An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
There is an odd psychology in hitting the overhead. The majority of recreational players seem to regard what should be an easy “put away” with a mixture of apprehension and fear. The simple fact of the matter is that it is embarrassing to miss an overhead. For the same reason, some players are reluctant to practice the shot.
The NSMTA site has an undated post that has been up for at least a month that provides a summary of the problems that the USTA Adult Competition Committee (ACC) has been trying to solve for National Senior Tennis. I find this summary to be insightful as to the challenges faced by the ACC. Additionally, it illuminates the perception of the problems from the NSMTA perspective.
As I frequently tell my family, this blog doesn’t write itself. Today is an exception because it kind of did. Or rather, Ann Thompson wrote it for me back in 1977. It is a league Captain’s report card. It is one of the fascinating tennis artifacts that has turned up in the house of the Umpire Who Gave Birth to Me.
I found two vintage Elesse tennis outfits in the back of one of the cabinets in my room over the holiday. Inexplicably, they were in a place where tennis clothes were not historically stored. While I have no recollection of an intentional effort to keep these two specific outfits, these would have been likely candidates for sentimental retention.
May you have the spirit of Christmas which is peace, the gladness of Christmas which is hope, and the heart of Christmas which is love.
Levels of the Game is a detailed account of the 1968 semi-final match between by Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner play at Forest Hills. The match is the foreground of for a much deeper cultural and societal examination. The backgrounds and attitudes which shaped each player are interwoven with the match play.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) asserts the authority over whether Player Analysis Technology is legal for use during sanctioned play. Section 31 of the ITF Rules of Tennis published in the USTA Friend at Court essentially boils down to specification of the policy and procedures. The definition of Player Analysis Technology is actually in an appendix to the rules, and was the subject of last week’s post.
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Tennis can leave long lasting scars on the psyche. It can also cause physical scars. My hands bear the evidence of that fact from failed attempts to open tennis ball cans through the ages. It is a reflection of my inability to open a can of tennis balls without nicking a finger. Somewhere along the way I learned to use my non-dominant hand when opening the can. Thus, if I sliced a finger, the racquet hand remained unscathed.
From the earliest posts about the tennis related impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have bemoaned the lack of rigorous scientific evaluation of potential transmission of the SARS-CoV family of diseases via tennis balls. A recently published study has changed that situation. At first glance, the news is fairly promising which apparently prompted the USTA to issue a statement on the topic.
I continue to discover tennis artifacts scattered about the house during my extended stay with the Umpire Who Gave Birth to Me. Today’s object turned up in a cabinet under a sink. It is a metal tin with a nice early 80’s style custom paint job. “I’d Rather Be Playing Tennis.”