With the onset of winter I really wanted to keep playing tennis, but my potential opponents were few and far between. Knowing a former co-worker was a racquetball aficionado, I suggested to him we play weekly.
He accepted and we decided to play each Thursday evening. We started Dec. 12th and, as I suspected, my advantages of speed, agility and endurance were no match for his advantages of experience and skill. I scored 6, 2, and 6 points the first week.
The second week I scored 10, 2, and 8. Both times there was a game in there where he just crushed me.
The third week in the second game I was ahead 12-1, scored a point, he mis-remembered the score and it stayed 12-1. I care more about playing than winning, so I let it slide. Ironically, after he mounted a furious come-back, when I scored to go ahead 14-13 it should have been game over...I should have had my first win. But that uncounted point would never be scored and he won 15-14, then absolutely wrecked me in the next game.
I then injured myself off-court and did not play for a week. When I did it was against my father in law.
John is an avid racquetball player, playing three times a week. If you suspect me getting my tail kicked was the probable outcome you guess correctly. I think I scored 6, 7, and 10 points or something like that. We then played 3 games of doubles.
We won 2 of those 3 games, but that was almost entirely John's efforts. I hit a few nice shots and missed a lot of shots. It was fun and my foot was one massive bruise when we finished.
Still, it was so much fun that the next Saturday we went down for some planned doubles with some of his regular partners. The first game I was partnered with a guy who played a style I had not seen and I loved it.
He stayed about mid-court, maybe a step or two towards the front wall,and relied on his quickness to get to seemingly every ball hit off the front wall.
We dominated the first game. By the time I partnered with him again he was too tired to play that way and the other 5 games, the losing team had something in common; me.
My game is quite technically weak for several reasons. First, I have no serve to a right handed player. Second, I tend to hit the ball too high and return it to center court. Third, when I do keep it to the wall I tend to hit it too hard, allowing it to bounce off the back wall and set my opponent up for a solid return. Fourth, I have tremendous difficulty reading the angles the ball will come off the wall.
However, I spent a lot of time thinking about how they played, where they positioned themselves, the way they hit their shots and planned to put them in practice this week against my regular playing partner.
He jumped out to a small lead but I was making progress. Typically when he serves I stood deep in the court close to the wall he correctly drops his z-serve off relentlessly. My thought process was this gave me more time to react to it.
After watching the guys John plays with, I instead took a couple steps in and towards center court. The z-serve still gave me problems, but whereas before I seldom successfully played a return, now I at least was returning it and getting to play volleys. Instead of him having 4, 5, 6, 8 point scoring runs just off his serve without having to expend energy, now he was working for those points.
He still has the advantage as he is more accurate with his shots and more skillful in correct court position, but actually putting the ball in play was letting me think about more than just trying to figure out how to return the serve.
He led the entire game and won something like 15-11. It was a tough, hard-fought game and the second best game I played against him.
Game two would show the results of game 1. This time I would be able to use the lessons I learned and the experience I gained in game 1.
First, I used the correct serve. He is left-handed so I relentlessly pounded my first serve hard and soft down the line, scoring several winners and, even when not a winner, forcing him to hit a defensive shot.
Later I will learn the z-serve as a change up, but for now I need to go with the best serve I have, even as he adapts to it.
Second, I was immediately moving to a position similar to what John's friend used; center court, a step behind the servers box. I am trusting my quickness and agility to let me get to any shot. This allowed me to set up passing shots and force him to run side to side, expending energy while I conserved my own while being in great position to hit the next shot.
I still need to master the kill shot and get better at both my drop shot (feathering the ball off the front wall when he is deep in the court) and passing shots, but the improvement was immediate and vast.
Third, I was using the side walls to ricochet the ball around and make it more difficult for him to set up the kill shots he is so good at.
I built a lead, but he battled back. He took a 5-3 lead. I have never come back from a deficit to take a lead. I have tied him a few times, but never led. But this would be different.
These were not great passing shots but better than before. I used to hit them too hard so they bounced high off the back wall and allowed him time to recover and get to them. Then I hit them too soft, allowing him to charge the wall and hit a kill shot. Now I was hitting them so they bounced twice before the back wall and that made all the difference.
I took the lead 13-10 and then we had an epic back and forth where we broke each others serve about 10 times apiece. It felt like whoever scored next would win. He scored to make it 13-11...but then I took the serve back and managed the last two points to win, 15-11.
I was happy but he was quite disappointed. I think he expected to beat me every game for quite some time to come. And it is entirely possible he will go on a long winning streak..but I am working hard at the game and learning. By the end of summer I think I will win at least 30% of the time. Not yet...but later this year.
Anyway, he said, "There is no way I am leaving on a losing game," so we played a third.
Sure enough, he played with intensity while I somewhat was playing satisfied and he jumped out to a 13-1 lead. He was dominating every phase of the game. So I stepped back, went to work and fought back to 13-9 before I ran out of steam and he put me away.
For the night, I was very happy. The new position helped me be much more effective in returning the serves. The new mid-court forward position helped me control the action and allowed me to mitigate much of his superior shot-making while poking at his weakness of endurance. My better touch on my shots allowed me to hit both better defensive shots and more winners.
I am quite happy with the improvement shown. 2012 is off to a great start.
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