Last week is simply the best in so many aspects. I took off 2 days to help my wife with her pharmacy test and then there is this Big Thanks giving weekend. I played Badminton on Wednesday followed by some Thanks giving shopping and then some great Tennis practice on Friday. Oh yes, I didn’t miss any work outs.
Badminton was again a Blast. The crowd was sparse expectedly and so most courts are free which means ……More matches! I started at 1900 hrs sharp and kept playing until 21:40 non stop. The only reason I couldn’t continue till 2200 was because we had no one to play with. I didn’t play in a Zone or something like that but just played consistent badminton. There were some real tight matches but we won with plenty of room. I even tried some fine drop shots and had some success. I have more talent than I suspected.
As I fully expected, I didn’t tire out. I am now a fit athlete.
On Friday, I had a practice session with a fellow pro. We hired a ball machine for the first hour and started hitting against it. I tried to use the opportunity to help my Backhand and also do a video of my shots for review. The video was enlightening and I will come to that later. The ball machine is simply Awesome. I felt that if I had about 5-10 sessions with it, my game will improve by leaps and bounds and possibly a grade upgrade.
We then played a practice match. My friend ran away with the first set 6-0. I was very dejected because I expected a better performance from me. My friend played very good and deserved to win but I should have won at least a game or two. I am not that bad a player. I felt like the Tennis slump saga is still ongoing and I am running out of options for a relief. It’s been a long time since I enjoyed time on court and put up a good show. Towards the later part of the set I am thinking to myself, what has changed in the past 1-2 months that is impacting my game.
Fitness is no longer an issue. Grip à No. Shoes à No. Too good opponents à yes some of them are but not all of them. As I walked into the change over after first set, I looked at my racquet and saw the dampener. I removed it. The very first shot I hit in the second set made me feel a lot better. It’s the familiar sound of the racquet and even more importantly the familiar Topspin and control. I quickly raced into a 3-0 lead with each shot making me believe that I am getting my game back. The 4 game was a very tight affair and a pivotal one for me personally. There was lot of 40-40’s in this game until I finally edged it. We stopped right after as we ran out of time with score at 4-0. It’s a matter of speculation of what could have happened had we continued but I am feeling better and better at that time. Can I blame this all on the dampener?. I wouldn’t go that far but it’s hard to explain the coincidence.
Win or lose, I am thankful to my friend and the fact that I had the opportunity to play.
A quick word on the Video analysis. My forehands are looking laborious. There isn’t a smooth and easy flow. It looks as if I am in great pain to hit a shot. Clearly I need to work on my action. I will dedicate another post for the video analysis sometime during the week.
To summarize for tonight’s Tennis session, I am playing as Unseeded at the bottom of the ladder. I am not putting any pressure on myself. My first goal would be to go and try to enjoy the game. There is only one familiar opponent I played before. I have some scouting report on one of the other opponents. So today I am not paying any attention to scores. I know I can’t drop any lower than I already am on the ladder. I can only move up!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment