Category: Pickleball (Page 219 of 326)

Wednesday, October 23, 2019 (Court Day #315)

71st day out playing lefty. (Tennis elbow.)

I arrived at Derby Park at 9:10. I realized that I’d forgotten my phone at home. It hadn’t properly charged so I’d broken my routine and left it to charge longer while I was getting ready. Then I’d left it altogether! I was #9 on the courts when I arrived, but it wasn’t long before I was in a game. My second game was with Dave A. and me against Tony and Mike. Dave and I went up 3-0, but they caught up and ended up winning the game. But it wasn’t a bad warm-up game. I played better as the morning went on.

By 11, I was a bit frustrated. Of the 35 or so players there I was probably in the top 5, even with me playing left-handed. I was playing well as a lefty. Rob was there, and stocky Rich, John P., Tony  is pretty good for an intermediate, and Deshen is a bit of a banger, but is coming along. But aside from an opening game against Tony, I didn’t get to play with any of them. It’s a weird day when you start a red advanced box and end up playing with Wayne, Dave A., and Tim who fill out the foursome. Wayne and Dave and Tim are decent 3.0 players—maybe 3.5 on a great day—but they’d never be confused with very strong players. It didn’t delight me that they signed up in my box. They are all wonderful people that I honestly enjoy, but I was really looking for a harder game. Between not getting challenging games and forgetting my phone, I was tempted to leave early.

There was a man named Richard and his wife who were visiting from Pasadena. I ended up in a game with Tom S. against Richard and Dave A. Seeing a few shots from him earlier, I suspected that Richard was more than just a run-of-the-mill player and that proved to be true. He had good command of shot placement. He wasn’t always great at shot selection, but sometimes I’d gamble on some shots and lost too! Tom and I eventually won 15-13. I missed three serves in that game. I never bothered to tell Richard that I’m actually right-handed. It was a good game.

I won a handful of points today due to the significant backspin I put on some backhands. Balls would just get returned into the net. That goes to show the level of the play. Advanced players would still get shots like that back.

At 11:50, I was out.

One element that I can work on is tracking. I’m still leaving holes in the middle sometimes. Part of it is playing lefty. I can’t reach as far doing a lefty backhand as I can reach playing right-handed. I need to compensate better.

Later

Just before 3 p.m., a message was sent out to the club informing us that the County of Santa Cruz work to resurface Brommer wouldn’t be done in time for Friday after all. Oh, good! I have conduct an interview on Friday morning and I may be left with just me and two cashiers with a combined 3 months of experience! No feeling bad for not going!

Number of days on a court: 315
Number of total hours: 881

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Sunday, October 20, 2019 (Court Day #314)

70th day out playing lefty.

I’m typing this post on my own domain (pickleball journey.com) instead of the original/old pickleballjourney.wordpress.com. The big advantage is that there will be no ads mixed into the content here on my own domain.

I woke up with little desire to play.  As site coordinator there is no leeway. Unless I line up someone else, I have to be there to open. My car read 53°F as I made my way to the courts. Brrrr. As I walked in, the path was wet. Not good. Wayne was already inside. The courts were wet. Not super wet, but definitely wet with a little standing water along the fence in the . . . I guess you’d call it shade, but it was foggy, what sun that was apparent was blocked there.

As I blew off the courts, when I held the blower in my right hand, I could feel the pain in my right forearm. Will this tennis elbow ever go away?

We had four new people today. Two younger women visitors from Delaware and two local newbies, Greg and—darn, I forget the woman’s name. Tom S. offered and gave the newbies a half hour introduction since I was in the middle of a game. The ones from Delaware said the play back there there isn’t as skilled as at Derby. This surprised me since Derby play is typically pretty run-of-the-mill based on my experience. That said, since Brommer Park is in the middle of 7-10 day resurfacing project, we ended up with some higher level players—Kent and Kim came, for instance. That may have influenced our visitors’ perception, but that wasn’t my impression.

Today was ok. I missed serves and most of my serves were very short. Today was a mix of frustration and moments of satisfaction.

Number of days on a court: 314
Number of total hours: 878.5

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