This is getting really frustrating, but I’ll get into that later.
I woke up today with every intention of playing a tennis match this afternoon. My buddy canceled, so I needed to find another exercise for the day. I played tennis yesterday, so I didn’t feel too bad about it. Although, I didn’t go to the tennis clinic this morning because of the afternoon plans. Whatever.
To make up for the loss, I decided to do a little jump rope outside. I now do this activity after dark, so I don’t look like an idiot to people who may be passing by. I’ll give it a few weeks to jump rope in the daylight again. I thought that some jump rope and a little Bowflex would be just fine.
I went outside to the driveway and got started. Now, if you remember back, the last time I tried jump roping, I did it about 100 times and was totally exhausted. This time, I did it in five sets of 25. I thought that little breaks in between sets would be better. I’ll tell you, it was slightly better, but I still had to walk up and down the driveway with my heart pumping out of my chest. I really don’t understand what the problem is here.
I suppose I am doing better than a year ago when I did absolutely nothing at all. I guess we walked, but that doesn’t raise the heart rate (for us, anyway). It basically doesn’t do all that much. I thought it did, but now that I’m trying to do real things, it has become apparent that we don’t put enough pep in our steps when we walk. That’s going to have to change.
I am aware that this whole thing is going to take some time, but as I said above, I’m getting frustrated. Here, take a look at what’s causing it. I ask: How in the world do these people do it? I just have to keep going. It’s just that it seems so effortless for them.
I will say this; for the past few days that I have been exercising more than I normally do, I have a lot of energy. I’m not sure if it’s from the exercise or the mean cranberry cocktail that I have been drinking.
After Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory was over last night, we discovered a new and highly entertaining show…Bully Beatdown on MTV. Dude, this show is hot.
The whole thing revolves around a bully getting his butt whooped by some serious mixed martial arts fighter. Someone has to call the show and tell them they are getting harassed by a bully. Then, the show will come introduce themselves to the bully and offer up a fight. If the bully is tough and they think they have a chance (like they usually do), they accept the challenge for $10,000. I usually don’t like these fight shows, but since the bully is usually so into it, it’s pretty fun to watch.
Last night, this guy Ryan was paid a visit by Jason “Mayhem” Miller and offered a fight, which Ryan readily accepted.
When the time came to enter the cage and get down to business, Ryan held his own for the first match, but was forced to bow out after a kick to the ribs. During the whole show, I kept saying that I would have been out after the first minute. Hey, I’m no dummy…these guys are seriously tough. Ain’t no way I am fighting one of them.
You know, I am not sure I like this whole “getting older” thing. I mean, I try and try and try to stay in shape by walking, playing tennis and working out on the Bowflex, but it seems like all my body wants to do is get tired and ache from it.
I am playing tennis four times this week. I already played two ladder matches (Mon and Tues), have a lesson today and then a clinic on Saturday. I did well on Monday’s ladder match because I had a lot of energy. I ate a nice big dinner and then went to burn it off. Last night, I ate at around 4PM, so by the time 8PM rolled around, I could only last so long. About half-way through the second set, I began to fade. Towards the end of the third set, I was almost crawling off the court. Mind you, we did play 30 games.
When the time came to roll out of bed this morning, my age started to show. I am sore and tired. Sounds rough, huh? Also, my feet are killing me and my shins hurt…not to mention my arm that has been aching for over a month. Boy, I feel like I am complaining a lot here. I only wonder what this lesson will be like today…these things give you a real cardio workout.
I keep telling Laura that I need to get past that “hump.” It’s like I am chasing it and once I catch up to it and get past it, I won’t get as red in the face, sweat and lose my breath as much. The only problem is…that hump might be unattainable. Perhaps I was able to catch it when I was 18 years old, but now, I am going to have to work twice as hard and I’m not even sure it’s possible.
I guess I have a few choices here. I can double down and start running, like I have always wanted to do, or I can just keep going as I am. There are a few runners who play tennis and it really helps their game. They are able to play a heck of a lot longer and are much faster on the court. They can pretty much get to any ball you hit at them because they are so light on their feet. As I try more new things on the court, that is becoming more important. The good ol’ days of me smacking a powerful ball over the net and admiring it are over. These guys are starting to return them to me.
Since I have written so much about tennis on this blog and have hardly shown any pictures or videos, I am planning on bringing my video camera today. I am going to have my buddy take some videos of my serve so I can post them here. We’ll see what happens with that.
So, as I mentioned in my last post, I decided to get back into taking private tennis lessons. After today’s lesson, I am sure I made the right choice.
For now, I am going to skip the Wednesday tennis clinic. I am going to replace it with a private lesson. I think the one-on-one instruction is a better bang for the buck and I learn so much. Both private lessons and clinics have their merits. As I said above, private lessons offer a full hour of intense instruction. The learning potential and cardio workout is awesome and personally, I walk away with a lot to think about. Clinics are great to get out there and hit the ball around with some other people. There is some light instruction, but the tennis pro is honestly incapable of getting into the nitty-gritty of every ball each player hits.
I was really pleased with today’s lesson and it lifted my spirits after Monday’s terrible loss. I know Mike feels the same way after he loses, so I don’t feel all that bad.
Okay, so I thought I would give you a little breakdown of what we did. First, we warmed up “short court.” That’s typical to get the arms and legs functioning. Basically, that is simply standing on the service line and gently (and cooperatively) hitting the ball back and forth to each other. Then, we backed up to the baseline and hit some forehand shots back and forth for about five minutes. Then, Jim (the tennis pro) said something I found pretty entertaining and quite welcomed. He said, “Okay, I think I’ve seen enough.” That was exactly what I was looking for.
For some strange reason, whenever I try to learn something, I think that I have to walk in and guide the instructor on how to teach me. I have a faith issue. It’s weird. I guess you know when you are with one of the “good ones” when they can totally pick up on what you are doing wrong and what you need help with all by themselves. I really liked his style. Also, I wasn’t in the mood to do a horrible job trying to explain what I need to work on.
So, as it ends up, I needed some fundamental changes with the way I have been hitting my forehand. The way I used to used to (before today) hit it was to have my chest facing the net. My arm would extend to the side and do most of the work. Jim very kindly explained to me that I needed to rotate my shoulders to the right, so I was completely facing the side of the court. Then, as I swing my arm forward, move my shoulders and torso with the racquet. Makes sense to me, but it still feels pretty strange. The reason I am having so much difficulty, is because I am trying to shed years of hitting a terrible forehand. As I explained it to the ladies at the front desk, “I am like a piece of taffy that keeps trying to twist back to the way I always was.”
Jim didn’t care about what grip I was using, as long as I was comfortable with it. Also, I can still use my open stance, I just need to turn my shoulders more. After I tried this for a while, I was hitting some pretty solid forehands.
Take a look at this video. Ignore the “Eastern grip” part that he is talking about. Just look at the way his body is facing when he hits his forehand.
Also, I needed to loosen up on my racquet grip a bit. I was squeezing too hard and it showed.
Next, we talked a bit about the mental side of the game. I explained that I have a bad habit of totally falling apart during a match if I start losing some games. It’s not a good scene. Jim told me that the reason for this is that I (and everyone else out there) start to get nervous and start over-correcting everything I think I am doing wrong. Once that happens, there really is no chance. He said that once I am playing a match, forget about what I learned, about form and all that. Those things will start to show naturally during a match, once I get proficient at them during the lessons and the clinics. Again, that made sense to me.
Next, we went over what to do if you are experiencing some low, fast balls being hit towards you. I told Jim that when that happens to me, I just pop them back over the net to keep them in play. The problem with that is that the other player is sitting at the net waiting for them. He told me that what I was doing was correct because it’s a defensive shot, I just need to lob the ball over my competitor’s head to neutralize the play. Basically, I want to take the other guy away from playing offense and myself away from playing defense. If I can lob the ball over the other player, we will be on equal footing again. This holds true for the backhand and the forehand.
After we got that squared away, we went over where exactly on the court I was supposed to be when the ball is in play. Jim hit me a few balls and watched as I returned them from behind the baseline and stayed there. The way it is supposed to happen is, I am supposed to start on the center of the baseline and move back if I need to return a deep ball. After that, I need to get back on the baseline, where I started. That was a stupid mental block for me. Also, if I am trying to return a shot from in between the service line and the baseline (approach shot), I need to move up and hit into the ball, then get back to the baseline, unless I feel really good about where I hit the ball and in that case, I can get up to the net. If I am returning a ball that is hit before the service line, I need to get up to it and then play the net. I told Jim that the whole idea was just genius. One of my main problems was that I relied on my wonderfully powerful hits that I would stand there and admire my work.
Lastly, something was discovered as we were going over our little court strategy. Jim noticed that I wasn’t hitting the ball at the peak of its bounce. I was waiting for the ball to fall too far and then trying to grab it as it neared the ground. The better way to do it is to smack it before it starts falling and move into it.
I am starting to notice that playing tennis is a lot like trying to land a plane…you need to think about and do 20 things at the same time. I guess this is why it takes so long to get proficient at either.
I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night. I kept tossing and turning, constantly thinking about tennis. It was absolutely awful. I guess playing tennis until 10:30PM isn’t all that great for my sleep pattern.
Mike beat me pretty bad. He has become a strong player and I missed a lot of easy shots. Shots that may have given me points if I hadn’t screwed them up. I can’t say I was devastated, because I walked in expecting to lose. I did have a plan though…I figured that if I was going down, I was going to make him sweat for it. It gave me joy to see him huffing and puffing over there on the other side of the net. At one point towards the end of the match, I said that I wouldn’t mind being known as the guy who loses, but is the hardest to beat.
During my annoying night of not sleeping, I kept going through different ideas in my head. I thought that maybe I should only go to one clinic per week and take a private lesson. That would give me one private, one clinic and one laddermatch. It does seem like a good idea. Then I thought of not going to the clinics at all…just take private lessons. The problem with that is I wouldn’t get the interaction with as many different types of player. I am sure I had many other ideas throughout the night, many of which I shouldn’t have been thinking about while I was trying to get some sleep.
Getting toasted on the court isn’t too much fun. It’s downright depressing.
As I was rolling out of bed this morning, I had an epiphany. I said to myself, “Oh man, what’s happening here is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. I am becoming competitive. This is the reason I didn’t want to play in the ladder in the first place.” You see, I started playing tennis again to get exercise and have some fun. I didn’t want to spend all sorts of money trying to get better to beat people. I really didn’t. But, this is what happens to me. I will confess though that the competitive side of the sport has its fun points.
As Laura and I were sitting in the kitchen this morning having our coffee, we started to talk about tennis. Actually, it was me doing the talking and she was doing the polite nodding. We do a lot of humoring these days. I explained to her that I was feeling terrible about losing a whole night’s sleep. I also felt terrible about almost being sucked into the competitive side of the game I was playing. I told her that I really should shut off the part of my brain that says losing is a bad thing. If I meet my original goals of getting exercise and having fun, there really should be no problem. I should walk away with my head held high. I think she agreed with that.
So, what am I going to do today? I am going to give one of the pros at the club a call. I need to start taking some private lessons again. I have to get better at this game to start kicking some butt.
Do you have any idea how good this feels? If not, I’ll tell you. It feels really really good.
Now, I pride myself on not being a competitive player, but when things are getting tight on the court, I get a little nervous. I play harder and see if I can pull myself out of the hole. That’s what I did tonight.
I won the first set 7-6. We had to play a tiebreaker. Tiebreakers are never fun, because that means the set was really close. People try to win sets by a few games. Oh well; at least I pulled through.
I won the second set 6-3 and that was the match. Since it was still early, we decided to play another set, which I won 6-3. It sounds like I am bragging here, I know, but all the beating up that I do on myself, I think I deserve it.
There was one thing I worked on since my last ladder match and that was my “mental game.” I have serious problems with that (along with every other tennis player out there having the same problem). I read up on it and got some tips which really helped out tonight. Needless to say, I don’t talk smack on the court anymore. That really wasn’t helping my game. The more I take things seriously, the better I play.
I have a clinic in the morning. We’ll see how I do there.
It was fun though and now I am sucked into doing this every week. The club likes to get its members involved. The only bad part about it was that I missed “Lost.” If I had any idea that Lost was on, I certainly wouldn’t have played tennis.
If you care to remember back, yesterday’s clinic was canceled because of the weather. As it ends up, a gentleman at the club needed someone to play in the tennis ladder. They gave me a call and I accepted. Out of about 27 people who participate in the ladder, I think he ranks about 20. I now hold the esteemed position of 27. I should get a jersey with the number 27 on the back of it.
He was pretty good and had a lot of good shots. I played well, so I really have nothing to complain about. I just didn’t play as well as he did. Toward the third set, I started getting warmed up. Unfortunately, the match is winding down in the third set.
I think I am going to get a lot of good experience playing in the ladder. Now, when I go to the clinics, I know what I need to practice, instead of randomly hitting with the rest of the people. If I had my way, I would be taking lessons once a week again. I really want to do that.
After a little break from playing tennis, I am back at it. I played last night and again this morning. I’m a little sore.
I didn’t think I would ever get back, with the way things were headed. I remember missing one clinic for one reason or another, and then the snow hit. Come the holidays and my schedule was all messed up. Personally, I’ll play tennis on Christmas morning, it’s everyone else who wants some time off. Oh, they probably want to play too, they just aren’t telling anyone.
I lost the match last night and two tie-breakers this morning. When this happens and I’m on the court, I hang my head in shame. I make up all sorts of excuses and increase my level of smack talk. This is all just to mess with my competitor’s head. Even though I look like I’m upset, I’m really not. You see, I have a method to my madness and I’ll tell you what it is.
When I play tennis, I play to lose. What? Seriously. I play tennis to get better and if I’m not hitting the ball with all my heart and missing my target, I’ll never be able to hit the ball with all my heart and hit my target. Practice makes perfect. Well, in tennis, no one will ever be perfect, especially not me.
Let me use a little a little analogy to help explain. Say I was a race car driver and I practiced all the time. Now say that the usual speed of a car race is 200MPH. If I practiced at 40MPH, I would never win a real race. Got it?
I do miss a lot of shots though and that’s what usually makes me lose. It doesn’t help that my partner runs every night and he can get to every damn ball I put over the net. He has a nasty habit of now hitting to my forehand (my weak stroke). He fears my backhand…that’s right, FEARS it. And he should.
This is a tennis ball that I have kept for a while. It rolls around the back seat in the car. I’m not sure why I keep it. Paul might recognize it from when we used to play catch in the office.
I have an issue with losing steam during the second set. It happened last night and it happened today towards the end of the clinic. When it happens, I completely lose whatever motivation I had to play. There was only one time where I kicked butt all the way through and that was when I ate dinner and two candy bars and then played. All that juice kept me going. I am going to start doing that more.
“It’s the little things that make all the difference.”
That’s what I said today, while trying to improve my forehand. My buddy said, “You know that’s true. That applies to a bunch of things in life too.” We are very introspective while on the court.
Oh, tennis is one of those games. If you love it as much as I do, you’ll know what it feels like to never be satisfied. It’s like I said today, if I keep losing, then I only have one place to go from here…up.
My buddy called me up yesterday morning and wouldn’t take no for an answer when he asked if I wanted to play tennis last night. I tried to explain to him that tennis was part of my morning routine, but as hard as I tried to speak, there was this little nagging urge to smack a tennis ball as hard as I could across the court. It truly is an addiction, as well as this sort of aggressive release.
A few days ago, I began hitting with a full Western grip. I know, that seems to be the grip that high school kids use to get more spin on the ball. Perhaps that’s why it feels so good for me…I used it years ago when I used to play. The Western grip puts a large amount of topspin on the ball and makes you feel really good when you hit the perfect shot. It also speeds up the gameplay and gives the rally kind of a resulting rush. There is a small problem with using that grip though…broken strings.
The day I started using this new grip, I broke my strings. Good thing I have a backup racquet. They are both made by Prince, so they feel quite similar. The biggest difference between them is the price.
The reason many people break their tennis racquet strings by using the full Western grip is because the strings act as little “saws” against one another. When the racquet is strung with less tension, the strings are more free to do as they please. The tension of the strings lets them slide more easily.
Needless to say, I had to get the racquet restrung. As soon as I broke the strings, I ran up to the front desk and handed the racquet to the desk person. There is a fellow who comes by every morning to do racquet stringing. It’s not like me running up to the front desk made any difference…the guy comes by every morning, and I had already missed that day’s pickup. I ran because I had to get my backup racquet out of the car and I was in the middle of a lesson.
When I showed up for last night’s match, I had a little surprise waiting for me. It was my racquet all repaired and ready to go. This time, I had it strung at 63lbs, instead of 58lbs. Lower string tension offer slightly more power and less stress on the arm. Higher string tensions offer significantly more control and slightly better spin. I like control, so I went with the latter.
Back to the match…I have to say, my buddy and I are improving tremendously. He has such motivation and I just love the game. It’s like golf…it’s one of those sports that you will never be great at, and that’s what keeps you going.
We had a great match and are getting much closer with scoring. I would say that out of the 18 games we played, about half of them ended up at deuce, which made winning them even more exciting for the both of us.
It was a great night and we both had a lot of fun playing.
I think I am going to stick to my morning playing from now on. It’s really fun getting out there at night, but that’s when I work a lot and it’s hard to tear myself away from what I get myself into at times.
