Category: Pickleball (Page 250 of 326)

Thursday, November 22, 2018 (Court Day #227)
Thanksgiving Day

It rained yesterday and overnight. Looking out the window, it was overcast and everything was wet. The debate was on in my head. My right elbow is still hurting from the tournament. The courts will be wet. Will there be anyone there? Will it be a waste of 30 minutes of my time to drive out to Brommer Park and find no one there? The sun was peeking out periodically from the clouds. Would it be enough to dry the courts?

Being that I’m a bit of a fanatic, I—of course—opted to drive out and just hope.

I was also concerned that I might be a 5th wheel once I got there. Being a bit of a nerd, I did some calculations in my head on the way. There would be four possible scenarios:

1) I’m the odd man out, the 5th player of an already full court of a privately arranged game. (Worst case.)
2) I’m one of two players sitting out. This is ok. We can drill or do singles.
3) I’m one of three players sitting out. This is ok. We can drill or play “2 on 1”.
4) I’m the fourth to compete a court. (Best case.)

So there is a 3/4 or 75% chance that if there are players there, that I’d be in a good situation and only a 25% chance I’d be a 5th wheel. I realized later, you could also consider the possibility that there would be no one on the court, but even that’s sometimes better than trying to butt into a privately arranged game!

I pulled up just before 10:30 a.m. to only a small handful of cars in the parking lot. Hmmm. But as I drove through the lot, I could see some players on one of the pickleball courts. All right! Fingers crossed!

I grabbed my stuff and walked down to the courts. The best of all worlds, there were exactly three people! It was my lucky day!

Mike, Mandy, and Pete playing as I arrived. Out of town visitors.

Odd. I didn’t recognize any of them. “Need a fourth?”, I called out. “Yeah!” came the enthused response. Perfect. I was happy to see them and they were happy to see me.

Then the question was: “Are they any good?” or “Are they too good?” It’s not much fun when they can’t get it over the net. Or if you are by far the weakest player on the court.

Visitors

There were Mike and his wife Mandy from Santa Barbara and Pete from San Diego County. Funny that I’d come to the courts and I’d be the only local. Mandy did grow up around here, graduating from Soquel High School the same year that I graduated from Harbor High but moved to Southern California afterward and didn’t come back. And Mike said he has relatives in Santa Cruz County.

Pete and I teamed up and it resulted in fairly balanced teams. (Question answered!) Pete and I won the first two games and lost the third. Mike and Mandy were stacking. It’s not something I’ve ever seen in a pickup game, but they were obviously used to it and only had to make pre-point adjustments a few times. (These were obviously players who take their play a bit more seriously!)

A couple of older men appeared about 11 a.m., drilled then played singles on a court past the divider behind us. They stayed about an hour then left. Around noon, two little kids appeared. I figured they’d head over to the adjacent tennis court. Nope. Next thing I knew, they’d pulled out a couple of wooden pickleball paddles and a ball! Nifty.

We continued played game after game, swapping sides each time, for two hours straight. We probably got in eight games. It was awesome.

At the end of the session, we’d just about split the games between Pete and me versus Mike and Mandy. Pete and I lost the last game 12-10. Like I said, pretty balanced. We are all decent players. The day was a little breezy at times which factored into the games some.

So?

Honestly, I played pretty well overall, but it was a mix of lots of standard vanilla shots, occasional lame shots, and occasional awesome shots. Consistency is the bane of my existence. That and hitting balls that would otherwise sail out. I suppose the promising thing is that I can go toe-to-toe in a hard rally at the net and hold my own. But then I’ll hit a dropshot into the net. And I hit at least three would-be kill shots right into the net—so painful! I have to fix that! Regardless, I was solidly in the mix. I wasn’t weakest and I wasn’t the strongest.

Erne, a First

A first today, Mike successfully executed two Erne shots against me. I never had even one against me before. (One prior attempt, yes.) I don’t see those often at my level, but eventually I’ll need to develop a better defensive strategy for those. Mike was quick, I didn’t even see those coming; just —bam—point over. I figure Mike is a 4.0 player—maybe a 4.5—he was the most skilled on the court today. He might be higher and perhaps was messing around, not playing his most focused. He hit a number of forehand drives into the net and hit a couple shots from between his legs—one of which popped up the ball that I hit for a winner. (He was definitely messing around with that one!) He had very fast serves that were often difficult to return. Those are always good to face. Mike would also hit power shots low over the net. Some I handled just fine, but others, not. I’ll have to start trying to get an Erne. Once I figure out the strategy for pulling one off, I’ll start to understand a better defense.

Observers

As we started our last game, about 12:15, a woman came through the gate and sat and watched our game. Soon, the rest of her friends appeared and warmed up in the court vacated by the two older men.

When we finished up our final game and were packing up—I gave Mandy one of my business cards in case they came to town again and wanted to play—when one of the new group came up for a second and she said they’d been hoping to play with us “… though we’d probably get clobbered. We’ve been watching.” (Sounds like we made a good impression!) Our group debated among ourselves for a minute, and we took a step back into the courts, but it looked like they had a good number of people with a game already going, so we turned around and headed to the parking lot instead.

A final round of waves goodbye and I was on the road for home right about 12:30. A great Thanksgiving morning! I’m thankful!

Number of days on a court: 227
Number of total hours: 620

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Sunday, November 18, 2018 (Court Day #226)

I woke up with a tired—and a bit sore—back. Yesterday’s tournament had taken its physical toll. But not bad, just muscles sore from crouching and twisting and lunging. I took some ibuprofen, it’d be fine.

I arrived at Derby Park at 8:50 to open up. No one was there yet. I got to blowing off the courts—boy, were they dusty! Then it occurred to me that it was likely from the continual recent wildfire smoke in the air settling. (It has to settle somewhere, and that’s probably everywhere!) I mentioned it to Dave Allenbaugh when he arrived and he said he’d noticed it too on his opening days.

Games

My first game was with Ted B. against Wayne and the other Tom—not Tom Sherwood nor visor Tom. I had some great shots and fewer not so great shots. One good moment was me standing in at the kitchen as Ted was about to smash the ball. He smashed it but I managed to return it. Afterward, Ted just looked at me and made some comment of incredulity. But I made plenty of errors. It’s easy to come back from a tournament medal and think you are hot stuff. But all it takes is a few games with some lame shots to bring you back down to earth!

Mid-morning, I noticed that my right shoulder/upper arm was sore. Yep. Tournament aftermath!

Some Funnies

I spent a good part of the session playing with Stuart against Alan Cable and visor Tom. We won the first game 11-0. We lost the rematch 11-6 or thereabouts. Then we won the last game. Of note in one game was me popping Alan in the throat with the ball to end a dink rally. He was fine, but he made a hysterical fuss about it by calling the score between feigned coughs and a raspy voice! I was doubling over laughing.

Another funny moment was an errant ball off my paddle sailing into the next court and hitting Tami square in the rear end as she was leaning over picking up a ball! I’ve never seen that happen before! She as amused as we were!

The last game of the day, Robin and Stuart (far side) taking on Tami (white cap) and Karen. George, Melody, and Nick (blue cap) look on.

Today was a mix of good shots, lame execution, and occasional poor shot selection (trying to be tricky). I should practice my tournament form, but rec play is also time to push the envelope and try to develop a wider repertoire of shots. And I have no immediate tournaments on the horizon. Jennifer did say that they are planning monthly tournaments in San Juan Bautista, but with running a retail store during the holidays, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get away in December unless it’s on a Sunday.

Holiday Play?

Thanksgiving is this week. Rain is in the forecast for Wednesday and Friday. (It’s been a LONG time!) Thursday morning is not looking so hot—in more ways than one. But I’ll hold out hope that it may be possible to get some games in on the holiday.

Monday, November 19, 2018 (No Play)

On the Pickleball Forum on Facebook, someone asked about the speed attained by the ball, suggesting that about 60 MPH would be as high as he would expect. I recall a video of some paddle testing done by one of the online retailers and the ball was clocked at over 70 MPH. Kyle Yates chimed in and said he and his tournament partner had measured ball speed with a tennis ball clocker and they’d managed 86 MPH for slams and in the 60s for forehand drives.

On a personal note, my right elbow is hurting. I tend to overdo it when doing slams. It hurts to the touch at the end of the Radius bone near the elbow. Maybe a few forced days off will heal it.

Wednesday, November 21, 2018 (No Play)

I checked my USAPA rating on a whim. My UTPR Doubles Rating has been bumped up from 3.449 to 3.469. It’d be nice if the USAPA sent out an email letting you know what inputs they used to change your rating—which event(s), opponent’s exact rating, etc.—but at least it’s going in the right direction! Another 0.031 and I’ll officially be a 3.5 again.

Number of days on a court: 226
Number of total hours: 618

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Saturday, November 17, 2018 (Court Day #225)
San Juan Bautista Tournament • 3.5 Mixed Doubles 

You always go into a tournament optimistically thinking—hoping—that you will win a medal. Every tournament has been like that for me. Your goal is a medal. Of course, it’s not something I chat up before or at a tournament. And, generally, you find out within a game or two if it’s simply a pipe dream or if it’s seemingly possible.

I picked up Colleen at 7:30. I had two pairs of court shoes, two paddles (granted, one delaminating), two caps, and I had a passing thought that maybe I should have brought two pairs of socks. After my last tournament fiasco, I was definitely going to have two pairs of shoes! I also had a large plastic water bottle filled with ice then water.

As it has been the past couple weeks, the haze of smoke was visible at home as well as on the way down. We’ve been experiencing the most devastating fire in California history with over 60 killed so far and many hundreds missing. Air quality has been going from not good to worse then back again, depending on the strength and direction of the winds.

Arrival

We pulled in at 8:06 at San Juan School to find the courts already hopping with people warming up.

Jennifer Watson Yoder holding court as tournament director for a few of the competitors. You can make out the smoke in the distance. Still it was sunny day, however.

Competitors making the most of the early warmup time. Six nice courts.

There would be two round-robin pools of 3.5 mixed doubles and one of 3.0. The two top finishers in each 3.5 pool would play for the gold medal. The two second place finishers would play for the bronze. Our 3.5 pool would have six teams, and the other, five.

Our pool. We were team #3.

I dug out a little mustard pack that I’d picked up on a trip to In’N’Out Burger and swallowed it down. I figure anything to help reduce the likelihood of leg cramps!

1st Game.

Kenny/Cheryl. You never know starting a game against unknown opponents how it’s going to go. It started out close, but we slowly pulled out ahead and extended our lead. While he was playing somewhat better than Cheryl, Kenny started getting upset with his missed shots: “God … bless America!” Some other less self-adjusted forms of exasperation came later!

Uncharacteristically, I missed a couple serves—badly. Colleen played consistently great. For example, in the backcourt, I was on right with Colleen on the left. Directly across from me, Cheryl hit a sharp short crosscourt shot. Colleen sprinted up outside the sideline, amazingly returned it. (Dave DiBiase later said she needed to get tested for illegal substances!) Kenny easily returned her shot, but I had shifted across the middle of the court to cover and was ready for it. We went on to win that point a few shots later. And that’s how the game went. We played well.

In the end, we walked away with a 15-4 win.

2nd Game.

Molly/Charles. Charles is a tall older man. Both he and Molly were great at knocking any high ball angled off the court—and Colleen and I unfortunately provided a few for them! Nonetheless, we won 15-7.

Two wins so far. As we waited for our next match, Colleen asked me if I could smell the smoke. I hadn’t noticed, but once I paid attention, yes, no question.

3rd Game.

Dave/Vickie. Our opponents for this one were a strong team. They were the only team we’d play who would employ stacking. As you’d expect, teams that stack know what they are doing. In short order, we were losing by a lopsided 7-1. I remember thinking, “Is this where we fall?”

This was a tough game. We got into some great dink rallies. I think Vickie may not have been happy with one of my baseline calls, but it was out by a good 3-4”. To end the next point, she hit the ball about three feet past our baseline at which she told her partner, “That one was out!”  (Later, she admitted that she gets impatient in games sometimes.)

Vickie, to my right across the net from Colleen, did a crosscourt dink and the ball rolled along the net cord and dropped into my kitchen in front of me, I stretched out and barely got it back but it also rolled along the net cord and bounced in her kitchen and out past her sideline. Vickie tried a desperate ATP but it landed out. It was a nutty scenario—two consecutive shots rolling along the net cord? Crazy.

Colleen and I stuck with it. We didn’t give up. Surprisingly, we managed to come back and win 15-7. We’d gone on a 14-0 point run. It can be done!

By this time, it was 10:30. The weather was just about perfect for pickleball. Well, except for two things. Sun and wind. The sun, at least, was predictable and was there from the beginning. The wind was picking up and was variable. But the temperature, slightly chilly while waiting, was perfect while playing.

4th Game.

Mike/Barbara. Mike and Barbara from Monterey—a lot of the teams were from Monterey—were wearing pickleball branded athletic garb and looked the part of a formidable team. And Mike has a wicked forehand groundstroke—fortunately, a few ended up in the net.

Colleen and I were winning 12-1. They called a time out, then they came back 13-8. But then we wrapped it up, closing out the game 15-8. Wind was a factor and needed to be considered for certain shots. I missed probably four of my serves, but I couldn’t really blame the wind for those. I’ve never had the yips, but today, I was having a mini version of it all morning. I reverted to simply hitting the ball to the center of the service court and avoiding spins or anything fancy.

5th Game.

Ken/Christine—though the posted sign said “Ken/Diane”, so dunno, maybe her name is Diane. There was not much doubt in this game. We were down 2-1 but then went on a roll and won 15-4. Ken is a fun, upbeat guy. I really liked meeting him and playing against him.

The final tally with top finishers circled.

Well, that went pretty well! Having won all five of our scheduled matches, Colleen and I were guaranteed at least a silver medal. One of the competitors commented that it appeared during games that Colleen and I were honestly having a good time being there. Colleen and I both tend to laugh and smile a lot. Life is too short to be too serious!

Waiting for gold medal match, Colleen sitting and chatting with Cheryl, whom we played in our first game.

Gold Medal Match.

Colleen and I would be playing against Vi and Wendy who won all their games in the other 3.5 pool. They moved ahead slowly, but we were neck and neck. Vi was really good. The serve was going back and forth and points were hard-earned. A small crowd had gathered, folding chairs were set up next to our court and the bench nearby was full and others simply stood to watch. This was a fantastic game to be in. We had some great rallies. Some true battles.

There was a first in this game, I ran up and hit a volley winner, but I had too much momentum. I swung my arms around hoping to keep balance, but, nope, I had to put my right foot down into the kitchen. Fault. I looked across at Vi and said, “Kitchen fault.” Drat. Colleen said, “Next time, say something and I’ll grab you!” (Which is totally legal.) It just happened within a few seconds, I don’t know if she could have gotten to me in time to make a difference, but, yes, next time!

Colleen and I were down on points. Then, amazingly, we crawled ahead, 11-10. I returned a ball that would have otherwise gone out and my return sailed out—double bad. Colleen popped one up in front of Vi who took advantage. I made another error. We slipped behind, 14-12. Ken encouraged us from the sidelines, “You can do it, Andrew!” A rally ensued, Colleen and I ended up separated at the net just enough for Vi to hit a drive between us. It landed right at the baseline. In? Out? I couldn’t be sure that it was out, it was too close to tell. I had to call it in. I waved my arms to indicate “good”. Game. 15-12, it was a silver medal for us.

We all shook hands after with broad smiles on our faces. It had been a great—and long!—game to be in regardless of the winner. The observers commented positively on the entertaining game. After another minute, we all shook hands again. Dave DiBiase commended me, “You played well. Those side arm lob return shots are hard to do but you did really good with those.”

Hanging Out

The bronze medal match had started later than ours and was still going when we were done. It was Vickie and Dave (the stackers) against a team from the other pool. Dave and Vickie lost, finishing 4th out of 11 total teams.

I chatted with Vi while waiting for medals. He said he’s only been playing pickleball for six months, but he’s been teaching tennis as Monterey Peninsula College for 15 years. No wonder he was so good getting the ball back over the net! I learned later from someone else that he’s a ranked 5.0 tennis player. (For comparison, that’s not far off from, say, Sarah Ansboury’s USTA 5.5 rating.) Anyway, Vi loves pickleball. And Vi did thank me for that game-ending baseline call in his favor. Nice guy.

Me and Colleen sporting our silver medals.

The informal awards ceremony and photos were done at 12:45 and it was time to head back.

Up close and personal.

Ongoing Medal Count:
Gold: 2
Silver: 2
Bronze: 0
(Zilch/Crash & Burn: 4)

Number of days on a court: 225
Number of total hours: 615

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