Category: Pickleball (Page 300 of 327)

Tuesday, October 3, 2017 (Off Day)

I found a blog where it discusses pickleball rule scenarios:
http://www.pickleballmax.com/category/rules/

And this particular rule came up about a week ago when Tom S. and John P. were stacking:
http://www.pickleballmax.com/2017/09/pickleball-serve-hits-receivers-partner-before-bouncing/

The contention was that if a player was out of bounds when hit by a serve that it’d be a service fault, not a point for the serving team. I was under the impression that it’d didn’t matter where a player was standing but I filed this away under “further investigation”. Well, I stumbled upon a clear answer at the link immediately above. Yes, it doesn’t matter. The receiver’s partner could be standing in the next court and if he/she is hit with the serve, it’s a point for the serving team.

Wednesday, October 4, 2017 (Court Day #77)

The weather is turning. Fall is arriving in Santa Cruz. As I left my house, the car dashboard read 54° and 56° when I pulled up at the courts a few minutes later at 9:05 a.m.

I was in a game against John P. and Ted. I can’t even remember who my partner was. There was a shot where I was just about to slam a popped-up ball when John let out a loud holler and laughed. My hit flew long. I was annoyed. It’s only a silly game, of course. But such a holler is completely illegal. It falls under the “distraction” rule. It’s also unsportsmanlike, but he was kidding around. In a serious tournament game, by rule, they would have lost the point even though my shot went out. He did it again later in a different game but that time my partner and I won the point anyway. 

Games with Terry

Terry Long and Ted against Eric and me. 11-4 loss. Or maybe it was 11-6. Still it was lopsided. There were points where Terry took it easy on us and others where he took full advantage of opportunities. I remember one where he had a clear winner shot with us all at the net, but he allowed Eric to return it. Not that that act of generosity made any difference in the final score. Terry is most certainly a very, very good player.

Oh, that first game was played with a hard ball. Until a shot I made dropped into the net. Weird, I thought. I checked out the ball. Wow. Big break from one hole to another to a third and the plastic was pressed in a bit. We switched to a good soft ball.

There wasn’t anyone waiting and Terry was agreeable, so we switched sides and played again. This time, the score was flipped too. Eric and I won. As Terry said, “They’ve switched their strategy to use the short game to neutralize the hard hits.” Ted led to most of our points, as you’d expect. After all, Terry is the 5.0 player. I still suspect that Terry wasn’t pulling out the stops with us.

The Underdogs

The last game of the day was Eric and me versus Dave Cox and Chuck. Dave and Chuck pulled out to a 3-0 lead. I’d put Dave at 4.0 player. Eric and slowly crawled back to 3-3. From there it was back and forth, with Eric and me pulling ahead. But they came back. 9-8. Then 9-9. 9-10. 10-10. 11-10. 11-11. We eventually won 13-11. I’d call it an upset, though chuck was pretty tired. I know I was. I’d been playing for three hours straight. There are slams sometimes when I can still return them. Now I know what that looks like with Dave returning a full-power slam I did. I was most certainly not expecting that to come back—but it did. Kudos to Dave. He’s still a formidable opponent even with me improving over the last eight months.

I left the courts at 9:20 p.m. It was another climb day. The dumb hits still happen, but just not as frequently.

Ouch! Leg Cramp!

 Later that afternoon at work, I was talking to a prospective customer on the phone in my office when I got an incredibly painful muscle cramp of my left hamstring. I held it together on the phone as I forced my leg straight. Fortunately, the call ended in short order and I could make the best of the agony in peace! It reoccurred a couple more times over the next few minutes then I got out of my chair and walked around. I drank water earlier then had a homemade smoothie for lunch which included a banana. Maybe I was still dehydrated though. Dunno. Regardless, it went away. Thank goodness!

Number of days on a court: 77
Number of total hours: 222

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

Sunday, October 1, 2017 (Court Day #76)

Wanting to get to the courts earlier and see Dave in action for setup, I arrived about 10 minutes to 9 a.m. Surprisingly, I was the fourth person there. But wait. Two were mother and daughter tennis players. That’s rare. You don’t see tennis players much. Dave apparently had to break the news to them that the courts were reserved on Sunday mornings. But there’s Meder Street and other tennis courts around.

Dave gave me a key to the storage boxes. I guess that officially kicks off my responsibilities as a site coordinator for the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club. What did I get myself into? I guess I’m about to find out!

Some Games

I played a few games. Oleg and I took on his wife Olga and Janet whom I have not seen for a while. Oleg and I won, but Olga and Janet did not make it easy! It was a hard earned 11-4 win. Katie (newish player) and I played against Olga and Janet—it was a fun game.

Eric showed up later, maybe 9:45. We played some games separately then, after asking the score of his current game, I signed the two of us up in a schedule square.

At some point in the morning, we played against each other, Kim and me, he and Grita. It was a back and forth game. Often when I play with Kim, I’m a big liability, but not so much in this game. Sure, I made some errors, but it wasn’t much out of balance from Kim’s—thank goodness! Maybe she had a bad game, but I like to think I’ve gotten overall better.

Eric was wearing a support on his forearm, just below the elbow. Hopefully, the pain he’s experiencing will heal up soon.

The Game(s) of the Day

The big “feel good” game of the day occurred later. Oleg and Grita were signed up in red (advanced) on the schedule board. Eric asked if he and I could join their square. Eric signed us up in red—at which he said, “This takes some cajones!” Of course, we didn’t need to sign up in red, we could have signed up in the intermediate color of the day, but “when in rome…”! This was going to be a tough game—one that takes cajones!

Eric and I raced out to a big lead (8-3), but Oleg and Grita came back. It was a long back-and-forth game that lasted 18 minutes. In the end, Eric and I pulled off an upset. 12-10. (I’ve heard of some tournament games taking even 30 minutes, but I’ve yet to get to anything close to that length of a game!)

This game was recorded. (Yes! Saved for posterity!)

Even though we were all tired, we played another game. This time, Eric and I lost 11-8.

It was still 10 minutes before noon, though it seemed later, so we played yet another (last) game. I was beat. I think we were all beat. This one we also lost 11-8. At least we are consistent!

Two weeks to tournament day!

Number of days on a court: 76
Number of total hours: 219

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

Tuesday, September 28, 2017 (Off Day)

My copy of Pickleball Magazine appeared in the last few days. I finally got a few minutes to open it yesterday at lunch time while I was throwing the ball for the dog. I didn’t know I was going to get a hard copy. That’s a good thing since I got a digital version by email from the USAPA some weeks ago but I only got through the first 10 pages or so. There’s something to be said for print that is tangible and you can hold in your hand!

Inside was an article mentioning local player Ray Pereyra who was off in Detroit over the summer to coach kids at the Junior Olympic Games. How do  you like that? Nifty.

Friday, September 29, 2017 (Court Day #75)

I arrived at Brommer at 9:10 a.m. and there was already a couple of games in progress and folks milling around waiting to get started.

One of the first games was Sandra and me against Alan and Kirsten. I didn’t make a single mistake until we were leading 8-4. Then I made one. Dunno, maybe hit a drop shot into the net or something, but it was a good performance. Sandra and I won that game.

Another was Beth Black and me against Kirsten and Lora. We played with hard ball. “Is that ok, Andrew?”, Beth asked. I said sure. I should play with that ball all the time if I play like that. I did make a few mistakes but I—as Kirsten said after—was “on fire”. I played very well. Beth and I handily won.

There was a funny moment in that game where Beth told me, “Nice try” after my crosscourt shot with us all at the net. Except the ball hadn’t landed yet and it landed in! We went on to win the point.

I played an assortment of games and saw that Eric’s game had shifted to the last court means that they’d been going for a while and would likely be ending soon. Well, it still ran another 10 minutes. I signed Eric and me onto a schedule square so we could get some additional time as partners before the tournament next month. Once he got done, we were set to play together, which we did.

Of note, we played a game against Chuck and a new woman, Uli. Uli has lots of tennis background and is pretty decent even as a beginner. Eric and won that one as expect. One one point, I served right to left, Chuck returned it crosscourt, it returned it sharp left and it left an opening between Chuck and Uli. Eric took full advantage and hit it for a winner right between. “I was hoping you’d do that,” I told Eric, “that’s how it supposed to work, teamwork.” (Not that we different agendas or aren’t normally strategic, it was just such a great example.)

Later on, Eric and I played a game against Mark (Maree’s husband) and Chuck. It was a challenging and balanced game that stayed close the whole time. We won 11-9.

I had a first today in that game. I thwarted an around-the-post shot. There was an angled shot. Mark moved off to his left to hit it and he was outside the post when he made contact with the ball. It was coming back to our side. But I had tracked with Mark. Instead of a winner, I volleyed the ball back over the net into their court. Eric liked that.

The last game of the day was Eric and me against Chuck and John Connors. John is a medal-winning tournament 4.0 player and it shows. While it was a valiant battle, Eric and I lost 11-6.

I had what I am almost certain was an around-the-post service return in that game. It happened so fast. John has very strong serves that he gets with a running start. He had one that was angled and shallow from his right to my right. I had to madly scramble and I barely got to it. I remember my return sailing very low as a passing shot down their sideline. I don’t think it went over the net—though it may have, but I think not. Chuck had no chance. That was a crazy point.

I pulled out of the parking lot at 12:22 p.m. I’d call today an “up” day. I had my moments of dumb shots, but overall, not bad. Today does want me to work more on making my serve faster. One such attempt resulted in the ball going long. Practice!

Los Gatos Tournament

The tournament came up in conversation and Tom S. (John P.’s partner) that he was told after he registered that it was full and he was on the waiting list. We’ll have to see how that plays out with John P.! Stuart said he hadn’t registered because he couldn’t find a partner. Oh, and kudos to Eric. When it came up that Eric was to be my partner in the tournament, two separate people said, “Good player.” Good for Eric—and good for me!

Number of days on a court: 75
Number of total hours: 216

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