Tuesday – April 11
Today I was kind of desperate for some play. It’s absolutely gorgeous out but I could not find anyone to play with because everyone’s stuck in their contracted indoor play or they already have games lined up.
So I asked my buddy if he would drill outside and that’s what we did.
Oh my gosh was I horrible. Absolutely, positively terrible. I mentioned this yesterday and it was the same today, that just being outside is different. It’s not hitting the ball. It’s not the wind or the sun changing the game.
I’m talking about just breathing the air outside and trying to move outside, all while navigating the different elements (sun and wind). It is tiring and tough to do. I don’t imagine it’s going to take very long to get over but I was absolutely terrible today.
It was like I had never played. Well, it wasn’t that bad. But it has been a long time since I’ve missed that many shots. I really started to get in my head a lot about the net being high or the net yesterday being low, anything and everything was a reason for me playing so poorly. Those weren’t the reasons, but thinking about it that much didn’t help my performance.
So it was really bad, despite the pretty weather, but I’m not going and not let it deter me. I’ll keep practicing and get my act back together.
Wednesday – April 12
I had a long day of pickleball. After my bad day of drilling yesterday I decided I was going to approach today in a manner of just for fun. No pressure on myself, no pressure to win. No pressure to make every dink just no pressure at all.
I don’t think that that was the reason I played so poorly yesterday but it’s been a while since I’ve had as bad of a day dinking. Today I played inside, yesterday I played outside so maybe I’m just too in my head over the inside-outside scenario.
My fix for today was to use every paddle in my bag. I brought an extra paddle to throw into the mix and I used every one of them. One paddle was gripped to be left-handed, one had no extra weight on it and was old. I had 2 paddles that were the exact same paddle, exact same weight. One was a little bit more used than the other. I had my Selkirk power air, the wild and crazy paddle. I had the Version 2 Icon.
I played actually pretty well with all of them and that definitely seemed to release the negative thoughts in my mind. I had a bad day yesterday, it’s not the end of the world.
Today was a lot of fun and I did not play poorly. Additionally, I got an invite to drill with a guy which will be awesome if I can drill with 2 different guys. My future plans may end up as drilling the majority of the week and just playing twice.
***
I went to do the drill clinic for the ladies and put together a few dinking drills for them. We did a lot of dinking, a lot of drops and then we did our regular games.
It worked out well, one group was a little bit stronger than the other and we did a little bit more advanced stuff. I think everybody got something out of the drills even though I didn’t really do anything new. I just kind of repurposed a bunch of stuff.
Probably the most interesting thing about my evening was my phone taking me a different route to get to the facility. I saw roads I haven’t been on in forever. Even with the new course I arrived late but I think I got there faster than if I had gone my normal way.
Afterwards we stuck around for a different girl’s birthday and had a few drinks and a couple of cupcakes.
The group talked about doing a fundraiser for my travel expenses in the NPL. It’s hard to comprehend people donating to me because I’m supposed to be a pro but I have to pay for all the events and that is expensive. If my friends and those who I have helped want to support me in any way I’ll accept it. I couldn’t be more grateful for the help. It’s awesome to have that kind of group, willing to help.
Friday’s a big day. I can’t wait to see what happens.
Thursday – April 13
It’s hot outside, 80 degrees in April, which is crazy. Of course, I played outside. I went to a court I’ve never been to, an old tennis court with cracks, a temporary net and painted lines for pickleball. I was there to help a team get ready for a tournament.
I had a few distractions mentally that seemed to affect my play but I eventually let it go and my partner and I won every game but 2 (I think). My right knee was hurting again in that weird spot so that was a little bit disturbing.
I missed a lot of shots that I don’t normally miss. They were high which gave them a lot of opportunities to put it away.
Some people, including myself, are under the impression that playing better players makes you a better player. What I pay attention to when I’m gifted the opportunity to play stronger people is whether or not I’m creating opportunities. Are all of my points off of a mistake or poor shot my opponent made? Am I only getting put-aways when they hit a blooper that I didn’t initiate? If that’s the case, then I know I’m not in a position to ask them to play with me again – or to expect them to ask me to play again. I can’t be misled by the scores in the games because playing me could just be practice time for them, as it is for me. I have to pay attention to the opportunities I created and whether or not I had success from that in order to know if I’m improving. It’s not the score I evaluate, it’s my play. I’m not sure everyone does that but I think if they did it would lead to more practice and less hope that playing strong players will magically make you better.
I got a little frustrated with one of my paddles because I kept missing this a serve I do so I ended up using 3 paddles today. We used a Dura ball, which was different and as stated, we were outside, it was hot and the court was not in great condition. It was very private though and that was nice.
The guy I played with is really good and he was using a different paddle too. It was fun to watch him kind of work through the challenges of a new paddle. He’s an aggressive player but like in spurts. He was super respectful of my left hand, at certain times. I didn’t always know when those times were and it caught me off guard a few times. I like playing with him and am glad I got to play at a new place.
I’m not going to get to play for the next 3 days so it was better to have something than nothing tonight. Hopefully when I’m off the next few days, I’ll be able to rest and get my knee feeling a little bit better.
