Category Archives: Body Mechanics

faith versus stubborness

I lost all three sets but I didn’t play badly. My attitude at this point is to have faith that if I continue my current practice and competition regime, I will improve and win more often. But what is the difference between faith and stubborness? Tiger Woods is stubborn. Since he broke with Butch Harmon, his swing has been inconsistent and he has a ten game losing streak in PGA major championships. At my level of play, level E after all, I can expect that it will take time to develop consistent strokes and strong mental skills. It’s possible that I should run off and find a coach but I am holding firm for the moment. Besides, I doubt that Brad Gilbert is available.

Practice and Competition Report: played three sets with M.: 3-6, 3-6, 3-6, practiced my serve for two bags of practice balls
Solutions Analysis:
1. Looking for a solution to the problem of getting passed and lobbed at the net. Possible solution: hit approach shot deeper and to the corners (or grow five inches).
2. I have lost a bit of my trunk twist, which might explain my sore elbow.
3. I moved farther back on the baseline so that I had space to step into my shots.
Success Analysis: I practiced my serve after the match and because I was serving well, I kept on practicing it for a long time.
Injury report: my thumb still hurts, I am feeling pain in my elbow.

work harder, feel like a winner?

In league play I play two sets, one set of singles and one set of doubles. Since it’s important to work harder in practice than in a match, I played four sets today and did sprints afterward. Derek Jeter takes batting practice 5 times a day. Jerry Rice does a 5 mile uphill run ending with 40 meter uphill sprints at the top and does a weight workout totaling 610 reps. On the same day. I’m not suggesting I could even survive a 5 mile vertical run and it probably takes me two months to do 610 reps of anything, but my game won’t improve if my conditioning doesn’t.

I do a lot of mental rehearsal of my tennis strokes. Today I realized that I had never rehearsed, or you could say visualized, winning a match. What would I do to celebrate? What would it feel like? Strangely enough, I had great difficulty with this exercise. I just kind of walked off the court. No wave to my adoring crowd or throwing my shirt into the stands (thankfully). This tells me that I don’t feel like a winner, that I don’t act like a winner during a match and therefore I am not likely to win a lot. I would say that it’s an important first step. I’ll work on it.

Practice and Competition Report: played four sets with T, he gives me 3 games a set because he’s that much better than I am: 3-6, 4-6, 4-6, 5-7
Solutions Analysis:
1. Looking for a solution to my backhand popping up in the air. I am probably breaking my wrist when I hit it.
2. Looking for a solution to hitting my cross court winner consistently wide.
Success Analysis: T hits a lot of high topspin shots. Sometimes they land near the baseline then go over my head into the fence at which point it’s a bit late to hit the ball. I did a better job figuring out when to back off and hit a high bouncing shot or when to come in and take these shots on the fly.

softer, mental conditioning

I remember reading about the first Fischer-Spassky chess match and scoffing at the idea that you had to be a well-conditioned athlete to play a chess tournament. Then I played in a chess tournament. I have never been so exhausted in my life as I was after playing five matches in two days. Mental exhaustion far outweighs any physical exhaustion I’ve ever experienced.

I say this because I think a large part of tennis is mental. It could be the match I played on Saturday, the birthday party after the match, the street fair after the party, then rolling around on the floor till all hours of the night with my girlfriend, but I’m tired. I think I’m losing my stroke in the middle of the match because I’m not in good enough condition to keep mentally sharp throughout a match so I reinstituted sprints after practice and matches.

Consider Matt Emmons in the rifle competition at the Olympics yesterday. He only had to shoot an 8 out of a possible 10 on the last target. He shot an 8.1 but he made a huge mental mistake and shot at the wrong target. No medal.

Practice and Competition Report: practiced and played just over two sets: 6-3, 2-6, 2-3
Solutions Analysis:
1. Looking for solution to losing my serve in the middle of a match. I have to return to paying attention technique when I serve instead of thinking about where I want the ball to go. The stroke is not automatic yet.
2. There is always a temptation to try and rocket those passing shots past your opponent. A softer well placed shot is likely much more successful more of the time.
3. Here we go again, an approach shot is a stationary shot. The idea is to come to a stop somewhere near the ball, hit the shot and only then run into the net.
4. On a high bouncing shot, it’s a good idea to keep your eye on the ball as if it was an overhead.

pro serve

It’s presumptuous of me to talk about a pro serve, my opponent in league play last week was coming in on my first serve, every time. Anyway, have you seen images of pro players just after they’ve made contact with the ball on their serve? Their racket is pointing to the ground, their elbow is higher than the racket and the face of the racket that made contact with the ball is now facing away from their body. This puzzled me for the longest time.

Look at the QuickTime video of the tennis player serving on this website. Go frame by frame by using the arrow keys on your keyboard instead of pushing the play button. Look at the frames just after he makes contact. What is he doing?

Look at the serves of most league players. They come over the ball, around the ball, under the ball or they try to hit it flat and send it flying out of the court. The only way to hit the ball completely flat and get it into the service box is to be seven feet tall. Professional players come across the ball. Look at the video again. As the player’s racket approaches the ball, the edge of the racket is pointing at the ball. He then snaps the racket out and across the ball and the motion carries his racket over and down and twists it so it ends up pointing down at the court with the elbow higher than the racket.

I finally solved this mystery by going to Tennis One website. They have video clips of all the pro’s strokes. The pro serve is described in the article called The Y2K Serve. You have to subscribe to this website but it’s definitely worth it.

Practice Report: practiced by myself
Solutions Analsysis:
1. The slice backhand requires a trunk twist just like all the other strokes.
2. I have begun tossing the ball further over my head rather than in line with my right shoulder. I get maximum extension of the racket if it is over my head.
3. It really does help if I snap the racket when I make contact with the ball on the serve.

belly to thigh, sports timeline

I went to see the Watts Towers in South Central Los Angeles at 10pm last night with two friends. Arriving in an area where gang shootings are common, at night, in a convertible, what was I thinking? There is a 24-hour guard next to the site so we felt as comfortable as possible under the circumstance. Next to the Towers is a park and inscribed in the cement is a timeline discussing events from the building of the Towers to the present.

It got me thinking about the sports timeline of my life. Personal events I associate with sports and historical events of these times. Here is a start to the timeline:

  • 1961 watch the Green Bay Packers play the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day while eating my dinner on TV trays with the men of the family
  • 1963 try to catch the softball knuckleballs by brother-in-law throws at me and get pancaked by his 200lb body as we lined up against each other in a game of touch football
  • 1965 Sandy Koufax refuses to pitch in the World Series in observance of Yom Kippur
  • 1962-67 sit on the couch with a huge bowl of chocolate ice cream and watch ACC basketball games on Saturday afternoons
  • 1972 play softball with Bread and Roses in Boston. Go to a pitching demonstration by the great Joan Joyce of the Raybestos Brakettes

More later. Post your sport timeline in the comments.

Practice Report: worked out at the gym for 1 1/4 hours
Solutions Analysis: when twisting and lungeing (something I do every time I execute a tennis shot, particularly if I have to reach), it’s important to twist my trunk to avoid putting strain on my knee. When I do the front lunge and reach exercise, I can tell if I’m twisting properly when my belly touches my thigh.