Talk About Tennis 2.0

Going out there again today, after one month off. Let's see how much rust there is.
New grips on the racquet, and I will buy new balls. Might be a good session.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 23, 2025 3:24 pm Going out there again today, after one month off. Let's see how much rust there is.
New grips on the racquet, and I will buy new balls. Might be a good session.

I always play better after a long layoff.. you?

No. My hand losses too much strength and, since I hit with an eastern on the FH, I need to get a very solid grip. After about 20 minutes, my strength is gone, even though I took my rubber doughnut with me to keep in shape.
Played well but was late on my BH, and I was hitting too many balls into the net. It is a bad habit I have: I forget to get a bit more height over the net.
But, it was not too bad. Broke strings on one hard power FH, so the session was not totally useless.
Friday back out there again. Let me see how the elbow recovers.

The monsoons have eased off now, so we are back to playing nearly every day..interesting fact I noticed today is that it is always worth it to come to the net - you dont even need to be a good volleyer.. when you come to the net, at least at our level, 50% of the time, your opponent will panic and do something stupid, like trying to pass you, the other 50%, ok, you may need to volley.. I am a good volleyer, so I can count on winning 50% of those points, but look at the numbers! They are all on the volleyers' side.. 75% !

Volleying for us on soft courts. Very hard.
On Tuesday, I tacked a volley really hard. Aimed it cross court. But I hit it so it bounced inside the service boxes.
Not enough. My trainer (he is in his early 30's) reached there and hit a good slice into the open court. And because I am so old now, I was unable to cover the hole.
Volleying. You need to punch them deep. Better a soft, angled one that lands a foot inside the back baseline than a hard one that bounces inside the service line.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 25, 2025 2:12 pm My trainer (he is in his early 30's)

that is why I never play with trainers! only with people as useless as myself!
yes, I agree, though, a hard volley near the service line is much less effectve than a soft one.. hard and deep is best of course.

Went to play yesterday.
I recently bought a small DJI NEO drone; it has AI "follow" capabilities, so I lifted it and had it track me while I played. A couple of technical issues, but I got some solid footing.
Nothing beats seeing how you really play to see your style and form.
The only way to describe what I do on court is: I am profaning this sport. I am desecrating it. To claim that "I play tennis" would be the same as somebody spinning on one foot and claiming he dances ballet.
If Roger Federer would see me play and would order a hitman to take me out on the spot, he should walk out free. If Pete Sampras were to see me hit a forehand he would hide his face in shame. Rod Laver would walk on court and beg me to stop.

That's how bad it was.
I believe I have a lot of work to do on all my strokes.

why worry about what Federer would think? You only need to enjoy it, that is all..!

If you had only seen what I saw...

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Sat Sep 27, 2025 3:07 pm a small DJI NEO drone; it has AI "follow" capabilities,

sounds absurdly high-tech... hope you had fun with it..me, I make do with a selfie stick and mobile

How do you take a selfie while you are hitting a FH?
Drone technology has gotten super sophisticated, and more affordable. The DJI NEO starts at $199. Add some batteries and a remote and I found this combo for $373. 4K camera at 30FPS, and a lot of sophisticated software.
And, BTW, you need a mobile to run the software. A lot of drones use apps that do the bulk of the operations.
Anyway, it is one of my toys. And this time, it showed me the terribleness of my strokes. Need to work on them.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 03, 2025 1:24 pm How do you take a selfie while you are hitting a FH?

i just set it up as a tripod

After a week off in the sun (Aruba), I came back to the court today.
After that disastrous footage, I made a point of keeping my racquet head up on both sides, and on my FH, to keep my elbow high. What a difference. My shots immediately got more clearance, went deeper and my pro told me that the ball felt considerable heavier.
I don't know about my form, which I will leave for another day. But it felt very good.

my wife is a very good tennis player but finds it hard to deal with the power I have, or any man, for that matter, so she cant play with us. We thought pickleball would be better for her, and it was. One of these years, my buddies at the club will 'retire' me because I am too old and slow, maybe I can take up pickleball full time after that.. there are 4 courts near my home, none busy, so far.

You can drop the MAYBE. I picked it up in about the same time it took me to pick up padel. If you are a tennis player, you will be able to start playing pickleball immediately.
And it is indeed fun. Certainly not that strenuous as tennis. And I bet that the injuries are less frequent (I am by now a walking advertisement for bands, supports, Ben Gay and what not )