Topic: Pawan's Tennis Journal

[pawan89]

Agree fully with the DSter here.  If nothing else, you should tell the manager so that he/she knows that this sort of thing is going on.  Even if checking the $100 bill is standard procedure (unusual but definitely not unheard of), it should at least be done with courtesy.  And the thinly-veiled accusation of stealing is incredibly rude.  Ugh.

I think I posted a bunch of USRSA certified stringers in your area. You can go to usrsa.com and find a stringer from there. Buck has a good thought. Check your local high school or college tennis teams and find out who they use. In my school we had an old codger who used to string for Wilson that lived near the college who strung for the team cheaply.
You best bet is to find someone like me (beating my own chest here   ) someone who plays tennis and loves the sport, but is also interested in the technical aspects of it and studies that. Someone who takes pride in his or her consistancy (do it the right way, the same way, every time).

Yes you did I should look into that more now. Also I suppose as Buckeye said, my college team should have a stringing source on campus somewhere so I'll look into that as well. Thanks

So I got my racquet back today and gave another one in. We went and played two sets and it was so good. I love my racquets, no matter how old they are and how much people make fun of it. I wasn't expecting too much of a tension difference but 58 is significantly less than 63 and it was obvious. But I didn't want to break this too and I actually want to stick to a lower (lower than 63 that is..) 58ish tension cuz I prefer it much more now. I won both sets 6-4 6-2  and was very happy with my game. I had serves like before, backhands just as good as they have been lately, and despite the numerous errors, solid forehands. I am happy and I hope its not just a new string charm.

[pawan89]

I went white water rafting today for 8 miles. Suprisingly I am not sore at all (unlike pere) .. like really not sore at all even though we did go through 15 rapids or something and I was pretty much the only one doing anything because half the times I was with my brother in front who just sat and yelled at the rapids, or my mom who despite being in sync with the oars kept messing up the direction so more work for me.
And then I played golf. I think I could give Tiger a real good run for his money.. I was 33 over par for all 18 holes. Oh I think I should mention it was mini-golf. It was a really good course though built onto the side of the mountain. Want to get back to Tennis as soon as possible though.. I miss playin already. ok see you all saturday.

[Jamesdster]

Watch the movie "Deliverance" sometime, then we'll see if you ever go white water rafting again.  

[OSU Buckeye]

I went white water rafting today for 8 miles. Suprisingly I am not sore at all (unlike pere) .. like really not sore at all even though we did go through 15 rapids or something and I was pretty much the only one doing anything because half the times I was with my brother in front who just sat and yelled at the rapids, or my mom who despite being in sync with the oars kept messing up the direction so more work for me.
And then I played golf. I think I could give Tiger a real good run for his money.. I was 33 over par for all 18 holes. Oh I think I should mention it was mini-golf. It was a really good course though built onto the side of the mountain. Want to get back to Tennis as soon as possible though.. I miss playin already. ok see you all saturday.

Thats right, you are in West Virginia aren't you?  I expect you white water rafted the New River or the Lower New River?  I have been there once and it was a blast.  

[ERHS]

Yo Pawan, if you ever come by area around Prince George's County in MD, holler at me. Maybe we can hit sometime. I live very close to NASA Goddard space place.

[pawan89]

Yeah, we did the upper New River. It was pretty fun, I could have handled the lower river perhaps.. perhaps not, next time surely though. I didn't really enter MD ERHS, although I did go through its edge. We went through overall 5 or 6 states::  md, pa, w.va, va, ohio (I476 took us through there)
And people in West Virginia have speed limits of 70!! That's unheard of here in nj.. So for the first time in my life, I LEGALLY went upto 80 although it was hard with the mountains and curves and driving an Suv as opposed to my Civic. Lucky people still. whenever I cross 75 here I have to be on the lookout for cops. I didn't see a single cop on those roads and I could have easily gone 85-90 without really being self-conscious of speeding.

Anyway, I played today. And played bad. And my parents came by to record us play which was on the agenda the whole summer but never happened. And it had to happen when we both were playing pretty poorly. It was allright I suppose. I do believe my dad and my mom standing inches of the court and following me with the video camera and asking me what the score is (yes they still are not that good at following a game) after every point and how it came to be that way might have somethign to do with it.. so next time, this monday hopefully.. I'll take the tripod and just record it myself. And maybe this time with my friends camera cuz he's the one who can conveniently edit and put it up on the internet as I don't even know if my camcorder has firewire or whatnot.

[pawan89]

Played today. My serve felt good. Not much else though. My groundstrokes were ok, just ok. But my friend had one of those disappointment days today. A friend of his came by for a while and hit on the next court and I guess he started comparing and fell short of his expectations. I know how he feels cuz I feel like that everytime that coach and her little 7 year old student come by and play better than me. First three sets I won 7-5 6-4 6-2. The fourth set he was really depressed kinda and he pointed out that my game does not encourage rallies cuz I can't hit deep service returns and even groudnstrokes I hit short, which makes him "reach" for the balls all the time which results in most of the times me winning the point cuz his 'reach' shot isn't good or him volleying awkwardly and either one winning the point. I agree with him for some part but I think that's just my game and it has been like that for a while and he should either get used to it or take control of it so I don't do that. True I sorta do feel out of control at times and tend to hit shorter even if I want to hit deep but I do also hit deep. And I do hit short without pace or spin as part of my strategy because that's the way I play.
Last set I was winning 5-0 when we decided to call it a day and I won't hold that as a win because I was pretty satisfied with how I was playing and he was trying to immitate me by doing unecessary slices and short returns I guess to make me feel how he feels. Well it didn't work cuz I had no problem going up a lot more and finishing it, and even hitting crappy and cheap shots and playin bad overall is a skill I possess and worked on.
I'll admit however that hitting deep is one of the crucial aspects of my game that needs work. And my backhand is way too flat which often results in amazing shots or net shots, nothing in between.

[ERHS]

people who've mastered the short game are very tough to beat. Good that you're one of these guys. Think about it, half of the baseliners play 5 ft. behind the baseline. They're dependant on their lateral movement so their frontal movement sucks. You're smart in playing short tennis especially against serve and volleyers.

[pawan89]

people who've mastered the short game are very tough to beat. Good that you're one of these guys. Think about it, half of the baseliners play 5 ft. behind the baseline. They're dependant on their lateral movement so their frontal movement sucks. You're smart in playing short tennis especially against serve and volleyers.

Wouldn't it be really bad to play the short game against forward moving aggressive people though? Like I feel a lot of times I only win against my friend, especially the close sets because he's not that good of a finisher of the short ball and even his volleys unless they are perfectly planned by him (as opposed to me bringing him in on my terms) are suspect to a lot of even normal shots. I personally have no problem with that so when I do get a short ball or go up I am good, but he does hit a little harder and deeper (and so his shots also go long more often than mine) so I don't go up nearly as much as him.
Unless you mean its good to hit low shallow balls and slices to someone who is already up at the net instead of hitting deep which would be a perfect volley for the one at the net, then I agree.

[ERHS]

people who've mastered the short game are very tough to beat. Good that you're one of these guys. Think about it, half of the baseliners play 5 ft. behind the baseline. They're dependant on their lateral movement so their frontal movement sucks. You're smart in playing short tennis especially against serve and volleyers.

Wouldn't it be really bad to play the short game against forward moving aggressive people though? Like I feel a lot of times I only win against my friend, especially the close sets because he's not that good of a finisher of the short ball and even his volleys unless they are perfectly planned by him (as opposed to me bringing him in on my terms) are suspect to a lot of even normal shots. I personally have no problem with that so when I do get a short ball or go up I am good, but he does hit a little harder and deeper (and so his shots also go long more often than mine) so I don't go up nearly as much as him.
Unless you mean its good to hit low shallow balls and slices to someone who is already up at the net instead of hitting deep which would be a perfect volley for the one at the net, then I agree.

Off the forehand side the ball should be mostly deep, but if my opponent is coming to net, no doubt i will try to hit a short ball to make him hit a good half volley. On the backhand side, a short low chip against a serve and volleyer is great because then they have to not only pick the ball up, but also provide their own speed. Ofcourse, when you get to a high level these kind of things won' work but against average normal day rec yet till competitive play

[pawan89]

So college started up today. 7 classes and I really do need to get serious and get those 4.0s from now on cuz playtime's over. So yeah, I'll try my best to come here everyday or as often as possible, I like this place way too much to just disappear but I do know I'll be spending lesser time on here. I'll make up on weekends. I won't be playing too much tennis again either, only a few weekends till october and then maybe hit with people in school on our extra cool indoor courts that get booked the minute after reservation time starts.

Perhaps its worth mentioning that my classes everyday start at 12, and at 3 on thursdays. And I am a night person so all my studying and seroius time is at night and I am trying to make it a point to sleep by 3 max everyday. So you know what.. I'll still be here in the mornings for a little bit at least  

[OSU Buckeye]

Yeah, we did the upper New River. It was pretty fun, I could have handled the lower river perhaps.. perhaps not, next time surely though. I didn't really enter MD ERHS, although I did go through its edge. We went through overall 5 or 6 states::  md, pa, w.va, va, ohio (I476 took us through there)
And people in West Virginia have speed limits of 70!! That's unheard of here in nj.. So for the first time in my life, I LEGALLY went upto 80 although it was hard with the mountains and curves and driving an Suv as opposed to my Civic. Lucky people still. whenever I cross 75 here I have to be on the lookout for cops. I didn't see a single cop on those roads and I could have easily gone 85-90 without really being self-conscious of speeding.

Anyway, I played today. And played bad. And my parents came by to record us play which was on the agenda the whole summer but never happened. And it had to happen when we both were playing pretty poorly. It was allright I suppose. I do believe my dad and my mom standing inches of the court and following me with the video camera and asking me what the score is (yes they still are not that good at following a game) after every point and how it came to be that way might have somethign to do with it.. so next time, this monday hopefully.. I'll take the tripod and just record it myself. And maybe this time with my friends camera cuz he's the one who can conveniently edit and put it up on the internet as I don't even know if my camcorder has firewire or whatnot.

The speed limit in Colorado and Wyoming was 75 (on the major highways) so I was doing about 84 the whole time.

[OSU Buckeye]

people who've mastered the short game are very tough to beat. Good that you're one of these guys. Think about it, half of the baseliners play 5 ft. behind the baseline. They're dependant on their lateral movement so their frontal movement sucks. You're smart in playing short tennis especially against serve and volleyers.

Wouldn't it be really bad to play the short game against forward moving aggressive people though? Like I feel a lot of times I only win against my friend, especially the close sets because he's not that good of a finisher of the short ball and even his volleys unless they are perfectly planned by him (as opposed to me bringing him in on my terms) are suspect to a lot of even normal shots. I personally have no problem with that so when I do get a short ball or go up I am good, but he does hit a little harder and deeper (and so his shots also go long more often than mine) so I don't go up nearly as much as him.
Unless you mean its good to hit low shallow balls and slices to someone who is already up at the net instead of hitting deep which would be a perfect volley for the one at the net, then I agree.

Off the forehand side the ball should be mostly deep, but if my opponent is coming to net, no doubt i will try to hit a short ball to make him hit a good half volley. On the backhand side, a short low chip against a serve and volleyer is great because then they have to not only pick the ball up, but also provide their own speed. Ofcourse, when you get to a high level these kind of things won' work but against average normal day rec yet till competitive play

Thats right!  Against a solid player, if you can't keep the ball deep, they will be able to gain control in points by working the angles and likely coming to net behind these shots to finish the points.

Good luck at school Pawan, keep us updated with how it is going!

[pawan89]

Warning: Following is an update (rant) that is totally unrelated to tennis. That's right, UNrelated. Read at your own risk. SideEffects include but not limited to yawning, drowsiness, and boredom.


It's been a while since I have played tennis, I sure hope I can play this weekend. I actually found someone who, if he does play as he claims to play, will be a very good match for me and he is just as anxious to hit as I am, the only conflict being him not being awake till 3 in the afternoon most days and my 7 classes which seem to demand some time at least.

So anyway, I had promised my brohter to take him to a college sporting event .. last september. So I decided its now or never and regardless of how much work I had, I'd take him to at least one this year and that is exactly what I did today. You can't give empty promises to a 6 year old.. that's just wrong, and work can always get done all night. So tonight (i am just coming back) I took him to the first game of Big East Soccer for Rutgers. Thier opponent being #3 team Notre Dame. Needless to say Rutgers, a team full of freshman lost to the experienced champs 0-2. The second sport that I am a fan of after tennis is Soccer, I played for a few years back in 9th grade but that's it.. I don't have too much contact with it since then. It was fun and I think my brother enjoyed his first big-game audience experience. 6500 shouting excited audience under the lights and an exciting game going on (ohman I really do want to see a tennis match like thisnow) was quite fun.
I was actually thinkingof going to Rutgers Tennis matches ... that is untilI remembered they got rid of themen's D1 team . Don't even get me started.. they can spend millions trying to keep a coach to teach kids to bash thier heads against each other and get a million more seats to that stadium but they can't keep a team that requires almost 0 funds compared to football and consists of people who actually contribute to the school's academic record as well - I believe our tennis team was overall averaging 3.4 gpa and that was thehighest of all sports..thats 3.4 more thanthe football team averages. Whatever.. I could still go to the women's ..its not the same though. I am better than the girl's team (at least I sure hope I ambetter than most of them).

 I hope I made up for my dealy to him though. I promised to play with him and be with him more this summer and all I did was work and play tennis and spent notimewith him. Now with school back up, I barely see him as I amstillasleep when he leaves to school and I don't come back till past midnight most nights and I don't evenget to talk to him for days at end. As an elder brother.. I don't know, I feel real bad. I mean he's just now come of about the age to appreciate having an elder brother I suppose, till now he was too young and..and now I am not there for him. I almost start crying everytime I think about this..or thinkabout him pleading with me to play some of his silly games one day and I can't givehim that.


So anyway school's allright. a little busy I suppose.. I have barely any time for anything between classes and studying. besides I need a 4.0 so I am trying to actually pay attention in classes and when needed doing the homework slash independent studying - I know everybody says it but college isnothing like highschool. Highschool I didn't do one thing, not even exagerating, and ended up ranked 3 in a class of 500ish. I shudder to think where I am ranked now among our 5000 or something likethat class.
Oh and I am also trying to get some research time in, you have to do some research for grad school and I am already a sophomore with no real research stuff. I botherd a few professors and I thinkI might be getting one of two projects. One is modeling insect flight.. engineering dept. ultimately aimed to simulate insect flight in a physical model. The other which I am more interested in is part of a large scale project(http://minerva.fnal.gov//) among quite a few universities which, hopefully if it all goes well, could culiminate in a summer at FermiLabs! Experimental nuclear physics.. close enough to high energy physics which is what I eventually want to do. So with that I will more busier.. about 10-15 hours a week, but I will be getting paid like 12 an hour and its madd interesting work so I am excited.

Anyawy, long update. hopefully I will be able to write about some tennis after this weekend. I still come here a lot even though I might not post a lot. You guys keep me alive.. school and all are just what's to be done and will be done - It ain't like highschool, commuting back and forth and with the workload..lets just say I am far far far from having a typical college student's social life. My definition of a good time is when I finish a lab an hour early and get to sleep one more hour ... my social parties are when me and my friends get together and study for an exam. ok I am exagerating but not by much. I did sign up for Tennis club, table tennis club, badminton club, juggling club.. but I haven't been a to a single one of those meetings or anything.. a lot of them are on another campus and I haveno time to go there nor am I willing to spend the time to do anyofthat.  I am however actively involved in SPS (society of physics students - I am an officer here whoo0!!) and Pi club. Yeah, geeky as geeky can be right? Its fun though. We have talks about cool topics every now and then, we have a barbeque coming up for SPS, we have game nights and overall its  a lot of fun. Best part? Pizza and drinks everytime we meet. What more canyou ask? Haha,, I know I am being silly, but hey what can I do?
I'm just waiting for college to be over though. I don't know what  I will do later as I am in two minds for the future as well but alll I know is I am not having too much fun, and pushing myself like this pays off in the end.

Too long an update, and noneabout tennis. I should put up a note before the start before you guys start reading.

[Tennis4you]

Wow, big update indeed! 

Waiting for college to be over eh?  College was a blast for me, even though I was in the Architecture studio 18+ hours per day and then had my classes on top of that.  That was such a wild time.  If I wasn't in studio I was freaking out about not being in studio.

As for 6 year olds and making promises.  My daughter is 6 and if you mention something to her she doesn't forget, and she brings it up a lot.  Scary how good their memory is at 6.

[pawan89]

So I played yesterday and today. Yesterday was allright, I couldn't serve, I couldn't hit forehands and I couldn't hit backhands but beside that it was ok. Yesterday's two sets were 6-4 1-6. Today I was still sore from yesterday (see what happens when you don't play for like a few weeks..?) But once I got playing I felt much much much better. In fact believe it or not, I played some of my best tennis. Starting right from my serve, right from the first game on I felt the serve very nicely so you know.. good times with the serve. I love it when I am on and I can feel the ball so well I know exactly where on my racquet I'll hit it , where it will land, how it will land etc. My forehand was solid again and I didn't get to use my backhand too much since I went up on almost all my first serves - pretty successfully too. My friend's serve was super fast too so I didn't have too much chance to play a good game from the baseline. I won 6-4 6-1.

[OSU Buckeye]

Good that you got out for some tennis!          And, in response to your previous post:   High Energy Physics???   WTF?   I guess this is research related to understand Physics better?    Hopefully you can find time for some of those clubs you mentioned as they are all very good ones.  I am somewhat into juggling as I have enjoyed it over the years.  I can juggle 4 balls at once and clubs and passing while juggling is very cool!  I have a buddy that was in a juggling club in College and he loved it and became very good at different kinds of juggling! 

[pawan89]

new avi?

[kickserve]

new avi?

This one you're considering? Yeah, cool, go for it. kittens will love it 

[OSU Buckeye]

new avi?

This one you're considering? Yeah, cool, go for it. kittens will love it 

Or, is it 2 avi's that he is trying to choose which one??  Either way, it is cool so go for it!