Category: Pickleball (Page 226 of 326)

Tuesday, August 20, 2019 (No Play)

As promised, here’s my complete analysis of the only game for which I have a recording at the Cabrillo Tournament Men’s Doubles on Sunday, August 11. (It’s very hard to believe 10 days have passed already, it seems less than half of that!) It’s Binh and my second game of the day, this one against Rick and David from San Juan Bautista—both nice guys.

Some quick notes. This was the first day that I’m playing completely right-handed since January 1. That’s 222 days or 8 months and 10 days or 60.8% of a year. A long time. Binh and I had never played a tournament together with me playing right handed. (Binh had his first ever tournament two months ago.) I did pay the price the next day and beyond—my right forearm felt like it had a nearly constant charlie horse and shaking hands with people was once again painfully uncomfortable. It’s still particularly sore after a week and half.

I will also say that Rick and David went on to play better than they did in our match, later winning the gold medal for our bracket. They are both fun guys to play against. Rick was generous in loaning me his extra forearm band for the tournament that you see me wearing in the video.

I’m color-coding the serving team for the points below. Blue—Binh’s shirt color—for Binh and me. Maroon—Rick’s shirt color—for Rick and David. (White and gray would be bad colors to use!) At the end of each point, I’m putting in parentheses the first letter of the name whom I feel is responsible for losing a particular point. Also, know that I’m the starting server for our team and David is the starting server for their team—so if it’s side out and our own team’s score is even, we each start as the #1 server.

Here’s the video again:

 

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GAME BEGINS

0-0-2 (START, 0:08)
Andrew serves. Unforced error when Andrew hits his easy dink into the net. (A)
[An inauspicious start!]

Sideout, 0-0-1 (0:22)
David serves. Binh hits a drive from the kitchen into the net. (B)

1-0-1 (0:43)
David serves. David hits his drop shot into the net. (D)

1-0-2 (1:00)
Rick serves. Rick backhands Binh’s crosscourt dink back too high and Andrew attacks it for a winner. (R)

[Rich V. walks through.]

Sideout, 0-1-1 (1:28)
Andrew serves. Andrew’s drop shot is too high,  Rick attacks and Binh is unsuccessful handling it. (A)

[Allan K. trots through.]

0-1-2 (1:48)
Binh serves. At first, I was going to blame this on Binh. His drop shot was too high and was attacked by David and a rally ensued with us at a disadvantage. However, I believe I had solid opportunities to reset the point and couldn’t. (A)

Sideout, 1-0-1 (2:09)
Rick serves. Andrew returns the serve left-handed and it sails back past the baseline. (A)
[Being that Binh and I are not stacked at this moment, I don’t need to hit the ball high to give us extra time to shift into our “good” positions. I only had to hit the ball deep to keep them back. I would have been far better off keeping the ball low.] 

2-0-1 (2:19)
Rick serves. David attacks a shot at the kitchen and the ball flies out long. (D)

2-0-2 (2:42)
David serves. David’s drop shot falls short in the net. (D)

Sideout, 0-2-1 (2:55)
Andrew serves. Andrew hits an easy dink into the net. (A)

0-2-2 (3:11)
Binh serves. Rick got caught out of position and hits the ball into the net. (R)

1-2-2 (3:25)
Binh serves. Andrew wasn’t patient and drove a low ball at Rick which Rick handled and Andrew and Binh were at a disadvantage thereafter and lost the point. (A)

Sideout, 2-1-1 (3:55)
David serves. Serve is wide. (D)

2-1-2 (4:04)
Rick serves. David hits a drive at Binh who knocks it sideways off court. (B)

Sideout, 1-2-1 (4:24)
Binh serves. Andrew hits a shot too high, it’s attacked for a winner. (A)

1-2-2 (4:51)
Andrew serves. Rick hits an attackable ball into the net. (R)

2-2-2 (5:16)
Andrew serves. Andrew hits a shot too high, David hits it off the court for a winner (A)

Sideout, 2-2-1 (5:39)
David serves. After some nice dinking, Andrew wasn’t patient and drove a low ball at Rick which Rick handled and Andrew and Binh were at a disadvantage thereafter. (A) [Second time this has happened.]

3-2-1 (6:06)
David serves. Binh hits a dink into the net. (B)

4-2-1 (6:21)
David serves. Andrew returns an easy serve into the net. (A)
[I will call “rusty” here. Under normal circumstances—not the first day in over 8 months playing a whole game right-handed—I would have never missed this shot. I was slightly moving through my shot, never a good thing.]

5-2-1 (6:30)
David serves. Binh hit a level drive at Rick. Unlike my attempts, Rick can’t handle this one. I’ll lay this one at Ricks’ feet, but Binh did keep his drive attack from getting too high. (R)

5-2-2 (6:53)
Rick serves. Andrew hits a deep backhand too long out past the baseline. (A)
[I’ll call rusty on this shot too. I typically have a reliable backhand.]

6-2-2 (7:06)
Rick serves. This was all Binh and David. David’s drop shot was too high and set off a series of defensive hits by him. (D)

Sideout, 2-6-1 (7:16)
Andrew serves. Andrew misjudges a ball and slams it into the net. It wasn’t deep/high enough. (A)

2-6-2 (7:42)
Binh serves. Andrew hits a change-up and Rick isn’t ready and can’t get his paddle around for the forehand he needs. (R)

3-6-2 (8:12)
Binh serves. Andrew hits a shot too high and Rick attacks it for an easy winner. (A)

Sideout, 6-3-1 (8:29)
David serves. Andrew switches the paddle to his left hand and hits an easy dink into the net (A).

7-3-1 (8:56)
David serves. David drives at Andrew. Andrew lobs it deep just a hair past the baseline. (A)
[This was a super close call and these are always hard to make in real time.]

The wonders of Photoshop composites! Darn close, eh? But I think they were right—the ball hasn’t quite landed in the composite.

8-3-1 (9:09)
David serves. David hits an attackable ball into the net. (D)

8-3-2 (9:09)
David serves. David hits a drop shot into the net. (D)

Sideout, 3-8-1 (9:39)
Binh serves. Rick misjudges a ball and drives it into the net. (R)

4-8-1 (9:53)
Binh serves. Rick returns a serve wide. (R)

5-8-1 (10:04)
Binh serves. Andrew drives a shot at Rick’s head—not on purpose!—and Rick reacts, partially blocking a ball that would have otherwise sailed out. (R)

6-8-1 (10:23)
Binh serves. Andrew makes a great scrape and drop from the right sideline—if I do say so myself—and Rick hits up on the ball too hard and it sails out past the right sideline. (R)

David and Rick call timeout. A wise time to do it with Andrew and Binh going on a quick four point run.

7-8-1 (11:04)
Binh serves. David dinks into the net. (D)

8-8-1 (11:17)
Binh serves. Binh hits a drop shot into the net. (B)

8-8-2 (11:35)
Andrew serves. Rick hits a shot into the net. (R)

9-8-2 (11:52)
Andrew serves. Binh drives at Rick. Rick handles it well hitting it at Andrew and Binh’s feet. (B)

Sideout, 8-9-1 (12:12)
David serves. Binh returns the serve very shallow and therefore can’t get into his stacking position in time, popping up a shot that Rick attacks for a winner. (B)

9-9-1 (12:31)
David serves. David hits a high shot too deep. (D)
[I got away with one here!]

9-9-2 (12:49)
Rick serves. Binh returns short, hits a resulting shot wide. (B)

10-9-2 (13:04)
Rick serves. I hit an aggressive shot that Rick attempts to hit but he probably midway through he realizes that the ball is going out, but he’s already made contact. (R)

Sideout, 9-10-1 (13:24)
Binh serves. Binh hit a drop shot that’s way too high and David attacks it. (B)

9-10-2 (13:42)
Binh serves. Andrew serves too long. (A)
[Yes, likely rust showing.]

Sideout, 10-9-1 (13:52)
David serves. David hits a shot into the net. (D)

10-9-2 (14:05)
Rick serves. After a rally, Andrew hits a low ball into the net—set up by a backhand shot that went too high. (A)

Here, a team has reached 11 points and it’s time to switch sides.

11-9-2 (14:53) – Rick calls 11-9-1, though it’s 11-9-2.
Rick serves. Rick serves wide. (Maybe trying to keep Binh from getting to his stacked position.) (R)

Here, a mistake happens. Rick and David get a third serve!

11-9-2/3 (15:18)
David serves (again). Andrew returns too deep. Point. (A)

12-9-2/3 (15:29)
David serves (again). Binh returns too deep. Point. (B)

13-9-2/3 (15:45)
David serves (again). Rick hits his drop shot into the net. (R)

Ouch. Two points off of a third service!

Sideout, 9-13-1 (15:57)
Binh serves. Andrew lobs too deep. Out. This one started with my drop shot that was too high. It was all defensive after that. (A)

9-13-2 (16:19)
Binh serves. Binh misses an overhead that would likely have been a winner. (B)

Sideout, 13-9-1 (16:49)
Rick serves. Andrew drives at Rick who hits it out. (R)

14-9-2 (17:24)
David serves. I’m going give this one to Binh. He hits a high shot that David hits down at my feet that I end up hitting up and too deep. (B)

15-9-2 (17:24) David calls “13-9-2”.
David serves. Andrew lobs too deep. Out. (A)

16-9-2 (17:44) David calls “14-9-2”.
David serves. This is a really nice, long point! David hits a shot wide, but it’s Rick who hit the prior shot high enough for Binh to attack. (R)

This is hysterical! Rick and David gave back the two points that they won off of their accidental third service! We were all completely oblivious to both of these errors!

Sideout, 9-14-1 (18:16)
Binh serves. Andrew hits a number of shots too high. (A)

9-14-2 (18:45)
Binh serves. Binh hits his third shot wide. (B)

Sideout, 14-9-1 (19:00)
David serves. Andrew hits a inexplicable shot. It’s not an attack, it’s a lame “please attack me with a high backhand” shot. Rookie move. (A)

15-9-1 (19:27)
David serves. Andrew hits a low volley into the net. (A)

16-9-1 (19:44)
David serves. Binh hits a shot right at David who can barely get a paddle on it and it sails wide on their side of the net. (D)

16-9-2 (20:02)
Rick serves. Andrew attacks Rick who pops it up and Andrew slams it for a winner. (R)

Sideout, 9-16-1 (20:29)
Binh serves. Binh attacks a shot into the net. “Patience!”, he tells himself afterward. (B)

9-16-2 (20:52)
Andrew serves. Rick starts an attack but becomes the victim. (R)

10-16-2 (21:17)
Andrew serves. Andrew attempts a backhand drive—which goes right into the net. (A)
[Rusty. Grrr. I should have known better than to try that. It wasn’t a wise shot anyway.]

Sideout, 16-10-1 (21:35)
David serves. Andrew hits a dink too high, a volley rally ensues, Andrew hits it out. (A)

17-10-1 (21:52)
David serves. Binh hits a volley out of the air and into the net. (B)

18-10-1 (22:10)
David serves. I don’t think I can blame anyone for an error. Rick just makes a fantastic offensive lob. Kudos. (*)

Binh and Andrew call timeout. (Running out of time/points!)

19-10-1 (23:02)
David serves. Andrew is impatient, misjudges the height of a ball and drives a dink into the net. (A)

20-10-1 (23:29)
David serves. This one is a little hard to determine. Do you blame David for popping up Binh’s timely short dink or Rick for returning Andrew’s backhand smash too high? Or just say Binh made a great shot? I think I’m going to give David the error, but it’s debatable. (D)

20-10-2 (23:56)
Rick serves. Rick gets impatient in a dink rally and drives into the net. (R)

Sideout, 10-20-1 (24:25)
Andrew serves. David hits a ball down and into the net. (D)

11-20-1 (24:40)
Andrew serves. Andrew’s third shot drop is too high and it quickly results in Andrew defensively lobbing too deep. (A)

11-20-1 (24:57)
Binh serves. Andrew blows an attack of a high ball and hits it into the net. (A)

Sideout, 20-11-1 (25:16)
David serves. Rick hits a dink too high, and three shots later, Andrew smashes a winner. (R)

20-11-2 (25:52)
Rick serves. Andrew hits a dink too high resulting a rally with an advantage to David and Rick who hits the winner to take the game. (A)

Game end.

 

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Analysis

It’s quite clear that I was the weak link on the court, numbers don’t lie. I made over twice as many errors than my partner Binh who made the second least amount of errors. Fortunately for Rick and David, I more than made up for my partner’s good performance. I’m in a class of my own for the sheer number mistakes.

Error count:
Andrew: 29
Binh: 14
Rick: 18
David: 13

If you asked any of us, I bet none of us felt we played our best.

I played rusty right-handed versus weak left-handed. Would Binh and I done better had I stuck to my left hand for the tournament today? I doubt it. And if we’d practiced with me playing right-handed, that would have been my “one off” day and I couldn’t have played the tournament right-handed since my arm would have been “used up”. This is where tennis elbow is soooo frustrating. So frustrating. Did I say frustrating?

Still, I enjoyed playing the tournament. Would I have liked to win? Of course. Did I have fun anyway? Yes. Would I have changed anything? Ask me in a month about my elbow and I’ll let you know.

Number of days on a court: 296 (Same)
Number of total hours: 819 (Same)

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Friday, August 16, 2019 (Court Day #296)

55th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

This week has been depressing for me. With the elbow worse again, I’ve had thoughts popping into my head of giving up pickleball. I don’t want to be stuck playing left-handed forever. It’s a horrible prospect. Even with years of practice playing lefty, I can’t see ever getting as good as my right hand. It’s frustrating.

I arrived at Brommer Park at 9:25. It was overcast, but it’d clear up and be warm later on in the morning.

One of my early games was with Leslie against Cal and a woman. Cal was targeting me versus Leslie. Cal likes to win. I can’t blame him, I like to win too. Leslie commented about it to me. She wasn’t happy that she wasn’t getting many balls to hit to her and that her injured partner playing lefty (me) was getting taken advantage of in her eyes.

Josh and Mike on the nearside in a game before the fog burned off.

Chris Yoder and his wife Jennifer came. They’ve been busy running the San Juan Bautista pickleball program, so they don’t get up to Santa Cruz as often. Matt—the 4.5 player— from Monterey came up too. They were all there for better competition.

While in a game, a ball rolled onto our court. I casually hit a ball back to Karen Long using my right arm—PAIN! Ouch! A definite regression after playing righty in men’s doubles at the Cabrillo Tournament last weekend.

Jennifer asked me, “Are you ready to be over the tennis elbow?” When I said yes, she said she’d give me a name later, which she did. She said a couple of trips to this doctor and Chris’ chronic tennis elbow he’d was cured. She said the two of them refer to him as the “witch doctor”. Dr. Scott Bergman in Walnut Creek. Sounds like voodoo, but I’m just about ready to try anything at this point.

My last game was with Tom M. against Eric (tall, mustache) and Juls. Tom M. and I were leading my quite a bit but Tom started making a series of errors. We ended up barely losing the game. There was three slams in succession by Eric and Juls to me where I was able to dig them out return them. The fourth was finally too much for me. Regardless, Juls commented after the game, “I’d hate to have to play you right-handed.”

Today, was one of those “can’t serve worth a darn” days. I had little control. While I got most in, nearly all of my serves were short or wild. Super frustrating.

I was out and off to get ready for work at 12:15.

 

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Sunday, August 18, 2019 (No Play)

I woke up to a text from Dave Allenbaugh. Asking if I wanted to delay play at Derby today. I could hear the water dripping in the downspout outside my bedroom window. Yes. We delayed an hour. An hour later, we canceled. It misted and drizzled off and on all day. In the end, it was better for me anyway. Last night, I’d discovered that one of the water lines in our garage had sprung a leak inside the wall and was running down the wall and onto the floor behind our washing machine. I had turned off the water last night. I spent the morning dealing with the plumber I had called to deal with the “emergency”—the washing machine cold water line is capped under our house, but at at least everything else is normal in our house now. Maybe I’ll get to play tomorrow morning, depending on staffing.

 

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Monday, August 19, 2019 (No Play)

Another rainout. I guess it was better for me in the long run, it turned out to be a very busy workload for me at work.

 

Number of days on a court: 296
Number of total hours: 819

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

Sunday, August 11, 2019 (Court Day #295)
Cabrillo Tournament – Men’s Doubles

Today would have been my 55th day out—over about 8 months—playing lefty due to tennis elbow. Only I didn’t. I played righty.

I arrived at Cabrillo College at 8:25 a.m. When I checked in at the entry table, they told me that my partner Binh was already there.

While Binh and I warmed up, Rick May came by to warm up in the next court with his partner. I showed Rick—whom I had talked to at the end of the day yesterday about tennis elbow—my forearm strap. He kindly responded, “I have an extra one of these [Bandit], do you want it?” I told him that I’d ordered one—he’d highly recommended it the day before—and that I’d very much take him up on the offer. He dashed off, returned with the extra strap, and I wore his Bandit for all of my matches. There wasn’t much of any pain while I played, so that was good. On January 1, the last day that I played a full session of pickleball right-handed, each impact of the ball on my paddle was excruciatingly painful. Today, I didn’t have that.

Gathered for the introductory ceremony. The three closest are locals: Gregg (blue), Jeff (gray), and Tony (yellow).

We all gathered again for the morning administrative instructions and the National Anthem. I gave Rick my work business card “just in case” we missed connections later and I wasn’t able to give him back his forearm strap. He smiled and said, “Don’t worry about it.”

Binh and I learned that our bracket would be playing games to 21 points—a marathon!

Match #1

Our first game was against a team from Walnut Creek, Mark Bryant and Darrell Hoh. Binh and I started off fast, leading 6-2. Unfortunately, they came back and tied it up at 8. Then we went ahead 9-8. Then they went on a unanswered run of answered points and gradually climbed their way to a win at 21-9.

Later, when talking to Mark, he said that when things were tied up at 9, he and Darrell had discussion, determined that drop shots were not working and went to third shot drives instead. As the results show, that was very effective! He also said later than Binh and I had given them their most difficult game . . . I guess that’s some consolation!

During the second round of the round robin for our bracket, we had a bye—I hadn’t even checked the posted information which is uncommon for me. I didn’t know how many teams we had, what format we’d be playing, or much of anything. I was simply relying on the announcements to know where to go and when. Maybe I was just comfortable since this was in our home area and run—for the most part—by locals that I know.

Match #2

Rick May and David DeMateo from San Juan Bautista would be our second game. As Rick walked up, he smiled and told me, “If I’d known we’d be playing you, I wouldn’t have loaned you that band!” We both laughed!

Binh and I initially kept it close until about halfway through the game—like our first round game—but then we lost 21-11.

Afterward, I asked Rick and his wife Kelly if I could get a copy of the recording of our match that Kelly had made. He asked what phone I had and I told him I had an iPhone. Kelly offered, “I can just Air Drop it to you!” They called Binh and I for our next match so Kelly said she’d just bring my phone over when it was done transferring. And it was done and I had my phone back before our warm up was done.

Here’s the video:

As you’ll see, I’m rusty playing righty! I’ll likely do an analysis of this game soon in a future blog post. [Later: Here’s that analysis, two posts in the future.]

Match #3

Our third match was against locals Rich Valdez and Allan Kass. We lost to Rich and Allan . . . we didn’t take the game seriously enough. We were up 8-3 and were dominating, but we relaxed let them back in the game and before you know it, they had pulled ahead with just a few points to go to 21. Sometimes, it’s hard to get your brain into “tournament mode” when playing against guys you play in rec play all the time. We did have fun while playing the game though. The final score? 21-17.

Match #4

Binh and I got to the court for our match. At this point, I was still relying on just the loudspeaker announcements to know where to go. I didn’t even know if this was our last match or not. (I guess I’d gotten quite a bit less uptight about leaving nothing to chance.)

Our opponents were no where to been seen. But soon, we figured out that the man standing with the spectators was Rocky Vasquez, who we were supposed to be playing against. Rocky then admitted, “I think my partner left.” We got filled in by a few people. Supposedly, Rocky’s partner Steve was unhappy with his own play and was having some temper issues. That’s unfortunate.

Rocky asked if we’d play anyway. The spectators were all players, men and women. We convinced a local, Mike—who I think is a 4.0 player—to join Rocky and we played a game to 21. It was a fun meaningless game. Binh and I lost 21-6. Rocky is a pretty good player and Mike was unquestionably the best player on the court.

Afterward, I walked the clipboard over to Mike Hoxie and let him know that our opponents had forfeited.

Colleen took this while Binh and I waited for our last game of the day. She found my hair amusing!

I made sure to stop by the table later on to thank Mike and Gigi for their hard work running the tournament.

The last of the results posted.

I got Olga to take Binh and my photo for posterity!

Rich and Allan ended up playing in the semifinal match against Rick and David. Had Rich and Allan won, they’d advance to the gold medal match against the undefeated first seed, Mark and Darrell. But they lost as I predicted to Binh. Binh was kind of expecting Allan and Rich to win.

The 60+ 3.5 gold medal match. Steve and Allen on the far side, Eric and John P. on the nearside with with Maree officiating the match. You can just make out the tape wrapping Eric’s injured lower leg.

I had fun watching Eric and John P.’s match and getting the Buzz and Ted B. going with “ooo”s and “ahhhh”s. It was a crack up! The two teams had both won one game in this best of three, so they were going to a final game to determine the winner.

At the same time, the 3.5 50+ gold medal match was going on. In a surprising turn of events, in the best two games of three, Rick and David split the first two games with the steamrollers Mark and Darrell. Then Rick and David went on to upset Mark and Darrell and win gold! Wow. See what happens when you loan your forearm strap to Andrew? Major good karma!

Eric and John lost to Steve and Allan in the deciding third game. That was also a surprise in my book!

I left the courts about 1 p.m.

Wrap Up

While Binh and I didn’t win any games, I felt that we weren’t playing particularly badly. It’s just that our opponents were playing better! Binh was taking it harder. He felt we had played badly. Yes, we made mistakes. But we made each team work for their wins, even if the final scores were sometimes lopsided.

Once I got home, I strapped an ice pack to my right elbow.

Later in the evening, I shook someone’s hand. It hurt. I’m already paying the price for playing righty today.

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Monday, August 12, 2019 (No Play)

My right elbow is pretty sore, yesterday definitely set the tennis elbow back. We’ll see how it is in a week.

My shoulder is sore, my triceps is sore, my forearm on the top inside is sore. But those are just all muscles. The elbow, though, is a relapse of tennis elbow. Drat.

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Thursday, August 15, 2019 (No Play)

Just some fun insight into a recent site coordinators’ email discussion…

John P.: “Fellow coordinators: Andrew brought some new whiteboard markers and Tim brought us a set as well.  Andrew also brought a couple of carabiners and I found two that I had purchased months ago in the little medical supplies box. All good.”

Andrew: “John, those carabiners in the First Aid box are for first aid only. Now what are we going to use when someone’s leg falls off? I mean, we’re going to have to choose between re-attaching a limb and holding up the court reservation board . . . I hope I’m never there to have to make that decision!”

John P.: “They can just hop Andrew…. But we really need the ball fence to stay in place! Mr. sympathetic, John P.”

Eric: “Let’s make sure we have some tissues to console the poor site coordinator who will be traumatized by this experience.”

Dave A.: “What? I’m gone for a couple of weeks and we have carabiners in the first aid kit to re-attach legs? Take them out, they’re not on the first aid list. If someone loses a leg, drag them off the court and put bike mogul area. Saves us a lot of paperwork. Please don’t tell Leslie I said this.”

Janet: “So glad I asked the question about supplies… you guys crack me up!  xo Janet”

John P.: “Oh no!  Get the medical kit….Janet’s cracking up!  We must carabiner her back together, team.”

Elbow

Ok. I admit it. The tournament was a major setback for my right elbow. I was too optimistic. Shaking hands hurts significantly. Reaching for my office phone even hurts. Was it worth it? It felt amazing to play right-handed. It was so much fun, even being rusty. It was nice to have my serves actually go where I wanted .  . . though it had been so long since I’d been regularly serving righty, that I forgot that I could aim and pick where I wanted to serve the ball to! I missed a lot of opportunities to serve to backhands. I was rusty playing right-handed mentally too.

Number of days on a court: 295
Number of total hours: 816.5

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