tennis, life and a few things in between

A wonderful practice with my teammates. I won both sets played with Bette and Lynn.

I watched a few pickleball serve videos on YouTube. Pickleball evolves quickly. Among many pointers, I see that full swing serve motion is IN or, it has been but I didn’t know.

Depth is more important than power when serving. A short serve, unless it’s a winner, it will bring your opponent in quicker …

• lob deep, bend the knees
• 5 legal serves: under spin 3:13; 13:18;
• bounce
• legal or illegal

I volley serve.

Our 2nd game of the MLP, defeating DD 2-1 Bracket B scores.

I watched a few pickleball videos on Youtube, and learnt that the serving hand should be lower than the paddle when serving: a new concept. So essentially, I served with my paddle vertical for the first time. Luckily, I’ve no double fault.

Round 1 of the A bracket is 2:1 and R2 4:2.

My B bracket is 2:1. I’ve the same teammate, to play mixed doubles and  doubles:

1. w/ Carlos v Ronni & Jerry (sub): 25:20
2. w/ Karlina v Amy & Linie: 14:25

My court’s loss was erased by two other courts’ win.

One of the rules is, at 24, you’ve to serve out to win the 25. We were leading 24 to 15 and lost the last 5 points. Ehrrrr … the player on the right hand side will be serving at 24, which was me – my bad. So think about it before taking sides with your partner.

Two partners have very different outlook for this MLP. The more experienced plays with strategy and shoulder more shots, which I happily to concede.

But the lesser experienced one won’t do. Like the last match, the opponents hit all the ball to my P. I could have returned many of them but the partner won’t let me. Perhaps the player felt slight or what? In a team, there is NO ‘I’. I want to win.

The second game, one of the two girls said to me, “Oh Irene, thank you for applauding my shots.” I was bit startled: gosh, where were they from? This is very common courtesy and I offer it freely to all, especially my opponents. Oh well.

My teammate reminded me that I need to stay out when my partner serves.

It’s the first time I heard/learnt that the paddle should be held vertically, instead horizontal when dinking. I’ve taken Byron F’s private lesson but he didn’t correct me – said nothing. Oh well.

At the last match of pickleball, one of the teammates reminded me about my serve: might not be legal. So here are two recordings, in slow mo and regular motion.

After warming up, we played regular games.