Playing Away from Home

 I wanted to blog a bit about playing down in Laguna Woods.  It's my first foray into another group of players.

If you've not played the tournaments then one must always wonder a bit about how well one plays.

Laguna Woods is an old Dell Webb type place where there are a 1000 things to do.  They have seven pickleball courts, with lighting and a nice covered sitting area.  Water fountains, sinks, sign in sheets, it has it all.

All of the courts are individually fenced with eight foot fences.  One can hit the ball over the fence if you work at it.  The courts are set up for paddle tennis as well as PB.  So there  are multiple stripes laid out with contrasting colors.  The net is lower for paddle tennis; they have a nice way to lower the net easily.

The way they resolve who is on court next is via a paper sheet.  You put your name down and when there are four players, they are next up for a court.  The courts are used for a single game.  They tell me that the system is frequently ignored and I'm guessing that a lot of folks play with their selected group.

I was introduced to the "guys" who were the better players and got a number of games with an extended group.  Before we talk quality of play, it needs to be mentioned that this is an older crowd than at the Downs.  There were probably more gals than guys.  But it looked like the guys were the better players for my small sample.

Now as to the play...  There was a lot of hitting and very little dinking.  They usually would not duck a ball, if it was in reach it got hit.  I ducked a couple of out balls and got strange looks from my partner and, "How did you know it was going out?"

Lots of lobbing!  Of the six I had to deal with in one game I hit four overheads, watched one sail long and got beat on one.  Those are the odds I'm willing to trade.  But there were guys whose style was to lob.  

"Hey what about dinks?" I hear you ask.  Well, if I didn't dink, it didn't happen.  They just liked to hit the ball hard.  Fire fights didn't last very long.  They did like to hit little angle shots too.  

The courts had two real problems, one being the lines caused skips just like we have and the fencing is very tight so that ATPs would be difficult and a serve that kicks to the side can put an opponent into the fence.

I didn't have any trouble being competitive down there.  I had a variety of partners, mostly Downs Intermediates in skills and maybe a touch less than that.  There was one fun game against the local hot shot, I was down 6 to 9 with Roy as partner.  Roy's court positioning was not the best.  But I got hot and ran off five fast points to beat them 11 to 9.  Roy looked a bit shocked.  Mario, the local ace, looked a bit stunned too.  

I would conclude that if you can play at Downs, then other games might not be as daunting.  The abundance of  lobbing and lack of dinking was interesting.  Maybe that's more common than I expect.  I would characterize Downs as more dinks than lobs usually, but not a lot of either.  Of course than depends on who is playing.

It's good to be back, it was interesting to play with some strangers and read the room -- a skill you tournament players should be good at.

Paddle Positon II or is it III?

There is an older post that is a conversation between the Master and Po, the acolyte where the various paddle positions are noted and discussed.  Link: https://pickleballthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/10/paddle-up-or-down-yes.html

Since then I've run across one of the Pickleball Pirate's videos (YouTube) where a teaching pro gave a lesson on the same topic.  Surprisingly, his suggestions and explanations matched those of the Master, so you know it's all good.  :-)  Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0yQU2wOxZc

The reason for this post is that I've managed to get my paddle above the net line for the the last few days of play and I must say that it has been a tremendous help and has improved my ability to hit the third shot in a fire fight and to scare my opponents.  It's also a lot less work and has made the game simpler.

I was over at Robertson park watching some intermediate players today.  There were a lot of popped up balls with people at the net, but the paddles were down by players' knees and a lot of shots that should have ended the point led to longer rallies.  Nothing wrong with a long rally, but if you get a pop up you'd like to put it away.

The low paddle positions required a lot of movement to return the shot and by then the ball had dropped and the best shot opportunity had vanished.  If your paddle is up, it's easy to hit down on the ball, which is the filet mignon of the pickleball shot selections.  

To simplify the earlier posts, when you are at the net the ball has to come to you above the net.  Keep your paddle ready for a higher shot and that means your paddle should be higher than the net level.  If the ball is a low dink, you'll have time to drop your paddle and return it.  But if the ball is coming fast and hard or high, then your paddle is where it needs to be.

Give it a try, I think you'll like it.