Windy Days at McCallum

Sets 32-34 (of 365):

Stuart vs. C. at McCallum High. Winner: Stuart 6-3, 6-1, 6-2

My Mojo: Below-Average to Average

Well, I took a week off to go on an adventure that I haven't yet decided whether or not I will post details here about, mainly because it had nothing to do with tennis. Actually, I've already written journal entries about it, I just don't know if I'll put them up here. The short skinny on it is, I decided on the spur of the moment to take off in my car to wherever the hell. I saw snow paralyzing some places on the TV news, and decided, "Hey, I should go there." So I ventured off to the frozen north with my inadequate Texas clothing and my tiny car. Before I knew it, I was in Ohio after having driven mostly straight through, with a couple stops for some kinda-sleep at a few rest stops. I ended up taking some detours and visiting the town where I was born, seeing family that I hadn't seen in some time and had no expectation of seeing, visiting a foreign country (this time I brought shoes--one time before that I spent time in a foreign country I went with no shoes), freaking Homeland Security out by showing them a piece of paper written mostly in Arabic on the way back over into the U.S. (the takeout menu of a restaurant where I ate--what can I say, I like falafel), and coming back to my cozy little domicile (mostly) intact and ready to play more tennis. Driving, driving, driving. Very little sleep while traveling. I made it from Michigan to Texas in, basically, one day. I bet I could have made it to Colorado in a day and a half, even through the damn blizzard.

But I digress. C. and I played together at McCallum High. He was the last person I played before I left on my adventure and the first I played upon my return. It was way major windy again. This time I could not seem to get a handle on the wind. The wind was chewing up all my shots and spitting them at my feet, laughing at me with contempt. Or maybe that was just a hallucination from all the lack of sleep last week. Though I got enough decent shots in to win, nothing special was happening. My serves didn't fall where I wanted them to, so I started wimping. I did try some really hard flat serves for a while that just didn't work. I know, I'm supposed to serve high and with spin in the wind. What the hell, though. You only live once, eat dessert first, and all that. When it, predictably, didn't work, I went back to milquetoast shots. I hit lots of high shots that fell mid-court. I was just trying to get the ball in, since my shots that I intended to go close to the lines were going God knows where. I mostly did get the ball in, but it was really difficult to get any kind of strategic plan going.

I did manage to talk him into playing a third set. After that, we hit some more balls for a while. I would have played several more sets, as usual. I almost always ask my opponents if they want to play more. Even if they are whuppin' me so bad that I can't get any points. Even if they are running me all over the court. Even if I am half-dead and crippled. I'll keep taking abuse as long as it keeps a-comin', unless I'm just too sick to stand.

This Is NOT About Tennis (Hardly At All), Part 1

I was sitting at home watching TV and saw turmoil up north with snow paralyzing Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and areas nearby. We never get any snow here is Texas. I immediately thought to myself, "I should go there." The kids are gone, and I have no responsibility for the next week. i was going to stay home and slack off, maybe catching up on some chores. When the kids took off, they left the house a total mess. What I would be looking forward to would probably be cleaning up that mess, and catching up on some other stuff I kinda need to do. It is pounding rain outside, so there is no possibility of playing tennis for the next few days.

Why not just split? I should just take off in my little car, with my inadequate Texas clothing, and just head north for parts unknown with no destination in mind. I should just work out my destination along the way as I go. It could be sort of a homeopathic remedy for me, one that treats the symptoms by creating similar symptoms. I'm feeling vaguely unsettled, so I should do something that unsettles me. I'm feeling tight on money, so I should get out some money and spend it on my trip.

I call my kids to see how they are doing, and tell them that I am going on a trip. They ask me where I am going, and I tell them I don't know. I say maybe I'll got to Kentucky or Canada or something.

So I toss a few things into the back of my little car and roar off around noon on Christmas Eve into the great unknown. I drive, and drive, and drive. I head roughly northeast, heading toward the northeastern quadrant of Texas. Once I get close to Texarkana, I figure my goal for the night should be to get through Arkansas. The rain is accompanying me on my trip the whole way

Once I get through Arkansas, I am arriving toward Memphis, Tennessee. I had planned at first to only go this far, but I'm feeling pretty good, so I decide to keep going. It is around midnight now and I've been driving with very few stops for around twelve hours. The rain is picking up, too, and it is now coming down in torrents.

I thought I was going to die in Memphis. Once I got there, it was raining so hard, and the streetlights were creating so much glare on the rainy roads, that I could hardly see the lines on the road, or the boundaries of the road. I am darting in and out of unfamiliar construction on the road that is making me detour to places I can't see upfront. I slow down a lot, but still am having trouble figuring out what to do and where to go. I've never been to Memphis before; the freeways keep merging in and out of other freeways in even more unfamiliar ways, and just trying to drive and stay on the road is keeping me on the edge of my seat.

Miraculously, I survive Memphis. Once I get out of the city, the rain slows down, and there are less streetlights that cause so much glare so I can see the road better. I'm still feeling pretty good, so I decide to keep going. I figure I can stop at rest stops every once in a while and get some kinda-sleep in lieu of getting a hotel room. Amazingly, this works. Almost every time I see a rest stop after Memphis, I stop for an hour or two of dozing; I just put my driver's seat back and sleep until I wake up either too uncomfortable or too cold, and then get back on the road for a while.

I drive into and through Kentucky. Around this time, I start thinking to myself that maybe I should visit Athens, Ohio. I was born there, but only lived there until I was six months old. So I know nothing about the place. I decide to make that the first destination. Plus, if I'm actually going to go to Canada, I need a birth certificate, since I don't have a passport (I looked this up on the Web when I was thinking about maybe going to Canada).

For this whole trip, I've been using my cruise control. I don't want to get a ticket on this long trip, so I've been very careful to stay mostly within the speed limit, or at least within the same speed as the rest of the traffic flow. But in Northern Kentucky, I stop at a gas station, and forget to turn my cruise control when I leave. I am distracted, and for about five miles, I am driving a little fast. As I pull around a car, I immediately realize that I'm going too fast, and slow down. But wait, there's a car tailing me. Oh crap, I bet it's a cop. Yup, he turns his lights on and pulls me over. Damn it. I've been trying this whole trip to tow the line, and here I am driving a little over for about five miles, and I get nailed. Maybe he'll only give me a warning. Nope, of course not. A ticket. On Christmas. Merry Christmas. Grrr. Oh well, every once in a while you have to pay stupidity tax. You know, when you get some unforeseen expense that is due to your own lack of foresight or retarded blunders.

See if I get cought without cruise control for the rest of this trip. I'm going the speed limit, and turning on the cruise control even if the speed limit is 25, even if it pisses everybody off around me. It's better than getting another ticket.

I pull into Cincinnati, Ohio, and look at the map. Athens is all the way on the other side of the state, and it looks like there are no major highways that get there. I take this tiny, winding road that passes through all kinds of little townships across the state. In retrospect, I could have taken another road that would have been a little faster, but hindsight is 20/20. And besides, i got to capture a little more of the character of southern Ohio on this road. Which is desolate and economically depressed. But it has a certain hometowny charm. There are hardly any businesses the whole way, and those that are there are in houses. Not like strip-mall-obsessed Texas. I see a convenience store in a little house that also sells guns. Okay, that's a different combination.

I somehow get lost and off the little windy road I am on onto another little windy road. I look at the map and figure out a way to still get to where I am going. I have to pay close attention, because these little curvy roads all seem to interbreed, snaking in and out of each other, merging, and then separating, with signs that are sometimes hard to see. Plus, the rain has just not let up at all since I left Austin, except for brief periods. I finally pull into Athens, Ohio and get a room at the first cheap hotel I see.

Keep On Chuggin' 'Till the Rain Comes

Sets 30-31 (of 365):

C. vs. Stuart at McCallum High. Winner: Stuart 6-0, 6-2, 1-1

My Mojo: Above-Average

I won the bet I made with myself. The guy did show up. Now I owe myself money.

The weather had definitely changed from this morning. This morning it was clear and cold. It got a little warmer (not much, but a little) and wind and clouds were rapidly moving in. For some reason, the wind didn't seem to affect my shots much, and I was able to adjust to it well. I started visualizing vectors. When the wind vector was really long, I just tried to adjust my shot vector by the correcsponding amount, trying to think about the angles and so on. Of course, I wasn't doing calculus in my head or anything, just creating a visualization. But it seemed to work.

The last time I played at McCallum High, it was very windy also, and I couldn't really use the wind to my advantage at all. But today, it was all working well: lobs, ground strokes, volleys and serves were (for the most part) falling right where I wanted them to. There's always a little bit of uncertainty with the wind, and that was factored in.

My opponent was a lefty, a fact that I didn't notice until the middle of the second set (I need to be faster on picking up on that). No wonder his backhand was so strong--it was his forehand. Still, I maintained the upper hand most of the time throughout the set.

There was a moment in the second set when my opponent hit a shot that I thought I would never get to, and I called out, "Good shot" as I was running toward it, and then, to my surprise, it hit my racket and went over. I made kind of a gutteral sound of surprise, and he didn't hit it. He asked me if that was a double bounce, and I told him, no, I actually got to it, and it surprised me too. I didn't know how to handle that, if I should take the point or not. As I thought it through (spending probably way more time on it that necessary), one side of the argument was that I had never conceded the point, merely saying, "Good shot" to point out to my opponent that he had made a good shot, but then again, that statement could be seen as conceding the point, and when I said it, I didn't think I would get to it. Anyway, I thought the first argument was a little better. I decided to see how it played out. The game keeps going while I play through my head what I should have done, or should do. If I won by a decisive margin, it wouldn't matter to me, but if the set was close, I would feel guilty.

So he wins the next two points. If he had won that point, it would have meant that he wins the game, whereas now it was deuce. A little guilt.

I finally win the game, making the score 3-2. It would have been 3-2 in his favor if he had won that point, because he would have won the game earlier. A little more guilt.

I win the next game, leading decisively with 4-2. However, if he had won the game, it would be 3-3, and I wouldn't have a psychological advantage now. A little more guilt, and overthinking this whole scenario way too much.

I win the next two games and win the match 6-2. Fairly decisive result, so a little less guilt. And most of my guilt had been based on him winning the point, when if anything, at most it would have been played over if he called me on, what, my "verbal interference?" Guilt almost disappears.

I ask him if he wants to play a third set and he agrees. However, it is starting to sprinkle. He wins the first game, I win the second (an exceptionally long game with a couple of really good rallies), and by then it is raining too hard to continue. I offer to play again at some point, either picking up this third set or starting anew, and he says he'll probably take me up on it.

I figure my mojo was above-avarage because I dealt with the wind so well, because I played decently and won, and because I was pretty consistent throughout the match.

I've pretty much decided to take a week off from all responsibility, including the heavy weight of responsibility to play tennis. I realized around the middle of the week that the kids are gone with their mom and her family and I have a week off from work, and I'll be a slave to tennis for quite some time anyway, so I might as well. Didn't get to my 40-game goal by the end of December, but 30 so far is a decent outcome. Plenty of time to pick up the slack, and about 1/12 of the way toward my total goal is not bad. I only had one match set for next Wednesday, and I went ahead and cancelled it. I have no family responsibility Christmas thing happening, woo-hoo! Now I can do whatever I want for the next week.

I could dance around in my underwear while playing air guitar like Tom Cruise in "Risky Business" if I wanna. Or even dance around nekkid. Or I could sleep twenty hours a day and eat all of the ice cream (Rice Dream?) I want. I could wet my pants repeatedly on purpose. I could smuggle rocket launchers to Iraq. OK, that last option is highly doubtful. Note to the FBI: I was ONLY KIDDING. I'm not going to break the laws of about 10 different countries and the United Nations. Plus, I have no friggin' idea where to score rocket launchers. Even though it might be cool to have one. I can just imagine one of my girls taking it to school for a demonstration--"See, you just pop this cartridge in, steel yourself against the backlash (I bet they have one hell of a kick?!), squeeze this trigger, and WHOOOOSH!!!!" It would be the talk of the junior high, for sure, but would be likely to lead to some Federal prison thing. No, thanks, I think I'll seek out adventures that are legal, for the most part.

Dealing with Überjerks and Some Games with a Nice Guy

I have always wondered what the best strategy is for dealing with an überjerk (that's uberjerk with an umlaut over the u, I have noticed that on Macs it comes out as something weird). You know,the kind of person that goes beyond just being a jerk to trying to mess with you with almost every little micro-interaction they have with you. You see them a lot in chat rooms. There they are probably just trying to get attention, using the old adage that "any publicity is good publicity." In a chat room, it's easy. You just put them on iggy. I see people all the time engaging with these people, getting madder and madder, either not realizing that they are falling into the precise trap that is being set for them, or realizing it full well but not backing down on "principle." I love principles. The cool thing about them is, they can be anything you want them to be (pretty much by definition).

Most people who play tennis are fairly courteous and not trying at all to mess with you. Sometimes you play someone who is a little passive-aggressive. That's not too bad, you just move on. Every once in a while, you meet someone who uses an antisocial personality as a tennis strategy. Maybe it's a justifiable strategy; it is definitely possible to piss somebody off so bad that you win the match if your opponent lets it get under his skin. But then nobody wants to play you. Sometimes they have to. So if you have this as your style, maybe you just enter tournaments and laugh at all the weak-minded jackasses who seethe at having to be paired with you.

Maybe the überjerks can even be divided into two categories (probably more than two, but let's oversimplify for now, since I'm not writing a master's thesis). The cheating überjerks, and the non-cheating überjerks. The cheaters don't care about anything. They will do anything to win. They will make bad line calls, fudge the score as often as possible (of course, always "accidentally" in their favor, never making mistakes in your favor), and slip in whatever they can to mess with the rules of tennis. The non-cheating überjerks simply want to mess with you, not with the rules of tennis. They want to get in your head and make you so furious that you mess up stuff that you usually nail.

So how do I usually deal with people that rub me the wrong way? Usually, I try to bend over backwards to be super-nice to them. I'll deflect all the crap and just return saccharine. Every once in a while, it does get to me, and I respond somewhat in kind, but like I said, this seems to play right into their endgame. This is the game they are trying to play. One of the best things you can do in tennis, and in life, I believe, is to mix it up.

I only bring this up because a guy I set up a match with didn't show up. Not really jerky, necessarily, but it just got me thinking about dealing with jerks, and I had wanted to put up a post about it for a while. So there you have it.

Planned match against Stuart and C. at Westlake High. Winner: Stuart (by default).

Now something really weird happened. Another guy with the same name as the guy I was supposed to play shows up at the same spot at the same time. I saw him come up and asked him if he was [first name, last name], and he says yes, but he is there to play with these three other guys who were starting to warm up for doubles on the next court over. I told him that I thought we had confirmed something by email. He says "You must be mistaken, it's a very common name." Now at first, I thought that he was just not telling the truth. But then later, I met the other guy with the same name. Bizarre.

Anyway, a nice guy shows up, asks if I want to hit some, and we commence hitting. We got some great practice in, and I asked him if he wants to play some games. We don't play a full set (so I can't count it toward my goal), but:

Stuart vs. M. at Westlake High. Winner: M 3-2

My Mojo: Average to Above-Average

M. was a good player, and probably better than me with his shots, though I had better court coverage, I think. We hit for a while and then played five games. He wins the first two handily, I come back to win the next two, and he wins the last one. In the first and last game, I didn't get any points. I tell him about how I'm trying to play 365 sets, we exchange cards, and maybe I'll play him again.

Well, got to run for my next match. I bet the guy will show up.

Not Tonight, I Have a Headache

Had a cancellation for tonight. My opponent called and said he was feeling lousy. So no tennis tonight.

I have two matches scheduled for tomorrow. Don't know if they'll take place because of possible rain. We'll see.

Damn, I was hoping I could think of more to say about last night's match. I sat blankly in front of the monitor for several minutes, but nothing. I guess sometimes your brain just hiccups, and you can't do anything about it. We carbon-based organisms are a curious sort.

The Fog Takes Over--Bleah...

Sets 28-29 (of 365)

Stuart vs. S. at Pharr Winner: Stuart 6-3, 6-1

My Mojo: Amnesia

Jeez, it's only been a few hours since we played this match, but I can't think of many distiguishing characteristics about it. Is it all starting to run together? Did I even get the score right? Did somebody slip something into my water?

Actually, I do remember the match. I just can't think of much to say about it that stands out in my mind. I have an excuse, though. I was distracted and shaken, because right before playing, some parent I had never met called me and made some shrill accusations over the phone about something my daughter allegedly did to her daughter. I tried to get a calm, factual discussion going, and tried to indicate that I considered my daughter innocent until proven guilty, but I couldn't get anywhere with that, and I ended up hanging up on her after warning her that I was going to hang up if she could not suspend her accusatory tone. Then I called my daughter, and wanted to know her side of the story, and she hung up on me, as I was probably being kind of pushy about wanting to know what happened. I only had a few minutes to decompress in between getting off work and starting the match, and that is how I spent that time.

So I was kind of preoccupied for most of the match. But through the haze of all this, I ended up winning. And I do know that I would have played more, if he had wanted to; either just hit tennis balls or played another set or two before my group lesson. He seemed kind of upset with his performance, though I thought he got some good stuff happening at times.

It's sort of coming back to me now...OK, I hit the ball a bunch of times, and he hit it back. But what did he do wrong, or what did I do right, that made me win? I swear, I am drawing a blank. Must be early Alzheimer's or mad cow or something like that. I hate to have played a match that I don't have something clear to have taken out of it, but there it is. I guess when I'm going to play a bunch of matches, I better type something right afterward, or I risk losing the magic. That can't be the whole story, because I know I've typed some entries a day or two afterwards. Maybe I actually need some distance sometimes.

The group lesson afterward with R. (7 of 10) is almost equally nondescript in my mind. I would have played more after that, too, but nobody wanted to stay and hit. Maybe it's a good thing that my muscle memory could improve even though my actual memory isn't registering.

Maybe tomorrow I'll remember some stuff, and I'll come back and rewrite this entry. There has to be something to say. But I'm tired now. Gonna go to sleep. Bleah.

In a Prison of My Own Errors

Sets 26-27 (of 365)

Stuart vs. K. at Northwest Park. Winner: K. 6-2, 6-3

My Mojo: Average, Improving Slightly Toward the End.

After a day of rest where I stayed home from work because I felt so crappy, I woke up this morning feeling decidedly better, and made it into work. It rained most of the day so I was afraid I was not going to be able to play. Then I saw an email from C., who I had originally been scheduled to play with, saying he had to cancel because he had to attend another function. I figured I would see if I could find another opponent to play tonight.

The first person I emailed was K., who readily accepted, but was wary because of the weather. I checked online and it looked like the rain would clear up by mid-afternoon. So I told K. that we could probably play, but if it still looked like rain, I would give him a call and we'd decide fom there. Fair enough.

It did clear up pretty nicely and it was just about perfect tennis weather by the evening when we were due to play. Two of the courts were just about completely dry, but they were taken. We settled for a court that only had one puddle right behind the baseline on deuce court. We played a couple of games, and then switched to a dry court when the people who were playing on it left.

K. was not a really hard hitter most of the time, but he was devastatingly consistent. Also, when he came to net, he placed his shots very well. Throughout the match, most of my money shots were not coming in for me. My lobs were falling just a little long. The winners that usually whizzed over the net hit the ribbon. My long shots fell just a tiny bit long or wide. It was really frustrating me. Even though I tried mixing it up a lot, I couldn't find a formula. And when I tried to run to a lot of his wide shots, I came just short and either flubbed them or hit weak returns that he was able to capitalize on.

Every once in a while, I was able to pull him wide and then hit zingers to the other side of the court. But I didn't do this enough to get any kind of advantage. I did have two things going for me, though. First, I had really good stamina. I was holding up well to the running on the court; I could have immediately played another match. Second,I was running him around the court a lot. But he was really getting to most of the shots, and returning them amazingly. Where my shots hit just outside, his hit just inside. Where my shots slammed into the top of the net, his glided just over.

So my shot mojo was below-average, but my stamina mojo was above-average, so I'd say it congealed together to make an average mojo. I think toward the end of the second set, I started getting just a little bit better shot mojo. I brought it up from 5-1 to 5-3. 5-4, I think, would have given me a psychological advantage that could have possibly taken me to an attitude that could win the set. And I was definitely ready to play a third if necessary. But I just couldn't get there. My very last shot was an attempt at a lob that fell so pathethically short that I just laughed and said, "Oh, shit!" while it was still way up in the air. He came up to the net, set himself up perfectly, and slammed the ball with a perfect overhead after it bounced just on the other side of the net. The placement was great, and there was no way I could get to it, I just helplessly watched it whizz by. It was a fitting way to end this match in which I was imprisoned by my own errors.

I'd like to try to get to around a total of 40 sets by the end of the year, if possible. That means about seven more matches (about 14 more sets, so maybe less matches if they go three sets or I can get some of my opponents to play longer), but there may be some rain coming up that could interfere with those plans. Plus, everybody is going to be busy with the holidays, so I may have trouble finding opponents. I just hope I can keep free of injuries also. I don't think the full insanity of trying to play this many matches has quite hit me yet. As my opponent said tonight, maybe around next June I'll start having second thoughts...

Ughhhh, I Can Barely Stand...

Sets 24-25 (of 365)

Stuart vs. D. at Pharr. Winner: Stuart 6-2, 6-3

My Mojo: Bad Freaky Ugly

I have been feeling vaguely irritable and run down most of the day, but still felt like I would have no problem playing my match. However, when I got into about the third game of the first set, I started getting really bad nausea. It got worse and worse and I was eventually hyperventilating just to avoid puking on the court. I didn't know if I was going to have to forfeit or if I'd make it all the way through the match. One thing was for sure--if I ended up splitting sets, I was definitely not going to play the third set.

I was playing one point at a time. I was just trying to get through the next point and then make decisions as to whether I could keep going after every point was concluded. The last game was absolute hell. It went back and forth from deuce to advantage over and over again. I didn't think I was going to be able to make it.

It's hard for me to say how I played, or how he played, mainly because I was just trying to stay vertical and retain the contents of my stomach, and also because I need to go lie down now. No way I stayed for a group lesson with R. tonight, even though I thought I would go there tonight.

The Triumphant Return of Captain Fall-Apart

Sets 22-23 (of 365)

S. Vs. Stuart at Connally High. Winner: S. 6-4, 6-0

My Mojo: Started Out Above-Average, Then Crashed and Burned, Depleted.

It was still windy, but it had died down some from this this morning. The wind didn't seem to affect the shots too much. I started out playing very well. I was anticipating terrifically, hitting good shots, getting serves that were not too shabby in with a lot of variation on spin and placement, and quickly ran the score up to where I was up 4-1. Still, there was a chunk taken out of my mojo even though it was above-average at first. I played a really tough round this morning and don't think I quite recovered from it. Plus, I didn't eat anything in between this morning's match and the afternoon match, which I think contributed to the triumphant appearance of:

CAPTAIN FALL-APART!

Yes, after the fifth game of the first set, I stepped into a phone booth (as if those even exist any more), stripped away my mild-mannered secret identity, and put on the costume of Captain Fall-Apart, hero to opponents far and wide. Ta-da!

Able to make me smash face-first into tall buildings with a single shove. More powerful pain than getting shoved in front of a locomotive. Look, down on the ground! It's my mojo...collapsing faster than if hit by a speeding bullet.

I didn't win a single game after being up 4-1. I just suddenly could not get to the ball, could not find a strategy that worked, and just flubbed from then on. My shot anticipation went into the toilet, and Captain Fall-Apart used his amazing super-powers to flush hard.

One good thing I had going for me, though, is that I did return almost all of his blazing serves. I didn't place them well enough to get the advantage, usually (I did get in a couple of zingers), but I got them back decently. I had some weak returns, but I did get to some that I didn't think I had a chance of getting to.

My opponent did not call out the score once. I wonder what is up when people do that? I know the Code clearly states that you should, but every once in a while you run into somebody that just steadfastly won't call out the score. I still do it faithfully anyway, and I don't want to impute some sinister reason why somebody won't do that (I like to give people the benefit of the doubt until they prove me wrong), but, hmmm...

All in all, he played well, I didn't play well enough, and I probably could have done with a little more recovery after the first match. Today I definitely feel like I have reached a physical limit. For the first time since I started this blog, I don't feel like playing tennis again today after my last match. I don't feel like going to the gym afterwards (which I sometimes do when I feel like i could play more tennis). I haven't felt this way since I played three matches of tennis in one day, totalling about eight hours, in near 100 degree heat and near 100 percent humidity close to Houston this last summer. Time to rest up so I can play tomorrow night's match. Hopefully, I will be well-renewed by then. It's good to empty your mojo cup every once in a while, and then just lay back and relax.

As far as my pace goes, I'm not doing too bad. I've really picked up the pace in the last couple weeks. I've gotten to 22 sets in a little less than a month after being kinda behind on my pace. Still need a few more, though. Hopefully, I'll still be able to find opponents over the holiday season. If I can get in about 10 more matches by the end of the month, I'll be about even with par.

Building a Wall

Sets 20-21 (of 365)

S. Vs. Stuart at Northwest Park. Winner: Stuart 6-4, 7-5
Ladder Match #4

My Mojo: Average to Above-Average; Greatly Improved Toward the End.

It was another really windy day. I didn't know if I would get to play today or if I would have to cancel because I was up most of the night with a family crisis. Luckily, it got resolved in time for me to get a little sleep and make it to the match.

For the first part of the match, I felt like I was not getting my bearings. I was misjudging the wind a lot and hitting poorly. My serves were not great but were adequate; I can't complain too much about them, because most of them got in. However, I was not getting much of an advantage through serving. I could not get to the net very much. I squeaked out a win in the first set, which was miraculous to me. My opponent was getting to net more and playing very well there. He also hit some good angles and a few winners.

During the second set, my malaise seemed to increase. I started getting angry at myself, and muttering at myself under my breath, which I hardly ever do. My mental state was not there and I could not get focused. I'm usually pretty serene, even in losing, though I do occasionally get perturbed. Next thing I knew I was down 5-1.

But a strange thing happened at that point. I suddenly got calm as if clouds had opened up to let the sun through. My anger congealed into quiet determination. I visualized a wall that suddenly came up; my visualization was that up until then I had only created obstacles; that is, hurdles for my opponent to jump over. But now a wall was there, and he would have to do some serious climbing if he was going to make it over the wall. I had this complete and recklessly stupid feeling (which was utterly unsupported by reality) that I was going to win this set. All I had to do was what my opponent had done and win several games in a row. No big deal.

Unbelievably, it happened. Every point, I thought about the wall. I never lost the sense of complete calm and serenity that had swept over me. Now the wind seemed to be working to my advantage rather than against me. When I lost points, for some reason, it was not inconsistent with the wall and it didn't shake me. When I got to 4-5 I knew my opponent was in trouble. I have always thought that when a player mounts an incredible comeback and gets to the point when he is only one game behind, he has a psychological advantage, even though he is down a game. I ended up winning six games in a row to take the match 7-5.

My opponent fought a really tough fight. He got to stuff that I never thought he would get to, and slammed most of it back with precision. He told me that he thought I had reached balls that he wouldn't think I would get too. We both had a lot of hustle this match. This was definitely the toughest match that I have played on the ladder so far.

Taking One For The Imaginary Team

Sets 18-19 (of 365):

Stuart vs. Y.at Patterson Park. Winner: Stuart 6-1, 6-2
Ladder Match #3

My Mojo: Average

Still windy but sunnier than it was this morning. I think it was sunny the whole time even though I saw a few clouds in the sky.

Free courts rock. Playing tennis for free is the best, next to not waking up dead in the morning. The courts at Patterson Park aren't perfect. The net is weird, the courts are concrete, and the lines are not easily seen on the white surface. But, hey, the operative word is FREE. No payment required. Woo-hoo.

So this is the second match I have played today on free courts. The tennis centers are nice, don't get me wrong. Fantastic courts and way cool lights.

I won this match, but I didn't feel like I did anything spectacular to win. Just went out there and did muh job, ma'am. Kept hitting the ball back and got it in more than the other guy. 'Nuff said.

Well, maybe I'll say a little more. I didn't feel like I got much better or much worse as the match went on, though I did ebb and flow a little. I did do a good job a few times of drawing him out to one side and then shooting the ball down the other side after he was too far on the other side of the court. I guess I've had that done to me enough by better players that maybe I'm starting to pick it up? He did get some boffo bloddy mojo for a couple of games and even skunked me one in the second set. Well, I guess I had to take one for the team. Wait, there is no team.

My serves were nothing spectacular but I didn't double fault. They got in and did their job, but nuthin' fancy happened. I did pretty good when I got to net but he did get a couple shots by me--just passing shots to the side. I think he tried one offensive lob that fell short and I shot it down an unreachable part of the court. Don't you hate it when your lobs fall short and give your opponent a good overhead? Unless he pulls a "thank you Jesus" and slams it into the net, that is.

Gone With The Wind

Sets 15-17 (of 365):

Stuart vs. C at McCallum. Winner: C. 7-6(2), 6-0, 6-1.

My Mojo: Started out Above-Average, Deflated Quickly.

The weather was just gorgeous for tennis. It was probably mid-60's and mostly cloudy, with the sun poking out every once in a while. The only thing was that there was this very unpredictable wind, which came and went in gusts, and played havoc with both of our shots. C. remarked that we were more playing the wind than each other.

The first set, I was getting solid hits, good serves, good direction, good depth, and was holding my own well. It still wasn't enough to win the set and I lost in tiebreak. I think he was a better player but I had good tenacity throughout that match. In the next two matches, though, everything on my part seemed to just fall a little short. My money shots slammed into the ribbon at the top of the net instead of going over. My deep shots went too deep and went out. I was hitting too many defensive shots that he capitalized on well. The wind seemed to be knocking me for a loop, while he was able to capitalize on it, especially when he served with the wind at his back.

He got some really good smash serves in that I had trouble returning, even when I moved farther behind the baseline to try to get. I was not reacting quickly on the serves and lost a lot of points from either missing the serves, getting weak returns on them, or letting him get the offense on the points. There was one thing that I had going for me consistently throughout the three sets. I was hitting really good lobs that worked well for me and were timed right when he came to net. I nailed him on a lot of these.

In the last two sets, he got some really good angle shots, a few whizzing winners, and played spectacularly at the net when I couldn't get good offensive lobs in. All in all, I got in a few competitive games in the last couple sets, but not enough to win any, until the end. I got one final game at the end of the last set when he had me down 5-0; my mojo came back for one last gasp before it went comatose. I enjoyed the games and did not feel ground down. I could have played more games but for the fact that I wanted to save some oomph for another match this afternoon.

Good Mojo Tonight!

12/14/06:

Group lesson with R (6 of 10):

My Mojo: Above-average.

I felt like I was hitting well tonight. I was consistently placing the ball well, and getting good backswing and follow-through. I didn't have to think about my shots because they happened naturally. Volleys were a little dicey, but still better than average. Serves were truly decent to outstanding; I got good shoulder rotation and very good direction. My shot anticipation was pretty good--this is an area that I seem to have trouble with sometimes.

I stayed after to hit with R. and H., and also R. (the instructor) stayed to hit for a bit too. The students who stayed to hit are probably the best students in the class and I felt like I held my own with them and with the teacher. It was not a bad night at all. If I hit like this all the time, I'd be pretty happy. But, of course, I hope to get even better with all the practice I am getting.

I need to fix my ball machine. The velcro on the ball hopper keeps messing up and making the ball hopper just about useless. I think that I just can't store the balls in the hopper, but should rather keep them stored elsewhere and just put them in the machine when I am using it.

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

Playing hundreds of tennis matches over the course of the next year is going to be one major undertaking. I can already tell that I am going to have to constantly be searching for opponents. Rain days, cancellations and injuries are going to make me have to hustle even harder to get to my goal, and I am going to be on the run a lot. On the plus side, I'm going to play lots and lots of tennis, and I think I may be starting to get up to speed with the pace I am going to need to keep.

Last night I had another cancellation. Oh well, at least I have four matches scheduled (so far) for this weekend. That should bring me close to par, if none of them get cancelled for some reason. And, every match in which I split sets counts one-and-a-half times as much. I've never before had splitting sets be a desirable result before. But I'm a grinder. I like to play long matches anyway.

I have been perfectly happy with most of my matches, win or lose. My attitude is such that I'll try not to beat up on myself when I lose; I'll just figure I got a good workout and look for stuff that I can improve on or learn from. Of course, sometimes emotions do run away and I might get pissed off at myself. So far during this series that hasn't happen. Hopefully when I finish this series I will have gained something from it. At the least, I'll be another year older, barring unforeseen violence, flesh-eating bacteria, or something else that drops from the sky to snuff me out.

Nothing Special On My Part, But Enough To Win

12/12/06:

Sets 13-14 (of 365)

T. vs. Stuart at South Austin. Winner: Stuart 6-2, 6-2.
Ladder Match #2

My Mojo: Average

It was a beautiful day in South Austin. Weather was coolish, no wind at all. Perfect tennis weather. I didn't feel like I was hitting that well, but not too badly either. Most of my shots did the job, though I was not hitting particularly hard or spectacular shots most of the time and I was not getting much bite on the ball when I hit it. A lot of the time I didn't follow through and stopped short on my swing. I kept trying to correct that, but kept reverting to not-so-great form. I did get good court coverage, though. I got some shots that I thought I would never get. T. really got some excellent angle shots to me in deuce court several times that I could not get to. I adjusted for that in the second set and then got most of them, though she get a few by me. She also won two games in the second set after I was up 5-0, so she's definitely a fighter when she is down.

I hear that they are filming the movie "Gary the Tennis Coach" at the South Austin Tennis Center. R. told me that they were there until late last night filming.

Up and Down, Up and Down

Group Lesson with R (5 of 10):

My Mojo: Below-average to average.

Tonight I was really missing a lot of stuff, especially volleys. My brain was just not there. My feet were sluggish and my legs were heavy. I wasn't doing too bad on longer rallies, but I was still not very consistent. I kept getting close to the zone, and then sliding out, over and over again. Up and down, up and down.

R. remarked that I was reverting to my old backhand, and he was right. I was not hitting through a lot, but just poking at the ball. I did redeem myself a little bit when I stayed after the lesson to hit with C. and P., when I hit a little better than I had been doing during the lesson, but still not great.

I got asked if I went out drinking last night. It wasn't just me, everybody was talking about whether they went out partying. Of course, my answers were, "It's hard to tell...after you black out, you really can't tell what happens," and "After somebody put something red in the crack pipe, I really don't know what happened." Really, I hardly ever smoke crack. OK, I don't smoke crack at all. I was just trying to sound cosmopolitan and sophisticated like those gaunt skeletals you see huddled, shivering, in the doorways of abandoned buildings. Viva heroin chic. Actually, all I did last night was watch Sarah Silverman's "Jesus Is Magic" on DVD, and eat some extra badass tofu stirfry with brown rice. See how my life is super exciting and everybody wishes they were me?

Crap, It's Raining

Mother Nature hates me.

Ok, I'm actually probably not even in Mother Nature's binoculars. But I might as well overinflate my importance since there is nothing better to do. Globules of some hydrogen-oxygen compound (water), designed specifically to mess with tennis matches, are falling out of the sky. Who did this? Who can I complain to? I want my money back. I want to start my life over.

Incidentally, this "water" stuff is bad news. Did I mention that 100% of people in America's prisons have tried water at least once? Not only that, but this stuff is so bad that YOUR FIRST SIP AND YOU ARE HOOKED FOR LIFE. That's right, you become a junkie needing your monkey. After your first sip, if you go without it, you'll die. Water is a gateway drug too, leading to much more insidious subtances, such as tea or milk. Next thing you know, your body is, like, 70% water or something like that (everybody likes to say your body is 90% water, but I looked it up on Google, and most of the sources say it's less than that).

So I guess I won't play tennis today, unless somebody puts a dome over the city really quickly. I don't think that will happen by this afternoon, and even if it did, it might interfere with airplane traffic, deprive our plants and lakes of sorely needed replenishment, and cause environmental problems. I guess I really shouldn't wish for that, should I?

Starting Out Good, But Fizzling Out

Sets 10-12 (of 365):

J vs. Stuart at Caswell Winner: J. 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.

My Mojo: Above average, diminishing at the end

Played in the late afternoon. It was about 50 degrees, but not windy. It was kinda cloudy. At the beginning of the match, I was playing really well and got some really good shots in. He helped me by making some errors, though. His errors seemed to diminish a lot in the second set and almost disappeared in the third. My mojo was fairly constant but dropped just a bit toward the end, though his really picked up and I had a hard time finding stuff that worked for me. I did shuffle it around some. I tried alternating between spin and flat serves but could not get by him much once he got to net; he even hit a lot of my wide shots that I thought for sure would get by him. Also, my lobs didn't seem to be doing me as much good against him when he went to net as they usually do against most of the people that I play. They either fell short and he would smash them, or they would go long. His smashes toward the end were usually dead on, and mine fizzled. I didn't tire, though, and felt like I could have played some more.

Lesson Time And No Pudding For Me

Took a group lesson from R. this morning (4 of 10).

My Mojo: Above-average, but mixed toward the end

Played well for most of the lesson. Afterwards, I stayed to play with H.; he was playing better than me but I got in some good shots every once in a while.

Didn't get to play my 1:30 match today, though. My opponent called and said he didn't feel well. I agreed to reschedule, even though I probably didn't have to. I could have made him forfeit so I would get to advance on the ladder if I wanted to be a jerk, but I decided to be a nice guy and let him set up another one later. Next time he cancels, though, he's toast. This is screwing with my goal. Two matches could have got me 2/365ths toward the brass ring. So no pudding for me in the midafternoon.

At least I have another match at 4:30. Banzai!

A Mixed Bag

Tonight I had a group lesson with R. (3 of 10)

My mojo: Mixed

I played pretty well, but felt really tired and got upset with myself a little more than I usually do. We did a lot of running, which we usually do when only a few players show up. I felt like I played well getting to running forehands and back hands. I did OK to middlin' in close-contact volleys, but my footwork was not as good as it had been in the last few weeks. The coup de grace was at the end, when I won in singles (first player to get to 7 points) against every other player in the class. It wasn't my play, though, that won it against H. (one of the best in the group), his loss was due to his errors; he is usually a lot more consistent. Also, he was paired alternating points with C. since there was an odd number. I did beat both of them decisively, though. I didn't feel like staying after to play as I felt too tired. So performance was above-average, but mental attitude and stamina were below average.

Ouch!

Sets 7-9 (of 365)

Stuart vs. A. at Pharr. Winner: A. 6-0, 6-0, 6-1.

My mojo: Average

The guy I played was really good (probably the best I have played against yet in this series), but I was not anticipating well, not getting good bite on the ball, hitting out too much, then undercompensating and hitting the net. I was not anticipating that his topspin would bounce the ball so high (duh). I could definitely have won more games in this series, IMHO. On the plus side, I didn’t tire at all, and got better as I went along. Once I started getting farther behind the baseline, I did much better.

Promising signs are: I have several matches set up in the next couple of weeks (though they are mostly clustered on the weekends, I need to work on the weekdays). Also, I have made a table of all the people I have contacted, and graded the responses I have gotten from "not promising" to "really enthusiastic" based on whether I think the opponents are likely to blow me off or play me repeatedly. Five sets in three days moves me along a little better.

One big bad is the weather, which threatens to pour rain over the weekend and the first part of next week. So I may lose some of the weekend matches and probably should not make any plans for Monday or Tuesday.

Putting My Fishing Nets Out Into the Ocean

Well, I've emailed about 30 people to try to get them to play me. Hopefully, that will give me some opponents. I got the majority of the names off of the tennis ladder and some of the names off of our local tennis organization's "Player Finder." Hopefully, this will get some folks to play me, or at least give me a bad reputation as a spammer...

A Little Worried

I'm starting to get a little worried. It's been about three weeks since I decided to try to play a (little less than) a set a day. So far I have only played six sets! I'm definitely going to have to ramp it up a tad to set the right pace. One thing that is good is that it's not my fatigue or inability to put out that is holding me back--it's just not having found enough opponents yet.

I'm going to have to go beyond the contacts and people I already know. I'm on a local tennis ladder, and it lists players who are willing to play extra matches. So I'll email some of them and try to get some opponents to humiliate me on the courts.

Bulletproof!

Sets 5 and 6 (of 365):

T. vs. Stuart at Pharr Winner: Stuart 6-4, 6-1
Ladder Match #1

My Mojo: Above-average to Excellent

This was the first match that I played on the local ladder. I highly recommend the ladder for anyone in the Austin area; it's great fun, and it is easy to find on the web. Throughout the match, I got really good bite on the ball. I experimented with lots of topspin on my backhand, and it worked surprisingly well but I noticed that I did need to extend my arm a little more on it as I was working the elbow a little more than I would have liked. I played really well during the match, especially in the second set, when I felt bulletproof.

Then I went to a group lesson with R. afterwards (2 of 10). I started out hitting with one of the coaches, and was hitting really strong shots that were placed perfectly; they fell deep in the court in the corners most of the time. For the first hour of the group lesson, I played like dynamite, and could hardly do anything wrong. Then I fizzled somewhat in the last half hour of the lesson. I wasn't tired, but definitely got out of the zone. Tried to get others from the lesson to hit with me afterwards (I usually stay after to do that), but nobody was up to it on this occasion.

I Got Beat by a Little Kid

Sets 3 and 4 (of 365)

F. vs. Stuart at Caswell. Winner: F. 6-3, 6-2

OK, so I got whooped by a 13-year-old. My daughter laughed at me and called me old. No ice cream for you.

My mojo: Average

I wonder if I will ever describe my mojo as "Super-Duper" when I lose? I bet if I played Federer I could bring everything I had to the table and still not get a point, and possibly still be satisfied with the way I played, so yes. But there has to be some subtle bias in there. Anyway, in this match, I couldn't seem to quite get there on anticipating shots some of the time. I felt really "up and down." Sometimes I would be on top of it, and then I would either lose focus or tighten up. My strokes were not too bad, but I ended up on defense a little more than I would have liked to--just hitting the ball back rather than being able to set up for placement. F. played well and showed me why he is in the championship division.

Next, Please...

Set 2 (of 365):

Stuart vs. D. at Pharr. Winner: Stuart 6-0

My mojo: Above-average

He played well, but I was catching the ball OK and anticipating decently. Against a way stronger opponent, I might have totally flubbed it, but I was able to bring enough to the table to goose-egg him. We did have one really good game that went back and forth from deuce to adds, and I was able to edge him out on it. Valiant effort, D, and better luck some other time when my mojo is in the toilet.

My First Set

Set 1 (of 365):

Stuart vs. J. at Caswell. Winner: J. 7-5

My mojo: Average

Made it through my first set of the series, hooray! I was not playing too badly, but not playing particularly great either. I lost the first two games, then I won the next four, after which my opponent came back and beat me. A worthy effort, and great fun.

Clarification and Further Study of the Matter at Hand

A couple things I want to mention about when I played tennis in high school: 1) Occasionally my friends and I would play tennis with a golf ball. We called this "Killer Tennis." Aside from the obvious disadvantages related to getting a hard and dangerous object moving at a high rate of speed, another serious disadvantage was that it would readily go through the holes in the chain-link fence, causing disruption outside the test range. 2) Sometimes I would play variations on the game of tennis. Most people, when they come up with variations on a game, would change around the rules or configuration of the game. My variations were mostly related to wardrobe malfunctions. Sometimes, I would play in high platform shoes. Other times, I would play wearing a three-piece suit. I even played tennis once in 102-degree weather wearing a full-out parka. Laissez les bon temps roulez.

I am starting to feel like John Cusack's character in "High Fidelity" in describing the sum total of my life experiences through numbered lists (even that last statement was an obscure pun--"numbers" leading to a "sum"; get it, yuk, yuk). Oh, for God's sake, let it die now, in the name of being merciful to all.

Why a Tennis Blog?

Of all the things that I could possibly blog about, here I am starting a tennis blog when maybe I should be trying to work toward world peace (you know, like Miss America does) or perhaps trying to feed the hungry, stop global warming or cure cancer? No, my purpose on this earth is to advance the all-important causes of irreverence and frivolity (hence, the title, "Stuart's Irreverent and Frivolous Tennis Blog"). So that explains the burning question in your mind, "Why irreverent and frivolous?" Here are answers to other questions you may or may not have.

1. "Why 'Stuart'?" Because that is my name. And the name of my uncle before me. And the name of a whole bunch of archaic English monarchs. And that guy who is OK with himself (the one who is played by Al Franken) who used to be on Saturday Night Live and even made a crappy movie.

2. "Why 'Tennis'?" Ahhh, grasshopper. You ask the important question. Let me tell you a story. Actually, it's not much of a story. Yesterday, this strange idea popped into my mind that my New Year's resolution should be to play 365 sets of tennis in 2007. Immediately that scared me. So I decided to slightly cheat by starting early, for two reasons. One, it will give me a handle on whether I can actually play a set a day over the course of a month and a half. And two, it will give me a cushion to get past the inevitable various and multiple injuries that I will incur over the course of trying to play beaucoup tennis. So I really have 365 days plus a month and a half to play 365 sets. Maybe, for background, I should tell you a little about my tennis history. I played a little bit in high school, and, inexplicably, liked it. I wasn't, like, on any tennis team or anything, but I played some, especially in the summertime. This was strange mainly because I have never been into sports one bit. Prior to this time, I was usually the last kid picked on any team at school, and so, as a result, became a "P.E. passive resister." That means that whenever I had to play baseball, for example, I would stand out on the field wherever they sent me, and when the ball came my way, I would just let it roll by. This brought me wicked and twisted enjoyment even as it led to unavoidable violence on my person. What the hell, it was worth it. Fast forward to college. For quite some time, I had thought that anybody who exerted the least bit of physical activity was stupid and deluded. My college roommate and his friends would go home, and I would sit in my dorm room and eat (eating even more to make up for them not being there). One day, against all entropic forces present in the universe, I actually went running with them. Well, since then, I've run in the Capitol 10,000 almost every year, ran to and from work a great deal, taken up swimming, bicycling, and other stuff that involves physical activity. Though my attitude up until the "moment courant" was somewhat slothful, I was never a total slacker (just one more instance of my failure to meet an important goal). Throughout high school, I had five paper routes that I delivered on my bicycle. Let's move forward even more, to the point where I have two young daughters and am trying to figure out how to keep them amused. Since i am a single dad, I am always looking for ways to keep my kids busy. My oldest started taking up tennis when she was about 7. She would go to her group tennis lessons once a week, and my youngest would watch her, just itching to play. One day a kid didn't show up, and the coach invited my youngest to come play. She was so excited, she leaped in, and of course, at age 5, could barely hit the ball, but she loved it. Well, to make a long story short, I started playing with both of them, oldest got bored with tennis, and youngest took it up and is now in championship division, though she recently decided to either quit or take a break. And somewhere along the way, I started playing on my own, with actual adults (disclaimer: nowhere in this useless treatise is contained a comment on the emotional maturity of myself or any of the "actual adults" that I did or did not have tennis relations with--I am simply remarking that many of the people that I play with are old enough to drink themselves stupid and throw away their vote legally). My tennis activity got more and more pronounced and\or notorious, leading to the aforementioned New Year's resolution. And with my youngest daughter not playing right now, I have even more time to devote to playing. There you have it, TMI.

3. "Why a 'blog'?" Dunno. I'm friggin' bored, I guess.

OK, there it is, all laid out like silverware on the table. I will try to post my results, impressions, absurd conjectures and mysterious irrelevant predictions about future catastrophic events (well, maybe not so many of those), and anything else that I come up with as I go along; some of it, hopefully, completely unrelated to my professed purpose here. You will get to see whether I meet my goal or miserably fail, and what causes and stimuli led to either outcome. Maybe I will just trail off into oblivion like most nobly-intentioned blogs (does that adjective even apply to this one? is it even a word?), eventually stopping my comments and leaving behind a dead and skeletal Web page with virtual cobwebs everywhere.

And one caveat: Only an initial or a pseudonym will be used to describe my opponents, to protect them from the consequences of their actions. They know who they are. They can't hide from themselves. Boo-yah. Let the games begin.