Happy New Year! Today (Jan. 1) I thought maybe it would be a decent idea to keep a 2023 pickleball journal. It will likely be repetitive, who knows if I can maintain the discipline to do it after each time I play but at the very least it will be something for me to look back on when reflecting on my pickleball journey.
What is my journey? Who knows. I positively wanted to be playing 5.0 by the time I was 50. Now I’m technically 51 – in pickleball years – and I’ve only played 1 tournament at the 5.0 level. I don’t know any 50-year-old 5.0 players looking for a partner so my journey is definitely at a standstill. I love to play, I love fair, competitive games and I consider pickleball my exercise. I have a sedentary job and love to eat so not becoming overweight is a constant concern. My daily grind is finding fair, competitive games that will help me improve, have the confidence to play the level I want to play and hope that eventually I can find a 5.0 partner who wants to take on other senior women at the highest amateur level.
January 1
Start the new year off right, play pickleball! I checked my cell phone texts to confirm that the group I play with in Dayton, Ohio was on for 11 a.m. and even though I stayed out later than usual the night before, I got on the road on time and with 15 minutes to change shoes and warm up. I drove the hour and half across the state, arrived at the facility and noticed it was a glaringly empty parking lot. I texted the group organizer that the place didn’t look open and she apologized saying she thought she told everyone we were starting play on Jan. 8. What a bummer. Fortunately, my parents live right around the corner so I stopped to visit with them and then drove back across the state, missing pickleball on the first day of the year.
January 2
My Monday group confirmed on Sunday we were playing and let everyone know that one of the folks was bringing in a guest, who happens to be one of the strongest (and nearly youngest) players in the area.
As much as I hate to admit it, I get real grumpy about playing young people but this kid is nice so I didn’t mind him joining us. Also, he was only playing with 1 person so there was no reason to get excited about playing with him. I used my Diadem Icon paddle, which gives me nice touch and feels like an extension of my hand. After a few games one of the guys dedicated me and the other lefty lady player to take on the young kid and his partner. I didn’t want to but gave in, warning my partner I wasn’t really up for this challenge so please don’t get mad at me if I start goofing off. We decided we were going to stack randomly, which is super fun to do, and it worked well.
January 3
Tuesday night, ladies night. This was our first time playing even though it was our second scheduled date. I was skeptical this ladies group was going to work out since it was cancelled on the first week but we all arrived and got going. I decided to play first with my Selkirk Power Air (Invikta) paddle which is truly a power paddle. All my touch is out the window when I use that thing but I can rip it like no other paddle I’ve ever used. Whether or not it goes over the net or in bounds when I rip it is another story.
This group is 2 lefties and 2 righties, the 2 righties regularly play together and are younger. Since I was using the Selkirk I went with the power-first approach and it was pretty successful. I know I returned one ball that was so strong she was unable to get it back, but that was probably a fluke. It felt great, but I don’t think that is something I can do consistently. I tried to do my soft, angle shots that are typically winners for me but with that paddle I just can’t make it happen. I switched to my Icon after a few games, just to stop trying to hit the ball so hard. It was a physical switch to make me play a different game.
When we took on the righties as a team I knew it was going to be tough to beat them but I wanted to be serious and literally practice winning. That didn’t last. They went up quickly and during one point the ball hit the kitchen line and skipped into me, causing me to flip my paddle awkwardly to try to get it over. I hit is so weird that I hit my right hand with the follow through and literally cut myself in two places on my pointer finger (both knuckles). I was bleeding and I could see one knuckle swelling immediately. I’ve never bled during pickleball, which distracted me, and I was angry, making it difficult to concentrate. After that happened I kept trying the same shot over and over, missing every time. They smoked us.
My partner is a nurse and immediately wrapped my finger after the game. I couldn’t use the blood as an excuse anymore and got my act together, helping us win the next 2 games. I was on the left in the first game, the next 2 I started on the right. We did the random stack in all of the games but it must be in my head to be on the right to start. They were tough to beat. A lot of the shots I normally do didn’t work, a lot of the shots I thought were winners weren’t and it was super hard to concentrate during the last 20 minutes of play because people started showing up for their scheduled play, scuffling over to their court and lingering on the sidelines, not concerned at all about our epic match being played. The challenge for me in those games is to not hit every ball hard but I don’t see the soft game coming in to play much on Tuesdays.
January 4
I never know who will show up on Wednesdays. Usually we have 9 so 1 person can rest but there were only 8 this week. This group plays at a 2 court facility which a lot of people love. But without a sub and without any organization in place, it is very common to play with the same people over and over at that facility. One group starts a few points earlier, the next group takes a little longer, no one wants to wait, the first group starts over, it’s a mess. I used my Icon all day and played alright but it was another day without any soft play, worrying me that I’m only going to know how to play hard and that my hard play won’t and doesn’t work effectively. I played most of the day against the women. We had good games but because I had just played women’s the night before it was a little bit of overkill.
I was asked to assist a drill group each Wednesday which I agreed to do, even though I’ve never had any formal instructor training. With most of my group play being heavy hitters I thought even if I am a terrible instructor the time on the court would be good to have a chance to, at the least, hit some dinks. From my perspective, the first session went well. I did get to dink some and I did know how to answer the few questions I was asked. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to next week.
January 5
I noticed on Twitter today that Rob Nunnery is doing a daily newsletter about his pickleball play and three things came into my mind: Hey, I’m doing that too; I wonder how different a pro and amateurs daily write-ups are; Dang it, why did I wait to do this weekly? I can’t imagine posting these every day, which is why I went with the weekly concept, and I’m not trying to make tons of money doing this which is what I think all pros and aspiring pros are doing with the content they write.
Anyway, I headed to open play at my favorite local rec center for a few quick games. I don’t mind playing on a gym floor, although my eyes always struggle to pick up the ball, and I don’t mind playing with a squishy, heavy ball. I try to take the same mantra as I did with basketball – If it’s round, I’ll make it.
I like playing with the boys there because most of them do things I never expect and all of them can hit the ball 400 mph faster than I usually see on the court. In addition, they are all expert lobbers, giving me a well-rounded experience. The down side to open play is, anyone can show up. I got a bunch of good games but there was a younger guy there who is not quite a 4.0 and it’s a 4.0 plus group. That’s life with open play at a rec center. He is fascinating because he does the Riley Newman 2-hand backhand on shots that a simple backhand, and many times a forehand, would work. He also has a nice serve (when it’s in) and, like all the other guys there, if he gets the right shot he can hit it really hard. I left when it became clear that I was stuck in a rotation playing him but on the way home I couldn’t help but think how much I learned when I first started playing there and how lucky I was that the guy who taught me so much allowed me to play with the 4.0 plus group when I wasn’t 4.0 yet. Maybe this kid is just like I was when I was granted access to the group, grateful he’s getting the chance and bummed when he messes up.
January 6
My first play session of the day started out decent but ended early as I couldn’t handle the frustration any longer. I began with my Selkirk paddle but gave it up before the first game ended. As soon as I miss a shot I normally make with my Icon I just give in and get the old comfort paddle out. Plus, if I’m playing with the Selkirk I’m going to be hitting hard and against guys, that’s just a silly idea. There were a few good games and I faced some unexpected shots, which seems to be my barometer of good play, but when I finally got a chance to play with one of the strongest players there it was my turn to sit. Then I ended up in a weird rotation that wasn’t rotating, playing several games with what seemed like the same people. No big deal, I told myself, if I’m playing with the same person so is everyone else. But as the games progressed I noticed I wasn’t seeing many balls unless they were smash put-aways. I tried to stay focused and told myself to work on drops, work on serves but then I’d miss a drop or mess up the one ball that was hit my way and I’d mentally spiral downward, lingering on the types of shots I was getting (smashes, hand battles and returns) and beating myself up for not knowing how to make a bad situation feel good. Even though we are allowed to play 15 minutes after the session ends, I left with 7 minutes to go in scheduled play, saying goodbye and hoping no one was mad at me for me being frustrated (no games had to stop with me leaving). My second session of the day was a surprise birthday party. I had very little knowledge about who was playing but I wanted to participate in the birthday celebration. It was scheduled for 3 hours and I knew I wouldn’t make it that long. We had 3 courts and all kinds of separation in the level of play. There was a father-son duo, a car mechanic, a real estate mogul, a senior pro player, a couple of teachers, some businessmen, a couple of firemen, a school counselor, a retired guy and a school bus driver in attendance and that is just what is so amazing about pickleball, no one “type” of person or status is necessary to have fun playing the sport. I used my Selkirk paddle which turned out to be a really bad decision because most of the play was bang-bang and that is not my strength. Me hitting it hard only facilitated the banging and I had no way to counter because I have no touch at all with that missile powered paddle. It was a neat outing though, I’m pretty sure the gal we were celebrating didn’t know the event was happening and her husband was ear-to-ear smiles that he pulled off a surprise. I was a bit disappointed in myself after a few games because I was getting beat on shots that I typically don’t struggle with – the body shot. I clearly was about 2 steps slower than usual. Even with my Friday-night-I’ve-played-already-today approach I still can usually get those shots. Many shots I faced were at my head and many shots were just pure chaos so I wrapped up my play after 2 hours for fear my old, slow self would get hurt.January 7
I managed to get invited to a ladies group for some Saturday play. I have many pickleballers I consider friends but these ladies are people I would hang out with off the court. The play isn’t super competitive – no one is throwing down to win games – but it is high quality play and the best part is, they are the perfect example of the social side of pickleball. We play a game, we talk about what happened last week. We play another game and spend time talking about how to solve problems for each other. We loan paddles, we talk about shoes, we laugh, we play, we celebrate good shots, we cheer good tries and we talk. I hope everyone who plays pickleball has a group like the one I played with today.End of Week Numbers
- Pickleball play
- 7 sessions
- $44 court time
- $31 gas
- Drilling
- 1 session
- Weight: -1
- ATPs: 0
- Injuries: 2
- Knee bruise
- Finger cut
