1534 The Racquetball Chronicles

Coming off last night, all the advantages should be mine. I am in better shape, I felt like I had regained my form, and was ready for tonight.

Game one started slow. Very slow. After 20 minutes it was 6-5.

We were both doing the lob serves. On the one hand, it was good...it led to a lot of volleys. On the other hand, it has a very detrimental effect on me.

When I know the serve is going to be a high, slow thing I can pick my nose, tie my shoe, check out the girls on the treadmill and then move into position and blast the ball, I lose focus. I stop getting into position. I stop hustling after balls that are extremely gettable.

Worse, when I am in position and set up, I am still not in rhythm, and as a result I start mis-hitting.

It showed up repeatedly. When I had to run and work to get to a ball I made some great plays...but then a lollipop would come my way and at best I would hit a poor shot, bouncing it off the side wall and into his happy zone...and those were my GOOD shots.

My bad shots were...well, I would set up in position, wait for the ball to drop into my happy zone and...miss it by 3 feet. I mean, I was not within a baseball bat distance of the ball. I cannot figure out what was going on.

The angles were not tough to read, the shots were easy to get to...I just was missing by three and four racket lengths. It is the most bizarre thing i have eve experienced athletically.

Anyway, I was up about 10-9 and he ended up winning about 15-12 or 15-13. That game was low-hanging fruit and I turned it south. Not to take anything away from him...he played better than I did...but I just gave that game away. It should have been an easy win and I lost.

Game two I served legit maybe three or four times, he served legit a couple times, then we went back to the lob serves.

Again the games were poorly played. I was whiffing on easy shot after easy shot. My corner kill shots were so bad they were rebounding to mid court right about waist high...it was like when I was first learning the game.

I would like to say he was moving me around the court and I was just getting a racket on it allowing him to put away point after point. The truth is I was muffing easy shot after easy shot. This was about as poorly as it is possible for me to play.

My passing shots were over hit so badly they came off the back wall all the way to mid court. Barring that, they hit off the side wall and bounced to center court. My corner kills hit the front wall first, then the side wall, resulting in easy shots for him time after time.

The only saving grace is I was getting to everything he hit and he started rushing his shots trying to beat me and mis-hit a fair few shots himself. In a game of who wants it less, I prevailed  about 15-10 or so.

Frustrated, after breaking his serve, I started serving legit. He was returning them, so it was good. And bearing down on the serve improved every part of my game. My passing shots died before the corner, stayed off the walls, and scored. I stopped trying the ineffective pinch shots. I jumped out to a quick lead...and then scored a couple points when he could not return my serve.

Feeling guilty about the "cheap" points I went back to the lob serve.

I kept my intensity for a couple points, but it started to wane. My once huge lead shrunk. Soon it was a real game, but I did close him out about 15-9.

By this time, we had played such long games at such a deliberate pace we only had 15 minutes left.

I quickly broke his serve and, using lob serves, jumped out to a 5-0 lead.

And just like that the switch flipped. I stopped hustling. Shots I could have gotten to I stood and watched. My passing shots went back to being long or off the wall. I repeatedly attempted corner shots that were so bad they bounced off TWO walls and he stood in center court killing them.

Still, we had a couple of great volleys where I got to impossible shots. In a couple of instances I got to three attempted front wall kills in a row, then when he was forced into bad shots set up in short middle court, waiting for the ball to drop to my forehand, shifting my weight properly and...completely missing the ball twice, skipping the ball a half dozen times in those situations. It was ridiculous.

He went up 10-6. Yes, he went on a 10-1 run. 14-7. 15-7.

It was as bad as I have played this entire year. He deserved both wins he got because he hit fewer bad shots than I did and hit more winners in any given game than I did all night.

I still cannot explain why I missed the ball completely so many times. That bothers me. But I will be back. I will be better.

one thing i know is I absolutely must use legit serves to keep my focus.