Preparation for 05 Nov Tennis

My preparations weren’t optimum for tonight’s match. I thought I had very good fitness sessions on Friday and Saturday. However I woke up on Sunday with severe pain in my both wrists. I think I overdid the weights. Left wrist is really painful and bothering me whenever I try to turn it. Muscles still feels stiff though nothing like what I had for last week’s badminton. I didn’t do any fitness work on Sunday (even Cardio) and tried to rest. For reasons unknown to me, I am feeling tired and sleepy though I hope it won’t last all day and should be good for tonight.

Regardless I will still go ahead with Tennis tonight as I won’t be able to play for next two weeks. My next tennis session after tonight will be on Nov 26.

Over the weekend, I spent sometime watching some Tennis videos. I also happened to watch the Paris Tennis masters series semifinals. I took some good pointers from watching David Nalbandian Vs Richard Gasquet and Rafael Nadal vs Marcos Baghdatis. My assessment after the semifinal was that David would come through in the final and he did. He is striking the ball extremely clean and working various angles and “now” has a potent Serve. He is just playing like “Roger Federer” .

I am keen on using 2HBH today and employ some Serve & Volley. Experts advise against using “untested”, “unproven” options during a match scenario. However Monday evening matches is all the tennis I will have until next spring and hence I decided to start testing these new tools (can’t really call them weapons until proven!). Part of this decision is I was engaged in an online discussion with a Tennis expert and he basically asked me “Do you want to win matches by improving or just win with out getting better until you get knocked out by a more seasoned player up the ladder”. My goal is to improve my skills, Win or lose, I feel good camping at the baseline and while serving. I don’t feel comfortable hitting backhands or volleying. The best way to get comfortable is to start playing that style. I will have bumps and may have to take a few hits but will get better. This is no different from my Serve and Forehand. I lost quite a few matches while developing them. Eventually it will pay off. The only downside is it may impact my results in the ladder. While I would like to dominate the ladder, the fact is that there are better skilled players and I have to extremely good with my current 1 dimensional game to win against them. I may “push” myself to get somewhere towards the top of the ladder but by retooling with a Backhand and volley, I will develop an All court game. Honestly I believe my only weakness in the game are backhand and volley. If I get better on them, I can dominate a lot of matches and ladder. Best part is I don’t have to worry about opponent’s style of play as I can then adapt to any style of play.

I also decided to work the Elliptical for 10 minutes or so before heading out for Tennis court. This should warm me up. I am quite certain that I have more than enough Gas to last the 1.5 hours.