Did you play today?

[ponchi101]

It felt like a good session, and that is what matters. My grips by now need replacement, as they have lost all adherence, and my calluses are not enough to give me a proper control. I need a little tackiness in there.
About preparation: to me, one of the big differences between us weekend hacks and the pros. They rotate and start their swing the moment they reach the hitting spot. Many of us get to the spot, and don't turn immediately. If you turn immediately, you are ready to uncoil when needed, even if the ball is slow and you have a little extra time. But if you have not turned, then you will always be late. Worth practicing.

[meganfernandez]

It felt like a good session, and that is what matters. My grips by now need replacement, as they have lost all adherence, and my calluses are not enough to give me a proper control. I need a little tackiness in there.
About preparation: to me, one of the big differences between us weekend hacks and the pros. They rotate and start their swing the moment they reach the hitting spot. Many of us get to the spot, and don't turn immediately. If you turn immediately, you are ready to uncoil when needed, even if the ball is slow and you have a little extra time. But if you have not turned, then you will always be late. Worth practicing.

Totally why I am late on my backhand. I try to rotate on the FH side before I move and run with my racket back.


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[ashkor87]

Had to play with a racket I bought here in India..didn't realize how hard it is to play with a different size grip..we get only 4 3/8 and smaller here! The economics of tennis here is such..only kids play tennis in large numbers, not adults, so nobody sells rackets with adult grips! Sad...

[meganfernandez]

Had to play with a racket I bought here in India..didn't realize how hard it is to play with a different size grip..we get only 4 3/8 and smaller here! The economics of tennis here is such..only kids play tennis in large numbers, not adults, so nobody sells rackets with adult grips! Sad...

That's weird. I thought tennis was popular in India. Can you get a racket online very easily? i never really consider grip size. I don't know what mine is.

I hit this morning for an hour. Just grooving the strokes, moving the feet, working on early preparation, trying to force myself to come in and take a step closer to the net. It's a lot easier when you know th eother person is going to hit the ball to you!

[ponchi101]

You don't know what grip size you use? I am frigging maniacal about grips and sizes. 4 3/8 for me, and I will replace my overgrips every two sessions. if the grip is not tacky, my level drops a lot.

[meganfernandez]

You don't know what grip size you use? I am frigging maniacal about grips and sizes. 4 3/8 for me, and I will replace my overgrips every two sessions. if the grip is not tacky, my level drops a lot.

I have no idea. I regrip about once a year.


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[ashkor87]

Oh it is popular in India but only with parents who push their kids to play.. then when they get to the last year of high school, parents want them to stop, so they can focus on board exams and entrance exams to the big engineering and medical colleges..so when they are out of college they don't play any more...stupid, destructive system..

[ashkor87]

We do get rackets online..but all kid's grip

[ponchi101]

Oh it is popular in India but only with parents who push their kids to play.. then when they get to the last year of high school, parents want them to stop, so they can focus on board exams and entrance exams to the big engineering and medical colleges..so when they are out of college they don't play any more...stupid, destructive system..

Indeed. How about quality and balance of life? This year has been bad for me, and one of the reasons was precisely that I had to stop playing for so long. The mental aspects were not menial; I had no activity that allowed me to release some stress.
It is a sport for life, and it really is. It is just not a slogan.

[ashkor87]

Agree..but parents are so greedy and short -sighted..we encouraged our son to play all the way through, and I myself went off to play the day of my board exams.. My parents were fine with it . But l guess people are more tense about these things nowadays..

[ashkor87]

It is indeed a game for life...my son, who is a full-time professional musician, is also now a certified tennis coach...he anyway plays tennis or cricket every weekend if he can...good balance.

[ponchi101]

Will be going back to work tomorrow, so today was my last session until December.
The FH was a bit all over the place; I was not able to get a consistent point of contact one foot in front of me. But I was able to hit one glorious slam dunk (good serve to the BH on the ad side, the ball popped up and I dunked it into the opposite corner; Pete maybe would have raised an eyebrow).
Then played a couple of TB's and won the first on a gorgeous ace that found a very shallow angle on the ad court. Plus another a bit later on, on a good slice wide open to the FH (deuce side).
Overall, I can go into the break happy that I recovered some of my strokes after such a long hiatus.
I'm going to miss my court.

[Fastbackss]

I enjoy my leagues but frankly I enjoy tournaments more. There are probably 15 per year but they aren't sanctioned. They are fun but to me doesn't have the same cache. There is a serious dearth of USTA tournaments in the area. When they exist they aren't popular.

Well there is an organizer who has partnered with a club to run them essentially once a month. Interestingly they are being run as WTN (as any USTA member now has both a NTRP ranking and a more granular WTN number). WTN lower the number the better.

It is advertised that the entries will be split into any WTN 29 and under and anyone 30 and up. Generally it has held pretty close to this. But the size of each flight has varied.

This week's looked like was going to have 14 entries. I mapped out everyone and tried to "estimate" where the split would be because I am a massive nerd. At the last second it became 15.

There are entries from 23-36* WTN.

The top 5 are significantly "ahead" of the rest of the group - with rankings from 23-27.

*The bottom 5 are new - just joined - and don't even have a ranking yet. This automatically places them in the bottom flight.

Surprisingly (to me anyway) the organizer decided to essentially split down the middle. 8 in top flight and 7 in bottom.

So, based on the earlier bottom 5 comment - there are two spots "left" in the bottom flight.

Based on WTN I would be the 2nd - and thus the top seed in the lower flight.
The gentleman just above me is 1.5 points better ranking (and a 4.0 vs my 3.5). In the last tournament I beat him though.

So...imagine my surprise when I see I'm in the top flight and he is the #1 seed in the bottom flight.

Here is the question - would I be an arsehole in questioning the organizer as to how this was derived? It seems pretty clear to me that something is up - and I am sensing a choice was made based on past results. But that is speculation. Curiosity is killing me.

Further confounding me is that there is Nobody within 1.5 points by him. So if organizer had simply made flight 7 and 8 instead - both flights would have been way tighter.

Further this annoyance is
A) thought was going to be a one-day tournament and now I have to go two days as my first match is tomorrow night and it's over an hour away
B) I drew the #1 overall seed - a 4.5 who has won the last three tournaments

[skatingfan]

I enjoy my leagues but frankly I enjoy tournaments more. There are probably 15 per year but they aren't sanctioned. They are fun but to me doesn't have the same cache. There is a serious dearth of USTA tournaments in the area. When they exist they aren't popular.

Well there is an organizer who has partnered with a club to run them essentially once a month. Interestingly they are being run as WTN (as any USTA member now has both a NTRP ranking and a more granular WTN number). WTN lower the number the better.

It is advertised that the entries will be split into any WTN 29 and under and anyone 30 and up. Generally it has held pretty close to this. But the size of each flight has varied.

This week's looked like was going to have 14 entries. I mapped out everyone and tried to "estimate" where the split would be because I am a massive nerd. At the last second it became 15.

There are entries from 23-36* WTN.

The top 5 are significantly "ahead" of the rest of the group - with rankings from 23-27.

*The bottom 5 are new - just joined - and don't even have a ranking yet. This automatically places them in the bottom flight.

Surprisingly (to me anyway) the organizer decided to essentially split down the middle. 8 in top flight and 7 in bottom.

So, based on the earlier bottom 5 comment - there are two spots "left" in the bottom flight.

Based on WTN I would be the 2nd - and thus the top seed in the lower flight.
The gentleman just above me is 1.5 points better ranking (and a 4.0 vs my 3.5). In the last tournament I beat him though.

So...imagine my surprise when I see I'm in the top flight and he is the #1 seed in the bottom flight.

Here is the question - would I be an arsehole in questioning the organizer as to how this was derived? It seems pretty clear to me that something is up - and I am sensing a choice was made based on past results. But that is speculation. Curiosity is killing me.

Further confounding me is that there is Nobody within 1.5 points by him. So if organizer had simply made flight 7 and 8 instead - both flights would have been way tighter.

Further this annoyance is
A) thought was going to be a one-day tournament and now I have to go two days as my first match is tomorrow night and it's over an hour away
B) I drew the #1 overall seed - a 4.5 who has won the last three tournaments

No, I don't think it's out of line to ask how the split was made.

[ponchi101]

Agree. Go and ask. It is not as if seedings in sports are meaningless and, in your case, you do have a point. And a case.