I love playing mellow-ish games with other retired advance beginner ladies. Still it would be nice to improve and be able to hold my own with more experienced and/or younger players. It’s a bit like how I enjoy skiing on groomed blue cruiser runs, but I want to be able to survive when stuck at harder terrain.
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That was a great one! 
Played over 2 hours of PB outside today. It was about 34 when we started.
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I have been playing once or twice a week, mostly indoors. We did play outdoors last Sunday afternoon, and wow it’s easier to get a court when it’s windy! But it was about 50 degrees and sunny, so we made it work. The erratic wind was same disadvantage for us all.
I am still not a great player. But I often tell friends I like PB because at my age it is nice to have something where I am improving overtime. Serving continues to be the most consistent aspect of my game. (Sometimes I even get compliments, and there is occasional unintentional ace.) I credit that to the 2 one hour sessions out on the court by myself in the first few month where all I did was practice serving. It seemed prudent to do so before joining the local beginner game nights.
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I’m playing 2-3 times a week with my women’s group at Lifetime (indoor.) I am also currently doing a 4-week progressive clinic. Today I signed up to play in an 8-week instructional beginners league (DUPR 2.0-3.0.) The league games will be used for our DUPR score, so more focus on competition than my regular group play. Currently I don’t have a DUPR score so I’m am curious to see where I land after the league. My play has been improving and I think I should do pretty well with the league competition.
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I continue to play 3 times a week, and yesterday we got to play outside for the first time in a long time. Normally even in winter we play outside, if it’s in the 30s, but we can’t when it’s slick or too windy (10 MPH or more). I was complaining recently that I purchased long sleeved shirts to play PB this winter, but they were wasted bc we mostly played indoors.
I have signed up for a 90 minute 4 week session for intermediate players. I’m also going to take a private lesson or two sometime soon.
I just started working on improving my serve. After playing for many months I transitioned from what some people call the “granny serve” (where you drop it and hit it before the ball touches the ground) to the “drop serve” (where it bounces and then you hit it). I do fine with getting it in, but I still kind of pop it up and it is usually easy to return. I want to be able to consistently serve it low/close to the net, and a little faster.
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Do you add spin with your drop serve? When playing in large, varied groups the better players have some wicked spin on balls (although some of them nicely dial back when playing with less experienced players).
Around here I have noticed a lot of the better players do the drop serve. In my advanced beginner PB pals (a few overlapping groups plus bigger group from the local club), most of them do the granny serve… me included. There does seem to be a slight disadvantage to granny serve when dealing with a variety of balls and bounce heights, but that is true during play also.
That’s interesting. Where I play most of the intermediate and advanced players serve without letting the ball bounce on the ground first.
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I’m going to have to pay attention to how various people serve. I was taught the granny serve, and then a guy who did some skills and drills sessions said I should really transition to the drop serve. BUT, I can picture people doing something that is not what I would call a granny serve but more hitting the ball from the side, that more advanced people may do. I am no PB expert, but I picture the granny serve as kind of slow and you hit the ball from underneath. What I can remember hearing is it’s best to have multiple serves you can do.
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I do not add any spin to my serves, or other shots really. That’s something I’d like to learn.
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Yea, someday I’d like to learn a bit about adding spin.
I got complimented on the other day with my serving skills (methinks only deemed good in comparison to the rest of my game) because it is usually a pretty deep serve. It’s not something I really think about, as I mostly try to just be somewhere past the kitchen. But I do recall that one of the early drill coaches encouraged that, so it may be habit now.
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Got it. Now I can picture what you mean by a granny serve. The good news is that a high deep serve is a great one to have in your arsenal, especially if you can get it into the opponent’s backhand corner 
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I have to get a new PB paddle because after over a year of 3-4x a week playing, a chunk came off the outer edge of my paddle. I requested a warranty fix, but they said “no” (I wasn’t surprised). They did offer me 50% off a new paddle, which I thought was very fair. Shout out for Engage paddles. If you happen to be a government employee or some other categories, they offer 30% off on their website. Used to be 45%, but no longer the case.
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Just for fun I started trying to do the from the side without ball bouncing serve last week (only several times - just in practice, not in real games). I found I could do it OK, but now that my normal paddle is broken I’m being less aggressive all around. When I get used to my new paddle I will try again.
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After time away for vacation, I’m back on the PB courts…. indoors and outside. The 70 degree sunny weather was lovely today! Yea, it was kindof breezy, but I suppose that made it easy to get a court.
Wed night I’ll go to a PB seminar - “Hip, Knee and Ankle workshop” for discussion on PB injuries, prevention. I’ve actually had minor pains in all areas, though interestingly worse when I am NOT moving/exercising. Hopefully they’ll talk about PB shoes and pre/post stretches.
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Let us know what you learn.
I have probably said this before, but if you play PB, PLEASE PROTECT YOUR EYES!
One of my players was hit right between her eyes today, really hard. Fortunately she had her goggles on, or who knows what would have happened. They can be purchased for as little as about $10 bucks.
If you have regular glasses or sunglasses, that’s fine. But I tell anyone I play with that they really need something. Seeing my friend get hit today convinced a couple of people.
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Sadly I came down with a cold (probably same one husband is recovering from, but not covid - Yay). I cancelled the hip/knee/ankle clinic morning to prevent germ spread inside and enable any waitlist people to attend this evening. I did feel well enough to play outdoors this afternoon - 77 degrees!
Will get details from those ladies who will attend.
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Joined a nice group of ladies today. Battled too much wind, but we laughed a lot. I though of it as “wind drills”
We had 7 players. So we rotated around the courts with a regular game and a 3-player variation. It was kindof fun, though lots of walking in our case to switch places because wind often caught the ball and pushed it wide of the half-court for the single side.
Trying to deal with 7 players is the hardest in my opinion.
We will only play outside if it’s 10 MPH or less.
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