I had to work a bit later. When I arrived at the courts 7 p.m., thing were hopping. I hadn’t seen that many players at Skypark in quite a while! Though the heavy crowd thinned considerably by 8 p.m.
Boatload of players!
I played at least half my games tonight lefthanded to give my tennis elbow a break. But later, I had some stronger players to play against and opted to play righty.
Serves
One thing that was notable was I ended one game on three unreturnable serves. Serve, into net. Serve, into net. Serve, into net. Game over. John (a relatively new addition to the scene) commented to his partner about my serves during a different game, “His serves are tricky.”
Relapse
I’m starting to realize that—strategy-wise— my game has relapsed some during my nearly two years of left-handed play. I’m doing too much driving at opponents at the net and not enough dropping. It’s sloppy. I need to get back to a smarter game.
Play wrapped up and we all left at 9:30.
My right knee was aching a bit. Nothing major, but it was making itself known.
Number of days on a court: 414 Number of total hours: 2,078
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Friday morning, I had an “onboarding” Zoom meeting with the Director of Ambassadors for the USA Pickleball, Steve Stone. There were three other new ambassadors on the video call as well from across the United States: New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania, and me in California. It lasted about 90 minutes and covered the ambassador resources section of their website, the partners and sponsors of USA Pickleball, the communication chain from Steve down to us ambassadors.
Brommer
My elbow has been a little unhappy. I played most games Thursday night lefty. Today, it was a mix. Mostly righty, but some lefty.
I parked around 9:30 a.m. and the Brommer Park lot about 3/4 full.
Confident Tristin
There is a taller Doug and a shorter, newer Doug. The latter and I played a game against Tristin and Juls. We “won” the first game. Tristin hadn’t warmed up and was taking it easy . . . I could tell, he wasn’t attacking shots like he could. After I called him on one of those he said, “I wanted the game to last longer.”
In our second rematch game, Doug and I were up 8-0. Juls expressed some concern, but Tristin told her, “We’ll win.” Tristin then started playing very aggressively, poaching shots right and left, and they caught up 8-10 but we were still ahead. It was our serve and I didn’t play hard, hoping to extend the game. (As Tristin had done in the first game.) They won the next point and the game was over! What? It hadn’t been 8-10, it was 10-8 their advantage! Oops. I told Tristin that I would have played differently and he poked fun, “It’s always good to know the score.” I guess it goes to show how seriously I was taking the game. Ha!
That Thing You Do
Between games, Juls told me, “You do that curve thing with your paddle and attack low balls. No one else does that.” I’m fairly certain she means that I brush up on dinks, attacking by lifting and adding topspin while at the kitchen line. Part of me is proud of myself and part of me is worried that whatever I’m doing that is unusual is contributing to my tennis elbow. But I don’t think so. What gets sore is the muscle that would be pulling the paddle/hand back at the wrist. Rotating the hand inward or sideways inward are both different muscles.
Not Quite Ready
I was able to weasel my way into a game with Tristin, Patty, and Inran. I figure Inran is the strongest player and me the weakest—though on a good day I can hang with Patty—so I partnered with Inran to keep it more balanced. I’d never played with Imran before. He’s overall fairly serious, but he’s a good guy who you can get to smile here and there.
We played two games and lost both. Even though Imran said he played badly, it was nearly all me. Imran is very consistent. He made a few mistakes, but that happens when you are in a game when your less-skilled partner is messing up—you aren’t as focused. In the first game, from midcourt, I drove the ball and Tristan—already at the net—took advantage and attacked the ball. After the rally, I apologized to Inran and said, “Tristan is too fast for that shot.” Inran replied, “Everyone is too fast for that shot . . . it’s a bad shot.” And he’s right. Though if you spend a lot of time playing against lower skilled players, sometimes you can get away with it.
In the next game, I did the same hard drive with the same result. Duh. You’d think I’d learn. I turned to Imran, sheepishly, “I did it again.” Directly to the point, he said, “You don’t have that shot.” It’s the same shot that Oleg used against me 3-4 years ago and I returned the ball past him for a winner. Unless you can drive very hard to an awkward spot for your opponent—like between their paddle-side hip and armpit—it’s a risky shot. I tend to just hit it hard without a precise target in mind. I either need to just go to a dropshot or get much more deliberate in my drives. Regardless, I need to pay attention to what is effective when playing against better players.
New Ball
After our games, I asked Imran about how their “Eleven to Win” ball business venture was going, Imran mentioned that the ball we’d been using was their new “professional ball” with a bit higher bounce. They have a bunch of standard balls coming but global logistics are completely messed up right now. One of my supplies sent me a photo of dozens of container ships just waiting off the coast for their turn to come into port—everything is really backed up and also much more expensive to ship. A cargo container that cost $3,000 to ship overseas to America a year ago is now costing $12,000 – $15,000. It’s nuts.
”Mom”
A visiting woman, who was part of a couple who was playing repeatedly with John P. and Jon B., was introduced to me. She was amused and delighted to meet me. She told me that when she met locals this weekend and she told them that her son is Andrew that people would say, “Oh, we love Andrew! He’s so nice. He owns an art gallery.” I was pleased to hear that local players said good things about me. Her actual son is almost certainly the new other Andrew whom I played with recently. And just to clarify, I run an artist materials store that is still owned by my retired parents, we do picture framing, but it’s not a gallery.
Oh, and when she left, I yelled over, “Bye, ‘Mom’!” (She was amused!) I think it was Renee who asked, “Is she really your mom?” “No…” and I went on to explain the story!
John and son Ryan
A older gentleman, John, whom I’d put at 70 or so, was there with his son Ryan who was visiting from the Sacramento area. I didn’t know John, but he said he lived two blocks away from Brommer Park. He doesn’t usually play at Brommer on Sundays—at least, I don’t remember ever seeing him. I got them into a game. It was Ryan’s third time playing pickleball, but he has a solid tennis background, so he was good with hand-eye coordination. He would often step in the kitchen or hit balls long, but he played decently.
On my way out. John and his son Ryan plus Rick and Renee wrapping up.
I played until about 1:15, then headed home to watch my recorded football game and share it with my son on the east coast via Facetime.
When I got home, I iced both the outside and the inside of my elbow. I usually do just the outside, but I felt it needed it overall.
Thursday, September 23, 2021 (No Play)
My forearm is definitely needing rest. It’s occasionally noticeable when doing random things.
Pickleball Central sent out an email today announcing that Adidas has entered the fray of pickleball with some new paddles. Pickleball is growing and growing and drawing the attention of the big sports brands. Prince jumped in a couple of years ago.
Saturday, September 25, 2021 (No Play)
I’m continuing to rest my elbow. It most noticeable when I straighten my right arm and “lock” my elbow, then I feel mild pain where the two bones meet. Or if/when I reach up to touch the same shoulder, such as squeezing my forearm and bicep together. Same pain for that too.
Number of days on a court: 413 Number of total hours: 2,075.5
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I had a non-profit board meeting tonight via Zoom and attended it from my house after leaving work a little early. Once it finished at about 7:40, I was on the fence about going to play and had decided to stay home, but my wife said, “Go ahead and go play.” Ok. Nothing like a kick in the pants. I arrived to at dark Skypark a few minutes after 8 p.m. The lights were already on. We’re heading into fall!
Arrival. Terry and Larry on the near court. The “boys” on the other courts.
I quickly got into a game with Terry vs. Mark G. and Kristin L. It was a good game. We lost. That’s not a big surprise with no warm up and me playing lefty—my tennis elbow is acting up still. It’s minor still, but I don’t want to make it flare up again.
There were three courts full of the 30-something and 40-something guys. When my normal group of players all left, I wandered over and asked some their group—who were between games—if I could jump in. They were agreeable and I went on to play another 3-4 games with their group. I played with bald Dan against Matt and Paul. Then with newbie Dan against Matt and Paul. Then me and Josh against newbie Dan and Paul . . . Paul commented that was I taking it easy on Dan . . . even playing lefty, I could have ended points quickly and easily. Matt and Paul and still mostly raw bangers, but they hit hard, are quick, and are good at getting the ball back over the net. It’s different going up against unorthodox players. You have to kind of expect the unexpected.
We played until about 9:40. The lights hadn’t gone out—yay! fixed!—but it was late and people were tired after a long day.
Friday, September 17, 2021 (No Play)
I found this to be a very interesting video. I haven’t explored these serves yet, but boy, they look deadly. At some point, it’ll be good for me to experiment with these types of serves. There has been talk of outlawing the chainsaw serve which has been allowed under 2021 rules due to a COVID-directed change. But with the technique shown in this video, it would comply with the old rules too and would be difficult to enforce it being eliminated . . . they could say “no spinning the ball on serves” but that will be very difficult to call by opponents or a referee. Or I suppose they could say we can only drop a ball with no upward tosses. We’ll know in about three months!
Number of days on a court: 412 Number of total hours: 2,071.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
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