Category: Pickleball (Page 80 of 323)

Sunday, September 8, 2024 (Court Day #713)

Oliver, our older corgi, started woofing shortly after 6 a.m. As much as I tried to get back to sleep, that didn’t happen. Eventually, I grabbed my phone and checked email and social media and watched a few pickleball videos. I crawled out of bed about 8, got ready and was in the car on my way to Brommer Park 8:35 a.m. I could already tell it was going to be a very warm day. It was warm enough in direct sunlight, that I had a natural inclination to seek shade. I was hoping that it would not be too crazy hot for my classes in Scotts Valley in the afternoon.

I pulled into the Brommer parking lot at 8:45 a.m. to plenty of parking.

First Game

It didn’t take too long to get into a game. Australian Josh walked in right after me and we played against Rick Arnold and Jason. Josh is a slice machine! Nearly every drive was a slice. We played three games with the same teams and Josh and I won them all. As Josh and I got warmed up over the course of the games, our play improved.

Eh.

Josh had to take off and it broke up our group. I ended up putting my paddle up in the rack with three unknown players just to get out onto a court and play. It turned out there was a 3.0, a 2.5, and a newbie. No offense to the players—they were nice people—but it was a game that you hope will end quickly so that you can get into another better game. That was my worst performance of the day. I was a bit lazy.

Better Games

Dave Cox was there and he paired up with Jean against John and myself. (John, Robin‘s husband.) John and I won something like 11-7.

We got off the court and put in our paddles to play as a group again but this time Dave wanted to play with John. I was playing quite well. It was a back-and-forth game. We were ahead but they crawled back to 10–9, but then Jeanne and I took lead 11–10. Unfortunately, Dave, then John, each put a ball that literally landed on the white sideline on my side of the court. With the angle, I figured that they were both were going to go out, however that was not the case. Then one more mistake by Jeanne and we lost 13–11. Still, they are very fun games.

Dave wanted to play another game but I told him that I had to leave. It was 11:40 a.m. and I need to get home to have lunch, change, and get out to Skypark to teach. I felt pretty happy about my play today no doubt about that.

Coaching & Ninja

I brought and showed a Ninja pickleball to my Advanced Beginner class. I bounced a regular ball on a paddle then the Ninja ball. It’s super quiet and drew a gasp from the students. It’s not a big surprise since it’s a foam ball. Then I held the two balls next to each other and dropped them simultaneously to court surface. On the initial bounce, they both bounced up at the same height, which is the important bounce. What was interesting is after the first bounce, the Ninja ball continued to bounce higher whereas a regular pickleball settled on the ground much faster. One student was super interested in one, so I sold her one of the three that I had for one-third of the $30 price I paid, $10. She said she was going on a trip and the quiet ball would be very helpful for her to drill. I’m glad to hear that she’s drilling!

Number of days on a court: 713
Number of total hours: 2,952.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 72.5

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

Thursday, September 5, 2024 (Court Day #712)

My car dashboard read a toasty 82°F as I drove through Scotts Valley on my way to the courts. It was a warm day, however I spent all of it inside working, like normal.

Game #1

I got into a game with Conner against Sean and his brother Danny. That was great. However, I wasn’t playing super sharp plus Sean and Danny are better than all of the players that I play with on a regular basis. Conner and I lost that first game, something like 11–6.

Game #2

Connor and I were the best of the available players so Danny and Sean played against us again. This time it was a slaughter. Conner and I lost 11–1. Sean was hitting drop shots to my feet and I was popping up the ball then Danny was crashing the net and slamming the ball for a winner. This happened five or six times. Conner couldn’t’ have been super happy with my play—I know I wasn’t.

Advice

Sean asked if I wanted a piece of advice. Being that evaluating your own play on the fly is one of the most difficult things to do, I told him that I would be happy for any tips. He told me that there are shots that I’m taking from near my feet but I would probably have better luck stepping back with one foot and taking the ball higher off the bounce. Of course, duh. I’ll have to work that into my game.

Game #3

After we finished our game, with the mix players, Sean and Danny decided to go with us again, however this time Sean said he would play with me. (This would help balance the teams.) This time was much closer. Sean and I did lose 11–8 and it was not Sean‘s fault. Sure, he made some errors, but I made two—or even three—for every one that he made.

In the game with Sean as my partner, I was speeding up shots that would either work against more intermediate level players or at least cause no damage… but my speedups were not working against our opponents and, instead, often gave them a winner. As I told Sean, “I’m so used to playing with weaker level players. It’s taking me some adjustment.”

Danny got at least a couple of ernes on me in those games. He’s a lefty which means he can pull them off while I am on the left side which I’m not used to at all. I think he’s the first lefty to ever pull off an erne on me or even try an erne on me for that matter.

Moving On

I got into a game with Kenny against Paul and Brandon. Kenny is a 3.0 level player. We lost 11–5 or 11–6 and I was surprised we even scored that many points. After the game, Kenny said, “It takes me a while to get used to that caliber player.” Having just lived through that in an earlier game, I told him, “Oh, I completely understand, believe me!”

Matt, Paul, Tim

I had two games with Paul Winn against Matt Babb and Tim Feickert. Those are back-and-forth fun games. We won both. I was playing reasonably well in those, though I missed some under the lights and some more simply due to being tired.

Our second game finished up at 8:26 p.m., four minutes before the lights are scheduled to go off and that was not enough time to start a new game. We started breaking down some empty temporary nets.

Number of days on a court: 712
Number of total hours: 2,949.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 69.5

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

Tuesday, September 3, 2024 (Court Day #711)

It was 68°F with the sun descending in the sky when I got to Skypark at 6:50 p.m. Today would be my third day in a row playing. Quite a luxury. I will admit that I’m a little tired and a little sore, especially after my wife convinced me to go to yoga last night with her. I was stretching muscles that I didn’t know that I had! I’m pretty inflexible, really.

There were no parking spots in the lot next to the courts. I had to park down the street and around the corner.

What was surprising was that there weren’t that many people actually playing. There was a court open but only three willing to play… not that that lasted long! It got a little busier but we never used the white board for signups.

Tournament Sign

I’ve never played in it, but The Rotary Club is doing their annual tournament again this year at Cabrillo. I’m not sure if I’m inclined to do it or not.

This evening was slim pickings for better players to play against. I end up in games with a mix of 3.5 and 3.0 players. I tend to be kind of lazy against weaker opponents and, as a result, make more errors. At 7:30, the thought of even leaving crossed my mind. The games aren’t as much fun when the rallies are short. But I stayed.

ATP Dink

I was in a game with the recent-addition college student Joel against Alex and Mike, who will be retiring at end of the year. I was on the left across from Mike and Alex was across from Joel. Alex had a really wide crosscourt shot and I had to run it full speed with my paddle extended and I was barely able to tap the ball around the post and have it land just inside their sideline. Mike then dinked the ball back across the net to Joel, who was able to return it. A brief rally ensued and ended with Joel hitting the ball into the net. That was a very unusual ATP. It was almost like a dink around the post.

We finish up the last game a few minutes before the lights clicked off at 8:30 p.m.

I was yawning in my car on the way home.

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Wednesday, September 4, 2024 (No Play)

Hall of Fame

It was announced today that three people will be inducted into the Pickleball Hall of Fame this year. Players Kyle Yates and Simone Jardim, plus John Gullo, whom I’d never heard of—from the announcement: “JOHN GULLO is well known as a pickleball ambassador for Northern Utah and for his role in establishing The Tournament of Champions as the first and highest paying tournament for professionals.”

Now, the Tournament of Champions, I’ve heard of. Ok, got it. That’s well known.

Kyle Yates was part of the former #1 doubles team in the world (with Ben Johns) when I met him back in 2018. He was 23 and Ben was 19. Pickleball was a smaller world back then.

I’ve never met Simone. She was ranked No. 1 in women’s doubles with Lucy Kovalova in 2021. Simone is well known for her online instructional videos.

Number of days on a court: 711
Number of total hours: 2,948
Number of paid coaching hours: 69.5

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