Saturday, January 10th, 2009
Today’s clinic was pretty fruitful, if I don’t say so myself. There was actually a point when I said to myself, “Okay, this is where it clicks.” Strangely enough, it did.
Why I have trouble with my forehand, I’ll never know. This is supposed to be the “natural” stroke that everyone picks up the fastest. The backhand and the serve are what usually gets people into trouble. Nope, not me. I am fine at those two, it’s the forehand that troubles me.
I now have the proper grip. It’s the full western…the one I used to use 12 years ago when I played at the Carmel Fitness and Racquet club in Carmel, NY. I played with younger people, so their grips were much more exaggerated. Young people watch the pros a lot and like to copy them. As players become more mature, they tend to hit safer, more conservative shots. I always liked the exaggerated gameplay, so I think I’ll stick to that.
There are two things I am working on; the first one is keeping my elbow closer to my body. When I don’t do that, I get a big, loopy swing. Changing my grip from the semi-western to the full western grip has helped with this. Also, holding a tennis ball to my body with my elbow reminds my to keep the elbow close.
The second thing I am working on is extending my swing more. Usually, after I make contact with the ball, I pull up too fast, when I should be moving the racquet forward more. They like to call this the “windshield wiper” swing. It’s not as bad as the big loopy swing, but it is annoying. The way I avoid this is to keep my left hand out in front of me, and after I make contact with the ball, I catch the racquet with it. This helps put more pace on the ball.
There are so many videos out there on YouTube showing people how to practice their forehands, but many of them are for beginners. I did find one that really shows some helpful tips on how to swing and some good exercises to practice. For the record, I would like to say that I absolutely love the facility these players are practicing in.
Related posts
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
If you have read any of my tennis posts, you would have seen me writing about this guy I play tennis with. You know the guy…if I tell him my leg is hurting, he hits me in the leg with the tennis ball. He is vicious on the court, a true competitor.
Well, as it turns out, he is also famous. I’m not sure if I ever told you this, but this fella (Mike) is in the golf business. He manufactures and sells all type of golf equipment out of his Hartford warehouse. He primarily sells online through Ebay and his online store called Linksman Golf.
Recently, Mike was on TV. How he gets all over the place and ends up on TV, I’ll never know. Some people just have it, I suppose. You gotta check him out by clicking here.
Golf equipment at Linksman Golf
Linksman Golf online
Now, I wonder if I should post those videos I took of Mike’s tennis serve on YouTube. Hmmm…
Related posts
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
Many of you may have noticed that it’s winter. Yes, the good ‘ol freezing cold air is back. If you aren’t enjoying the air, maybe you’ll get a kick out of clothes that almost electrify you. I’m talking about static, folks. Yes, static.
I have these long Nike warm-up pants that I sometimes wear when I am playing tennis. They are pretty cool and crazy comfortable. I used to wear them in the summer sometimes until I realized that while they were cool looking, they weren’t all too cool on my legs. My legs are at the pinnacle of muscular perfection and insist on being able to breathe.
Since it started getting colder outside, I have been wearing my warm-up pants more often. I would wear them every time I play tennis, but I am being inhibited by one issue – static electricity.
I am not kidding when I tell you that I have shown up to the tennis club with these stupid pants completely stuck to my legs. I stand there laughing while I try to pull them away from me like that lady on the static commercial on TV. You know the one…she is grabbing at her skirt, trying to get it straight. Yeah, right. Good luck with that.
It gets even worse when I actually start playing tennis. For those of you who haven’t been to an indoor tennis facility, I’ll tell you that there is a very fine layer of “tennis ball dust” covering almost the entire floor. This dust is really the neon yellow fibers that come off the tennis ball when it is hit by a racquet. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that all that tennis ball dust is eventually going to find its way onto my magnetic pants. It’s a wonder I still wear them at all. By the time I am finished playing, my pants are covered with yellow from my knees down.
Needless to say, I hate static.
I’ll tell you one more story before I get to the point.
I have this nice black zipper up fleece that I bought from L.L. Bean a few weeks ago. It’s a very handsome fleece and I really like it. Actually, I did like it until I washed it. You should have seen my eyes when I pulled this thing out of the dryer. Forget about the lint catcher, my fleece caught all the lint. The fleece is pretty much unwearable now. I don’t know what I am going to do about it.
To deal with this problem, I started looking at anti-static remedies online. I went through the traditional fabric softener and dryer sheet thing, but I didn’t think that would really work. There were a bunch of people out there that said they had no luck with dryer sheets on fleece. They said that nothing works. Not cool when you have three cats adding to the problem.
I also came across those reusable dryer balls. I think they are made of rubber or something. People said they had mixed emotions about them, but there was a consensus about putting tennis balls in the dryer with your clothes to reduce wrinkles and static. Since I have an ample supply of tennis balls, I decided to give it a shot.
Tennis balls in dryer
I did a few washes and dried the clothes with the tennis balls. Of course, Laura didn’t try this home remedy with her clothes. She lost faith in my laundry capabilities (and tips) long, long ago. Let’s just say there have been some issues. I believe I don’t need to explain any further, because anyone out there who lives with someone, surely knows of the damage one can cause in the laundry room. Especially, when that someone has an imagination like mine. Just look at me trying to blow snow with a backpack blower in the next post.
I have some good news and some bad news, and I’ll give you the bad news first. My fleece still has visable lint all over it, even when I washed it with only dark stuff. The good news is, the rest of the laundry is almost static free and virtually has no wrinkles. I used to have a wrinkle problem, but since I started using the tennis balls, no more wrinkles. I think that’s fabulous. Also, the rest of the clothes seem to be really lint free.
So, my conclusion is that tennis balls work in the dryer to help out with static reduction, wrinkle reduction and lint reduction. What works on a handsome black fleece? Who knows. If you know, trust me, my ears are open.
Related posts
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
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.
Tennis ball
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.
Related posts
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
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.
Synthetic gut tennis 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.
Related posts
