tennis in the winter

In tennis, the addict moves about a hard rectangle and seeks to ambush a fuzzy ball with a modified snowshoe.
- Elliot Chaze

It's been more than a month since I've last posted. In fact, the last post was right in the heat of the Australian Open (and my newfound appreciation for Fernando Verdasco, thanks to some of the best tennis I've ever watched...not to mention battling with Rafael Nadal in the longest match in the Grand Slam's history). Watching tennis matches live at 3 AM for a whole week probably wasn't the healthiest thing to do, so it's no surprise that I spent a good deal of February sick with flu-like symptoms. But not to worry, I somehow mustered up enough energy to play tennis the whole time, with some definitely mixed results.

The first match I played this season was horrid and inexcusable. It was so horrid, in fact, that I forget the exact score, but know that I didn't win more than three games in two sets (it's how those three were divided between the two sets that I can't remember).

The three matches after that were as follows: 6-0, 6-0; 6-4, 2-5; 6-4, 1-5

So to summarize...I lost the first match horribly, I won the second match without a fight, and then then the last two matches, I won the first sets in each, only to collapse in the second sets. What's up with that? Nerves? Skill? Lack of sleep? More nerves?

It's maddening. But to be honest, while I've been playing matches every week and taking group lessons (my writer's salary has officially put individual lessons with my coach on hold), I haven't been training the 4+ days a week I had promised myself.

So that's what I'm going to do. Training every day - running, exercising, sprinting, serving, hitting, reacting, calculating, adjusting, taking risks, watching, playing, breathing tennis.

If at the end of March I have not managed to do this, then maybe playing the sport on a tournament level is not for me. But if I have trained the way I'm envisioning, and I do improve exponentially, then we'll take it from there.