Big Bangers

It is not two and a half weeks until I leave for Sacramento for the National 30s Indoor Tournament. The last month, I have been going back and forth between being excited and being super nervous. I think now that the plane tickets are purchased, the hotel and car (the responsibility of travel partner) hopefully is or is being taken care of, I think I can relax a little more.

All I have left to do is play. With the Michigan weather finally somewhat warm enough for me to get outside, I have been playing more with practice partners I call Big Bangers because of how hard they hit the ball and most of them use the Luxilon brand of "Big Banger" string typical for guys who hit as hard as they do.

After what seems like millionth hour of playing tennis with some of these guys, I began to feel a little discouraged last week. For awhile, I had a good mix of hitting with them and they hitting with people more around my level of play. Mentally this was good; get my butt kicked for two hours and then go be competitive later in my own skill class.

Most of March, however, I almost exclusively hit with the Big Bangers and at some point, I really began to hate them!

Well, maybe not hate...

I did hate that I seemed to be getting aced three times a game!

I did hate that my best serves were getting blasted back at me with NO regard to my sensitive feelings.

I did hate that whenever I went to the net behind a lackluster approach shot, some of the Big Bangers tried to make me pee my pants my taking aim at my head.

I did hate that one of this Big Bangers pointed out that I was only winning about 0.3 games a set.

But then I resumed hitting with my normal practice partners and I began to see the light. It was like that church moment in the Blues Brothers where Elroy realizes the answer is "The Band".

I found myself reading the court better. Without the ball coming back at me at 170 mph, I could see weakness in my opponents game and pick them apart. I was able to dictate play more. Playing with the Big Bangers made me take advantage of every opportunity to win a point, knowing there wouldn't be many chances. And that carried over to other tennis and I found myself more dominant.

I am so looking forward to nationals now.

I have racquets to string in the next week, a couple of mixed doubles matches to play, and some clinics to attend.

This week I lay I start laying off of the weight training, but continuing with the cardio and most importantly, PLAYING, PLAYING, PLAYING!

Incidentally, I played a mxd doubles match on Saturday against a 68 year old woman that I think I am going to have to honorarily dub a Big Banger.

This lady is everything I want to be as a tennis player when I am that age. She was ripping returns back our way like she was demonstrating "How to Burn Someone With a Return".

That's it for now,

Stay tuned,

KS

Stinking Thinking

38 days and counting...

38 days until the 30s National Indoor tournament.

Although my days have primarily been filled with training and tennis (aside from a couple of weeks where asthma decided to kick my butt), I am beginning to feel less confident.

I am often reminded to not do "stinkin' thinkin'", Dr. Phil's favorite saying when someone has bad thoughts for no good reason, but sometimes, it is so hard not to.

I lose a match to a person I shouldn't or even struggle with and win ugly against a player of lessor talent and I begin to think maybe I don't have the talent to compete for a Gold Ball. But then I will have an amazing match and I think that I can't wait for the end of April.

All of my practices are purposeful. Beforehand, goals are written down and despite results, I try very hard to stick to the plan. For example, win or lose, a goal might be to serve and volley, every opportunity I have. So at the end of a practice, when I have served and volleyed more times that Pete Sampras, himself, why am I disappointed with a set score of 3-6?

Stinking Thinking...

A goal of mine has been to hit with more pace. Too often, I don't go for shots that I make all day in practices and clinics. In matches, I am content to moonball to my opponent or push the ball back at the person who is pushing at me. So, in my first outside session of the year, when a well-intended, but very misguided, acquaintance reminded me to just get the ball back against a guy that routinely stomps me and waits for slow sitters, why did I allow myself to falter, to go away from my plan?

Stinking Thinking...

So, my goal for the next month is to be mentally tougher. When a psycho across the net from me, asks me for the millionth time whether I am sure of a call, I am going to "chill". When my opponent, who has brought her own lounge chair to the court so that her changeovers are only missing a pina colada with a little pink umbrella, I am going to "chill". When the person on the other side of the net decides to go fetch a third ball from another court before telling me my first serve is out, I am going to "chill" and then blow her away with a second serve ace!

Focus! No Stinking Thinking...

Stay tuned,

KS

Tennis Noises

After watching the Australian Open, I have decided that the noise I make when hitting the ball, a monotone "uuuuuhhhhh", is simply too boring.

I need a new sound, a new grunt. Something intimidating. So this weekend, while competing at the SE Michigan Combo League playoffs, I was on the hunt for a new noise.

For me, my noise has always been about letting out air, remembering to breathe when I hit the ball, something like the way weigh trainers exhale when dead lifting. Although, its audible, I've never received complaints about it being hindering, which seems to be the objective of my loud-exhaling tennis peers.

This weekend, I found the possibilities were endless. Did I want to go with some kind of primal, monstrous growl? Or something more shrill and scary? The kind of noise that would cause my opponent to tighten up like someone had run their fingernails across a blackboard.

But I have narrowed it down to five.

First, my favorite; "WHOOPEE". Victoria Azarenka, the young, up-and-coming Belarusian whose Australian Open dreams ran into a brick wall named, Serena, two years in a row, has always been very vocal when striking the ball, but thanks to some enthusiastically inebriated Aussie fans, who had not had their fill of tennis because of a Federer beatdown of Lleyton Hewitt, the "Whoppee" was brought to light. Personally, this is my favorite, ball-striking word. "Whoopee!" What a way to relax when you're on the tennis court. "Whoopee!" While you are having a blast striking the ball, your opponent, if they haven't already died of laughter, will probably be too confused about all the fun you are having playing to return the ball. Win-win! Or, in the words of Azarenka, WHOOPEE!

Second, "BOO". I am not sure if this is meant to scare your opponent. The man doing it, a club-level player, didn't shout it suddenly, like you would expect of someone saying "BOO!" Instead it was more like a warning, a long dragged out warning, one you would expect Casper, the friendly ghost, to let out, warning you that, yes, he is a ghost. Yes, he is required to greet you in the customary ghoulish manner. But just between you and him, he's not really trying to scare you. The tennis player said, "Boo" every time he hit the ball, but dragged it out, so that by the time the ball landed on his opponent's side, he was still oo-ing.

Third, "AH-HAA". This is perhaps the most creative one in the bunch. It was the sound of laughter like Roger Thomas from What's Happening. Again, a male club player was the one observed letting his lung air out by "Ah-haa-ing". If you choose to employ this breathing technique, make sure you are hitting the "haa" a whole octave higher than the "ah". This one might take practice. Work at it and I am sure you can get it. If you really want to go throwback, rock some knee-high crew socks with the wide green stripes at the top. Ask your opponent to slap you some skin. Right on!

Fourth, "Ayyy-YAAAA". This one is for all of you Kung-Fu enthusiasts. Every time you hit the ball, pretend like you are about to split a stack of boards with your forehead. Take a deep breath, swing your racquet and "Ayy-YAAAA!" or "Ka-POW!" (if you are a Batman and Robin follower) or "BOOYAH" if you want to revive the Stewart Scott expression. Whatever you say, say it with enthusiasm. Say it like you are slapping down a royal flush! "Ka-POW!"

Fifth and lastly, "Oy-yee". This is for those who like experiencing different cultures. I most often hear this from European kids. It's kind of a whiny, high-pitched sound, annoying like the squeaky wheel of a grocery cart that you put up with because you're too lazy to go back to the front of the store to get another one. Pronounced correctly and dragged out sufficiently, this noise is the kind of slow torture counter punching players can use to further drive their opponents mad. "Oy-yeee!"

That's it for now. Stay tuned,

WHOOPEE!

USTA National 30s Indoor Championship

I started this blog to journal my attempts to become a USTA national champion in the 30s age group, an ambitious, but attainable goal considering I have the better part of this new decade to accomplish my goal.



The National 30s Indoor Championship is held in Gold River, CA at the end of April. That gives me approximately 90 days to train, to work and to refine my game.



There are also things to work on, of course, like the money to train, to work and to refine my game! The most amazing thing to me has been the willingness of so many people I know to be a part of my goal, to do what they can to aid me in my attempt to achieve this dream.



This Blog entry is to just update what's going on.

I have been playing for the past year with Wilson Hyperlast Spin string. Its a hybrid with polyester in the mains and Stamina in the crosses. I like this particular string because it has been arm-friendly for the most part. I fractured my wrist playing ice hockey a couple of years ago and since then have struggled with polyester strings which has caused tendinitis symptoms in my right wrist at times. At its worst, I played with Wilson NXT, a soft string that frays and breaks for me in record time, but has always alleviated the soreness in my wrist. The Hyperlast string is an 18-gauge string, a lot thinner than the normal 16-gauge.

I've had some soreness the past four weeks in my wrist and have been debating switching back to the NXT while I am training for the next two months and then switching back at the beginning of April so I have a few weeks to play with the polyester again.

The reluctance is that I really enjoy being able to hit out on the ball with the polyester. I enjoy how hard I can hit the ball without fear of it sailing on me. But I have to take care of the wrist first.

The second injury, which has been a problem for the past year is the plantar fasciitis in my left foot. This injury has just refused to go away and I don't want to take the necessary long time off to let it heal. If I thought it would heal in three weeks by me not doing anything, I would totally do it, but I have taken a couple of weeks off without much relief since I still have to do the day to day walking around. The insoles have helped tremendously. The two pair of socks for extra cushioning has helped. I am icing and soaking at the end of the day which has done a lot. I am not waking up with the same pain as I was before. So hopefully the treatment routine will get me through another season.

Strength and Conditioning training has been what you would expect; WORK, HARD WORK! But I've done what I can to break up the monotony. I've really focused on high-rep, endurance-oriented weight training with lots of sprints on the treadmill and stair master mixed in.

Tennis training has, of course, been so much more enjoyable. I am playing anywhere from 10 to 16 hours a week. My favorite part of the week has to be the clinic at Franklin Racquet Club on Saturday mornings. Last Saturday, I got to rotate through the different drills with the biggest hitters in the clinic, 4.5 and 5.0 guys. And I loved it. I have to admit, I was scared at first. I didn't want to be hit with a ball so the pros figured they should move me to a "safer" group. I also didn't want to hit so poorly that the guys were like, what is she doing with us?

I held my own and loved the pace!

I think it was the new shoes. I've designed my own with the mi adidas application on the adidas website. The shoes are red, silver, white and navy. UDM colors! Grant it, the shoes only go with half of my wardrobe, but that's okay!

Go Titans!

Stay tuned,
KS

2010

A new decade.

And I'm looking forward to it. It's been a long decade for me, a decade that I've fondly referred to as my lost years.

Its been ten long years of wandering through life aimlessly, taking unsure steps toward goals but lacking the confidence to fully put my heart into the trek.

People make resolutions. Every year, they vow to lose weight and save money and do things that they've not managed to do the previous twelve months.

But tonight marks, not only the end of the year, but an end of a decade, my dark decade.

But tonight, I see light. Light that I've not been able to see in a long time. Sitting expectantly on the horizon, there is a subtle line where absolute darkness meets the first light of dawn.

And there, in that fine line, the precise moment when night becomes day, there is a cloud of hope, my tomorrow. My new year. My new decade.

Welcome 2010.

KS
Stay tuned...

Campus Showdowns

Campus Showdown at MSU? A must-do for any player serious about their game.

I attended one of many campus showdowns run by colleges to provide the community and local juniors access to their programs and provide their own players with an opportunity for competition during the off-season.

I chose to do the MSU campus showdown because of the proximity to home and because it was listed as a coed event. I thought I would get to watch some really exciting men's tennis when I wasn't on court. So I was surprised to find that a coed event meant that guys were in the draw with the women. (A little intimidating at first, but as the day went on, the person on the other side of the net was just any other competitor.)

Play started at 8 am Sunday morning. We were told to check in 30 minutes prior to the start of the round-robin tournament. I convinced my friend, Sue, to sign up for the tournament. So we spent fifteen nervous minutes warming up. At least, I was nervous. I sent routine balls flying on the courts adjacent to us, surely annoying the college players on either side of us who never seemed to miss a ball. There was a certain quiet rhythm to the early morning warm-up around us and I was painfully aware that I was disrupting that beat.

But warm-up is not about working kinks out of the strokes. It's about getting the body moving, waking the blood flow.

My first match was against a very nice 18 year old girl from a small area near Lansing. She was a very good player with consistent strokes. She beat me 2-6. (Each match in the campus showdown was a one-setter, the first to 6, with a tie-breaker at 5-5 instead of 6-6.)

I knew that I would probably be outmatched in all of my matches, but I didn't want to lose any match without at least getting one game. I also didn't want to play a match where the entire contest was me playing at the mercy of my opponent. I wanted to play my game. Even though I thought my first opponent was much better than I was, I didn't feel like I played my best game. I am not one to make excuses, but knowing your tendencies is very important in sports and I TEND to not be a morning competitor! It takes me a while to physically wake up and even when I am moving, there TENDS to be lag time before my brain joins my body at the breakfast table.

I made dumb mistakes; hitting a shallow ball to the girl's forehand so I could watch her rip winners by me. Instead of mixing up my shots, something that has made me an effective player this summer, I pounded the ball with this girl. Although I hit hard, if I continue to do it, it often lets my opponents fall into a comfortable rhythm. I should have mixed it up, but in a match as short as these were, I realized this too late.

My second match was against one of the MSU women's tennis team members. She was an excellent player who was dismissing her opponents in very short patches of time. I'd watched her play a few minutes of her first match, witnessing return winners, services aces and two ball rallies that ended in her winning the point. So before I took the court, I inhaled and then exhaled and reminded myself of my goal, don't get blown away.

It took her all of eleven minutes to get a 5-0 lead on me. And as I picked up the balls to serve the sixth game, I began to rethink the validity of having a game plan. I took a moment to sort out what was happening. Usually in a match at this point, the brain tells you that you have another set to sort it out, but I was running out of time.

I was being rushed. I was allowing her to use my pace to kill my swiftly. And, "not losing horribly" is not a game plan.

So, Plan B

Take pace off of the ball.

I hit with Sue a lot and albeit sarcastically, she often says to me, "When all else fails, here comes the moonball." Hitting with topspin is something that I do fairly well and even though I've come to embrace my style of play, in match situations, I find myself shying away from it.

At any cost, I resorted to hitting the moonball, high loopy shots that landed deep in her court and prevented her from ripping winners from such a pushed-back position. I won a game. In the next game, I did the same thing, a little tougher with her serving, dictating the start of play, but I managed to hang on for another game. Again I lost the set 2-6, but played better and entered my third match with renewed confidence.

I won my third match 6-2, but dictated play from the start. I was in control. My mind had finally awaken and joined my body at the party!

The rest of the day was a mix of quick losses, including one to a man in the draw who had at least a foot on me in height. He hit down on the ball and although I did manage to get one game, it was while feeling like I was holding onto a defective life jacket in a hurricane! He aced me four times in two quick games, aces that I barely saw come over the net and only heard hit the tarp behind me.

But the eight hours of tennis was fun and exhausting. And I was inspired to play better, to compete more fiercely and to return next year.

The rest of the year's schedule includes very focused practices and intense strength and conditioning training.

Stay tuned,

KS

Campus Match Play

The next two weeks for me are going to be spent fine tuning my game for campus match play. Campus match play was designed to expose college-bound juniors to college tennis. The format is simple; four or five hours of round-robin style play with the members of the college team. A lot of colleges participate as a way of giving their team a chance for competition during the NCAA off-season within the rules of permitted play for student-athletes. The cost is usually very low and although the day was designed for juniors, anyone can participate.

More information can be found at the following link:

www.itatennis.com/events/campus_match_play.htm

So, I am planning to hit the colleges in the Midwest. First, stop, Michigan State University.

My primary goal is to fix the problem I have with slow starts. I've mentioned in earlier posts how I tend to fall behind in a set early. I've had a lot of suggestions to fix this, including focusing more during the warm-up and visualization techniques.

These campus match play is a no-stress, not-for-points competition. Without the pressure of having something to gain by winning, I hope I can concentrate on competing every round.

On a more mundane note, I've been playing a ton of doubles and am feeling a little more confident in my serve and volley game. I'm still attending the Saturday morning clinic at Franklin, which is a ton of fun. Its so hard, but I am hanging in there and no longer feeling like I am the "weakest" one in the group or that I can't hold my own. Yesterday was such a warm November day. A friend and I actually spent about five hours outside playing tennis, breaking only for a nap and a meal.

This Friday, members of my mixed doubles team, which made it to sectionals are driving down to Ohio to play the Nationals-bound team, whom we lost to in the final match, 1 court to 2. Its an evening of tennis and fun, giving them some competition before they leave for Las Vegas and allowing them to show off their new indoor tennis facility in Perrysburgh, OH.

I am looking forward to that and will let everyone know how it went.

Stay tuned,

KS.