Topic: Euroka's Tennis Journal

[euroka1]

That's right, Pacer.
Today is a beautiful fall day and I can't find anyone to play or hit with. They're all elsewhere. 
At the least, I can go for a good walk and shall do just that.

Watched some  DC tennis but was annoyed by the noisy crowds both in Madrid and Buenos Aires. They're as bad as the New Yorkers  .

Next week looks a lot more promising.

I used to dislike that as well, but the more Davis Cup matches I watch, the more I like the fact that the crowd is soooo involved.  It certainly looks like they're having more fun than most spectators at regular tourneys.
Aside from intentionally disrupting play, I'm all for being boisterous!!!

  We probably shouldn't sit together, monstertruck. 
I have lots of fun and get very involved in my own quiet way and don't enjoy all that noise in my ear. It's a matter of personal taste, I guess.    I had some exposure to the noisy side when I went to World Team Tennis here.

Back to tennis, I've only had a couple of mild hits with people this week  . No good matches and the weather here is terrible for the weekend. Hoping for better starting Monday. With all the politics and economics around  , I need to hit a tennis ball.

Can we at least meet somewhere after the match for refreshments and post-match analysis?
I'll buy!!!

Surely  , I delight in post-match analyses.
I buy the second round.
........
 

[euroka1]

I had a good hit with the instructor today before the rains returned  . He kept nagging me to turn adequately in preparation for ground strokes both forehand and backhand. I tend to be lazy about this but when I do it the results are a lot better. We also worked on volleys. Also because laziness and poor guesswork, I try too often to get away with windscreen wipers. He suggested I try to hold my racquet a little towards the backhand in the ready position. It seems to work  . Not only do I do the backhand volley right but, much to my surprise, I have no trouble getting across to the forehand when need be.

Play indoors tomorrow night (shall miss the  VP debate  ) and am looking forward to trying out newly honed skills on the opposition.

[OSU Buckeye]

That's right, Pacer.
Today is a beautiful fall day and I can't find anyone to play or hit with. They're all elsewhere. 
At the least, I can go for a good walk and shall do just that.

Watched some  DC tennis but was annoyed by the noisy crowds both in Madrid and Buenos Aires. They're as bad as the New Yorkers  .

Next week looks a lot more promising.

I used to dislike that as well, but the more Davis Cup matches I watch, the more I like the fact that the crowd is soooo involved.  It certainly looks like they're having more fun than most spectators at regular tourneys.
Aside from intentionally disrupting play, I'm all for being boisterous!!!

  We probably shouldn't sit together, monstertruck. 
I have lots of fun and get very involved in my own quiet way and don't enjoy all that noise in my ear. It's a matter of personal taste, I guess.    I had some exposure to the noisy side when I went to World Team Tennis here.

Back to tennis, I've only had a couple of mild hits with people this week  . No good matches and the weather here is terrible for the weekend. Hoping for better starting Monday. With all the politics and economics around  , I need to hit a tennis ball.

Can we at least meet somewhere after the match for refreshments and post-match analysis?
I'll buy!!!

Surely  , I delight in post-match analyses.
I buy the second round.
........
 

Sweet, I'll buy the 3rd round and we should be feeling right-nice if we have chosen good drinks!  

[euroka1]

I had a good hit with the instructor today before the rains returned  . He kept nagging me to turn adequately in preparation for ground strokes both forehand and backhand. I tend to be lazy about this but when I do it the results are a lot better. We also worked on volleys. Also because laziness and poor guesswork, I try too often to get away with windscreen wipers. He suggested I try to hold my racquet a little towards the backhand in the ready position. It seems to work  . Not only do I do the backhand volley right but, much to my surprise, I have no trouble getting across to the forehand when need be.

Play indoors tomorrow night (shall miss the  VP debate  ) and am looking forward to trying out newly honed skills on the opposition.

We did have a very competitive doubles game last night.  My partner and I got the first at 8-6 but were unable to finish off the second which we left at 6-6 when the two hours of court time ran out. Was not able to get to play many volleys. I guess it's a good sign when people start avoiding you when at net. I did well on serve but return of serve was sometimes awful. I seem to have finally learned how to handle high bouncing balls by getting my racquet up and turning early. Scored quite a few points that way. Following Dmast's opinion expressed elsewhere, I removed the damper from the racquet and there are no ill effects today despite some fairly intensive tennis.

Today is a day off. At varying levels, I'm playing each day Saturday to Thursday next week. Most is outdoors and the weather here looks like it is going to be splendid for it. 

[jeffrx]

We did have a very competitive doubles game last night.  My partner and I got the first at 8-6 but were unable to finish off the second which we left at 6-6 when the two hours of court time ran out. Was not able to get to play many volleys. I guess it's a good sign when people start avoiding you when at net. I did well on serve but return of serve was sometimes awful. I seem to have finally learned how to handle high bouncing balls by getting my racquet up and turning early. Scored quite a few points that way. Following Dmast's opinion expressed elsewhere, I removed the damper from the racquet and there are no ill effects today despite some fairly intensive tennis.

Today is a day off. At varying levels, I'm playing each day Saturday to Thursday next week. Most is outdoors and the weather here looks like it is going to be splendid for it. 

Looks like you are playing alot of tennis.  That's great.  I'm down to about 2-3x/wk right now because there is just too much going on.  I would ultimately prefer to play 4-5 times per week.... You have the life Euroka! 

[OSU Buckeye]

We did have a very competitive doubles game last night.  My partner and I got the first at 8-6 but were unable to finish off the second which we left at 6-6 when the two hours of court time ran out. Was not able to get to play many volleys. I guess it's a good sign when people start avoiding you when at net. I did well on serve but return of serve was sometimes awful. I seem to have finally learned how to handle high bouncing balls by getting my racquet up and turning early. Scored quite a few points that way. Following Dmast's opinion expressed elsewhere, I removed the damper from the racquet and there are no ill effects today despite some fairly intensive tennis.

Today is a day off. At varying levels, I'm playing each day Saturday to Thursday next week. Most is outdoors and the weather here looks like it is going to be splendid for it. 

Looks like you are playing alot of tennis.  That's great.  I'm down to about 2-3x/wk right now because there is just too much going on.  I would ultimately prefer to play 4-5 times per week.... You have the life Euroka! 

E is livin' large!   

[euroka1]

Had two games of mixed doubles (always nice) on Saturday and Sunday in perfect fall weather.
The first didn't work out so well, however. For starters, people arrived late and the usual nice, friendly neighborhood court was occupied. This meant we had to move off to a local school where there was a free court but (i) classes with many stray balls were in progress on adjacent courts, (ii) we had to sweep the leaves off the court first (iii) my partner had no pockets, could handle only one ball for serving and was serving abysmally as well.  It all left me somewhat disoriented and it showed up in my own game which was way below par as a result. Poor concentration, I'm afraid.  Today's match with different people worked out a lot better (i) the friendly neighborhood court was both available and already clear of leaves (ii) my partner could be depended on to run everything down which left me free to concentrate on the net. With everything in place, my serve was good, my groundstrokes were good, and I had some nice net shots and even some half-volleys. I guess that's the way it goes some days  . Best to remember the good ones and forget the bad ones.

[monstertruck]

Day1  Isn't funny how it seems that some days things just go awry?  I often wonder if that's truly the case or merely our perception....

Day 2  Always nice to have a 'bounce back day' immediately following a unsatisfactory day on court!  Nice to hear that your 'mixing' it up!

[jeffrx]

I always remember the bad ones.  They motivate me to play better "next time."   

[euroka1]

Memories of "bad Saturday" fading fast  .
Onward and upward    .
A good mens doubles early this morning. Two hours of competitive tennis  . Final score 6-4,5-7, 2-2. There's added fun when it's this even. I was happy with most things I did.

[OSU Buckeye]

Memories of "bad Saturday" fading fast  .
Onward and upward    .
A good mens doubles early this morning. Two hours of competitive tennis  . Final score 6-4,5-7, 2-2. There's added fun when it's this even. I was happy with most things I did.

Nice E!   Closely battled matches are almost always a bit more fun!   

[monstertruck]

Memories of "bad Saturday" fading fast  .
Onward and upward    .
A good mens doubles early this morning. Two hours of competitive tennis  . Final score 6-4,5-7, 2-2. There's added fun when it's this even. I was happy with most things I did.

Tight matches with all players playing well are what we live for!!!

[euroka1]

Played doubles for two hours last night. Not a good one    . On the other side was a gal who is a Washington lawyer and who was very good at returning wide-angle short balls. The score 6-2, 5-7, 4-5 was not all that bad. The morning after, I've decided that the problem was that she made me feel very old  .  But, as my tennis instructor would have said,  "Don't complain, at least you're still playing."

[jeffrx]

Played doubles for two hours last night. Not a good one    . On the other side was a gal who is a Washington lawyer and who was very good at returning wide-angle short balls. The score 6-2, 5-7, 4-5 was not all that bad. The morning after, I've decided that the problem was that she made me feel very old  .  But, as my tennis instructor would have said,  "Don't complain, at least you're still playing."

Maybe she was attractive and you were admiring the view too much....

[OSU Buckeye]

Hard to complain about playing with an attractive girl on the same court...............just don't expect great playing results!   

[Jamesdster]

Attractive or not, I've got 5:2 odds that Scott woulda drilled her at the net 
By drilled I mean hit with an overhead 

[OSU Buckeye]

 

[euroka1]

 
Don't forget guys, she's a lawyer.

[euroka1]

Had a great game of mixed doubles on a perfect fall sunday here in Washington. We were pretty evenly matched. We won 7-5, 6-4  and there were no lawyers.    I was doing unusually well returning deep and very close to (but inside!) the baseline.

[euroka1]

I turned up to participate in an informal pick-up game early today. There were 5 of us so we just played games with the server taking a break after each of his games.  Still, with the weather like this, it was a pleasure just to hit a tennis ball    and a good time was had by all.