Topic: The Creecher's Journal

[Creecher]

Hello there - I am a fairly new tennis player but I have a passion for the sport that is building. I do not know if the passion is for the actual sport or for the competition that the sport brings. I love this game and cannot seem to get enough.

I live in the Atlanta area so I have MANY MANY opportunities to play tennis. We have at least 5 leagues that provide year round tennis for doubles or singles. Some of the leagues are full on team leagues while others provide the chance to play singles and 1 league is for doubles but you have just 1 partner to play the whole season with.

In my first  season ever my partner and I played at the 2.5 level and advanced to the City Finals but I had to forfeit due to a schedule conflict.

My second season was full on team tennis and we were about middle of the road for our division. We had several beginners so we were very happy with the results.

3rd season was with the one partner and we swept our division by winning all 5 matches in straight sets. That was FUN. We did not have the available time to opt in to the playoffs so that was the end.

4the season was back to the team and we took 3rd in our division. We were VERY Happy with these results as the #1 & #2 teams in our division met in the City Finals so that means we were in the toughest division.

I am now in my 5the season and it is a new USTA team playing at 3.0 - We have taking 1 of 2 points so far and have 2 more matches to be played for our 3rd week.

I am learning to love and loving to learn this game.

[Tennis4you]

Welcome to the game and welcome to the forums!  Are you playing single, doubles or some of both on your teams?

[Creecher]

I have only played doubles so far. I think I will try singles some day but I will probably do that in a K-Swiss league or other league prior to having the possibility of letting a team down.

I had a good practice session last night. 5 of us got a coach for an hour and worked hard on volleys, top-sin, and serves. I am sore today but I was really enjoying it last night.

I feel like I am in a rut right now with my game. I have a new P for this USTA team and we have not won yet. We had a very close match last week that contained a tie-breaker for the 1st set and went 3 sets but we came up on the short end.

I NEED A WIN TO FEEL BETTER.

[Tennis4you]

I know how that goes.  If your partner and you lose enough matches switch to a new partner.  You will need to break that cycle.

[Creecher]

I had a great session this morning with the kids. I sort of host a kids tennis play group. We had 2 4 year olds and 2 2 year olds come out today. It is really cool watching these kids try to swing a racket. I am guiding (not coaching) these kids through hitting the ball and not each other. It is quite funny.

Tonight I have a team practice session and we always play some hard sets against each other so I will report in a little later. I am going to be using the top sin techniques that I worked on last night.

[Tennis4you]

Coaching anyone is fun.  That is cool that you are doing that.  Back in college I had so few people to hit with.  I ended up getting asked after a match of mine for me to show someone how to serve.  So I helped him, and then evern helped him with more of his game.  he was a super fast learner and ended up being one of my college hitting partners.  That is how I found out I love teaching tennis.

[Creecher]

We had a great after practice set of doubles. I played with a new partner and we worked well together. I was working on my top spin shots and I need some help. It seems that I am still hitting the ball too short. Even with the top sin swing working my shots are dropping in the service box. I am trying to get them back to the service line. Any advice on hitting deeper shots?

I am also working on my serve. I have decided that I have NO 2nd serve while practicing. I am going to hit 1st serves ALL the time so that I can get better and get more confident. This worked out to our advantage except for one point. I actually had 4 1st serve ACES and that is rare. I had 1 "2nd" serve ACE. THOSE FELT GREAT!!! !!!!! But we got into a tie break. I was serving when we were down 5-6 and I double faulted. I only did that on that last point. Well - that is exact;y why I only want 1st serves at practice. I need to get more confidence when hitting 2nd serves in a real match.

[Creecher]

 One of my Partners and I won a great match last night. I have played with this guy 4 times and we have lost every match. Actually, we got BAGELED in our last match. We have always thought that we were a good pair but we just could not find the right combination before.

Well, we finally turned that around last night. I have been reading Winning Ugly by Gilbert and we used some of his suggestions. THEY WORKED. We won the spin and selected to receive the serve. WE got up 3-0 in the first set. They fought back but it ended 6-4.

We relaxed a little too much in the second and found ourselves down 5-1. We started to apply some pressure but we could not fight our way back and it ended 4-6.

Into the 3rd we go and we climb to a demanding and emotional lead of 5-1. It ended at 6-2 with us ahead. YIPPPEEEEEE

Here are some very cool things about my game.

I was on at the net! They could not get much past, over, or through me last night and I helped  my P hold every serve.

I was able to remain calm in a bad call situation. I usually lose my concentration after a bad call but I shrugged it off and answered with 3 points to hold serve. This is a BIG one for me.

I played their lob game well by responding with some deep lobs. They were the first to flinch and made many errors.

My top spin was working and it seemed to be helping.

I have only talked about what I did but my P was on as well. He was making shots that you might see on the tour. (Circus tour of course).

It felt great to break a 4 game losing streak with this P and a current 3 games losing streak overall.

[blisteringboom]

my forehands have extremely heavy topspin and the problem usually with newcomers to topspin is that you are imparting topspin on the ball but you arn't applying power when topspin is used with power is whnhen it becomes deadly with the dangerous kick and incrdible nose dives. Try driving through the ball et stay under it in a long loopy swing

[blisteringboom]

Congrats on the victory what a compelling match felt like i was right there with you ... now you guys got to get on a tear that would be something GOOD LUCK

[Creecher]

Hello all - I have sort of been off tennis for a while as a few vacations have kept me from playing much. I was able to hit for a few hours here and there but nothing to really drive me.

Once I was back home I played my first ever singles match for my USTA team. I did not do as well at singles as I do in doubles. I guess I must be a weaker player then I thought. Just kidding of course as I realized that singles is a very different game doubles. I was trying to play the match as if I had a partner. I was attacking the net too much and at the wrong times.

I learned in my first set even though I lost 1-6 and I fought back hard in the second set. It was 3-3 at one time with me about to hold serve. At 40-15 I hit serve that pretty much sliced the T in 2 but he called it out. My second serve was good but I could not keep my momentum and lost after 4 deuces. We ended the match at 1-6 4-6

I do want to play singles again but I do like doubles much better. I will get that chance tonight as me and a new P have our first match in a league called T2 Tennis.

[Mystify]

GuD lUcK wItH yOuR SiNgleS!!!

[Tennis4you]

Hello all - I have sort of been off tennis for a while as a few vacations have kept me from playing much. I was able to hit for a few hours here and there but nothing to really drive me.

Once I was back home I played my first ever singles match for my USTA team. I did not do as well at singles as I do in doubles. I guess I must be a weaker player then I thought. Just kidding of course as I realized that singles is a very different game doubles. I was trying to play the match as if I had a partner. I was attacking the net too much and at the wrong times.

I learned in my first set even though I lost 1-6 and I fought back hard in the second set. It was 3-3 at one time with me about to hold serve. At 40-15 I hit serve that pretty much sliced the T in 2 but he called it out. My second serve was good but I could not keep my momentum and lost after 4 deuces. We ended the match at 1-6 4-6

I do want to play singles again but I do like doubles much better. I will get that chance tonight as me and a new P have our first match in a league called T2 Tennis.

I am liking doubles better these days too, but it use to be the opposite for me.  If you can consistantly play both I think it will only help your overall game.  

[Mystify]

YUP

[blisteringboom]

wise words scott.

[Creecher]

I tend to be the type of person that is on again / off again with my posting but ... ... now I am playing A LOT of tennis and would like to get to regular postings so that you all can give me advice, pointers, encouragement.

I will update different parts of game over the next few days but will start with the BEST news. My Mens Team is going to the playoffs in ALTA after a very successful season. We took 30 of 35 points and won all 20 points that were available at home. THIS IS OUR HOUSE!

I only lost 1 match when I was playing Line 2 with a newer partner but me and my regular partner took 5 wins in the Line 1 position. WE ROCKED.

The one part of my game that I am happy with but does need some work is my service game. I simply do not hit a "second serve" as I do not have an effective one. I simply rehit a first serve if my first one misses. This has been very effective because when that serve goes in it is usually an ace, or unreturnable shot. I just want to get a good spinning second in my bag of tricks.

Any advice on how to best do this?

[Tennis4you]

I think having a good second serve with spin is important, something you are obviously picking up on.  This is not a serve that you want to swing slowly at, you still need to swing with good racquet head speed but this time with all spin.  I would recommend the continental grip for this sere, heck, for any serve.

Get a bucket of balls and go work on it.  I would not try to impliment it too quickly into your matches, just get some confidence with it and start to work it into match play.  Maybe play out some first serves with it and see how it goes.  That way you can always fall back on your typical second serve if need be.

[Creecher]

We made it to the Semi's and that is as far as we could go. It was a great day of tennis and EVERY match played was pretty competitive. Me and my P lost Line 1 with a score of 4-6 4-6. I am very happy to have been in this match as our opponents were much higher ranked. In this league (Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association - ALTA) teams are ranked according to the combined ranking of the members. There is one catch that hurts sometimes. If a player has not played in over 1 year they discount all previous rankings.

OK - so we are a C8 team which is equivalent to 2.5 at the lowest lines and maybe 3.0 - 3.5 at the highest. One of our opponents had played A4 tennis in the past which should be a 4.0+ player. Needless to say we were "out matched" but played well despite.

In the end our team accomplished our goal of moving out of C8 level which is the entry level position. We jumped to C6 as we had 30 of 35 points for the regular season.

I will not be involved in league tennis until January when my Mixed Doubles season starts but I will be focused on my communities Singles Ladder. Singles is not my game but I am enjoying it more and more.

[Creecher]

I played a singles match last night for the Ladder that I am on. I was hoping to maintain my position but I lost 2-6 4-6. Even though I lost I really felt like this was a very competitive match. All but the 1st game of the 1st set went to multiple deuces. That set really could have gone either way (despite what the score shows). The 2nd set was like the first except I let down. I was up 4-3 and could not get anything to go in favor.

I have noticed something very interesting about my singles scores - I have lost 3 matches with the following scores:

2-6 6-7
2-6 4-6
2-6 4-6

I am trying to focus on what happens in these 1st sets vrs. the 2nd sets and I think that I have an idea. I am too slow to learn what I am doing wrong and what my opponent is doing right. I need to play closer attention to what wins for me and what wins for him and adjust in the 1st set.