23

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