There was an article in Road and Track magazine many years ago about being good at something, but realizing that you were never the best or even really, really good in an absolute sense. The "cold shower" of life, one might call it?
The article described a boxer who came up against a world champion and whatever he tried to do, it was not going to work. But that was boxing and let's return to our mutual sport of pickleball.
One Thursday last, it was late in the morning and I was pretty much done playing. But Ron, a good friend, came out late and wanted to play a couple of games. I signed on and he and I played a couple of guys I've never met before. When the smoke cleared we had lost 11-0, a well deserved pickle.
I was even more done at this point, but Ron wanted a rematch and once again we were back in the breach.
This game went 11-2 in their favor.
I wanted to talk about what their game was like and why the score was as lopsided as it was.
If I have the reputation for not hitting the ball very hard, these guys made me look like an absolute banger in comparison. They hit the softly unless they were putting away a pop up. They also had extremely good ball control. I hit a couple of very nice dropping drives and they effortless volleyed from knee height at the kitchenline, dropping the ball about a foot into my kitchen, two inches inside the sideline with some clever spin so the ball bounced outside the court.
And they did it more than once. That's a tough shot to get right... Hmm.
The other shot of which I was the victim, was a soft shot landing about a foot out of reach, two inches inside the sidelines and the perfect depth, i.e., at my feet.
Needless to say, though I will say it anyways, none of these shots came back. And they were all hit with minimum speed. They didn't hit any shots out? Maybe.
There was no shot I could hit that gave these guys much trouble. Oh, the games had a few side outs and such, so they didn't play perfectly, but the results were never in question.
I've said in the past that the best scenario as to ability and the game you are in, is to be the second best player on the court. You'll hopefully learn something from the better guy, but have a pretty good chance to win the game.
Playing in the game last Thursday frustrating, not in the sense that I would lose the games, but that I lacked any tools or skills that were competitive at the level these guys played at. I was the worst player on the court, and I had ball control that was poor.
There are two directions to go from this point. One being to not play at that level again. The other, embark on acquiring skills to move up a level or two.
Obviously the first option is the easiest and more practical. Whatever level you are at, there are probably games you shouldn't play in. Lower level will bore you, and too high a level will scare you.
The second option is to get better. Now, no one is as young as they used to be and athleticism doesn't run real deep in my family's gene pool, so that really is not an option either. And there is a down side to being an extremely good player, with whom do you play? Yah, at every level of ability there a certain window of skill that makes it a good experience.
I decided a year ago or so that my skills were just fine for the people I usually play with. I'm happy to pick up the odd refinement here and there, but drilling for hours and never playing is not interesting to me, nor would it lead to more playing options with my peeps.
I'm happy I played in the two games at Downs with excellent players, but I would have a more enjoyable experience playing at a lower level. You have to learn to say, "No!" on occasion and stick to it.