Category: Pickleball (Page 95 of 324)

Tuesday, June 11, 2024 (Court Day #672)

After leaving work, I got to the courts in Scotts Valley just about 7 p.m. It was very crowded and people were complaining about the waits. I didn’t count, but there were about 50 players.

Yes, the waits were long, but most of my games were pretty good.

Great Game

Sean Lynch and I played against Matt Babb and Oscar. It was a great game with dink rallies, speedups, and resets. Sean and I pulled ahead, then they got within a few points, but then Sean and I closed out the game. There was some redemption in that. The last time was in a game with Sean, he was on the other side of the net and I was making series of dumb mistakes like dinking shots wide of the court.

Later, I was teamed up with lefty “linebacker” Aaron against Tim Handley and Matt Babb. We got clobbered. Matt Babb was performing exceptionally well with his serves tonight. He’d hook his serve off the short side of the court out of the reach of my forehand or driving serves down the center of the court to my backhand. I know my serves sometimes don’t pop back up but Matt had a few that I’d swear that the ball was broken or it hit debris by how low the ball stayed. Tim Handley was also whipping some serves angled off the court and impossible to return. Matt got two aces on me and Tim got another. Aces are rare.

I was playing pretty well tonight outside of that one game against Matt and Tim.

My last game wrapped up about 9:20 p.m. and I helped take temporary nets down. Mark Dettle had asked me earlier to be responsible to make sure they got stowed properly and locked up.

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Thursday, June 12, 2024 (No Play)

A funny article by a woman named Celia Rivenbark appeared on AOL this week—is AOL even a thing anymore?—about pickleball. After reading it, it’s obvious that either she did a lot of research or actually knows something about pickleball. For instance, this is the first time that I’ve seen “swing weight” appear in an article meant for consumption by the general public!

Beware! Pickleball addiction may affect you or loved ones
https://www.aol.com/beware-pickleball-addiction-may-affect-090315084.html

Number of days on a court: 672
Number of total hours: 2,853.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 40.5

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

Sunday, June 9, 2024 (Court Day #671)

In my ongoing battle with those who say to never switch hands, here is elite pro Riley Newman doing exactly that, switching to his left hand to make a shot:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7-W1JRga5U

Derby

Somehow, today I was just moving slowly and got a late start and ended up walking into the courts just before 9 a.m. Fortunately, when I arrived, the bins are already open the dry erase board was up and the one net that needs to be set up was already up. Later, I learned Barb Gerry had opened up the bins for me and I thanked her. It’s embarrassing to be late to set up as the site coordinator. It wouldn’t be the last embarrassing moment for me today, unfortunately.

It was extremely busy today—51 players at one count—with long waits. With so many people, there was no question that I had to make the games to 9 and win by 1, instead of playing 11 win by 2.

It had started at 61° and overcast. At about 11 a.m., the clouds burned off. It was much cooler today than a few days ago when it got up into low 80s.

There was one game where J.J. and I played against Brandon and Glenn. I’ve been playing really well, but this game everything seem to be going wrong. I returned at least two or three serves passed the baseline. That was miserable. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. After waiting probably 20 minutes to get into the game, it was a lopsided quick one where J.J. and I lost 1-9 or 3–9. It was bad.

All the rest of the games, I played just fine.

I only got into one game that would be considered a truly advanced game. All the rest of them had at least one intermediate player.

My last game ran until 12:14 p.m., and Rick A.—who I asked to close for me—wanted me to take the donation money with me and that took another bit of time so I didn’t get home from the courts until 12:30. Then I had to immediately turn around after a very quick lunch to get to teach classes at Skypark in Scotts Valley.

Skypark Classes

Today was my first day teaching in Scotts valley instead of in Aptos at Willowbrook Park. I left my house shortly before 1 p.m., later than I wanted but my wife had moved my coaching clipboard and I couldn’t find it without a hunt. (It has been slid into a cubby under the computer desk.) Still, I was at the courts about 10 minutes before my class was to start.

After the Advanced Beginner class, Katie told me that my class went really well and she couldn’t be happier. That’s very nice to hear. I did tell that that while I’ve subbed for more advanced classes, this was the first time teaching this exact class.

Everything did go really well, though it was noticeably warmer than Aptos. At least there was no traffic getting home. Though I did have 43 text messages when I was done teaching! Boy.

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Monday, June 10, 2024 (No Play)

I found out that a week and a half ago, Harvard Medical School released an article regarding eye protection in pickleball:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/protect-your-eyes-when-playing-pickleball
A key paragraph:
“Researchers cited numerous types of pickleball-related eye damage, such as corneal abrasions (scratching of the eye surface), retinal tears or detachment, Berlin’s edema (damage to the retina’s outer layers, causing decreased vision for several hours), and hyphema (bleeding in the front chamber of the eye that can lead to glaucoma).”

Another sense of vindication that I always wear eye protection while playing!

Number of days on a court: 671
Number of total hours: 2,851
Number of paid coaching hours: 40.5

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

Thursday, June 6, 2024 (Court Day #670)

Dan Bliss posted an astrophysics meme on Facebook. I added a comment…

Health

My knee is bothering me a little bit and I’m very much feeling stiff.

Funny

This disease we should know about came up on social media:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5rH4DZRNR0/
Yes, the disease is pickleball. Ha!

Skypark

I dropped off my brother Matt at my parents house after work on my way to Scotts Valley.

At 6:49 p.m., I was walking to courts. It was warm in the sun, but cooler than yesterday. That was hot—in the 80s. I know . . . we are spoiled here. I was talking to a friend today and he said it was 105°F yesterday in Sacramento! We whine when it drops below 65ºF or gets above 75ºF!

It was a pretty light crowd tonight. I don’t know if something was going on elsewhere or just the way the cards fell.

My first two or three games, I was obviously the most skilled player. Those aren’t quite as fun . . . games where you feel guilty for your opponents not being able to return your serves. Where you feel like you really need to dial back your game in order to keep the rallies more than two or three shots.

Fortunately, I was able to get into a games with David L., Tim Handley, and Paul. We played two or three pretty balanced games before Tim called it a night.

Aside from the earlier, weaker games, I played all my games tonight and some fashion with David and Paul on the court as my partner or an opponent.

There is a good player closely crop blonde hair, Jordan, who uses a static fully open stance on his serves. It’s unusual to see someone stand like that for a serve, but it’s effective for him.

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Friday, June 7, 2024 (No Play)

Yeah. Knee hurts. Story of my life right now.

New Classes

In the last 24 hours, I’ve done a lot of texting to students for my new series of classes starting this weekend. This will be my time doing two classes back to back. It turns out Binh’s fiancee Laurie is in my beginners class as is her sister, Christina. There’s also a woman acquaintance of mine, Elizabeth, in the beginner class as well. I’ll know about half of the Advanced Beginners class . . . previous students.

Under Pressure

Coincidentally to the topic that started this post above, ever wonder what a pickleball looks like in slow motion when hit? Here you go:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C74rVDLPEGb/
You’re welcome!

Number of days on a court: 670
Number of total hours: 2,848
Number of paid coaching hours: 37.5

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