Dropped down from Primetime (+ Preview of 08 Dec)

I didn’t play too well last week and only won 6 games. This wasn’t enough to keep me at the Top and I once again dropped down to bottom half of 7 pm.

The key issue was an injury I sustained during my 16 game performance. I hurt my serving shoulder and I can still feel the pain. I didn’t consider skipping last week but I am this week. If not for the threat of playing at 0830 , I would have skipped today.

I started with Dave and despite the fact that I didn’t get my first serve working managed to keep it tight till 3-3 though we exchanged a break of serve. In the 7 game, at Duece, Dave challenged my serve on the AD court. Till then I didn’t get a good first serve but I got an Ace down the T to win 4-3.

Then I went down hill. Rich killed me with a 7-0 drubbing. Since my serve wasn’t working, my forehand isn’t what it used to be, I have very little options to trouble Rich and he is in a good flow.

I thought I needed to win big off Luciano to have any hopes of staying up. He consistently sent the ball back and I never got a first serve in. It stayed neck to neck until 2-2 and then I lost the next 3 games. On another day, I would have atleast beat Luciano. Rich is certainly playing above my level and I don’t have a lot of respect for Dave’s game.

This injury to Shoulder also hurt my Badminton game. I had to wait until my very last match to win. Normally I win 70%-80% of my matches.

That brings me to this week. I will playing Jack/Carl and Dan. On paper I have a good chance but it assumes I serve well. I am on Tylenol and Bengae all day and we will see if it helps my game. All of them are equally dangerous players and work their opponent very well and can easily take over the match in a flash. All of them have some options to hurt their opponent be it jack with his Variety and Counter punching or Carl with a very well rounded attacking game or Dan with his lefty Forehand. My conservative view is that today’s winner is most likely between Dan or Jack while myself or Carl will drop down.

Bottom line for me… No Serve No games

Best Performance -Monday Tennis Nov 24 (and preview for 01 Dec)

This was by far my best performance in the ladder with 16 games. So I moved up and will be squaring off in prime time today.

I didn’t quite expect it to pan out the way it did. The line up last Monday is quite imposing as I play against Carl , Jack and Mike M. Though I never lost to Carl, my record against Jack isn’t that good indoors and I never played Mike. I definitely sensed that I had a good chance to top the pool and move up if I played well.

I started off with Carl but before that during warm up I ran three circles around the tennis court. I felt winded but warmed up enough. We held serve at 1-1 and after that Carl never won and I finished with 6-1. There were some shots from Carl that on another day would have been winner but were out by a foot or so today. I did cut him some slack on some rallies where the ball was out as the action was happening too fast and by the time I was about to call he was ready to hit his reply to my returns. I played some good defense and some of my backhand placement shots worked well. The key again was my serve which held pretty well.

In comes Jack – The Tennis Samurai. Since I won 6 games with Carl, my mood was to get 3-4 games of Jack and I am less set for the night as I would either move up or stay on top of this block with that score. I broke his serve and then he broke mine to make it 1-1. Then I broke him again served good to take the lead. Jack came back aggressive and there was a game where he led 40-15 or something but I somehow pulled it back. Its been a long time since I served that well against Jack and that helped me win 6-1.

With 12 games, I assumed that I would top the pool and was considering going easy on last match with Mike M. Then I learnt that he won 7 games so far. So if he were to win 7-0 against me, or 6-1, he would be the leader. So I needed to win at least two games to ensure that I come out top. I lost the first game on my serve and I thought it wasn’t a good omen. Luckily I broke him the next game to keep the game on Serve. I won my next and that ensured that I will finish the Evening with a guaranteed prime time spot. From this point on I didn’t press too much. I tried to play some angles and used second serves to get some exposure. I attacked his backhand and passed him whenever he came to net. His lefty serve was effective in patches but wasn’t consistent or fast enough to trouble too much. I won the tie 4-3 to make it a 16 game night.

That brings me to today where I will be playing Richard, Dave and Luciano. I lost against Rich and Dave this season while I never played Luciano this year. I won against Rich and Luciano last year and never won against Dave. It will be interesting. My goal is to win 8 games.

Jack’s group is interesting. He plays Dan – the lefty, Paul and Mike. Carl dropped out as he wasn’t too successful against Jack or Mike last week. I guess it comes down to Dan or Jack. While Paul is a dangerous player, it depends on his form and I don’t think he can continue his hot streak for this many weeks in a row.

End of a Two week Vigil at Top (and preview monday night 24 Nov)

My apologies for not posting soon enough. Things have been little crazy at work , with my car, in my own life and ofcourse on Tennis courts. Now that the Holiday season is here, may be things will get little easier.

I had a two week reign in the ladder at the Primetime thanks to a 10 game win the week before.However i lost last week with a crazy 6 game stint that is hard to explain and will be playing tonight at the bottom half of the ladder. I will still remain at 7 pm unless i mess up tonight.

A quick recap on my 10 game win the week before. I was already assured of 7 pm prime time spot due to subs so i tried to take it little easy. I started with Mike the sub. There is a little bit of history between us. We both believe we are better than the other and probably dont respect other player's game enough. Last season i won against him but i lost the only time i played him this season prior to this night. The serve which was absent when i lost to him, came back in full swing and i had a 5-2 win against him. I played Richard next and despite dominating for most of the game didnt convert break points and ended up losing 5-2. I should have easily won against Bruce but i wasnt tryint to win games instead was trying to be aggressive and get some winners going. In that process i lost more than i should (credit to Bruce. he hit some awesome shots) and won my 3 games on serve to close the night with 10 games.

Last monday was the first time there were no subs across the ladder. I had the toughest draw of the night against Andy,Dave and Ed. My game plan was to manage 2 or 3 games between Andy and Dave (due to my poor record against them) and probably dominate Ed (he is a pusher!)  to reach my goal of 8 games. What transpired is nothing but crazy unexaplainable pattern for me. Ed basically hammered me 7-0 despite a weak knee. All i can say is i wasnt patient in my rallies and paid the price. Whenever i was patient i did win the points but they came a lot less frequently. How he blocked my bullet serves i dont know. I believe i will have an answer for him next time i play him. Its probably time for him to show him the Pusher in me. As a sole consolation, i was able to serve some body blows with my serves.

I played Dave next. I raced into lead quickly thanks to my serve. Dave tries to stand up while recieving serve. This is often a good tactic against many opponents as it rattles their rhythm (also challenges the server to come up with good serve). I myself use this tactic , successfully against people with weak serves. I however love this challenge when i am serving. What really happens is when a returner stays close up to return a serve, he usually opens up some corner of the service box, he has less time to react and its hard to take a big cut at the ball. This particular tactic fails against big serves because ---less time to react,  more open area for server to hit and chances of ball bouncing of the racquet are higher.  I just went for my serves. I probably hit the hardest serves i ever hit in recent times. I aimed at the Body and corners and was very successful. I also went in with two first serves on several occassions and this completely threw him off.  Somewhere in the middle of our match, he changed his tactic-- went back while recieving my serve and tried to push the ball more and ofcourse cheated on some points that were incorrect. In two games where i hit aces with  game point on the line they were called out (one of them is in the centre of the box!). I won 3 games.

I played Andy next and my record with him so far is one game every match we played. I didnt have any reason to believe tonight will be any different. However i played well enough to win 3 games. two on my serve and one by breaking him. I played one bad service game on my racquet to be broken at deuce. I closed the night at 6 games. If only i executed well against Ed i would have stayed up.

Fast forward to tonight it is a toss up. Its a battle between Carl - The battle hardened veteran, Jack - The tennis Samurai, myself- the racquet slinger and a new comer Mike. I am not sure of Mike's game other than that he is a tall lefty. On paper based on the results so far, it is really a toss up as Carl, Jack and myself have a good chance of topping this block to move into prime time. To me the keys to victories of each of them are 

Carl - will win if he cuts down his unforced errors. He probably has the most complete game in the group.

Jack - will win if he plays his usual counter punching game and use his variety. He has the best chance of the three.

Me - Will win if my serve is on. I got a good enough forehand to cause some concern for the Big Two above.

Jack's variety will be advantageous against the tall lefty Mike as Jack's drop shots might do some real damage. 

If i were to bet on a winner today i guess it will be between Jack or myself.

On Badminton..I am slowly regaining my game. My smashes are getting better and better. Backhand is still an issue. My point construction is good but having a good partner who can close points is really the key. In Badminton Doubles , its important to have partners with complimenting games. One of my long time partner is no longer playing and i had most success with him because our game compliments each others a lot. My strengths are covering the Baseline ,ability to smash , strong defense and ofcourse forming and following a plan. This guy, for one is a far better player has more variety and ofcourse strong offense besides ability to follow the strategy. Over the years we had some memorable victories against opponents who are better skilled players. These days we rotate so much that its hard to play with a consistent partner.

Moving up in the Ladder! (Mon 11/3)

I have won enough games (12) to top the group and I will be playing in Prime time next Monday. Incidentally this will be the first time this year I will be playing at the very top of the ladder and I am very excited about this opportunity.

I started the evening with Lefty Dan-the sub. During the warm up he gave me enough indications of the potential trouble he can cause. He has a nice slice two handed backhand that is very consistent and he can drop it close to the net or hit it close to the baseline. I have a feeling that he might have used the warm up to probe my game. I won the toss and elected to serve. He was surprised my serve and I had little trouble winning game 1. I couldn’t handle his serve either as he used his lefty wicked side spin from his Deuce court to spin away from my backhand. Though I got some balls in play whenever I played on the right side of the court, he was smart enough to dip the ball low and short or way deep into my back hand corner. I served the next game well to go up 2-1. This is when I made a good adjustment on the return of his serve by standing on the side tram lines when he served into the left court (ie he serves from lefty Deuce court). I kind of challenged him to hit down the T if he can. My theory is that even if he manages to hit some into the T, I can use my forehand to neutralize the shot. This strategy worked well and I broke him to go 3-1 up. This is when I played a bad game. I rushed my serves and went for too much on my shots to lose my serve at 3-2. He held the next game to make it 3-3 on my two back hand errors. I held serve to make it 4-3.

I played Jack next. For some reason I felt tired and winded going into this match. Like most of the time we played, there were lots of service breaks. I won the toss, elected to serve and lost the game. He held serve to make it 0-2 for me. I won the serve to make it 2-1 and then broke him to make it 2-2. I lost the serve again for 2-3 and broke him for 3-3. I couldn’t hold serve in the last game and I lost 3-4. He played two unbelievably good games and I played Two very bad games and that pretty much sums it up for me.

Heading to the last match of the day with Carl, I had 7 games to Jack’s 8 (he won 4 with Carl and 4 with me). Having played both Jack and Dan-the sub, I predicted that Dan might pull through as there are some aspects of his game that I felt would be difficult to deal with if one is playing him the first time. So I thought if I can win 4 games against Carl I still might have a shot at moving up assuming Jack doesn’t blow out Dan. Carl won the toss and (not surprisingly) elected to serve. He won quite easily for 1-0. I served a love game to make it 1-1. Despite some fight Carl held for 2-1 and I had little trouble in making it 2-2. Having reached my target (of exceeding previous week’s result) , I thought I will try to win the night by playing slightly more aggressive and apply additional pace and spin. I blocked his serves to put them in play and then hit some good passing shots to break him to go up 3-2. I held my serve easily to make it 4-2 and broke him again with some good array of baseline rallies and closed out with a cross court passing shot. To win the match 5-2 and make it a 12-9 win-loss for the evening. Tennis Samurai Jack had a good evening with 10 games though he fell a little behind in the last match with Dan-the sub.

The things that stand out are I cashed in all break points (I didn’t save any break points either and lost serve 3 times), I hit good passing shots and I served well. There are still gaping holes in my game that needs to be plugged and I also need to replicate my movement I had this evening for the next sessions.

Next week will be a big challenge. I will be playing against the likes of Dave, Luciano , Bob and perhaps Andy/Richard/Dan. I never played Bob. I have won the solitary matches I played against Luciano and Richard—both 4-3 scores. I lost the only matches I played against Dan and Dave. In 14 games I played, I won only 2 against Andy. So you know what I am up against. I need to serve exceptionally well and take my chances to have any shot at these guys. In other words, I have the game to beat most of these guys (excl Andy) but it largely comes down to execution.

Monday Tennis Preview 03 Nov

As expected it will be Jack, Carl, I and a sub battling out tonight at the bottom half of the 7 pm for a place into 7 pm Prime time. It is going to be as tough as it can get. In some ways last week was little easier in the sense that I have no chance against Andy and Carl/Paul are some what susceptible against consistent players. This week it will be the Tennis Samurai Jack who plays consistent and good tennis and then Carl –my record against him not with standing, can easily topple me.

My goal is at least win as many games as I did last week (8) and see if can Improve my result by a game or two. If I play like last week, I will give myself a good chance to top the pool unless the Sub happens to be an excellent player. I don’t think my game has reached the levels of last year where I can dominate players. So my wins if at all will be small and margins will be less whereas some of my opponents can win matches with lopsided scores which is a huge advantage in the ladder. This is a long season and I want to build up my game properly and withstand the game styles of various opponents.

The build up into tonight is rather normal. After last Monday’s tennis, I played Badminton on Wednesday (skipped Tuesday swimming due to Diwali) and that’s more or less it. I didn’t get a chance to do any Gym. In any case I want to rest a little bit after last Badminton session. I had a very good session and my game is returning to normal and my smashes showing good penetration and I appear to be moving well. However I felt fatigued last Thursday and hence I decided to skip Gym for the week and instead try to get some rest to recharge batteries. The flu shots on Wednesday didn’t help either.

We will see if the rest is going to help or hurt me tonight. I happened to watch the Paris masters cup final between David Nalbandian (one of my fav players) and Jo Wilfred Tsonga. Tsonga served the lights out and played as well as he did in this years Australian Open. Nalbandian played good to win a set but in the end couldn’t handle Tsonga’s serve.

Some Improvement – Tennis 10/27

I managed to win exactly 8 games – the target I originally set for myself. I had mixed results overall but there is certain upswing in my game and hopefully it will continue.

I started out with Carl. During the warm up I noticed that he has far better game than I thought he did. I won the toss and elected to serve. I quickly fell behind 0-40 but then pulled 2 great serves and a second serve winner to get it to Deuce and a service winner to pull out the game. From then on we went with Serve and I ended up with 4-3. There were some engaging rallies and I played some great defense to put pressure on him.

The toughest assignment for me was with Andy. I played him last year and managed to win 1 game. Well I ended up with the same result this time. Simply put he is a better player in every aspect except serve where we are even. I served very well but couldn’t get enough spin on the ball and this allowed him to bunt back the return. I only managed to win couple of rallies as he is really very good with volleys, overheads, approach shots, backhand, topspin forehand, etc. While I lost badly, I lost to a better player and I also fought very well. More importantly, he realized that he had to attack my backhand to win the points and that gives me further encouragement that my forehand and serve do belong in there with some of the best.

Last match is with Paul. This is when I ran out of steam and didn’t get good serves in. I quickly fell behind 3-0. I then made some strategic adjustments. I basically slowed down. I used my second serve as first serve and then also controlled rallies well with slow paced shots and some decent placement. This was enough to win the rest of the games and the end the night with total 8 game win.

I will stay at 7 pm even though all players showed up as Paul managed to win only 7 and hence he is most likely to drop down. Jack though achieved his target of 6 games in the prime time is going to drop down as that number isn’t enough to keep him up. So next week it will be Carl, Jack, I and some one from 0830 (or a sub). On paper Carl has the best chance to move up next week followed by Jack and then me. However if I play like I did yesterday against Carl, I will have a shot at prime time if I am lucky.

So the serve started kicking in. Forehand is improving. If I can get some more efficiency on them, I am golden.

Badminton 10/22 and Tennis Preview 10/27

My confidence hasn’t been too good lately and I am not sure how to fix my game woes. So I went to badminton with very limited expectations—after all just about everyone is beating me at just about every sport these days. I don’t think I have that much left in tank either after Monday tennis and Tuesday Swimming.

To my surprise, my badminton showed some signs of revival. My signature shot – Forehand smash came to life and I started enjoying the game. I rely on few shots (and I am not skilled enough to have a lot of shot options) and if they don’t work, my goose is cooked, boiled, fried and roasted. I dominated with Smashes and with my movement and though I didn’t count I probably ended up with a winning ratio of 80% or so.

I am not sure if I can fix my Tennis troubles so easy. I am missing easy forehands and I am way off mark on my down the line shots. My tennis game relies on 3 important factors. Movement, Forehand and Serve. Though painful, my game can usually handle if serve or Forehand goes off but not both. My game cannot handle loss of movement. Last year around this time, I am whipping forehand passing shots off net rushers and hitting inside-ins like crazy. I also had few good serving days which allowed me to dominate most of the opponents—sometimes serving them off the court. Now that’s past. For the past few weeks, I cannot buy myself a decent forehand pass or a reliable serve (except for a moment or two).

I still play at 7pm this week due to technicality (I may remain at 7 next week as we have a Sub this week). I will be playing Paul /Carl and Sub. I have won handily against Paul and Carl last season though Paul handed me a 5-2 drubbing last week. My game plan is pretty much to try and enjoy the game. I don’t expect to dominate today and my target is to win 8 games.

It is a long winter season and I have plenty of time to rebound and enter into the prime time. For a change I won’t be playing Jack, the Tennis Samurai this week. He entered into the prime time for his excellent play last week. Who knows it may be a while before we play- especially if he sets up a base at the top quarter.

Monday Tennis Oct 20

I managed to get just 5 games out of 21 games. I have no reasons/explanations. I didnt play too bad but didnt play right or used the right shot at the right time.

Against Paul i started well broke him the very first game only to surrender my serve.
The worst was yet to come. I dont know what happened but i left court open or didnt put the shots deep enough. I managed to win just two games. one on my serve and one on his.

I played a Sub Henry. Very good consistent player with excellent Topspin forehands and a decent backhand. He held his serve and i held mine (for the first time with some booming serves). Then i lost the plot. Towards the end, i realized a mistake i made all summer and tried to correct it--too late. i ended up with 1 game.

Against Jack, more or less same story though this time it was based on my intention to stay aggressive and practice the forehand. I know i could have slowed down the game and played defense and probably win more games but i more or less decided to focus on long term. I won two games.

Part of my problem (apart from Serve) is the diminised winners from Forehand. Usually i get 4-5 winners a set (thats last season anywayz). I dont remember hitting any in recent times in any match. While some of it can be attributed to better play from opponents, it has also to do with a shift in technique.

In order to hit a good topspin forehand , wrist has to stay loose and have a smooth low to high motion. All summer i hit forehands with tight grip and tight wrist. This helped my defense but hurt my offense. I should have caught it during my ball machine sessions but i had very few of them and most of them are to practice backhands. It occured to me yesterday as i was watching Henry and i tried to match his forehands.

So, now i know how to fix some of my issues. Whether it will be enough i dont know. Yesterday's results are hard to swallow. I doubt that all other players have improved so drastically and i have fallen so much behind in one summer.

Given the recent results, i need to start slowly and build up. Do the Hard work and Start focussing more and win more games. Focus on hitting forehands. My game can withstand loss of serve or loss of forehand but not both. In any case i rather have my forehand back. The serve will come in.

I may stay at 7 pm mostly due to Technicality than my performance. If i do drop to 0830 its no big deal. Afterall i didnt play well enough to be at 7pm. I will try to climb up again.

Tennis Oct 13 and preview of Oct 20.

I started my Tennis ladder last Monday. It is a disappointing start to say the least. I won a total of 8 games. Though I still stay at 7 pm because I scored two more points than other regular Jack and we also have a Substitute player. So all of us at 7 pm last week……stayed at 7 regardless of the results.

The reason why I called it disappointing is because I put in decent amount of hard work in the recent weeks in terms of conditioning and matches. I expected to play better than I did last season (in all honesty, I didn’t play a single match this outdoor season that matched my performance last season) and came up short.

I started out with Jack. I raced to a 2-0 lead and was hoping to close out the match early. Jack came back strong and I didn’t help myself by poor serving. Just about every service game of mine I had opportunity to close out but allowed opponent to get back to Deuce and then lose the game. I was in some way lucky that I wasn’t serving at 3-3. I broke Jack even though he was up 40-15 and win the match at 4-3.

Next Match is with Dan and the scouting reports I have are bit inaccurate. He has an excellent topspin lefty forehand (as opposed to moon balls I originally assumed) and an average net game. In my own assessment, His game resembles mine in so many ways except that he puts more action on the ball and he has better net game. However I have slightly better serve and backhand than his and some non tangibles like strategy, mental aspects etc. That said, I only managed to win 2 games against Dan. He served 4 times and in 3 games I had game points that I didn’t cash. On my serve , I lost serve once having game points on my racquet. I failed in execution of my shots and of course I never got a first serve in. I lost 5-2.

I played the last match with Mike H who is substituting. I have won against him last year. I thought he improved a lot this year and added some variety. Despite me not getting any first serves in, I played very tight and stayed 2-2. However on the 2 game, I had a game point and Mike hit a volley tad long towards the side line. It was clearly out but he called it in and I gave him the point. It is my belief that a point will not make or break my result and I don’t give lot of credit to a result if it comes down to a single point as luck can play a role. I kind of lost the plot after 2-2 and couldn’t hold a service game despite staying 40-0 up. On his serve I would go 0-30 several times but couldn’t finish it. The last service game of mine (7 game) was pathetic and I lost it with out winning a single point.

With Jack, I know the games could go either way and we played way too many times and our rallies aren’t a big surprise to either of us. There were several long engaging fast paced rallies with Dan and Mike and it is different from what I played during summer. I am particularly happy with how I was rallying though I wasn’t happy with my offense.

Fast forward to today, I am going to play Jack, Paul and a Sub. I have won against Paul last year. Let’s see if I can continue my streak. I am positive I can serve better this time. Incidentally there is a little secret. Whenever I do lots of weights, I cant serve well.This is something I observed over several years. I am not sure of the reasons though I am guessing it must be something with flexibility of muscles or with my stretching. So I changed my work out routine last week and reduced the weights portion for the shoulder. Hopefully it will work out. Because of the Substitutions today, perhaps I will stay at 7 for next week.

A quick word on my Badminton season. It’s already 3 weeks into the season and I guess my performance is slightly below average. May be I will get better as season improves.

Summary (win- Loss) 8 -13 .

Winter Sports Season 2008-2009

Welcome back to my Blog. I haven’t posted in a long time. I guess I oversubscribed to too many tasks. However the good news is that I think I can be regular again and keep this going.

One of the key reasons is also due to the fact that I haven’t done much this outdoor season. In the past few years, I have been improving my game and adding some significant feature every season (2005 – Serve, 2006 - Topspin Forehand, 2007- Inside In forehand, etc). This season I added nothing. If anything my game went south. I bought a ball machine but never really had time to use it much. I may have gotten 6-7 sessions out of it at most. Though it is disappointing, the time was spent on family commitments and with my Baby who will be two years old in January.

The highlights of my 2008 Outdoor tennis season are getting a ball machine, and some key wins against few friends of mine. One of them is Sundar, an excellent player. He is seldom out of position, has a great balance and excellent footwork and racquet feel. His mastery in sports goes beyond tennis and is equally good if not better at Badminton, Basket ball and Golf. Though he didn’t play as much Tennis as I did in the recent past, he is a formidable opponent and though I came close, I never won against him in my early days of Tennis. We haven’t played in last couple of years but we did this time and I was able to win this time. I played with Jack, SK and Andy- a new entrant into our tennis group. A word on SK. He and me started playing tennis as novices few years ago and learnt the game grounds up. He has the most venomous serve I have ever played against and is a brilliant shot maker.

I wasn’t originally planning to sign up for the winter ladder due to our family schedule. Towards early September things have changed and our family schedule has gotten much better. I was considering joining Ladders and evaluating the two clubs from my neighborhood. One of them offers Sunday evening schedule and I think that suits me much better.

My 2008 badminton season starts this Wednesday. It is really hard to play tennis on Monday and Badminton on Wednesday and then have a long break in the week. I also have my daughters swimming on Tuesday and this pretty much ties up 3 days of the week. A Sunday Tennis gives me better spread of the week. The only issue is the club that is offering Sunday tennis isn’t the one I played last year. I would love to play at the same club.

Talking about ladders, the ladder is out for this year (assuming I join this club). Here is an Analysis.

Welcome to the 2008-2009 Tennis Ladder. The ladder schedule runs from Sep 29 2008 to all the way into May 2009. As most of you know I made significant progress in the ladder last year and hope to keep the momentum going. Though the ladder begins today I wont be playing until Oct 20 due to other professional commitments (Wife’s B’day, an Exhibition match, an airport pick up, last but not least budgetary considerations etc).

Here is the current draw and lets try to break it down.

------------------------
7:00 Pm Show time Top bracket

Jay
Ed
Luciano
Dave
Bob
Carl
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7:00 Pm bottom bracket

Richard
Paul
Dan
Jack

--------------------------

0830 Pm Basement ladder

Satish
John V.
Rob L.
Mike M.
Faez
--------------------------

With the current form of most of these players unknown (except for Jack and Satish), I am basing my observations on last season’s performance. It is entirely possible that they have improved upon their game.

A star studded 7 pm line up! The draw lends itself to some great mouth watering matchups. Some notable omissions from the draw include Warren and Ramon, Two very good players with devastating backhands, Thomas – a regular Sub last year with well rounded game, Frank- a classic counter punching pusher and Bruce- the perpetual shot maker. Last year top seeds Andrew and Matt are no longer in the fray and that should have allowed many players in the current draw to entertain some hopes of topping the ladder. At 0830 there are couple new players making their first appearance and it will take sometime before the ladder shakes itself out some sense of normalcy is returned.

On the top half of 7 pm, I think Dave and Bob will move further up and probably remain regular fixtures at the top (assuming Jay and Ed are mostly Guest appearances). Dave has a good serve and takes the ball early in rallies. While he isn’t an exceptional mover, he has good court positioning and he can get into opponents head with his antics. Bob has a good serve, excellent forehand and backhand and can also volley well. In my opinion Bob will top the ladder. Luciano game lacks offense and relies on pushing the ball into open court. However he has plenty of action on his slice shots and has a low bouncing serve. In one my blogs from last year (http://gumsat.blogspot.com/2008/02/monday-night-tennis-feb-11.html) I thought he was a polished pusher/counter puncher. I don’t believe he will stay in top bracket of 7 pm and will be pushed down to bottom bracket. Carl is a great baseliner with one of the pleasant looking cross court forehands. He had to deal with injuries during past season and assuming he stays fit he will be a regular fixture at 7 pm.

The bottom half of 7 pm is slightly less complicated as it appears now but that may soon change due to the format of the ladder (after a couple of weeks , players with similar results get grouped together). Except for Dan I have played with the other three players in this group. Paul is a good player who started very strong last season but struggled towards the end and played mostly the basement matchups of the 0830 group. He has a good forehand and powerful but inconsistent serve and can cause some damage if he improves his consistency. Though I didn’t play Dan, I saw him play and also have some scouting reports on him. His soft loopy shots can throw an opponent off his rhythm and his consistency should help him win a few matches. However I don’t see him as a regular fixture at 7 pm and he will probably move down to 0830.

At the bottom of the 7pm, we see the most improved player of the ladder Jack –the racquet wielding Architect from East Hartford. Having played with him a lot for the past two seasons, I have a very good sense of his game. He has steadily improved his serve, his backhand and forehand. He has taken his consistency to another level. He presents the biggest challenge for any players in his group in two key areas a) fitness b) extended rallies. An opponent is forced to hit several extra shots to win a point or take more chances than they are comfortable taking. In general all his matches will be longer than average and there will be lot of running and that can exhaust a tired/unfit opponent. Though he lacks a signature closing shot or fire power offensive weapon, he will more than make up for it with his variety in the game—drop shots, lobs, smashes, volleys, baseline rallies. His game matches up very well against most of the players in his current group. In my opinion he will top the bottom 7pm group and make his way into the top bracket.

At the bottom cellar of the draw, at 0830 pm, I will be battling with bunch of new comers and some old timers like Mike and Faez. On paper, I should be topping this pool and make my way very deep into 7 pm—perhaps a top bracket berth. However tennis is not played on paper and with couple of new entrants I think this pool is anything but decided.

My outdoor season wasn’t that great and it was only recently that I got my serve and forehand back. In other words I am still trying to get my game to the level it used to be while most others might have added a thing or two to their repository. However I am putting lot of work into my fitness recently after several false starts and I am also trying to add some practice sessions and salvage whatever outdoor action is left before winter sets in. The results are encouraging and on a positive note, though I didn’t have a spectacular outdoor tennis season, I didn’t have dismal results either. I managed to still win most of matches against all players I played this summer and only lost a few sets.

Having demonstrated my staying capability at 7 pm, the goals this year for me are to move to top bracket of 7 pm and stay there for a decent time (ie couple of weeks at a minimum). I don’t have any set goals for badminton other than to enjoy the game.

Overall I am very excited to start the winter tour of Badminton and Tennis. I will keep you posted more regularly and I will need all your support.

Triangle Offense & Tennis 5/17

I haven’t posted in a while (yet again) as I have been very busy attending family and work responsibilities. The other reason is that I haven’t done anything spectacular in the recent times worth posting.

Despite the busy schedule, I managed to play Tennis last Saturday (5/17) and Badminton last Wednesday (the season was of course over) and managed to cheer World #2 Rafael Nadal to master series victory and Los Angeles Lakers to a lead in Western conference finals.

First on Tennis. Jack and I squared off once again on Saturday evening. Weather was decent with only occasional breeze but enough to provide some advantage from one side of the court. As you all know my knees have been bothering me (for no real reason..yet) and impacted my movement in many of the past matches. For this match, I had some preparation time and I warmed up a bit before heading to the courts. My game relies heavily on my ability to chase down balls and put them back in with topspin at strategic locations on opponent’s court.

I started off the game by breaking jack’s serve and then holding my own. There were some good rallies and one or two long deep rallies. I didn’t go with any particular strategy. I wanted to focus on the “low to high” swing motion of the racquet that generated top spin and that’s what I did most of the match. I took care of the transition game (ability to move back and forth, switch from one kind of shot into another) and picked spots to go aggressive. I won 6-2. In the second set , I was leading 5-0 and 40-30 up when I lost focus (and energy) and Jack seized the opportunity to play some fantastic tennis to make it 5-3. Realistically 5-0 is a steep deficit to overcome (though many people have done it in the past) and I won the set. All in all a good match. My serve is also showing some signs of life and it bodes well for me. I was happy with my backhand. I managed to hit a few aggressive shots and I believe my defense from backhand improved a bit- thanks to ball machine.

On Sunday I watched how Rafael Nadal won against Federer in the master series final. This is a best of 3 sets final and Roger federer had sizeable leads in both sets only for Nadal to fight back and take the match away. Federer led 5-1 in first set, lost 7-5. While lot of analysis can be done (and some already done at Tennis.com) I observed some useful stuff for me. It is no secret that I am big fan of Federer and Nadal with me taking Nadal side when these two great players square off. My game at a very very very vague level resembles that of Nadal while I do show some characteristics of Federer’s game.

In Recreational Tennis, there are some main offensive strategies.
1) Your strengths Vs Opponents weakness
You use your strengths (eg:forehand) to target opponents weakness (eg:backhand)
2) Your strengths Vs Opponents strengths
You match up your best shots (eg: cross court forehand) against opponents (eg: forehand)
3) Hide your weakness
You try to hide your weakness (eg: backhand) and play more on your strengths.
(eg: run around your backhand and hit forehands)
4) Hide opponents strengths
You don’t give your opponent an opportunity to hit his strong shots.
Eg: Keep the ball to in the middle of the court to cut away angles.
Or hit towards backhand corner so that he can’t hit forehands etc.
5) Your Strengths
You don’t care what your opponent does or doesn’t. Instead you focus on your strengths and go along with them.
Eg: Hit a blistering array of forehands and over powers your opponent.
6) You feel innovative
You don’t care what the score/result is. You play what you deem fit and what makes you enjoy the game.


There are several more but mostly variations of the above. Also there isn’t one single strategy you would use whole game. In reality, in a given point, one may use all of the above strategies. The best strategy would be to carefully monitor the game, score and analyze the situation and vary your strategies.
Eg: You are leading 2 sets to love and a break up in 3 rd. If you are in a mood, may be you can use (5 – your strengths) or (6- you feel innovative) or keep doing what you did so far that got you the big lead in first place.

Strengths, Weakness and Innovation are the elements of Tennis Triangle offense. I am working on a developing a structured Offense system in Tennis (for all you know it could be a old wine in new bottle type of scenario). As a vivid follower of Basket ball I have seen several concepts of structured offense in basket ball and I think I can apply some of them for tennis. One specific item that caught my eye was the Triangle offense. What an intriguing offense system. I won’t be able to provide full justice to describe it but it is sufficient to say this. At its peak, this is one of the most spectacular, free flowing offenses that basket ball has ever seen and provide several options to shoot the ball. This shouldn’t come as a surprise- The NBA team that uses this offense: LosAngeles Lakers. NewJersey nets and few other teams do use parts of this system but they generally use picks and screens. More on Tennis Triangle offense later.

The Badminton season was officially over and I missed the last two sessions. There was a different club where they play for few more weeks and couples of friends from work were playing there and invited me over. So I went last Wednesday. I actually played a lot better than I did in the recent times. My transition game and movement are coming back to me and I managed to hit a few back hand winners. I enjoyed the session a lot as I have been on the down trend for quite some time. This club plays for 3 more weeks though I don’t plan on playing there unless there is inclement weather and I am dying to get some sports action.

Though it is long weekend for most, for our family it is business as usual as my wife will be working Saturday and Sunday. I will try to squeeze out some time for Ball machine and may be a tennis match or two. On Monday, French open begins and that should take care of next two weeks as I will be busy watching DVR’s of matches.

Tennis and Basket Ball

I have been a bit busy and didn’t get chance to update my Blog.
I last played on 26 April (really seems like a long while ago) with Jack. The score was 4-6 and 6-1. I lost the first set but came back strong to win the second.

There isn’t much to really point out from the match. My knees have been bothering me for sometime. My wife thinks it is because of all the antibiotics I am taking for the cold and throat infections. It greatly impacted my movement and ability to hit the ball cleanly. I often guessed on opponent and I paid for it. The score board for first set shows that I lost 4-6 but it should really be 2-6. Wind helped me on couple of points and I blindly attacked on some points that came up my way. Jack moved me very well and played smart tennis. Towards second set I felt much better. Knees are still hurting (I felt pain as late as Monday) but I was warm enough to move a little better. I also found my range on some of the shots. Jack’s form dipped (he later indicated that he rushed into his shots as a whole battalion of people were waiting for us to finish the match so that they can take the court). I didn’t really have much trouble in second set and towards later part of the set; I was in full control never seriously under pressure. I served a lot better than I did in earlier matches.

Here is the summary of my season so far. I have only included matches after 01 Apr 08.

Opponent Venue Date To Against
JC Charter Oak 3-Apr-08 6 2
JC EHRC 11-Apr-08 5 7
JC Glastonbury 18-Apr-08 6 3
JC Glastonbury 18-Apr-08 6 2
JC Glastonbury 20-Apr-08 6 4
JC Glastonbury 20-Apr-08 6 2
JC Aspen Woods 25-Apr-08 4 6
JC Aspen Woods 25-Apr-08 6 1
Summary 45 27

So in summary I won 45 games and lost 27 of them. I won 6 sets and lost 2 sets.

Last week the weather was real bad and I didn’t get any tennis action. Finally I got the ball machine out on Sunday and me and my wife had a great session with it. I practiced Backhands and cross court forehands. I am hitting backhands very cleanly and the more topspin and bounce on the ball, the better my shot was. I got the hang of good technique and I can go cross court as well as down the line. Very happy with the progress.

In that process I also discovered another flaw. I am generally late on my backhand shots because I don’t treat it as an offensive option. Now that I played around with ball machine, I can see that and I tried to over run the ball. The result—I have more time to setup for the shot and more options (eg: cross court, down the line etc).

I also drilled some cross court forehands and rediscovered a lost art of mine—change of grips. In the past seasons, I used to change my grip (I regularly use mild semi western) based on the opponents shot. On high bouncing balls, I used to go western and take a big cut at the ball. This results in more topspin, high clearance at the net and more angles. Off late I have been real lazy and try to over hit with one grip. Have to change that bad habit and get back into using multiple grips.

Needless to say, the ball machine workout is great and allowing me to really work on my game. If I can have another 5-10 such sessions, my game will be greatly improved. One thing I couldn’t do yet was to practice serve- the single most important shot of the game. I plan on working on it very soon.

Btw my wife has a great double handed backhand. I was very impressed with the way she was hitting the backhands. If I can spend some more time with her and probably some training, she can become a good player and enjoy tennis.

In NBA , my team Lakers swept Nuggets and moved to Western conference semi finals and played Utah Jazz yesterday. However I am a little sad that Dallas maverics and Phoenix suns both lost in first round of Play offs. These two teams play an offensive brand of basket ball that is very entertaining and fun to watch. Their Run and gun style of play allows them to score lots of points in the game. But their lack of defense hurt them most. Teams like SanAntonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons (and Lakers to an extent) play suffocating defense and tie down opponent’s offense. Once the wheels come of the Offense, these teams struggle a lot.

As they say “Offense fills up stands. Defense wins championships”.

Same deal in tennis. One can’t rely too much on offense with out playing proper defense. Players like Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic play great defense all along and can switch into offense effortlessly once the moment presents itself. That’s why they are Grand slam champions. By the way I followed the Monte Carlo Clay court tournament final between Nadal and Federer. It is a great lesson for recreational tennis players like me. Federer played very smart and used lot of angles and wizardry to dominate Nadal in patches. Nadal relied on old tested and proven ‘Heavy topspin into Federer’s backhand ‘ tactic. In the end Nadal’s forehand is too much to handle for Federer’s backhand as Federer couldn’t sustain his level of play across two sets. Not sure how he can handle that in a best of five sets in the French Open Grand slam. In any case I don’t have strong enough tennis resume to advise Roger Federer on what he needs to do.

This week is looking much better in terms of weather. However my schedule is such that, I can only play on evenings and that too on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I have Badminton on Wednesday. There are only two more Badminton sessions left and for all practical purposes this will be the last meaningful session. The last day of badminton is usually Pizza party followed by badminton and usually very less of badminton. Depending on how crazy I feel about tennis, I may skip badminton this week.

Real Outdoor Tennis 4/18,4/20

The Spring weather finally broke through and this past weekend was all about sun and 70 degree weather. I played Jack on Friday and then again on Sunday. On Saturday it was all family time for me.

I can’t explain the joy of playing in warm outdoor weather. It feels so different and natural.

Both sessions had similar outcome and for most part played out similarly. On Friday I won 6-3 and 6-2. My serve is yet to heat up and I barely got ball into play. What kept me going were the passing shots. JC tried to approach the net on few occasions and I managed to hit some good passing shots. Honestly I was surprised by some of those shots myself because they aren’t that easy to execute. There were lots of service breaks and it all boiled down to who can hold their serve. The second set was trickier as we had some wind factor. I tried to use wind to my advantage and I managed to pull through the set 6-2.

The score board doesn’t always tell the real story. JC was playing very well for the first few games and his vastly improved ground strokes were dictating the play. I had to change my game plan and made a tactical adjustment and the move immediately paid off.

On Sunday it was windy from the start though it went for worse as the match progressed. My serve is a little better though the wind didn’t help me. One side of the court , it is almost unplayable. Any amount of power or if you slightly float the ball, wind carries the ball out. So any chances of hitting the ball closer to the lines are out and its almost like one side of the court is smaller than other. On the other side , one can take really big cuts at the ball and the ball will still land in play- a factor I used successfully to break JC’s serve in the last game to win the second set when he was up 40-0.The final score was 6-4 and 6-2.

I have some positive take away. While my serve is long way off my backhand isn’t. I can now hit my backhand with power and I can go cross court as well as down the line. I need to be more consistent and also need to improve my range. I need to be more comfortable hitting the low and high balls on my backhand. Now that I have a ball machine (it arrived this AM) I can groove in on my shots and take my game one notch up. I also felt better that my level of play is improving as the match progressed and had little trouble in second sets.

This week is a busy week and I don’t think I can get any tennis action until Friday. I do have Badminton on Wednesday which I can skip (or reduce the time) which I am not planning on unless I am curious enough to take the ball machine out. I am also considering a 30 minute serving session on Wednesday.

I am also impressed by the fact that my team LosAngeles Lakers got the top seed in the crazy NBA western conference and won their first game against Denver Nuggets. I love to see Kobe Bryant win one or more NBA championship Rings.

The Ball machine that nearly was…

On Friday I played with Jack Indoors. The weather outdoors was very cloudy and we thought it might rain and opted indoors though in the hindsight we could have easily played outdoors (if we ignored the occasional gusts).

We arrived late and hence started the match right away after an abbreviated warm up session. Jack ended up winning 7-5. I didn’t play badly but didn’t play good enough to win. Just about every game went to Deuce and I managed to hold my serve only once in 4 tries. Some of that may have to do with my opponent who moved me side –side and front – back. Little bit of chip and charge, few shots that skidded off lines, some Serve and Volley he did it all. My topspin shots lacked depth and ended up as sitters. My only take away is that I liked the way I played my backhand. I discovered a few interesting things I can do with it.

I definitely can use a practice session for my Serves. Probably sometime this week I am going to do that. I am not too worried about rest of my game ..Yet.

I went on the Big auction site and fell for a misrepresenting bid on a ball machine. This machine is selling almost 70-80$ cheaper than comparable ones and I though I am getting a great deal. The Bid was later on cancelled and meant nothing.

This frustrated me enough that I am almost willing to put money on a new machine. Having watched the used ball machine market for quite some time now, I can see that these machines hold their value for money. I can use this machine for a year and can still sell it for a 100$ or so less. The way I see it, 100$ is a fair price for a ball machine for 1 year. Probably within next few days I will decide.

This week except for Tuesday is looking good from weather and scheduling perspective. I am still planning to play Badminton on Wednesday. There are only 4 sessions left this season and I like to play them all.

River Race 2008

This weekend two colleagues of mine participated in the Kayak/Canoe race in the local river. I love all sports but only played a few. I went with my family to watch the race as we thought it might be fun. It’s a bit windy and cold but we did have fun. I got a better sense of appreciation for the participants. It is quite competitive and fun at the same time. Age wasn’t a factor as I have seen lot of people from different age groups compete. We saw them off the starting point and then we went to one of the vantage points to see the boats coming across the Rapids. It is really fun to watch the boats chase each other as well as maneuvering across the rapids.From the safety of the banks it looks very easy…just like Tennis. Once you start actually doing it, you realize how tough it is.

Both my friends did great in the race. One of them finished third (he did the doubles with his brother) and other one raced alone, finished in the Top 20 or so. If I ever participate (I and my wife did discuss the possibility of trying it next year) I will be glad just to finish it.

You can read about it here http://mangolds.blogspot.com

I got some photos from the race and I will post them soon once I obtain permission.

No On court tennis last weekend, my schedule didn’t allow on Saturday and weather didn’t cooperate on Sunday. I did catch up with the action in Sony Ericsson open at Miami, Florida.

I have officially moved out of the ladder. With the outdoor weather improving significantly I expect the outdoor tennis season to pick up steam real soon. My schedule will be a tough thing to mange though. Given my work and family commitments, I will be on a two week schedule with one week significantly busier than other. Still I am committed to playing as much tennis as possible. I want to play in the top most part of next year’s ladder and I want to do it by having a great forehand, great serve and decent back hand besides the intangibles.

Despite all the fitness, weight work I did, I still need to drop probably 1-1.5 pounds to have my BMI will be in the Normal category. Phew..

Let the Show begin - Tennis 2008

With the weather cooperating, we kicked off the 2008 Tennis season on Thursday (03 Apr). It is still cold as the temperature is probably around 50 with some wind chill. There was slight breeze which changed the flight and path of the ball.

After brief warm up (besides tinkering with Nets as they weren’t installed in some courts) we started off. I won the toss and elected to receive – no real reason. My serve takes a hit when the weather is cold and I wanted to warm up some more. I broke Jack twice and held my serve to quickly go up 4-0. Jack then held his serve twice and I finally served out the set for 6-2. I had trouble in the last game when I faced a break point. A good body serves and a kick serve into the back hand corner of the deuce court saw me pull through.

There wasn’t enough time for a complete second set but we played 6 tight games anyway. We stopped with me leading 4-2 having just broken Jack. We also broke each others serve in the first two games. He is much crisper and sharper in the second set and I could see the set heading to a tight finish. He hit some of the best serves including 3-4 aces (all of them wide to forehand corner on deuce court). I hung in there mostly by moving Jack side to side with some top spinners.

Overall a good start for the season. I liked my forehand and my movement. My serve is off but I am not too concerned. I did hit some good backhands to force the point. I didn’t feel any nerves or signs of fatigue (despite playing badminton on Wednesday night). Just to ice it off, I went home and did my normal workout minus weights. I need to be more Consistent but given this is the first game of the season –it is to be expected.

I may play on Sunday depending on availability of a fellow pro.

A quick word on Badminton. Finally after 3 weeks of really bad frustrating performance, I came up with better Badminton show this Wednesday (April 02). No, I wasn’t in a zone or something nor I won all my matches. I won most of my matches and I lost a few. However my performance all night has been steady and controlled. Before I started the evening I thought to myself? What changed so much that my game is downhill. I decided to use the ‘over the head’ forehand smash that made me popular in the early 2000’s.

For the past few weeks opponents have been pounding onto my backhand and reaping benefits as my tennis like one handed backhand was found wanting. However I stuck playing backhands as really that’s one of the few ways for me to learn it. Yesterday I hit several backhands back into play and some for winners. I think I got my forehand smash back and hit several winners.

There is probably 3-4 badminton sessions left before we call it a season. I won’t be playing next Wednesday as I have to stay home.

I am also planning on visiting my colleague’s race their Kayak’s at the Hockennum river this Sunday. It should be a fun event.

I don’t have any updates on ball machine. Nothing at the price I am willing to pay.

First dose of Outdoor tennis

Yesterday Jack and I decided we will try to play outdoors. So we showed up around 5 pm. As we got on the courts, there is cold breeze and occasional gusts. It was hard to setup Jack’s ball machine as the wind didn’t allow us to get consistent readings.

We still managed to hit for a bit and then played a no limit tie breaker. Jack played very good under the cold conditions. We stopped tracking score towards the end but I know at one point he is leading like 16-5. His serving was good and he hit a lot of winners. Other than one or two serves where I really hit the spots, there wasn’t much to write about on my game.

Good start I guess though weather conditions could have been better. There was a time when I felt that I needed gloves to keep my hands warm.

Yesterday I lost a bid on a ball machine. So the search continues.

Getting Ready for Outdoor Tennis

I haven’t posted in a while as stuff at home kept me very busy. I did not play any Tennis and my badminton performance is average at the best. I am losing to players I used to comfortably beat before. I am not too overtly concerned as I know some of the reasons. I am trying to hit the Badminton Bird (shuttle) as if I am hitting a Tennis ball with a low to high motion and often with topspin finish. This usually sets up the bird to be hit by opponent. Most of my opponents are now picking my Backhand. In the past I used to run around and force the shot with my forehand. These days I am content on trying to hit with a backhand as I know in the long run it will help me improve my backhand. My smashes aren’t effective sometimes as I am more emphasizing the back scratch position (like Tennis serve).

So even though my Badminton game isn’t great guns at the moment, my moment on the court is crisp. I am still doing my work outs. I dropped a few pounds and I am doing weights to improve strength. I have incorporated some special exercises to focus on Abs and core. Cardio is great.

I am basically getting ready for Outdoor tennis. I am very keen on taking my tennis game to the next level and some of the steps I have taken above will help me accomplish that goal. I have watched lot of Indian Wells Tennis (pacific Life Open) and observed some great strategies by Nadal and Mardy Fish. I watched one of my favorite players Juan Carlos Ferrero in his victory to Quarter finals (he lost to another favorite player David Nalbandian).

The biggest concern I have for Tennis season is the schedule. Between Day care, wife’s career and my own, lawn mowing, gardening, it will be tough to squeeze out lot of time for Tennis. I will be happy if I can play twice a week (may be 3 times with an optimistic look). I also need to carve out some Ball machine sessions. I haven’t bought it yet but I have narrowed down my choices. If I can get an Ebay machine for 500$ , I will take it. Otherwise I will buy the Silent partner Lite (goes for 675) with the oscillator (helps spray the ball side ways) and Spin (helps simulate topspin and slice). I will wait until the outdoor season heats up (probably late April – early May).

I pulled a neck muscle last Thursday. Luckily Ibuprofen and lot of IcyHot helped. I recovered to probably 90%.

Schedule and weather permitting, I will attempt to play some outdoor tennis with Jack. If this week doesn’t work out I am sure the next week will.

Monday Tennis 03/10

I chose the wrong day to show up at the ladder. I didn’t gain much and felt like I should have chosen another day.

I went there just on time and looked at the draw sheet. First match against Bruce, second against Faez and then with Andy (#1 player of the ladder). I was very happy as this draw sets up nicely. I can warm up against Bruce and Faez for a showdown with Andy. Cant go wrong here. Then I looked around --Attendance was extremely light. Out of the 13 players, only 4 of them showed up. Two for the top bracket and two for the bottom bracket. For my part of the draw only Bruce showed up. So we ended up playing a best of two sets (and a tie breaker if we split sets) in No Ad format. I prefer the longer full set matches (as opposed to best of 7 games on the ladder) as the full matches give more time to get used to the opponent and work out a counter attack strategy.

I played Bruce in the past and he is tricky. He can play great tennis and worst tennis in the same point. After warm up he started the serve. I broke him at Deuce but immediately got broken back to go 1-1. He started match by repeatedly attacking my Backhand. He had some good pace & placement on the serve towards my backhand that I was unable to counter (especially with my new “Sword from Sheath” technique). We both held serve until we are 3-3 when I broke him and then held my serve and eventually served out the set for 6-4. I hit a lot of heavy top spinning forehands and he had trouble returning them.

Now fully warmed up, I took over the second set 6-1. My forehand is grooved in and my serve has loosened up and started kicking out very well. After the match we played ground strokes for about 10 minutes and it was good drill. Overall it is a good match but apart from a few backhands, I didn’t learn much. My opponent has a good backhand and I was able to see his technique.

I will once again move up the ladder though it won’t make much difference. I will be sending out my withdrawal shortly. Unless Snowy weather returns and I miss tennis badly, this is it for this season. The manager indicated that the ladder runs till end of April (probably another 6 weeks) however I don’t see a lot of attendance once the outdoor temperatures climb to 50’s. I am more aggressively pursuing the ball machine and hope it get one before outdoor season catches fire.

On a positive note, I am ending the ladder on a high winning note.

Farewell for Winter Tennis

I decided that I would go and play tonight. Unless the weather turns too cold and I miss Tennis too much, this will be the last session with the Ladder. The only reason why I am playing today is my email system was down over the weekend and the email I sent out for a Substitute bounced back. I don’t want to pull out at the last minute (unless of course there is a valid reason). Another reason is since I play in the bottom group, I can test my Sword from Sheath Backhand (read my last post).

My preparations are far from ideal. I haven’t played recently and based on badminton sessions, I am not playing optimal. My family got sick over the weekend and we spent considerable time trying to recover from it. However the past 3 workout sessions are good and I once again started to enjoy them. I started doing weights as well – so back to full fledged workouts. I also bought a new machine to work out the Abs, lower body and builds core strength- many Tennis pundits say key for more power in tennis. We will see how it goes. The heart rates and etc (including the warming up part) have returned to normal.

It will also give me a chance to test my theory. As I indicated in the past my performance dips when I start doing weights. I want to see how tonight goes.

With any luck I might play Andy (the #1 player of the ladder) who is currently at the bottom of the draw because he hasn’t played in a long time. In the same boat as me. I want to use this last session to collect some readings against him.

Weather looks decent these days and I am hopeful we may get to start the outdoor season early.

So looking forward to this session. I will be officially quitting the ladder tomorrow.

Sword from Sheath

I haven’t played Tennis since Feb 24. I am still officially in the ladder currently at the bottom cellar (not exactly, I still have 5 guys who are ranked behind me) though I haven’t played since Feb. 14. I am contemplating on playing one last time at the ladder for this season. I may play this Monday.

Flu season or something, I am not feeling 100% most of the days though I still haven’t skipped any workout session. I started weights again and they will be part of my program. So I am on target as far as the goal of staying fit and ready for the Outdoor tennis season.

A word on my badminton last two weeks. Very bad, especially the last week. No rhythm- no execution- poor results. Part of the problem is it is taking a very long time for me to warm up. I don’t know if it is good or bad. I have seen this in my work outs as well. Usually in my work outs, I warm up somewhere around 10 minute mark. In the past week, for whatever reason I didn’t really feel the exercising zing until 20+ minutes , leaving too less a time as I don’t spend more than 30 minutes. In badminton, it translated to almost 2 hrs—basically a game or two before I am ready to head back home. However yesterday’s workout felt good after a long time. May be the Flu/congestion is going away.

Coming to the topic, I have been researching a lot on improving my backhand. I came across this analogy/concept that accurately describes hitting a one handed Backhand (1HBH). The motion of hitting a 1HBH is similar to drawing a sword from the sheath. Great way to easily describe the concept. I took a few practice swings and it feels natural. I will post my On court experience. May be this concept with the ball machine will get me the backhand I am looking for.

While “drawing the sword from sheath”, I came across this article by Peter Bodo. In here he suggests recreational tennis players work on Inside-In, Inside-out forehands than spending time on learning a 1HBH that only few can hit with command. Unlike what he says, I DO run around a lot on my backhands and work forehands. My offense runs on Forehand and I don’t expect that will change anytime soon. I actually feel very happy whenever I hit Inside-in/Inside-out forehands.

Sunday Tennis 2/24

Due to scheduling conflicts and lack of interest, I won’t be playing on Monday night 2/25. Some part in me wants me to play but I am not fully into it. In my mind the winter Tennis season is over and it is time to focus for the spring. I may play one more session in the ladder but not sure when.

On Sunday I played with Jack. Before we played, we did a little bit of social “work” for the Tennis community by snow shoveling. We started out hitting against the ball machine and then finally played a set. I quickly raced to a 3-0 lead. Jack pulled it back to 3-2 and then I closed it 6-2.

There were some good rallies and we played some positive tennis. The warm-up against the ball machine helped me a lot as I grooved in on my shots. I dictated play with my Forehand. I don’t think I served that well but it wasn’t bad. I lost my serve once and managed to break Jack service except once.

I liked the way I hit forehand shots. I personally felt they had lot of spin and action on them (especially when I used western grip). One particular point really stood out for me. I hit an inside –in forehand that kicked up real high and I didn’t think was coming back. Somehow jack managed to put it back in play. I hit another forehand into the middle of court which kicked up very high and probably had lots of action and ended up winning the point. It’s that Topspin that makes the ball difficult to hit for opponents, especially if it lands around the baseline and skids off.

One of the key strategies against solid counter punchers like Jack /Ramon (and most S&V players) is to strike first. Once you let them control the point, you will end up running a lot and/ or make unforced errors while trying to come up with a low percentage winner. Usually when I play them I try to dictate play. If I start making some of those shots that puts them on defensive. If I don’t, I usually end up putting more pressure on myself and probably resort to Plan B (pushing) and Plan C (all out attack as I have nothing to lose at that point). Today it turned out to be a good strategy.

The more I play with Ball machine, the more I am convinced that I need one. That is one single option I believe can help me move to become a 4.5 player (I personally assess my current tennis game as 3.75-4.15 depending on the day). Before the Spring Tennis season warms up, I will get one. I am not sure how much tennis time I will have come Spring/Summer as I will have to balance tennis and time with my baby.

After our match, I watched the Local University women’s Tennis Team practice. I learned some interesting tips and Techniques. I spent about an hour taking some notes. There were about 7 players at the practice and I saw the coach working out some drills and concepts into them.

I am probably not going to play next Monday either (March 03). So I will not have lot of scores to post in my next few blogs. I will continue to post on General tennis, Badminton and workouts.

Monday night Tennis (no Play) 02/18

I couldn’t play this week due to scheduling conflicts. I am not sure of next week either. My baby returns from her vacation on Monday evening. Depending on how much time is left after I get her home, I will make a last minute decision (if I slip to 0830, I may play anyway). I also have other commitments on March 17 and hence won’t be able to play.

Well, a few factors are preventing me from playing Monday tennis. I am almost there in terms of $$$ for a Ball machine. Some more savings would boost my chances greatly. Another reason is that Jack quit the ladder. Part of the fun is the Lunch time discussions that surround our matches, opponents, tactics, strategy and performance. Now that will be lacking, I don’t quite have the same interest. Finally I am almost near the allocated budget for Winter Tennis. So it’s partly financial and partly interest.

One thing that still keeps me motivated is that I have lot of unfinished business in the ladder. I didn’t make it into the top4 at 7 pm. Based on where my game is right now, only my serve can get me there i.e. to Serve really well and hold my games and hope to break the opponent on his serve. As you traverse up the ladder it becomes that much more difficult. There are people with good serves and good ground strokes and some of those match ups are not in my favor.

In other words, the top of the ladder consists of Strong 4.0/ Weak 4.5 players. Read the definitions here . Only my Serve and Forehand are at that level. My backhand is probably a 3.0. I need lots of practice (esp on backhand side) to make my game more consistent—hence the ball machine. I am very confident that after 5-10 sessions on a ball machine, I can pretty much take on anyone in the 4.0/4.5 space.

Confidence in one’s game is very important and practice will improve confidence. I am usually confident about my serve and forehand but not always sure on my backhand and definitely second guessing on volleys and etc. Hitting against ball machine should improve my backhand and slowly I may work on volleying aspect as well. It will be in my best interest to learn volleying as it can compliment a good serve.

I am continuing my work outs. I haven’t started weights yet. It is a little strange but whenever I do weights my performance in Tennis/Badminton takes a noticeable dip. Not sure why though. It is not like I am lifting huge weights. Need some more analysis. For now I wont start weights until I fully break from Tennis (My current scheduled last session is on Feb 25). I feel very good about my cardio. It’s almost like I picked from where I left off before my vacation. I am planning to further improve on this and come spring, I can focus on the game and not worry about fitness.

Badminton on 2/20 was good. Some great games and my cardio fitness are helping a lot. I am feeling lot better about my backhand. I definitely improved my net coverage of the game and able to finish few points at the net. I am focusing on delicate soft points when I play with opponents where I am hugely favored to win and it seems to be paying off when I play bigger and better opponents. I improved my backhand technique and have a better feel for it. Hopefully before the badminton season winds down (mid May) and Tennis season catches on, I have a better technique (having a ball machine wouldn’t hurt either).

SOA in Tennis

As an Architect in IT Industry, SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is part and parcel of my daily work life. As I started reviewing my Tennis game recently, it now forms crux of my tennis game.

Welcome to “Service” Oriented Architecture in Tennis. Unlike in IT, where SOA offers multiple abilities (flexibility,expandability,maintainability,reusability, blah blah), In Tennis it makes ones game One dimensional. Just to be clear , SOA in tennis means “Serve oriented game”, in other words ones game is based on their Serve.

In the pro circuits, there are tons of players who built their game around their serve and were vastly successful. From a top 50 player like IvoKarlovic, John Isner, Slobodan zivizinovic to ex-world #1 like Goran IvaniSevic, Pete Sampras, and Boris Becker all used their Serve to reach the pinnacle of tennis.

They also have something else in common. They are great Serve and Volley players Ie their game plan is more or less simple. Serve well, expect a weak return, move into the net and close it with a volley. Even during rallies they try to seize the net position as quickly as they can by coming behind on a good approach shot (usually towards opponents back hand) and close it with a firm volley.

My game as it stands now consists of a serve and a forehand (Forget zip code,Not even in the same state code but if i have to look up a similarity in pro circuits, it will be Andy Roddick). I have a dependable serve (not always potent but doesn’t give away easy returns for opponents) and what I call as my dependable shot- forehand. Usually my game plan involves moving the opponent around with deep baseline shots until there is an opening to go for the winner. I am very comfortable at the baseline and enjoy the baseline rallies. There are two shots I particularly enjoy ; The Inside-in forehand à run around the back hand and hit a forehand down the line towards opponent right corner. The Inside-out forehandà a variation of the cross court forehand directed towards a right handed opponents backhand corner.

Needless to say it is very one dimensional baseline game. Even if I assume that I hit very good serves every single time my game is still one dimensional. The challenge I have is that I don’t have a good net game (or the soft touch needed at net) that can compliment a good serve and end the point quickly (not too mention the pressure it adds for an opponent returning the serve). For now all the opponent needs is to somehow get the serve in play (and most opponents are good at this) and from then on we are in a rally and it can be anybody’s point. I don’t have a good backhand (forget it- I don’t even have a passable backhand) that can help me to be aggressive from backhand side of the court.

My point is Service oriented game is bad for Tennis. One should have a well rounded all court game where one can rely on Forehand, backhand, counter punching, volleying to score points quickly. What we need is Agile Architecture.

I am hoping that I can quickly get a ball machine and hone my backhand and volleying while further improving on the consistency of the Forehand. Even a marginal improvement in backhand or Volleying can make a big difference to my game and results.

My friend Jack has quit the ladder playing his last session this last Monday. A powerful counter puncher with good hands at the net, he made a steady progress since last April when I first played him. He is playing a 4.0 game and there is no telling where his game would be if he can tweak his serve. As long as we both stay fit, we will still be playing in spring/summer though we wont be playing the same opponents.

My knee hasn’t fully healed but I am going to give a shot at today’s badminton (if it’s not cancelled due to snow). I may have to Baby sit next Monday in which case I have to skip Tennis. I will know more tomorrow. Otherwise based on the requests of my fans, I plan on playing one more session and give the fans another opportunity to say adieus for this winter.

Monday Night Tennis Feb 11

Yesterday was my first outing at 7 pm this year[I played at 7 pm before i went on vacation]. As you move up the ladder you will have to play more consistent and quality players. I only played against one of them (Bob) before and was really nervous. For my own good I wanted to play well and show myself that my 7pm appearance is no flash in the pan. From a timing perspective, I don’t like the 7pm starts. I usually start from my work around 1730 hrs and reach home around 1800 hrs (6 pm). In order to make it to 7pm game, I have to start by 1840 (0640 pm). This doesn’t give me enough time to finish my chores at home/play with my daughter/talk to my wife.

I reached barely in time for the match. There was a slight mix up of courts until the organizer arrived and sorted it out. My first match is with Bob. I played him before and I know that his strokes are consistent; he can volley well and has no obvious weakness that I can exploit. I lost to him 5-2 the last time we played. He won the toss and elected to receive. I started the serve and fell behind 0-30 as I couldn’t find good rhythm. I loosened up a bit and started hitting the spots better. Courtesy of 2 aces I was able to win the first game. I couldn’t get any read on his serve and we stayed 1-1. The entire match went with serve from then on. He managed to break my serve once as I had a very bad service game and one line call and one net chord didn’t go my way. I had two break points on his game twice but didn’t convert. The final score is 4-3. I served really well (7 aces) and used my forehand very well. I even managed to hit some good backhands with proper technique.

Next up is Rich. I never played him before but glanced at his game as he was in the next court. At the looks of it, he looked more formidable than my first opponent. He won the toss and served first. He has a very deceptive serve. It is a variation of slice serve but also has a side spin component (like kick serve). He varied his pace. One serve would be blazing fast followed by what I call as Dink serve with spin. His ground strokes have lot of pace (and weight) in them but are not as consistent as some of my other opponents as he isn’t a great mover. However he has a very good down the line forehand shot.

As we started the match, His serve didn’t trouble me that much and I managed to return well. Then I used my forehand to dictate the play. I hit two inside-in forehands (quickly turning to be one of my favorite shots) winners and followed it up with a cross court forehand winner to break his serve and go 1-0 up. I started the serve and he was up 0-30. I calmed down and hit some good serves to hold the game. From this point on I didn’t have trouble holding my serve. I got a few break points on his serve but didn’t convert them. I won the match 4-3.

Last match of the day is with Luciano. I assumed a few things as this guy has been a constant at 7 pm ladder. I was very surprised by what I saw. He has a passable serve that has little action and keeps low. He basically directs the ball (pushes/punches) on ground strokes to the corners. In my opinion he is a polished counter puncher/pusher. I lost the toss and he elected to serve. It took me the entire first game to get used to his style. He went up 1-0. I started the serve but fell behind quickly to 30-40. Then I took a gamble and went big on serve. This is probably one of the best clutch serves I have hit in the recent times. From the Ad court I went to his backhand. He could only stare as the ball whizzed past him and brought the scores to deuce. Another hard serve into the body and I pulled out the game to make the scores even at 1-1. I held my serve comfortably from then on hugely frustrating him. I went hard on his serve and broke him immediately. Basically my game matches up very well with his. His style is very susceptible to Hard pace and topspin as merely blocking them wouldn’t be adequate to keep the ball in play. Besides he needs to work the ball towards the corners to have any sort of advantage. I was hitting some huge forehands towards the centre of the court and he struggled to find angles. He tried drop shots etc etc. Though I won the match 4-3, it could easily have been 5-2.

I finished with 11 points just one point shy of the leader (bob who won 12 points and moves further up). Though I am a little disappointed about that I am glad that I am staying at 7 pm (the other two guys won 9 (Luciano) and 10 points respectively) and helping my confidence. I also hurt my right knee a bit during my last match.

As I ponder over the past two weeks and contrast them to my game prior to my vacation, I don’t see much difference. I haven’t improved much though the stats/results seem to be different. It’s just that my serve is working now and that is making the other parts of my game look good. I am holding my serve easily it automatically puts pressure on opponents serve. They are trying to be aggressive on their game and that is resulting in unforced errors. The game is now played against my forehand giving me a better chance.

I got some remarks on my serve and it appears like most of my opponents are concerned/worried about my serve (and to some extent forehand). I felt happy (and a bit confident) as I learned how to serve all by myself and all the practice/hard work I put in the past came good (even though it may not last forever).

If I do play next week, I am going to play with Ramon (who moved up from 0830) and Rich for sure. I haven’t made a decision on whether to play next week. I am serious about the ball machine (and already started looking in ebay and etc) and I can use some extra $$$. I may be able to save some money by not playing the ladder (at 20$ a session, it isn’t cheap). I am planning to make the decision by Wednesday. Initially I am planning on skipping couple of weeks and depending on how I feel, I will probably call it a season.

I met a new player who joined the league yesterday. He lives in Rocky hill and appeared to have a good passion for the game (though not sure what his playing level is). As of now we have about 4-5 players—enough for a spring/summer ladder which myself and jack are planning to start.

Monday night Tennis Feb 04 and Badminton Feb 06

On Sunday, myself and jack against his new ball machine. It was a great exercise and allowed me to groove in on my strokes. I am almost certain to get a ball machine myself. I saved up some money and boosted that pool rather unexpectedly as I won a super bowl related bet.

This is probably one of the best outings I had from a results perspective. I won 14 games and lost 7. I don’t have a winning record against these players .I never won against Ramon and I never won against Jack in the Monday night ladder. Warren whipped me pretty good the last two times I played him.

After a short warm up with Jack, I proceeded to the first match against Ramon. I won the toss but elected to receive (I had a horrible serving time on Sunday while practicing with jack). I was quickly 0-30 up and soon it was 15-45 in my favor with two break points. I couldn’t convert and he was up 1-0. I started serving rather nervously and went 30-0 up due to two unforced errors from my opponent. That one ace I hit at 30-0, gave me the confidence that my serve is ON. I held my serve easily for rest of the match and also managed to put pressure on his serve by repeatedly attacking his second serve and kept the rallies to his forehands. I didn’t convert break points on my opponents until the last game. I broke him and finally managed to get my first Victory against him. 4-3. tactically I made the right choice in keeping the match between our forehands.

I played Jack in the second match up. I lost the toss and he elected to serve. No surprises here as we both played each other so many times and also coach each other. Even the match patterns were same until we tied at 2-2. Though I went aggressive initially I had to turn it down because he is more consistent. I broke his serve at 2-2 to go up 3-2 on his unforced errors. As it happened many times in the past in our games against each other, a break doesn’t mean much as usually the other person would break back within a game or two. I didn’t want to lose this advantage and went slightly aggressive on the serve. It turned out to be a very good service game and I went up 4-2. I came close to breaking him again in the last game of the match but he played well to keep it real close at 4-3.

Last match up of the day is with Warren. I lost to him very badly last two times and I really needed a good show. I lost the toss and he elected to serve. My game plan is very simple. Keep the ball to his forehand and avoid his powerful backhand that is hard to read. I just did that and I broke every game of his except for one (his 3 service game). I served very well and never even had a break point on mine. I closed the match 6-1. I did observe a few things on the other side of the court. He had lot of trouble against my serves and was frustrated as he couldn’t get the ball into play on my serve. He got so impatient with my Crosscourt forehand rallies that he tried to run around his forehands and hit Backhand rallies. Now that’s a match up I enjoy--> My cross court forehand against his Backhand on his forehand corner. I will take that any time.

So I ended up with 14 points and very likely to move again into the 7 pm league. I am glad to put some wins against these quality players.

I will probably have one or two more sessions in the Tennis ladder before I close the winter tennis season and break until warm spring weather. With any luck, the break wont be more than 5-6 weeks.

The ladder, though helping my tennis, is expensive. I am thinking that weather should improve sufficiently by mid April and may be able to catch some lucky breaks (like last Sunday) where the temperatures are above mid 50’s from Early April. I will still continue with my Badminton season and Gym work outs and that should keep me in shape. I may throw in a tennis session at the ladder as a substitute if I am missing tennis too much. I am also looking for an economical ball machine (like Jack’s). It would be a good addition to my game.

Latest – as expected, I made it back into 7 pm group. I only played against one (bob) in the next Monday’s draw. So it will be interesting. Unless I chose to play one more session, this will probably be the last match up for the season. In total I played around 8 sessions (excl the 1 week where I sub’d) and I spent 3 sessions at 7 pm and 3 at top of 0830 and 2 sessions at the bottom of 0830. That is a very good mix of playing styles and standards.

Not a lot to write on Badminton session. I am getting back my game. I won some challenging match ups where most expected that i would lose. My smash isnt working for some reason. need to do some more work on it. Back hand is getting better.

Badminton 30 Jan and Tennis Feb 04 Preview

With not much to write about Tennis on Monday, I wasn’t expecting any different results at Badminton. In summary it was a mixed bag. Still jetlagged and tired, I started off Ok, went south in between and recovered some what towards the end. I didn’t have any offense and people jumped all over on my serve. They also exploited my back hand. I wasn’t getting any power on my smashes and pretty much struggled to keep up. Unlike my Tennis game, which is still in development, my badminton game is more formed and reliable and I expect that within a week or two, normality will be restored.

The draw for next Monday’s tennis is out. Surprise – I am still in the top bracket of 0830. Not sure how I managed to stay afloat despite winning a low number of games. Probably other results went in my favor.

Here is the challenging part. My next weeks draw is tough. I play Ramon, Warren and Jack and I have a loosing record against all of them (* I won initially against Warren but off late he is dominating. I had an edge against Jack during last summer but that’s history and I am yet to win against him in the ladder). I want to correct my record at least against one of them. One needs loads of stamina and fire power to stay with Ramon and Jack as both of them can play solid defense and attack very well. Jack is a quick mover and that adds to the challenge. If I am consistent, I can probably take out Warren but he is on a hot streak and has a great disguise on his backhand. It’s tough to tell if he is going cross court or Down the Line.

Some part of those losses is due to me trying to go on the offensive instead of letting the game play itself out. I sure can win points by playing defense and waiting for an unforced error from the opponent. However it is more satisfying for me to win points by hitting an inside-in forehand winner or by power serving. It’s just that I don’t have that much consistency in that type of game yet. So many times I reach 40-0 on my serve or break my opponent to get to that score line and then falter handing the game to my opponent. I should start playing smart tennis mixing up offense with defense.

I haven’t done anything in fitness area for the past 5 weeks. I am planning on working out Friday and Sunday (may be Saturday as well) and try to get to fitness ways.

I am relishing the challenge and despite some factors (fitness, match practice) that aren’t optimum as I would like, I think I can win decent number of games on Monday night.

Happy New Year and Monday Tennis Jan 28

Happy New Year Everyone. I am back from a long near 4 week vacation and my blog will be more regular. I will post the vacation details soon.

I arrived in town on Sunday night after a 24 hr flight after a reschedule. I still wanted to play Monday Tennis as I have been out of any sports action for 4+ weeks and I wanted to quickly get back to playing ways. I didn’t get any sleep on Sunday night and tiredly worked on Monday.

Fully tired, Jet lagged (10.5 hr time zone difference) compounded with Lack of fitness/match practice, I didn’t have any illusions of making a statement with my game. As expected I managed to win only 4 games in total. This is the lowest number since I started playing in the ladder. I have no excuses really. I wanted to play and I did. Opponents were more consistent and I often over hit my shots. I also tried out 2 different racquets from other players before finally sticking with mine. Warren and Bob beat me 6-1 before Frank finished me off with 5-2. There were about 4 games where I was 40-0 up but didn’t manage to close them. I wasn’t in my rhythm and my lack of practice showed up. Towards the end I started feeling better and my serve started clicking in and I got some first serves in. I had glimpses of my Inside-In forehand winners.

The only positive I will take credit for—all the points I won are clean winners and not due to an unforced error from an opponent. Other good thing is this Tennis tired me out enough and I had a good nights sleep—very useful when once is jetlagged and trying to quickly adjust to the new time zone.

This score line will ensure that I will start playing at the bottom of the 0830 ladder from next week. I am only planning on being in the ladder for couple more weeks. I will break from ladder in March and wait for warm weather in April for Outdoor tennis. My goals for these few ladder matches are to basically improve my shot selection and get back to winning ways.

I will have different plan/goals for Outdoor tennis 2008 season. I will keep you posted.