Category: Pickleball (Page 294 of 327)

Friday, November 24, 2017 (Court Day #95)

On Wednesday, I used the Places2Play iPhone app to locate some games nearest to Bonita, CA in south San Diego County. (Visiting the in-laws.) It looked like there were courts in La Mesa that were reserved on Friday mornings, 9-noon. I didn’t want to bug the contacts from the venue by calling them the evening before Thanksgiving, so I checked the USAPA website and found the contact form. I sent in a request confirming the gathering on Friday, given the holiday. Tim, the contact, got back to me quickly saying play at Collier Park was a go.

Friday

I put on sunscreen, put on my SCPC shirt and cap, filled a water bottle with ice then water and headed out shortly after 8:30. Using my GPS phone app, I navigated the 10-15 minutes of driving to La Mesa. Passing the courts about 10 to 9, I saw they were already in use. Early arrivers! I drove on to the opening to Collier Park and doubled back to the courts parking lot.

I parked, grabbed my backpack, and headed to the courts. There were a couple of women and a man standing and talking at the far end of the parking lot past the court entrances. I introduced myself and told them that I was visiting from Santa Cruz.

One said they would likely get 40 players today. That must be tough with only four courts. The lines were deep red on dark green. I’m glad I’m not colorblind, otherwise it might be impossible to see the court markings! It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but it would still prove to be harder than I was used to.

One of the women, Marie, asked if I wanted to warm up, so we dinked for a few minutes, hit a couple of ground shots, then started a game. Marie and I won fairly handily. Swapping players, in the second game, even without a strong partner, it was a lopsided win. Afterward, my partner gestured across the dividing tennis net, “You belong on that side!” Apparently, the weaker players stake out one side and the strong players stake out the other.

The Other Side

This group uses paddles in the fence to queue up for games. There was one paddle in the fence and I added mine next to it. It wasn’t a long wait.

It was heating up into the high 80s. With the strong sun, switching sides of the court at 6 points was commonplace at Collier—more so than in Santa Cruz.

There was a man named Gary who was warming up for a tournament later on in Oceanside today, 40 miles north. Pleasant fellow. He was playing with Iris, who was playing her third time ever at age 11 or 12. Gary played a few games then hit the road. He’s in great shape for a 74-year-old.

Before one game, I was warned about one player who uses a lot of spin. I was worried going into the game, but while he had some good spin on some balls, he wasn’t always accurate. And the spin didn’t usually prevent getting the ball back over the net. It turned out that he’s one of those people who takes the game more seriously than I think people should. After he lost, he seemed a bit grumpy and was explaining to us why they hadn’t won, at the expense of this partner—right in front of the partner. Though, if you are going to throw your partner under the bus, it’s good to do it on front of his/her face, I guess. But usually on a court, the players already know who the weak player is and why a team won or lost. There’s usually not a point to announcing that afterward.

Between a couple of games—we were waiting for the other game to end so we could mix up players—I got to share some strategy with a woman regarding returns and tracking, approaching the net properly, and team communication. The level of play in Santa Cruz keeps one on one’s toes. Study of the game.

With the warm temperatures, most players were gone by 11 a.m. Our last game wrapped up at 11:30. The girl, Iris, was my partner. She occasionally does the same thing Jeff (tennis Jeff) does—tries to hit it hard when the ball is too low. Yep. Into the net. (I told her with a smile, “Patience, Grasshopper!”) But she also had some really good rallies too. A good rough blank with a lot of promise. She’ll be really good if she sticks with it and learns the soft game. Iris and I lost 10-12, but we put up a good battle.

I would have stayed and played longer, but I’m a bit of a nut.

The players were all very welcoming. It was a nice experience there. With hindsight, since all the players were intermediates, I wonder if their more elite players were all off at the tournament in Oceanside. Dunno. I’ll have to go back on a future trip!

Me with Christina, Mary, and young Iris.

Number of days on a court: 95
Number of total hours: 269

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Sunday, November 19, 2017 (Court Day #94)

I arrived at Derby Park at 8:45 to open up. It was 51° but mostly clear skies. Rolando rode up on his bicycle a few minutes later and helped bring out the net bags.

My first game—it would have been better had it been my last after I’d warmed up!—was with Stuart as my partner against Leslie and Kim. Boy, I think I singlehandedly lost that game and told Stuart so. I was hitting out long, out too far left, out too far right . . . never way out but 6 inches to a foot out might as well be 20 feet! Kind of embarrassing when getting to be on a court with advanced players.

A young couple arrived today for their first visit, Amanda and Guillermo. Nice people from Capitola. Amanda said that Kevin and Bev had showed them how to play and she and Guillermo had just played singles by themselves at Brommer Park since. After I had them sign the waiver, they signed up on the court waiting list board. I told them I was already committed to another game, but afterwards, I’d be happy to play with them. But, they found some partners by the time I got back. They got in on a number of games.

It turned into a beautiful day. Stuart whistled very loudly, stopping play mid morning. “Look up. This is why we live here! That’s all!” Sunny, not much breeze, the perfect pickleball temperature in the mid-60s.

Turnout was large. We played “to 9, win by 1” again today. We had about 40 people there.

My play started inconsistent but improved over the morning. Between a lack of staff at work and heavy rain on Thursday afternoon, I hadn’t played for a week. I was pretty solid later as I warmed up.

Ok. I’ve been debating, but I’m going to mention this just ’cause. Jeff (new, tennis), Terry (Laura’s husband), Warren and I were rotating partners and played four games at the end of the day. Partnered with Jeff, I made one service return where I put a bunch of spin on the ball, it dropped over the net into the kitchen and “did not pass Go”, it bounced up or sideways for a winner with no way that Terry could reach it in time. It’s fun when that happens. Jeff goes crazy with spin on his shots. Once he develops more patience in waiting for a winning shot and a stronger short game, he’ll be deadly.

They’re back!

Eric was back from his east coast trip, but we didn’t get to play on the same court. But it was nice to see him again.

Bruce and Janet were there. When I said I hadn’t seen them in a while, Bruce said Janet was injured. Probably from when she tweaked her back.

Bruce got an ace against me today! I’m not sure if that has ever happened before—anyone getting a clean ace on me. If so, it was once or twice. Quite the rarity. Regardless, it was a fantastic serve. Low and fast and angled off the court. Come to think of it, did my paddle tip it on its way out of the court? Maybe. Still, great serve.

Honesty

I called a foot fault on my own partner today. Warren (gray ponytail) landed on the baseline for a couple of serves. He was quick to properly correct it. He’s a good sport.

Dura

The biggest event of the day was decision by the steering committee of the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club to provide tournament style balls for use by anyone who wants one. Pickleball Inc.’s Dura Fast 40 balls. “The Onix balls last two years. These last 3 months,” said Stuart. One ball got used, but that was it. I’m going to try to play with those going forward.

The games wrapped up at 12:45.

Dave Witte (the SCPC Treasurer) told me to make sure to take the Dura balls home. He said when the temperature drops near freezing, the Dura balls develop “micro fractures” that cause the balls to crack.

I went home, watched the Raiders get wiped out by the Patriots and marked all the new balls with permanent marker: “SCPC”.

Number of days on a court: 94
Number of total hours: 266.5

Click here to start at the beginning of this blog: PickleballJourney

Sunday, November 12, 2017 (Court Day #93)

I arrived at Derby at about 8:48 a.m. It was in the low 50s. (It would warm up and be a beautiful sunny day in the 60s.) Surprisingly, the bins were already open. John P. and Wayne were already there setting up nets. Nice! I installed the battery I brought from home and got to work blowing off all the courts.

Switching Hands

Today, there were two shots that I realized afterward that I had swapped the paddle to my left hand and successfully hit controlled shots back over the net. They were too quick, I hadn’t even thought about it, the paddle just switched hands. That was neat.

Newbie

A young tall woman named Heather came today. Rolando told her about signing the waiver and helpfully started looking in the official backpack. I came over and pulled out the appropriate clipboard and introduced myself to Heather. Rolando gave her some rule basics and later I asked Ted to hit a ball around with her. Soon, I saw she was in games with people. Excellent!

Full House

A bunch of people arrived mid-morning and we had about 16 people waiting to play. As site supervisor, I yelled out, “Attention! We’re playing to 9!” I don’t know if everyone heard me, but I told each group as they went on and wrote it on the top of the schedule board. I need to find my whistle from coaching 8th grade flag football—or go pick up a new one.

A game with Marianne

Jeff (newer tennis guy) and Peter had signed up in a box. Marianne added her name third at the bottom. I added mine also in intermediate green. “You aren’t a green! You are a red!” (Flattering, I’m not an advanced yet. I’m too inconsistent.) Marianne said, “You all don’t want to play with me, I’ll take my name off.” And she did. I stopped her and insisted she play. We got onto the court and I took Marianne as my partner. “These guys are really good,” she shared. “Nah, we’ll be fine!”, though I wasn’t too sure! Jeff and Peter are both intermediates, Jeff with raw talent and Peter with experience but inconsistent. Marianne is a weak intermediate but has her moments. She’s continued to improve over the months. I have to give credit to Jeff and Peter, they could have just hit every shot to Marianne, but they didn’t. I intentionally hit a bit more often to Jeff (the stronger player) to challenge myself. Marianne and I started behind but soon pulled ahead 4-2. Then 6-2. Then finally 9-2 for a win. Well, that was a surprise!

Chuck was funny in one game. “Andrew, now that I’ve noticed, all I can see is your tan lines!”

Yes, I’ll just have to put up with the tan lines for a while. Hopefully, in six months they’ll be gone . . . I hope!

Blind Lob Return

I was playing a game with Beth Black and there was a lob over our heads. I went back to get it, but I didn’t have time to turn around and face the net. I reached up and swung backward, hitting the ball with the outside face of my paddle, hoping I’d pulled off the shot. I turned around and saw the ball heading back to the center of our opponent’s court. I got away with that one! Fun!

I think that was the game where some shots I expected to be winners got returned anyway. It makes for a fun game that keeps you on your toes! The ball just keeps coming back!

Around the Post!

In the last game of the day, Terry and me against his wife Laura and Ted (Eric’s buddy), I finally had my no-questions-asked definitive around-the-post shot. It was a thing of beauty! Laura had hit the ball shallow to my right off the court and I hit it deep and low past the net post for a winner. Terry said, “And that was well within the court too.” I celebrated with a Rocky pose with my two arms stretched into the air and trot back to the baseline for the next point. Terry and I won 11-9.

Now, the embarrassing thing for me to admit was trying to force two ATP shots earlier in the day from the left side of the court and pounding both hits into the net. Alas, those two should have gone over the net—they didn’t have enough width to go around. Silly.

I checked my phone, 1:13 p.m. Wow. That was a quick four hours!

Work

Through a combination of events, we lost several of my staff in one department. Weekday pickleball will likely be rare in the next two months or until we get more staff hired and trained. (Bummer!) I told Terry that he’d likely be seeing me at Scotts Valley on Thursday nights again.

Number of days on a court: 93
Number of total hours: 263

Click here to start at the beginning of this blog: PickleballJourney