Thurs. Nov. 27, MTA Tantramar Pickleball

THURSDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2025

SUMMARY – YOGI BERRA EDITION

As many of you will remember, Yogi Berra was one of the best baseball players of his era, but he was probably better known for the quirky way he used the English language.  Some of the best known oddities in the language were delivered by Yogi.  But was he really a doofus who couldn’t keep a thought straight, or did he deliver his lines with a wink and a smile and his fingers crossed behind his back?  Lop-sided logic, or words to live by?  Huh.

“You can observe a lot just by watching.”

And this is what I did today as 23 players gathered in the gym, occupying five courts with three players waiting to rotate in.  As always, the games were very good.  You know, I really enjoy watching others play, and as I said to someone a while ago, I think I learn more from watching players who aren’t professionals, learning how to avoid little mis-steps here and there, trying to make a few small improvements by learning from players a bit more adept than I am.

Try as I might, and no matter how much I watch, I’ve been unable to master that little drop volley, used so expertly by Don, Mona, Tim and some others.  This is that soft touch shot executed at the kitchen line, when your opponent attempts to drop their ball into the kitchen, but it’s close enough that you can softly return it on the fly, just over the net.  Your opponents, meanwhile, are stuck at the baseline or in the transition zone, waiting for a heavier shot.

Now, at the professional level, or for players at 5.0+, experts say that this shot should be used only rarely because it gives your opponents a chance to charge forward and reclaim the kitchen line.  Instead, the ball should be pressed back towards their baseline to keep them trapped there.  But at our recreational level, the drop volley works beautifully, especially because most of us can’t recover quickly enough to make it to the kitchen to recover the shot.  This I have learned through watching our group.  Theory = good.  Practice = much more difficult.  It takes velvety soft hands I suppose, and that’s something that requires lots of work.

But you never know.  Maybe next session I’ll give it a try, and thanks in advance to my long-suffering partners as the ball falls into the net time and again.  However…

“It’s tough to make predictions.  Especially about the future.”

You never really know, do you, how your game will go when you step on the court?  Today, I had the pleasure of playing with Brent in a couple of games, and we always have a great time.  In our second game together, we took on Pam V. and Mona.  Now they insisted on playing together, although Brent and I originally suggested that a mixed doubles match might be fun.  But no, they wanted a battle of the sexes.

And what a battle it was.  Brent and I sleepwalked through the first half of the game, and Mona was dropping that soft little volley into the corner of the kitchen time and time again.  Does she ever miss?  And Pam’s hands were as quick as they’ve ever been.  8-1 for the women.

But then I recruited my new BFF (the net tape) and we dribbled a couple across the tape and into the kitchen on the other side.  The comeback was on, the women were rattled, and Brent served it out at 11-8.  No kidding.  It’s tough to make predictions Yogi, you were right, especially about the future of two sleepy men in a battle with two women leaping around the court like the youngsters.

Given the unpredictability of the future, maybe we should just forget it and go out and play.  But, then again…

“If you don’t set goals, you can’t regret not reaching them.”

Do recreational pickleball players set goals?  Hmmm.  “Today, I will work on the soft game.  Every chance I get, it’s a third shot drop or a cross court dink.”  “In every game I play today, I will remember to plant in the transition zone on my way to the kitchen line.  No more getting caught on the run.”  “Just get it over, that’s all I have to do.  I will trust my opponents to make mistakes.” “I will get my serve in.  I will get my serve in.  I will get my serve in.”

How many times have I repeated modest ambitions such as these?  They’re like yoga mantras for me – repeat them again and again to aid in concentration.  But then, on the court I go and all is forgotten.  Bad habits trump goal-setting, almost every time it seems.  Regrets, I’ve had a few…

And so Brent and I had a sideline conversation about the merits of consuming plant protein, as opposed to succumbing to our nature as carnivores.  “I will eat more lentils.  I will eat more lentils.  I will eat more lentils.”  While I regret not reaching my pickleball improvement goals, I can safely theorize about vegetarianism while the steaks are thawing in the kitchen.  No regrets there, not yet at least.

“Make a game plan and stick to it.  Unless it’s not working.”

Goals are one thing.  Game plans are something else again. We don’t make game plans in recreational pickleball, as far as I know at least.  The only thing that maybe comes close is the stacking strategy when playing with Richard.  Richard occupies the even court, I take the odd court, we have two forehands in the middle, and that’s that.  Now it does get a bit confusing, remembering where to stand when receiving the serve, when to take the other court when serving, you know the drill.  But for me, I enjoy it very much, and it gives Richard the opportunity to show off his incredible skills to the best advantage.

Today, Richard and I took on Sherman and Don in the first game of the morning.  Let’s just say that it took a few rallies to get the kinks out.  They had us on the run, literally, until Richard decided to assert himself when serving at 6-8.  He ultimately brought it home at 12-10, something such as that, small proof at least that a game plan in jeopardy is still a game plan after all.

“It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.”

Humility is the order of the day for most of us recreational pickleball players, most of the time.  Just when you think you’re getting pretty good, along comes that troublesome match when you’re staring down your opponent as they serve at 10-1-1.  Every smash I hit goes into the net.  A try for the sideline is out, over and again, and not just by a few inches if you know what I mean.  Dink after dink is popped up and immediately slammed back down the middle.  And the baseline seems to move in every time I hit one deep.

Goal-setting?  What goal-setting?  A game plan?  You’re kidding right?  I’m just trying to survive out there with my dignity more or less intact.  Try to get it back to 10-6.  “Now it’s respectable,” says Pam V.  Did you get it back to 10-10?  “New game!” says Pam.  And at that point, we can turn up the heat.

“Keep trying.  Stay humble.  Trust your instincts.  Most importantly, when you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

I guess the urge to keep trying is what brings us back to the gym time and time again.  We watch each other play, learning from each other’s mistakes, trying to improve a little bit at a time.  Our play is perfectly unpredictable, but maybe that’s what makes it so…habit-forming.  Goals are fine in theory, but so easy to abandon as to render them meaningless most of the time.  Game plans are for the pros, most of us being happy just to make contact with the ball on our paddle.  And through it all, perhaps the biggest test is to remain humble when a miracle happens and we walk off the court having landed a few winners down the sideline.

There will be a fork in the road on Friday afternoon.  Take the one that leads to the Mt. A. gym at 1:00, and then the next one that stops at Salem School on Monday evening at 8:00.

New players especially, don’t forget to pass along your name, email address and phone number to Logan Atkinson.  He is helping the Steering Committee by building a database of players in our group.  Send your info to tantramarpickleball@gmail.com and it will be forwarded on to Logan.

Update on parking, starting in January:   See the post for the Wednesday night Salem School session on 26 November. And watch the web site for further updates as we get closer to January.