Category: Pickleball (Page 232 of 326)

Thursday, July 4, 2019 (Court Day #279)
Independence Day

39th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

Last night, I emailed 20-some-odd people letting them know that my son Nicholas and I would be at Brommer at 9 a.m. this morning—I included a disclaimer that this wouldn’t be an official SCPC function, as a site coordinator, I didn’t want any confusion. An email came out of Scotts Valley that Kristen Long would be opening up Skypark at 9 also, but Santa Cruz folks are my primary people.

I got to Brommer Park a few minutes after 9. All four permanent courts had people on them already. One was a man and a woman playing by themselves whom I didn’t know.

Daniel brought his net and later John P. brought his personal net as well. Since this wasn’t an official club function, the club nets and balls remained securely locked in the club bins. It’s by the book.

Mike D. asked how my arm was doing. I told him that I’d played a bit of righty on Thursday night and it felt great to serve right-handed again, but I was paying the price the next day. Some months left to go yet.

“You’re doing pretty well with that left hand,” Mike said after a game. I told him as I’ve told others, “It’s inconsistent. There are some great shots and other shots that are just completely frustrating.” I had managed to dig out some shots that Mike was hitting down at me while we were all at the kitchen, it felt nice to win that rally.

Later in the morning, six people showed up that I didn’t know. Later I learned that they were all visiting from Fresno.

Grita suggested that she and I play a game with a couple idly sitting on the wall. We asked and they said yes. The man’s name was Casey and his wife Renee. Grita and I beat them 11-0. They weren’t horrible, but we were consistently better. They were intimated a bit. We played a second game and won 11-6. Our opponents were aided by me hitting four “out balls” that would have otherwise been winners. Oops. Still an achilles heel for me. I never did tell them that I’m naturally right-handed.

Yep. Bruised ring finger!

I got smacked a few times in the hand. It happens sometimes.

About 12:30 and we were done for the day. We left the pleasant Fresno people to the courts.

Number of days on a court: 279
Number of total hours: 769.5

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Monday, July 1, 2019 (Court Day #278)

38th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

I had asked my son Nicholas last night if he’d like to play pickleball this morning. He said he would. He must have truly enjoyed Thursday night. Back at it for more!

I got a bulk email this morning from the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club inviting us to purchase a new annual membership for $20. I didn’t hesitate! I paid my dues within a few minutes. (Later in the morning, when I asked, Karen Long told me I was probably #10 of those officially registered as members.)

Nicholas and I got to Brommer Park by 9:15.

About an hour into play, I tweaked my back. It was difficult to lean over. Had I been by myself, I would have called it a day, but I didn’t want to mess up Nicholas’ third outing playing pickleball.

I introduced Nicholas to a handful of people in the club. It was funny, I had three different people at different times tell me that they thought I was too young to have an adult child! (Nicholas is my witness to this!) Heck, I was 29 when he was born, it wasn’t like I was a teenage dad or something!

Nicholas and I got in a game with John P. and Tom B. During the game, I hit two left-handed forehand drives low and hard over the net for immediate winners. On the one crosscourt to my right was out of reach of John. Beth Black called through the fence, “That was solid!” “Left-handed too!”, I replied. “I know!” then she went on about how it’d be an advantage to be able to play with both hands.

We left at 12:15. In the car ride home, Nicholas told me, “There are a few things I need to fix.” I told him, “I’ve been playing for two and a half years and I’m still fixing things!”

I really did a number on my back. Not as bad as a couple of times in the past—I can take off my socks without intense pain—but still it’s still painful and uncomfortable. Hopefully, it won’t last long. Ouch. I hope I can play on July 4!

Number of days on a court: 278
Number of total hours: 766

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Thursday, June 27, 2019 (Court Day #277)

37th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

I posted to the Pickleball Forum on Facebook this afternoon asking for a used “tennis elbow” paddle to buy. I got a couple responses via FB Messenger. Maybe one of those will pan out.

I texted my son Nicholas to see if he’d be interested in joining me for pickleball. To my delight, he said he would.

I picked him up about 6:30 after work and he headed to Scotts Valley. We got to the courts about 6:45. I was immediately given an offer to be a fourth in the game just inside the gate. That was quick! I asked Nicholas if he’d be ok for me to play and he said it was fine. He’d watch first. Little did I know that I wouldn’t play a single game with my son this evening! But he got into some games and only once did I see him briefly sitting on the bench. When I asked later, he said he had a good time.

Nicholas (light gray, left) partnered with Joshua against Eric (yellow) and Joshua’s dad, Andrew.

Nicholas ended up playing repeated games with Eric, Andrew and his son Joshua. While Eric—who came from tennis—has been a regular the last few months, Andrew and Joshua we’re visiting from Modesto. Joshua is a student at Cal Poly Pomona in Southern California. They were in town since Andrew’s wife was at some textile “maker’s fair” a bit north in the San Jose area.

Being that my left wrist was aching a bit and my right arm isn’t nearly as bad as it was six months ago, I figured I’d try playing right handed. I strapped on my tennis elbow band to my right forearm. My right arm wasn’t too bad. I did end up doing an overhead smash with my right arm and that definitely hurt some. Not as bad as it hurt when I did it back in December, but it still hurt. I need to avoid that.

Rochelle had a ProKennex ProSpeed paddle. It’s one that’s recommended for tennis elbow. I asked if I could borrow it. She said she’d only just received it this week—brand new! She agreed to let me play a game with it. I loaned her my Prince paddle. I have to say that I very much liked the ProKennex. One of the offers I got today via Facebook was a used yellow on of these. Sharyl and Rochelle both have these yellow ProSpeed paddles. I’d prefer blue, but I can manage yellow since it’ll save me about $60.

Beth Black was there and said a paddle for tennis elbow was being used at Nationals which made noise when you shook it. She was having trouble remembering the name but said that Chris Yoder was using it. Oleg said Chris is using a Gearbox paddle.

I took to holding my paddle very symmetrically between my hands using my fingertips when receiving then committing the paddle to whichever side the served ball headed toward. No backhands. In a game with Kristin L. there were a couple of cross-court serves to my left that I was unable to return properly over the net and they sailed wide of the left sideline. I need to swing sooner. Being too late sent those 2-3 balls out.

When at the net with my partner receiving on the left, I would hold my paddle in my left hand in the middle of the court.

I will say that I managed to confuse myself a few times when trying to swap paddles consciously in the middle of a point. It’s one thing to do it automatically or during a slow dink rally. It’s another to do it during groundstroke rallies. I’ll probably continue to experiment with it—if I can’t get it down, I’ll just abandon that idea and limit switching to times where I’m fully confident.

Later in the evening, Shawnte called over that he was looking forward to playing with me since I was back to playing right handed. I’m rusty after not using my right arm for nearly seven months. But I will say, it’s great to serve right handed again. I won a few points off of my serve that problematic for my opponents. Serving righty, I almost picked up where I left off. After mishandling one of my serves, one of my opponents said, “Enough of those serves!”

We wrapped up play a few minutes after 9 p.m.

Yep. Nicholas is taller. He’s over six foot and I’m definitely not!
(You can see my protective glasses moved up on my hat. I wear eye protection all the time now—unless I happen to forget, but that’s very rare.)

Sunday, June 30, 2019 (No Play)

So . . . playing with my right arm may not have been such a hot idea. Shaking hands with people has proved to be painful again. Lifting up a couple of coat hangers with a jacket and pants was painful. My right arm is NOT ready. Such a disappointment.

Number of days on a court: 277
Number of total hours: 763

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