Pickleball then tennis

 1.5 hours of pickleball this am. The whole court is 44' long and 20' wide. 

It's really hard to lob over anyone and not hit long. Should probably practice lobs, but doing it during games and not getting it deep enough invites smash responses. My operating theory for now is to hit them higher and shorter to keep them in. Timing would be a challenge for returning a high lob.

I'm having fun slicing back serves. Many rallies finish as the serving team often hits those into the net. I don't know how I'd handle one of my own returns, as almost no one else does it.

The dink (drop shot) is an art form. It takes serious concentration on the racket-ball contact. A touch deep or high and an opposing player can drive it back for a winner.

The pickleball group here has an aggressive schedule coming up. Three meets in five days.

I don't think it hurts my tennis game. My tennis game has its own load of issues. Ha

Tennis in the pm. Machine balls are easy, if I let myself camp at just the right place so I never have to move. I help myself if I plant myself squarely in front of the machine and skitter back diagonally to hit. I still must consciously tell myself how to do the unit turn. I forgot to check if my chin was on one shoulder to start and the other shoulder after the contact. Having intention for where to hit the ball is easy against the machine, but almost impossible when hitting with another player. Keeping a relaxed grip and a high rear elbow: still a challenge.  Leading with the non-hitting arm: also difficult to remember. Throwing vs pushing the racket: hm.

Had to stop playing tennis after 90 minutes due to mental fatigue--inability to concentrate on technique. This is how beginners and intermediate players struggle to improve.

Tennis lesson for Tom?

 Tom had an appointment for a lesson with a tennis coach yesterday. What happened? I didn’t ask and Tom didn’t offer. I’m guessing that it didn’t excite him enough to talk about it.

I was hitting balls when he came to the courts with his racket and two hoppers of balls. 

I can’t recall who asked who if they wanted to hit balls, but if I asked, it was one of those courtesy things you do involuntarily. We hit for about forty minutes. My footwork wasn’t great so I didn’t always get the best shots. I still have to consciously remind myself of technique points while hitting. I get lazy if we’re only using half the court, so I suggested using the whole court, thinking I’d want to chase balls more. I still struggle to recognize short balls, and Tom hits many of those, so I adjusted my bias to move forward more. After I quit, I watched Tom hit machine balls. He camps about 6-10’ behind the baseline hitting balls thrown by the machine from the baseline at the other end of the court. For most balls, he started his take back after the ball bounced. If he had that tennis lesson, a more timely take-back wasn’t his homework assignment. 

It’s really hard to learn new habits—the old ones have a tenacious hold of us. When I started playing in late 2019, I never even thought of that aspect of human nature, so I didn’t take lessons. I must have thought my tennis from the 70s was a good enough foundation. I had an old school forehand with a  Continental/Eastern grip and I hit with my arm.  That may have made learning the modern forehand more difficult.  And performing a shadow swing of the modern forehand is easy—if I never had to hit a ball, it would always be perfect.  Add the ball, and my ancient muscle memory kicks into high gear—good luck finding the modern forehand. It takes tremendous mental energy to lead the stroke with my non-hitting arm. It’s exhausting!

I can understand if Tom doesn’t want to replace old habits with new ones. It’s difficult. One has to consciously fight old habits—mental fatigue develops. Unfortunately, better results (hitting the balls in the court consistently) don’t come without hard work. Doing the same thing over and over is easy, but it is magical thinking (or insanity) to expect different results. 

If listening to jazz music makes you not want to improve your tennis, turn the volume to minus four, please.