Father v. Daughter--Loss #2 For Me

Stuart v. E. at Patterson Park.  Winner: E. 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

My Mojo: Strong, Then Deflating.

One advantage of the confluence of the end of my daughter's school tennis practice and my current transportation situation is that we have more time to play tennis with each other.  Today we went to Patterson Park.

My daughter had just gotten her two racquets restrung and so we picked them up.  When she was playing with them, she was complaining about how the strings didn't feel right, so we warmed up for a long time so she could get a chance to get used to them.

Of course, almost the first shot of the warmup, she slammed me really hard in the nuts with a missile shot, and I immediately crumpled to the ground in extreme pain.  I was finally able to get up after about a couple of minutes, while the people in the next court stared on in horror.  Good to toughen up the old gonads early on.  But maybe it's time to start wearing an iron cup.

Today I felt like I was playing more solidly than the last match.  I was returning most of her missile serves, though some of my returns were more defensive than offensive; still, I was getting good placement.  Also, I was not getting outplayed as much in rallies and she did not get to net as much, and I got to net a little more.  There seemed to be this recurring theme too of shots coming right at my body, and I often had to just stick the racquet in front of me at some weird angle just to avoid being hit.  Daddy issues?

The first set I held pretty steadily.  In the second set, I thought I would win almost as easily, but after I had won four games, she roared back and started getting me with the shots that pulled me to one side and set up hot blast in the other direction out of my reach.  But this didn't happen as often as the last match we played.  Also, I was returning a few weakly, which she almost always took advantage of with a great smash back.  I knew almost every time as soon as the ball left my racquet with a fairly weak return that I was going to get creamed when she hit it back as she is definitely good enough to exploit that.

And she ended up coming back in the second set to win 6-4.  Rats.  So we ended up playing a third set.  In this last set, we kept pace with each other; first it was 1-1, then 2-2, then she got up to 4-2, and I tied it up at 4-4.  Then she broke out with really good play, and I fizzled out.  The last two games were no contest as she won the set 6-4.

Though I lost, it was closer than last time, I was more satisfied with my play throughout (except at the end), and we actually each won the same number of games.

A Hard-Fought Loss Against My Daughter

Stuart v. E. at Pharr Tennis Center.  Winner: E 6-3, 6-3

My Mojo: Intense

It had been a while since I played against my daughter.  She's been the top tennis player at her high school for a couple of years, and has gotten constantly better for a while.  She's usually busy with practice, but now that it has slowed down for the year, she has some time to play outside the school team.  So when she wanted to play tonight, I was happy to be able to play against her.

This was the first time I had played in about a month and a half.  I could tell I was a bit rusty, but physically, I had no problems.  I never felt like I was struggling to maintain my stamina on the court, though I thought going into the match that I might have some trouble since I hadn't played in a while.  I've played matches before where I got to the point where I felt like I was struggling to stand up.  That wasn't the case here; I felt like I could have played a couple more sets by the end.

As a matter of fact, we hit for a while after the match and I felt like I could have kept going for quite a while.  But though I had no problems whatsoever with endurance or intensity, I was definitely struggling to maintain my form and my focus.

I started out pretty focused and had the upper hand in the first three games, winning all three of them for a score of 3-0.  Her shots were outpacing mine, but she must not have been warmed up quite yet. I was able to play my usual consistent game and win most of the rallies.  My serve was pretty strong for the first few games, too, giving me the edge in the first three since I served first.

The next EIGHT games were a completely different story.  I was completely dominated in these games, and could not get anything to happen for me.  She roared back into form and I was never able to get a toehold in.  She was doing that thing that really good players do to me where they pull me off balance and then slam a missile to a place on the court that I just can't get to.  This wasn't happening all the time, but enough to be disconcerting.  And my timing was not great.  I was misjudging the ball's spin and trajectory too much and hitting late a lot, which was causing me to not hit in front of my body, but barely catch it too far back or at a weird angle.  This was allowing her to dominate most of the rallies in these games.  So I lost the first set 6-3 and the first three games of the second set, which was now at 3-0 in her favor.

Then I suddenly broke through to a more solid focus and was able to anticipate a little better and suddenly won the next game fairly easily, giving me a tiny psychological wedge.  Now the second set was 3-1 with me down.  The next three games were long and contested, as each of us pushed hard to try to get an edge but neither of us were able to get much past the other.  These games were long and went back and forth with not only longer rallies, but also going back and forth between deuce and ad for almost interminable lengths.  But she maintained the slightest advantage and won two or these three games, and her shots were more solid and I was slowly deteriorating in form and making more errors. Now it was 5-2.

I managed to pull some more focus together and win another game with good returns and solid placement, pulling the score up to 5-3.  I was starting to think that maybe I could hold and come back, but that didn't happen.  She won the last game easily as my form crumbled again and her superior shots held steady.

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.

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.

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.

What A Difference

What a difference a day makes.  Yesterday I felt like warmed-over crap.  But today I felt pretty energetic and vital while I was playing.

I think yesterday I mostly got dehydrated and tired...I wasn't paying attention to my fluid intake and it just got too low.  I was too zoided out to even concentrate on drinking water last night, though I did drink some before bed.  But today I drank a ton of water all day.  I was still feeling pretty cruddy most of the day, but I drank more water, and drank more water.  I think I was still not feeling so great about an hour before I went to play, but I revived right before I left.

Today I was hitting well, I was anticipating shots nicely, and things felt pretty good all around.  Quite a contrast from yesterday where my psyche was like fingernails dragged across a chalkboard and my mood was bleak.  Still, I did lose one round of Australian doubles (two against one) where I played with a partner against a guy who was really on top of his game.  I also technically lost the first round I played 1-3, but nobody was ready to switch so we ended up playing more and were up 4-3 when we stopped, so I don't know if that can be counted as a win too.  But who cares.  It was just having fun and getting exercise.  Sometimes it's easy to lose that aspect of it and just get too competitive and tense.  But the best way to experience playing tennis is from the vantage point of just being out there to have fun and hang out with people.

Warmed-Over Crap

Felt like crap tonight.  I was listless, irritable, and none of my shots seemed to go right.

But, strangely enough, I won everything I played tonight.  Life is just wrong.

Don't feel like writing any more.

Grrr.

Grindfest

Stuart v. A. at Connally High.  Winner:  A. 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

My Mojo: Level.

This ended up being the kind of grueling, work-it-till-we-are-both-bloody-stumps marathon that seems to be my home terrain.  Two and a half hours of constant running, back-and-forth add to deuce over and over again, and long relentless rallies.  In other words, home.

I started out a little slow, once again taking a long time to warm up.  I did win the first two games, but then lost five in a row through mostly my own errors.  But after being down 5-2, I rallied back with more precise play to win all the rest of the games in the set.

One of my opponent's strong points was knowing when to come in for the approach shot, which always came at my uncovered flank with blazing intensity.  At first I wasn't getting to any of these, but I started being better prepared for these as the match went on.

When he came to net, which he did a lot, he was inconsistent.  Sometimes I was able to get a passing shot or a lob past him.  He was using more of a chip-and-charge strategy (though not on every shot like a lot of chip-and-chargers do), whereas when I came to net, I did it more positionally.  Therefore, my net play was a little more consistent and I got some great angle shots in some of the time.

I felt pretty peaceful throughout the match, and it created a contrast for me with my opponent getting agitated at himself for missing shots.  I was fairly emotionally level throughout most of the match and for the first part of the match, it helped my play, but as I gradually lost focus, I was not getting the better end of most of the points.

In the second and third sets, I just could not seal the deal at the end of each set.  I would meet pace for the first part of the sets, and then peter out.  This seems to be a recurring motif lately for me in competitive matches.  Oh well, towards another day of play.

After the match, he indicated he was exhausted, but I joked, "What, you don't want to play another match?"  I actually would have if he'd said yes.

Just A Whisker Behind, Then The Tire Goes Flat

Stuart v. P at Shipe Park.  Winner: P 6-4, 6-2.

My Mojo: Energetic, Then Flat.

It was another beautifully temperate day.  I got to the park a bit early because I knew these courts get busy.  And I was right; both courts were taken when I got there.  That was OK as I had time to wait.  My opponent got there right as we were supposed to start playing, but both courts were still taken.  We both waited maybe ten minutes, and then one of the matches ended and we were able to take a court.

This was an unusually short match for me, and was very fast-paced.  I was constantly moving; there were a lot of shots to angles and I got to most of them with an enormous amount of hustle.  Usually I play these long, grueling slugfests where the person who ends up being the lesser bloody stump staggers off the court victorious, but this one was done in a relative flash.

It seemed to me that we were very close in the games, but in the middle of each set, he just eked out an advantage that I was not able to overcome.  In the first set, he won the first two games very rapidly, but I felt like I wasn't being vastly outplayed.  I came back to win the next two and then it was tied at 2-2.  There was a lot of moving each other around in fast and energetic points where one person either grabbed an advantage and was able to keep hold of it, or suddenly gained an advantage through an unexpected move.  He took hold of the next three games very rapidly to make the set 5-2 in his favor.  Then I started just playing calmly and concentrating on one point at a time without regard for the score, and putting more emphasis on my footwork.  I was able to clearly dominate most of the points in the next two games and came up to being down 5-4. I was not able to get the next game, which was a squeaker and fell in his favor.  I wouldn't see this was THE psychological linchpin, but it was definitely a turning point.

In the second set, he won the first game very rapidly as I was a little mentally off balance.  But I was able to pull it together a little and win the next two games in what I thought was a fairly easy fashion.  So I was up for the first time in a set, 2-1.  Up to this point (and thereafter), I had only mostly been behind, with just one tie in the last set and the tie in the second set at 1-1.  I was feeling good, but it gradually drifted away.

The next few games were closely paced but rapid.  This kind of play frustrates me a lot, I think, as games go by with great speed but still fairly evenly matched.  But still, there was something in my play that was just a hair lacking.  Everything was just coming in barely under the wire.

I didn't win any more games, but I was playing very methodically and with great vigor.  I had the history of what had happened previously pounce on me and chew up the rest of my game, though. The ghosts of the first set would not let loose of me.  I wasn't soundly defeated for the first part of the set, but either deftly outmaneuvered or beaten by myself by just a hair.  In the latter part of the set, the chains were just rattling too loudly; in the end it was too much and the last couple of games fell quickly and decisively.

Darkness Creeping

It's starting to get dark earlier and earlier.  Tonight it was dark a few minutes before eight.  Here it comes...the time when we have to find courts with lights.

I got there just a hair before six o'clock.  It was nice and cool, comparatively.  Not searing hot like it was a couple of weeks ago.  Strangely enough, I didn't even drink any water in the couple of hours I played tonight, and most of it was spent running around and even hitting balls between scored rounds.  I don't even think tonight I stopped to rest or towel down at a changeover, which is unusual, and probably a first since the heat has started to subside.

Today I played a few doubles and a singles, and in between just hit a lot of balls around.  Lately I've been taking about a half hour to get in the zone, and then playing really well.  Today was no exception.  My team won the first doubles 6-2.  We were going to play just four games, like we usually do in this group, but nobody else was done and ready to switch up, so we ended up playing a full set.  I think we were up 3-1 when we decided to extend the set, and I guess the second half went about the same way.  I was ramping up for a while so in the beginning I wasn't all that steady, but then I played really well when I got to the net.

Then at the end of the set, none of the other teams were done yet, so we just switched partners.  This time we only played four games, and my team won 4-0.  By this time, I had flushed the cobwebs out of my play and was hitting and responding really well.  Lately I've been concentrating on my footwork as well as my shots so I can be in place for a great shot, and it really has been helping.My partner was placing these awesome lobs that would go over the heads of the other side when one person would come to net, and would be out of range for the other person to get.  But one of the players on the other side was tapping these drop shits barely across the net that I didn't get to when I hit the ball right to him.  I joked after about the third time that I have to stop doing that.

By the end of these four games, everybody else was ready to switch up, so I moved to singles.  I was still hitting pretty well and, most importantly, I was getting to almost everything and placing my returns well.  I ended up winning the singles match 4-0.

Then there was one more round of doubles and this time my team didn't have as good rapport.  We ended up winning the first game, losing the second, losing the third and winning the fourth.  The first game was on my serve and we won on the strengths of my serve and the momentum it provided to the rallies.  Often this is one of the strengths of my game as not only can I usually get a pretty consistent serve, but I can usually also place it well and regulate the spin on it pretty well.  My serve is probably the shot that I have the best control over.  Lately my backhand has been surprisingly strong and my forehand ground strokes are probably my weakest spot, but they are slowly getting there.   This last scored round we tied 2-2.  Then we just smacked the ball around some until it got too dark to see, which happened surprisingly early compared to the last time I played.  But I've had to take a few evenings off because I've had to deal with other matters.  Tomorrow I have a singles ladder match at Shipe Park, so we'll see how I play in a more competitive setting.

Can't Believe I Got To Play Today

Man, the rain has come to knock out our drought.  It is awesome.  But it knocked out tennis for the group last night and I thought it was going to foreclose on the courts tonight too.

But after pouring like mad all morning, all of a sudden it let up.  It didn't rain for two hours after lunch, and when I looked at the radar, there was a big hole opening up for just about all of Austin.  It was cloudy but not raining.

I was so sure it was going to rain that I didn't even take my racquets to work with me to go play afterwards.  So when it turned out that it was going to be OK to play after all, I had to haul ass home, change and get my racquets, and peel out to the courts.  I got there to Austin High just in time and hit with one guy for a while.  Then he texted some more people that it was great on the courts, and one by one, they started filtering in.

The weather was awesome, too.  After all of this searing heat, it was nice to have a breezy cold front blow in and bring us cool weather.  We mixed it up a bunch with doubles and singles; when I played singles, it was like I was hitting with magic.  My shots were going right where I wanted them to go, with just the right amount of spin and power.  I was smacking the crap out of the ball and playing offensively when my usual game is defensive.  And I was lined up almost perfectly for every shot.  It was awesome.  I won most of the singles, except for one which was a tie.

Wish I could say it was the same for the doubles.  It was like night and day in one of the pairings.  I didn't coordinate well with one of my partners.  I was hitting totally off, and just not reading anything well.  Luckily the frustration was momentary.

It's starting to get darker even earlier now....I started hitting about 5:30 and stayed there until 8:00...we played until about the last minute I could have played and still could see the ball.

The No-Tennis Zone

Well, I haven't been able to play for the last three nights because I've had other commitments.  But also, it's been raining.  I would much rather it rain when I have other commitments anyway.  Tomorrow is the first night I can play again, but I'm afraid it's going to rain.  That hasn't stopped me from signing up to play with the group. We'll see.  We do need the rain.

I've got a singles ladder match set on Sunday morning.  There's a story there, and I'll probably tell more of it when I blog that match.

Also, I just signed up with a running meetup group and I'll be running with them next Monday night instead of playing tennis.  So no tennis next Monday for me either.

Tennis Elbow Treatment

Here is a video that shows how to fix tennis elbow:

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/09/09/health/100000001768943/a-fix-for-tennis-elbow.html

Playing Against A Sizzler

Today I showed up at Martin Junior High to play.  A bunch of people showed up...first I played some with a guy that I beat last week who has a fairly erratic style, then another woman showed up so we switched it to Australian doubles (two against one).  I hope Australians don't get offended.  Maybe they call it American doubles there.  Who knows.

Anyway, we play a version where the person on the singles side gets two points if they win, and the two on the doubles side get a point each if they win.  Then we rotate to the left every game, so everybody is playing in a different position, and the singles person always gets to serve.  We play to four (we usually don't play many games so we can switch it up as more people show up) This went by pretty fast, and after being 3-3-0, J. finally won the last game serving singles to pass four points.

Then I played singles against this guy who was a total shot sizzler.  He was hitting really fast balls that were super accurate.  The only reason I did OK against him was because I play such a defensive game.  But he still beat me 2-0.  Then another guy showed up and we played some more Australian.  But we were kinda lax on the score; we played for a long time because the people next to us (four who were playing doubles) weren't done yet.

Then I played a guy who had some pretty good shots and I beat him 3-1.  I would have played more but it was getting dark and the courts at the junior high didn't have lights.  We're going to start having to find places with lights soon as it's getting darker earlier, and daylight savings time is looming around the corner.

Might not play for the next two or three nights...there's some other stuff going on that I might want to get involved in.

A Week In The Life, and Group Tennis Compared To Group Sex

I played tennis almost every day this week.  The exception was one day when I canceled with the group because a good friend of mine's dad died and I wanted to attend the memorial service to be with him.

Today I wasn't sure if I was going to make it.  To play tennis, that is.  There was a group thing at nine in the morning and I like to sleep late.  And, to top it off, I had gotten up to play tennis at eight in the morning yesterday *groan*.  But once I got there (both days) it was happening.

Group tennis vs. group sex:  You get to do a bunch of people.  You get to watch how everybody does it, and how their bodies move.  You get to marvel at people who have techniques that you either only dream of or that you can incorporate into your routine.  You might not know who will show up, and you might be pleasantly surprised.

OK, group tennis is really nothing like group sex.  It's not intimate.  It's not fake.  Nobody is naked, and nobody is trying to get their rocks off.  There's much less jealousy.  But it's worth a comparison because it brings me eyeballs.  (ha, ha, got you here, didn't I?)

So enough of this prurient pornographic stuff.  Back to the tennis.

Today, four people showed up for the group, so we just played doubles.  I'm not a huge fan of doubles.  For some strange reason, I like control over my shit.  But I do like to mix with folks and smack balls around, so it's all good.  But we just couldn't get it together, and lost a set 6-4.  We had a good surge mid-set, and won a couple of games, but just lost the magic.  *sniff*

Everybody else took off at that point, but I was still ready to jump up and down for another hour and a half, so I went to the gym and did 45 min. of weights and then 45 min. of elliptical.

Yesterday, a bunch of people showed up, so we mixed it up between singles and doubles, moving around people from one thing to the next. I tink we played for about two and a half hours.  I was triumphantly undefeated (though one doubles thing was a tie) in every configuration I played in.  So there. (don't worry about me getting smug, I'll get my ass handed to me in humiliating fashion soon enough).

Before that it's a blur.  All I know is I played a bunch.

Tennis, Tennis And More Tennis, With A No-Play Night

I just haven't been able to bring myself to write about every time I play...but I've been playing almost every day.  I've been meeting with this awesome South Austin Social Tennis Club most of the time. It's a pretty cool format, everybody gets to mix up and play with each other, nobody is usually left out.  It's both doubles and singles (though I don't usually play doubles, I've been growing to appreciate it more and more), and usually people will play four games and then switch up.  Usually it's two and a half hours of running around, sometimes (or most of the time) in incredible heat, seeing as how that's the deal in Texas in August in the early evening...

Last night I managed to get a couple of sets in.  One was with a guy who has a strong but inaccurate forehand; when he got them in they were awesome, but it was low-percentage.  I won that set 6-0.  Then I played a set against a guy who had some much better and accurate shots, and I lost 7-5.  The rest of the time, we just played the four-game thing, changing around the opponents that we played.

Thursday night was the exception.  I had planned to play with the group, but some guy on a ladder I am playing on wanted to play a ladder match, and talked me into going all the way out to Cedar Park to play.  So I cancelled with the social group, thinking it would free up someone on the waiting list to play (usually there are 12-14 spots for the social group each time, and then those who don't sign up in time get on the waiting list), but this time, a bunch of people cancelled, so there were only 8 or 9 people playing there.

Anyway, I rushed home after work, changed really quickly, and drove out to Cedar Park in mind-numbing rush hour traffic.  It was a parking lot all the way from I-35 to past Anderson Mill Rd.  I thought I would get there in plenty of time, but it took me over an hour to get there, and I barely got there in time.  I also thought I would have time to get gas and go to the bathroom...wrong.  So I got there just in the nick of time, and found out that the high school was having matches there and there were no courts available.  I made a quick go-around looking for my opponent, but didn't see him, and had to pee REALLY bad.  So I asked a security guy where there was a bathroom, and he let me in to the football game, where there was a bathroom, but made me promise not to watch the game.  That was probably a quarter-mile from the courts, so it was a significant detour.  But I tried to get my business done as quickly as possible, and then ran back to the courts to see if I could find my opponent.  No dice.  I waited 45 minutes just in case, but he was just not there.  So I drove back to Austin, having invested in nearly three hours of driving and waiting without getting to play.  He later told me he saw the matches there and split, and tried to call me (at my land line) with no success.  I offered to drive out there AGAIN to play, but he was not interested.  Oh well.

But I've gotten to play with the group every night this week except for Black Thursday.  And I'm getting ready for another ladder match this morning which is, once again, almost all the way out to Cedar Park, but this time not quite as far.  And it's on private courts, so hopefully there won't be any chance of someone else commandeering the courts.

Finally...A Hard-Fought Win

Stuart v. J. at Northwest Park.  Winner: Stuart 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

My Mojo: Surging.

It has not been a favorable atmosphere for me on the tennis court lately when I've been playing sets.  First last week I lost a set 6-1 at Austin High.  But the frustrating thing was that the games were great, with lots of back-and-forth between deuce and ad, and super-long rallies.  But I was not physically well; I think I was dehydrated, and it was really hot.  I just didn't have the edge even though I was putting forth some good game.

Then I lost a couple of really lopsided matches where I played two sets and only won one game out of thirteen in each of the whole two sets.  One was 6-1, 6-0, one was 6-0, 6-1.  I forget which was which.

One was against an opponent that I probably could have done better against, and another was just a completely outclassed mismatch in which I couldn't do anything.  This guy played so well that I was there about 80% of the first ball he would hit, then 70% the second time the ball came at me, then about 50% for the third time, then the kill shot would come.  And almost every point was like that.

Today, at first, I thought it was going to be another complete mismatch.  The guy I played against was just totally wiping the court with me at the beginning.  He was a big, accurate hitter with a good sense of strategy.  His serve had a huge amount of bounce and he was hugely fierce on both the first and second serves.  I was mishitting the serves, and that led to really weak rallies.  But even on my serves, I just felt like there was not much of an inroad for me.  In the first set, I didn't get a lot of points, but I did manage to win three games mostly on the strength of my serves.  But when I got into a rally my game just melted.

So I thought that I was just oatmeal.  But in the second set, after I was down 1-4, I just decided to play one point at a time, with blinders as to what happened before, and just try to be calm and steady with my shots.  And I started winning one game after another.  Whereas in the first set, I hadn't won any games on his serve, suddenly I was breaking his serve over and over again.  Before I knew it, I had tied the score at 4-4.

Then he had a momentary rage thing.  He looked at me with some serious anger, and then let out a yell, and hit the ball way out of the court.  Usually if I do something like that, I'm pretty sheepish afterwards.  But he still looked mad, and it freaked me out a little.  But it also kinda made me more calm in a way, realizing that I had some stability in my mood and that was a good thing.  I won the next two games to win the set, and he was starting to play a little more erratically.  I don't think he expected to get to a third set, and I was ready for anything.

But then his focus came back for the third set.  And mine got kinda diffuse.  He and I matched games, getting to 2-2, when my calmness came back and I started strategizing a little better.  I won the next two games quickly, and then his shots got really unsteady.  He was hitting hard, but not putting a lot of aim into it, with the exception of the occasional great approach shot for the kill.  I just tortoised my way past this hare and won the match.

Down And Out In Bev...er...Northwest Park

OK.  I'm baaaaaack.  It's been three years since I last posted here.  It had started to become rote to me.  It was getting to be a chore.  I was unfulfilled.  Or whatever.  But here I am again.

The original aim of this blog was to chronicle playing 365 sets in a year.  And I did that with flying colors.  Then I slowed down in my playing, and didn't feel like blogging after a while.  Sometimes I just posted the scores.  Then I quit even doing that.

Why did I stop?  Life takes over sometimes.  It reminds us that there's a huge world out there, and that focusing on one little facet of it detracts from everything else.  And there was a lot of everything else in the meantime.  I could write a blog, I tell ya.

So now I have no real goal, which is OK with me.  I'm not reaching for a brass ring.  I can do whatever I want here.  I can post my games if I want, and not post them if I don't.

I've been on kind of a hiatus for a while.  I had escaped tennis elbow-type stuff for most of the duration of my tennis play, but toward the end of when I quit for a while, my elbow had been hurting.  I iced, used anti-inflammatories, exercised, and did all the things you are supposed to do, but it wasn't getting any better.  So I quit for a while.  It was probably about nine months.  I had quit blogging long before that, and I had reduced my game load also.  But here I am to bug you once again with my useless ramblings about a tiny sliver of the life of this mostly insignificant ball of seemingly sentient twitches, spazzing around in one little festering pocket of the universe.

I've played some tennis that I didn't blog.  Since I started playing again this month, I haven't really played any matches; I've just been hitting with some people and maybe playing some informal games.  Maybe I'll blog those, maybe I won't.

But back to our protagonist.

Sets (oh, that's another thing...I'm not going to keep a running count of the sets any more).

Stuart v. C. at Northwest Park.  Winner: C. 6-1, 6-0

My Mojo:  One Step Back.


Since I started hitting informally a short while back, at first my shots were complete garbage.  Nothing was going where it should have gone and everything was hitting the wrong part of the racquet.  "Erratic" would be an understatement.  So I dialed it back and just tried to get the fundamentals down.  After hitting a few times, I was getting the old feel back.  The last couple of times I hit, it was feeling really solid.  It was getting better and better.  Last time, almost everything felt great.  Footwork was better, shots were solid, and I was using really good spin control.

But not today.  It was definitely a step back.  It's a good sign to take two steps forward and one step back, I guess.  I just wish it hadn't happened today.

Not to denigrate my opponent at all, but I mostly beat myself.  I hit poor angles that made the ball go out when it should have gone in.  I was too low on the net tape.  My opponent helped me dig my grave by hitting everything back really solidly, capitalizing well on my weak shots, and playing for position superbly.  Toward the end the heat and my feeble excuse for play was just getting to me too much.  Even though the score was lopsided, at first it was pretty competitive.  But toward the end, it was exactly what the score reflected.  I just could not break out on almost anything, and they points just were not my friends anymore.  There was really no way out by the end of the second set.  I could probably do better against this opponent on a better day, but not today.