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PICKLEBALL JOURNAL - ENTRY 8

How encouraging it is to talk about the best pickleball meetup I’ve had just because in a couple of matches my fellow players and I did much more dinking—slamming almost absent from our matches. What a refreshing change for me (and, I could tell, for the other players) to play a game that incorporated more strategy and finesse. In my years as a recreational player smashing has taken over, even though many such shots end up in the net or being overhit and going out, footwork, balance, and contact points being inadequate in many cases.

Lobs have become a popular shot also, often done at the worst possible times, setting me and other players up for what I like to call missile defense—balls landing at the net, giving the opposing team ample time and room to set a stance, wind up and fire a hard, fast missile. All I or my partner can do is stand there and take it or run for cover or, with lots of luck, make a good dig and reset, missiles being difficult to defend.

I had to put up with two more people telling me how to play. Uncalled for, to say the least, from people whose games were full of imperfections and miscalculations, not to mention a loose grasp of the sport as a whole—a reality more often than not. Watch a top-level MLP-PPA pro match, then think about those who badger and demean others, who instruct without being asked to, who roll their eyes and shake their heads, and notice how their skills do not match their swagger and overconfidence. Besides, I would never even think about going on court and telling another player how to play, what to do, in match after match. Yet time and again in recreational play some have had this grievance. I’m not the only one. The same impossible-to-please players grumble when you make the tiniest mistake. When they lose they take it hard, mope off court, sometimes even strike the wall with their paddle in frustration or, when defeat shrivels them up from inside, whip the paddle on the floor. Or worse, hammer the floor until the expensive paddle breaks. I saw that here and there. Infantile. (Maybe the winter weather was bringing this on!) I always thought that recreational play was supposed to be fun—intense and competitive, but fun! Ladies and gentlemen, don’t let anyone or anything strip away that fun. Professional players—who play for money, rank, sponsorship, and under pressures and demands—almost never behave like recreational players, which is why I’ve always enjoyed watching them compete, improve, and advance. True, not all pros behave on court as they should, but for the most part I’ve been a happy viewer/analyzer of world-class pickleball.

Once or twice I felt that my teammate and I were working together and not just whipping through balls as a show of power and strength or whatever one would call it. One person in particular was perfect. Or close to it. We communicated well, trying to set up the other to make quality shots, encouraging each other, complimenting effective plays, giving a boost when we were losing and trying to come back, and even saying “good try, play the next point” when we made mistakes. Now that’s pickleball!