3rd and 4th Matches with Richard Price
8/03/09 and 8/04/09 12 noon
Chico Racquet Club
Scores: 6-4, 4-6 and 2-6, 6-3

3rd Match

I hit deep balls. Richard answered by blocking them back and they fell rather deep often. What do I do with these balls? Sometimes the balls fell somewhat short, but were shoulder high. I should be able to hit those with some force with my semi-western grip. I asked Eldon about this and he said I should come in quick and take these balls out of the air since they are floaters.

I was dictating a lot of points making Richard run, but I lost the 2nd set 4-6 after being up 4-2. Why? I was up twice in games that I served at 40-love but then lost those games. I need to go for my shots more when I am up 40-love.

Random Comments:

I did hit a couple of nice forehands with my new forehand deep into the ad court corner that put my opponent on the defensive.

I didn’t come up to the net on some deep balls in one-fell swoop where I think I really should have.

I did have one picture perfect all-court play: hit a deep ball and get a short ball back; hit the short ball and approach the net; finish with a volley winner.

I felt the lack of stabilization and balance in my forehand when hitting at times. This is what Eldon was talking about this morning in my lesson.

I came from behind in the 1st set to win 6-4. I played steady most of the match, but I shouldn’t have lost that 2nd set when I was leading early on. I lost my focus.

4th Match

This was an interesting match. I lost the 1st set, but took the 2nd set by changing some of my strategy. I was having trouble returning Richard’s serve so I decided I had to try something different. I decided to receive Richard’s 1st serve standing inside the baseline. Amazingly Richard started double faulting. When he wasn’t double-faulting I returned a number of his 1st serves by blocking them back short and pulling him up to the net. He is not particularly comfortable there and consequently he dumped several volleys into the net and I began to roll. Richard lost it emotionally and proceeded to self-destruct, eventually committing way too many unforced errors which allowed me to take the set at 6-3.

One other interesting point I need to mention about this match is the way I fought off my own negativity when I was losing the 1st set. There was a time during that 1st set when I got a very negative thought from my mind telling me I wanted to get off the court and just go home because I wasn’t doing well. I was really proud of myself that I was able to brush that negative thought aside. I didn’t give it any life. When it surfaced, I quickly pushed it aside and said to myself I’m out here to have fun and work on my strokes and strategies. Who cares if I lose badly; I want to improve and that that’s why I’m here. I moved forward psychologically and fought to be more competitive. At the end of the match, I was very glad that I had fought through my negativity.