Deuce - new strategy against soft players and a better serve

It's been a holiday week for me so not much tennis. I did play one competition game against a player that hits soft and often long high balls, all things that I have trouble coping with. I won the game but there's definitely room for improvement. On the plus side, a former coach of mine watched me play today and told me my serve is way better than it used to be and has come a long way.

Doublefault a journey to the Pan Pacific Masters games 2024

Transcript

Hi and welcome to Double Fault. My name is Andrew and I'm on a journey to compete in the Pan Pacific Masters Games in Queensland in 2024. And I'm going to take you on that journey with me. There's now 504 days to go before that event begins. That's 72 weeks, five competition seasons over. The last one will probably be still in the middle of a comp. You know, this week I was on holiday, so I spent six days up in a place called Palm Cove, which is in far north Queensland. It's in the tropics. So to give you an idea, the temperatures where I am right now, which is on Sydney's northern beaches, gets down to about 5 or 6 degrees at night. A Palm Cove where I've been staying, the nighttime temperatures are about 20 degrees and the daytime temperatures were between 26 and 27°C. So a lot warmer than it is here, a lot nicer. And it's just a beautiful place. I was up there for my 30 year wedding anniversary and it's such a great place to have been celebrating that particular event with my beautiful wife. We snorkeled, we went biking, which is I didn't normally bike because I don't like it because I get worried about the cars. I get it. I have a bicycle in my carport here in Sydney, which I used to use a lot, but I don't use anymore.

I just it's just a coat hanger now. I used to use it. And then once years ago now I got knocked off by somebody opened the car door on me and it just took the shine off the whole experience. And I've had people swear at me and abuse me and be aggressive with their cars at me. And in the end, the risks of people going crazy on me just weren't worth the reward of going there, out there and riding a bicycle in a peaceful solitude on the road so I don't bike anymore. I'd rather run, play tennis or yeah, play soccer. Anyway, for the last six days there's been no tennis at all. But there's some great food up there, some good wine, some nice beer and some great company in the form of my wife and some beautiful weather. I loved it up there. I would actually I'd move up there probably. No, I wouldn't move up there. I'd move up there. Maybe I would be tempted to move up there. So just before I left, I actually watched a game between Djokovic and Alcaraz, and it was kind of interesting. It was a game on play. I think it was in Madrid in 2022. And those two players, they're very evenly matched.

They're almost the same size. You know, they're a similar height and weight. I think. I think Djokovic is six two and Alcaraz is six foot and Djokovic is a little heavier than Alcaraz. But, you know, Djokovic is carrying another 16 years. So he's 36 and Alcaraz is 20. But Alcaraz won that particular game. They've only played two games according to the website, and they've won one each. And this particular one, Alcaraz, won and he won it because I don't know, because he won it. But he just he played so many drop shots, like literally, I think almost every second game he played a drop shot and he won those drop shots. I think it was a little bit out of Djokovic's comfort zone for those for that sort of play. And Alcaraz used it to its full benefit. I was a bit sorry to see Djokovic lose like that was, you know, he's a he's an awesome player. He's fit superbly, fit, superbly flexible. He knows what he's doing out there. Out of the top three of the last few years, him, Federer and Nadal, he's the only one left. And I don't want to see him drop out too soon. It's going to happen. You know, one of the younger players is going to, you know, bubble away to the top of the pile.

And eventually Djokovic is going to say he's had enough and the injuries are just costing him too much. But at the moment, it's just disappointing to see him lose any game because sometimes he goes out there. I watched him play at the Australian Open. It's like watching an adult play against children with some of these players and they're great players, but really he comes out there and he's like this commanding presence and he just blows them away with these fantastic tennis. And he he deserves to be where he is right now. It's a lot of hard work, and I really admire him for that hard work of getting up there and being at the top of his game, which is where he is right now. I just wonder sometimes, you know, when he'll retire. I think that the other two guys, Federer and Nadal, have retired on top of the injuries. And I suspect that Djokovic will eventually go, yeah, I've got too many injuries. I just can't play competitively anymore. And he'll make his retirement speech and I suspect it'll be in the next few years. It may not be, but there'll come a time when he's kicked all his goals. He's won all the top player awards for every slam there is, and he'll just go, I've done enough.

And that's fair enough. Anyway, for this coming week, I'm actually swapping a general training session for a strategy session this week, so that'll be interesting because normally I train with a group that it's a group of. 4 or 5 players and there'll be a coach there and we just do hitting exercises and the coach might give us some pointers. But this new session promises to focus more on strategy rather than gameplay. So I'm looking forward to that. So I've only got one match this week because of the holiday I've had and it's with a person who's it's always going to be a close game and she's a soft header and I have real problems with that. She'll hit soft, she'll hit high, which I have problems with high balls anyway. I just need to alter my game plan a little bit to to suit that. I'm not sure what I'm going to do and come along with me to my game and let's see how I go and I'll try and alter my game, adjust my game a little bit as I go to try and get a better result that I've had in the past with this particular player. Okay, here I am at Keirle Park with my opponent. Let's have a warm up.

So I played this woman, and I don't know what it is with this particular player, but she hits. She hits soft. I've mentioned it before, and they're deep and they're really high. And I have problems with high balls. So I changed my strategy today and tried to just return them well and truly inside the court. And that was actually working quite well with me. I won a lot of points just by waiting for her to make unforced errors, but I did make some unforced errors myself. Mostly, I threw away a lot of points on double faulting serves. Now, I'm okay with that because I've changed my serve a little bit. I've got a bit of a sore elbow, a little bit of tennis elbow, as I've mentioned. So I've listened my serve right up and I think that's probably a good thing. And when they're going in, they're going really, really well. But because I've changed my serve, every time you change something at tennis, it seems like your game falls to pieces in that particular area. The serves are good. When they went in, a lot of them went wide or long. Not very many went into the net. I think because I've loosened my swing a lot, my accuracy has gone off a little bit and needs a little bit of work and my toss could probably a little be a little bit higher.

So I'm going to work on that, serve a little bit more. I think I'm on the right track. I'm going to film myself, but I think I'm on the right track. It's all loosen loosened up and I'm not trying to control it anymore because it's hurting my elbow. And I think I've said it. It's actually kind of, in a weird way helping me, getting a bit of tennis elbow because it's teaching me what I shouldn't do because it's winding up hurting me. Um, and I think my, my racket drops better, my whole serves better. My body movement is coming into it now because I need to swing my torso to be able to hit the ball with any force if I'm not going to use my arm to supply the force. So I'm also using my legs a little bit more. And I think the whole thing has just just improved a lot. So this game went actually went on a lot longer than I thought it was going to go on, I think. I think it went for an hour and a quarter. And I use my I use my Garmin watch to record the game because, you know, sometimes I forget to do that. And it's just, you know, I kind of have a bit of regret for not recording it because it's kind of fun to see what sort of what sort of stats you have for your games. So I use the garment and apparently I ran 2.5km, which in an hour and ten minutes, which I think is quite a long way to run on a tennis court because there's only a small area, Strava says.

Because my Garmin feeds to Strava, Strava says I burn 800 calories, which is a lot of calories. My max heart rate got up to 177 beats per minute. But generally speaking, looking at the map, the heat map on the court. Of me playing my game most of us down the bass line, but a lot of it is actually on the court. And I think that's that happens because of the because my opponent was setting soft so I wasn't running on the court awful lot. So I could see when I run on the court, it's always towards the middle of the court. So I don't know. I think that's probably a good thing. Most of my game plays down the base play area anyway. That's it for this game. It was fun. It was a beautiful day and I did walk away. A winner get it right. So what can I say about that game? Wow. I think I always have trouble playing this lady. She she hits soft, but she hits most things in. It's not like hitting a wall, but it's getting there. And it's just doesn't suit my style of game, which is basically hit hard and return hard get returns back hard are hard. There's that softer and higher and high balls are bad for me. I don't play them very well. Soft balls I'm not that great at because I tend to play on the court and get caught out by a deep ball.

Or if I go too close to the net, I'll get caught out by a lob. I think I've almost got a game worked out how to how to play against that sort of play. But it's it's no doubt it's a it's a tricky thing to do. Have another match with her. She's she's hanging out to beat me. I can tell my serves are really good today even though I did a double double faults. Anyway, I'll talk about it a bit more later when I'm sitting at the comfort of my desk rather than on my scooter going home following some person who wants to drive at a walking pace. Oh, there you go. Complaining about the traffic.

Okay. So that was the game. It was. It was actually. I'm trying to I've got mixed thoughts about it. You know, for two, for three and a tie tiebreak in the second set there. That's fair enough. And it's kind of better than it has been in the past because in the past I've played games and it's gone to two sets plus a tie break after the two sets for the day. But today's game I started off okay and it kind of was a bit wishy washy. My serves were were good. I've actually changed my serve a bit to be looser and try to have less control. And I think I changed my strategy halfway through the game. You know, she's a soft hitter and I tried to change it to just try and out rally her because I think I can out rally her if I'm not stupid about it. And I try to hit to the lines, Don't try and hit winners and don't try and hit too hard and they're not too short. You know, there's a there's a few things in there which I'm perfectly capable of doing. I can hit balls that are reasonably deep, reasonably soft and safe balls down the middle. And I did it quite a few times there. And eventually she she made the unforced error rather than me. But I get impatient and I'll try and hit a winner and it won't come off, especially with a soft ball.

It'll just go into the net. It'll just go long or I'll try for the line and it'll just go wide. And I think that patience is one of those things that, you know, you've got to have when you're playing tennis and it pays off. So there's three more games in that fast four comp, and one of them is is a bit of a nemesis. She'll give me a hard time. She beat me last time, but I'll try. I'm going to bring a different game with me this time as well. She's also a bit of a soft hitter, a bit of a rallyer, and I think I'm going to try and work on that rallying strategy with her as well. Just get the rally soft and long and deep and don't try and hit winners. There's another comp I'm in, which is a which is a regular game on a Tuesday night, and that's just the usual six games in a set. And the upcoming game I've got is with a guy called well, he's called Drake and he clobbered me last time. Six love six love. And he, he's clearly outclassing everybody in this competition. I think he's lost three games out of, you know, 40 games or something like that. So I'm not feeling particularly hopeful because he just returns everything and he, he's, he's really good. And his gameplay, he'll hit my backhand over and over and over and over again until either I make a mistake or I'm so far off the court that he'll just hit it down the line.

Winner I'm going to try a bit more, be a bit more aware of that. I did manage to hit a few passing shots over the last time. They weren't lucky shots, they were deliberate. But I think that the soft rallying thing is just not a not a thing that's going to happen with him. I'm going to have to take some chances and assume that if I don't take those chances, I'm either going to I'm going to lose anyway, so I might as well learn lose with a bit of style if I'm going to lose. So I'm not going out there to be a loser, but I am going that they're being realistic and I'm going to play a more aggressive game and try and make him at least work for his his wins. So just just on the whole thing, I think it's I think I need to play to my opponent's pace, whether it be Drake on Tuesday night or whether it be the player I played with today who was playing slower. I just got to play to the same pace and don't try and outhit them if it's not necessary to hit them. I think when I'm playing a softer player that I should take advantage of that to try and place the balls a bit better around the court and not get excited and try and hit winners.

Anyway, the winter is getting colder here. It's almost midwinter, the shortest day of the year is next week. So hopefully the early morning games that I play in will be brighter. I know for a fact that the balls don't bounce very well in the colder mornings when it gets down to five degrees. They hit the ground and yeah, there's not a lot of life in them. So when I play against my regular hitting partners, I'll take that into account and try and lift them up a bit and run towards them a bit more and not assume they're not going to be not assume they're going to have be full of life and bounce. Anyway, thanks for listening. We're almost at the end of winter. The mornings are going to get brighter. The days are going to get longer. Hopefully the weather will get warmer in in a while, although it usually gets colder for another month or so before it starts warming up. But I'm just looking forward to more light. The competitions will end soon and then there will be a bit of a break between competitions and I'll try and organise something to replace the comps. And hopefully as my journey continues, my game will keep on continuing to improve. So. Join me next week. And thanks for listening.