It's All Fun and Games Until You Get Hit in the Eye

I played pickleball last night against a young guy who was easily 6' 7''  and not a skinny 6' 7'' and at first it was disconcerting; he absolutely crushed the ball, and I learned that essentially, you could not hit the typical "third shot drop" on him because, if it was in reach, he could clobber it with his huge reach and wingspan-- lobbing was also right out, and same with cross-court dinks when he was on the left side, because he could reach out and poach them-- the only thing that worked was violent and ugly, firing the ball right at him so that he couldn't extend his arms, no drop shots, very few dinks, maybe a dipping drive at his feet, but anything that got up in the air came back VERY FAST-- this made the game violent and ugly, but much closer than the first time I played him-- I was trying to convince my buddy Craig to play the same way, but it was essentially smashing chaos ball (and my shoulder hurt afterward) and then in the next game the big dude nailed another player square in the eye (and he wasn't wearing glasses) and the fun sort of fizzled out, as it is wont to do when something like that happens.