FINALLY, A DAY WITHOUT RAIN! BACK ON THE COURTS!!

The last time that our picklers could get out and play was Monday May 10th; that was 15 days ago. For the past two weeks, if you opened your front door, this is what you saw. The roads and sidewalks covered with rain................

But on Monday May 25th, the rain stopped early in the day, and the sun came out. The sun was hot, and the air was heavy, but we packed our pickleball bags and went back to the courts.

Pat and Suzi are leaving for Washington in another week and wanted Rich to do a training clinic before they left. Last summer they introduced the game to a lot of new players in Washington, and this year they want to do a clinic for them and maybe a fun tournament.

Pat, Suzi, Don, Chris, Steve, Renee, and Jeanne came for the clinic at 5:00 before open play started at 6:30. Normally rich does his clinics in one hour sessions over several weeks. Tonight he would do a condensed version for the group. He talked about the importance of serving deep and returning deep. He talked about optimum positioning on the court when serving and returning the serve. He talked about the importance of controlling your shots, concentrating on placement and not so much on power. The group practiced punching shots back from the non, volley line, and lined up for practicing dink shots. Rich covered a little on both the offensive and defensive lobs, and reinforced the need to not just come to the courts and play games. Practice and doing drills before or after playing every week will help improve our game. Time was limited, but he covered a lot of good information.
Here's Don and Rich playing Steve and Chris, practicing a little of what they learned tonight.


And tonight, Pat and Suzi came bearing gifts. For Steve, just returning from knee surgery, they presented him with a skeleton KNEE (key) chain. Perfect!! And Rich and I, the Happy Campers.................. thank you both for the Happy Camper wine. Absolutely Perfect!!!

It's now Tuesday, 7:30 in the evening, and guess what? Yes. It's been raining for a couple of hours. Keep your fingers crossed for tomorrow.........The photographer from the St.Pete Times is supposed to be there!!!!