I drove back from West Virginia with time to change and go play pickleball. It was really, really good today. I was lucky because I told the guys I was working on my serve and that kind of opened the floodgates for people to ask me what I was working on.
One game I asked them to hit my backhand or drive it at me and sure enough they did. And it was such a good game. I don’t remember who won, I don’t even remember who I played with, but I know that I left that game thinking I saw everything in that game. The people I play against during the week have every shot, they just tend to use the shots they know will win the game. For the purpose of winning that is perfect. But for the purpose of an intense, fun, challenging game, seeing all those shots was wonderful.
They pulled off all kinds of shots. I saw an Erne. I saw lobs, drives, drives at my backhand, short serves, attempted tweeners, I mean, I feel like I saw it all. It seemed like everyone was playing more strategically as well.
It was a lot of fun. One guy was really on fire, he was making all kinds of shots you don’t normally see. We had an out of town guest who is left-handed so that was some different shots as well.
During one of the lessons at the clinic yesterday one guy really seemed to think that I didn’t bring my paddle up enough. It was during a lesson so I didn’t know if he was practicing what he would say or if he was really giving me an important message but I decided to pay closer attention to that. I did feel like I got more balls back than normal so maybe that was a good tip.
Since it is 72 degrees in March I decided to go to the courts and catch up with one of my friends. She was helping a beginner with some things and said she would hit with me after. The courts were packed and someone unofficially declared themself court monitor so the paddle system that no one follows was apparently being enforced. We left and found another court, did several drills and caught up on all things pickleball.
