6th Match with Marty Kooper
2/7/09, 12 noon, Saturday
Chico Racquet Club
Won 7-5, 6-4
I arrived at the Club a little after twelve noon after Marty had called me urging me to get there as soon as possible since there weren’t many dry courts available to play on. I found Marty waiting and holding down court 4 where the south side of the court definitely appeared to be very damp especially behind the baseline. We proceeded to warm up and found that the dampness wasn’t wet enough to cause us to slip so after we took our practice serves we started the first set with Marty serving.
I must say from the outset of this commentary that this match for me was the most creative I have played to date. And that is a really cool thing because when you get to a point where you are playing creatively you can really start to have some fun. It’s very much like Eldon has told me. “Tennis is a chess match.” And in this particular match if I can be so bold to say, I felt like I was the chess master since I was the one who was dictating the majority of points (75% I would guess). I went into this match with my main strategy being that of hitting hard when I could and moving forward whenever I could. Actually, though, the way I ended up playing was more complex than this owing to the fact that once we started play certain balls hit by Marty gave me the opportunity to experiment with different shots and patterns.
The creativity I’m referring to took shape in the form of the following:
1) I brought Marty to the net with various short balls and then either passed him, hit a dipping ball right at him or lobbed him. My passing and hitting right at him were more successful. The lobbing I tried was from my forehand and wasn’t as successful as I wanted. I had a hard time getting over him. Marty is fairly tall. I think my backhand topspin lob might have been more effective. At least it seems easier in practice to hit it over into the opponent’s backhand court deep.
2) I got to the net really well throughout the match. I moved forward off of balls I drove deep and other balls Marty had hit short. Sometimes I didn’t execute the finish to win the point, but I didn’t get upset with myself. Instead, I tried to complement myself for having set up the point the way I wanted. I told myself, it will come with time.
3) I hit down-the-line with my backhand multiple times successfully to win points. I missed some, too, especially in the beginning, but I kept going there because I love that shot. At one point in the match it paid off so cool cause Marty was taking note of that pattern and was running to cover that area of the court thinking I would hit there again when I suddenly changed the pattern and hit behind him with a crosscourt. He just looked at it helplessly and smiled.
4) I tried a variety of shots. Once it occurred to me to hit my topspin backhand so that it would bounce up shoulder high on Marty’s backhand side. That ball didn’t come back. I was smiling to myself on that one!
Another time I served a change-up on my first serve and it totally threw Marty off. He totally mishit it. Actually, that one was a mistake on my part. I had tossed the ball badly, but just eased up on it to put the ball into play. It was an unconscious reaction on my part that worked in my favor.
Once, I returned a half-volley from just inside the baseline that totally took Marty by surprise being that the ball came back barely over the net and probably twice as fast as he was expecting. In fact, that half-volley came back across the net so fast and low and landing short that all Marty could do was watch. He didn’t even touch it!
I also managed to hit some heavy paced skidders with my two-handed backhand that Marty returned very defensively. He wasn’t able to make his regular stroke. He was caught off guard, had less time to prepare and basically blocked those balls back, giving me the opportunity to move forward into the court.
5) This match was my best serving match to date, also. I only had one double-fault the entire match. I was tossing the ball really well. I felt so comfortable with it. It was high enough and pretty much just where I wanted it. I was bending my knees nicely and getting a lot of good action and movement on the ball. My spin serve into the deuce court was often moving sideways besides curving. I mixed up my serves well with flat, spin and kick, sometimes using my second serve as a first. I served into the body with some frequency and had very good success with it. Marty had trouble with those serves. I would guess my first serve percentage was around 60%. Getting my serves in play made this match flow really nice for me. It also certainly helped my confidence!
6) Another positive in this match was the way I was seeing the ball, especially on my backhand side. Many times I felt as if I was tracking and seeing the ball very close into my body and nearly into the string bed of my racquet. I successfully stayed down through my shots on the backhand side, too. I don’t think I came up early once on my backhand!
7) This match was interesting psychologically. I rallied from being down 2-5 in the first set to actually win at 7-5. Going into the second set I won the first two games until Marty finally won the third game of that set where upon he commented that he hadn’t won a game for seven straight. That was telling. Marty was struggling with that mentally. I was cruising at that point. I was having so much fun in the match doing my thing that I didn’t really think that much about the score. I was playing freely, working with my shots and his reaction to them. In fact, I felt that I was seeing quite well how my opponent was reacting to my shots and trying to take advantage of his responses. This is something that I have wanted to improve upon.
I still walk away from this match, though, recognizing that certain aspects of my play need improvement. What follows are the most important:
1) The return of serve. I still believe I could be taking better advantage of Marty’s serves, 1st and 2nd. I was taking too big a backswing at times. I need to take a shorter backswing and take the ball more out front as I step into the serve. Also, placing the return deep with some accuracy will help a lot. I should have my opponent on the defensive if I can do these things more consistently.
2) Staying lower. In general I need to stay lower on my forehand drive. By that I mean to bend my knees more throughout the shot. My footwork was okay in this match, but I believe I was standing too tall on many of my forehand shots thereby losing power. In a match I want to be able to hit those heavy paced skippers when I have the chance so I can put my opponent on the defensive and move forward to finish points when possible.
So I’m starting to see that power can come from the legs and when the knees are well flexed you can move more of your weight into the oncoming ball. Actually, on the very last point of the match I struck a forehand crosscourt drive where I loaded up on my back leg, stayed low and produced a shot that had beautiful pace. It skipped through my opponent’s deuce service box and angled off the court. It was a pure winner; Marty just looked at it.
So I know I can hit these heavy paced shots. I just want to be able to produce these shots consistently and remembering to stay low throughout the shot should help a whole bunch.
3) The half-volley. I should hit more half-volleys. For some reason in this match I found myself backing up unnecessarily to hit high bouncing balls. These I was often returning as a high bouncing ball which wasn’t always a bad idea, but I think a more effective shot would have been to move in and take the ball as a half-volley or possibly move into volley the ball out of the air. I did this once in the match where I came running in and tried to take a loose ball out of the air, but I knocked it quite long, losing the point. Coming in like this, though, to volley or half-volley is certainly better than knocking high balls back and forth. I hate that!
4) Letting a ball drop in. I watched one of my opponent’s balls drop into the corner of the court when I was up at the net. I could have volleyed that ball away for a winner. I only did this once during the match, but the point is I don’t want to do that even once. It’s an attitude where you hope your opponent will make the mistake. Forget it! That’s not the right attitude. Hit the winner! Don’t wait for him to make a mistake. I don’t want to play like that!
To rap up this commentary, I’m still thinking about creativity. Eldon has mentioned to me that Dick Gould, a well known and respected Stanford University tennis coach, said in a lecture to coaches that there are three things a player should strive for: 1) to have fun; 2) to learn to relax in a match; and 3) to be creative. When I first heard this I immediately understood the first two goals, but I didn’t really understand the last goal, that of being creative. I also used to hear this statement when I played golf, “You need to be creative.” I never understood that, either. I can happily report now, though, that I get it!
When you are playing a match there are always options and it’s your choice what you do with those options. You have a choice of shots you can hit with each ball that comes over the net. Whether you drive it, slice it, dink it or lob it. Whether you move forward into the court or stay back behind the baseline. Whether you take a short ball on the rise or take it as it descends. You have a choice. You have a strategy (or let’s hope you have a strategy). You are going to take advantage of what your opponent gives you and you are going to dictate play when you can. This all adds up to the art of being creative in a tennis match. And the best part is, it makes a match so much more fun and with fun can come relaxation. So there you have it. With the idea of stepping onto the court to be creative you can actually achieve all three goals with just that one main goal of “Be creative!” So very cool, no?