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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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.
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.
The April edition of RSi magazine featured an article on how GiGi Fernandez is embracing pickleball. With 17 Grand Slam doubles titles under her belt — combined with notoriety as one of the best tennis coaches for adult doubles — it is a bad omen that Fernandez is adding pickleball to her instructional portfolio.
Yesterday I made significant updates to the look and feel of this site. It was the first major structure revision since Fiend At Court was launched on New Year’s Eve in 2019. At that time, I had little experience with WordPress themes and even less of an idea what this blog would eventually turn out to be. Two plus years into this project, I now have a more refined sense of the content and flow. Improvements to the presentation and navigation features on the site were long overdue.
Today I was astonished to discover that I haven’t written directly about a rule that appears in the USTA Friend at Court since November of last year. It is high time we resumed our (apparently no so) steady march through the Rules of Tennis. We are currently in the “Role of Court Officials” section and this week will turn our attention to the line umpire.
Last weekend one of my league matches was relocated to an indoor facility after our match was unexpectedly disrupted by rain. As we converged on the pro-shop, one of the players snapped up a pair of shoes in her size from the very depleted inventory. She wasn’t wild on the color, but these are desperate times. Recently I have been wondering if the shoe shortage will result in significant migrations in brand preference once the supply chain issues are resolved.
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As a lifetime tennis player and fan I have seen a lot of unusual shots. In a league match last Sunday, I successfully played a rare shot myself. For the first time in my life, I hit a winner from the opponents side of the net. In fact it is the only time I have ever been in position to even attempt such a shot. If I didn’t have such poor footwork, it probably wouldn’t have happened.
A couple of weeks ago the Monday tennis news roundup post on this site referenced an article posted by tennis.com on the “best” tennis movies. I filed the titles away for those inevitable times when I don’t have the bandwidth to read a full book. I had to take a business trip this week on very short notice, so it was the perfect time to screen one of those films on my flight out. This movie… should not be viewed in a public setting where someone else can see your screen.
International Women’s Day celebrates women’s rights and inspires people to act in the ongoing fight for gender equality. It is observed on March 8 every year. The theme for 2022 is #BreaktheBias, which highlights the importance of challenging biases and misconceptions in the interest of creating a more inclusive and gender-equal world. Women are encouraged to share photos of themselves this year forming an X with their arms. I used my racquets.
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