Category: Pickleball (Page 70 of 323)

Sunday, December 1, 2024 (Court Day #743)

When I checked the temperature this morning, I was happy to see that it read 59°F. That’s 5° warmer than it was three days ago on Thanksgiving morning. I’ll take the high 50s for pickleball any day!

Bad Calls

There’s a podcast, “4.0 to Pro“, that I listen to now and then. Occasionally, I’ll pick up useful tidbits or at least validate what I’m already thinking. The topic for the podcast that I started listening to this morning while driving was on the topic of mindset and how you maintain proper focus after you get a bad call on the court. It’s easy to get upset and have it mess up your game.

That got me to thinking. How many times have you made a call that you’re 100% sure about but your opponent still questioned it? If you were to reverse this, it begs the question of how often do you question the call of an opponent when they are making the perfect call? The pickleball court is 44 feet long. That’s a long way to judge spherical object when fractions of an inch are sometimes involved. The other thing to think about is the viewing angle. Think about how much easier it is to judge whether a ball is long or short from a standing position than it would be to judge while laying down on your chest in the same spot. That’s an extreme example, but it kind of gives you an idea about the problem of judging in or out from a distance.

Brommer Park

The temperature was a few degrees cooler at Brommer Park than at my house, with my car thermometer reading 54°F when I arrived there at 8:50 a.m. Nippy but not teeth-chattering.

While warming up with Dave Ryan, I noticed I needed to take more balls out of the air. I was letting too many bounce and some resulted in a slightly uncomfortable hit.

First Game

Evan and Richard joined us on the court and Evan and I paired up. Dave is the strongest player of us and Richard is the weakest. Dave may even be a 4.5 and Richard is probably a strong 3.0 player or a weak 3.5. Evan and I won 11-2. Afterward, Evan told me, “You carried us.”

Games with Kim M.

Marquis and I played against Kim McGinty and Zach Stockwell. (Zach’s wife Julie had run off to the bathroom, so he hesitantly jumped in to play.) We won 11-4. Marquis is fortunate enough to get to play with the local top players. You can’t help but get better doing that.

Kim and I played against Shawnte and Hemmie. We won 11-5. I think it was Hemmie’s first game.

Kim and I played then against Sean and his younger brother Brennan. We lost 7-11. They were playing a power game and it worked. Sean complimented me after a couple of rallies. Nice to hear. And Brennan is coming along.

Evan and I played against Jason Brown and Kim. We won 11-5.

Humility

This morning, I’d won four games and lost one. (A bunch of that depended on who are playing with and against, of course.)

Kim and I played against Dave Ryan and Evan. We got clobbered 11-0. It’s not a surprise that they won, though you would have figured we’d score at least one point. Evan and I are pretty close in terms of skill and Dave is far better than Kim. Sometimes games go like that. But this was on me too, not just Kim. I needed to be spot on in this game and I wasn’t. I need to be better against hard drives. Get out of the way more, perhaps.

After that, Dave and Evan wandered off to play with Sean and his brother Brennan. And that was the end of my games going against a pair of strong players.

More Games

There are a few other games in there of little note that I won’t mention here.

Dave Cox and I played against Pavel and Mike Berger, a club site coordinator. I don’t think I’d ever played with Pavel before. He’s tall, thin, athletic. Pavel took a dive over the draped net between the two sides of courts while he was retrieving a ball between rallies. He scraped up his right knee in a few spots, but he was ok—no dripping blood nor broken bones. Though I bet he’s going to be sore for a few days.

Dave, Me, Mike, Greg

My final three games were paired with Dave Cox against tall lefty Greg and Mike Berger. As one might expect, Dave and I won all three games we played against them, though we started two of the games down by 2-3 points.

It was 1:23 p.m. when I checked my phone. I’ve been there for 4 1/2 hours. It was getting time to eat food… I was starting to wear down.

As I left Brommer Park, it was partly cloudy and 68°F. Had I wanted to, there were enough people there that I could’ve stayed and gotten into more games. There were about six courts still in use.

Bleh

I hit net tape what felt like a bunch of times today for some reason. And I was hitting high balls that I should let sail out continues to be a regular problem with me.

Suggestion for Dave C.

Before the start of one of our games, Dave asked if I had suggestions for him. I didn’t at the time but I did later and emailed him this:

“My suggestion for you would be to trust your partner on service returns. I serve from the right, the ball comes back to me, you’d come across to my side, stretch out, and return the ball. The ball then came back pretty fast to the space that you had vacated in a fashion that was very hard to handle. 2-3 times that ended the rally.

My backhand drops and drives are generally pretty solid. Probably as good as your stretched out forehand but the biggie is it would allow us to continue to cover more of the court. Maybe you have something that no one else has, but no player I’ve played with comes over that far.”

He replied that it was helpful insight. In case there is any doubt, overall, Dave did play well.

Court Coverage

I emphasize with my students that they need to cover the court in relationship to their partner. Here’s a good example that popped up of a player who was pulled wide but his partner filled the vacancy:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCyzqpDv04E

Number of days on a court: 743
Number of total hours: 3,024.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 99.5

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

Thursday, November 28, 2024 (Court Day #742)

Last night, my brother John texted me and asking and asked if I was going to be playing this morning. I told him that I was planning to go to Brommer Park, but then I offered to meet him at Skypark. I had never played at Skypark on a holiday morning. Thursday is the only day of the week without organized play by the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club. Until the SCPC adds Thursdays, there will never be organized club play on a Thanksgiving.

I was expecting it to be colder than it was so I grabbed a sweatshirt. My house thermometer was reading 54°F. But as I drove into downtown Scotts Valley, the temperature had dropped to 39°F. It was starting to look like I made the right decision by grabbing a sweatshirt after all! With all that, it was sunny with clear blue skies. It was looking to be a nice day later.

Skypark

There were white swaths of frost on the ground as I wove my way through the Skypark neighborhood to the courts.

When I pulled up at 8:40 a.m., there were four or five cars parked in the lot, however, the courts were completely barren. I looked over and saw that there were a least one or two people sitting in their warm cars. I figured that if they wanted to wait, I would just go ahead and get out and maybe practice some serves… and one might just join me.

When I got out, the blonde-haired woman in a nearby car also got out. It turned out that this was Jill who taken my Advanced Beginners class a few months ago. Jill and I warmed up by dinking. (Or “drinking” if you go my the original voice-to-text translation!) When my brother John arrived about five minutes later and we got him dinking too.

Bill

Jill shared that Bill was still in his car. She jogged across the courts to invite him over. Bill shuffled out onto the court with his walker. I hadn’t seen Bill in a while. Tall, probably late-60s, very trim white beard, very pleasant. He used to come out to Derby Park on Sundays. His walker is new to me. Obviously, Bill can’t get around very quickly, but if the ball is within reach, he can get it back over the net and sometimes with some serious pop. For the most part, I did my best to keep my shots within Bill‘s reach if I sent balls to his half of the court.

Mike & Paddles

Mike, who is retiring very soon, arrived not long after. A woman I didn’t know arrived too, so I offered to warm up Mike and let the other four lesser-skilled players play a game.

I was trying out my new AMPD paddle today. It seems a solid and effective paddle. Mike and I swapped so I could try his Joola paddle that he bought in August and he could try the AMPD. (They gave me a discount code to share, “COACHANDREW”.) Mike commented positively that the AMPD has pop. I’ll continue to rotate this new paddle in and see how it goes.

I played with Mike against a couple whom I didn’t know. Mike and I started out a little rough, going down a few points, but we dialed things in and went on a roll to close out the game with a decisive win.

Mike continues to get better and better. I would say at this point he’s a very solid 3.5 and rising.

Later on, Shaye and Mauricio arrived. I played one game for Shaye as my partner but then later on I got into stronger games playing against Mauricio and Mike.

Birthday Party

A group had apparently reserved two courts for a party, there was a big “Happy Birthday” sign that was hanging on the fence between those two courts when I’d arrived. The group itself arrived around 10 a.m.

One rally of note, in a game against Mauricio and Mike, a ball got popped up while we were all at the net and Mike, who was in front of me, slammed it down towards me. I did my best to reset, but it was still high enough for him to slam again. I reset again. Slam. I reset diagonally to Mauricio. Still just high enough to slam. But the next time, I reset the ball wider, out past Mauricio’s forehand to win the rally. I also suspect that he didn’t expect that ball to come back. They praised my play after that rally. Yep, solid 4.0+ play on that one.

John and I played a game together against a taller, thin fellow named Chris who sports a white mustache and another tall, thin fellow named Duke sporting long hair. 15-20 years ago, Duke was a somewhat regular customer I’d see at work when he came for picture frames for his photography. Later, when we gathered as a family for Thanksgiving dinner, John and told me that this was the only game that he won all morning.

I can say I definitely would’ve gotten stronger games at Brommer. I did enjoy my 3 1/2 hours of play today—especially going from one game right into the next game—but I was the strongest player there.

I left at 12:18 p.m. John had left a bit earlier, we’d be having our big family Thanksgiving dinner his house and he had to get things ready.

I found out later that my son Nicholas was disappointed that I’d left without him to go play. Dude. You need to be more definitive that you want to play when I ask you the night before at dinner! Next time.

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Friday, November 29, 2024 (No Play)

Something unusual, my brother John and my son Nicholas went off to play pickleball in Scotts Valley this morning while I went to work! I never imagined this! Nicholas didn’t bring the paddle that I’d given him, so I gave him the AMPD paddle for him to play with along with the Gherkin paddle. John has a relatively-cheap paddle he bought somewhere.

Late in the afternoon, John texted me:
“I forgot to tell you, I can totally tell the difference now between a good and a bad paddle or at least my paddle and the ones I borrow from you and Nicholas.”

The Gherkin and AMPD paddles are both well-constructed carbon fiber paddles, nothing to complain about there.

Pickleball Flowchart

This was amusing. I suspect bangitpickleball swiped it from someone else, but I can at least credit where I found it…

Number of days on a court: 742
Number of total hours: 3,020
Number of paid coaching hours: 99.5

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

Sunday, November 24, 2024 (Court Day #741)

As I left my house, it was a toasty 48°F. Yes, that’s sarcasm. It was overcast and there was not an open patch of blue sky anywhere. I wore a sweatshirt, knowing that it would likely come off mid-morning.

Surprisingly, as I got closer to Brommer, the sun was peeking out a little bit and you could see blue sky away from the coast.

Brommer Park

I pulled in at 8:37 a.m. There were a few games going on, but half the courts were empty. Shawnte and Marquis were warming up on a court while I sat on the wall waiting and scoping things out. After they came off the court and Marquis wandered away for a few minutes, I asked Shawnte if he’d help me warm up and he did.

Games

Jordan arrived and we invited him and Marquis into a game on the permanent court we had. Once Jordan was warmed up, Shawnte and I were taking on Marquis and Jordan. It was a close game but we pulled off a win.

We rotated partners and so Jordan and I took on Shawnte and Marquis. We won 11-8. In this game, while I was diagonal from Shawnte near the baseline, he hit a very shallow cross-court shot. I sprinted up and since the shot was so wide, I decided to go for an ATP. You could hear a “thud” as the ball solidly clipped the metal post, but it still landed in. Shawnte exclaimed what I was thinking, “I’ve never seen that before.” Unfortunately, of course, a net post is considered a “permanent object” so when the ball hit it, the ball was dead.

Next

By this time, the courts were filled up and there were waits to get into the next game. The waits weren’t too bad, however.

A tall guy named Mike—who I’ve seen around periodically but don’t know well—and I played against Jordan and Jens. Jens was outclassed. Mike and I won 11-1.

Stronger Game

Jordan and I ended up in a game versus Evan and JP. Jordan and I both hit a number of bad shots, though we still pulled off a win 11-6.

By this time, it was 10:27 a.m. Still an hour of play time left.

We mixed up the group for the next game and Evan and I played against Jordan and JP. Evan and I won 11-4.

Donut

The last game was Evan and myself against a young fellow with a trim black beard that I’ve seen around and his lady friend. Evan and I won 11–0. About two-thirds of the way through the game, instead of taking the optimal shot, I decided to start hitting as much as I could to the guy because he was the slightly better player. Even then, it didn’t affect the outcome.

Smiling Faces

Today was almost like a “who who” of local OG pickleball. Or at least, there were some faces showing that I hadn’t seen for a while. As I was about to leave, Beth and David Black arrived, as did Tristan, Jane Prince, and Jon Barlow. Tristan is home for Thanksgiving break from Austin, Texas where he is studying pre-med. I guess that also makes me OG since I started playing before Tristan and Jane and maybe Jon too.

I said my goodbyes and I left at 11:25 a.m. I needed to leave no later than 11:30 a.m. in order to pick up my mom and my brother and drop them off at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium downtown for a play that my nieces and nephew were in today. From there, it was briefly home then time for the last meeting of my two 4-week pickleball classes. A week ago, rain was forecasted for today, but instead it turned out to be a nice day.

Teaching

Some of my students didn’t make it to class, so I had to fill in to even out pairs, so I was helping students drill for much of the three hours that I was teaching. I stayed around after my second class and played one game with three students—lefthanded to at least balance things a little bit. Even then, I had to try to not hit too many winners.

One of my students recently asked if a player would ever hit the ball as a low forehand but with the palm down/back. I said we sometimes do it in a pinch when forced, but we typically avoid it when possible. Coincidentally, this video popped up in my Instagram feed showing a pro player doing exactly that… a palm back forehand:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAi2KpyR-wO

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Tuesday, November 26, 2024 (No Play)

Last night, I came home from work to the sample paddle from AMPD Pickleball. I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet. Today is my wife Kristen and my 30th wedding anniversary, and while she said I could go play pickleball, I figured that it would be wise to stay home and have dinner with my wife plus my mother-in-law Bonnie and my son Nicholas who brought Bonnie over from the airport. We have Thanksgiving in just two days, I should be able to play that morning. But, tonight, I left work a little early, picked up flowers and a box of nice dark chocolates from a local high-end chocolate shop for my wife.

Ben Johns Analysis

Ed Ju does good analysis of shots and this is first time I’ve seen him breakdown a pro match. I thought this was a really good analysis.

Pickleball is Good for You!

Here’s a medical article published this week outlining the health benefits of pickleball:
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/neurophysiologist-reveals-how-playing-pickleball-supports-brain-health

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Wednesday, November 27, 2024 (No Play)

Between riding the Peloton and pickleball earlier this week, mostly the Peloton, I’m still a little sore today. It’s a good sore, but sore.

Nationals 

The USAP shared some stats from Nationals held earlier this month:

•   2,600 competitors
•   47 states represented
•   10,000 attendees
•   87 years: age difference between oldest competitor (Joyce Jones, 94) and youngest (Jr Deheart, 7)
•   3,835 matches

A solid turnout. Not a surprise.

Too Much Time

Good thing I’ve never done this! (Not!) This is always painful when it happens. It seems at least once or twice a month for me!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DChn08GsPnr

Tennis Elbow Strap

One of the two foam pads fell off of my Band-It forearm strap that I wear to control tennis elbow. It has seen years of use and has generally held up very well. I used some E6000 adhesive and a toothpick to apply the glue strategically to the plastic shell. I added a kitchen towel around a large diameter candle and layered that with some paper towel… if the glue oozed out, I didn’t want it on the kitchen towel! That diameter approximated my forearm then I strapped Band-It in place for over 24 hours to dry. All better!

Paddle Comparison

I decided to physically compare the AMPD paddle with my Gearbox Pro paddle.

The AMPD has a bit grittier surface, but the most noticeable difference is the shorter handle on the AMPD. I almost never use a two-handed backhand, so having more face on a paddle is a plus for me. But if you are a two-hander, you might dislike the lack of handle length.

The AMPD Zephyr is a 14mm paddle featuring thermoformed T700 carbon fiber and a 110 swing weight.

I’m looking forward to taking this AMPD paddle out for a spin. (No pun intended!)

Number of days on a court: 741
Number of total hours: 3,016.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 99.5

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