Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Rallies at Winston Park

Had a nice rally session today and I've appeared to fix my shallow hitting problem. It seems when I return shots with little pace I tend to hit shallow. Luckily my hitting partner hits fairly flat and deep and I was able to plow through the ball. It was especially good to hear that the amount of topspin from my shots were borderline annoying. My backhand looked alot better as I'm just taking a bigger swing at the ball. Couple mishits but I think in a few more sessions it'll be back to normal.

My deficiency at the net was jsut too apparent. I think I'm going to have to make join a clinic or something to fix that. Maybe I'll check out some video tutorials on volleying bc mine are really just that bad. I think its bc I tend to step back instead of into the volley, but its just like a reflex.

Hopefully I should get a few good games out this weekend as i'm home for the my dad's Bday. Will try to cram in as much tennis as possible.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Hitting Shallow

Yesterday I had a nice hitting session with Aaron, no match, just rallying. I thought I was hitting decently (maybe a few more net balls than usual) but I noticed that I wasn't hitting deep at all. My shots had loads of pace, and plenty of spin, but my shots were clearing the net by a couple inches (if not clipping) and landing mid court, instead of my usually 3/4ths ways back. It was a bit disturbing bc I haven't changed my shots or strings anytime soon. Man it was just weird, I'm usually driving my opponents very far back, and in fact the only time my balls land shallow is when i step up and take an approach shot with loads of topspin.

My backhand is failing me miserably. I need to work on the timing, I know its a timing issue. I'm not timing my footwork and racquet drop with the contact point correctly. I mean they either "ping over" or go long. I don't feel theres that much spin on the good ones I hit over either.

My serve at least is getting it's timing back. After the layoff, I thought my timing with the leg coiling and jumping was off, but I managed a few really nice blasts. I'm also getting the hang of kick serving with more pace, but sometimes bc of my toss, I end up slicing and going long.

We even did a net to net volley drill which i failed at miserably. I really need to get that mid court volley thing down. I mean usually my approach windshield wiper forehand is unreturnable, but as i play better opponents, I will be a sitting duck at the net.

Practice makes perfect, and lord knows I need more practice.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

A quick hit with the mythical 6.0

If you know a thing or two about tennis, I'm sure you're aware of the myths and proclaimations of the Prostaff 6.0 as being the Holy Grail of racquets. I'm a religious scourer of cL and just happened to come across a posting for one for only 40 bucks! I immediately snatched it up, gave it a quick hit to see what the fuss was about and found it a new home for a nice profit.

My overall opinion of the racquet is simple, all the fluff of O3, microgel, flexpoint, [k]factor, is all marketing. The thing hits almost identically to the k6.1 tour just with a smaller sweetspot. It is rock solid, low powered, and definitely a player's racquet. I personally prefer a bit more bit on the ball for spin so it wasn't really for me. I even compared my Aeropro Drive and Aeropro Drive with Cortex and really found no real difference (with my rubberband vibe dampeners, without them, the APDC is slightly more muted).

Alright well onto tennis... the weathers been really shitty lately with all the rain. I had been making some good progress. Matchplay wise I lost a really bad match the other week. I usually can beat Luis as I have better groundstrokes and service, and i was ripping my service returns (weak point of mine) but couple points into the game I pop a string (about time, 2.5 months, thats a record). Unfortunately my backup APD's are full poly luxilons and by the time I found my groove with the racquet, I had already lost. 

I was pretty pissed but is my game really so fragile that a stick change effectively dropped me an entire NTRP point in ability? I thought that was pretty ridiculous but I do depend on alot of topspin to keep my shots in and being in the 3.5 range I guess i'm not still comfortable in adjusting my take on the ball to compensate yet.

Had a nice rally against Aaron as well (after brushing off some rust due to rain delays). My serve has taken the biggest hit as my 2nd serves aren't penetrating, and I'm just doing something wrong I'm not sure of with my serve. I plan on bringing out the video camera again to see what the hell is going on (been lazy, keep forgetting to charge the battery). No match play bc we were both rusty and the wind was just crazy.

Its back to basics next week and I'm planning to play alot of tennis to get my game back up to snuff.