Friday, October 5, 2012
A Shift In Time
I am facing the prospect of a shift in my life. After having my car wrecked, I will possibly be bicycling for a while as my major form of transportation. So that will probably be affecting my tennis as I will only be able to play at courts that aren't as far away. Hard to say because things have changed suddenly and I don't know yet what the full effect will be. Upside: better carbon footprint, exercise-related transportation, thinking and acting locally.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Prince Of The Court, And Devastation Strikes.
Today we played 'king of the court." We took over three courts, and one was top court. The winner from top court kept the court, and the loser moved down. We played two out of three games. On the other courts, the winner moved up and the loser moved down, and anybody left over formed a line to cycle in at the bottom court. But let me digress a moment to talk about a moment of devastation...
I was driving at lunchtime through an intersection, with the right of way from the green light, when suddenly somebody decided to turn left right in front of me. I tried to brake and veer, but it happened too fast and there was nowhere to go, so we collided. My car was probably totaled, but luckily, nobody seemed very injured (I had a little bit of a headache and a backache, but not enough to make me seek medical attention). I spent the next hour dealing with the police and insurance companies, and then got on my bike to go back to work, packing my tennis gear and racquet on the bicycle. After work, I biked to the tennis courts.
Anyway, back to "king of the court." For a while, I was winning all the rounds and holding top court consistently, but felt pretty pressured, as everybody is always hungry to knock off the top dog. But then a really hotshot player showed up, and he beat me every time I played him. But just barely. They were all 2-1 wins with games that went back and forth from deuce to ad a lot. His technique was a lot sharper than mine, but I had bucketloads of gumption and a stubborn defense. He kept pulling me to the back corner with rocket missiles and then deftly dropping drop shots barely over the net, and I got a lot of them by running my ass off. But when I got to net, he fired these projectile shots just barely out of my reach that were really effective, or shot the ball like a bullet right at my body so I couldn't get in place for a decent shot.
So after he showed up, I kept dropping to second court, and then going back to top court, and then moving down and back up, over and over again. So I guess I was "prince of the court." It was frustrating to not be able to win every time when I was getting so close. But I was coming up with some pretty good stuff against the other players, who probably felt equally frustrated with me.
I was driving at lunchtime through an intersection, with the right of way from the green light, when suddenly somebody decided to turn left right in front of me. I tried to brake and veer, but it happened too fast and there was nowhere to go, so we collided. My car was probably totaled, but luckily, nobody seemed very injured (I had a little bit of a headache and a backache, but not enough to make me seek medical attention). I spent the next hour dealing with the police and insurance companies, and then got on my bike to go back to work, packing my tennis gear and racquet on the bicycle. After work, I biked to the tennis courts.
Anyway, back to "king of the court." For a while, I was winning all the rounds and holding top court consistently, but felt pretty pressured, as everybody is always hungry to knock off the top dog. But then a really hotshot player showed up, and he beat me every time I played him. But just barely. They were all 2-1 wins with games that went back and forth from deuce to ad a lot. His technique was a lot sharper than mine, but I had bucketloads of gumption and a stubborn defense. He kept pulling me to the back corner with rocket missiles and then deftly dropping drop shots barely over the net, and I got a lot of them by running my ass off. But when I got to net, he fired these projectile shots just barely out of my reach that were really effective, or shot the ball like a bullet right at my body so I couldn't get in place for a decent shot.
So after he showed up, I kept dropping to second court, and then going back to top court, and then moving down and back up, over and over again. So I guess I was "prince of the court." It was frustrating to not be able to win every time when I was getting so close. But I was coming up with some pretty good stuff against the other players, who probably felt equally frustrated with me.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Slightly Injured
Well, today I became slightly injured, but I played through the injury. Wasn't no big thing, really. I twisted my ankle a little, but just kept going. And another guy who was playing today said he twisted his ankle too. I didn't let on, though...I just slogged onward.
I had also kinda bonked myself up earlier in the day. A big chunk of a tree fell in my back yard and crushed in my bike shed. When I was trying to cut away some of the debris, the tree trunk shifted and bonked me in the head. Luckily I jumped out of the way a little so about eight hundred pounds of widow-maker wood didn't put a coda on my symphony. I didn't even notice I had a little gash on my forehead until I looked in the mirror a couple of hours later.
Of course, that didn't stop a few smart-asses from telling me that that explains a lot. But I digress. I played a couple of hours of tennis, and got into some 2-2 ties in the four-game change-ups that we play, but didn't lose any. I seem to do well when I play with the group, and not as well when I play ladder matches (though the matches end up being pretty long, usually). Probably because the ladder matches are more competitive and attract better players on the whole. As long as I get a good workout along with my whippin', I'm OK in the long run.
I had also kinda bonked myself up earlier in the day. A big chunk of a tree fell in my back yard and crushed in my bike shed. When I was trying to cut away some of the debris, the tree trunk shifted and bonked me in the head. Luckily I jumped out of the way a little so about eight hundred pounds of widow-maker wood didn't put a coda on my symphony. I didn't even notice I had a little gash on my forehead until I looked in the mirror a couple of hours later.
Of course, that didn't stop a few smart-asses from telling me that that explains a lot. But I digress. I played a couple of hours of tennis, and got into some 2-2 ties in the four-game change-ups that we play, but didn't lose any. I seem to do well when I play with the group, and not as well when I play ladder matches (though the matches end up being pretty long, usually). Probably because the ladder matches are more competitive and attract better players on the whole. As long as I get a good workout along with my whippin', I'm OK in the long run.
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