Category: Pickleball (Page 315 of 327)

Friday, June 14, 2017. (Court Day 35)

Being that construction of new courts is underway at Brommer, game times usually held there have been moved to Derby. So, Mondays and Fridays are temporarily additional days of pickleball nearer my house! I would be leaving town around 1:30 p.m. for Southern California, so I had just enough time to squeeze in some much missed play.

The SCPC is posting updates on their website, including photos.

Mounds can be seen indicating where the posts will go at Brommer.

Post holes up close and personal. It’s happening!

I arrived right after 9 a.m. at the Derby courts. It was already warm, the hottest start to a day yet. Given that I had to get on the road ASAP after playing and I had to scramble to work out some last-minute roster issues for the first softball game taking place that night—a team manager’s work is never done!—I’m typing this up two days later on Sunday night! There not a lot memorable, though I was on the winning side of another bagel game (11-0) where I had the first 0-0-2 serve and got to 8 or 9 points before they finally broke my serve! (I was playing with Rich who I’d met at Brommer recently.) This wasn’t against weak players either! I was also part of another winning partnership where we won 11-1. Those felt good. On the downside, I hit Robin in the shin with a slam and later she got smacked in the chest too—that might have been me again, but to be honest, I can’t even remember now.

It was a mixed morning of good and not as good, but overall, it was decent. I did try to backspin a deep hit to the baseline again—with the same result of it flying up and too deep. I gotta stop doing that!

I left about 12:20. It was hot, solidly in the 80s.

Action Camera

Literallly minute before I headed to Anaheim last week, I saw that the replacement Akaso camera package had been delivered to my work. I threw it under my desk for me to retrieve after I got back from Vancouver. I haven’t had a chance to test it yet, but at least it has the correct number of batteries this time! We’ll see if the remote control function operates like it’s supposed to this time around. I’ll use it soon. It’s definitely time to analyze my play again.

Softball

While passing through Pasadena, I got a text about 10 p.m. from my assistant manager saying our summer softball team had won its first game! (It would have been sweeter had I been there and playing, but still I’m happy to have the team be 1-0. (Don’t worry, my iPhone was temporarily mounted to the dashboard and I had Siri reading me the message!) One of my concerns is the impact of playing both sports. Pickleball takes its toll on various body parts (right glute, right knee, right ankle, hips, lower back) and softball also does (right shoulder from throwing, quads from sprinting, sometimes right thumb from batting). Funny is pickleball—the “old person’s sport” wreaks more havoc on my bday than does softball. Softball is more of muscular pain, pickleball is more joints. We’ll see how I hold up. I have to admit, the right gluten bothers me when driving long periods of time. Coming down from Vancouver last week was painful enough that I had to turn driving back over to my dad.

I turn 50 next month. Maybe age is indeed catching up with me. A sad state of affairs.

Ontario, CA

Travel. I figured I’d have no time to play pickleball in SoCal, but that didn’t stop me from optimistically bringing my paddle and ball anyway! Alas, I was correct and no time surfaced, but I was prepared if something happened to change!

Class

I missed the first of Jerry Louis’ three classes but I’ll catch the second on Tuesday morning. I’m looking forward to it.

Weather

After being in rainy Portland/Vancouver and then the stifling greater Los Angeles Area, followed by a reststop on I-5 in the Central California valley where it was 105 degrees according to my car (and it felt it), I’m very happy to be playing pickleball regularly in Santa Cruz. When it rains, it rains then goes away. None of this overcast off and on rain stuff of the Northwest. And 90 in LA is not atypical. Santa Cruz gets 90 about three days out of the whole summer and drops back into the 70s and 80s for the rest. Honestly, I have to wonder how pickleball ever survived in the Northwest! “Let’s play! Oh. Never mind. Raining again!”

Number of days on a court: 35
Number of total hours: 100.5 (Broke 100!)

Friday, June 9, 2017 (No playing)

June (and some of May) has been a lot of traveling. I flew to Anaheim and with work, there was no time for games. Still, I had a moment that brought a brief smile to my face. This was it…

Funny. A simple ball brings up happy thoughts!

I wrote the following about the kitchen on my plane flight from Orange County (John Wayne) airport to Portland airport today.

Advancing to the Kitchen

People have kept telling me, over and over, “get to the kitchen”. Don’t stay back, it’s imperative, get to the kitchen.
So, I more aggressively advanced to kitchen. And sometimes had the ball slammed back at my feet for a winner.

What the heck? What was going on? Were they just making great shots?

Sometimes things don’t truly make sense until you have context. Then it clicks.

Often, in pickleball, winners aren’t earned through herculean effort, they are gifted by the opposing team. They hit bad shots that provide winning opportunities. Winners are just taking advantage of the gift. A dink that’s too high. A lob that’s too short. Opportunities.

So what was happening in my case?

I was doing one of two things. Either driving the ball at the opponent already at the net or I was failing to execute a proper third shot drop. Both of these provide opportunities to return the ball right at my feet.

So how to avoid providing these winner opportunities? Aside from better shot selection and better technical execution, it’s using expectation and observation after the shot has left my paddle. Don’t blindly charge the net. Be wily. If the opportunity is provided to the opponents to catch you in a disadvantaged location on the court, don’t be in that location! Stay back. Wait. Earn your way to the net. Be patient. Yes, get to the kitchen, but be smart about it!

Portland

I was in Vancouver, Washington for four days for extended family activities—a memorial service (inurnment for my nephew Peter who passed away almost 7 years ago and was receiving a final resting spot) and two graduating nieces. Between obligations, I was trying to find a workable time and place to play. I wrote to an ambassador in the area a few days before I arrived, but I got no reply. After a couple of days, I gave up and wrote an ambassador across the river in Portland and got a quick reply with three additional people carbon-copied on the message. Unfortunately, it was a rainy weekend—as if that is unusual for that region!—and one of the common indoor courts at a school were unavailable due to graduations. There turned out to be a slim window where I could have driven about 30 minutes to unconfirmed court times but I’d have to take the only available car belonging to my parents (who drove up from Santa Cruz) and being late would mean missing a family event. Alas, I wouldn’t get my first indoor playing experience on this trip.

TSA

I did get stopped in the Anaheim airport by security and pulled aside for an inspection of my backpack. The young agent pulled out my pickleball paddle and held it up in the air. “What’s this?” “It’s my pickleball paddle.” “Please wait.” He walked off and returned with who I surmised to be his supervisor. The agent waved the paddle in the supervisor’s direction and asked about it. He got a very quick unconcerned nod and approval and if I’m right, a slight grin as well!

Number of days on a court: 34 (still)
Number of total hours: 97.5 (still)

Sunday, June 4, 2107 (Court Day #34)

Work and other obligations prevented me from playing on Thursday night or Saturday morning. Even by yesterday, it seemed to be at least week since last playing but it had only been 4 days. It’s been busy.

I arrived at Derby Park at 10 a.m. to a full house—as you’d expect for an hour after start time! (Church this morning.)

You can see the $2 donation money jar while games are progress in the background.

Homework!

Jerry Louis was there ready with a folder with my name on it. “Andrew! Great timing!” Inside were handouts for his upcoming class. Homework! I emailed Jerry a few days ago explaining that my original plan of getting back in town on June 12 has changed and I’d unfortunately be arriving late in the evening the day of his first class! Jerry was very accommodating and arranged for one of the July class students to swap a day with me. By the sounds of things, that other person is Dave Allenbaugh who’s on the steering committee of the SCPC.

Goals

I had two goals set for myself today:
1) Make every serve.
2) Hit no ball short into my side of the net. (Unless it’s an impossible shot.)

I failed on both counts! I’ll have to try again next time. It’d hard to make your goals when you get distracted and forget about them!

There was one game of Marianne and me against Eric and a visiting RN from Southern California (as Terry Long told Eric and me). Marianne and I lost, but not badly. There was one point where I wish I had it on video. From the kitchen line at the left, Eric hit a shot short and angled off the court. I managed to dart there, stretch, and barely hit it back over the net. He hit it back toward the open space created between Marianne and me, but I got that one too. Eric hit it again but I was now at the kitchen too. Back the ball went and this time Eric dropped it about 6″ too short into the net. Point won. Marianne was very impressed. I was impressed with myself too! Something I couldn’t have done a couple months ago!

Bagel

The last game of the day was Terri (tall, tan) versus visor Geoff and a woman . . . I think her name was Christine. Terri and won 11-0. My first winning-side “bagel” as they say around the courts. (I was on the losing side a few weeks ago, if I recall correctly.)

Play wrapped up about 12:30 and I hung out about 15 additional minutes since one of the four rank beginners who had shown up was a pastel artist named Erika who is a patron of our family business. Jerry spent at least an hour explaining the rules to the four of them. Once he left, Maree shared her insight on city politics in terms of its impact on pickleball courts.

Brommer News

Google’s aerial view of Brommer Park when it was in better condition—and notice no visible pickleball court outlines! (Older photo apparently.)

It was announced mid-morning to the group that construction would begin in approximately two weeks on the new permanent Brommer pickleball courts:

Later, Dave Allenbaugh sent out the following in a message to the entire club:

“Thanks to every ones great effort, Santa Cruz County has approved four permanent pickleball courts at Brommer Park. This will include re-surfacing the entire area and re-locating the basketball nets. One tennis court will remain which will have painted pickleball lines so we can play with 8 courts, 4 permanent and 4 lined courts.”

That’s exciting. That means no dragging a 40 pound net bag around and setting up a court if you want to play at non-club times. There will be some ready to go 24/7! Cool!

Number of days on a court: 34
Number of total hours: 97.5