So Much For Getting Better This Tennis Off-Season
Christy Vutam | February 11, 2014Late last year, I was really looking forward to the recreational tennis off-season (November to February). This would have been my first tennis off-season with formal coaching. I had big plans. I was finally going to learn how to hit overheads, dear reader. Big, BIG plans.
Overheads terrorize the bed sheet marks out of me. I know. I ask myself the same question: will I ever run out of tennis strokes to be terrified by?
I’m shaking my head slowly and sadly. No.
If you’re a player of a certain age in my area, you could play ultra-competitive team tennis leagues inundated with the weight of play-off importance all year round. The powers that be are most certainly not missing out on opportunities to make money. Or they’re trying to kill us. Whichever theory you want to go with.
Luckily for me, I don’t qualify for the other age-specific USTA leagues offered besides 18 and Over (leagues include 40 and Over, 55 and Over, and 100 and over), and I could at long last take a mental break from all of that. In a perfect world, I would never play a gonna-be-listed-on-line-somewhere match until, ohhhhh, never. I would prefer to get this nonsense all straightened out first before I played one of those, but alas.
Finally though, I was going to have just months and months of time to work quietly on everything and emerge from the winter hibernation a real weekend tennis player all backhand confident groundstroke this and forehand winner volley that. It was going to be awesome!
And then the Dallas weather happened.
If it wasn’t raining, it was way, way cold or way, way windy. Oh, hey, look at that. Snow. It snowed on Thursday. By the way, do you know when the weather people figured out it was going to snow on Thursday? WHEN IT SNOWED.
Not that the inability of the weather people to forecast the weather has been going on all winter-long and has affected nearly every tennis plan I’ve made in the last couple of months much to my absolute consternation or anything like that.
I haven’t had a private lesson since mid-January (#firstworldproblems). And before then, my lessons were sporadic at best. Nothing’s been accomplished this off-season. In fact since I’m still in the sucking first phase of getting better at tennis, you could say that I’m worse now than I was in 2013.
I NEED my private lessons. I’m addicted to them. First of all, my mind does not stop thinking about tennis. Somebody has to listen to all my tennis ponders and steer me straight through those murky waters or else I’m not able to, you know, function. As a human being.
An aside: I’ve recently been working on going to bed early. However, when I close my eyes, my mind starts drafting posts for this here tennis blog. You’re welcome.
Secondly, yes, tennis lessons do leave me feeling broken and dejected about my tennis abilities. That’s totally true. Yet, despite myself, progress has clearly been made (my coaches’ teaching powers are greater than my learning deficiencies). Winning and making progress are terribly intoxicating aspects of tennis, and no matter how long it’s been since you’ve won or made progress, it only takes that one time for you to be hooked on this sport for good.
That’s how they get you.
Without tennis lessons, my tennis abilities sag a little bit each day. Lessons firm them up. Maybe even enhance them. And now that it’s been a few weeks since my last lesson, I don’t want to venture out into the public. There’s no telling how far down my tennis has gone. It’s going to be embarrassing.
AND because the weather has been so awful, I haven’t been able to just hit the ball machine and tuck things up that way.
Oh, no. After writing this out, I don’t know what I’m more scared of now. Having to play a real match soon (leagues start back up next week) and enduring the wrath of my doubles teammates and team tennis captains or having to do my next private tennis lesson soon and disappointing my coach with how much I’ve regressed since we saw each other last.
Swell. I started this post to write about how much I’ve missed my lessons, and I end it dreading my next one. High five, self.
I feel your pain! We’re in the same boat here in Birmingham. All of my great and mighty tennis plans (and any other plans, for that matter) have been swept aside by mother nature. Great Big Angry Frosty Mother Nature. I wrote a blog post about “Snowmageddon 2014” when the whole Birmingham metro area got shut down for 2+ days but don’t go out there and read it. It was a brain dump and is way too long. Let me summarize it for you: “Snow bad.” There you go. 🙂
We only have only one indoor court facility in town. It’s private and always booked even when the weather’s good so no love there. Most of our pros hate cold weather with a passion but even the most cold-averse are now having to begrudgingly do clinics and lessons in sub 45 degree weather. Apparently they have to feed their families or something. I knew things had gotten desperate last night when I showed up late for a clinic that I was sure would be cancelled. It was 37 degrees with a light “frozen mix” slurry coming down and the clinic was still on. Insane! Of course that pro also restrings racquets so, since the moisture of last night has now killed my strings, it’s like a 2 for 1 special for him. I pay him for the clinic then I pay him to restring. You’re welcome, Steve. 🙂
Well, good luck getting back in the groove Christy! Glad to hear that there’s been some progress and I’m glad that you’ve been able to channel your restless tennis energy into a your blog – Love it!
I literally laughed out loud when you said not to read your “Snowmageddon 2014” post. I initially felt bad I hadn’t seen it, yet, and then I was laughing and laughing at your next couple of lines. “Snow bad.” BWAHAHAHA. Oh, man…
Only one indoor court in town, huh? In these here parts, this is the season to saddle on up to your country club member friends with their indoor court booking abilities and pony up the cost of playing one week’s worth of public court fees to play for an hour and a half inside. And then I make sure to grab the indoor court fees worth of Gold Fish and other goodies on my way out… 😀
That is so funny that you’ve noticed a correlation with your pros’ cold temperature threshold adjusting and their need to be paid…although Steve totally realized the “2 for 1” special he was causing for himself. HAH!
It looks like Dallas will have great weather for about a week starting this Thursday. I hope you’re having or about to have fantastic weather, too, Clif!