Topic: Pawan's Tennis Journal

[pawan89]

Don't try to guide the ball? I am not sure I understand that right..

Anyway...

So I played today. my first real tennis in over two months - 2 and a half hours. It was awesome. By the end of the play I think I pretty much got back my best game overall I think. I didn't really try as many new things as I expected to but its all good, the few I tried worked like magic and its a good sign.
So we went over to the courts and started warming up. My ground strokes were pretty good and reliable and I even thought in some cases better from the start than my norm. My forehand was normal, I felt all the control and even some power on it. My backhand, I did what I said I would earlier and it worked like crazy. I had some sweet backhands I think, at least its so much better and I can rely on, at any given point, to get a decent backhand in. I did slice a little in the beginning but once my topspin went in I stuck to that whenever I could. So we warmed up for a while, no serves. Then we saw these two other kids and asked them if they wanted a game of doubles. They said yes and we played a set.
Score: 6-1.
My friend was serving like crazy, it was amazing. And the one game we lost, it was on my serve. Turns out, you know how I have been practicing my strokes at home with my globe ball ? Well it really benefited my technique and such for ground strokes but it ruined my serve. Because not only is the ball really light, I also "serve it" at my door which is at most the distance from the baseline to the net. So needless to say, all my serves were going in perfectly tot he bottom of the net. I had something like 5 serves in (the little push the ball over the net sorta deal) and 8 or so double faults. The ones I got in they either couldn't return or we won the point easily. So I guess that was a good match overall. It was a good boost I think to my friend who blasted serves and ground strokes and they were all perfect. It was good for me for the most part except my serve and my volleys, I came out of that set not having one a single volley. In a doules set, thats insane. I had a few volley rallies, like I volleyed it and the other kids returned it right back to me and I hit it back and they hit it back to me again and such until I lost the point. Considering those two were just freshman, its bad news that I couldn't put away a single volley. Needless to say I didn't volley the rest of the day. I'll get it back eventually. But no comparison still because the other two were just freshman.
Then we played singles.
I served first I think (don't remember) and double faulted the whole game pretty much I think. Then my friend held comfortably. After that, my next service game, I did something totally different. So for two serves, I ditched my Murray - type bend two knees forward toss high and jump forward serve and adopted a lubjcic type stand firmly with legs sorta like apart and sideways and then bend down toss and hit serve with firm footing still. It worked. I got I believe one ace and one strong service winner. So that was like my .. 'try something new in the hope that it fixes something old' thing and it worked. I felt odd doing it just like I feel odd watching lubjcic or even ancic serving like that but it worked so I am not complaining. I went back to my Murray type serve though which after this short break started working again. I still didn't hold too many service games but at least I wasn't double faulting every ball. My friend too didn't serve like he did in doubles so it ended up in a tiebreaker where I don't know what happened to him but I won 7-1 with the only point given was my double fault.
We started a second set and played alright until 3-3 where we decided to go home because we didn't want to kill ourselves.
The only thing negative I noticed of my game and I should have seen it coming (and did to a certain extent) was fitness. I was basically out of breath in warmup and by the time we played the doubles set (our first set of the day), second game I felt my calf muscles just tightening up and then my thighs. It hurt for one game but for the rest of the day I was just really sore. It didn't keep me noticeably from doing anything I want to do but the out of breath thing and the fact that I was sore in less than half an hour of more or less warmup is not good news. I'll have to start eating again. And exercising a bit too I guess.
Final overview - a really good day for me and I hope the same goes for my friend. He played great whenever he really played and the other times he was average. I have invited  him onto this board and hope he comes and sticks around and I hope he gets as much out of this board as I have.

[OSU Buckeye]

What I meant with guiding the ball is trying to force it with a tense arm almost like slapping at the ball and maybe not following through completely.   The opposite and correct way being with a loose arm and a full smooth swing and follow through.

[pawan89]

Two days ago, I was going on and on about how my tennis was full of positive signs.
Well yesterday night and today I realized, right now I feel like I have been run over by a truck.
Not a good sign.. definitely not.
I was coughing today and realized it hurt to cough, or laugh, or to even pick up my backpack. Ouch.
I knew I was going to be sore, but for two days? And I probably wont be back all the way to normal until at least another two days. That's ridiculous. Two months of no tennis and and then two hours of tennis.. really.. I need to start running more often or even consider going to the gym.
Thats all. Be back after exams and hopefully this arctic blast will pass (16 degrees F high tommorrow I heard, and the way my car was shaking down the highway today .. scary) by the time the weekend rolls around so I can play tennis all day long.

[OSU Buckeye]

Two days ago, I was going on and on about how my tennis was full of positive signs.
Well yesterday night and today I realized, right now I feel like I have been run over by a truck.
Not a good sign.. definitely not.
I was coughing today and realized it hurt to cough, or laugh, or to even pick up my backpack. Ouch.
I knew I was going to be sore, but for two days? And I probably wont be back all the way to normal until at least another two days. That's ridiculous. Two months of no tennis and and then two hours of tennis.. really.. I need to start running more often or even consider going to the gym.
Thats all. Be back after exams and hopefully this arctic blast will pass (16 degrees F high tommorrow I heard, and the way my car was shaking down the highway today .. scary) by the time the weekend rolls around so I can play tennis all day long.

What happened to you???

[pawan89]

What happened to you???

nothing happened to me - I was just really really not fit and one day of tennis killed me pretty much. but I was fine by wednesday, so three days I was like aching all over.

so I played again today. i played really bad. I played much better last week coming off a two month break than i did today, coming off just one week break. I kept catching everything a little higher on my racquet (higer = away from the handle) and felt like I wasn't hitting the sweet spot much at all - which I did wonderfully last week. my serve, I am still working on a new form, namely concentrate on bending the legs and you know pointing the hip out before actually swinging. The ones that went in were pretty good, no control on it too much yet but I think its only a matter of time that I get my all out controlled serve again. my backhands werent amazing, worse than last weekend again. I noticed that a lot of backhands I was sorta either "falling towards" the ball or falling away from the ball - never actually had a firm standing and step toward the ball and swing. Needless to say I hit a lot the net because they actually hit the sweetspot but since I was "falling" they all went flat into the net. I couldnt get the smooth under to over action on the ball because of my falling - I wonder what was wrong, I had good form last week. I was really upset with my forehand. The balls bounced really high this time so that screwed me up a bit but it shouldn't have that much. We played two sets I won 7-6 6-2 but nothing really to be that proud about, neither of us were playing that well.
I know its a far shot but anyone know what might have been wrong? I mean some of you here are after all quite experienced and might be able to know something from the fact that I kept catching everything higher on my racquet and like - the sound shots made was odd and i checked many times if my strings broke just cuz it was so bad a shot.
also funny thing happened, one of my serves it caught the frame right on top of the head and it shot up in the air and landed CORRECTLY just one foot away from the net and had an insane amount of backspin so it basically bounced back into the net having dropped correctly. Best ace ever I think.

[pawan89]

I played today for like an hour and a half.
Much much much better than yesterday. I still had those odd forehands, the one that caught the top half of my racquet and it felt like my strings broke and the ball went all over the place but only like three of them as opposed to yesterday. still nowhere back to my form but at least i am getting there slow and steady. my backhand was allright, I reverted back to a lot of slices like I used to but the occassional flat/topspin was good too. My serve was good whenever it went in but its just not the same consistency, I had quite a few double faults.
I have a small complaint in general about my serve.
 So you know I am doing a new serve again, focusing on bending my knees and using a good torsional effect to add speed to my serve. Its just that every time I start off from a break, no matter how long it is, I always seem to be doing something new with my serve. I stick with it untill it gets good, like over summer - I could control the ball so well and even add some madd speed sometimes - but after the two month break I am back to trying something new. Again, this new thing is starting to work, this time looks like I can get crazy speed in my serve (one of my dreams) but I have so far had no control whatsoever, not that I am even trying to control - having enough trouble getting two serves in as it is. So, my concern is - why is it like this? like why is it that I can't continue with my past decent serve? I mean I realized if I was to play a serious match tommorrow, I dont have a serve to rely on.  I did at the end of summer, I will have in another two weeks, but its always because I am still 'learning' something new. Now this is not a bad thing at all - I would hate to stagnate with one serve, but shouldn't I have some basis of a serve? like I want one serve on which I can build on - so that worst comes I can go back to "scratch" which would be that one serve. I thought I had my serve from over summer down pretty well - but now I have lost it almost completely. (ok I haven't really tried to do it and the two times I tried it still works well - but this negates my whole argument so ignore this)
i don't know if i am making any sense. But like take my forehand. Yes I am always trying something new, like lately I have been trying to take the ball early and flatten out some high balls and all this has changed my forehand but if i am down or if i feel like it, I can go back to my solid forehand from when I last played well. so you know, I am building on my forehand, not starting from scratch.
And the serve is such an important thing that i think I should have SOMEthing thats decent and thats always with me - wether it be a slice serve, a topspin serve, or anything. Man! I miss my serve from the end of summer, I could totally topspin it and have it go in no matter how bad a day i had, i could slice it, I could hit some fast serves and I could control the direction of every one of them. Should I just go back and try to get that back or should I continue trying to do something new and build this until it reaches that level too?

[OSU Buckeye]

What happened to you???

nothing happened to me - I was just really really not fit and one day of tennis killed me pretty much. but I was fine by wednesday, so three days I was like aching all over.

so I played again today. i played really bad. I played much better last week coming off a two month break than i did today, coming off just one week break. I kept catching everything a little higher on my racquet (higer = away from the handle) and felt like I wasn't hitting the sweet spot much at all - which I did wonderfully last week. my serve, I am still working on a new form, namely concentrate on bending the legs and you know pointing the hip out before actually swinging. The ones that went in were pretty good, no control on it too much yet but I think its only a matter of time that I get my all out controlled serve again. my backhands werent amazing, worse than last weekend again. I noticed that a lot of backhands I was sorta either "falling towards" the ball or falling away from the ball - never actually had a firm standing and step toward the ball and swing. Needless to say I hit a lot the net because they actually hit the sweetspot but since I was "falling" they all went flat into the net. I couldnt get the smooth under to over action on the ball because of my falling - I wonder what was wrong, I had good form last week. I was really upset with my forehand. The balls bounced really high this time so that screwed me up a bit but it shouldn't have that much. We played two sets I won 7-6 6-2 but nothing really to be that proud about, neither of us were playing that well.
I know its a far shot but anyone know what might have been wrong? I mean some of you here are after all quite experienced and might be able to know something from the fact that I kept catching everything higher on my racquet and like - the sound shots made was odd and i checked many times if my strings broke just cuz it was so bad a shot.
also funny thing happened, one of my serves it caught the frame right on top of the head and it shot up in the air and landed CORRECTLY just one foot away from the net and had an insane amount of backspin so it basically bounced back into the net having dropped correctly. Best ace ever I think.

Thats unbelievable!  I don't think I have ever seen that one!  

[Tennis4you]

lol, I have never seen it on a serve either.

[Bundey]

Holy crap that is awesome.  But what the heck is up with a miss hit on a serve, lol.

[OSU Buckeye]

Holy crap that is awesome.  But what the heck is up with a miss hit on a serve, lol.

Scott does it fairly often!!!!  

[Bundey]

Ha, I'm sure we have all done it at one point, I just don't remember the last time I did it.  

[Tennis4you]

Holy crap that is awesome.  But what the heck is up with a miss hit on a serve, lol.

Scott does it fairly often!!!!  

That must be when I ace you then, although I hit the strings dead center, you do not want to admit you have been aced.  

[OSU Buckeye]

Holy crap that is awesome.  But what the heck is up with a miss hit on a serve, lol.

Scott does it fairly often!!!!  

That must be when I ace you then, although I hit the strings dead center, you do not want to admit you have been aced.  

 


Again, same as before!

When?????????????????????????????????????  I would like to see the list of the ZERO times you have schooled me.....................not including your dreams of course!

[Tennis4you]

Holy crap that is awesome.  But what the heck is up with a miss hit on a serve, lol.

Scott does it fairly often!!!!  

That must be when I ace you then, although I hit the strings dead center, you do not want to admit you have been aced.  

 


Again, same as before!

When?????????????????????????????????????  I would like to see the list of the ZERO times you have schooled me.....................not including your dreams of course!

pfft please...  We have had some good matches and we have both blown each ther out of the water.  If you want we can go back 4-5 years ago to when we played each other singles for the first time when I was playing the bottom spots in our league and you were playing top spot.

[OSU Buckeye]

Holy crap that is awesome.  But what the heck is up with a miss hit on a serve, lol.

Scott does it fairly often!!!!  

That must be when I ace you then, although I hit the strings dead center, you do not want to admit you have been aced.  

 


Again, same as before!

When?????????????????????????????????????  I would like to see the list of the ZERO times you have schooled me.....................not including your dreams of course!

pfft please...  We have had some good matches and we have both blown each ther out of the water.  If you want we can go back 4-5 years ago to when we played each other singles for the first time when I was playing the bottom spots in our league and you were playing top spot.

I have never played in the singles leagues, so, again what are you talkin' bout????

[Tennis4you]

Holy crap that is awesome.  But what the heck is up with a miss hit on a serve, lol.

Scott does it fairly often!!!!  

That must be when I ace you then, although I hit the strings dead center, you do not want to admit you have been aced.  

 


Again, same as before!

When?????????????????????????????????????  I would like to see the list of the ZERO times you have schooled me.....................not including your dreams of course!

pfft please...  We have had some good matches and we have both blown each ther out of the water.  If you want we can go back 4-5 years ago to when we played each other singles for the first time when I was playing the bottom spots in our league and you were playing top spot.

I have never played in the singles leagues, so, again what are you talkin' bout????

Wow, that is some serious denial.  We played on a Monday night way back when, we both subbed.  You were warming up with Dale that night early.  I came out and Dale said something like "Scoping out your competition early eh?"  I had no clue what he was talking about because the name on the list of who I was playing did not indicate a sub.  I actually had to play you.  I was pretty freaked out at the time.

[OSU Buckeye]

Holy crap that is awesome.  But what the heck is up with a miss hit on a serve, lol.

Scott does it fairly often!!!!  

That must be when I ace you then, although I hit the strings dead center, you do not want to admit you have been aced.  

 


Again, same as before!

When?????????????????????????????????????  I would like to see the list of the ZERO times you have schooled me.....................not including your dreams of course!

pfft please...  We have had some good matches and we have both blown each ther out of the water.  If you want we can go back 4-5 years ago to when we played each other singles for the first time when I was playing the bottom spots in our league and you were playing top spot.

I have never played in the singles leagues, so, again what are you talkin' bout????

Wow, that is some serious denial.  We played on a Monday night way back when, we both subbed.  You were warming up with Dale that night early.  I came out and Dale said something like "Scoping out your competition early eh?"  I had no clue what he was talking about because the name on the list of who I was playing did not indicate a sub.  I actually had to play you.  I was pretty freaked out at the time.

I have that effect on people!!!  

[pawan89]

Holy crap that is awesome.  But what the heck is up with a miss hit on a serve, lol.

Scott does it fairly often!!!!  

That must be when I ace you then, although I hit the strings dead center, you do not want to admit you have been aced.  

 


Again, same as before!

When?????????????????????????????????????  I would like to see the list of the ZERO times you have schooled me.....................not including your dreams of course!

pfft please...  We have had some good matches and we have both blown each ther out of the water.  If you want we can go back 4-5 years ago to when we played each other singles for the first time when I was playing the bottom spots in our league and you were playing top spot.

I have never played in the singles leagues, so, again what are you talkin' bout????

Wow, that is some serious denial.  We played on a Monday night way back when, we both subbed.  You were warming up with Dale that night early.  I came out and Dale said something like "Scoping out your competition early eh?"  I had no clue what he was talking about because the name on the list of who I was playing did not indicate a sub.  I actually had to play you.  I was pretty freaked out at the time.

I have that effect on people!!!  

So.. you're saying intimidation is a key factor in your game - If you were playing against me you could simply come to the net and I would try to lob which would be useless against you and I would run hoping the overhead doesn't hit me.

[pawan89]

I notice something.
When most pros play "baseline" rallies, they stand well behind the baseline. At least 2 feet or so. And then they move in on short balls. For some reason I don't know exactly but I don't think I ever (literally) move behind the baseline. I'll try to observe this next time I play but I am sure. I go up allright on short balls but I think I am more likely to stand in no-man's land than behind the baseline. Clearly this is bad when opponents hit deep and make you run. From behind the baseline you have extra time to prep your stroke and get to the ball too. I can see how this can drastically improve my consistency. That said I still don't want to always be behind the baseline and especially I don't want to get into this habit and keep moving further back. It should be one of those things I should change as per the player I am playing against. I wonder why I never thought of it. I guess I always serve and look to move up on every ball that isnt entirely returned back to my baseline and then when I return I stand on the baseline and move up a little as it is but hang back around the baseline, most of the time on it or in front of it and then go up. I bet if I analyzed more I will see more errors coming when people hit it deep to me, especially on backhand where I need all the time in the world to prepare for it.

Here's a picture I took from this website Scott posted in another thread (http://www.tennis.com/yourgame/instructionarticles/serve/serve.aspx?id=529)
Its pretty amazing and what I would like to be able to do. I am focusing as it is on the bending knees and hip forward right now to get the pace on the ball.



Also on this next picture, see how the racquet is so far down when she's already halfway up to the ball? I don't if I do this cuz I have never seen myself but wouldn't it require a HIGH toss? I mean my toss is high enough I think - above average height from what I have seen among my level players but I sorta take my elbow up... and my racquet head I think only gets parallel to the ground or maybe slightly pointing down thats it.. this woman's is like perpendicular TOWARD the ground. I guess it does give you more arm motion and speed on the racquet head but again, If i were to do this would I have to toss the ball higher?



thanks.

[OSU Buckeye]

I notice something.
When most pros play "baseline" rallies, they stand well behind the baseline. At least 2 feet or so. And then they move in on short balls. For some reason I don't know exactly but I don't think I ever (literally) move behind the baseline. I'll try to observe this next time I play but I am sure. I go up allright on short balls but I think I am more likely to stand in no-man's land than behind the baseline. Clearly this is bad when opponents hit deep and make you run. From behind the baseline you have extra time to prep your stroke and get to the ball too. I can see how this can drastically improve my consistency. That said I still don't want to always be behind the baseline and especially I don't want to get into this habit and keep moving further back. It should be one of those things I should change as per the player I am playing against. I wonder why I never thought of it. I guess I always serve and look to move up on every ball that isnt entirely returned back to my baseline and then when I return I stand on the baseline and move up a little as it is but hang back around the baseline, most of the time on it or in front of it and then go up. I bet if I analyzed more I will see more errors coming when people hit it deep to me, especially on backhand where I need all the time in the world to prepare for it.

Here's a picture I took from this website Scott posted in another thread (http://www.tennis.com/yourgame/instructionarticles/serve/serve.aspx?id=529)
Its pretty amazing and what I would like to be able to do. I am focusing as it is on the bending knees and hip forward right now to get the pace on the ball.



Also on this next picture, see how the racquet is so far down when she's already halfway up to the ball? I don't if I do this cuz I have never seen myself but wouldn't it require a HIGH toss? I mean my toss is high enough I think - above average height from what I have seen among my level players but I sorta take my elbow up... and my racquet head I think only gets parallel to the ground or maybe slightly pointing down thats it.. this woman's is like perpendicular TOWARD the ground. I guess it does give you more arm motion and speed on the racquet head but again, If i were to do this would I have to toss the ball higher?



thanks.

Damn, thats a tall, thin, nice, athletic body!!!!      Oh, sorry you were talking about strokes?????