Tennis

Brussels Sprouts and Chocolate are a nutritious dinner, right? 

My eating habits have been quite strange lately – due to massive changes in my life, and schedule. Last night’s dinner? A starter of raw celery and carrots followed by a main of steamed then quickly sautéed Brussels sprouts and one half of a dark chocolate bar for dessert. Oh, then I may have had a few whole-wheat ginger/Cocoa tiny cookies, too.  Weird, right? I’ve just really been “off” protein for quite some time except for a nearly daily craving for scrambled egg whites with some veggies.  

*shrug* Can’t say I felt amazing at spinning this morning but it was an awesome class with a bunch of climbing intervals with “active recovery” in between. Lifted for 30mins or so after on the Free Motion then closed off with a quick lap of lunges.  

Oh, and my doubles partner didn’t show up for our match on Friday night so one of the instructors was kind enough to hang around after his shift and play 2 sets of singles with me. Yeeeoooww! It was really nice of him, and I had a great time hitting lots of ground strokes. He was gracious enough to let me win a game or two so I went home tired but happy! Fridays sure are long days, with Pilates at 6am, 30 mins on the stepmill after that, then tennis from 6:45-8pm.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 11/19/2007
• Time: 06:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00
• Distance: 15 miles
• Average Speed: 15 mph

Workout:

• Type: Other
• Date: 07/28/2007
• Time: 12:00:00
• Total Time: 3:00:00.00

Ugh, got completely spanked in our match last night 6-2, 6-0. I’m not so much bothered that we lost the match as our opponents have been playing together for 11 years as we played for 2 years in Atlanta, took 3 years off and have now been back in the game for all of about  a month. I’m just frustrated at my level of play - it was just NOT my night. Warmup got off to a bad start with me lined up against the male player - he was hitting shots hard enough in warmup that I wasn’t able to get my swing in place - and it all got worse from there. Pretty sure I double faulted almost two entire games and hit each and every ground shot long. Once in a while I would connect and hit a nice low deep shot but those were about 1 out of every 20 shots. Scott was playing better - but not well enough to carry us through to anything. Ultimately they had a ton of experience and were super solid players (also perhaps not 3.5 level players, but that’s another matter) and that’s what won them the match but I could have made them work a lot harder for it. Back to practice this weekend! The “killers” are still to come - their reputation precedes them as they’ve stomped everyone in the bracket including our last night opponents! Hopefully I’ll be more “on” at least. If we can make them play 3 sets that will be victory enough.

Workout:

• Type: Other
• Date: 07/05/2007
• Time: 19:30:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Since all of our matches were rained out this week we hit an extra hour of practice today. Had a few really good breakthroughs on my ground strokes - bending my knees to pick up low shots and really ‘pick up’ the ball really has added about 20% more power to my shots. Makes sense, I guess, that having your arm bent when swinging makes it more stable and strong than having it straight. Trying to work on this to apply it to my net game - but that’s not clicked in yet. We hear that our next opponents are mixed doubles “net face stuffers” - meaning that the guy on their team is really strong and will spend the entire match stuffing the ball down my face every chance he gets assuming that I won’t be able to return it - winning them the point and, ultimately, the match.

Lucky that another oppontent warned us of this ahead of time so I’ve had lots of time to work on it. Basically that means that I stand at teh net and Scott hits the ball right at my head as hard as he can. Or at least I hope he’s hitting it as hard as he can if he’s holding back at all that means I’m really wimpy! ’cause my arm flies back about 2 inches just from the impact of his ball hitting my racquet. Getting anything on it to get it back over the net or even try to control it takes all my might. Enter the bent arm! Apparently if my arm is bent at the elbow when I swing I will be able to apply more forward force than if my arm is sticking straight out to my side - straight at the elbow.

So I’m working on blocking it back over the net and angling it off the edge of the court. We’ll see how it goes. I think we’re currently scheduled to play them tomorrow night.

Workout:

• Type: Other
• Date: 07/01/2007
• Time: 09:30:00
• Total Time: 2:00:00.00

Lost our match on Friday night (2-6, 3-6 or something like that) but enjoyed the evening so much that we stayed around and played a 3rd set with our fun opponents. I was having a terrible net game and wasn’t serving particularly well but for first match out it wasn’t a total embarrassment. We made them work reasonably hard for some of the time - going to deuce about 12 or 13 times in one game! I think it’s one that we could win if we played them again at the end of the season.

Spent some time deconstructing the play afterwards and decided that while I’m standing at the net or at the baseline with my racquet up, or at the ready position I’m not necessarily prepared for my shots - so I worked extra hard on shot prep and setup in our warmup Sunday morning. I even started telling myself “forehand” or “backhand” as the ball came toward me - a forcing function to remember to turn and be prepped for the shot.

I was really glad to have the matches in such close succession, too, as I’m a really nervous player. Not really sure why but for the first 2 or 3 minutes I’m OK, then I start getting really nervous -to the point that my legs shake. Usually takes me the better part of the first set to calm down. Having the matches so close helped me to calm down more quickly in Sunday’s match. Our opponents weren’t super skilled so I felt even more able to relax and play a smart match. I was hitting a lot of my deep shots a bit long but all other aspects of my game were far better. Consistent serving to the point that I was able to start attempting a power first serve (didn’t make most of them) as I was confident I could get the second in. Perhaps the high point, outside of winning, was that I was able to run down and effectively return 4 lobs. Getting the timing right to hit a return on a lob is an element of my game I’ve always struggled with. I’m not sure I’ve ever made one in during a match….and it’s totally tied to the ‘nervous play’ thing. When I’m nervous I’m not confident enough to wait for the lob to drop into a spot where I can get a good shot on it - when I’m calm I wait for the right moment to swing and *poof* I nail the return.

All in all a great tennis weekend. I felt as though I played my best ‘thinking’ tennis yet - and Scott pointed out that it’s most likely due to fitness not being so much of an issue for me as it has been in the past. I’m not working as hard to run down shots, so I have more time/energy to think about what play I want to make. FUN!

We’ve heard from our opponents that there are some REALLY tough competitors ahead of us in the schedule so I’m not really expecting to win many/any more matches this season, and that will be all right. The point is to get out and play, improve, and have fun. We’re well on track to do that.

Workout:

• Type: Other
• Date: 06/24/2007
• Time: 10:00:00
• Total Time: 2:00:00.00

With any luck the weather will hold and we’ll play our first match tonight! Should be interesting given that it’s our first competitive match and first time playing doubles in three years and that Scott has second degree burns all down his thigh (he burned himself with boiling liquid cold meds during his shift with the nasty flu that went through our house). He’s able to hit and serve all right but running down wide shots is going to be tough for him. The plan is to have him play the net as much as possible (which is smart anyway, ’cause his net game is much better than mine typically) even if it means I run up and we switch when I’m on serve. We’re hoping for solid, non-terrorizing opponents for our climb back into league tennis but you never know! Sometimes the court brings out the killer animal in folks and all they want to do is stuff it down your throat at full speed.

We went out to the courts and warmed before work today (coffee and tennis at 6am - what a great way to start the day!) so hopefully we’ll be loose and ready to play.

 Oh, and it’s ‘wear your favorite TShirt” to work day today so I’m sporting my Billy Idol concert shirt (original and nearly *gasp* 20 years old)!

Excellent Friday!  

Workout:

• Type: Other
• Date: 06/22/2007
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Spent an hour or so running drills, working on stroke motion, hitting serves, and doing a jump squat each time I picked up a ball. Given that I was hitting out of a hopper for an hour I did a _lot_ of squats

Finally re-discovered a serve motion that works and a mental mantra to remind me of the key elements. Well, a mantra that I pretty much said out loud to myself over and over again. Pretty sure all the kids who walked by the courts on their way to school thought I was a crazy lady out there playing tennis alone and talking to myself. If it works and at some point I’m able to add some power back into my serve it will have been totally worth it.  For now I’m going to stick with my ‘dink’ flat serve until I can get it in very consistently - then I’ll try adding a spin serve back in. Right now I’m not stepping into the flat serve consistently enough to know that my body will remember to step in to drive the spin serve across the net. Without that step it just goes straight into the net. oops! So for now it’s “Lean forward (puts me into the right position to bounce the ball out in front of me), Toss up and out (puts the toss in front of me rather than off to the side or over my head) and step forward (forcing me to end my stroke with my foot in the court - driving the serve over the net). I’m working on getting a visual of a “spot” for where I want my racquet to contact the ball as that’s the critical point where toss meets racquet - but that doesn’t fit nicely into my spoken mantra yet.

Workout:

• Type: Other
• Date: 06/22/2007
• Time: 06:30:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

I’m super excited to return to competitive mixed-doubles tennis in the Seattle CSA league this week.  Spent about 3 hours yesterday trying to shake the dust off serves, net play, baseline cross-court shots, and anything else we could think of to work on. Given that we haven’t played a match in 3 years (!) it could be a hard start this season. We went out on a high note having won the Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association mixed doubles city championships just before moving to return to the PNW (beginner level, mind you, we’re no pros!). Having spent the last year in pretty much solitary marathon training I’m really looking forward to doing fitness activities in which I can have conversations and social interactions! I know some folks can do that while they’re running but I certainly can’t. I laugh my ass off every time I read the guidance that says I should be able to hold a ‘conversation’ during my long, slow runs. *right*. The kind of running that would enable me to carry on anything other than an occasional grunt or moan is called walking! Anyway, our first match is next weekend so this week will be filled with practice of the lateral form (also a nice change-up from the front motion running training!) with the hopes of not getting wiped on the court. I have no concept that we will win - but will consider it a good day if we don’t lose in straight sets and are able to make them work for it!