Topic: Pawan's Tennis Journal

[pawan89]

Great to here that the ankle felt good!          Confidence is tricky because you get it from repeated successful attempts and yet it helps to have confidence to be able to be able to build it.

Its the circle of life.. and it moves us all.. through despair and hope.. through faith and love.. till we find our place.. in the path unwinding.. in the circle.. the circle of life.

Don't ask my why I know the lyrics.

So we played today, and we played a lot. We played 4 sets and some general hitting for 3 and a half hours. The matches seem to be getting longer and longer and the score I know for fact has been getting closer and closer and more competetive. So its a good thing I suppose. I won all four sets. 6-4 6-2 6-3 6-4.
There is one embarassing thing though.. Neither of us could hold serve at all. Of my six games every set, I am pretty sure only a few games were service holds. I don't know why, even towards the end of the match.. around 2nd set halfway is where I start serving my best usually.. it never happened though. Way too many double faults and I still feel I have to blame my ankle because I was serving wonderfully before it - even my second serves were so good, almost as good if not the same as my first serve a year ago. But the rest of the game, when we both actually got the point started was good, groundstrokes volleys the whole game... I liked it.

Also a problem my friend pointed out to me, I knew it myself but its all the more important when someone else also notices it. When a ball is hit right to me.. I don't move. I am most comfortable going to the ball that way the feet are moving as it is and helps you get your footwork naturally. But when a balll is coming right at you.. I mean you are supposed to go to the ball in all other cases but when its coming right at you, you have to adjust your footwork right there which I don't do. So basically when somethings hit at me while I am watching it, I just watch it and hit it but don't move my feet. result? errors and not so good shots obviously. Its not as bad as it sounds, I still have solid shots but I feel I can do so much better if I moved my feet, especially if someone else realizes that I do worse when a ball is hit right to me than when its away from me? thats sad and bad. As it is my footwork is not that good.
Any advice? I know one that works: MOVE! but I don't quite do it.

[OSU Buckeye]

What are those lyrics though..........The Lion King or something!?  

[pawan89]

What are those lyrics though..........The Lion King or something!?  

Yeah. The manager at shoprite plays this radio station that plays a lot of old songs (When I get older losing my hair many years from now will you still be sending me a valentine birthday greetings, bottle of wine?) and such and a lot of strange songs. And the worst part is it repeats EVERY SINGLE DAY!! So you know, i have some songs stuck in my head that I would rather not but I can't help it. And apparently the circle of life and can you feel the love tonight is on a few times.

So I played today, been 3 days or so  I think? I played a pretty crappy first set, bad service games.. my forehand really really erratic I don't know why. I won somehow in a tiebreaker although I did win the tiebreaker convicingly (7-1). I believe I can do that better than my friend.. play the important points.. nto neccessarily better but whatever it takes to win those. Second set I played much better.. it was a whole different me really surprised myself. I was almost back to playing like I was 2 weeks ago. My serves, my forehands, my backhands, volleys.. Solid as it can get. I was up a break with him serving at 2-4 when we saw the time and realized we didn't have much time left so we decied to play a tiebreaker which I won 7-4 and then hit around a little to work on groundstrokes. It just hit me today how little topspin I put compared to the pros. And I always thought I was on the higher end of topspinners when I was in highschool. But when you see Federer and the likes come a foot off the ground with the pace and racquet going up.. my shots look flat as anything. Sometimes though when I put a lot of topspin I feel the ball is in comfortable hitting position for the opponent.. i mean give me a chest high ball even slightly in front of the baseline and I'll capitalize on it. and I don't like being on the recieving end of that.. so I only put 'a lot' of topspin on angled shots.
Also I suppose it depends on my opponent - since he too doesn't give me much height, I can't put too much topspin on a low bouncing ball.

[OSU Buckeye]

What are those lyrics though..........The Lion King or something!?  

Yeah. The manager at shoprite plays this radio station that plays a lot of old songs (When I get older losing my hair many years from now will you still be sending me a valentine birthday greetings, bottle of wine?) and such and a lot of strange songs. And the worst part is it repeats EVERY SINGLE DAY!! So you know, i have some songs stuck in my head that I would rather not but I can't help it. And apparently the circle of life and can you feel the love tonight is on a few times.

So I played today, been 3 days or so  I think? I played a pretty crappy first set, bad service games.. my forehand really really erratic I don't know why. I won somehow in a tiebreaker although I did win the tiebreaker convicingly (7-1). I believe I can do that better than my friend.. play the important points.. nto neccessarily better but whatever it takes to win those. Second set I played much better.. it was a whole different me really surprised myself. I was almost back to playing like I was 2 weeks ago. My serves, my forehands, my backhands, volleys.. Solid as it can get. I was up a break with him serving at 2-4 when we saw the time and realized we didn't have much time left so we decied to play a tiebreaker which I won 7-4 and then hit around a little to work on groundstrokes. It just hit me today how little topspin I put compared to the pros. And I always thought I was on the higher end of topspinners when I was in highschool. But when you see Federer and the likes come a foot off the ground with the pace and racquet going up.. my shots look flat as anything. Sometimes though when I put a lot of topspin I feel the ball is in comfortable hitting position for the opponent.. i mean give me a chest high ball even slightly in front of the baseline and I'll capitalize on it. and I don't like being on the recieving end of that.. so I only put 'a lot' of topspin on angled shots.
Also I suppose it depends on my opponent - since he too doesn't give me much height, I can't put too much topspin on a low bouncing ball.

I used to work at a movie theater back in the day where we were subjected to a similar situation as yours.  

[dmastous]

What are those lyrics though..........The Lion King or something!?  

Yeah. The manager at shoprite plays this radio station that plays a lot of old songs (When I get older losing my hair many years from now will you still be sending me a valentine birthday greetings, bottle of wine?) and such and a lot of strange songs. And the worst part is it repeats EVERY SINGLE DAY!! So you know, i have some songs stuck in my head that I would rather not but I can't help it. And apparently the circle of life and can you feel the love tonight is on a few times.

And the worst part about it is, those darn songs are taking away brain cells you will never get back.  

[pawan89]

What are those lyrics though..........The Lion King or something!?  

Yeah. The manager at shoprite plays this radio station that plays a lot of old songs (When I get older losing my hair many years from now will you still be sending me a valentine birthday greetings, bottle of wine?) and such and a lot of strange songs. And the worst part is it repeats EVERY SINGLE DAY!! So you know, i have some songs stuck in my head that I would rather not but I can't help it. And apparently the circle of life and can you feel the love tonight is on a few times.

And the worst part about it is, those darn songs are taking away brain cells you will never get back.  

Exactly.. brain cells that could be used to muscle some of my forehands..  

[Jamesdster]

What are those lyrics though..........The Lion King or something!?  

Yeah. The manager at shoprite plays this radio station that plays a lot of old songs (When I get older losing my hair many years from now will you still be sending me a valentine birthday greetings, bottle of wine?) and such and a lot of strange songs. And the worst part is it repeats EVERY SINGLE DAY!! So you know, i have some songs stuck in my head that I would rather not but I can't help it. And apparently the circle of life and can you feel the love tonight is on a few times.

So I played today, been 3 days or so  I think? I played a pretty crappy first set, bad service games.. my forehand really really erratic I don't know why. I won somehow in a tiebreaker although I did win the tiebreaker convicingly (7-1). I believe I can do that better than my friend.. play the important points.. nto neccessarily better but whatever it takes to win those. Second set I played much better.. it was a whole different me really surprised myself. I was almost back to playing like I was 2 weeks ago. My serves, my forehands, my backhands, volleys.. Solid as it can get. I was up a break with him serving at 2-4 when we saw the time and realized we didn't have much time left so we decied to play a tiebreaker which I won 7-4 and then hit around a little to work on groundstrokes. It just hit me today how little topspin I put compared to the pros. And I always thought I was on the higher end of topspinners when I was in highschool. But when you see Federer and the likes come a foot off the ground with the pace and racquet going up.. my shots look flat as anything. Sometimes though when I put a lot of topspin I feel the ball is in comfortable hitting position for the opponent.. i mean give me a chest high ball even slightly in front of the baseline and I'll capitalize on it. and I don't like being on the recieving end of that.. so I only put 'a lot' of topspin on angled shots.
Also I suppose it depends on my opponent - since he too doesn't give me much height, I can't put too much topspin on a low bouncing ball.[/quote

Don't even go there!    

[dmastous]

What are those lyrics though..........The Lion King or something!?  

Yeah. The manager at shoprite plays this radio station that plays a lot of old songs (When I get older losing my hair many years from now will you still be sending me a valentine birthday greetings, bottle of wine?) and such and a lot of strange songs. And the worst part is it repeats EVERY SINGLE DAY!! So you know, i have some songs stuck in my head that I would rather not but I can't help it. And apparently the circle of life and can you feel the love tonight is on a few times.

So I played today, been 3 days or so  I think? I played a pretty crappy first set, bad service games.. my forehand really really erratic I don't know why. I won somehow in a tiebreaker although I did win the tiebreaker convicingly (7-1). I believe I can do that better than my friend.. play the important points.. nto neccessarily better but whatever it takes to win those. Second set I played much better.. it was a whole different me really surprised myself. I was almost back to playing like I was 2 weeks ago. My serves, my forehands, my backhands, volleys.. Solid as it can get. I was up a break with him serving at 2-4 when we saw the time and realized we didn't have much time left so we decied to play a tiebreaker which I won 7-4 and then hit around a little to work on groundstrokes. It just hit me today how little topspin I put compared to the pros. And I always thought I was on the higher end of topspinners when I was in highschool. But when you see Federer and the likes come a foot off the ground with the pace and racquet going up.. my shots look flat as anything. Sometimes though when I put a lot of topspin I feel the ball is in comfortable hitting position for the opponent.. i mean give me a chest high ball even slightly in front of the baseline and I'll capitalize on it. and I don't like being on the recieving end of that.. so I only put 'a lot' of topspin on angled shots.
Also I suppose it depends on my opponent - since he too doesn't give me much height, I can't put too much topspin on a low bouncing ball.

Don't even go there!    

Can I guess that your reaction to someone with hair is "Nice fur hat"?

[Jamesdster]

What are those lyrics though..........The Lion King or something!?  

Yeah. The manager at shoprite plays this radio station that plays a lot of old songs (When I get older losing my hair many years from now will you still be sending me a valentine birthday greetings, bottle of wine?) and such and a lot of strange songs. And the worst part is it repeats EVERY SINGLE DAY!! So you know, i have some songs stuck in my head that I would rather not but I can't help it. And apparently the circle of life and can you feel the love tonight is on a few times.

So I played today, been 3 days or so  I think? I played a pretty crappy first set, bad service games.. my forehand really really erratic I don't know why. I won somehow in a tiebreaker although I did win the tiebreaker convicingly (7-1). I believe I can do that better than my friend.. play the important points.. nto neccessarily better but whatever it takes to win those. Second set I played much better.. it was a whole different me really surprised myself. I was almost back to playing like I was 2 weeks ago. My serves, my forehands, my backhands, volleys.. Solid as it can get. I was up a break with him serving at 2-4 when we saw the time and realized we didn't have much time left so we decied to play a tiebreaker which I won 7-4 and then hit around a little to work on groundstrokes. It just hit me today how little topspin I put compared to the pros. And I always thought I was on the higher end of topspinners when I was in highschool. But when you see Federer and the likes come a foot off the ground with the pace and racquet going up.. my shots look flat as anything. Sometimes though when I put a lot of topspin I feel the ball is in comfortable hitting position for the opponent.. i mean give me a chest high ball even slightly in front of the baseline and I'll capitalize on it. and I don't like being on the recieving end of that.. so I only put 'a lot' of topspin on angled shots.
Also I suppose it depends on my opponent - since he too doesn't give me much height, I can't put too much topspin on a low bouncing ball.

Don't even go there!    

Can I guess that your reaction to someone with hair is "Nice fur hat"?

Yes.  And Scott, Jeffro and OSU think the reason I hate them is because of their beatings they put on me on court but in actuality, I am envious of their HAIR!

[OSU Buckeye]

What are those lyrics though..........The Lion King or something!?  

Yeah. The manager at shoprite plays this radio station that plays a lot of old songs (When I get older losing my hair many years from now will you still be sending me a valentine birthday greetings, bottle of wine?) and such and a lot of strange songs. And the worst part is it repeats EVERY SINGLE DAY!! So you know, i have some songs stuck in my head that I would rather not but I can't help it. And apparently the circle of life and can you feel the love tonight is on a few times.

So I played today, been 3 days or so  I think? I played a pretty crappy first set, bad service games.. my forehand really really erratic I don't know why. I won somehow in a tiebreaker although I did win the tiebreaker convicingly (7-1). I believe I can do that better than my friend.. play the important points.. nto neccessarily better but whatever it takes to win those. Second set I played much better.. it was a whole different me really surprised myself. I was almost back to playing like I was 2 weeks ago. My serves, my forehands, my backhands, volleys.. Solid as it can get. I was up a break with him serving at 2-4 when we saw the time and realized we didn't have much time left so we decied to play a tiebreaker which I won 7-4 and then hit around a little to work on groundstrokes. It just hit me today how little topspin I put compared to the pros. And I always thought I was on the higher end of topspinners when I was in highschool. But when you see Federer and the likes come a foot off the ground with the pace and racquet going up.. my shots look flat as anything. Sometimes though when I put a lot of topspin I feel the ball is in comfortable hitting position for the opponent.. i mean give me a chest high ball even slightly in front of the baseline and I'll capitalize on it. and I don't like being on the recieving end of that.. so I only put 'a lot' of topspin on angled shots.
Also I suppose it depends on my opponent - since he too doesn't give me much height, I can't put too much topspin on a low bouncing ball.

Don't even go there!    

Can I guess that your reaction to someone with hair is "Nice fur hat"?

Yes.  And Scott, Jeffro and OSU think the reason I hate them is because of their beatings they put on me on court but in actuality, I am envious of their HAIR!

I am picturing a timeline with pictures showing each stage of how much hair is there.  You have Scott which has his hair, then me with a solid head of hair with signs of recession, then Jeffro who is like me only with more recession, and then Jster at the other end of the spectrum.

[pawan89]

Relax Jster. I'll go and .. uhmm.. get a haircut right now in honor of you. Think of it this way.. you are much much more aerodynamic than Scott OSU and others.. not to mention you don't have the significant added weight of hair right on top of you, pushing you down - believe me I feel the weight so much it messes up my game. There must be a reason you are 5.0 and OSU and Scott are lowly 4.5s

[pawan89]

I played today. Three good sets 6-0 3-6 7-6. Not bad at all I think.
I have to get this out, I don't like this kinda attitude but I have to get it out. So often I see this lady who coaches young kids and she trains them at the courts we play at. Well it goes without saying that she's pretty good and the kids she trains are also pretty good. Well, there's this one kid who I have seen a few times before and he has this extreme forehand grip and he was hitting with her today. And I feel so bad just looking at them. They were having such good baseline rallies. I see them and then I look back at my game and I feel so crappy. Regardless of how well I think I have been playing. My forehand isn't half as good or consistent as that kids, my backhand sucks and can't get back any decently hit shots it faces. My serve is on and then its not and I still doublefault. Forget about 4.5 I feel like I am not 2.0 worthy. I make so many silly mistakes on my forehand that sometimes I feel it looked good only because the rest of my game sucked. Even my backhands are better than my forehands now it seems. And I know this is bad thinking. Of course they were jsut hitting back to each other, the coach lady was keeping the ball nice and shallow so it reached perfectly to him at the baseline, I haven't seen him serve.. I should be able to beat the crap out of him in a match given he's like 12 or 13. Or can I. Whatever, sometimes I feel so proud of myself to have come to this level after 6 years of playing just by reading books and highlight clips and yet one kid liek this comes and messes up my whole mindset. Whatever..
I just need to start playing my best all the time and then improve upon that, as simple as that. I am confident in my game, I know I have the tennis to play like I want to play and I need to keep doing that and get better and not let little kids throw me off like this. I'm playing tommorrow morning again, hopefully.

[OSU Buckeye]

I played today. Three good sets 6-0 3-6 7-6. Not bad at all I think.
I have to get this out, I don't like this kinda attitude but I have to get it out. So often I see this lady who coaches young kids and she trains them at the courts we play at. Well it goes without saying that she's pretty good and the kids she trains are also pretty good. Well, there's this one kid who I have seen a few times before and he has this extreme forehand grip and he was hitting with her today. And I feel so bad just looking at them. They were having such good baseline rallies. I see them and then I look back at my game and I feel so crappy. Regardless of how well I think I have been playing. My forehand isn't half as good or consistent as that kids, my backhand sucks and can't get back any decently hit shots it faces. My serve is on and then its not and I still doublefault. Forget about 4.5 I feel like I am not 2.0 worthy. I make so many silly mistakes on my forehand that sometimes I feel it looked good only because the rest of my game sucked. Even my backhands are better than my forehands now it seems. And I know this is bad thinking. Of course they were jsut hitting back to each other, the coach lady was keeping the ball nice and shallow so it reached perfectly to him at the baseline, I haven't seen him serve.. I should be able to beat the crap out of him in a match given he's like 12 or 13. Or can I. Whatever, sometimes I feel so proud of myself to have come to this level after 6 years of playing just by reading books and highlight clips and yet one kid liek this comes and messes up my whole mindset. Whatever..
I just need to start playing my best all the time and then improve upon that, as simple as that. I am confident in my game, I know I have the tennis to play like I want to play and I need to keep doing that and get better and not let little kids throw me off like this. I'm playing tommorrow morning again, hopefully.

Yeah, this is all very interesting.  Tennis for sure has many levels and watching different people is good but it can also be a little intimidating.  Try to hook up with someone that you think is better than you and then you can get a good comparison off of their game.  Ideally, you would compete against some tougher players at least some off the time anyway.  In the end, just enjoying the game is the goal for playing but if you are competitive at all then winning or playing well makes it sooooo much more fun.  Anyway, good luck and enjoy!  

[pawan89]

Did I mention I played yesterday? no.. I was is a not so good mood again which is really unlike me. I can't really remember the last time I was seriously annoyed at anything. And even yesterday... I was just really disappointed. Well anyway, we played only one set and I lose 3-6. Its just that my forehand seems to have completely disappeared. Its been the most stable shot so far and now all of a sudden it has completely dissolved. I need to somehow bring it back or retool my entire forehand, I hope I can bring it back. I loved my forehand.

[pawan89]

I played just now. Basically in the mornings I am clearly at advantage because I warm up faster than him and I can get some sorta game going beofre him. That's why evenings we are more evenly matched and matches are more exciting. I won 6-1 but my serve and return of serve were what won me the set, not many backhand and forehand errors but I didn't go for too much on them. Just two or three forehand winners and I doubt any backhand winners (besides dropshots) since I sliced most of them. But then we hit around for an hour working on our groundstrokes and I felt good. I got myself together and hit pretty well. So I have decided to play well again And I am going to do just that. I'll go get my two remaining racquets restrung soon.. change my overgrips (to normal overgrips not the everlasting ones I have now) and get back in groove. Also I have decided that although I might not be playing much from september onwards till almost next may, I will work on my fitness seriously. I believe I have reached a level where fitness has become either a glaring weakness or the clear step to better play. I just realized that when we have good serving days we don't use that much energy because its all serve and finish the point soon. But when you really have to use proper footwork for long sets.. It is pretty tiring.
A lot of credit to the Inner Tennis.

[pawan89]

Well I haven't played since Sunday and wont be able to till Friday. Hopefully this break will help me get back in full form and I can pick up where I left of two three weeks ago before I sprained my ankle. I think I will.

[Jamesdster]

Well I haven't played since Sunday and wont be able to till Friday. Hopefully this break will help me get back in full form and I can pick up where I left of two three weeks ago before I sprained my ankle. I think I will.

paw - be sure and rest that uhhhh paw.  you dont wanna come back to soon and have that injury cause another injury, like when you favor one hurt body part and that causes something else to go (I AM afterall, the resident expert on failing body parts   ).

[pawan89]

paw - be sure and rest that uhhhh paw.  you dont wanna come back to soon and have that injury cause another injury, like when you favor one hurt body part and that causes something else to go (I AM afterall, the resident expert on failing body parts   ).

Thanks, I sure hope the ankle's fully healed by now. The final test would be to actually run a few miles again and see how it feels I suppose since I don't feel a thing during tennis.

I played for about 2 hours today. Mostly we just hit since we both haven't played in a week and just wanted to stabilize our tennis. We started a set and he was serving at 3-5 when we decided to just stop playing sets and keep hitting because we were getting bored and lazy and as usual when that happens we do crazy things like start trying to imitate the screamin women or try doing sampras slam dunk overheads for no reason and all the trick shots and everything. I was feeling pretty good. My serve has lost a lot but again I didn't serve much today and it was after a while so I can't say anything. I still felt pretty good on my serve and I trust my feelings a lot so I am happy. My groundstrokes were solid. My net play was perfect.. I won all 2 points I got my racquet on.. beautiful points. Its just I got passed the remaining 3 or 4 times I treid going up. Mostly I realize this is due to indecision and me getting caught in no-man's land. But overall I am satisfied.

My class ends next week so I'll have a good two weeks before college starts again.. my last day at work is the 27th.. so I will have another week before college starts with nothing to do and hopefully just tennis.

[pawan89]

Played a lot today, about 4 and a half hours, 5 sets. The first two sets I don't even remember the score but I know I won easily and it wasn't that competetive at all, we were still sorta warming up. The last three sets were classic. I won 6-4 6-2 6-4 but we played some good tennis.

[OSU Buckeye]

paw - be sure and rest that uhhhh paw.  you dont wanna come back to soon and have that injury cause another injury, like when you favor one hurt body part and that causes something else to go (I AM afterall, the resident expert on failing body parts   ).

Thanks, I sure hope the ankle's fully healed by now. The final test would be to actually run a few miles again and see how it feels I suppose since I don't feel a thing during tennis.

I played for about 2 hours today. Mostly we just hit since we both haven't played in a week and just wanted to stabilize our tennis. We started a set and he was serving at 3-5 when we decided to just stop playing sets and keep hitting because we were getting bored and lazy and as usual when that happens we do crazy things like start trying to imitate the screamin women or try doing sampras slam dunk overheads for no reason and all the trick shots and everything. I was feeling pretty good. My serve has lost a lot but again I didn't serve much today and it was after a while so I can't say anything. I still felt pretty good on my serve and I trust my feelings a lot so I am happy. My groundstrokes were solid. My net play was perfect.. I won all 2 points I got my racquet on.. beautiful points. Its just I got passed the remaining 3 or 4 times I treid going up. Mostly I realize this is due to indecision and me getting caught in no-man's land. But overall I am satisfied.

My class ends next week so I'll have a good two weeks before college starts again.. my last day at work is the 27th.. so I will have another week before college starts with nothing to do and hopefully just tennis.

Sucks that the Summer already seems to be ending.