9-26-16 Tennis.

9-26-16 Tennis.

Monday is usually cardio day, but due to scheduling at my university, Monday has become Tennis Day!  But there will probably be changes in this as well in the coming months.  But I'll try to keep it as consistent as possible.

My first day of tennis since the last time I played tennis close to 6 weeks ago when I played with my son in the beginning of August.  Since then, I played close to 30 hours of Pickleball during the two weeks I was in the USA.  I was a little nervous to see how the Pickleball affected my tennis game.  Short answer, it messed it up BIG TIME!!!  Mainly, three things:  Timing, Form and Footwork.  My goodness, I felt like a fish out of water during the first 15 minutes or so.  I couldn't keep anything in the court, and I didn't feel comfortable moving, and I couldn't find the sweet spot or ideal contact point for the ball.  I would either jam myself or have to lunge for the ball at the last second.  My backhand was a disaster, way more than my forehand.  With bad form, miscued timing, and early or late contact on the ball, I just lost all power in the stroke and I really felt it.  Just starting off, I was miss-hitting the ball and it would really jar my shoulder on my forehand and my elbow on my backhand.  Then positioning myself to set up for the ball, I was like a bumbling idiot.  HOWEVER, after that initial mess and junk, I started to get the feel back.  My the 30 minute point, I was starting to feel more comfortable, and sort of making good contact with the ball.  There were some outside factors that influenced my play negatively in addition to what I have already stated.  First, the gym was like a sauna.  Just hot and humid.  Sweat started pouring right from the get-go.  Second, my legs were just just aching from yesterday's Leg Day with Sagi.  I wasn't getting a good jump on short shots and lateral movement was brutally difficult.  But, despite all that mess and difficulty, we did have a few stellar rallies that made the whole experience worth the effort.  Overall, I really enjoyed taking that first step to get my tennis form back.

In the end, I torched 1000+kcals.  Yes, it was less than what I burned during Pickleball, but the satisfaction of successfully placing a kill shot, or whipping a backhand passing shot cross-court just skimming over the net on a dead run, PRICELESS!!!  Looking forward to next week.

When I got home, I was fully intending to do Splits and Flow, but an intense soreness set in and my knees started to throb, so I decided to take a break today and rest up and go for it tomorrow.