tennis diary #1

the tennis i played this week

Before I get carried away here, I’d like to start with some definitions.

Drill & Play (not just the title of this column!) is a group tennis class or clinic that usually runs for an hour and a half to two hours. The first half comprises drills, scenarios, and games, very often with little instruction. The second half comprises doubles matches, either in full set or half set format. Because the second half involves match play, which requires serving, drill & play is normally offered to intermediate and advanced players. However, there are some clubs (Roosevelt Island Racquet Club for example) that offer beginner-level drill and play. Some clubs are not very stringent about screening skill level…more on this later.

Liveball is a group tennis class or clinic that usually runs an hour to an hour and a half. It comprises only scenarios and point play, with no serving. The pace of the games is usually swift as groups of challengers try to win consecutive points in an array of scenarios set up by the instructor in order to overcome the reigning champs. This is also normally an (low) intermediate to advanced offering.

Clinics and Classes are offered in a variety of skill levels—beginner, advanced beginner, intermediate, etc—and very often this is where you get your instruction on technique, strategy, gameplay, that sort of thing. Often, classes are offered in multi-week blocks and you work with the same group week in and week out. Depending on the club you’re at, you may need to undergo a formal evaluation in order to take a particular class at a given skill level (this is the case at the USTA National Tennis Center).

• There are also private lessons, for those with the time and resources and the desire to work one on one with a coach in order to perfect some aspect of their game or just to hit with someone because they don’t feel like the lottery of skill levels by showing up at a drop-in session.

Skill level is a measure of your skill at tennis. At the lower levels, this mostly comprises shot mechanics and consistency. In the intermediate levels, it’s still about consistency, but things like placement and control over pace and depth become a factor. This is also where strategy begins to be evaluated. At the advanced levels, strategy as well as control over depth, placement, and spin are key.

• There are many different systems of skill level measurement, but most center around a division of: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. From there, you have finer gradations: Beginner, Advanced Beginner, Low Intermediate, Intermediate, High Intermediate, Advanced.

• There are also matchplay-based ratings, the most common in the US is the NTRP, which goes from 1.5 (absolute beginner) to 7.0 (touring professional). You increase your NTRP rating by playing matches in sanctioned USTA tournaments at various levels, climbing the ranks.

• UTR is another, so-called universal, rating system based on matchplay. It is a live algorithm, and so you ranking changes as a reflection of your performance almost immediately. UTR and NTRP are not interchangeable, but there is sometimes a correlation.

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Tennis Diary

2/24 12PM-2PM, Yorkville Tennis, Hardcourt

The courts are blue and slow, and I have no business in a class for advanced beginners, but I need the reps on my forehand and I figure it’s a good opportunity to focus on placement and rhythm. I arrive ten minutes into the first hour, and they are already warmed up. The coach is Tate, who is, among the coaches who teach the classes, one of the best. He is even-tempered, funny, encouraging in his corrections. With his floppy dirty-blond hair, he looks like a someone tossed Luke and Owen Wilson into a blender. As usual, it’s me and like four women.

I don’t see a lot of men in Advanced Beginner. A part of me suspects that men are more likely to play up, either overestimating their own skill level or deliberatley playing against people who are much better than they are instead of taking the time to develop sound fundamentals. For a lot of men, getting “good” at tennis, “improving” at tennis has nothing to do with developing sound strokes or fundamentals and everything to do with being able to “hang” with better players, like annoying parasitic fish clinging to whales or sharks.

So once again, it’s me and four women, five, maybe, in this session. Advanced Beginner always starts with about ten or fifteen minutes of hitting drills because the goal of Advanced Beginner is to develop sound hitting fundamentals. Being able to hit forehands and backhands. When there are enough people, at least four, we form two lines and hit two balls each. A line on the forehand, a line on the backhand side standing at the center of the court. You hit one ball that’s a little closer to you. You hit another that’s a little closer to the doubles alley, and in this way, you practice being able to move to the ball while maintaining good spacing, timing, and technique.

A couple of the women in the group are lefties, so they hit the opposite of the rest of us. I shuffle into line and start hitting. Two forehands, pop, pop, right up the line. Two backhands, one into the net, one up the line. Tate offers me corrections, telling me to bring my racquet up a little more and to drop it a little more, so that I get more spin on the ball and with it, more lift. THis makes sense. My backhand is very flat. I am trying to develop a rally ball on that side, to use it more multi-dimesionally, to get a better cross-court backhand.

A funny thing about my game is that because I’ve done so many clinics and so many hitting drills, it is much easier for me to hit up the line than cross court. This is the opposite of how it should be. The net is higher up the line. It’s lower in the middle, so hitting cross court is easier. Also, the distance the ball travels is further cross court, giving you more time and space to work with. There are many reasons why cross-court shots should be easier, but for me, they are not…second-nature. This is, as I said, because of all the hitting drills I have done. Usually, the coach stands near to the net, in the middle of the court. So to hit cross court, is to hit near the coach, and instinctively, I don’t want to risk hitting them, so I aim my shots up the line. As a result—after months and months and months, thousands of balls and hours of hitting—I have developed a real comfort for the up the line. So much so that I have to make myself go cross court.

This is one of the things I want to work in the session today. So I start to add spin to the forehand, pulling it cross court, making it dip. Making it go deep. Alternating on each shot, the closer one I hit a sharp cross, the further one out, I hit deep and air out some. The backhand, I mean, I just rip it and try to get comfortable stepping into the ball rather than falling back.

We switch drills. The coach wants us to practice deep balls. So we stand to the far back corner and he hits a deep shot. We are to take it at our usual striking height on the forehand side. We can put it anywhere, but he wants us to practice taking the ball out of the air. The reason for this is because at this level, Advanced Beginner, there are a lot of lobs and moonballs. A moonball is a high, slow ball, sometimes with top spin, sometimes flat. They occur when the person is just floating the ball back because they haven’t gotten a good shot on it or because that’s just their game. It’s the bane of my existence.

We do that drill and then we switch, to the backhand side. Then he wants us to practice, one deep, one short, one deep, one short. Running back and forth, taking the short ball on the rise and then having to run back in order to take the deep ball out of the air.

At the end of that half-hour, we switch to point play, in which we play King of the Court. That involves a challenger side and a champion side. IN order to become the champion, your team must win two points in a row. If you lose a point, you swap out with the waiting teams. This game is common in most tennis classes. You will always play some form of this.

There are a few moonballers in this class. Whatever. My goal is to hit forehands and to practice putting shape on the ball. One of the moonballers takes a point off my team by hitting a really ugly, junky short ball. An accidental drop shot. So then I decide to make her my special project and I decide that I am never going to lose another point to her. Every time she hits the ball, I am sprinting to the net, and putting it away. I am directing all of my shots at her. She is getting all of this smoke. Every time she steps up to the baseline, I am drilling the ball at her feet.

I hate junkballers.

I do not lose another point to her. When she and her partner manage to get to the champion side, I pray that it will be my team that sends them packing. I think she begins to detect that I have it out for her. SHe no longer hits balls to me, but that is okay because I am taking everything in the midcourt for my team, and so I am unavoidable, I am a wall. I slice, I drop shot, I lob, I put it through her defense. Unrelenting. We change teams, but I do not change my ambition to drive her game into extinction.

The hour passes in this way.

I stay for another hour. This time, there are, I believe, four of us. Three dudes, and a woman. Unusual. One of the guys has very good technique, very smooth. I admire his backhand. His forehand. We warm up. The same as the previous session. Then we get right to games. The level of this class is higher. The balls come faster, sharper angles. I am just having a good time. But then, the guy with good technique ghosts in off a ball and knocks off a volley winner.

I decide to make him my project. I am not going to lose another point to him, I decide. No more of that.

I notice that he is proud of his backhand. I decide to begin there. The coach feeds the ball in to me and I step in and rip it cross-court for a clean winner. My partner loses us the next point, so I rotate over. The coach feeds in, another lost point, not my fault tho. So then I am back at the deuce side and the coach feeds in, I rip it up the line, his partner is a woman who is very solid if somewhat junkball-y herself. She hits a short dink, but I am up to the ball and ripping it by the guy who has ghosted into net again. I get it through him.

The hour is a grind. We are battling out there. I am determined not to lose any more points to these short balls. To these dinkers in chief. I am not going down like that. If you want to beat me, you’re going to need to play tennis, actual tennis.

2/24 8PM-9:30PM, USTA Tennis Center, Hardcourt

This is one of my weekly clinics. I’m in the Bronze Group. The level is good. I feel compatible with it. Each week, the coaches have a different focus for us. Last week was defensive balls and hitting heavier shots. This week, they tell us that we’ll be working on our serves. I think this is good. I have been changing my motion, and trying to hit flatter first serves as opposed to spinning it in. We do mini-tennis to warm up. And then my least favorite drills, involving hitting volleys to people at the baseline and then hitting baseline shots to people at the net. My volleys are the hardest shot for me to control. I should relish the opportunity to practice, but I hate this drill.

With that done, we serve. They want us to practice hitting to either side of a set of cones in the service box. To practice hitting to the opponent’s backhand and then then forehand. I hit one serve out wide, and then it takes me three or for times to get it up the T. I switch to the deuce side, and do the same drill. We do this drill for ten or so minutes, and then they make us play an insane game.

They pair us and then have us serve at one another diagonally, so that the two people on the deuce side and the two people on the ad side are serving to one another and playing out points using only that diagonal. I suck at that game. I don’t enjoy it. But we get through it.

Then they have us do a more traditional doubles game. Playing best of four games.

I’m paired with this guy a little older than me, Phil. He has mean strokes. I don’t know how else to describe them. They are just…lacking any kindness. He is not a person I would enjoy playing against. Anyway, I serve first, and manage to hold serve. This is a big deal for me. I have never, never, never held serve while playing a match of doubles. Never in my life. Never. I find a couple big first serves. And then a kicker out wide to take it.

Phil and I manage to break our opponent’s serve next, mostly thanks to Phil’s volleys and some passable defensive baseline play from me. But then we lose Phil’s serve because I botch a volley—we don’t play AD scoring—on the deciding point. But then we break the opponents again after she double faults a couple times and I manage to finally put one of my returns in play. Just like that, we win and I am the only person in that set to hold serve. I am amazed.

The second round, we play the team that won the other match. I am serving first. I go down 15-40. I am about to be broken. As usual, I say to myself. But then, I think, no, no, I can do it. I reach back and clap down an ace. Then I hit another big serve of the middle, the return floats long. ANd then I lash a kicker out wide to get an error, and like that we are at deuce. I reach back, into the net. Boo. But then, on my second serve, I land it in, they get the return back, we play, and then I curl it cross court and get an error. Nice.

Phil and I end up taking that match 3-0.

The session ends when I get some tips from the coach on how to keep my racquet steady and how to get a little more juice out of my motion. They tell me my serve is sound. Just need to get a little more mobility in the wrist.

They also help me with my forehand. “It’s a little flat,” they say. “Get some more roll on it.” He shows me how I can add more spin to it. This is the struggle of my life.

2/25 12PM-1PM, Sutton East, Clay court (red)

I wake up on Tuesday and even though I teach in the evening, I want to keep the good reps from yesterday going so I book an Advanced Beginner session because it is the only session available.

The clay courts of Sutton East are not the best clay courts in New York City. The bounce is variable. The lines are unbelievably slippery. The netting along the sides of the court is always in the way. It’s dire. Really dire. But we play where we can play. I arrive, and, yes, it is me and like…four women.

The level is lower than yesterday. They are closer to true advanced beginners, and I feel a little bad about being here. But I am just here to get the reps. I need to smooth out my motion. I focus on myself. We warm up the usual way—two shots, then three shots from one corner, then volley, then overhead. We work our way up and down the court. Short ball into volley into overhead. Deepball, shortball. Etc.

Then we play games. The usual kind, but in this instance, I end up being the champion for a very long time, so long in fact, that it draws mention from the other players. “What are you doing here?” they ask. “YOu are not an advanced beginner.” And I say, “No, but it’s where there was an availability. I just wanted to hit.”

But I do think I am…reaching the end of the time when I can productively attend an Advanced Beginner session, at which time, I will have to play tennis less because there simply…are not as many offerings for intermediate sessions. But I don’t think about this while we are playing the games. Their strokes are…bad. One woman has a very flat forehand though, and she loves to drive it up the line.

My partner takes most of the balls because they direct the shots at her. Still, I manage to bail us out a couple times because the other teams are not consistent and at this level, all you need is consistency really. The ability to direct the ball or change direction is kind of a super power at this level. Even just being able to see the ball makes a big difference. The coach is wonderful. Very informative. He gives good tips. I feel like I learn a lot when I play with him.He makes the class fun. It goes so quickly.

2/26, 10AM-11AM, Sutton East, Clay court (red)

I am worried that I have been playing below my level too much. If you do play down too much, you lose your sense of timing when you play people who are at your level or better. You get accustomed to seeing the ball at a much slower pace, and you get used to your shots not coming back. I feel like I need to re-enter the world of intermediates, so I sign up for liveball, which is supposed for the intermediates and up.

This session is relatively snappy, run by the guy who runs my Friday clinics. He is a grumpy and blond, and I respond well to his somewhat critical mien. If you fuck up, he actually tells you that you’ve fucked up. If you’re in the way, he tells you. I think that’s a good trait in a coach, but not everyone agrees. Anyway, for liveball, he shows up, takes out the cart of balls, and we warm up. The usual, two lines, two balls. Then one corner, three balls. Other corner, three balls. And then it’s games.

We pair off and do king of the court, two to come over. And then king of the court, two three to come over, but one is a volley and one is an overhead. The session is fun. Until this one lady decides to hit a really sharp angled winner and kind of makes eye contact with me.

Yes. I make her my project. For the rest of the session, eveyr time she shits a volley, I am there in a moment, putting the ball over her head. Or when she goes for a smash, I make it my job to get a racquet on it. I don’t want her to feel for an instant that there is a part of the court that she can have that won’t have me on it.

At one point, we are playing a game to 21, they have to win three points to displace me and my partner as champions, one baseline shot, one volley, one overhead. There are two teams on the challenger side, one on the champion side. Every time the champion side defeats a team, they get one point. If you come over the champion side, you start racking up points too. So like that, you march toward 21. Get it?

My partner and I won that game 21-0. We never got displaced. I told you. I made that woman my project.

That session had two men (me and another guy) and four women. The skill level was largely even except for this much older woman who had mobility issues. I guess the thing that made me mad was that the woman I made my project, she kind of hit a short short on the old lady who couldn’t run, and I didn’t like that. I took that personally.

When I think about my tennis, I think I am motivated by spite. I am not a competitive person by nature. But if you do something I don’t like, I decide to make you my special project for the hour or two. And then I am your problem. You have a problem. Your formerly problem-free existence is over. Your problem is now me. ANd my forehand and my backhand and my volleys and my overhead. I am not going to include your partner in our beef. No, your issue is with me. I don’t care if you’re at the net and your partner is out of position. No, my beef is with you. I am coming to you.

When I’ve made someone my project, I play only for the moment when I can see in their eyes that they recognize what they’ve done. When they realize, oh, he’s gunning for me. My favorite thing is when the person recognizes that and think they can overpower me or make me back off, but they can’t. Because invariably, they ramp up their swing speed but don’t know how to control it and dump the shot into the net. That’s when I know I have them. I settle in. I make eye contact. I let them know that I’m ready. They can’t outgun me. Not when I’m locked in. Bring it.

The session ended with my team on the champion side.

2/28, 11AM-12:30PM, Sutton East, Clay court (red)

This is my other weekly session. My coach is the grumpy blond guy. It’s my third time doing a weekly clinic at this place, and so far, it’s kind of the worst. It’s my first time doing the actual intermediate session. Before, I was in low intermediates. I say it’s the worst because attendence is so sketchy here. Normally, it’s me and this woman, G., who shows up consistently. The other people kind drop in and drop out. Today, we had a full house, like, five people. That’s the most we’ve ever had! THis old guy, S., was out of town, in Paris for the week.

We start with warm ups, as usual. Two balls. Then one short, one deep. Then three balls. Then volley, overhead.

Then we play games. It starts with a volley game, me and a partner at net, two teams firing baseline balls at us. We play to 11. Then swap, I get sent to the baseline, someone comes back to volley in my place. Things go pretty smoothly. But one of the new people is a guy, and he has kind of eccentric strokes. Everyone is very nice. Very chill. But that guy rips the ball and kind of struts back into position, so I decide we have beef and I make it my job to absorb all of his pace and put the ball back into play.

I don’t make him my project. But I do decide that I would like to lose very few points when he and I are on opposite sides of the net.

This session is complicated by the fact that I am using a new racquet. I ordered a new Tecnifibre TFight 300s. I have that racquet in a larger grip size, but I wanted a size 3 so I got one, anyway, it came with Head Syn Gut strings, and….when I tell you that I could not control the ball AT ALL. So I am planning to have it restrung with my preferred string, Yonex Polytour Rev 17g.

In the meantime, I switch back to my main stick which is Tecnfibre TFight 305s. I have good control and pace with this stick. Importantly the strings are what I am used to and almost immediately, I find good spin and placement. I can control racquet. I miss fewer shots, but I dump a few into the net off the forehand, and the coach tells me, as usual, to brush up, get under it. This is easily my biggest weakness. I am going to have to work on it.

As we pack up, I decide to make a reservation for tonight. I am going to play liveball, and I am going to play with the new stick. This time with good strings.

2/28, 7PM-8PM, Sutton East, Clay court (red)

I’ll let you know how it goes.

ball in.
b.