Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Boy, am I whooped. I told you I was in my last post. Well, today did me in.
Mike and I had a lesson with Jim today. It was called a semi-private lesson. These are great lessons and I am starting to prefer them over the regular one-on-one lessons for a few reasons. First, they are half price. I split the fee with whoever I am taking the lesson with. Second, they are a little easier on me. I don’t have to huff and puff as much as I normally do because the other player is taking half of the feeds. Well, sometimes they are. Other times, we get them fed to us just as fast as they would come in a private lesson. Third, we (the other player and I) get to hit back and forth, just like in the real world, but we get the benefit of a tennis pro yelling at us. That floats my boat.
As promised in my last post, I had Mike take a few videos of my tennis serve this afternoon. There are 9 total serves, 5 of which I probably made “in.” It gets more and more difficult to play towards the end of a lesson. Body fatigue isn’t kind to a tennis stroke. I can’t wait to see how this serve is ripped apart in YouTube by 12 year-olds who have never played the game. If you have ever watched sports videos on YouTube, you know there are a lot of “experts” out there. Trust me, I know what is good about my serve and what I need to work on.
I thought I would start off with a screen capture before the videos…
As you can see, this is why tennis is so addictive. I know the skill is there because I can do things 80% of the way. It’s the last 20% that gets time consuming and frustrating.
Next up…Forehands.
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Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
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.
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Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
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 ladder match. 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.
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Saturday, September 13th, 2008
I know, I know, you have been getting “Jay’s Blog withdrawal.” I haven’t written in a few days. It’s not because I don’t love all of you, it’s just because I have been a little tired.
Ever since we got this Bowflex and I started playing tennis again, it seems as though I am constantly sore. I mean, my muscles are always in recovery. My shoulder hurts, my back hurts and I think I pulled a butt muscle.
The muscle injury in my shoulder is from twelve years ago when I “over served” a few days in a row. I was so thrilled that I could actually serve, that I went to the club day after day to practice. Well, lets just say that I must have served about a thousand balls. I am not sure I even got any better. If today’s playing is any indication, I didn’t. Oh well, it’s working itself out, with the help of some Motrin and ice.
I remember when I could do a good workout and then go back and hit the gym the next day. I am trying that now, but unfortunately, it’s not the same. Apparently, it now takes two and a half weeks to recover. Maybe that is exaggerating a little bit, but for any of you over 30 years old, go out and get drunk. Then, come back here and tell me how long it took you to recover from that. My point is that we are falling apart. That is why I am trying to stay in shape as best I can.
I have now been to two tennis clinics and have had two private lessons. I learned a lot in yesterday’s lesson, only to apply none of it in today’s clinic. I don’t know what happened. I guess I am going to have these kinds of days. Tomorrow, I am going to hit with a youngster from the club. He is a really cool kid (17 years old) and is going to kick my butt. He has been playing since he was four years old. His father is the pro that gave me yesterday’s lesson. I think he is pretty lucky to get free lessons for life. I told him that today. Tomorrow, we are just going to hit back and forth, with no games. He is great at giving advice too, which I appreciate.
At least I am now learning the proper way to hit a tennis ball. After all these years of playing tennis, I never actually had a real lesson. I mean, I guess I had a few lessons over at the town beach when I was like five, but those don’t count. These are real, hour long tennis lessons. I walk away actually thinking I might get better.
Now to the point of this blog post. I have been using the same tennis racquet since I was 21. It’s one of those cheap ones from some store like Jamesway or Caldor. I am not even sure where I got it. I have been using it with some success, but thought that since I am going to need to get it restrung soon, I may as well get a high quality racquet to play with. I tried a few different racquets at the club and there is a huge difference in quality and playability.
A few days ago, I ordered a new Prince O3 Speedport Black Team tennis racquet and received it today. It’s the latest from Prince. I did a lot of research on different racquets and am hoping this is the one.
Prince O3 Speedport Black Team Tennis Racquet
Prince O3 Speedport Black Team Tennis Racquet
Prince O3 Speedport Black Team Tennis Racquet
Here are the specs:
- Length: 27.0”
- Headsize: 100 sq in
- Cross Section: 23-24-22mm
- Weight: 9.9 oz/280g unstrung
- Balance: 13.6 in/34.5 cm, 1 pt. Head Heavy
- Grip: DuraPro+
- Rec. Strings: Syn Gut w/ Duraflex 16
- Power Level: 975
- Swing Weight: 295
- String Pattern: 16 x 19
If you notice in the photos above, the great feature of this racquet is the “Os” on the sides, where the strings go through. These “Os” are supposed to make the racquet more aerodynamic. When I read that, I said, “Yeah right.” Well, as is turns out, you can actually hear the wind whistle through the racquet when you swing. It cuts through the air much easier than my other one.
I had this racquet strung at 57lbs, which is too loose. The recommended stringing tension is 58lbs, plus or minus 5. 57lbs is too loose for me and I may play with it for a while and then cut the strings out to get it strung tighter. We’ll see. I can always wait for them to break too.
I am going to give this racquet a try tomorrow and let you know how it plays.
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Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
Even the sun is getting lower in the sky.
I just read an article about “Lipstickgate.” I am sure you know what I am talking about. Obama said, “You can put lipstick on a pig…” and McCain is allegedly crying about it. Well, this is what it’s come down to folks. While a friend of mine is waiting to see if his house will be foreclosed on, we are arguing about pigs wearing lipstick, 55 days away from the presidential election.
Now, let me first tell you that I have mixed feelings about the whole mortgage issue. I don’t feel like getting in to them here. My point is, the mortgage thing is a valid issue that we can and should be discussing instead of beautiful pigs. Catch my drift?
I remember waaaay back a few weeks ago, right after the Democratic National Convention, I told my mother that I was finally proud to be a Democrat. I wrote an email to an old colleague the same day and ended it saying, “It’s a great day to be a Democrat.” Man, it felt great to say that. After eight years of cowering in our unpatriotic caves, someone with some guts was standing up to all the nonsense in this country. Sure, I wasn’t flying one of those ridiculous little flags on my car, but I still felt proud and (finally) patriotic. We had a good ol’ fight on our hands.
Oh well, I should have known that sort of pride and confidence in politics wouldn’t last long. Now we have the tit-for-tat that will bring us all the way to another election day. Anything to stay away from the real issues, I suppose.
I have already been to the tennis club three times since I joined. I took one lesson and went to two clinics. There were about twelve people in the first clinic and four in the second. The clinics don’t give me as much individual attention as the private lessons, but they do keep me on top of my game. I also get the opportunity to meet and play against a wide variety of people, which is important. I like the clinics, but I think I prefer the private lessons more. My goal is to go to both the Wednesday and Saturday clinics and have one private lesson per week. I hope to also get some matches, or just hitting, in too. Without a doubt, I am having a good time, I just wish I was there more.
If you have been sneezing or have felt allergies more than normal lately, that may be because of our good friend, the Ragweed. Our other good friend, the Goldenrod usually gets blamed for the allergies, but it isn’t the most likely culprit, due to its heavy pollen. Both plants bloom at the same time, so it’s hard to tell which one is causing the issue.
Goldenrod
I took this photo in the side yard this afternoon.
I have been thinking lately that I need some more clothes. I probably have enough, but they are getting kind of old looking. I was actually on the Old Navy website yesterday with my shopping cart full, when I started having second thoughts. I remembered back to my disappointment every time I buy something other than jeans from that place. The clothes really aren’t quality.
I left that website and went over to L.L. Bean’s website. I found a few things I like and then changed my mind again. I looked at a few of their models and thought I would have to stamp a big “L” on my forehead to wear some of that stuff. Why do their models look like such herbs? They need some new ones (call me).
I decided that it might be best to go out and buy some clothes in person. Maybe tomorrow we can take a trip up to the Prime Outlets in Lee, MA. Those are usually pretty good and I find good stuff up there. It’s not too far from here either. With the crisper air now, it can make for a good day.
Other than that, I am not sure anything too interesting is happening. Any questions?
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