Today is an expensive day of pickleball. Even though it is perfect driving weather, I decided mid-week not to go to Dayton. I didn’t get reimbursed for making that decision and I’m playing for 4 hours at the Delaware Paddle Barn, which counts as 2 sessions. I probably saved more money than I lost by not driving across the state but on paper I know today cost $29.25 which seems steep for some pickleball play.
I decided to do the 4 hour session because I need to see how I perform after being on my feet for a significant period of time. Next weekend is my big event and I’ve done a lot to prepare for it. A lot of drilling, a lot of high quality games, I bought and use a new training tool. I’ve put in a lot of time for very specific things but probably where I haven’t put in as much time as maybe I should have is the how-long-can-I-play aspect.
Some of that is based on where I live. It’s not like I can go out outside and play for 6 hours in the winter. I get 2 hour blocks of time for several months. Finding people to play those 2 hours is hard enough. I can’t imagine finding people who would want to play 2 more hours or figuring out the scheduling nightmare of finding people for multiple sessions a day. Obviously I could have done cardio and I could have pushed myself stamina-wise other ways. But to be honest, I was afraid that might affect my game. So I really let my mind kind of win the overdoing it battle.
I know that when I do play for longer than 2 hours, I get tired. But I don’t know that I have been in a tournament situation where I played for 2.5 hours straight. Tournaments are a lot of hurry up and wait and then play for less than an hour. If you do well, rinse and repeat.
The Combine is 100 percent mystery. Well, maybe 98%. I do know men and women will be there and we are to play round robin with multiple partners. That’s it. How many people, how many games in a row, are we playing inside or outside, are we doing mixed one day and gender the next? I have no idea.
So today is to see just how fizzled out I get after 2 hours and hoping that the basics are still there in my game.
After my session I felt alright but I definitely have some areas hurting. I learned a few things I can take advantage of so I made a good decision testing this when I did.
My back, hip and feet took the biggest beatings. Like most people who play recreationally, I don’t stretch much before I play. I grab the paddle I want, hit some dinks, make sure the drops will land and get after it. There’s no way I will approach a competitive event that way. So I think my back will be taken care of with a proper warm up and stretching. I’ll also start hydrating early in the week to make sure I’m not stiff as a board when I get there. Today I drank coffee, Gatorade and Red Bull. Seriously, easy improvements can be made.
My feet. I’ve got some old age concerns I’m trying to deny with my feet. First, I’ve had a bone spur on the top of my left foot for many, many years. It’s not a huge deal other than you know, sandals aren’t really an option and foot modeling is off the table because it’s gross. But today that little growth started to hurt. Easy fix – I know what shoes not to wear. The other issue is I think I’m getting a bone spur on my right heel. I’m still in full denial of that though and as of now it’s an after-the-fact pain. I won’t wear my Vapor Nxt shoes, even though I love them so much.
I’m not sure what is going on with my hip. I’m hoping it’s a stretching thing like my back. It’s on the same side as my knee replacement and sometimes feels like it is more IT band than hip. My IT band was absolutely the worst thing about my knee replacement so I am super sensitive to feelings in that area. It doesn’t keep me awake at night but I do hope I can ignore whatever is happening with it.
By the third hour I wasn’t hitting the ball as well but it wasn’t a disaster. I just missed more than I normally do, likely because I wasn’t as eager to get in the proper athletic position from feeling as tight as I did.
It wasn’t a super competitive day. I played against a guy who puts massive spin on the ball, so that was a new challenge. I worked on my serve and tried not to play fast and hard since I’ve seen a lot of that lately. The second group I played with I tried to focus on hitting to very specific parts of the court and doing that was pretty rocky. Sometimes I did exactly what I wanted, other times it went straight out.
It was very beneficial for me to see how I’d do playing that long. I am glad I did it and I am confident I’m ready to see what happens in Oklahoma City. I hope the league is able to pull off what it wants in the inaugural year. With less than a month before the draft 3 teams still need to be announced. I’ve spent hours investigating and guessing on what their modifications will be if they don’t get what they planned. Already I’ve seen that they initially wanted 120 players and it’s now down to 96. Finally I can stop guessing and just play with full hope that I’m ready, the league goes as planned and that I’ll end up on a team.
