Topic: Pawan's Tennis Journal

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I can't believe mid 40's and nice are in the same sentence. I think I'd freeze to death.

[OSU Buckeye]

I can't believe mid 40's and nice are in the same sentence. I think I'd freeze to death.

Yeah, I don't think my body would like that much...............but sweet for you guys to get out ..................some! 

[pawan89]

I love cold weather.
I went snowboarding today for the first time. I went with 5 other friends, 3 of them really good snowboarders and one a really good skiier. I could have chosen to ski or skateboard since I rented them and I chose skateboard. It was a lot lot lot of fun. And it was pretty cold later on in the day when the winds started picking up. I went on 4 runs of the 'bunny hill' and one run alll the from up the mountain on an easy trail. It took me a long time but I loved it. I want to do it again sometime.
Anyone else ski/skateboard? I went to camelback mountain near the poconos in PA.

I just fell on a$$ about 70 times and on my knees about half as much, and out of reflex I stuck my hand out to break my fall most of those times, thankfull my wrists are intact. I have had this right hip problem for some time now, can't remember since when exactly but when I twist weird it hurts. and I am pretty sure I was doing the snowboarding a little wrong so this flared up a few times. So apart from the soreness that comes from falling on your a$$ a milliontimes and slighty writst pain and major ankle pain (cuz I was leanign back the whole time like I was hitting the brakes, I never really did the lean forward part of the lean forward/back think) and the usual soreness that comes from doing a lot of physical activity after long periods of nothing.. I am just fine. Great start to the year. Looking forward to a great 2008.

[OSU Buckeye]

I used to ski every year from like 1994-2004 but now not nearly as much.  Snowboarding is the harder to learn I believe but rest assured they are both very difficult at first.  I used to love skiing but now I don't do it enough so when I go it just makes me sore and cold. 

[dmastous]

I used to ski every year from like 1994-2004 but now not nearly as much.  Snowboarding is the harder to learn I believe but rest assured they are both very difficult at first.  I used to love skiing but now I don't do it enough so when I go it just makes me sore and cold. 

Skiing can't be good for sore knees.

[OSU Buckeye]

I used to ski every year from like 1994-2004 but now not nearly as much.  Snowboarding is the harder to learn I believe but rest assured they are both very difficult at first.  I used to love skiing but now I don't do it enough so when I go it just makes me sore and cold. 

Skiing can't be good for sore knees.

Exactly!  Not good at all!   

[pawan89]

I used to ski every year from like 1994-2004 but now not nearly as much.  Snowboarding is the harder to learn I believe but rest assured they are both very difficult at first.  I used to love skiing but now I don't do it enough so when I go it just makes me sore and cold. 

Skiing can't be good for sore knees.

Exactly!  Not good at all!   

Sorry to hear  I loved it, hopefully I can go back and snowboard some more.

Me and mdshahid went out and hit for like 3 hours plus. B E A utiful weather, close to 50, didn't even need a full sleeve shirt/sweatshirt. Its just, the level of my fitness.. I am out, totally out by the end of that. We hit yesterday too but surprisingly neither of us updated our journals. We played only for an hour yesterday though. Pretty happy with both days. Yesterday by the end of the hour I could hit decent forehands and decent backhands again. even my serve came back to a certain extent, I like my serve, its rock solid foundation so a few sets or so of serving and I feel I can be back to good form. Today picked up where I left off yesterday and I had better forehands and backhands, and by the end of day today I was feeling well on serves too. Of course my shoulder is a little sore from yesterday..
but bottomline, we hit for like 20 minutes yesterday and played one set, hit for like 40 minutes today and played 3 sets, and I feel like two more days like today with some fitness coming back, I should be back in form. So that's pretty good and I am happy, It used to take me like weeks usually after a break like this to get back in form, and usually that involved a change up of serve and backhand and forehand and everything like that.

There really isn't any point discussing my game, obviosuly I am still getting back in form and can't comment too much about it on its way back. My fitness is also pretty horrendous but for the most part I was conscious of my feet and movement and knew when I was good and when I was not. MY forehand was good, if I played again tommorrow I would start putting more on it and going for some more winners and lines maybe. I am excited for my backhand, its only been getting better and bettet and as it is it was never THAT great so I have same good bakchands with good form. My serve, as I said earlier, maintained good form and by the end I got pretty confident and was able to place different types of serves well and could confidently go for some bigger second serves. So its good.
We played sets, close sets all of them, so its pretty cool. I won yesterday 7-6, today he won first set 7-6,  i won second set 6-4 and third set 4-4 we  decided to call it quits and leave. He's definitely been getting closer since last summer so even though this is still just getting back in form practice sets, its a good sign for him.

This is good weather and good hitting for mdshahid, he should talk about his situation and his game and how its going for his chances for getting on the team and I'll comment there.

[pawan89]

oh and we got a new 38 inch tv (hd) a few weeks back and today we got cable, comcast, with internet and phone package thing. The speeds are supposed to be better cuz now its cable internet not just dsl, so its cool (haven't seen the difference yet though). And now e have Cartoon Network!!! Hopefully I have espn or something too (we have like 100 or so channels) so I can watch the improtant tennis matches, we have the basic cable or the value pack or something, no ttc.

[mdshahid20]

hmm i'm completely sore and i even took a nap today... i think i might update my journal tomorrow. the only thing i can say is- watch the sonic serve tutorial videos (i think bachiko posted them or something) they really helped me get my serve back (at least to some extent) much faster and my form may be even better now.

[OSU Buckeye]

Sweet that you guys got out to play in some good weather!  Good news on the new tv!   Just in time to watch the big game tonight!  GO BUCKS! 

[pawan89]

Can't belive I have just played 3 days in a row in 'peak winter'. This is when you'd expect temperatures to be in the teens with snow piled up and icy conditions everywhere. Instead what do you see? Temperature today was apparently in the 50s and we have a chance of touching 70 tommorrow. I am not complaining or anything, but this is a worrying trend. what next, snow in summer and like dinosaurs returning with the ice age or something? Winter's suppoesd to be like winter.. but in the name of global warming or whatever..

I played doubles with mdshahid and two of his teammates. We were down 2-5 but came back to win it 7-5. I held serve all three times and my volleys were pretty bad (thankfully I didn't have to hit too many backahnds), but it was mostly a servefest and errors, only a few decent points. I don't think anyone of us there were doubles players and I am assuming they aren't in top form or anything either. I need to significantly improve my volleys if I want to be a decent doubles player. I screwed up on some pretty silly volleys and framed a few more. I actually wish we played more doubles for the sake of our volleys, It seems like my volleys are enough to win points in singles coming in behind some serves and good approach shots, but in doubles when you are sitting at the net and the opponent can hit a clean shot, its a whole different volleying situation.

I realize mdshahid's serve is like significantly faster and heavier than others. If he can serve like he did today, and just be a little more careful about when to go for that bigger second serve or when to play a slightly safer serve like say when you are 30-30.. he should make the team easily on his serve alone.
I need to try and add something to my serve. My serve's pretty good too, and when I am serving well I can heat it up pretty nicely too, I get my share of free points from service winners (not too many aces) with my serve and can go for the big ones when I need it so overall I am proud and satisfied with my serve so far. but I feel in general my serve's missing that little extra something to make it a great serve. Cuz I can place it well, I can mix up my serves well, I think I can disguise my serves well. Its just a small extra something i need to add, I need to look at those videos as mdshahid told me to.

Lets hope I get to play more this upcoming week or two before I drown with college work again.

[OSU Buckeye]

Sweet!  Dubs action and 3 days of tennis in a row!   

[mdshahid20]

.. i can't move    
hmm to add to what pawan said- we never really play doubles much and  its such a completely different game. i consider myself to be a pretty good s/v (maybe not so much the volley part but i usually manage in singles w/ a couple volleying errors). in doubles all the balls come at u so much faster and its hard to hit a decent volley. also, when i came in after my serve, i unconsciously (sp?) went too far sideways out of habit- ending up almost right behind pawan sometimes. luckily it didn't effect me too much cuz very few of my serves really came back (or went in lol). ill talk about the rest of my game on my own journal sometime...

[OSU Buckeye]

.. i can't move    
hmm to add to what pawan said- we never really play doubles much and  its such a completely different game. i consider myself to be a pretty good s/v (maybe not so much the volley part but i usually manage in singles w/ a couple volleying errors). in doubles all the balls come at u so much faster and its hard to hit a decent volley. also, when i came in after my serve, i unconsciously (sp?) went too far sideways out of habit- ending up almost right behind pawan sometimes. luckily it didn't effect me too much cuz very few of my serves really came back (or went in lol). ill talk about the rest of my game on my own journal sometime...

Singles and dubs are drastically different!  For sure! 

[Tennis4you]

Different and then some!

[dmastous]

.. i can't move    
hmm to add to what pawan said- we never really play doubles much and  its such a completely different game. i consider myself to be a pretty good s/v (maybe not so much the volley part but i usually manage in singles w/ a couple volleying errors). in doubles all the balls come at u so much faster and its hard to hit a decent volley. also, when i came in after my serve, i unconsciously (sp?) went too far sideways out of habit- ending up almost right behind pawan sometimes. luckily it didn't effect me too much cuz very few of my serves really came back (or went in lol). ill talk about the rest of my game on my own journal sometime...

Yep, you really need to keep that racquet up and in front of you at all times.

[pawan89]

sotry.
we went on court today and we found 3 or 4 dead/wet balls lying around. There was this man with two little girls on bikes playing on the court and they left as soon as we went on court. So we picked up those balls lying around, and saw they were dead and hit them out of the courts, far into the trees/mini jungle behind our courts. So just as we did this.. ok before I go on. Do you guys ever do this? Like you have a ball that's dead and you just hit it out. When you walk around your tennis courts, or at least when we walk around our courts we see like 100s of balls like that hit over the decades into the bushes and trees. So anyway this guy comes up behind us and goes "are you guys hitting those balls out there? You do know this a county park and that's littering what you are doing, you are setting a bad example for kids" (this is the guy getting pissed off at us right in front of his two little girls),and then, he goes "I have a phone". Can you believe it? He was threatening us!?! Me and mdshahid were pretty much staring him down and basically going "are you kidding me? are you really serious?!". I said I'm sorry and I'll go get it, and he snaps back "why don't you do that now so I can see you doing it". Wow. honestly. We walked back there and luckily found two balls lying close enough and picked it up (the ones we hit were way out of reach down a small hill sorta thing in the water in teh mini-jungle where I bet you could find 1000 such balls if you went down there).

we hit it out soon after he left and end of the day we ended up hitting all ours out since all orus were pretty much flat and dead, just to spite that guy. It was annoying and amusing at the same time.

Now just don't tell me you agree with that guy .. or do you?

[OSU Buckeye]

Very bizarre!  Yeah, we launch balls sometimes.  Once I hit the hood of Scott's car from 2 or more courts away!  Whoops, my aim is too good. 

[dmastous]

sotry.
we went on court today and we found 3 or 4 dead/wet balls lying around. There was this man with two little girls on bikes playing on the court and they left as soon as we went on court. So we picked up those balls lying around, and saw they were dead and hit them out of the courts, far into the trees/mini jungle behind our courts. So just as we did this.. ok before I go on. Do you guys ever do this? Like you have a ball that's dead and you just hit it out. When you walk around your tennis courts, or at least when we walk around our courts we see like 100s of balls like that hit over the decades into the bushes and trees. So anyway this guy comes up behind us and goes "are you guys hitting those balls out there? You do know this a county park and that's littering what you are doing, you are setting a bad example for kids" (this is the guy getting pissed off at us right in front of his two little girls),and then, he goes "I have a phone". Can you believe it? He was threatening us!?! Me and mdshahid were pretty much staring him down and basically going "are you kidding me? are you really serious?!". I said I'm sorry and I'll go get it, and he snaps back "why don't you do that now so I can see you doing it". Wow. honestly. We walked back there and luckily found two balls lying close enough and picked it up (the ones we hit were way out of reach down a small hill sorta thing in the water in teh mini-jungle where I bet you could find 1000 such balls if you went down there).

we hit it out soon after he left and end of the day we ended up hitting all ours out since all orus were pretty much flat and dead, just to spite that guy. It was annoying and amusing at the same time.

Now just don't tell me you agree with that guy .. or do you?

I've fired balls out like that many times. But I do feel you shouldn't do it. I don't do it anymore. That guy seemed to be a little over the top about it though... well make that alot over the top.

[swish]

sotry.
we went on court today and we found 3 or 4 dead/wet balls lying around. There was this man with two little girls on bikes playing on the court and they left as soon as we went on court. So we picked up those balls lying around, and saw they were dead and hit them out of the courts, far into the trees/mini jungle behind our courts. So just as we did this.. ok before I go on. Do you guys ever do this? Like you have a ball that's dead and you just hit it out. When you walk around your tennis courts, or at least when we walk around our courts we see like 100s of balls like that hit over the decades into the bushes and trees. So anyway this guy comes up behind us and goes "are you guys hitting those balls out there? You do know this a county park and that's littering what you are doing, you are setting a bad example for kids" (this is the guy getting pissed off at us right in front of his two little girls),and then, he goes "I have a phone". Can you believe it? He was threatening us!?! Me and mdshahid were pretty much staring him down and basically going "are you kidding me? are you really serious?!". I said I'm sorry and I'll go get it, and he snaps back "why don't you do that now so I can see you doing it". Wow. honestly. We walked back there and luckily found two balls lying close enough and picked it up (the ones we hit were way out of reach down a small hill sorta thing in the water in teh mini-jungle where I bet you could find 1000 such balls if you went down there).

we hit it out soon after he left and end of the day we ended up hitting all ours out since all orus were pretty much flat and dead, just to spite that guy. It was annoying and amusing at the same time.

Now just don't tell me you agree with that guy .. or do you?

I've fired balls out like that many times. But I do feel you shouldn't do it. I don't do it anymore. That guy seemed to be a little over the top about it though... well make that alot over the top.

What a bonehead, I would of told him to prove it. Besides, the balls were litter before you hit them, you just moved the litter.