Hitting with Franco, Ari and Jorge

Man, i am slow. My footwork is getting worse and it must be the extra lbs i'm carrying on me. Got more vids but still cutting them up. My groundstrokes feel ok, not too much rust, especially with Franco's shots spinning every which way. My shoulder doesn't hurt anymore so the backhand is coming back. Need to work on the legs, not getting enough bend, especially on low forehands.

Hitting with John

It feels great to be back on the court. Had a nice rally session with John. We both has some rust, but really the only major issues with my game was the footwork. I was a bit lazy, and had trouble moving quickly on the court. My forehand was a bit underpowered but consistent and my when needed, I didn't have trouble turning up the power for winners. I did though have issues with high forehands, just had timing issues. Backhand wise I'm pretty happy, shoulder feels great and I can get some pace on it now. Slice is floating up a bit too much but I need to step in more instead of chop the ball.

Service wise... well my 2nd serve is getting better, but I'm having issues with my timing on my 1st serve. Need to put in alot of work on it this weekend. All in all, not bad for such a long layoff!

Hitting at UM

Not able to hit during the week, I manage to find time in between work and class to work on my serve for about an hour. I've been making unbelievable progress. My 2nd serve is really coming along. I still play it safe and spin them in, but I've been using my kick serve as a 1st serve as well by tossing more in front. I need to be more consistant on my ball toss though, b/c if I'm off a little the ball noticeably doesn't kick up as much. Ironically my serve on the Ad side of the court (particularly the 1st) is way more consistant. I think its the more closed stance I use on the Ad side. I might  go back to serving close stance on both sides to disguise my serve a little better but I find myself consistantly hitting up the middle too much and not being able to go out wide (unless I slice). Whatever, I'll take it, my service as been such a crutch with my game, I'm happy its finally working.

Funny thing, I saw someone waiting for their partner so I asked him to hit for a bit. I saw him warming up these silly looking chop shots so after I fed a shot to him, I was almost knocked out of my shoes by an extremely hard, extremely flat ballistic tennis ball. I think he's the flattest and one of the hardest hitting guy's I've played with. It was awesome, I was feeding off his pace and just ripping some really heavy forehands back and forth. Of course, my backhand was a bit lacking in umph but it held on. I wish I would of gotten his name, bc it's the first time I got to play with someone where I could comfortably stand way back on the baseline and just crush the ball. 

Hoping to find someone to hit some pick up tennis this sunday at 7 am... otherwise its just more serve practice.

Kick Serve! and rallying with John

While waiting for John to show up I finally had a break through with my kick serve. My issues were that I was trying to impart the spin with the pronation of my wrist at contact. I went out yesterday and just tried to hit up and over the ball and viola! I nailed 11 out of 12! I'm hoping to build off this... if I can develop a reliable 2nd serve, I can finally just open up on my 1st serve.

Despite not playing for a while me and John had one of our best hitting sessions today. Rallies were easily 7 balls and more and we had a lot of fun just chasing shots all over the court. Suprisingly enough was the appearance of a Net game for me. I wasn't flubbing up vollies but at times me and John had several net to net exchanges. I felt really good on the court today. I was really seeing the ball well and I've come to realize which forehands to hit in which situations. My backhand was also consistant. I flubbed up only when trying to rip one. My 2 hander on the run really lacks any depth though but I can hit my slice deep now to give myself time to recover. I hope this keeps up!

Hitting with John

Had a decent hitting session with John. We were both showing some signs of rust but fought it off rather quickly. I'm getting more impressed with my backhand side now. I can really rip some winners now. The problem lies in consistency, just like my forehand. If I remember to focus, step, contact point, etc... my shots are great, but sometimes i just mental lapse and its downhill from there. I think if i focus on my footwork some more I'll be ok. I think for both of us being a bit out of it, we were able to manage about 5 ball rallies back and forth.

Tim v Puerta

Had a decent hitting session with Puerta again. My backhand is getting its power back as I was able to rip a few nice winners from that wing. I still need work on my timing but that will come with practice. My footwork was attrocious though. I was really sluggish on the court and just not feeling it. Maybe it has something to do with playing at 7 am in the morning, i dunno... I will say we were much more consistant than last time and I was able to gradually warm up, instead of going balls to the wall on the 1st hit like usual.

We even played a set. I lost of course... 6-2 (both points off breaks). My serve wasn't bad, just inconsistant (didn't do any serve warm ups). I even managed to rip a couple aces, and after adjusting my grip to an eastern backhand, my kicks were falling in a bit. I'm still slicing on the Ad side though... I'm finding I'm doing better dealing with the return of serve, but i'm still succeptible on down the line.

I think if I warm up my serve I would hold a few times and our games might get more competitive.

Drakulie, Panterka and Puerta... Oh My

Finally got a chance to play some real tennis after the big move. Hit with Drakulie and Panterka from the TWSFC. Both of them are insane, and while being all round great people, are really good players (Panterka being a former #15 in Poland). I'm surprised they put up with me as long as they did.

Them rallying after having their rhythm interrupted by me


Drak's 1HD Backhand (this is how its done)


Panterka would bagel me in flip flops


The bright spot of the day (other than meeting them) was Drak actually said I have a very heavy forehand in terms of topspin and pace. Coming from a guy who can blast 120 mph serves and is swinging a kps88, I'll take that as a real compliment. I always knew I hit with an excessive amount of spin, I never though it had enough pace to garner praise from anyone 3.5 and higher. On a whole though, my movement wasn't so great bc I'm terrified of messing up my knee again on clay. My backhand wing was deplorable... and I was actually hitting long on my FH. I got lots to work on, but its nice to know, I have a decent weapon on my FH.



Also got to play with Puerta and we're making it a weekly thing. The rallies were good once we got warmed up. We were kind of all over the place at 1st since the balsl were a mix of clay balls and hardcourt balls. I also realized I forgot to pack my tripod so I had to afroengineer a stand using my tennis bag and the water sweeper. Needless to say it wasn't stable. I felt good about our hitting session though. My feet were a bit lazy but my backhand, though horrible, wasn't as bad as its been in the last month. Its getting there. My set up was correct, good follow through, just need to get the timing issue down.

I Hate the Sun

I got to play a little bit of tennis this weekend. Actually played some matches with my friend Dave. It was about 2 pm in the afternoon and the heat was blistering. Dave hasn't picked up a racquet in quite some time but he has some excellent reflexes and motor skills and was able to block back about everything I gave him. We played a quick 10 pt tie breaker which I took 10 - 8 (after blowing a 6-1 lead). He insisted on some match play and thats about where I unraveled. I've been pretty bad with practicing my serve and coupled with serving with the sun in my eye. I was about 5% on my 1st serve. Just like my issues with Luis, when my opponent doesn't give me some pace to work with, I either overhit or hit into the net. And of course that led to frustration, swearing and just a loss both physically and mentally.

The left shoulder feels fine though, and I'm going to be bringing it back into the mix. This week I'm working on my serve, and next time we play, I'll practice some drop balls to calibrate myself on hitting balls with little or no pace.

Hitting Session with John

I must say, this is probably the best I've hit in quite a long time. I just wish I would of brought the camera. Hit with John today and boy was it exhausting. Why? We hit tons of 10+ ball rallies. No more unforced areas keeping the hitting sessions short. I finally noticed more speed and quickness on my movement... p90x to thank?

My forehand was a machine. I fired off multiple blasts from that wing. Ample power, ample spin. The only issue was on my approach shot I wasn't getting low enough and in effect, I hit a few FH approaches into the net.

My backhand was another story... My shoulder is about 80% right now, still can't push it too hard, but for tennis its ok. I've actually improved my slice BH as a result. I don't have power anymore on the BH wing. The timings just been off, but I can slap a few back with little spin. I just need to get the timing back to make contact in front of me, and get a little earlier on my preparation.

My movement like I said was great. John sent me running more than a few times and I was able to streak up, down, left and right on the court to get to it. I was caught flat footed a few times but less often than usually. I actually won a few points at the net... while John was at the net already. Volley to volley is something I never win points off of.

Though my shoulder hasn't healed, I'm going to be returning to the p90x routine. I'll just skip the push up exercises, but I feel ok doing pull ups and overhead presses. If I feel I didn't get a good enough workout, I'll just tack on a run at the end.

Shoulder Issues

Well I pushed it a bit too hard and hurt my shoulder pretty badly during my p90x workout. Luckily its supposed to be my recovery week anyways, so I'm safe for now. Not too happy but I can still run a little bit. Took about a week but I have almost full range of motion and almost no pain. Not sure when its safe to start working out again, but I'm anxious to get back on the routine.

Tennis wise last week as a funk, but this week with only 1 arm, I was hitting much better. Its funny, with the plyo, I've yet to see an improvement with my quickness but I guess I'm being a little over anxious. With the week off from p90x, I power was definitely there. I'm having issues hitting into the net, need to work on my footwork, maybe some footspeed drills will get me on track. I hilariously tried to hit a 1 handed backhand but that was pathetic. I didn't have ability to really hit my 2 hander thanks to my shoulder, so I basically hit the slice on my backhand wing. The rallies with John was alot of fun. He was hitting well and with a lot of confidence. Let me tell you, the bastard is FAST. He chipped and charged and just put everything away at the net. We had some nice rallies going back and forth today.

Going to be a crazy few weeks coming up so hopefully I manage to get SOME tennis in. Oh well I guess my shoulder could use the break though...

Rallies with Alex

Alex is an ace. He's probably better than me at every aspect of tennis except with maybe putting massive amounts of topspin on the ball. I've played with players around Alex's level and much better than him, but I've always found Alex particularly difficult for me to rally with. He has an exceptional degree of control with the ball laterally, angles and especially with depth. He's very deliberate, I know he knows which shots I can't hit and he knows exactly how to hit them. With most players I can adjust and adapt to their game to a degree. Alex can change it up and keep me guessing at will.



Why do I like playing against Alex? Rather than most 4.5's and 5.0's, he makes me play my best. My footwork has to be on point, I can't loft a shot, and I have to focus on every ball. Most importantly Alex wants to see me get better. If he sees me flub up a backhand, he will deliberately hit consecutive shots to my backhand wing and won't stop until I consistently return them back.

During our hitting session I focused alot on making sure I was hitting the slice properly. Coming home and watching the videos of my strokes, I realized the majority of all my errors were bc I was not making contact with the ball in front of my body. I got to be more conscious of that. I think I flubbed up wayyy to many forehands into the net bc of that simple error. Also got to really bend the knees when loading up on my forehand. I can't be using a golf swing on low balls.



I played alot of tennis the past 4 days, in fact i played everyday. Going to take a day off, get some rest bc I felt some tennis elbow coming on during our hitting session. I hit with Franco the spin doctor on Thursday. I definitely need my footwork to be on point.

Rallies and Match Play with Julio

I was with the ball machine, but got a great rally and match with Julio. Julio is a strong 4.0-4.5 who plays a Western FH and a one handed BH. He actually flattens out his forehand, and has great control. He plays pretty similar to Alex, in which he possess great control and can open up with some pace and hit some real winners. Oh and he plays varsity tennis at Felix Varela High school.

We had some really good rallies while I was playing with the APDC with the PHT at 54#. I'm really beginning to like the lower tension, especially since I'm using Poly's. I definitely need to hit more winners off my backhand wings. I don't want it to seem like a liability. We played a match and naturally he took it 6-1. I think we took a few points to deuce a few times. My only saving grace was my serve at times was really on fire and I was bringing the heat. That and I was able to rip a couple forehand winners.

I'm really getting the hang of disguising my forehand. Though I since I take such a huge cut on the ball, most of my forehands have both good pace and a ton of spin. I have been flattening out every so often and doing a straight flatter drive type forehand. I tend to aim for low clearance over the net anyways, so I'm not afraid anymore to open up on a flat shot.

Since I've found myself hitting the slice out of comfort, I've learned how to hit it correctly. I think I was just doing a chopshot before. Mostly its just footwork. If I can get in position early, I can get ready and just crack a nice 2 hander out.

Service wise I'm happy. I had to resort to hitting 2 first serves bc Julio was just abusing my weak 2nd serve. I put some work into my kick and slice serves but is coming along slowly since timing has never been a strong point of mine. Once I work back into my strength training routine, I'm pretty sure my 1st serves will be pretty devastating.

I look forward to more good games and hitting sessions with Julio. Considering I played one hell of an ultimate frisbee game and had a nice run in the morning, I think if I had my wheels with me, I could of gotten a few more points off him.

It's the Strings!

So I've been trying out these new strings from a company called Superstring. They feel good but the strings I'm using in the crosses are much stiffer than the Sensations I'm used to. I'm going to take down the tension to about 58 and see how it plays.

Played Monday with John and Anoop. With the stiffer string bed I was having trouble on softer shots. I played another APDC of mine with 54# PHT's and I was firing on all cylinders. Unfortunately with the leaves everywhere I lost my footing a bit and tweaked my achilles. Nothing too serious, but I do get a little twitch when I launch off a bit.

Had a match against Gottfried too. I got bageled real badly while trying to find my strokes with the Superstring. I decided to swap it out with the PHT APDC and I took the 2nd set 6-2. We decided to call it quits since I wasn't wearing tennis shoes and my Achilles was acting up again.

Service-wise, I was serving more consistent than usual. I wish I was serving as consistently as I did during warmups but that just takes time I guess. I'm really liking this open stance serve motion. I can't believe how I was serving before...



... following through on my right side... so high of a toss... so many things to go wrong. I really have to thank Alex Propman for fixing my serve. With a bit more practice I think I can really have a lethal 1st service. My second serve however is pathetic. I think this weekend if I'm going to work on my kick serve. That and my backhand. I need confidence with it and that will only happen if I go out with the ball machine and drill it.

Rallies with Puerta

I always like hitting with David. Mostly because we goof around and crack jokes and its pretty casual. David is actually a former #5 seed with the FSU tennis team. He hasn't had the opportunity to hit as much as he'd like but he still gave me plenty to deal with. Man I wish I didn't pop my strings last week. I had been using this new Super String Pure Control v8's in my mains which felt a world better than the kirschbaum I usually use.

Going back, I found myself lacking some pop and dwell time in the string bed. I was hitting short and to the net again. My backhand was solid at times, but I still deferred to the slice if I felt uncomfortable. Rattled off a few serves to see if my serving streak was a fluke, but they blasted nicely and consistently. Too bad alot of our best rallies weren't video taped. I'll make sure to leave the camera on next time.

Oh and I promise to never wear that shirt again... didn't realize I looked like a crossing guard from behind.

Match vs Alex

Wow, so I got spanked 6-2, 5-2 (before the lights went off). But I was way out classed by Alex who's a 4.5. Overall considering I'm about 15 lbs overweight, and rusty fron being vacation I was happy with my play.

Forehand
You know I'm fine with it. I'm still hitting a bit shallow, but when I open up, it flies hard, deep, and kicks like a motherf-cker. I need to realize I can hit with more clearance over the net since I spin it so much. My directional control is ok, but I'm still natively hitting to the center. If i'm conscious (ie: not scrambling) I can play it, and even hit a few nice DTL and cross court winners. The running forehand needs some work and my approach windshield wiper needs fine tuning. Hitting a few of those long.

Backhand
Problematic but what else is new. I'm still hitting the backhand off the backfoot which kills all power from that shot. I need to time the footwork right and take a more aggressive cut on the ball. If I'm in position I can kill it, I'll probably devote a weekend to the ball machine one of these days.

Serve/Returns
My service during warm ups are fine. In game they're terrible. My flat 1st serves are particularly bad. I can get power, but consistency first I guess. I'm about 20-30% on the deuce side... On the ad side, I'm ok since I hit a hard slice serve on the 1st serve. I'm reverting to a moderate slice serve on the 2nd serve. My kick serve is too unreliable. I'm rolling over, instead of brushing from the back. I'm working on adjusting the pronation of my wrist to see if that will help.

Service returns were good on forehand side. Backhand I'm hitting slices unless its a gimme serve.

Net Game
What net game? I don't think I botched a volley, but i rarely if ever came to the net. Even if I did, against Alex, with his control he can pass me easily.

Overall
I honestly think if I didn't serve so poorly I could of stole another game from the sets and made it 6-3. Groundstroke-wise I can keep up with Alex. I hit just as hard as he does if not harder with much more spin. His placement is just immaculate and he can definitely deal with my pace. Placement before power... I always have that backwards...

More Rallies

So had another good pair of hitting sessions with John and Aaron respectively. Had an especially good couple rallies with John. We're both getting better with our consistency and I'm actually coming to the net more and actually winning a point here and there. I just need to remember to keep the racquet in front of me. I notice I'm just sitting there at the net waiting to be passed most of the time. I need to work on close avenues but whatever, it felt really natural coming to the net at times and its not like I'm forcing it.

My forehands seems like I'm miss hitting a bit bc I'm noticing I'm not getting a clean sound from the hit. The backhand is also getting more reliable and not a liability.



Aaron's been out sick for a few weeks so it took him a bit to get his bearings. It was tough getting some good rallies going bc of the amount of net balls (hey I'm partially guilty too I guess). Still though, every hitting session is a good session in my book.



For some reason youtube is making all my vids look darker than they really are. Its kind of annoying.

Rallies with Franco, the Spin Doctor

Yeah, hit around with a guy from work, Franco. He's a very strong 4.0. I usually have no issues hitting with guys higher than me, bc I have no problems dealing with their power and giving it right back. Franco's a different case, he has pinpoint accuracy, impeccable reflexes, killer net game and some crazy spins.

No, its not like my heavy topspin shots, Franco gave me a ton of dropshots, slices, side spins, he basically threw the kitchen sink at me. It really forced me to stay on top of my footwork, bc predicting the ball was impossible and I was rarely in position to fire off one of my kill shots...

... and in the event that I did, he had to problem, blocking/slicing them back to me. Franco is exactly the type of I need to exploit some of my biggest glaring weaknesses. I wish I hadn't left the memory card in the laptop or there would be some hilarious footage of me being caught flatfooted and passed.

The one good thing would be he knew to bring me to the net, and luckily I only botched 60% of my vollies (as opposed to 90%). Looking forward to some interesting games.

11/10/08 - Rallies with John

Finally new Videos!

Added a new hitting partner to the rotation. John is a solid 3.5 with excellent footwork and flat groundstrokes. You can see he has S & V tendencies, but hasn't felt comfortable deploying it yet. We're definitely well matched up and had some pretty good hitting sessions the past couple weeks.

John's Groundstrokes


I'm decently ok with my performance. A couple too many net balls but I know I didn't warm up before hitting and it shows with my lazy footwork. I'm tending to scooping those low forehands too much. Need to bend those knees. I'm also whipping my forehand, need to stop that and drive the ball deeper into the court. Backhand wise I'm getting there. I know what I need to do:

• Time my step and shoulder turn for more power
  
• Hit away from my body and in front of me
• Drop the racquethead

My service has just not been the same since the leg injury and that sucks bc i was serving so well. The timing is off and I'm not leaping into the court. I guess I just need more time. I'm actually plowing through the kick serve and I realize that some of my "kick" serves due to a bad toss actually ended up being slices.

And yes, I can't volley, not even to save my life...

At the end of it all, I'm just happy being out there. The weather has been excellent and Me and John really push the envelope with lots of running on our rallies. Its almost starting to feel like a workout.

Good Rallies, No Matches

Started off last week with some rallying with Aaron. He was about 1.5 hours late so I really got to work on my serve and I think I just still need to learn how to hit through my kick serve. My 2nd serve is still a liability.

Aaron really wanted to focus on control drills so we tried hitting crosscourt to crosscourt for a while. I realized that the degree of control I have is very fuzzy. Down the line and sharp angles cross court I'm fine with, but I'd say 50% of my inside out forehands landed center and for rallying purpose, hitting slightly left, or slightly right is a bit of a problem.

I tend to use alot of topspin to control my ball. I give my cross court forehands tons of spins to give it a massive topspin to have it land shallow and wide and my running forehand down the line has a mix of topspin and sidespin to reel the ball in. All in all a good session.

This weekend I got to hit with a good friend of mine. He's a rusty 4.5 - 5.0. A really knowledgeable guy when it comes to tennis. I finally got a taste of what I dish out to most people, bc Puerta hits with alot of topspin like I do. I was a tad off, netting more balls than I'd like, but considering the last time I hit with him 2 years ago, i was 1/20 on forehands, I'll take it.

We had a nice slugfest on the baseline, but Puerta's a very deliberate tennis player. He not only moved the ball left and right, but had a very good eye on the angles and depth. Definitely going to step up my game and do this again. I need to stop being so sluggish with the footwork. I seriously need to anticipate the ball bc I was getting my timing messed up when Puerta switched up the topspin and slice. My backhand was so-so, but it still needs lots of work. I can't have it be a liability.

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.