Today I went to Ann Arbor, Michigan to play at Wolverine pickleball, an 8 court facility that I’ve been following the progress of for quite some time. I went up there to work with a girl from Indianapolis, who is playing with me in an MLP style event next weekend and is playing with the one of the Wolverine Pickleball owners at the US Open. It was a good chance for us to practice with each other and for me, a way to see the facility and play with different people.
It was an easy drive there and no trouble to find. When I walked in a tiny, cute dog zipped by, not concerned at all that I presented an escape opportunity by opening the door.
I was a little bit early, giving me time to change and get and get stretched a little bit. I kept hearing this timer thing going off, which didn’t really bother me, but I did wonder, what in the world is that?
Our private group had a 2-hour time block. We had 5 ladies so we rotated around, mixing it up and getting to practice with the people we needed. There wasn’t a lot of dinking on the day but the games were fun and strategic a good majority of the time.
It was really good for me to see the competition level of people my age. I was able to see where I have strength and weaknesses and I ended up feeling pretty good about where my game stands.
We didn’t really get a break before starting play with a 4.0 men’s group. We had 3 courts and 13 people, each assigned a number and court according to a very well organized clipboard. I quickly learned what the timers I heard earlier were for – it was this type of group.
We played for 11 minutes and had 2 minutes to go over to the clipboard and find out what court our next game was on. The timer went off at those exact times.
Initially, I liked this concept. Some games the score was 6-5. Other games, 11-1. Because you technically may not finish a game there wasn’t a big reason to try to win. It was a good chance to play a lot of different people and work on different shots.
During the men’s group was the first time of the day I had a few games where people didn’t hit me the ball. I thought that was especially strange since there wasn’t a reason to do that, you couldn’t “win” a game. But it happened. I also thought the randomness of the clipboard would be effective but I somehow ended up playing against the same guy 3 times in a row and he was 1 of the guys who isolated me. The game he did hit to me and did better than me so who knows what he was thinking.
The facility doesn’t have fences between the courts. During the men’s group I’d say there were at least 3 interruptions per 11 minutes of balls coming on to our court from another court. The spacing was tight but I still tried to do ATPs, landing only 1 on the day.
In the winter I typically only play 2 hour blocks. I was fine most of hour 3 but my game started to decline rapidly once I started closing in on hour 4. My team would go up 6-1 and I’d start missing shots I don’t normally miss. By the fourth hour I was missing drops, dinks, drives, you name it. I don’t think it is that unusual for fatigue to get the best of me but it was good to notice now.
I think my body probably could have done more if my mind could have stayed focused. Once I started noticing I wasn’t bending as much or my back felt tight or my legs felt heavy I wasn’t focused enough to execute shots I normally make.
I had a great time and learned a lot and am super glad I got the chance to play there.
End of Week Numbers
- Pickleball play
- 6 sessions
- $59.75 court time
- $71.03 gas
- $38.00 dog boarding
- Drilling
- 3 sessions
- Weight: 0
- ATPs: 3
- Injuries: 2
- Hip pain, right side
- Shot in the face
