3rd Match with Joe Bill

4/11/09 Saturday  3:00P.M.

20^th St Park Municipal Courts

Score 6-1, 6-4

Just a quick write-up on my match with Joe, today.  Joe started out slow today.  I noticed in our warm-up he wasn’t hitting his ground strokes with much consistency.  As we started out the match I began just by putting some spin serves into the box.  Eventually, I started to mix it up with my 1^st serve and kick.  Joe had trouble with my 1^st serve.  He wasn’t getting it back well; he was late on his swing.

Joe wasn’t getting many of his 1^st serves in.  I was able to step up on his 2^nd serve and hit a winner or put him on the defensive.  He eventually served some double-faults because of the pressure I was putting on his weak 2^nd serve.  I did mess up sometimes with the 2^nd serve, though, putting it into the net or not getting as much pace on it as I wanted.  Looking back, I realize now this was because I was standing a little too far into the court not allowing myself enough space to develop forward momentum. The result was a lack of pace because my shot was being produced by all arm. 

The 1^st set went fast mainly because Joe wasn’t keeping balls in play like the last time we played.  He was making the unforced errors, not me.  In the 2^nd set Joe started to play better.  Actually, I think he started to bend his knees more.  I know I was totally focused on flexing my knees more and I felt like it was paying dividends.  I notice when I flex my knees more and stay low through my shots I feel more confident that my shots are going to stay in the court and not fly long or go into the net.

When we were finished playing, Joe basically told me he was having trouble because he thought I was hitting the ball harder in this match.  He said my balls were on top of him before he knew it.  He felt he was often late on his swing.  I don’t know if I was hitting harder.  I do know that many of my shots were landing deep just inside the baseline.  I was also changing directions well with my ground strokes; he did most of the running.

I also need to mention that I was once again setting some points up nicely, but did not always finish the point.  Oh well, one of these days it will come.

It certainly was a beautiful day with temperatures in the low 70’s and no wind.  Just excellent weather and a joy to be out there with my son having fun and enjoying his company!