An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
My tennis racquet bag tends to run on the heavy side because I carry a lot of gear onto the court that might be needed during a match. I also keep a lot of things in the back of my car that could be essential situationally or in between matches. Today I am providing a glimpse into the items I have at the ready as well as my system for organization.
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Weekly tennis news from outside the lines features Will Smith spoiling the King Richard moment, more racquet smashing, and a display of sportsmanship.
The April “12 Gifts” challenge is to add a new tennis skill to your personal arsenal. When this topic came up in the rotation my initial reaction was that I would be challenged to participate. On-court high-impact activities are simply not in the cards for me at the moment. However, while the wording of the April “gift” is to add new shots to the arsenal, I do think that there are classic skills that a player can develop to improve their competitive level without setting foot on a tennis court.
The April 12 Gifts “Challenge” is to select one shot to add (or enhance) in your tennis arsenal. Today’s post is a primer on sources of ideas and information that can guide that selection. If you are struggling to identify your top tennis improvement priority, this post is for you.
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Heading into New Year’s Eve last year, I shared 12 “Gifts” that people can give themselves to improve the quality of their tennis life. Each of these items is a tennis related life hack shamelessly adapted from a cybersecurity career development webinar that I once delivered. In 2022, I am taking an in-depth look at each one of those items on first Friday of each month. The “Gift” for April is new tennis skills.
If you ever need evidence that tennis is a sport for a lifetime, look no further than this documentary from 2017 that chronicles the pursuit of “Gold Balls” in the men’s 80 and over division at the USTA Cat 1 National Championships. Kate Keckler Daniel follows the competitors across the National Championships for all four surfaces and captures the essence and spirit of senior competitive tennis. You have to check this one out.
The ATP is having a bad run of on-court reckless behavior involving multiple players. The men’s professional tour has been criticized by some in the media for not taking more decisive action to penalize the individuals involved. Some are starting to wonder if the ATP actually wants to discourage that behavior.
Over the past few months I had been experiencing tenderness in my elbow when playing tennis. I was extremely resistant to calling it tennis elbow because… I had never experienced tennis elbow before in my life. However, that is what it is. I found that the Simien Tennis Elbow brace provided enough pain mitigation and support to allow me to continue to play.
Shocking developments at the top of the WTA Rankings list and more news tennis related news that you probably missed last week. This week’s summary includes bonus footage from the 90 and over women’s doubles National Clay Court Championships.
There are some intractable features of tennis that put the sport at a significant disadvantage to pickleball for attracting and retaining new players. As discussed in yesterdays post, the pickleball learning curve is less daunting and the sport is physically less demanding than tennis. Additionally, the geometry of pickleball supports better socialization and it takes significantly less time to complete a game. It is no wonder why the growth of pickleball participation threatens to completely overtake tennis.