Category: Pickleball (Page 276 of 326)

Sunday, May 6, 2018 (Court Day #148)

Sitting early this morning, my back was sore and stiff. It reminds me of when I first started playing pickleball and my back was regularly fatigued. But this is the residual from the pulled muscle in my back from 4 weeks ago.

I pulled up at Derby Park at 8:45 a.m. and Mark (Maree’s husband) was already there. I hadn’t seen Mark for at least a month. I realized that in my haste to get to Derby before John P.—John texted me and said he’d be there by 8:45—I had, for a second time, forgotten the battery for the blower. I unlocked the storage boxes for Mark and he got about to setting up the nets while I headed back home to pick up the battery. *sigh* I was back at 9 a.m.

Lauren, Robin, Terri, new guy, Ray, George, Cameron, Marianne, Olga, and a man’s back.

I played a little better today. In one game, Rob and I played against James (back after not playing much lately he said) and Oleg. Amazingly, late in the game, Rob and I were ahead by two points. In the end, we lost 11-9. Still, considering the skill were against, that was completely unexpected. We switched sides and had a rematch, this time we  lost 11-1 or something—very lopsided!

My drop shot did make a return appearance. That’s good news!

Oleg, Olga and I went to Mexican food after pickleball. We got there about 1 p.m. Nothing really of note there other than Oleg volunteered that I’ve improved my play a lot. Nice to hear.

Number of days on a court: 148
Number of total hours: 417

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Thursday, May 3, 2018 (Court Day #147)

Work has been seriously short-staffed, especially short on experienced staff in our framing department. I’ve gone from acting as a consulting master framer for trickier projects to that as well as being on the front lines answering the phone and waiting on customers. As a result, it may be some time before I get to take time off during the day for pickleball. It was god while it lasted. *sigh* But evenings and Sundays when our family business is closed are mostly fair game for pickleball.

Night Ball

A few minutes after 7 p.m., I pulled into Skypark in Scotts Valley. Tennis was hopping, including on a court lined for pickleball. I plopped myself on the bench and put on my right ankle brace. Then marveled at the fact that I was once again the only person sitting out waiting for a game. Alan called over. “Andrew! Are you just going to sit there or are you going to join us?” Well, what do you know? Not all the four pickleball courts were full! I was a third, joining Alan and Lauren (petite, dark hair). After doing some 2 on one points, we eventually, we got a fourth and had a game.

Alan and I played a game against Oleg and Lauren. That was a challenging game. Fun.

Unfortunately, the city had changed the lock for the court lights control box and Mark Dettle didn’t have a key. We’d have only until the natural light failed.

Olga and I played a game against Janet and an older woman I’ve seen maybe once before. Nice lady, just not very skilled. Janet wasn’t too keen with the teams—rightly so—we had the best to players on one side, but it offered to play left handed. “Only if you do that the whole game!” Which I did. Serving was the hardest part, followed by a lefty backhand-—both something I’d never use in a real game. Even with that, Olga and I fairly easily won.

The last game was Rob (firefighter) and me against Mark Dettle and Janet’s husband Bruce. Rob and I took a quick and solid lead, 7-0, before they scored a point. We had moved the last net under a feeble light next to the gate nearest the pickleball storage box. At 6, we’d switched. Rob and I managed to allow our opponents back in the game. (Ok, Rob would admit it was more him than me!) They nearly tied up the game before service went back and forth a few times before Rob Andy I wrapped up the win. That was a fun one in the deepening darkness.

It was shortly after 8:30 when that last game ended.

Insights

That tournament gave me a new perspective on competition. Eric and I rarely face competition as strong as what we faced at Paso Robles. It was a more powerful game than we typically see. Oleg is the closest we’d typically play against in terms of ball accuracy and speed. Even then, I’d rather face Oleg than Vinny and Kevin, who we faced in our first match in Paso.

in one of the games, I felt pain in my right ankle. It’d been a while since I’d expericned that, but it goes to show that there is still healing to do there, My back was still tight and sore. Boy, it’s taking time for things to get back to normal. I don’t feel old really, but my body is telling me that I’m solidly middle-aged!

Number of days on a court: 147
Number of total hours: 413.5

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Sunday, April 29, 2018 (Court Day #146)

I arrived at Derby Park at 8:50 and started setting up. “Where is everyone?”, asked Dean, who was the first one to appear about five minutes after 9. We talked a bit about the Paso Robles tournament. It took longer than normal for folks to trickle in but we did eventually set up all six nets with a couple of players waiting to join games—about 26 people.

Karl and I played the first game against Dean and Susi. As expected, they pulled well ahead. Dean had some shots he could have taken to hit a winner, but would sometimes hit to prolong the game instead. Even with that, surprisingly, we were able to tighten the score so we only lost 11-6 or thereabouts.

A man named Chris and his wife Selena and their middle school aged son and his two friends came to learn pickleball. I spent about 45 minutes to an hour explaining the rules and officiating a learning game between the couple and two boys followed by a game of one of the boys and me against Chris and Selena. Selena has a competitive streak! I could tell that she was getting frustrated when her shots didn’t go trnway she wanted! But they all did a good job getting the ball back over the net. They thanked me for introduction to the game and said they had a fun time.

I managed one last game of Olga and me against Oleg and Janet. Olga and I won, it was a fun game, I seemed to be playing a bit better.

I was in my car by 12:50 and on my way home to tackle the blackberry bush growing outside our kitchen window!

Tournament Wrap-Up

Barbara Secola and John P. Pacholski won silver in 60+ 3.0 mixed doubles today. And (Vinny, our first match adversary/new friend from Bakersfield and his woman partner took bronze in 3.5 50+. We now know Vinny is over 50!) Also Barbara Secola and Sherry Taylor took silver yesterday in 60+ 3.0 women doubles. Santa Cruz players took home four medals total from Paso Robles this year.

Number of days on a court: 146
Number of total hours: 412

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