April 3, Night Tennis... OUTSIDE!

April 3, 2019, Wednesday - Tennis + Push/Pull Challenges.

The weather has finally let us play outside on a Wednesday night.  But the session was at courts we only occasionally use and they are a bit far.  I got an early start and was making good time despite it being at the tail end of rush hour, then I made a bonehead mistake and took a wrong turn.  I ended up driving around a maze of back streets and that added a good 10 minutes to my time so I was about 15 minutes late.  Harbinger of things to come, sort of.

My left ankle was still hurting me yesterday, but it didn't feel like it was sprained or anything like that, it just felt sore.  But once I started moving on it the pain was less intense until I had to run forward for a short ball and suddenly stop.  That hurt some.  Luckily, during the warm-up, there was an odd person so she joined my court so I didn't have to run as much.  The courts were those Japanese Omni courts but the sand was much coarser than the other places with Onmi courts.  So, the balls either skidded a lot where the sand was thick, or if it hit an open part, it bit hard.  Very hard to read the ball in those conditions.  We started out with regular drills, and I was on fire.  I was pretty much getting everything back low and hard.  I even scored a majority of points on the team coach.  I was on fire! and it felt really good.  We had three courts so one court was used for matches.  I didn't play in the first match because I wanted to drill and good thing, too. 

I played in the second match and pair with a guy my same age, and we just crushed the other team 6-1.  Yes, this time we had time to play six games, a full set.  But the thing is, for some reason, I became tentative and lost confidence in my strokes.  I don't understand why that happened.  I hit good shots, but they were slow but just well placed, no crushing shots like I was just hitting during the drills.  There was just a little time left, so we switched partners and in the next match, I totally fell apart.  We were down 1-4 when time was called.  I tried to hit out, but the ball went out. 

The mental game is my biggest weakness.  I don't know why I fold and crumble like that, and so easily, and unexpectedly, too. I'm going to have to find a way to work on that if I want to progress.

In the end, I burned a good 1630 kcals.  When I got home, I did the Push/Pull Challenges.  I'm lucky it's still the early stages.