December 23, Sunday. Tennis + Quad-Challenge.
As the title states, this is the final Sunday the club will have practice on Sunday. There was a little fear about the weather earlier in the week because the forecast was the same as last week and tennis got rained out last week. But as we entered the weekend, the forecast cleared up and there was no rain forecasted at all. In fact, on Saturday, a day when there was hardly a cloud in the sky and the high temperatures were in the low 70's, we were all feeling pretty positive about there being tennis to be played today.
I got to the courts a little late, about 10:15 am. But there were only 7 people in attendance. Once I arrived, the odd man out and I started our warm-up and we had a good slug-fest. However, unlike last Wednesday, I wasn't feeling ON at any time after the warm-up. Also, since there were only eight of us, we decided to start playing matches earlier than usual. We usually start the drills with Stroke/Volley, then move to Serve/Return, then some other drill, but today we started with Serve/Return for about 30 minutes, then started with matches. In that time, four other people came for a total of twelve members. That meant that four people would be waiting while the other eight would be playing, and when the third shift is made, one team would have to play straight so the opponents would be all different. I ended up playing four matches. My record at the end of the day was 1-3. My partner was an older guy, and we seemed to both not feeling it today. In the first match, everyone on court won their service game. Then we lost the next two games. As for me, I won my first service game. I didn't get the chance to serve a second game. In our second match, I kept the same partner but we played the team the lost their first match also. This time, each of us lost our first service game, then I also won my second service game as did our opponent, so my partner served the deciding game, and we took it in dramatic style. It was a really good match. We were pretty evenly matched.
My last two matches, I partnered with my wife. We lost both matches, 4-1, 4-0. Unfortunately, I was playing terribly and I wasn't able to win any of my service games. The only game we won was a break of serve. But my wife, although she was nervous to play with the guys, she did well, and the opposing teams were gracious to her. My serve was JUNK today. Three different times I double-faulted to end a game. First time for that to happen. I could feel my toss being so erratic and out of control. I just felt really out of sorts. I had no confidence in my second serve. But all that aside, I had a good time.
When I got home, before taking a shower, I crushed the Quad-Challenges.
In the end, I burned 1984 kcals. Still lower than my Sunday tennis average, but that is because of the number of matches we played today. One thing I realized today thanks to all those matches, a big problem I have is my decision making during matches. Too often I try things that are ill-advised. Also, I try to end points too quickly by forcing shots that are out of not set up well enough. I need to go in with a better game plan and stick to it. I'm not good enough to adlib with crazy shots. Instead of going for the low percentage shots, I need to improve my high percentage shots and improve my accuracy. That is what I'll be focusing on Wednesday and Saturday night. This coming Saturday night, I have a special practice for the January 2 singles tournament.
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