One Week Before Our First Match...

Customized Adidas Barricades 8

"TAR NATION"

Blue and Gold

 

The jury is still out on how I feel about these shoes, especially since Adidas re-released my all-time favorite Barricades, the Barricade Vs, which has always been a very good fit for my feet. The Barricade 8s are not as sturdy like I need my tennis shoes to be and I've found that I cannot tie these shoes as snugly as I would like around the ankles. The eyelets are set a little weird, so if I pull them tight, it feels as though I am cutting off my circulation and if I don't pull them tight, they don't feel as secure as I would like them. Somehow they seem more narrow than I normal, yet, I keep jamming my toe and cracking toe nails. The sides of the shoe, under the ankle bones, are in a weird place that sometimes rubs my ankles the wrong way. Overall, the shoe is just bothersome in a way that makes it hard to focus on anything other than, "what the hell is my shoe doing now?"

Maybe it's just me...

It irks my soul when equipment companies change a good thing for the sake of change.

My last custom Barricades were the orange and yellow Barricade 7s. The color choices for the 8s are your usual tennis shoe colors. No purple. No orange. Forget designing an all-yellow shoe. And the options for the women's version are next to nothing.

Stay tuned,
KS

Michigan High School Girls Tennis Season 2014

Four days until the first day of the season! At least the courts are ready...

Foot Faults

During a match play session, I served an aced a girl on my first serve and she immediately called a foot fault. I served again and aced her and she said it didn't count because I foot faulted on that serve as well. Rather than argue with her, I proceeded to the deuce court, backed twelve inches behind the baseline but she continued to call foot faults on me and take away points. I told her I wasn't committing foot faults, but it proceeded to be an issue the entire round I had to play her. Is she allowed to call foot faults on me and deduct points?

-Phantom Foot Faulter

Dear Phantom,

According to USTA Comment 18.6, "The receiver or the receiver's partner may call foot faults only when all reasonable efforts such as warming the server and attempting to get an official to the court have failed and the foot faulting is so flagrant as to be clearly perceptible from the receiver's side." Of course, this is in USTA-sanctioned matches and events. Still, your opponent should not have taken points away from you without cautioning you about your alleged foot faults.