Category: Pickleball (Page 75 of 323)

Tuesday, October 15, 2024 (Court Day #728)

It’s definitely getting dark earlier. I wrapped things up at work, changed, and was almost at Scott Valley at 6:45 p.m. Street lights and car headlights were on and it was closer to dark than it was to light.

Skypark

I arrived at Skypark shortly before 7 p.m. I lucked out and there was an open parking spot right next to the courts.

It is really busy with about with at least a dozen people waiting to get onto courts, maybe even 20 people. The dry erase board was up.

Tonight was a bit of a fiasco as far as getting really good games. But I knew what I was getting into signing up with the people that I did.

I tried to make the games as difficult as I could for myself. I played about 90% of the shots left-handed. The last game I was playing against Kyle and his wife Carolyn while partnered with Gowa (pronounced “go ah”). I decided to play that game right-handed, but I told them that I would hit all my shots as drop shots. That’s what I tried to do. There were a few I still hit without thinking in a more normal manner, but when the ball wasn’t coming at my head, and I hit a drop shots and simply tapped high shots into their kitchen.

Finally

When there was about five minutes left, and I quickly got into a game with Spencer against Paul and Alex. That was the best combination players for me all night. I was playing quite well and we were leading by a few points when the lights clicked off.

It was a warm night, in the low 60s. There were several players who were obviously working hard tonight since their shirts were pretty sweaty.

Owl Paddle

A significant note, Spencer was playing with a new Owl paddle, a result of USAP’s Quiet Initiative. It’s pretty amazing how quiet the thing is. The surface of the paddle is covered with felt. Spencer said he had a chance to play with it today and immediately bought one. (I’m assuming the got it at The Hub in Campbell.) He said aside from being very quiet, he says you can add a lot of spin to the ball too. Like anything new, it may take a while to get some traction. But, again, it’s hard to get over how quiet it is.

Number of days on a court: 728
Number of total hours: 2,985.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 84.5

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

Sunday, October 13, 2024 (Court Day #727)

It was a sunny day with a bank of clouds far off in the distance and the temperature in the mid 60s—quite pleasant for pickleball. I pulled into the Brommer Park lot a few minutes before 9 a.m. 

First Game

My first game was Brenden Zimmer and myself against Jason Brown and lefty Asian Dave, whom I may have seen before, but I don’t think I’ve ever played with him. Dave is a very good player. (I always feel weird referring to a player by race, but it does help identify who I’m talking about!) We were down by a wide margin but then we went on a run and just about tied it up. But we lost 11-8. It was both Brenden’s and my first game and I jumped in with just a few dinks as warm-up. Nothing like not warming up to have a good excuse losing!

Zach

Tennis/pickleball coach Zach and I played together for the first time. We were up 6-2 against Dave Ryan and Fernando. We fell apart. Zach and I were both making errors and lost 11-6. Quite the collapse. I’ll admit that I was somewhat distracted once moving to the court right next to the wall full of people waiting. I did have one stunningly good rally in there though. Fast hands. René commented on it later.

Team Jordan

Jordan and I played against lefty Asian Dave and Asian James. I think I’ve seen James around before, but I don’t think we’ve ever played. We got killed 11-2. Dave and James are both really good. They are both close to 4.5 or higher—or they just had an exceptional day.

Yoder Sighting

Dan Bliss and I were up 6-4 against Chris Yoder and tall Sean from Camarillo and they won 11-6. Dan wasn’t playing his best and I went from playing great to missing shots… plus they simply started playing better. It was nice to see Chris. It’s not often given he lives in San Juan Bautista. Plus he’s a very strong player.

Camarillo

Camarillo Sean and I teamed up and played against René and Jordan. We lost 11-6.

Camarillo Sean said that he has only been playing for nine months but had a lot of tennis experience plus experience with other ball sports as well. Sean has a really good forehand drive that he’ll occasionally hit long. He still has a lot of work to do on his soft game. And he needs to learn how to do resets. And he needs to get much stronger at dinking. But for only having only played nine months, Sean did extremely well today. His racquet experience really shows.

Then we had a rematch against Jordan and René. This was a pretty close game but with score tried near the end at 8–8, Sean made a couple of errors and then they were up 10–8. I was on the left and Jordan served an oddly loopy ball to my backhand that hit the left sideline. Unfortunately, I returned the ball into the net and the game was over with them winning 11–8.

Time to Go

We finished that game and I checked the time. It was 12:01 p.m. Perfect. Time for me to go home and get ready for teaching.

And?

Today was good. I got into some games with players who were much better than I am. And that is why I drive all the way to Brommer Park these days instead of going to Derby Park. It’s an ego booster to be a the best player at a particular venue, but it’s not the best skill booster. 

I felt that I played ok. I had some moments of stellar play and some moments where it was completely lame, but on average, I felt played satisfactorily.

When I left, I was sweating though it was only 68°F. But, hey, I’d been running around in the sun, after all!

Number of days on a court: 727
Number of total hours: 2,984
Number of paid coaching hours: 84.5

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

Friday, October 11, 2024 (Court Day #726)

Today was the day of our monthly board meeting for the Santa Cruz Pickleball club, so I took the large majority of the day off from work. I spent part of the morning working on the meeting agenda and tweaking the meeting minutes from last month and I took our younger corgi Pepper for a walk. It was a bit chilly, about 55°F, and overcast.

First Game

My first game was with Gary Keck against Leslie and John Connors. My warm-up consisted of hitting three or four balls back-and-forth with Leslie and then we rolled right into the game. My play was very much not dialed in. Gary’s was not either. We lost. John was playing particularly well.

Second Game

I was hoping for a rematch but John wanted to play with his friend Bruce who just arrived so he removed his name off from our signup box. Simon, the tall thin man with dark hair—who I not seen for many months, replaced John in our box. Leslie and I played against Gary and Simon. It was pretty lopsided with Leslie and me winning.

Third Game

When we came off, Leslie took the last spot in the existing blue box, so our game ended up being tall Bruce and myself against Simon and Gary. It was another lopsided game with Bruce and me winning.

Fourth Game

Before that last game, I’d ran a copy of the minutes over to Mark and George—who already at the benches—to peruse. The last game of the day, Gary and I were playing against tall Bruce and Josh. (Simon had to leave.) Gary and I were up 8-4 but ended up losing 11-8. I felt a little pressured as I knew during the game that I should be over at the benches for the board meeting. The meetings are supposed to start at 12:15 p.m. and when I got there, it was 12:23 p.m., so I was eight minutes late.

I played four games over the two hours that I was there. It was fairly busy.

Bug in the Software

I have the strange thing that happened sometimes on drop shots from near the baseline. I’ll hit the ball—often this happens with my backhand—the ball will drop well short of the net. If I were a machine, I would describe it as a glitch or a bug in the software that appears now and then. What is the hardest things to do is analyze yourself. That’s why even the top pros have coaches. I suspect that I’m not following through on those errant shots, but I can’t say for sure. I have to pay very close attention when it happens next time and see if I can figure out exactly why.

And now for something completely different…

Genie Buchard

I’ve mentioned Miss Buchard here before. She came into the pickleball realm and got smoked in an embarrassing fashion, jumping in with relatively little preparation.

Today, she beat #3 ranked Lea Jansen 11-4, 11-8. Keep in mind that pickleball singles translates easier from tennis singles as both are typically played mostly from the baseline. I expect it to be a bit longer before Buchard is as successful in doubles. There is so much more finesse and “cat and mouse” (as some pros put it) in the doubles game.

Number of days on a court: 726
Number of total hours: 2,981
Number of paid coaching hours: 81.5

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