I took Easter Sunday off and spent time with my parents. It was gorgeous out but spending quality time with them is valuable. And my mom made deviled eggs. Can’t beat that.
Today was pretty crazy. Our group went outside and everything I fear about going outside, happened. I got tired really fast. I kind of got the vibe that they don’t really want me there but I think I’m paranoid.
I love being outside and I love how pretty it is. It’s so wonderful. But it takes me a little bit longer to get to those courts. I’m not sure if I’ll get solid play because we are outside and anyone can show up. It leaves me wondering if I’m getting as much out of it as I’d like. I have to weigh the pretty factor vs. the benefits of play and that leaves me uncertain.
I didn’t really have a bad day playing outside, I love the people that I did get to play with but I didn’t feel like I got much of a workout. Fortunately I will get to drill later today but on the days when I don’t have an additional workout scheduled, a day like today will be a big downer.
I’ve got to figure out how to get good play in the good weather. Public courts makes that difficult.
I went up and did some drilling and after my day of attempting to play outside I’m ok saying that I like playing inside a lot better than outside. I guess that’s not what a pickler is supposed to say but right now I’m struggling with the outside elements and the selfish side of me likes the routine and consistency of being inside.
What can you do though. It’s so pretty out, of course everyone is going to want to play outside. In addition, nice weather seems to bring out poor driving skills because when I went to drill I gave myself ample time to arrive but ended up being 10 minutes late. I felt terrible being late but we immediately got after it.
We focused entirely on dinking. Because I was late we only managed to get about an hour of dinking in but it was solid work. Some of our other friends were there and they were practicing and drilling to get ready for a tournament.
They wanted to play us towards the end of their session so we played a couple of games against them. They asked for feedback and that’s always awkward for me because I don’t know if they want the feedback in the moment – which will distract the game – or do they want it at the end when they may not be able to connect to what I noticed?
I elected to tell them after because nothing I saw was a big deal, it was all minor stuff that wasn’t really wrong.
The gal I’ve been drilling with has been working on dinking and when we played them she asked me what our approach should be. Should she play the soft game? I said no, play your normal game at the baseline. But when we get to the kitchen, implement the dinks. I don’t think what we’re working on should change her game. I just think she will have extra shots that hopefully she will trust to use.
It was a good evening and was my second outing of the day. Hopefully I didn’t overdo it. It was weird at the facility because there no one else was there. I think the whole world played outside.
