The week that had a little bit of everything both in terms of actual tennis and various mental states.
Monday – 1 hour – coached practice (1v1)
Jesus, would you like to take the wheel perhaps? One of those days were things click and then click right out (and then click again). Warmup was relatively nice in terms of the length of the rallies. A lot of movement from one side of the court to the other and managed to keep the ball in play. In ideal world it would have a bit more spin and direction control but I take what I can get, cannot be too greedy. As there’s a tournament coming up this week and since my serve return has been on an unauthorized holiday then the following section of the lesson can be titled “How many times a person can get pissed off over the same mistake?” Turns out that the answer is ‘very many‘. Eventually out of the gazillion returns made, a few of them started to look as tennis gods intended which means with correct height over the net and that meant we could (partially) move on with our lives. Eyes on the ball, short take back, long extension. Bonus points if I don’t loose my shit during those three steps. No clue what my headspace was during the last 10 min spent playing a tiebreak but majority of it was surprisingly okay if I think about the, for the lack of better words, shit show that happened 15 minutes prior to it. Feet were relatively quick to take me from point A to B which I hope becomes automatic muscle memory as time goes on. Serve felt reliable, I didn’t try to commit premeditated murder on my returns and quality of groundstrokes was decent. Conclusion? The whole hour felt a) physically as if someone’s trying to squeeze my lungs empty with their bare hands b) mentally like swinging on the edge of a cliff.
Nonetheless, questionable vibes aside, some positives to take with me from this lesson and honestly I’m pumped to get back on a tournament court. Praying for an indoor hard court but the way the weather is shaping out to be, I’m getting a feeling like we might be in for a start of clay season (current nr of minutes played on clay since October: 0). Vamos?
Pre-practice soundtrack: tennis prep (playlist by me, songs that get me hyped)
Thursday – 2.5 hours – tournament match (D5, main draw, 1/8 final)
After having a teeny tiny “moment” on Tuesday evening questioning my life when I found out that I managed to draw probably the strongest player in our entire category for my first match, it was actually time to play against her. Luckily for me, the match took place on hard court. Less luckily for me, the whole indoor felt like a sauna because it was one of the warmest days of this year so far and I started wondering weather it’s possible for me to get a heatstroke while not exposed to sun (spoiler: luckily I didn’t). The match itself was actually way more equal in terms of level of play than I expected. The opponent was great, balls fast, which I like and the vibes were good. Seemed like we both were just genuinely happy to be there. Maybe next time we can just wrap it up a bit quicker because those 2.5 hour 3 set matches are starting to become an unwanted habit.
Positives:
- Returns: despite breaking my head with them earlier in the week, these actually started to work now. Not always but exponentially more than before. Keeping eyes on the ball really helps here.
- Serve: when it’s good then it’s really really good.
- Returning high balls on defense: i realized overhitting is overrated, just sending the ball back and having patience is where it’s at.
- Some of the points: running forehand slices down the line, defense backhand cross courts, 2 (!!!!) clean volleys – there were some great shots that are going to filed in the ‘hall of fame’ section in my mind. Utterly disappointed there were no cameras around to capture some of them.
To be improved:
- Serve consistency: it’s reliable until it isn’t. Height of the contact point was, is and will be the biggest pain in my ass for the times to come.
- Short balls: are we hitting them fast? Controlled? Short or long? You know as much as I do. Need to figure out how to make them inconvenience the opponent more.
- Decisiveness: doubt kills more good shots then anything else ever will. Hit with a plan in mind and don’t chicken out.
Result: loss (6/3 – 2/6 – 5/7)
However, all things considered I’m happy. One of those matches that gets categorized as a ‘good loss’. Things that I wanted to make work and wanted focused on did actually work most of the time and the rest of it I guess comes with experience and more practice. Onwards and upwards.
Pre-match soundtrack: cannot remember, maybe Renee Rapp again?
Friday – 2 hours – easy going practice
Felt like I wanted to hit some balls so texted one of my friends in the tennis club and we ended up playing for nearly two hours. Good fun, nothing crazy serious. Forehand sliced more balls than I would like to admit but it’s something that works for me and now it’s more about figuring out the exact amount of power and slice I can put in it for it to work the best. Serves were back in biz after clocking out of work early during Thursday’s third set. I need to almost over exaggerate the stretch to meet the ball to avoid it dropping too low. After letting the other person ace me 5+ times with his crazy fast and wide serves, I remembered who I am and then the returns started to work as well. I do have to say that my body which held up really well during the tournament match now felt like a human equivalent of a train crash. Tennis players really go around feeling as if they are 80 year olds only to turn up on court and fly around like unicorns. Make it make sense.
Pre-match soundtrack: whatever was playing on car radio
~ onwards and upwards, S.