Category: Pickleball (Page 137 of 325)

Wednesday, September 28, 2022 (Court Day #554)

René and I had arranged to drill this morning and she was dropped off five minutes from my house where I picked her up at 7:45 a.m. From there, we headed straight to Derby Park and when we arrived there were six women playing. As soon as we walked up, two of the women ran across the courts and claimed the second—and only remaining functional—city net. I guess they didn’t want it until we wanted it! Fortunately, today was a club day and, of course, I have keys to the storage bin so I opened it up and set up one of the club nets early. (Even though I’m a site coordinator for the SCPC, I can’t use club equipment willy-nilly on random days/times whenever I feel like it. But setting up an net a little earlier than required is in the “fudge room” in my book.)

Drilling

René and I did some sliding dink drills passing each other in opposite directions on each side of the net at the kitchen line. We also did the drill Terry Long taught at a clinic few years ago that Eric and I have done over the years . . . that’s the one where a player starts the baseline and other is at the kitchen and the kitchen player serves cooperatively to the person at the baseline and person at the baseline needs to work up to the kitchen while the person at the kitchen tries to keep the other person back. (Clear as mud?) We did these drills for about 45 minutes.

René had only got about five and half hours sleep and I was up earlier than normal with a little less sleep as well. After playing last night too, I was just tired today. Half an hour into those drills, René was asking what time it was, thinking it was close to the 9 a.m. opening time. Nope, that was only 30 minutes!

René and I had a number of games over the session. Nearly all were challenging.

We played against Jackie and Eric and got clobbered. We were just not playing well.

We played against her friend Rick and Mark G. on two occasions in the morning and won both.

Later on, during one game, René reached out to hit a passing shot along the right sideline and strained her shoulder. She said she had done this somewhat recently before. She sat out the rest of the session’s games—probably about 45 minutes.

We were done and out shortly after noon.

I was disappointed with my play and our play as a team. But I know we were both exhausted. Plus I’ve been on antibiotics since last week when I had a tooth pulled. (Fortunately, that ends tomorrow!)

Silver Lining?

On the bright side, on the day, I remember missing only one of my serves but at least half a dozen of my opponents’ returns never made it back over the net. René complimented me on my serving today.

Oh, and today I passed 2,500 hours of time at the courts. Milestone.

In the News

Famous NBA basketball player LeBron James is part of an ownership group that now owns a Major League Pickleball team.

CNBC:
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/28/lebron-james-is-a-pickleball-fan-and-player-now-hes-buying-a-team.html

The Athletic:
https://theathletic.com/3637983/2022/09/28/pickleball-rules-scoring-lebron-james/

ESPN:
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/34682831/los-angeles-lakers-star-lebron-james-headlining-new-ownership-group-major-league-pickleball

Yahoo!Sports:
https://sports.yahoo.com/le-bron-james-draymond-green-and-kevin-love-part-of-group-buying-a-professional-pickleball-team-175830748.html

NPR:
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/29/1125859989/lebron-james-pickleball

This goes on. ABC News, New York Post, Huffington Post, Washington Post, Fortune, Wall Street Journal. It’s all over the place.

Number of days on a court: 554
Number of total hours: 2,501.5

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Tuesday, September 27, 2022 (Court Day #553)

There was an article in the New York Post yesterday about pickleball players “battling” kids for playing area in New York City:
https://nypost.com/2022/09/26/parents-go-to-war-with-pickleball-players-over-nyc-parks/

Big cities have to be about the worst place to try and find courts with the land being so expensive.

Skypark

I told René that I would be playing at Skypark on Tuesday night, and—with the tournament together coming up on Sunday—she drove over from San Jose area to play as my partner for the evening. When I arrived at 7 p.m., she was finishing up her first game.

We played a couple of games against weaker players and the result of those two games were never in doubt. They were lopsided.

Tim and Matt S.

We went on to play a game against Tim F. and Matt Smith. Tim, of course, loves to lob. Matt Smith on the other hand, likes to drive shots very hard. Often, if you can get out of the way, his drives will go out.

Between the difficulty of playing under lights, and Matt and Tim seeming to target René, René started to get a little bit annoyed. She and I were not playing our best in that game and Tim and Matt are taking quite a lead. When the game ended René wanted to play against someone else.

Mark and David

Our next game was with Mark G. and the older Asian fellow David. David is a very good player and has wicked drives that easily equal those of Matt Smith. He also has good control and can also angle the ball well. He’s quite the formidable opponent. René and I got clobbered in that game. And when that game was done, René did not want to rematch.

I was a bit disappointed. The harder the competition, the faster the shots, the more I want the game. It’s a bummer to lose, but in rec play, I’d much prefer to lose than to slaughter my opponents. René just wasn’t matching the vibe. After a long hard day, she wanted more upbeat “fun” opponents.

We took a short break before we found some new opponents. We played four or five games against Mike (build like a linebacker) and another fellow Dave. Mike plays at Skypark now and then and I’ve seen Dave maybe a handful of times before. They were both weaker players and René and I won all of the games. They did improve over the course of those games, taking the games from very lopsided to somewhat lopsided.

We finished up about 9:20, René needed to drive about 45 minutes to get home and needed to be up early. I hoping to squeeze in one more game but everyone was done.

Number of days on a court: 553
Number of total hours: 2,497.5

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

Sunday, September 25, 2022 (Court Day #552)

I was stressing this morning about whether or not the courts would be wet or not. I texted Rick A. (who lives nearby) but he wasn’t able to get back to me. Making the call about a delay or cancelation of play is the most stressful part of being a site coordinator. My front deck—a synthetic non-absorbent material—was wet, but when I put my hand on my driveway, it didn’t seem wet. I figured the courts would be fine.

I arrived to Derby park it 8:38 a.m., and I was the first one there. The courts were dry and I had been needlessly worrying.

I had a few disposable games during the social hour. And there were two newbies that I played with, Michelle and Kristin.

A surprise result, I was playing with Michelle against Steve and Ted and she and I won. It was a surprise since Michelle is a novice, but I was able to make up for her shortcomings.

But then René showed up. René and I will be playing in a tournament one week from today up the Bay Area. I waited for her to finish her game and then we paired up for the next 3 1/2 to 4 hours.

I was repeatedly hitting really nice dropshots. That’s progress. It’s been reverting to less reliability lately.

I was done at 1:52 pm. 5 hours at the courts.

New SCPC Caps

Barb was there selling pre-ordered club shirt and club caps. I’d ordered a cap. I forgot they were $25. Not cheap. But it’ll get use.

Ouch

I forgot to put on sunscreen and burnt my neck pretty good. I’m counting my blessings that it was at least overcast today and it took a little of the edge off. It could have been much worse!

Number of days on a court: 552
Number of total hours: 2,495

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