Topic: Pawan's Tennis Journal

[OSU Buckeye]

Well, at least you got to play!   Now, all you need is some better competition also!  

[Jamesdster]

paw

That's a good sign that you won but are unhappy.  That means you know there's room for improvement (always is).

[pawan89]

So I "played" today. Ok I am desperate, so even though I wouldn't have counted this ever before as playing and worth writing in my journal over, I am taking every chance to make myself believe i have played and am playing.
It was quite funny, four generations of people on court. I went with my dad, my grandfather and my brother.
I tried teaching my dad how to hold the racquet properly on forehands but he still holds it and hits it strangely, sorta like he's forcing himself to just touch the ball. I hope he can get it right, so the few times he does play I can get a few balls back and forth. My grandfather - around eighty, hasn't played in over 30 years, also returned quite a few balls from his forehand. I was impressed.
Then my brother, he also is actually playing better. He got a few serves over from the service line and returned a few from his forehand although he still instinctively does this weird twist your hand and hit a forehand from your backhand thing that I am trying to get him rid of (wonder how he came up with that habit? its almost like he uses it like a sword). I guess from last year he is a little stronger so it helps to get the ball back over the net. He's 6 now, hopefully I can get him into it a little more this summer.

Again, this is really not like a normal play because you know, I am just getting the ball back using a proper form, to people who have never played tennis before. i played a 15 point tiebreaker sorta thing with my dad and I used a dumbed down second serve all the way through. At the end I put in a few serves and they were good. Maybe because I was playing my dad - they might have been just normal had someone actually returned it. But I felt good with the serves. And naturally as I said I try to play as theoretically correct as possible, only on a much slower scale, so I was quite happy with my backhand. Again, I don't know how it would hold up when the ball comes screaming to it from someone's forehand but at this pace, it looked fundamentally correct and i was satisfied with my depth and control. Next thing is to work on pace from backhand.

In other news, I am getting a shop and JobRite. job at ShopRite so a little money in my pocket now. I don't know what I would use money for but I guess its always good. First thing I am going out and getting a few cans of tennis balls, I have been out of good ones for a while now. My selfbuilt ball hopper looks good and works - but probably can't handle more than 10 balls so I might get a real hopper if I feel its worth it. I do prefer hitting against a wall than just serving a hopper, although each is its own thing.

[OSU Buckeye]

So I "played" today. Ok I am desperate, so even though I wouldn't have counted this ever before as playing and worth writing in my journal over, I am taking every chance to make myself believe i have played and am playing.
It was quite funny, four generations of people on court. I went with my dad, my grandfather and my brother.
I tried teaching my dad how to hold the racquet properly on forehands but he still holds it and hits it strangely, sorta like he's forcing himself to just touch the ball. I hope he can get it right, so the few times he does play I can get a few balls back and forth. My grandfather - around eighty, hasn't played in over 30 years, also returned quite a few balls from his forehand. I was impressed.
Then my brother, he also is actually playing better. He got a few serves over from the service line and returned a few from his forehand although he still instinctively does this weird twist your hand and hit a forehand from your backhand thing that I am trying to get him rid of (wonder how he came up with that habit? its almost like he uses it like a sword). I guess from last year he is a little stronger so it helps to get the ball back over the net. He's 6 now, hopefully I can get him into it a little more this summer.

Again, this is really not like a normal play because you know, I am just getting the ball back using a proper form, to people who have never played tennis before. i played a 15 point tiebreaker sorta thing with my dad and I used a dumbed down second serve all the way through. At the end I put in a few serves and they were good. Maybe because I was playing my dad - they might have been just normal had someone actually returned it. But I felt good with the serves. And naturally as I said I try to play as theoretically correct as possible, only on a much slower scale, so I was quite happy with my backhand. Again, I don't know how it would hold up when the ball comes screaming to it from someone's forehand but at this pace, it looked fundamentally correct and i was satisfied with my depth and control. Next thing is to work on pace from backhand.

In other news, I am getting a shop and JobRite. job at ShopRite so a little money in my pocket now. I don't know what I would use money for but I guess its always good. First thing I am going out and getting a few cans of tennis balls, I have been out of good ones for a while now. My selfbuilt ball hopper looks good and works - but probably can't handle more than 10 balls so I might get a real hopper if I feel its worth it. I do prefer hitting against a wall than just serving a hopper, although each is its own thing.

Wouldn't that be 3 generations instead of 4?     Good news on the job so you can have some spending cash!  Believe me, you will find stuff to buy or you can just save it for later.  

[FreeBird]

Hey Pawan, any update on the team tennis angle?  Have you been able to get in contact with any of the team captains or done any research on the teams?  If you need some help on the research angle (using the USTA website), Buckeye or I can give you some help.

Greg

[pawan89]

Hey Pawan, any update on the team tennis angle?  Have you been able to get in contact with any of the team captains or done any research on the teams?  If you need some help on the research angle (using the USTA website), Buckeye or I can give you some help.

Greg

I haven't yet recieved word back from anyone - I did delay sending them the emails so you know, I am waiting till the weekend to think anything. I have been trying to navigate my way around the site with some success, I guess more practice and I'll soon be able to do one or two useful things Thanks though.

In other tennis news, I am quite bored with the lack of someone to hit against. So I have been visiting the wall every day for at least half an hour. Besides a slight wrist pain, I think it has done wonders for my backhand, the pace on it has been increasing consistently, I do want to try this out against a real person. Surprisingly, last time I played, this last weekend there was a small reversel of roles with the backhand. While over the past two years I have been trying to move away from my slice backhands - which I like very much and are quite effective I feel - to a topspin or flat backhand, my buddy just did the opposite. He went from nice two handed backhands and even one handed backhands to slices and I found the slices surprisingly harder to handle. And when I tried to revert to a few slices of my own, it was gone. So you know, I am liking the pace on my backhand drives but next time I play, I'll put 'working on my backhand' aside and actually slice the lows and drive the highs.

[OSU Buckeye]

Keep bugging them until they return your call or email.  This will show your desire to join them and hopefully get you some success!  

[pawan89]

Keep bugging them until they return your call or email.  This will show your desire to join them and hopefully get you some success!  

I will. I guess. Although isn't it annoying if you keep bothering them? Also, do they like look badly upon teenagers? seems like most of you are peope who have a steady job and steady free times (maybe not?).
Also you scared me that I wasn't up to thier level so I am a little unsure of my own level now. But whatever, she gave me all 4.5 leagues and one 4.0 league captains so you know, it'll only do me good if i am playing against people better than me.

[OSU Buckeye]

Keep bugging them until they return your call or email.  This will show your desire to join them and hopefully get you some success!  

I will. I guess. Although isn't it annoying if you keep bothering them? Also, do they like look badly upon teenagers? seems like most of you are peope who have a steady job and steady free times (maybe not?).
Also you scared me that I wasn't up to thier level so I am a little unsure of my own level now. But whatever, she gave me all 4.5 leagues and one 4.0 league captains so you know, it'll only do me good if i am playing against people better than me.

Younger people are great for the leagues as they generally are in the best shape and can play singles better.  To a captain, anyone who is interested and makes their team better and/or deeper is a good thing!

[pawan89]

Yo!! Two people got back to me!
One of them simply said he forwarded my name onto a captain of a 4.0 team who plays on Thurs. evenings.
The other said he was the captain of 2 4.5 teams, one of them is a local league comprised of 4 teams, 2 from right around my area. They play on Wednesday eve. And the other league was a middle states league who meet sunday mornings and he said "there is a decent amount of travelling to play."
either way, I am going to go talk with this person on sunday morning. I'm happy.

[OSU Buckeye]

Yo!! Two people got back to me!
One of them simply said he forwarded my name onto a captain of a 4.0 team who plays on Thurs. evenings.
The other said he was the captain of 2 4.5 teams, one of them is a local league comprised of 4 teams, 2 from right around my area. They play on Wednesday eve. And the other league was a middle states league who meet sunday mornings and he said "there is a decent amount of travelling to play."
either way, I am going to go talk with this person on sunday morning. I'm happy.

Hells yes!  See what you can get into!  You should at least get a better idea of where you belong rating wise from playing against them and talking to them.    There is a lot of variance in each level so it helps to know if someone is a weak 4.5, average 4.5, or really strong 4.5 close to 5.0.  Good luck with it!  

[pawan89]

So I played again. 2-6 6-0 6-4
honestly, and I am not understimating my friend's tennis, but I am getting a little tired of winning so closely and even losing sets when it should be a clear easy win.

I was aiming to play a little mentally relaxed today, to take a leaf out of Inner Game of Tennis and let my self1 sit and observe and self2 play. But I couldn't isolate mental and phyiscal well enough so I got more and more physically lazy, well I was from the start - thats how I lost the first set so badly (not to mention my backhand thats been working so well against the wall let me down - again because i got lazy and left all my footwork and preparation stuff in the bag). I attacked a little more in the second set and it worked, but you know how it is, if one person's getting lazy, its only a matter of time efore it rubs onto the other, so by the end we were both lazy.

not happy. all this talk about skill level, I am playing worse than any beginner right now.

[FreeBird]

So I played again. 2-6 6-0 6-4
honestly, and I am not understimating my friend's tennis, but I am getting a little tired of winning so closely and even losing sets when it should be a clear easy win.

I was aiming to play a little mentally relaxed today, to take a leaf out of Inner Game of Tennis and let my self1 sit and observe and self2 play. But I couldn't isolate mental and phyiscal well enough so I got more and more physically lazy, well I was from the start - thats how I lost the first set so badly (not to mention my backhand thats been working so well against the wall let me down - again because i got lazy and left all my footwork and preparation stuff in the bag). I attacked a little more in the second set and it worked, but you know how it is, if one person's getting lazy, its only a matter of time efore it rubs onto the other, so by the end we were both lazy.

not happy. all this talk about skill level, I am playing worse than any beginner right now.

Do you find that you have trouble keeping focus because you're playing against the same person all the time?  I've found that I have had issues with that in the past.  It's another great reason to keep pursuing the USTA team angle, on which it sounds like you're making some headway.

Greg

[pawan89]

So I went and talked to the person and he told me how to go about it. I guess I could have found this info out from any of you but its still worth it. Basically I register for USTA then find a team and register for that. So I am waiting to get a few paychecks so I can do that - they also said we have to pay as we go depending on how much the club we play/practice at charges (They said that this cost is lesser now because they can find outdoor courts for no charge in this season). So bascially I need a steady inflow of cash for all that and gas.

Yesterday we went to a park (we = family = 12-15 people) for a picnic. This is the same park that had my cross country trail and it also has courts. So I carried my stuff. I played with two of my cousins, both a few years older than me. They hadn't played anytime recently but they were still really good. We didn't play matches or anything because we were three and I had only two racquets so we played 2 games and rotated. It was lots and lots of fun. They both hit really fast - I guess thats the same thing as 'hard' but I felt it was more fast than hard, hard in my opinion is when i can't return it - this was more of i couldn't get the ball even if it was like to my forehand two feet away. I am not used to that pace from anyone I play. Of course this might change if they actually played like a real set or something where they would i guess eventually have to use more topspin because they weren't really consistent, but still they hit faster than lot of people i have seen - including whatever i saw from the 4.5 team i watched in the morning. But like if I played against them on a regular basis I can see some drastic improvement because once I got used to their pace I started playing better too. As is usually the case - the better the opponent the better we play, right? And we played for a long time, 3-4 hours rotating in and out in the middle of the day, the heat was intense. we were also in jeans.
It was fun and quite an experience I would say.
Then I went out today and hit with my dad. I taught him to serve and he got a few decent ones in, they are like my ok second serves but i don't expect more from my dad, he isn't exactly physically fit for more tennis. But I saw that my forehands and backhands* maintained thier pace from yesterday so I was satisfied and have resolved to keep consciously increasing my groundstroke pace henceforth.

A note on pace: As expected I can generate more pace when my opponent can also hit with pace, I guess it involves using the opponents pace too. But I realized anytime i wanted to generate that pace on my own initiative, like attacking a second serve or winnering a short ball, I messed up. I suppose its simply me going for too much with improper footwork and such. So I need to work on providing my pace on my initiative against my friends who don't hit nearly as hard.

*I am loving how my backhand's coming along. I can actually incorporate it in my game and its beautiful. I have lost touch with my deep slices which I intend to get back but I am loving my backhand. Its becoming a reliable and even at times dangerous shot now. I have found hitting balls on the rise at the level I like is much better for my backhand than waiting for the peak of the ball. I tend to hit it perfectly at a certain height wheras anything higher becomes just a deep moonball sorta thing that is easily returnable.

[OSU Buckeye]

Good stuff Pawan!  Sounds like you're on the right track, and yeah you can ask us since we all have continuing USTA memberships and register for the new leagues every season we play, which is like 3-4 times per year!

[pawan89]

Since I haven't posted much anywhere else I'll update my journal. I played this past Saturday. I am really not going to say anything about my game, well maybe a little, cuz it's not right.  I am playing at so infrequent intervals I don't think its fair to myself or my game to criticize it when its not really 'warmed up'. I played really relaxed, mentally, but my tennis was I thought pretty good for my once-in-two-week playings. I changed my serve a little in that I started tossing much much higher. Thats it. And it help quite a bit I think, I am definitely sticking to the new higher toss. I didn't have any double faults in the first set and none in the second untill.. and this is the part I am going to complain about. I lost the first set 6-7, 4-7 in the tiebreaker. I wasn't too bothered, i have no problem losing when I know I lost because someone played better than me (as opposed to me playing worse than them - i hope you get the difference). Then second set I played better and was serving at 5-2. Now I might have had one double fault until this time, but 5-2 serving at 40-15 onwards, continuing to 5-4 40-30, I doublefaulted at least 5 times - all on set points. This is what annoys me the most. My friend also started playing better to actually win the points and all but still.....
I held once finally and took the set 7-5. Next set I won 6-2, SERVING IT OUT SUCCESSFULLY AT 5-2.

So except for my apparent double faults on set points and the not being able to close it out the last few times I have played, I am happy.

[OSU Buckeye]

You found someone to play and apparently a good match of competitor looking at the scores!

[dmastous]

I know all about infrequent playing. I have a regular schedule were I play every 2 weeks. Sometimes.

[pawan89]

I know all about infrequent playing. I have a regular schedule were I play every 2 weeks. Sometimes.

 
  Someone's on the same boat then..

[pawan89]

So I played this morning before the men's Final. I didn't feel like posting once the final started and not at all since it ended, I have also been at work so. I won all three sets 6-4 6-0 6-2. I was happy with my serve, it was consistent and solid and didn't let me down. I changed my form yet again a little but sticking with this one - ultimate aim is to have a solid second serve in a few weeks. Right now I feel my second serve and my backhand are the only two points that aren't up to the rest of my game's standards and I took good steps in correcting my second serve, it should pay off. The last two sets I don't take too much credit for, it was obvious my friend hadn't had breakfast, he just woke up and we left to the courts. I served and held set point even third set at 5-0 but he broke me and saved two more set points before I could serve it out at 5-2. But first set was interesting. I got broken once closely and I broke him twice, lot of games went to multiple dueces.

A small note about my friend. I know I keep talking about him but never mention him so you don't know who I am up against pretty much. Well me and this kid have been hitting every summer for the past.. this will be the fourth summer. Not many people would wake up at 6 everyday to play tennis but I am lucky to have found someone equally motivated and interested in moving forward. We have both helped each other and basically we practice and play and try to help each other out. He has a huge huge first serve. Thankfully for me, its ON only about once a month. If he could turn it on all the time he'd be holding easier than anything. His forehand is solid but I'd say we are evenly matched with that except, and this is generally I feel what is missing in his game, his isn't always on. My forehand is reliable and I can do what it takes to make it consistent if i am having a 'bad day' so generally I can play a good forehand all the time. He doesn't. Backhands we both struggle with - he has a decent two hander but likes the one hander so he switches back and forth so he's decent with both, better with the two handed. He has recently started slicing and this is good for me because usually and I don't know why, i am the slicer whenever I play. I love my slices backhand and forehand and use it successfully and now i am having to face it. So for him basically its all about getting the game to click which he hasn't been able to do against me in the past. But recently, and I think you can see from my journal, our matches have been close and he has won a few sets. I find it hard to believe that all of a sudden after three years he can start beating me but I further deny that I have dropped my level that much so it must be something with what he is doing. So lately he has been going all out on first set and making it real competetive and winning it even sometims and then lets down the rest of the next set and a half. And maybe he activates himself when I have set points and stuff because he has been able to pressure me and break me which has led to further personal unrest for me - making me question my mental game.
So there. Consistency is a major factor for him and that's why sometimes you see scores like 6-0 6-1 6-2 and others 7-5 7-6 etc. usually it runs to both the extremes in a single match.

So there you know my 'competition' now. I suppose playing the same person has its advantages and disadvantages. Good thing is we both feel comfortable, know each others game, and our games are varied - he serves and volleys sometimes and so do I, power shots, drop shots and we do lots of different things so its not like we are used to single dimensional plays. So it helps us build and execute game plans and deconstruct the others game plans. We help each other out and atmospher isn't tense which is good. Cons I guess is no matter how varied we are, one person is after all one person and theres plenty of unique games out there that and I might not be getting used to playing variations. Sometimes I do tend to almost expect that first serve to not go in and for that error to give me the point and likewise that ball to go for the winner - and thats definitely not good. But we both played in different high school teams so its not like thats our only tennis, we play practice learn during summer and then implement on our high school teams.