I am whipped.  I may have hit the wall this week for pickleball playing.  Double sessions on Thursday and Friday reminded me that although the new knee is ready to rock 'n roll, the rest of me still likes some recovery time.  With a Super Bowl game and Valentine's Day to prepare for as appropriate, let's head off to the Pickleverse.

• The Centre:  SEVEN COURTS!  On Thursday 3 new courts came online over in the larger gym.  Which worked well because 22 players attended the drop-in.  We had games going on 5 courts and 2 players waiting to rotate in.  Since 5 courts were playing simultaneously we set games at 11 points and win by 2.  The turnover was pretty fast.  The players waiting to rotate in never had to wait too long.  By the end of the 2 hours, people were getting a bit gassed I believe.  It was a workout.  Early in the coming week, I will update everyone as to some other enhancements that are made possible by the new courts which will include evening play during the week.  Stay tuned and start lining up those friends who still have J-O-B-S for their indoctrination into this crazy game.

• The Centre:  The one hiccup with the 3 new courts is keeping the balls from rolling way off into the distance on the far end of the court.  Bleachers, benches, and 2x4s are workable but a hassle for the evening attendant to set up (or us if they weren't set up the night before) so I am calling on the engineers, the outside-the-box thinkers, and master DIY'ers to submit suggestions for a ball stop devise or system.  It must meet three criteria.  The first is to be reasonably priced.  The second criterion is that it has to be something easily set up by one person.  Lastly, since courts 5 - 7 will be transient based on other programs, it has to be easy to store.

• The Centre:  It seems I missed a bit of a kerfuffle one of the days I was on post-surgery restriction.  It seems some 11:00 AM players were jumping the gun and dropping paddles into the rotation board.  Management is aware of what happened and is working at training their desk attendants to screen folks coming in way early before the next session to determine if they want to play in both sessions or just the one that is coming up.  So they will work at the end.  From our end here is a review of what your fee gets you.  When you show up for drop-in you pay $8 for 2 hours of play.  If you get there a few minutes early they have been gracious in letting players warm up and play.  Please try to time your arrival for 8:45 or later.  At the other end of the session, once again The Centre has been gracious with letting players finish in-progress games.  A couple of guidelines and suggestions.  If you see several next session players arriving and you want to try to get one more in, set the winning score to 7, and win by 1.  If no one is waiting to rate onto the courts you might be able to have some more flexibility.  The last thing that should happen is that it is 10:59 and you start a first to 11 win by 2 game.  Finally, IF YOU PLAY TWO SESSIONS, PAY FOR TWO SESSIONS.  Everyone's cooperation in the matter would be greatly appreciated by the management and by me.  If you encounter an issue please contact the desk for clarification.

• Training Tip #1:  I recently came across this video and the part I want to share with you can be found at the 56:32 minute mark.  I won't say more about the clip now but watch it and then feel free to share your thoughts with me at the courts about what the one gentleman suggests.  Here is the link:  https://youtu.be/PPFXFlaFIZ0?si=Mzwzlsb4sMijXhN_

• Training Tip #2:  YOU HAVE TO GET WORSE BEFORE YOU CAN GET BETTER.  This came to me this week as I have been working on developing my soft game with more 3rd shot drops, more meaningful dinks, and the occasional speed-up.  Based on my results this past week I had several stretches of stinky play.  Frustrating as all get out but every once in a while, I dropped a sweet 3rd shot drop and it encouraged me to keep pushing on working on these skills.  In the end, I hope to be a more complete player.

• In one video in a newsletter I previewed today, I just about had a conniption.  The pro-level player was giving a tip about how to hit an overhead and in it, his advice was to shuffle backward to set up for the smash.  In other videos I have seen by pro-level players at times give advice that runs counter to common training mantras.  At times I don't think they appreciate the special talents and abilities that they possess and we Joes and Janes can only wish for.

Man, glad I started with happy news for the first point.  The rest of the Pickle Jar is like I'm the old man yelling "Get off my lawn".  Have a great week.  If your team (or money) is in the Super Bowl, good luck.  I don't have a dog in this fight and my wife is a Chiefs fan and my daughter is a Niners fan.  My job is to be Switzerland.  See you on the courts soon I hope.

The Centre:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-47897544-nvsc

C3 Sports:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-47897782-c3pickleball

Randy Hoffman

Holbrook PIckleball Ambassador

https://holbrookpickleball.com/

Discount Code = RANDY20