This week I was way too busy to have time to play tennis. Im hoping Ben and I will be able to play this upcoming Sunday. Im expecting to hit the first fifty balls in the net since i haven't played in so long. The only thing Ive don't tennis related this week was play a few games of ping pong with a friend. Even though they aren't the same I was still able to work on a new spin. The spin Im working on allows me to slice the ball from underneath and when it hits the ground it goes straight to the side. This shot is only good to use when the person you're playing against hits shot right at the net. This shot is so good because it hits really close to the net and makes the opponent have to run up to it and normally on running shots they are hit with very little speed so you can then hit a game winner. Depending on how you use this shot it can either be a game winner or a set-up for a game winner. Now that I know that i can do it in ping pong I'm hoping I'll be able to do it in a tennis match. Ive watched several videos on it and think I'll be able to perfect it within no time.
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Today is our last game of the season. We are playing Grimsley High school in Greensboro today to see who will advance into the State Tournament. If we win we will move on and keep playing everyday until we either win or lose. Monday I played tennis with Ben Flemming who is one of the best tennis players who have ever played tennis at Davie. Rob ( tennis trainer ) told me that it helps when you play someone who has more talent than you because it makes you try harder and it makes you want to learn more. While playing him I could feel myself trying to step up to his level. We played for two hours and by the time I was done I felt like I was a tennis pro myself. Although the next day I was back to the non-advanced tennis player I am now I was told that the more you play with people better than you the better you get. Once tennis season is over I'm planning to play with Ben at least once a week. The first time I played with him he didn't talk at all and every time I asked to teach him something he would say two words. Ever since we have been dating sisters hes actually talked more to me and has been able to teach me some tricks. One trick he taught me was a one handed back hand. I always attempted it but could never get the ball to drop once it goes over the net. He taught me that the trick to it is to follow all the way through to the area you are trying to make the ball in. Before he taught me this I was hitting the ball with a slap. Tuesday at practice, my forehand was looking like a snack. I started getting a one and a half step before I hit the ball and this allows me to put much more topspin and speed on the ball. I tried doing this with my old tennis racket but it wasn't made for a lot of spin but the new tennis racket allows the ball to spin so much faster. During a match we had recently the camera man got a picture of me doing the pre-steps into the hitting the ball.
I broke my backup racket in the middle of practice the other day. The guy I was playing hit a low shot and when I went to go hit it I hit the ground and the racket just broke. Over the weekend I went to Ski and Tennis in Winston and got a new racket. The new racket is lighter, cooler looking, and very different. My old Wilson was a racket that had a lot of speed to it and my new one has a lot of spin to it. After I got it I went to the courts to try it out and it is much different. Once I got the hang of it I could tell that this racket had a better feel than the other. Thursday I compete in the CPC tournament along side with 7 others from the team. After this tournament and the state tournament next week my tennis season with Davie will be over. I plan to play a bunch on the off season. "Off season is the only season" as some might say. I plan to keep taking lessons with Rob and I also plan to tend many tennis camps with some of my fellow teammates. I'm hoping when I return for tennis next year I will be in the top four. Lately I've been attending the courts 3-4 times a week. During the summer I will most likely be going to them 1-2 times a week because I have a pretty busy summer dealing with church youth camp, vacations, and a job at Camp Manna. Ben Flemming ( our best player ) and I have been doing more together so I'm hoping with his help and Rob's help I will be a much more improved tennis player next year.
The title was said last match I played. I was in the middle of playing a tennis match and I went to go hit the ball and my racket made a sound like of a string breaking in an old cartoon. I looked down and my strings were broke. I had to finish the match with my other racket. I decided that I was just gonna retire the racket instead of getting it fixed. I started using my Wilson Hyperion for my main one now. The racket feels a lot different because of the weight, strings, and the material. The racket that broke weighed 12.9 ounces and my Wilson weighs 9.6 ounces and it just gives it a complete different feel. I finished the game with the non-broken racket and you could defiantly tell that I wasn't playing as well but I still finished the match with a 8-6 win. I wasn't able to take my weekly lessons this week so I played ping pong for my lesson. Ping pong is completely different but you can still get a feel for different spins and hits. Today ( 4/18 ) with the Davie High school Men's Tennis Team we play Reagan for the CPC Championship. The CPC Championship is a really big deal. It is conference championship. The top 2 teams in the conference make it too state but whoever is first gets the advantage. The past month we have been preparing for this game. If we win we would be the only team to win the CPC Championship back to back.
I almost went all spring break without picking up a racket. I got a text from my tennis instructor asking if I wanted to work on some new moves. I went to the courts on Sunday and was super rusty. We hit around just to warm up and then started working on cross court shots. Cross court shots are shots that you hit away from the person to make them run and you keep doing it until they mess up. Normally I would hit it right at the person so they never really had to move. To work on this we did a drill where I had to hit 10 cross court shots in a row and if I didn't I had to run suicides. This drill helped because it made me super tired which made the drill feel like something I could do in game. We also worked on top spin forehands. This is when you hit the top of the ball with a lot of force moving forward. This allows the ball to have a lot of spin so the ball moves much faster when it hits the ground. To do this hit you make a C shaped swing. My problem with this shot is I hit the ball too high and it goes right into the net. If I keep working on it I know the hit will be killer. To end the practice we played a game to 4. Rob is a X-professional and a college tennis coach so I knew I wouldn't have a chance at beating him. Normally I lose to him 4-0 but I was able to score 2 points on him by making him run back and forth across the court.
We played RJR Reynolds on Monday and beat them 6-3. Tuesday was the big game. Whoever won this game would take first place in the Conference. Right off the bat everyone was losing. My teammates started coming off the courts with L's. We lost the match 9-0. It was a devastating loss but we were able to pull out one win but it didn't count. I played exhibition doubles with Michael. We started off hot with winning the first two sets. The doubles we played against were seniors who had a lot of experience. They ended up winning three in a row. Coach started watching our game and he wasn't the happiest. He shouted, "At least let us win a game.". We put our game faces on and I had back-to back-to back- to back aces.(means they didn't return a single one of my serves) Their best server was up. He was 6'4 and had a really fast serve. We played back and were able to win that point in deuce. We ended up winning the next four games and ended our match with a 8-4 win. Even tho our game didn't count in the team score everyone was proud of us because we were the only ones who didn't lose. Me and Michael were hoping that would get us out of all the physical workouts the next day at practice but all we got was a pat on the back. After that game coach walked up to me and told me that hes seen a lot of improvement and he hopes to see me in the starting six. The next day at practice I spent my time on working on my backhand. I'm used to a two handed back hand but I tried working with one hand and I could already tell that that was gonna work a lot better. I watched a few videos and am almost close to making it my official backhand.
https://youtu.be/hKSr14cUn9Q = the video I used So far we are 6-1 overall and 3-0 in conference. I got to play third seed doubles with Michael Werbeck against East Forsyth. We won 8-5 and the team won 9-0. At first we started off slow and were down 4-2 but then made a huge comeback. If it wasn't for Michael's good volleying at the net and for my speedy serves we wouldn't have pulled out that win. The day before the match I worked on my serves for a few hours and I'm glad I did. I've been told by many people that I have improved greatly from my first match. Personally I've noticed a major improvement when it comes to my forehand and serves. At the beginning of the season my forehand was like a lob. It would slowly go over the net but now I can put the ball anywhere on the court I want to with great amounts of speed. If I stay on track I should be able to move into the top six and hopefully play singles on a regular basis.
I made the tennis team! We had 5 days of tryouts and overall I felt really confident that I was gonna at least make team manager but I actually made 7th seed which isn't bad out of 15 people. Our schedule is looking like practice everyday for the first 2 weeks and then after that its gonna be like practice 3 days and games 2 days. At the practices we are starting off with stretches and then going straight into playing each other in games to 4. My first lesson with Rob was this week and the lesson consisted working on new techniques and new form. We were supposed to have 3 matches this week but 2 of them were canceled so we only had one. This match was against Wattaga which is a team from the Boone area. In singles we only won 2 matches which meant we had to win all 3 double matches. We ended up only winning 2 so we lost to the defending state champs 5-4. I played an exhibition doubles match with Michael Werbeck and we lost 8-4.
My project is gonna be based on my improvement in tennis. I made this my project because I love playing tennis but I'm not the best at it and I would like to improve my skills so I could become an overall better tennis player. My mane goal is to make the Davie County High school Men's Tennis team. If I achieve this goal I will be able to track my improvement by my wins I have with the team and by playing the same person once a week and seeing if I could end up beating them. By the end of my project Im hoping I become an overall better tennis player. My mentors are going to be Coach Nixon ( if I make the team) and this tennis trainer named Rob. I have taken lessons with Rob and he is a man that knows the sport very well. He has given lessons to many professional tennis players and many college players. He currently is giving lessons at Wake Forest University and lessons at Sacred Heart. I plan to meet with him once a month and to practice with the team almost everyday other than weekends.
we have only been able to have 5 of our 10 matches so far. Weather has affected half of our matches so the schedule for our matches has been havoc with all the rescheduling. The matches we have had so far have all gone really well and the team is 5-1. I have played in all of them. 2 of the matches I played exhibition doubles with Michael Werbeck. Exhibition means the matches don't count but they are still played like real ones. 2 of the matches I played doubles that counted and we won one of those. The most recent match I played 6th seed singles which is where I played their 6th best player. Before the match I told myself I was going to bagel the kid (beat him without letting him score a point). I'm not the best tennis player but I can defiantly say this guy was bad at tennis. I pulled out a 6-0, 6-0 win. I personally see myself improving a whole bunch. I've been playing people way better than me and it is shaping me into a much better tennis player. My hits are starting to have more spin on them. At the beginning of the year I played Ben Marklin (our 4th seed) and I lost to him 8-3. When I played him the other day we weren't able to finish but we left off at 5-3. I was up. As coach Nixon always says, "Let's play some rock solid tennis."
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