Tennis Players, What's Your Favorite Shot?

a nice backhand slice always feels really good too, xcept lately i've been doing this two handed backhand slice that feels kinda cheap but WORKS WONDERFULLY!

Two-handed backhand straight down the line.

SUCH a hot shot - tough for me cuz i don't practice it enuf

I have not played tennis since I was a small child but I seem to remember that my favorite shot back then was the overhead smash straight into the net

cross-court forehand a la elena dementieva!

sadly my serve is also a la elena dementieva :(

also like backhand down the line passes when i pull them off, and drop shots which i used to be able to do a lot better than now.

cannot do smashes. i don't think i've ever managed to make one.

see the cross-court forehand is the shot i have the most trouble with! i think it's cuz i go for the corner 2 much, so i've started to aim more for the middle and then it just winds up inthe corner...

a deft drop shot is so sweet

One handed backhand down the line. Which, as it happens, is just about the only backhand i can manage these days :(

the most effective x-court FHs are really sharply angled ones, one of my favourite plays is to end a baseline x-court FH exchange with a sudden change of angle. also, x-court winners off returns of serves are SWEET.

it is a pity i cannot do this, or anything much, with my BH!

yes, i feel this is b/c xcourt forehands tend to depend on racket placement/good hands, so when u get it just right, it can just cut by and surprise ur opponent. well for me n e way.

and u kno i used to be all about the forehand, backhand sucked. it's weird tho, i didn't play for a while and now my backhand is like really consistent

Two handed backhand. I'll run around my forehand to get to it.

i didn't play at all for a few years and i still basically suck, and will do until i get some proper coaching i think, but bizarrely it was my volleys which improved. was always scared of them but hit some nice ones last time i played! my dropshot is GONE GONE GONE though, alas.

this sucks i was gonna play tonite and it's all stormy out of nowhere

I haven't played for two years now... :(

The most satisfying shot to hit is the topspin backhand line-drive - I still have vivid memories of the handful of these that I've actually been able to execute perfectly. I recall playing an old schoolfriend (who rarely beat me before we were 17 - then he grew five inches in a year, joined a tennis club on his doorstep and I rarely beat him after that) in the summer of '87 at North Cheshire TC; just one of those days when I couldn't mistime a shot if I'd tried - up something like 6-3 6-1 4-1, he wrongfooted me with a deep volley and I switched direction and whipped a backhand pass down the line. I think we both laughed - in a kind of "we'll be back to hitting no-pressure forehands into the bottom of the net next week" way.

My topspin c-c f/h was much better with a wooden racket but, like Lex, I've always been awful overhead. This accounts for my other favourite shot of yore - chasing back a lob (that I should've just smashed) and leathering the hell out of a f/h on the turn. Serve can be quite good, volleys are barely functional, sliced b/h not bad.

I've gone from Wilson Sport to Slazenger Firepower to Wilson American Ace to Donnay GC to Dunlop Impact Comp Ti over a period of 25 years and have probably got worse with each racket. Or just older.

hahaha

well, i think i'm doing pretty well - i haven't played in a while now, not with anyone good. i don't know, maybe a year and a half to two years since i was challenged. it's just hard to find ppl around me.

n e way 2nite we went out in the thick of the tumultuous weather and it started to lightning on us.

it was dark and i was flubbing my backhand - u kno the framed, in the net shots. last time my backhand was like driving deep. inconsistent much? ARGH WHY can't we all have our own indoor courts, and hitting partners, all the time??????!!!!!!!

Serve that hits my doubles partner in the back of teh head

2 handed backhand. makes me feel like a can swing a baseball bat with authority.

sliced forehand pat that ensures opponent has one more chance to make ass of him/herself (or, more likely, put the ball away)

2 handed backhand, because it's the only one that's minimally competent

so much control on that shot usually

1) One-hand backhand pass down the line OTM. I'm usually two-handed on backhand but sometimes I just feel it.

2) Forehand topspin lob a la Agassi.

3) About once per match I'll attempt a flat serve and I'll make it about once in ten tries, this means I'll hit a flat serve in once in 5-6 years. But it always feels nice.

4) The nutty 'tween the legs shot, chasing down a lob. It's easy really.

forehand topsin lob a la Hingis Yum =P

altho i pretty much a backhand lob 2

*pretty much luv

ok, updates. still into the inside-out forehand, this will never change. except when i get a short 2nd serve, i tend to overkill it and bounce it back to the fence.

serve is improving... i mean, very slowly! but the fun shot of the moment is the down the line backhand. catching the ball just high enough to be able to flatten it out low. good times great oldies.

ooh and i had a good drop today!

one handed backhand a la Justine Henin

followed by da smasheroo

generally, shots that involve retard strength and not a lot of technique

My first serve, the one time in ten it goes in. It looks like a proper first serve, it's quick and everything!

nice!! my boyfriend told me that i GRIN when i serve. not grimace, but GRIN. this is news to me.

When I was 13 or so, I developed a talent for crushingly brutal and deadly accurate spin serves and, based almost solely on my serving ability, won many matches against my fellow middle-schoolers in local and statewide competitions. Too bad my utter failure to develop any kind of backhand skills whatsoever thwarted my potential as a serious tennis player.

Similarly, at around the same age, I could hit line drives, triples & home runs with the best of them in little league, but was always stuck in left field b/c of my extremely poor throwing accuracy.

Also, I can hit 300 yard drives, but can't putt. WTF coordination?

surmounter, were u playing on the court next to ours? :-)

mine? if i can get it over i am happy. :-)

that one where you actually hit the ball back into the other court

haha, basically same as stevienixed

oh see sometimes i'm really bad at getting things in. i keep trying for the corners. this is mostly when i'm very rusty

x-court FH, as ever...my game is like a miniature hack version of Elena Dementieva's - FH is a weapon, BH is at best solid, serve is non-existent.

oh I also really like playing slow, high-bouncing shots to my opponent's BH, almost always good for inducing an error.

yes! although i have to tell you i like a high ball on that side. but you gotta throw in some big spinners every now and then, get em off balance

btw your game sounds kinda like mine... although i'm working on the backhand weapon thing

i like watching your slow, high-bouncing shots, just like i like watching elena demantieva's

short angled shots are always great too. at this level, players are much more easily confused by suddenly having to run forwards a bit rather than side-to-side.

otm. short angled SLICE kills

Singles: Catching the tape just enough on a forehand slice to change direction a little & bring the opponent up short. And then shrugging like, "Aw, that was luck!"

Doubles: chest-high volley back atcha.

drop
inside-out forehand too

my crosscourt forehand is improving. when it's great, it's great, but sometimes it comes up a little short, which i hate.

backhand down the line is messing me up some, but the crosscourt backhand still pretty solid.

my volleys are doin pretty good

but wtf i can't hit a drop for my life these days. oooh BUT i've nailed a few of those cross court slices when right up at the net. i love thoooose

the over the head hail mary after successfully (barely) chasing down a back court lob.

ohhh I JUST did one!!! it felt awesome

i've been using a lot of topspin lately for fun. sometimes it really messes with people!

I love a backhand slice, it's so effortless, and it's slow so it buys you time to reposition/rest a sec.

YES. but i'm sooo not good at them yet. i usually try it out against the wall.

used to love hitting forehand slices off of topspin shots, my game was almost entirely based on just returning the ball w/ as much spin as possible and then forcing the other player to try and hit winners or charge the net. beat a lot of much better players by just returning the ball over and over..eventually they'd get impatient and start making unforced errors. good serve and volley sampras type players usually did pretty well against me, though. haven't played since high school really, i miss it a lot. poor dusty wilson prostaff

ugh, just reading about your game reminds me of this guy named "T.R." who, in high school, would beat me without ever hitting a winner against me. He just kept the ball coming back. That sort of patience and control is unbecoming for a teenager amirite.

i once played a kid in a high school state tournament who played my exact game and we had a couple of rallies that must have lasted over 5 minutes. almost every single point involved 20+ returns! longest match of my life and he ended up barely beating me. at the time i likened it to meeting shadow link @ the end of legend of zelda 2. anyway, i'm sure my game was really annoying to my opponents, but that was sort of the idea - get in their head

also, topspin forehands down the line are really satisfying, esp when you're running off the side of the court to return a shot and you can creep it in the back corner

one-handed backhand down the line. Booyah.

so apparently i can't hit any shots anymore. it's been 2 years since i've played. i know it usually takes me a while to warm up, but i used to be, like, good.

someone please tell me it will come back to me.

please.

inside out forehand drive volley

weirdly, the 2 parts of my game that i used to hate came back to me without any practice: my serve and my volley.

everything else GONE.

Last time I played I pulled every single muscle in my mid section.

ok. i cannot believe it has been 9 months.

i am going today to play against the wall. i am going to start going twice a week. i hope i do not embarrass myself.

haha aw surm

any ilxors play USTA?

have u, kev?

u guys.

i rly don't know what to tell u about what just happened.

i mean, my backhand was there. felt great. but ... my courtesy shot! mfg!

my partner said i seemed to do better getting hard, fast forehands. generating the pace on that side is really fucking with me right now. it just goes to show how much practice does. crazy.

going to try again now.

I assume a lot of you guys are members of clubs? How would you feel about an absolute beginner joining your club?

!! where do u live?

little better today

have u, kev?

u guys.

― j lol (surm), Wednesday, June 22, 2011 9:18 PM (Yesterday)

yeah i'm a 4.5

it rained today, so i played basketball indoors

awesome. good night for some indoor ball.

there was a really cute guy playing basketball no the courts tonight. he was in a wifebeater.

been practicing in my apartment

Surm do you wear a cute white headband when you play tennis?

sometimes! when my hair is longer it's a must

I want to custom-make one for you that says like SMILE! or something in yellow glitter.

But then the glitter might get in your eyes and that would be unpleasant; you would probably not even smile.

:) you have to be careful applying sunscreen to the forehead for the same reason -- stings like a motha

Is that why nobody bought my Stevie D Deluxe Glittery Sunscreen??

:D maybe

Inside out crosscourt forehand return from the ad side <3

Play 4 days a week.

so excited to get my inside out back

anybody in brooklyn want to play today?

bye bye backhand. it just kept going SHORT! ugh. but my slice was working ...

i would much rather go long than short in practice

on the upside my inside out is back

i'm really tall so why the fuck is my serve not, like, 100mph :( i hate using chopper grip. that's probably why. also because i never practice it. serving takes too much effort and is boring. groundstrokes are much more fun because no two shots are ever the same

yess

didnt play enough tennis this summer :(

ive started playing @ a nearby club, it's cool you can p much play any weeknight vs a random opponent for $25 as a nonmember. id been fairing p well vs 3.0-ish level folks but last night got paired against a 4.0 who i could barely stay on the court w/. really strong forehand that he could place perfectly & he moved so well for a dude in his prob mid-50s. it was still fun, even though he crushed me 6-0, 6-2, 6-4. i needed to get in more first serves.

ayo technology i bought this thing, only used it once so far but its p crazy how much it helped my game

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61QBzrc7S2L._SL1500_.jpg

I haven't played in years :((((( quit to focus on running. I miss it.

that's like giving up on sex to focus on heavy breathing

been playing singles like 2x a week for the last two months, i'm prob like .500 m/l

theres 1 dude whos easily 65 yr old & serve/volleys and who owns me, hes sick

had a good comeback last night from down 1-6, 2-4…….i ended up winning 1-6, 6-4, 10-4

was hobbling today from a foot blister tho ow

this is my personal tennis blog thread now

i think ive won 5 straight matches or so, and beat a dude tonight who ive never before beaten

my 1st serve has gotten really solid somehow. like i prob only get like 1-2 clean aces per set but it otherwise leads to maybe 1 free or easy put away pt per game nonetheless, makes a big difference

that's like giving up on sex to focus on heavy breathing

Lols

ive been working on the one-hand down the line backhand, thats a hard shot for me so the few ive hit recently have been p cool; ive also gotten ok @ inside out forehands off of service returns for winners

i had a rematch vs the old man serve & volley dude and he still beat me 6-7, 1-6, i made a tonne of errors :<

my worst shot is definitely the smash. 99% likely to miss it. total panic whenever i have to hit one.

Volleying is the only thing I'm actually good at. Or was when I played regularly.

indoor season winding down, rn im 21 wins/15 losses

mostly happy to have not suffered any serious injury for playing so regularly

played a couple tough like ex-marine looking 50 yr old types w/ huge serves. fortunately, im p good @ timing returns and at least getting them back in play and both guys regular fh/bh games were not that great & I won both matches in 3d set tiebreaks

i've played like 10 times in the last 3 years :(

you play USTA, jc?

nah just @ a club, like a ladder sitch

Passing shot, duh

nice

i used to play v regularly, played USTA for a few summers, but have been moving a lot lately and haven't had reliable hitting partners

what racquets have you all had good/bad experiences with? it's time to get a new one for me. i really enjoyed using a head titanium recently and am torn between that and the oversize wilson one?

(i am short, not great at generating power but instinctively play aggressively because my strokes are too inconsistent to just get the ball back. it's not a great combination. oh and i can't serve or smash at all lol)

I have the same Prince Michael Change Graphite Longbody racket that I had in High School. It's 20 years old and beat to shit, but I can't imagine playing with anything else. Maybe I'm missing out on some new tech that would make me awesome.

I still use the one I posted upthread - prince O^3 silver -- its oversized and pretty forgiving and produces good power; the owner of my local tennis store when I went to get it restrung derogatorily called it a grandpa racket lol, and im sure that's right but I find it still has enough touch for me and I rarely hit w/ heavy spin so don't care so much abt maybe lacking that control

I also have a head graphite racket and a smaller faced prince (I think the model isner uses) and each feels kindof like a pea shooter in comparison, I don't like the head 1 @ all

i hate serving so much. have no idea what i'm doing when i walk up to the service line, no control over my motion, on the rare occasion it's working it only takes one or two DFs for it to go completely to shit because i don't know what i was doing right or what i'm doing wrong. completely affecting my enjoyment of playing in general. played one and a half sets at the weekend, after four straight service games of four straight DFs i had to stop. i basically have no idea how to get it over the net and into the service box. when i tried to just tap it in it still didn't go in :(

yea that's tough. hard to give advice on it but m/l don't overthink it. so much of it is just timing. for me, I get screwed up if I don't wait like that second or two for my toss to peak/come down a bit. when I just played on sat my serve was really working well and smooth, it felt good. I feel like I took a bit from novaks motion and how relaxed it is

get some lessons, lex

I have some imo great advice: don't serve!

I play with a friend, and a couple of years ago we decided to skip the serves. They take a lot of energy and rhythm out of the game, and unless you're really good at it, what's the point? And if you're really good, then acing the serve just ends the ball - and what's the fun in that? Instead we start the ball with an easy underhand - makes it a lot more fun to play. Have seen others at the club do the same.

Ofc doesn't work if you're playing competitively :P

skipping serves is probably how i got into this mess where i can't play actual matches. just hitting it aimlessly isn't really sufficient.

serve is my worst shot. my cross court forehand is getting better though.

as a total noob my advice is to hit the serve from further forward than a pro, like kind of in front of your face. improves accuracy no end

an idea short of taking a lesson or two, is to just go to an empty court alone sometime and work on your serve. ive done that occasionally, usually it does help

Lex, my simplest serve advice (I teach tennis professionally) is to point your left foot toward the right net post and allow your tossing arm to follow in that line. Keep it straight and let the ball to roll off your fingertips, placing it slightly right of directly overhead. If you imagine a clock face above you with 12 overhead then that would put the ball at 1. A continental grip is ideal but something closer to a forehand grip will work, too. Toss high enough that you're striking it on the way down with full extension at the top. The continental grip will allow you to come around the outside of the ball and to naturally follow through across your left side. This is your basic slice serve.

Most important is to consistently place your toss at 1 o'clock. If you're chasing bad tosses then everything else you do right goes out the window. Good luck.

ha you're not london-based are you?

thankyou anyway. i should really jot down these tips and just spend an hour on the court. one of the problems is that i need to concentrate so much on the toss to get it even vaguely right that my racquet arm ends up completely out of sync - i think one of the reasons i hate the entire action of serving is that i'll have this weird feeling when my racquet arm is behind me that i can't even sense how fast it's moving or what direction, it's just complete malcoordination. i never know when i should be bringing it round to strike the ball, it never seems to be in the right place at the right time and i can't seem to control where the racquet faces at any point. i once tried an exercise where i tried throwing the ball without the racquet and it turned out that i can't throw either!

recently started taking tennis classes for the first time, about 12 lessons in now and it the most fun i've had in years. still spend a lot of time desperately lurching at balls from out of position but when everything comes together for a point (usually seems to be a running crosscourt backhand, which would be probably more useful if i could run faster) it's the most satisfying feeling in the world.
also seems like i'm pretty good at serving compared to people at my level. we were first told to practice throwing the ball as high as we can vertically because it's a similar motion to serving, so i guess there's a correlation between throwing and serving ability

OTM Lex. I'm pretty bad in general but my serve is particularly awful. For a while I just hit as hard as possible and like 1/10 would pass (with an ace often). But lately I have tried to improve my other shots and somehow, as a result, my serve is now totally deconstructed and éventuel worse with no power, acuracy, nothing ! Quite depressing. I'm thinking about booking courts alone just to practice since I can't bother serving when I play with friends anymore.

indoor season starting up again, i think im physically in better shape rn or maybe just have minimized amts of nagging injuries so thats good. also my backhand is improving

played a good opponent last wk, prob 1 of hte best dudes reasonably at my same level -- won the first set 6-3 and proceeded to win one more game the rest of the match lol

then tonight i played the old man s-v player that i described upthead - won 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-4/5?) 13-11 in a 3rd set 10-pt tiebreak

was a real weird match, i m/l neutralized his s/v game but my serve was reaally off and a double faulted a fucking tonne. felt like i shdve won the first set, then was up 5-2 in the 2nd and had to sweat out a breaker there. then he was up on me 8-4 in the 3rd and i came back but also got a touch lucky, i thnk he got a lil tired and was hitting some lobs late hoping id hit errors(?) idk :)

fuck me where i serve, im on like a monthlong rough stretch. might be like 1 win, ten losses idk dont want to check details. literally every match (before my last one where i played terribly lol) has been close, won a set a lot of the time and the only other scoreline that looked bad (6-1, 6-2 iirc) was against one of the best players ive ever played and i was in every game about and had several break pts

im back tennis bløøgin, played the dude from my 10/22/2015 post again, had a break pt to go up 5-1 in the first set, didn't get it, and ended up losing the set in a tbreak, and the next set 2-6; played decent tho, it was def a competitive match

def my strength rn is court coverage, in my last match a really pivotal pt was like me getting back an extra ball or two and allowing my oppenent to hork it

happy to see this thread revived. i teach tennis and play USTA 5.0. i mostly stay on the metal threads but will gladly offer any insights if needed.

nice! i'm a 4.5 but hardly ever get to play these days

hit me up if ever you're in seattle.

im prob like 3.5 maybe 4 on a good day

i also recently played and beat this kid prob ~15 yrs my junior, plays currently in college but coming off a bad shoulder injury; he shd of killed me but it was nice playing counterpuncher to someone w real pace & he also then hurt his knee and was hobbling late in the match.. nevertheless i felt good beating him

rematch vs 11/3 guy, ill call him gerry; his game is so nice, easy smooth groundstrokes w easy power and he moves good for someone prob ten yrs older than me

def competative again, tho lost 6-4, 6-3; i hit some good shots man but he can usu cover them; he hit multiple short angle like chip lob passing shots on me from deep in his b-hand ct, those are so devastating and pretty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFxs8r5BEKE

Always good to see this thread updated!

Must try and play again soon. Only "recent" court-time was late summer 2014 when my playing partner (female colleague from work) broke her foot after 45min. I've been playing a bit of badminton but it's not the same...

wow that's brutal

while playing vs a friend this summer he sortof stepped awkwardly coming in for a short ball & ultimately it was a partial tear of his Achilles tendon :(

I've played some of my best tennis this summer but it's frustratingly one step forward, one step back - some days it feels like I'm hitting the ball super well and then a couple of days later I can't control the most basic rally shots. The shots I like hitting most are FH DTLs, either running around my BH in that corner or redirecting a cross-court on the FH side. My volleys have really improved! And I can even get overheads right on occasion.

I still can't remotely serve but that aside I most struggle with running up to short, slow balls that need to be put away. So frustrating to hit multiple good shots in a row to get the short ball and an open court and 99% I make an error. I also don't really have a BH DTL, can't seem to get the timing right, and in general I struggle with...spatial awareness on that side? In that I can't "see" where the ball is going to land and end up either too near or too far away.

Also in matchplay I am definitely a mentally weak choker (though it would help having a SERVE, I loathe everything about the process of serving, it's really psychologically the worst way to start a point)

Oddity about my serve though: when I'm practising it I miss nine out of 10, and they'll all be long. In a match I'll miss nine out of 10 and almost all in the net. I have no idea why this is. It feels like I'm attempting the exact same motion. I have no awareness of what my body is actually doing when I serve.

been on a good streak, may not have lost a match since the 12/1 post above ~ im in 1st place in my clubs ladder, 13-3 record

there are def like 2-5 ppl no_doubt better than me but they just dont play as often

kinda have had a persistant sore rt groin, is there some common sense treatment for this? it does lessen by just like rest so

sorry to hear that! unfortunately i don't know. great work though--congrats! i've really been working on my strokes to good avail as well.

so i've developed a new forehand. it's something between the grip and the backswing. less of the latter i think. i'm into it.

shortening the backswing is always a great tip for a recreational player. a long backswing adds little if any power and greatly reduces margin for error

i played pickleball this morning for the first time in 5-6 years. great game but i wish there were some younger people there haha

surm - thx !

a few to-be-expected losses since the new year has started.

1 to 'gerry' again, guy is just methodical. he stays v even-keel. maybe twice a match i will hear him say to himself 'cmon gerry' after an error. i do notice if i can get him in close game score situations late in a set he gets satisfied w playing rallies and not going for winners, though its tuff to get to that sitch vs him. looking back, i can barely believe i took a set off him 6-3

im 16-5 now; really only had 1 'bad' loss i think, vs a guy hitting really heavy topspin who ive played better against before, also idk y it only occured to me like once the match ended to hit more to his backhand

there is also a guy ive seen a few times in past yrs who was playing this wk......hes MINIMUM 5 yrs older than me (and shorter) but he played 3 nights in a row this week vs basically the 3 best players on the ladder (one of these being 'gerry') and he beat two of them & in not that difficult linescores

ive really only watched him a few times & cant tell how hes that good, his swing looks awkward

in past yrs ive overheard his name and stuff and remarks abt like "yeah he plays every day for two weeks straight and then gets injured and u wonder why"

one of the best players here who doesnt/cant play often cuz hes a doctor apparently authored this

Lessons learned from my BMW and Ayn Rand, The Christian Century, 2015;132(6):27.

Remember at the club I was a member of in my late teens/early 20s there was this *ancient* (to my eyes) white-haired dude who only really played doubles with a massive Prince oversize racket and barely moved more than three steps either way on court. My old schoolmate - 20yo, six foot three, serve-volley, tried to clobber the hell out of groundstroke - drew him in the last sixteen of the club summer singles event. Lost three and one. "Every ball came back". (I lost the same day two and five to some 35yo guy I never saw there again who had some kind of Woolworths wooden racket from about 1972 and was smoking during our knock-up; leftie - his serve to ad court was like a spin-bowler's slider. I was up against the side fence trying to reach it.) We fancied ourselves as young hotshots but, actually, against steady old geezers who just knew how to slice a ball onto a sixpence we couldn't keep the ball in court enough to win points.

decided to join a ladder because of this thread 8)

nice good luck !

had nearly an identical match (tho he won) vs the same old timer as my 10.22.2015 post; guy is kindof a hardass, I am not sure if it is strategic or like failing eyesight but he thinks every close line call of his shots that I say are out, are in; I wouldn't say it rattles me but it is annoying

it also only just clicked in that his service motion looks so much like gasquet it is uncanny

played 'gerry' again, really good match and I had soo many break point chances, beyond the few I did convert, and like 3-4 really long deuce games on my serve. I remember holding once at love in the 2nd set and every other game was close. I lost 3-6, 6-7 (10-12)

ive also now given him the nickname in my head of the slender man cuz he is long and sallow and soft spoken as to be nearly silent

I think im like 21-9 now? idk

Played tennis a lot between ages 12 and 18, picked the racket up again last year only to tear my achilles' tendon during my second training session :-(
Got back on the court 6 weeks ago, started on a gentlemen's team two weeks later and am slowly getting back into it throughout the league matches. Not the most logical way to go about it (also so far I've lost all my matches) but it's been fun nonetheless. Am at/just past (I hope) that point where you've taken up something technical you haven't done in years where you think "I used to be quite good but all my shots are hopeless now wtf". Played a free session yesterday evening with a team mate, just 90 minutes of battering away and it was so much fun. Making adjustments to/optimizing my strokes, footwork, swing, grip. Trying to get more consistent, basically. Re-discovering how much it helps to play as "loose" as possible. It really feels great to play again.

my game is def prone to longer rallies (beat a dude last night who def mumbled "pusher" to himself under his breath and got salty and threw his racquet a few times) but one good technique ive worked on is on short balls to return deep, generally @ my opponents BH side @ rush/sneak in to the net behind it, its v effective when I can execute

No shame in being a pusher. Just get it back. You’ll win, especially at many levels of recreational tennis.

I got called worse, because I just had an ugly game. Could never overpower anyone, so I hit basically all junk shots, spins, weird bounces, drop shots, boring you to death by just hitting lobs. Whatever it took to win.

yea i draw the line at lobs but otherwise vary speeds/spins as much as i can

whats the move when playing another guy who just gets the ball back a ton also? I couldnt figure out a great strategy..

semi-mad @ myself cuz I was 4-0 to start this season, w some good wins, & last night lost to a guy I should've and have mostly beaten. had a 4-1 lead in the first but hit a long skid of unforced errors & dropped it 4-6. came back to win the second 6-2, all closely played games, then just got behind in the tiebreak 3rd set and couldnt catch up~

"slender man" got me again, it was a really fun match tho; scoreline of 7-6, 2-6, 6-2; every point was p hard fought and I was wiped the fuck out by the third set, happy to even get two games there, esp cuz I was down 4-0 and held serve twice

no earthly idea what my record is this season anymore, not sure they are keeping it, & been somewhat up and down but still playing usu twice a wk

played a dude who looks like a younger paul giamatti 2night, lotta pace which was good; after 2-2 first set i won the next 8 games, ultimately winning 6-2, 6-1; giamatti got on tilt and just hit a ton of errors; hope i play him again

last match i got back a ball on a stretch backhand that i was super proud of also btw

fun couple weeks, posting so i remember:

vs youngish nondescript polish guy - split sets then lost a super tiebreak 12-10; this guy is p robotic, hits topspin off both wings; takes forever to serve

vs pakistani guy ive played a bunch - feel like i shdve won in straights but i lost a 2nd set tiebreak and then f'd up the supertiebreak w a lot of dumb errors; i was serving really well/hard this match & had 5-6 to-my-eye-on-a-line aces all of which he called faults, tho in the past hes always been fair tbh; he was also getting over the flu and coughing between every pt so, props

vs tall skinny bald dude -- hadnt played this guy in a couple years; he got up on me 5-1 1st set & then i won 7 games in a row; ended up 7-5, 6-2; he plays just fast paced & think i was playing too fast early on; forgot a bit what its like to play someone who can't really hurt me/doesnt hit winners;

vs semi-crotchedy older dude -- he got up on me 4-1 1st set & i came back to win 7-5, then second set i won 6-0; good match, competitive pts, he hits like squash-ish shots, also rarely hits winners except sometimes on nice angles; this guy used to serve & volley more but only tried it a bit this match, his serve isnt good enough for it to work rn; 2nd set was more competitive than the score,i did hit 4-5 good forehand winners

vs tough, prob 15 yrs older than me ex-military brazilian dude tnight, i came back from down 1-4 in the first set to up 6-5, though down break pt & we had a looong rally where he ran down like 6 balls....ultimately to go for a drop shot where he lost his balance and rolled headlong into the net, it was gnarly (he got the ball back but right to me m/l)

after that he was kinda cooked, i won 7-5, 6-0

Loving these bagels to finish!

there is also a guy ive seen a few times in past yrs who was playing this wk......hes MINIMUM 5 yrs older than me (and shorter) but he played 3 nights in a row this week vs basically the 3 best players on the ladder (one of these being 'gerry') and he beat two of them & in not that difficult linescores

ive really only watched him a few times & cant tell how hes that good, his swing looks awkward

in past yrs ive overheard his name and stuff and remarks abt like "yeah he plays every day for two weeks straight and then gets injured and u wonder why"

― johnny crunch, Friday, January 20, 2017 7:39 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i finally played this guy for the 1st time. he is 20 years older than me. i took the first set off him but then i was fuckin gassed & couldnt put up a tonne of resistance..scoreline was 3-6, 6-1, 10-1 he won; he hits a lot of diff spins and gets a lot back, few winners but does occasionally pound a forehand; nice enough dude but hes the type that doesnt really listen in a convo and is only waiting for his turn to talk again

good match yesterday vs another lefty (im a lefty btw), hard fought match, i won 6-3, 6-4; he served really predictably idk for a purpose of trying to go at my backhand but i was fine w it as i would know it was coming and could easily block it back; i also hurt him repeatedly by hitting my forehand down the line when he was cheating to cover cross court; he moved & hit well tho for being older than me + kinda stocky

I haven’t played in years — I should get back at it. I’ve never had a real backhand, but can survive on slices from that side. My favorite shot has always been the inside out forehand down the line. When it works it looks good and feels even better, the way you get the other player stepping away and they have to watch the ball tailing away from them down the alley. Love it.

nother good one, abt as close & long as a first set as i can recall ~ ended up losing it 6-7 in a tiebreak but had chances to serve it out at 5-4 up and then again at 6-5 up, ugh; there was also a game, me serving at 1-2 with @ least 15 deuces

second set i was up 5-2, again serving for the set & was broken & then the club was closing so we had to stop

opponent hurt me this match w his forehand down the line; he and i are p even tho, thin margins

v satisfying match tnight, won 6-1, 6-2 vs a younger dude who beat me the last 2 times we played. hes a good all-ct player w a big forehand. tnight i served really well & think i did a good job varying depths of shots to force him to hit a bunch of errors. it was still a tighter match than the scoreline, several long deuces..

About to play my first USTA 5.0 match. I teach tennis but haven't played competitively since college and that was 18 years ago. We'll see if I can bring it...

ha I haven't clicked on this thread in a while and enjoyed reading the j.c. tour diary :)

I love tennis so much, but circumstances have not allowed me to play much. I look forward to getting back out there some day

yelploaf, how did the usta match go?

Thanks for asking, jc. I lost my first three matches quite handily, then switched back to my preferred string and won 2 since. Tonight is the last of the season and I'd love to make it to .500.

o good luck

i played in a local tournament ~ had 6 matches in 8 days

lost the finals of my division, which was best of 5 sets; my opponent was literally half my age and had had a bye and two walkovers to get there; no sour grapes honestly, it was fun

played at my club last night w a friend of mine, we are well-matched & its always competitive & fun -- like half an hour after we started, maybe the two best players ive ever seen came on the court next to us ~ one had the same forehand as delpo just loud & heavy and the other guy was also just crazy good, a snapping stroke w flat easy power

it honestly threw us both off a little & during our changeovers we were like damn we are not playing the same sport lol, cool to see though

in 7 months or so I’ll be working part time, and am going to be looking to get back into this in a major way

I’ve been playing with a couple of people I’ve met in boston off and on for a couple of years now…we’re all 4.5ish level…last time I played USTA was when I was 19 or 20 probably, was a 4.5 then and am probably playing the best tennis of my life now. just a smarter and more consistent player now I think

was just vacationing on hilton head SC and got a lesson from a great teaching pro I like down there, mainly working on my forehand and forehand volley. for some reason my backhand has been the solider side lately. he says I can probably hang with some 5.0s but in a tournament setting Im sure I’d be humbled pretty quickly considering the last sanctioned match I played was over a decade ago

been getting really into pickleball lately too, and am just now starting to see the game and am able to hang with real 4.5s (in doubles, hardly play singles due to general culture leaning toward doubles - will probably seek out some singles tournaments once I have more free time next summer). great game, tons of badminton skills that are transferable once you play at a decent enough level