Saturday

Today was a long day much of it spent waiting on the sidelines waiting to play in the pickle ball tournament in Lakeland, Florida which was a little over an hour drive from Seminole. My pardner in the men's doubles at 65-69 bracket picked me up at 7AM as we had an 8:30 check in. The area of the tournament was very nice and the tournament director had converted 8 hard surface tennis courts into pickle ball courts with movable temporary nets.I would guess there were close 150 players in attendance as this was billed as the Senior Life Games for Florida. There were teams from through out central and southern Florida. Many had motor homes and campers as well as stayed in motels for the 3 day events. We were unaware we could have checked on line for our purported starting times to play in the event as we were slated for a noon start.

We sat and warmed up several times through out the morning thinking we were going to be called to play. It was finally around 1:30 when we got on the court for our first match in the double elimination play. Let me interject this was an outside tournament using outside pickle balls. The outside game is totally different from the inside play in a gym. The balls are different as well. The inside game that we play 5 days a week is a power game where there are lots of slams, long power rallies and no interference from the elements(sun, wind and debris that blows onto the court). Well did we ever have to change our tactics from a power game to a dink and dunk style play and the first match was a disaster for us 11-4 and 11-1 loss to a team that played second to the national champs in Arizona a couple weeks ago. This team never plays indoors and plays together ALL the time. Needless to say we were not only humiliated but discouraged as we headed to the losers bracket, which meant we had at least one more match too play before we could head home with our tails between our legs.

We luckily had brought a couple power energy bars and there were bananas to eat supplied by the tournament as well as sliced oranges for later in the day. But we never left for any lunch as we were waiting to be called. We saw some very good outside play but I think I will say with the indoor play for now especially for any future tournaments. I remember several of the players who come to our tournament with the Good Life Games and they grumbled about never playing inside, the type of balls and the scoring. The two games are completely different in the style of play. The only similarly is the paddles and the folks must be over 50 to participate. We met some some really interesting and nice people and we were sympathized with when all found out we had never played outside.

The second match we played found us around 4 PM start. We lost the first set at 11-8and won the second 11-4. We were finally starting to refrain from our power game and because of the wind began to dink and dunk. I think we wore our opponents down as we came from behind to win 15-13 in the third set so that meant another match. This time we were to play a 15 point game with the winner moving on to the Bronze medal round(third place). We were ahead 8-2 then fell apart losing 15-9. So we were out of the tournament and just as well as it was really getting late and we had just about had it with having to wait so much in between rounds. It was an experience playing and watching some really good players both men and women. It was after dark when we finally got back to Pinellas County. We were both a little hungry, wind and sun burned and glad we had the chance to play in an outdoor tournament.

Just a note that Nancy's dad is back in the hospital in Michigan, this time its his blood sugar among other maladies so he will need some extra prayers. LATER