Category: Pickleball (Page 290 of 327)

Thursday, December 28, 2017 (Court Day #107)

My wife called me in the afternoon and played a message from our answering machine. It was the Livermore Parks & Rec department seeking my date of birth. Well, that’s good news, they received my envelope. I called them and provided the required information. I also checked with Eric and they had called him too. We are all set!

I spent a few minutes here and there over the course of the day nursing my poor shoes. I chiseled off excess epoxy then sanded the remainder down. Then I epoxied the insoles again, but this time walking around with them before it set. Much better!

Off to Skypark

I arrived at Skypark at 6:34 p.m. The car read 59°—it had been an unusually warm December day. I pulled right into a parking spot next to the courts. Did this mean no pickleball again? Nope. Just a light tennis crowd. And a light pickleball crowd too, it would turn out. With me, there were only 8 people. Jerry Louis was in a game with Mark Dettle, Janet, and Kris. I found myself in a game with Maria against Larry and his wife Sue. I think Maria and I won 11-2. I played really well. Jerry’s game was still going so we played another game, this time with me taking Sue as my partner. This time I didn’t play quite as well (hitting a shot wide, or slamming a winner into the net) and Sue wasn’t playing her best, so we lost that one.

Jerry headed out very early. He said he’d been at the courts at 7 a.m. using a ball feeder in tournament preparation and needed to give his body a break, he said. With Jerry gone, that left only 7 people.

2-on-1 Game

Of note was a “2-on-1” game with Mark and Janet and me as we waited for the doubles game. One person would serve solo to the doubles side normally but the the doubles team could only return the ball into the server’s original service court. If the server won the point, he/she would move to the second service court and serve to the other partner of the doubles team. This would continue until service was lost then the solo player would move to right/receiving position, the right partner would move to the left position, and the left partner would move to the solo position then start serving right to left. Points were only won when serving. Soon, I found myself up 10 to 3 (Mark) to 1 (Janet). Mark worked his way back—he got two points from me when I returned the ball yo the wrong service court!—up to 9 points and Janet gained a couple more when the doubles game ended and we were up. I was actually kind of sad abandoning the 2-on-1 game. It was a fun drill.

The last game was Kris and me against Maria and Janet. Mark (the closer) waited patiently for us to finish. It was a fun game with a lot of laughing.

Things wrapped up shortly after 8:30.

It was an ok performance by me tonight. Not stellar but not rotten either.

The shoes held up great. Finally! And it looks like I’ll easily break my goal of 300 hours in 2017.

Number of days on a court: 107
Number of total hours: 299

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Wednesday, December 27, 2017 (Court Day #106)

I put on my court shoes. Uh. Problem. I switched to my old pair with the tread worn off instead. More about that later.

I walked onto the court about 9:20—I got caught on the phone with my wife while still in my car.

The first game was Eric and Jane (tall blonde woman) against Rolando and me. I was playing well right off the bat. I was playing a very clean game. Rolando was executing third shot drives, but they weren’t working. Mid-game I stopped him. “Rolando, this is a rec game. Go ahead and work on your drop shots. You can get away with drives to players at the net depending on their skill level. These two are too good. They’re just smacking them angled off the court.” Rolando is such a nice guy, I hate being critical, but it was a key coaching moment. I used to do the same thing myself when I was starting. Rolando and I did fine. Eric and Jane won, but they didn’t “walk away” with the game.

Eric and I played a match against Ted (the Asian fellow who usually plays at Brommer) and Tom Sherwood. Ted said, “I heard you’ll be playing in a tournament.” Eric and I won 11-0. It wasn’t all in one service, there was back and forth, but the result wasn’t much in doubt once we got started. Tom told me midway though, “You are playing very well.” “That’s what happens when I play two days in a row!” Eric and I didn’t bother to ask to switch at 6 points, we just played the entire game with the sun in our eyes. “There’s a gold medal right there!”, said Ted afterward.

The next game was Ted and Mark (Marie’s husband) against us. Eric and I found ourselves down 5-1. Ted liked to lob with the sun at his back. At 6-1, we switched sides! (As an aside, the sun is noticeably lower in the sky than during summer. This makes the sun even more of a factor in many high balls.) Eric and I clawed back to 7-9, but Ted and Mark managed to score a couple of points and wrapped up the game 11-7. That was a fun game though. Challenging for both sides.

Visitor from Denver

There was a guy named Michael visiting from Denver. I offered to play with him as my partner against Laura (Terry’s wife). I know what it’s like to be a visitor at an unknown pickleball club. I called over, “Sharyl! Want to play?” We had our fourth. When I was about to receive the ball, he lined up about three to four feet behind the kitchen line. “Uh, oh.”, I thought. I did my best to overcome the weaknesses in his game. Nice guy, though needs to learn more pickleball strategy and execution.

Tournament

I told Eric that our Livermore registration was mailed yesterday. I told him that I thought it’d be a good idea if we sign up for Paso Robles when it opens rather than waiting until after we play at Livermore. “It’ll be better to ask to change grades than to try to get them to add us altogether.” He agreed. “Let’s sign up for 3.0.” I agreed—we can always ask to move to 3.5 later.

Cut Short

Eric signed up in a square on the scheduling board in “advanced red”. “Eric! You signed up in red! Well, if you are signing up in red, I’m signing up in red too!” I added my name under his in red.

I checked my phone for messages. There was a few. The important one was from my shop manager Jackie: “Thomas never showed up so it’s just me and Sky in the back and it’s been a little busy.” Uh, oh. Not good. We try to keep a staff of at least four and Sky has only about a month of experience. Yeah. When you are part of the store owner’s family, you can work whenever you want! Yeah, right. Not.

I told Eric I was going to have to leave for work. Eric’s disappointed response: “Awwww!” That brought a smile to my face. It’s nice to be wanted!

Shoes

Back to my shoes. Well, yesterday, I used epoxy to glue my insoles into my shoes. Since it didn’t hold last time, I used more. I debated slipping the shoes on to make a good connection with the glue, but opted not to, figuring it might ooze the glue sideways and over too large of an area. Mistake! When I tried on the shoes this morning, I could easy feel the lumps of epoxy under the heel and ball of each foot. Bad. Later in the day, I was able to remove the insoles. Now I’ve got to scrape off the dried epoxy and try again. *sigh*

Number of days on a court: 106
Number of total hours: 297

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

Tuesday, December 26, 2017 (Court Day #105)

Being that work was closed today, I took the opportunity to spend the morning . . . playing pickleball! Duh. I pulled up at outside of Willowbook Park in Aptos a 5-10 minutes before 9. Tom S. was setting up. Richard, who sometimes appears at Derby, parked and started walking to the courts as I parked on the street. (There is no dedicated lot.)

Tom Sherwood gets to work setting up the first net.

I helped Tom by setting up a net. Richard helped as well. There was a large—and several inches deep—puddle on one court. I can see why Tom said people don’t like to play on that one—it has a significant indent! So much so that there was an orange traffic cone marking the little lake! There were, therefore, four pickleball courts available. Three on either side of the tennis net and one taking up one of the two half-court basketball courts.

Getting Started

I officially introduced myself to Bob, one of the site coordinators for Willowbrook. He would be my first opponent of the day. Bob is a pretty decent player. He’s not a young guy, but he consistently makes most of his shots.

I was playing a few times today with a woman named Erin who said she’s a 4.0 player. Early in the day, I overheard her saying that she made it through four rounds at the Nationals. Maybe she was having an off day, but I would have put her at 3.5 tops. At least, today, I played better than she did.

Near the end, Colleen and Rich played a match against Tom S. and me. It was a good game. “You are getting my winners back!”, yelled Colleen. The thing is, she does the same thing to me! I hit a ball that I don’t think will be coming back yet it finds its way back over to my side. She’s quick with her paddle.

I was playing a game with Erin and myself against Jukka and Erin’s former doubles partner . . . I can’t remember her name. Jukka served a hard angled serve. It was nearly impossible to get to, but I managed it and returned it to the enter of their court. I was completely off the court though. Erin did a decent job holding her own until I got back on the court but she ended up hitting it into the net just as I got back into position. It took me a few seconds—I was way off the court! Afterward, Jukka’s partner said, “I can’t believe what I saw! I can’t believe you got that!” Sometimes I make highlight shots, sometimes I embarrass myself!

Afterward, I told Jukka, “Thanks for playing, you always make for a good challenge.” He thanked me back and said I’d improved so much from the time I started. I told him I didn’t know what I was doing when I started!

I wish I’d gotten more games in with Colleen. And Greg’s wife Angie was there too, but I didn’t get to play with her.

Official

After I got back home from pickleball about 1 p.m., I dropped the registration for the February Livermore tournament for Eric and myself into my mailbox. Off it goes! Based on advice, we’ll give 3.0 a go. Sounds like Eric is lining up a “tournament lesson” with Jerry Louis for us, John P., and Tom Sherwood.

Number of days on a court: 105
Number of total hours: 295.5

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