I typically don’t play on Thursday but was asked to be a sub for a group and agreed so I could get some extra play. I had no idea who would be there and spent a little bit of time guessing who might be on the court. I think I got 1 guy right. It was a pretty fun group, 3 lefties and a variety of skill levels.
They only had 8 and did a great job with their rotation. If you finished your game you waited for the other game to finish and winners went to one court, losers went to the other. That system is great for rest, if you finish your game fast. Most of my games didn’t finish fast so I got very little rest.
One guy talked about the text that went out saying I was going to sub. He thought it was funny that the text only had my first name and everyone knew who I was, like Madonna or Sting. It was flattering to hear but of course I noted that my name is spelled uniquely so that probably contributed to not needing a last name.
Another guy asked me when I switched to a power serve which was awesome. I told him I started working on it a few weeks ago but more than anything I was glad it was noticeable that my serve was different, and different enough to be considered power.
It was nice to play with different people. One of the guys was fairly new, or I’m assuming he was new since we played together in the first game and he asked me how many points we played to in order to finish a game. I told him 11 and then wondered how long had he been playing. He had decent shots and no one really picked on him but we lost.
We played together again a little later and I was determined to help get us a victory, knocking out a few points with my “power” serve. At one point he made a bad shot selection and was beating himself up over it and I committed the cardinal sin of suggesting where he could have gone with the shot.
He didn’t ask me, I didn’t care that he messed up, but for some reason I weighed in with my opinion. I immediately regretted it and was happy (or hopeful) that it didn’t seem like he heard me. But boy oh boy is that not something I want to do because who am I to start throwing out suggestions? No one. I did it once on Tuesday night as well and at least that one wasn’t in the moment. Still, that’s not what I want to make a thing. If they ask – and I remember the shot – of course I can give my opinion. Otherwise I want to avoid the awkward feeling of trying to help someone who didn’t ask. Anyway, he and I did win that game.
