Tonight playing JB. All day my legs were heavy and inexplicably I was feeling tired.
First game started and he looked...slow. Taking an extra second to get moving, an extra second to get to the ball..and when playing someone who hits the ball pretty fast and hard, that can spell trouble.
My serve was blistering and even when he returned it I was in good position and controlled the court. He did score 6 for the game, but it was never in doubt.
Game 2 he started strong, serving 6 straight points. Only one of them I think actually saw a rally. I scored 2, then he scored 2 more. He was returning every serve no matter how nasty, he was scoring on every kill shot opportunity, he was getting to my passing shots...I felt helpless.
Then I slightly adjusted my stance, started stepping back on my return and suddenly instead of him racking up points off his serve, I was killing every serve. But I could not score either.
Slowly I climbed back into it. 4-8. 5-9. 7-8. 7-9. 9-9/ He took one last lead at 10-9 and I scored the rest of the points to win 15-10. It was a tough, hard fought game. Worse, I was feeling winded.
Game three started out more of the same as he built a rapid 3-0 lead. I got a couple back, tied it at three...and then rolled my ankle. It did not hurt but I thought it should and played tentatively for a couple minutes.
Then I stretched it out, buckled down and destroyed him 15-8. towards the end I was visibly winded and even said, "It is an open question if I will run out of gas before I finish this.
He knew the games should be closer so we rested an abnormally long time and he suggested one more. Always up for a game I agreed.
And sure enough he served up 4 straight points.
But then I got my second wind. And suddenly it looked like I had been toying with him all night. No matter how good his serve I simply hit a backhand kill shot from the back row. When we had volleys he could not get it past me. If he was close to the front a simple passing shot. If he was behind me a kill shot.
When I was up 13-4 we had a rally where he induced a weak passing attempt, moved up and hit a touch shot that came back about a foot inside the very front service line. I was at a dead run when i hit it...and hit such a great corner pinch shot he had no chance it. From behind him I re-killed a kill shot at a dead run.
He just shook his head and said, "We aren't even playing the same game anymore."
I think that is the moment we both knew I have vastly surpassed him.
See, the thing he, he played really well tonight. And I STILL wrecked him. Even when he was ahead 8-2 we both thought I was going to win.
As he said to me, "You played spectacularly tonight." The thing is...he was a step slow, but he was ON tonight and it was a demolition.
I have improved so much it is unbelievable. And I still love the game, so that is good too.
And that is a shot I will long remember...dead run perfect rekill of a shot I should not have had a chance to get to. My instincts, reaction, position and execution were just that good.
Showing posts with label 4-0. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 4-0. Show all posts
Wednesday
Thursday
The Racquetball Chronicles Round 5
Tonight I was matched up against T-mat, a guy from work who used to play regularly but took about a three year sabbatical. I figured I would score a few points but probably lose handily.
I was also a little concerned because when I set it up, I had forgotten he said he used to regularly plunk guys in the back who set up in position.
Well, the first game started out with him jumping out to a 3-0 lead as I played the back court and got spanked for it. Then I started working the mid court and got the serve, reeled off a bunch of points and was up by a comfortable 10-3 or so.
We then exchanged serves a couple times, but I was not worried because I was winning the volleys and he was struggling with his serve.
I finished off the game with a convincing 15-3 win and was feeling pretty good. Maybe I have improved that much. Sure, it was hard for him to score since his first serve was long the vast majority of the time, allowing me to get serve after serve I could handle. Regardless, I was winning most of the volleys.
Game two, he got his serve down. He was using a drive serve that was actually not legal as it screened me but I was complacent, thinking I would win anyway, and thought it would be good for me to work on my return game.
He was mixing up his serve well between drives down the forehand wall, drives down the back hand wall, and drives that just ate me up right into my chest. Even when I did get a return, it was a week one that consistently had him taking shots from scoring position.
When I tried pinch shots I angled them poorly, thus bouncing right back up waist high to his forehand and when I tried passing shots, I over hit them, allowing him to stay at mid court and hit kill shots.
Only my speed and agility allowed me to keep a lot of balls in play and his rust had him miss a few easy shots so it was a respectable score...something like 15-10, but he won. It was a really fun game because we had several rallies that included multiple points where we both had shots it seemed like we had put away for a winner, only to see the other guy hit an even better shot that we somehow returned...I loved, loved, loved it.
As the set wore on, I noticed an error I kept making. I have been working on using the walls more to create angles to make my shots harder to read. However, he is so good at reading them that all I was doing was giving him to set up in the mid court and blast perfect shots...but I kept hitting that shot. I really need to work on my in-game adjustments.
The third game was really back and forth. He built a 4 or 5 point lead, I fought back to tie it, he scored a couple, I took a small lead, he took a small lead, tie, I took a 10-9 lead, he took a 12-10 lead. I then scored 4 straight.
We were both gassed. It had been an incredibly tense game. I was sweating so bad that three times the racket came out of my hand. This new racket has a grip that gets super slick. I will either have to purchase a glove or regrip the racket. I NEVER had that problem with the old racket.
Anyway, at 14-12, I hit a gorgeous serve that bounced about an inch past the service line and bounced a second time short of the receiving line...a perfect ace. He flipped the ball back to me like you do when the ball is short so I shrugged and went back to work.
Unfortunately, I had assumed the game was over and, my head not on straight, served up a lollipop. He hit a kill shot, I went to return it...and the racket came completely out of my hand.
He then served an ace of his own, another point, then served an ace.
I started to go and he said, "this ain't tennis. You gotta win the last point on a rally."
Aha. Now I get it. My serve HAD been good but he had a house rule that I was not aware of. Fair enough.
Still, could not get my head back in it, and did not even go after one shot in the next rally that was not only eminently hittable, it was well set up for me to hit my most effective shot...a backhand pinch shot to the far corner.
He just outworked me after I thought the game was over. Even without that, he is a better player than me all around...he has a stronger serve, better kill shots, better position...so I feel good about the games and best of all, worked my tail off for an hour.
Also, it was good because I learned more about the game. My regular playing partner hits it to the same corner, but his shots tend to bounce off the side wall and/or back wall. So I was setting up to return those.
T-mat, however, keeps them scraping the side wall or bouncing dead at the back wall, so where I was setting up to play the rebound, there was none so I was out of position. So I need to read the ball angle better.
Then B showed up and we played. I fell into some bad habits because I was trying to keep it interesting. Instead of working on my shots, I was trying to set up rallies.
Even so it is such a mis-match that I wrecked him 2 games in about 15 minutes.
I then started serving more seriously which, counter-intuitively, he seemed to have an easier time returning than the lollipops I was serving earlier and suddenly we started getting a few rallies going. I still won pretty handily, but it was a better game.
We still had 25 minutes to go or so, so I took out a few minutes to help him work on his serve.
And he promptly serves time and again that I struggled to get to. Unlike some of my games with him, every point he got in this game was legit...I simply could not return those.
We had several good rallies, he was up 11-9 and serving many I could not handle...probably 9 of his points were off serves I could not return. I was winning most of the rallies and losing to his serve.
We closed out with a handful of good rallies and I walked off a 15-12 winner in the last game.
I need to remember to work on my ball control when I play B...not just try to get rallies, but work on hitting passing shots hard enough to get by the opponent, not so hard they bounce off the back wall. I need to work on the kill shots. The angles.
I also need to make him work harder because he plays better when I do.
Overall an exceptionally fun night of two hours of racquetball and I am spent.
I was also a little concerned because when I set it up, I had forgotten he said he used to regularly plunk guys in the back who set up in position.
Well, the first game started out with him jumping out to a 3-0 lead as I played the back court and got spanked for it. Then I started working the mid court and got the serve, reeled off a bunch of points and was up by a comfortable 10-3 or so.
We then exchanged serves a couple times, but I was not worried because I was winning the volleys and he was struggling with his serve.
I finished off the game with a convincing 15-3 win and was feeling pretty good. Maybe I have improved that much. Sure, it was hard for him to score since his first serve was long the vast majority of the time, allowing me to get serve after serve I could handle. Regardless, I was winning most of the volleys.
Game two, he got his serve down. He was using a drive serve that was actually not legal as it screened me but I was complacent, thinking I would win anyway, and thought it would be good for me to work on my return game.
He was mixing up his serve well between drives down the forehand wall, drives down the back hand wall, and drives that just ate me up right into my chest. Even when I did get a return, it was a week one that consistently had him taking shots from scoring position.
When I tried pinch shots I angled them poorly, thus bouncing right back up waist high to his forehand and when I tried passing shots, I over hit them, allowing him to stay at mid court and hit kill shots.
Only my speed and agility allowed me to keep a lot of balls in play and his rust had him miss a few easy shots so it was a respectable score...something like 15-10, but he won. It was a really fun game because we had several rallies that included multiple points where we both had shots it seemed like we had put away for a winner, only to see the other guy hit an even better shot that we somehow returned...I loved, loved, loved it.
As the set wore on, I noticed an error I kept making. I have been working on using the walls more to create angles to make my shots harder to read. However, he is so good at reading them that all I was doing was giving him to set up in the mid court and blast perfect shots...but I kept hitting that shot. I really need to work on my in-game adjustments.
The third game was really back and forth. He built a 4 or 5 point lead, I fought back to tie it, he scored a couple, I took a small lead, he took a small lead, tie, I took a 10-9 lead, he took a 12-10 lead. I then scored 4 straight.
We were both gassed. It had been an incredibly tense game. I was sweating so bad that three times the racket came out of my hand. This new racket has a grip that gets super slick. I will either have to purchase a glove or regrip the racket. I NEVER had that problem with the old racket.
Anyway, at 14-12, I hit a gorgeous serve that bounced about an inch past the service line and bounced a second time short of the receiving line...a perfect ace. He flipped the ball back to me like you do when the ball is short so I shrugged and went back to work.
Unfortunately, I had assumed the game was over and, my head not on straight, served up a lollipop. He hit a kill shot, I went to return it...and the racket came completely out of my hand.
He then served an ace of his own, another point, then served an ace.
I started to go and he said, "this ain't tennis. You gotta win the last point on a rally."
Aha. Now I get it. My serve HAD been good but he had a house rule that I was not aware of. Fair enough.
Still, could not get my head back in it, and did not even go after one shot in the next rally that was not only eminently hittable, it was well set up for me to hit my most effective shot...a backhand pinch shot to the far corner.
He just outworked me after I thought the game was over. Even without that, he is a better player than me all around...he has a stronger serve, better kill shots, better position...so I feel good about the games and best of all, worked my tail off for an hour.
Also, it was good because I learned more about the game. My regular playing partner hits it to the same corner, but his shots tend to bounce off the side wall and/or back wall. So I was setting up to return those.
T-mat, however, keeps them scraping the side wall or bouncing dead at the back wall, so where I was setting up to play the rebound, there was none so I was out of position. So I need to read the ball angle better.
Then B showed up and we played. I fell into some bad habits because I was trying to keep it interesting. Instead of working on my shots, I was trying to set up rallies.
Even so it is such a mis-match that I wrecked him 2 games in about 15 minutes.
I then started serving more seriously which, counter-intuitively, he seemed to have an easier time returning than the lollipops I was serving earlier and suddenly we started getting a few rallies going. I still won pretty handily, but it was a better game.
We still had 25 minutes to go or so, so I took out a few minutes to help him work on his serve.
And he promptly serves time and again that I struggled to get to. Unlike some of my games with him, every point he got in this game was legit...I simply could not return those.
We had several good rallies, he was up 11-9 and serving many I could not handle...probably 9 of his points were off serves I could not return. I was winning most of the rallies and losing to his serve.
We closed out with a handful of good rallies and I walked off a 15-12 winner in the last game.
I need to remember to work on my ball control when I play B...not just try to get rallies, but work on hitting passing shots hard enough to get by the opponent, not so hard they bounce off the back wall. I need to work on the kill shots. The angles.
I also need to make him work harder because he plays better when I do.
Overall an exceptionally fun night of two hours of racquetball and I am spent.
The 2012 Racquetball Chronicles Round 4
So tonight I was playing opponent B. A few things about B.
Whereas opponent a was indisputably better than me when we started and won 2 or 3 games by legit 15-1, 15-3 type scores, the me that started Dec. 5th would indisputably dominate B. It would not even be close.
And the me of today is 3-2 against A this year...which means I have gotten much, much better very very quickly but B is honestly not a challenge.
It says something about how I have grown the way I play B.
Whereas in my youth I would have "spotted" him or given massive advantages to him, then absolutely wrecked him anyway, the more mature me plays him straight up...I just play admittedly soft.
See, I think the "spot you 10 points and the serve, then win 15-10" guy is unintentionally being a jerk. He is saying I can give you any amount of advantage and still win because I am just that much better than you.
Well, we started playing and early on I was playing soft but practicing my serve to the backhand. Not the hard serve...just a high, defensive lob serve that I can use when I play right-handers. It will be months before I develop a solid serve to right-handers, but it is imperative I develop at least a defensive serve.
B was struggling with it and there were not many volleys. A quick 15-4, 15-1 demolition later, I switched up my strategy.
I wanted to work on a couple of shots. First, I want to work on the wall shot designed to be a passing shot. I typically hit it too hard...it rebounds off the back wall, giving them plenty of time to get to it. When I do not hit it too hard I hit it too soft and it becomes an easy mid-court shot for them. So I wanted to work on hitting it hard enough to get past them but soft enough to bounce twice before the back wall.
Second, I wanted to work on the corner kill shot.
The best way to do that is get into some rallies. So I started hitting high soft lobs to his forehand.
Unfortunately, I also got int he habit of not playing position. On the bright side we got in some volleys and he hit several nice winners. On the dark side, being out of position let me practice neither of the shots and I was playing too lackadaisically, not getting the workout I wanted.
He even led 10-7 in the third game, though there was no realistic danger of me losing. He ended the game with 10 by the simple expedient of me moving to center court and regaining my position. So it was good practice for that.
Game 4 was more of the same. I kept letting him have the front court and lounging in the back court. And here is where I figured out a valuable lesson.
Player A has a better kill shot than me. Not a massively better, but he hits say...30% kill shots when given the opportunity, and I hit maybe 20%.
Early on he had a much better serve. I struggled so much to return it his serve was often worth 10 points per game.
He also is slightly better on passing shots than me...lets say he hits 20% winners on those, I probably hit 15%.
So the edges he has are not all that many. I counteract many of them with superior speed and agility.
So why was he so dominate at first?
The same reason B scored 12 on me in the second game.
Position.
When one player is in the mid court and the other in the back court, it makes the player in the front court 50% or more better. They have the best scoring position, the best defensive position, and the biggest margin for error.
So when I allow myself to get distracted and stop moving to center mid court at every opportunity, I squander any advantage I have and suddenly small advantages for the opponent become huge advantages.
That is the single biggest shift in the outcomes of my games with A. Once I seized mid court I continue to hit a low percentage of winners via kill shot or passing shot...but I have many more opportunities.
A powerful lesson indeed.
It is one thing to read about the importance of position, another thing entirely to see the difference in live action.
At some point I will probably have a losing streak to A again, and I hope that when I do, I will return, read this, and reclaim the center mid court.
Meanwhile, I finished off the 4th game with a beautiful passing shot that was exactly what I wanted..low to the ground, lightning fast, bounced once inside the first service line and once just past the receiving line when I had driven him to the far side of the court...a great way to finish.
Whereas opponent a was indisputably better than me when we started and won 2 or 3 games by legit 15-1, 15-3 type scores, the me that started Dec. 5th would indisputably dominate B. It would not even be close.
And the me of today is 3-2 against A this year...which means I have gotten much, much better very very quickly but B is honestly not a challenge.
It says something about how I have grown the way I play B.
Whereas in my youth I would have "spotted" him or given massive advantages to him, then absolutely wrecked him anyway, the more mature me plays him straight up...I just play admittedly soft.
See, I think the "spot you 10 points and the serve, then win 15-10" guy is unintentionally being a jerk. He is saying I can give you any amount of advantage and still win because I am just that much better than you.
Well, we started playing and early on I was playing soft but practicing my serve to the backhand. Not the hard serve...just a high, defensive lob serve that I can use when I play right-handers. It will be months before I develop a solid serve to right-handers, but it is imperative I develop at least a defensive serve.
B was struggling with it and there were not many volleys. A quick 15-4, 15-1 demolition later, I switched up my strategy.
I wanted to work on a couple of shots. First, I want to work on the wall shot designed to be a passing shot. I typically hit it too hard...it rebounds off the back wall, giving them plenty of time to get to it. When I do not hit it too hard I hit it too soft and it becomes an easy mid-court shot for them. So I wanted to work on hitting it hard enough to get past them but soft enough to bounce twice before the back wall.
Second, I wanted to work on the corner kill shot.
The best way to do that is get into some rallies. So I started hitting high soft lobs to his forehand.
Unfortunately, I also got int he habit of not playing position. On the bright side we got in some volleys and he hit several nice winners. On the dark side, being out of position let me practice neither of the shots and I was playing too lackadaisically, not getting the workout I wanted.
He even led 10-7 in the third game, though there was no realistic danger of me losing. He ended the game with 10 by the simple expedient of me moving to center court and regaining my position. So it was good practice for that.
Game 4 was more of the same. I kept letting him have the front court and lounging in the back court. And here is where I figured out a valuable lesson.
Player A has a better kill shot than me. Not a massively better, but he hits say...30% kill shots when given the opportunity, and I hit maybe 20%.
Early on he had a much better serve. I struggled so much to return it his serve was often worth 10 points per game.
He also is slightly better on passing shots than me...lets say he hits 20% winners on those, I probably hit 15%.
So the edges he has are not all that many. I counteract many of them with superior speed and agility.
So why was he so dominate at first?
The same reason B scored 12 on me in the second game.
Position.
When one player is in the mid court and the other in the back court, it makes the player in the front court 50% or more better. They have the best scoring position, the best defensive position, and the biggest margin for error.
So when I allow myself to get distracted and stop moving to center mid court at every opportunity, I squander any advantage I have and suddenly small advantages for the opponent become huge advantages.
That is the single biggest shift in the outcomes of my games with A. Once I seized mid court I continue to hit a low percentage of winners via kill shot or passing shot...but I have many more opportunities.
A powerful lesson indeed.
It is one thing to read about the importance of position, another thing entirely to see the difference in live action.
At some point I will probably have a losing streak to A again, and I hope that when I do, I will return, read this, and reclaim the center mid court.
Meanwhile, I finished off the 4th game with a beautiful passing shot that was exactly what I wanted..low to the ground, lightning fast, bounced once inside the first service line and once just past the receiving line when I had driven him to the far side of the court...a great way to finish.
Saturday
The 2012 Racquetball Chronicles Round 2
One of the guys from work has been wanting to get into racquetball to get back into shape. This morning we had an 8 o clock game set up.
Before the game we hit it back and forth for a bit and a few things were readily apparent to me. One, he has lost a fair amount of his agility and ability to hit the ball but it will come back quickly. Two, if I went all-out this would not be much fun for either of us. So I resolved to set up rallies and work on my serve location to a right handed player since my normal playing partner is leftie.
I had him serve first and worked on serve position, shot selection, and shot execution. The ball was certainly coming back at slower speeds, but it gave me the time to think about where I wanted to be on the court.
I was doing a good job of moving into the aggressive fore-court position and my reflexes were letting me not just get to the ball but actually think about where I wanted to hit my return. When he lobbed it over me, i was able to get to the back wall, think about my next shot, and was doing a good job of playing a defensive shot instead of always trying for an offensive shot even when out of position.
I also was able to recognize how important it was to re-lob it to him. This allowed me to get off the back wall and back into my prime position in fore-court, ready to take any low shot off the wall and put it away for a point.
I did score a lot of points off serves close to either wall he struggled to return so I spent a lot of time working on lobs to either corner to experiment with where to serve to a right-hander.
This is not a knock on him. He has not played in nearly 30 years, I am younger, quicker, in better shape, and have been playing for over a month...I should and did badly outclass him. I was able to toy with him, work on my game and still completely dominate the match.
I won 15-4, 15-6, 15-6.
He then wanted to work on his back-hand. I offered to just hit it around but he wanted to play another game so we did. He jumped out to a 1-0 lead on one of those z-serves I struggle so much with. I then took a 3-1 lead. And then he had a string of serves and a couple volley put aways. I was working hard on hitting it to his back hand and forgot to play position. So he was in front of me and I was struggling to put away winners.
Once I remembered to get back in position I kept pounding his backhand and ran out the game 15-6. He broke my serve a couple times but could not score off me again once I remembered to seize center court forward.
Overall it was a great time. Even though I was never in danger of losing a game, it was a good workout and allowed me to work on several weaknesses much more than working on reinforcing any particular strengths.
We did have several fun rallies involving getting to shots it seemed impossible for either of us to get to and I thoroughly enjoyed those.
I also had a really fun shot that was tight to my backhand when I was at the dotted line just left of center court. I pulled it tight and low, garnering a pretty good kill shot in the low right corner that bounced twice within about 8" of the wall. Probably the best shot I have hit yet.
So overall a fun day that i think improved my game a lot.
Before the game we hit it back and forth for a bit and a few things were readily apparent to me. One, he has lost a fair amount of his agility and ability to hit the ball but it will come back quickly. Two, if I went all-out this would not be much fun for either of us. So I resolved to set up rallies and work on my serve location to a right handed player since my normal playing partner is leftie.
I had him serve first and worked on serve position, shot selection, and shot execution. The ball was certainly coming back at slower speeds, but it gave me the time to think about where I wanted to be on the court.
I was doing a good job of moving into the aggressive fore-court position and my reflexes were letting me not just get to the ball but actually think about where I wanted to hit my return. When he lobbed it over me, i was able to get to the back wall, think about my next shot, and was doing a good job of playing a defensive shot instead of always trying for an offensive shot even when out of position.
I also was able to recognize how important it was to re-lob it to him. This allowed me to get off the back wall and back into my prime position in fore-court, ready to take any low shot off the wall and put it away for a point.
I did score a lot of points off serves close to either wall he struggled to return so I spent a lot of time working on lobs to either corner to experiment with where to serve to a right-hander.
This is not a knock on him. He has not played in nearly 30 years, I am younger, quicker, in better shape, and have been playing for over a month...I should and did badly outclass him. I was able to toy with him, work on my game and still completely dominate the match.
I won 15-4, 15-6, 15-6.
He then wanted to work on his back-hand. I offered to just hit it around but he wanted to play another game so we did. He jumped out to a 1-0 lead on one of those z-serves I struggle so much with. I then took a 3-1 lead. And then he had a string of serves and a couple volley put aways. I was working hard on hitting it to his back hand and forgot to play position. So he was in front of me and I was struggling to put away winners.
Once I remembered to get back in position I kept pounding his backhand and ran out the game 15-6. He broke my serve a couple times but could not score off me again once I remembered to seize center court forward.
Overall it was a great time. Even though I was never in danger of losing a game, it was a good workout and allowed me to work on several weaknesses much more than working on reinforcing any particular strengths.
We did have several fun rallies involving getting to shots it seemed impossible for either of us to get to and I thoroughly enjoyed those.
I also had a really fun shot that was tight to my backhand when I was at the dotted line just left of center court. I pulled it tight and low, garnering a pretty good kill shot in the low right corner that bounced twice within about 8" of the wall. Probably the best shot I have hit yet.
So overall a fun day that i think improved my game a lot.
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