8-08-18 (Wednesday) Tennis.

8-08-18 (Wednesday) Tennis.

After a week off, and two weeks away from hard courts, I'm back on my favorite surface... Hard Court.

For the first time since I joined my tennis club, we reserved 3 courts.  I thought it was because record numbers of people were showing up, but tonight that wasn't the case.  Tonight, there were less than 20 people, but we got a 3rd court for people playing in the upcoming tournament to practice on.  At first, the courts were all drilling but after the first drill, Volley/Stroke was finished, the third court was made into a match court.  First, Ladies Doubles.  There is one team signed up to play.  Then Men's Doubles.  There are two teams signed up to play there were represented tonight.  One complete team, and then my partner and I, but my partner was not in attendance tonight so I picked up a different partner.  At first, I picked a very talented Jr. High student as my partner, but we got drubbed, losing 1-4.  I lost my only service game on a deciding point.  But it was a good match because I went for it and I was striking the ball very well, very cleanly for winners.  But I also made some very stupid mistakes.  Twice, I had an easy volley to an open court but junked it into the net.  Then, I chose a Lefty 20-Something Physical Therapist who is more closely matched to my real partner, but not as consistent.  And we drubbed the other team.  We were winning 3-0 and my serve was back at Deuce when it was called time and we had to stop.  But I had come back from a 15-40 deficit so I was confident that we could close it out.  I felt really good about my strokes tonight, but I was a little iffy on my serve.  The lights on the court are good but too low that they get into the eye line so sometimes.  When that happens, the ball flies into the lights and we are momentarily blinded.  So I'm glad we are playing during the day.  Two more sessions for practice and then game day.

Before we started that final match, we were doing Point Sims.  There are some good female players that have recently joined the club, but I still have reservations about hitting stronger shots at them or hitting angle shots to make them run.  I return the ball so they can hit it.  Then sometimes I get caught off guard by a good shot.  I guess I should start hitting harder balls to see if they can take it.

It was a good practice, but I think I need to get more match time in.  I hope I have more opportunity next week.

In the end, I burned a good 1842 kcals.  300 more than the average for a Wednesday session.  YES!!!