Category: Pickleball (Page 225 of 326)

Sunday, August 25, 2019 (Court Day #299)

58th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

This was the first day that I was honest-to-goodness late to open. 9:01. Eric S. was already there setting up, thankfully. I got out the blower and got to work blowing off the courts. Things were hopping right off the bat with a number of players raring to go.

There was a man I recognized, Shmuel Thaler. Shmuel—who signed up on the court board as “Shmu”—has been a staff photographer for the local Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper for over 30 years. When our building at work caught on fire in 2002, Shmuel was there snapping shots right behind the firefighters. In 2012, when I tipped off the Sentinel about my sister’s father-in-law’s involvement with the civil rights movement back in the 1960s, they sent Shmuel to take a photo of Paul and his wife, Pat. (The accompanying article is pay-to-view these days, but the photo was reused three years later and you can see it here.) Shmuel said he’d played pickleball about ten times already, though none at Derby. I have to admit that I thought I’d recognized him previously before amongst the throngs, but it was across a series of courts and the opportunity to confirm his identity didn’t present itself.

I warmed up with Shmuel and then played a game against him. He’s already off to a fast start. He’s going to do just fine. He needs to get himself up to the kitchen faster—a super common newbie mistake—but he’s quite good getting the ball back over the net. Very promising! He’ll make a strong adversary on the court 6-12 months from now.

I had a handful of people ask me how the arm was coming along . . . Charles, Tom (Robin’s son), Terry, Tom B. . . . people are kind and caring. Charles had seen me at the tournament earlier this month and thought to himself, “Andrew is really putting away shots! Oh! He’s playing right-handed!” (Unfortunately, it was not to last.)

A slice of Binh, Art, Allan K., Ray (behind Allan) playing with Tom against Robin (Tom’s mom, red hat) and Tom’s girlfriend, Ilena. To the far right are Marie and Terry (red shorts).

There was a tall man with long whitish hair who told another player that his name was Gregg. Ah. So the new guy at Skypark on Thursday night was indeed the man who had messaged me on Facebook. I introduced myself and we later ended up playing together. He’s a lefty and not bad. Probably a 3.0.

There were a few games of note. Tony and I played a game against Mark G. and George. It was a close game but we won. Ask I walked off, I told Eric S. who was sitting on the bench. He smiled and congratulated me. Mark and George aren’t 4.0 players, but they are solid. To beat them playing left-handed is an accomplishment.

Later, Mark G. and I played several games against Ted B. and Rick. We won two out of three and barely lost the one that we did. Mark wasn’t having his best day. Maybe that’s why Tony and I had beat him and George. Mark asked if we could stack and also asked if I could help him get to the right place at the right time . . . I guess I’m getting to be a stacking expert! Binh must be too!

Scheduling Board Insanity

There was  a bit of a snafu with the scheduling board. We had new players skipping boxes and starting new boxes of the same color. Even after I explicitly wrote instructions in a box at the top not to do that! At one point, I had two black boxes with two names each in them then chronologically after those was yet another black box with four names signed up in it. AGH!! Grrrrrr! Come on, people.

Terry was saying that there were newbies signing up in black (intermediate/advanced) instead of green (intermediate). It’s an ongoing problem. People always sign up a bit willy-nilly. I told her that if I were the king of the club, we’d assign ratings to every player. Terry said there’s a club in Oregon that does that. But, I’m not king of the club.

Clinic and Strays

Cal had another clinic going after the morning club session. There were about 10 people.

There was a younger couple—30s?—that was messing around with singles on one of the courts after noon. I extended a cordial invitation for them to join us during the morning club session. “But we don’t really know how to play,” she admitted. I told her, “We’ll show you how, just show up at 11 for the newbie time.” I told her to visit the club website for more information. Later on, as they were leaving, shortly before I left, I extended the invitation again. Hopefully, they’ll come.

By the time I’d counted the donations and put everything away, it was 1:20.

Later

By evening, I could feel my right knee and my hips were bothering me some from today.

Thoughts

Today, I felt I did pretty well. Sure, I made mistakes. But I served better today. I generally made good shots. I dug out some slams and made shots were hard to make. I can confidently say that I’m on par with half the club even though I’m playing lefty.

Monday, August 26, 2019 (No Play)

I dropped by a local packaging/cleaning supply company, Coast Paper. A friend of mine, Reed—he was my best friend when I was 8—was there, as he often is, manning the counter. While there trying to get a large roll of butcher paper (they were out of stock), I asked about the cost of some protective goggles. Reed said he didn’t know, paused, then asked, “Do you want a free sample? I get them all the time.” I said, “Sure!” and then he came back with two of them. Nifty. I’ll have some new ones for night play! Maybe I can find a fabric sleeve to store them in.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019 (No Play)

Boy. This elbow thing is nasty. In the family art and picture framing store, Lenz Arts, I manage a team of about 20 people . . . typically about a dozen on a given day. I don’t do all that much hands-on framing these days, at least not extensively, I play the role of “advising doctor”, that is, my staff grabs me for the hard stuff. There was a slightly canvas stretch and I was involved. Using canvas pliers was painful. I could only manage a few pulls before I had to relinquish it to a trusted framer. I came back to finish stretching the corners which could be pulled by my left hand alone.

I don’t know.

Just how long will it take for this elbow to get better? I think January is now unrealistic for a return to my right hand. Do I need to add yet another year? Will I have to play left-handed forever? Do I need to take a trip up to the “Witch Doctor” in Walnut Creek as the Yoders call him? Maybe the trip and expense could be worth it. It’s such slow going as it is. It’s miserable.

Rating

I realize that the USAPA has probably updated my rating since the tournament. Yep. My doubles rating has taken a hit. It was 3.469. It’s now 3.432. Oh, well. I’m not playing my best, so that’s the way it goes. I’ll have to earn my way back up when—if?—I ever get back to playing right-handed.

And I have an official mixed rating now too: 3.051. (They don’t count the tournament were Colleen and I won silver at San Juan Bautista in November or it’d be higher.)

I still don’t have a singles rating. I’d love to play singles in a tournament someday.

My right knee is still hurting a bit. Just certain movements. I must have twisted it on Sunday.

Number of days on a court: 299
Number of total hours: 828

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

Thursday, August 22, 2019 (Court Day #298)

57th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

A man named Gregg whom I don’t know, messaged me on Facebook asking if there was still play at Sgt. Derby on Sunday and that he recently played in Boulder Creek but was looking for somewhere closer to Santa Cruz. I told him “yes” and that there was also play tonight at Skypark in Scotts Valley. I pointed him in the direction of the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club website. We figured out that on our mobile devices—I have an iPhone—that when you tap on “Courts”, the courts page doesn’t load and it just gives you the dropdown menu of “Other places to play” . . . if you happen to tap “Courts” twice, then it loads. Otherwise, you only access non-club court sites. Something to fix! I passed along that bad behavior to Dave Allenbaugh and Karen Long who took over operating the website from Dave.

Skypark

I got to Skypark about 7 p.m. Parking was super hard to find. People were even parked in the weeds and I joined those cars. I quickly got into a game.

Eric—not Eric S.—had brought his partner Ann to pickleball. She and I were playing together against Jeanne and Carol. I gave Ann a couple of pieces of advice during the game, including coming up to the net when the opportunity is there. I paused and added . . . “if you don’t mind me coaching.” No response. I took the silent cue. Just let her play.

Often, in our desire to help others, we can overdo it. It’s recommended that we always remember to ask first before giving advice, even if it’s obvious someone on the court can use that advice. It’s a courtesy. I neglected to do that. It should always start with, “Do you mind if I give you some tips?” Most often, the answer is “Yes, I can use tips please!” But it’s annoying when you don’t ask and the answer would have been “no”.

It turns out that Ann is not addicted like the rest of us and only comes to humor Eric. Maybe she’ll eventually get hooked. She said she’s still waiting for it to be “fun”. For me, it was fun from the first game I played. But it’s not for everyone . . . and I respect that.

Switching Hands

During the evening, Allan K. tracked me down. “You know why you can’t switch hands at a tournament, right?” I was trying to figure out what he meant. I rarely switched hands during a game at the tournament we’d just played in. When he went on, I understood. “You and Binh practiced with you playing left-handed leading up to the tournament. Then you played right-handed and he didn’t know what to do.” Ah. Well, I think there was some of that. Binh is pretty adaptable, but I’m sure switching didn’t help the automatic nature/comfort of us playing together.

The Rest

There was a tall young guy with black hair and a ponytail whose name escapes me. It was fun playing against him, he’s upbeat and easygoing.

There was a very tall man with long light hair who I figured could be the guy who messaged me, but I opted to not go out on a limb and ask.

Things wrapped up and I was in my car shortly after 9 p.m.

Oh. My protective clear eyewear has some scratches. This is even with me storing them in their original “blister” packaging after each use. I’ll either need to buff them out or get new ones. It’s somewhat distracting.

The Pros

While winding down at home after playing in Scotts Valley, I was watching a video on Facebook of a match this week at TOC—Tournament of Champions—in Utah. Simone Jardim and Corrine Carr against Regina Franco and Sarah Ansboury. This annual tournament finishes this weekend.

I didn’t watch the whole video—boy, they women are good!—but I did notice something. While Simone and Corrine were receiving, the partner at the net would place a hand behind her back and signal to the receiver. Here are a couple example photos of Corrine:

The open hand.

The fist.

I was trying to make out what the signal was. Was she indicating one side or the other? Was she indicating who of the two opponents they’d be targeting for this point?

It didn’t take me long to figure it out. An open hand meant, “we’re switching positions after the serve.” A closed fist meant, “we’re staying put.”

My question was why? Were they testing to see if a particular combination of court positions were better than others?

It’s time to contact Mark Renneson of Third Shot Sports!

Friday, August 23, 2019 (No Play)

I wrote Mark Renneson an email tonight about the signaling. (I didn’t get to do that right away.) We’ll see how long it takes him to get back to me.

Saturday, August 24, 2019 (No Play)

Mark got back to me pretty fast, he wrote back today. Here’s his insight:
“Players are always looking for ways to make life harder for their opponents. Switching — especially when it is varied — gives the serving one more thing to worry about when they play their third shot. That can be the difference between hitting a good one or not. This is especially important when one player (CC) is being targeted on the third.”

“CC” being Corrine Carr. Simone is recognized as the top woman singles player—that may have changed recently, but regardless, she’s a force. What Mark is saying, is under normal circumstances where partners are consistently stacking to keep a particular player on the left, for instance, as an opponent you don’t even have to think before you hit—you know that the weaker player will always be on the same side of the court. By your opponent randomly switching, that level of comfort and consistency for your team is gone. Corrine might be on the left this time and maybe the right three points from now. For the switchers, the trick is not also making it hard on themselves in the process!

Number of days on a court: 298
Number of total hours: 824

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

Wednesday, August 21, 2019 (Court Day #297)

56th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

Today started out sunny. There was no fog to keep us cool at the courts. I arrived around 9:30—one of my staff was going to be a no-show and I had to confirm we’d have adequate staffing. (I checked with the one least likely to work as planned, but he was coming.) Also, my wife had left her lunch on the kitchen counter when she left to teach the first day of 1st grade. Oops. I ran that to school and dropped it off with her.

From right to left: Joe, the newbie guy (white), Tim pointing at Eric, Tristan (blond hair) standing next to Patty, Art (white) with is back turned, Jeanne talking to Ted B., Ron (dark clothes) and blocked behind Jeanne is Gary, Terry’s husband.

The game of the day was Eric and me playing against Trevor and Rich. Eric and I lead most of the game, but my game fell apart a bit at the end and Trevor and Rich won by a couple of points. Trevor is a solid 3.5 and Rich, on good days, can pass as a 4.0. I don’t know Trevor other than I think I’ve seen him a few times in recent weeks. This was my first game with him. I played pretty darn well up until the last few points. Taking a step back, it’s pretty amazing that I held my own in this game playing left-handed. Right?

Today, I hit one ball back to someone absentmindedly using my right arm and that was a mistake. This morning, my arm had no longer felt like a constant charlie horse in my forearm. Well, that’s back. Stinks.

There were a couple of first-timers today. A young guy with an unusual name from a European country with a tennis background and a tall woman named Cheryl who said she played a little pickleball as a kid in Seattle. She mentioned something about her grandson, so likely she’s at least in her 50s. Both of them have good hand-eye coordination and can get the ball back over the net. It’s just learning the rules and strategy and developing pickleball-specific skills. As site coordinator, Eric S. provided the basics.

The last game of the day was Eric and Jeanne against me and Cheryl, the newbie. In this case, it was good that they were hitting to the weaker partner on my team—I don’t need the practice! It was a throw-away instructional game.

My serving was better today. Thank goodness. It’s been crummy lately.

Number of days on a court: 297
Number of total hours: 822

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