An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
Video is an essential tool in tennis development. The first time I ever saw video of myself playing tennis was at Newk’s Tennis Ranch when I was a young junior. The video camera was the size of an airline carry-on bag and was mounted on a heavy tripod. The playback equipment was also the size of a small suitcase. The image played on the TV was jittery and grainy.
It was a safe bet that there would be growing pains as the USTA transitioned tennis tournament registration to the new digital platform. Registration is now open for tournaments scheduled in early January. It is apparent that players are struggling to complete their entries. Progress is sometimes painful.
I have tried to exercise curbside pickup to the greatest extent possible since the onset of the COVID crisis. A significant driver of that practice is an abundance of COVID caution. However, I have to confess that I don’t really enjoy shopping. I have been ready for curbside pickup to go mainstream my entire life.
I have no recollection of the first time that a tennis racquet was thrust into my hand. However, I do recall the exact point in time that a tennis racquet came into my life. It unceremoniously appeared in the front seat of the family station wagon one afternoon as my mom retrieved me and my brother from my Grandparents.
I am suddenly and unexpectedly spending a lot of time in the house of the Umpire Who Gave Birth to me. She took a tumble shortly before Thanksgiving and has been in the hospital until yesterday. There is a whole lot more to the story. The trivial side effect of that development relevant to this blog is that I am finding all sorts of tennis artifacts in her house. In fact, I am probably going to be writing a lot in the future about some of these found objects.
I regularly consult list of the best selling tennis books on amazon. Rafa, an autobiography of Rafael Nadal with John Carlin, currently sits at #8 on that list. It’s really #6 because The Inner Game of Tennis and Andre Agassi’s Open each appear twice above that spot.
Perhaps it is a sign of the season. As I write this final installment on the “Coaching” section of the ITF Rules of Tennis published in the USTA Friend at Court, I have a Christmas carol stuck in my head. More specifically it is the lyric “He’s making a list, and checking it twice…” from Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
Last week, the Fiend at Court household shared a video of an excellent drill for developing touch volleys. Today we are sharing another drill that is good for that purpose that was made during the same practice session.
There are exactly 25 days until the new USTA tournament structure for 2021 is officially enacted. It is almost time to take a deep breath and collectively say “Let’s do this.” There seems to be a perceptible uptick in the rate of new information trickling out for what USTA sanctioned tennis tournaments will look like in 2021.
We have spent the previous two days contemplating the USTA League rules and ethical considerations of a captain having two teams in a local league Championship. Today we are kicking it up a notch and contemplating the same scenario at the Sectional level. A berth to the National Championships is on the line.