Game one - learning to be tougher

I'm wearing bright new head tennis shoes this week. The old ones were getting manky and smelled bad and were starting to fall apart inside. One loss and one win for the week. Fairly satisfying I would say.

Doublefault a journey to the Pan Pacific Masters games 2024

Transcript

Hi and welcome to Double Fork. My name is Andrew and this is episode ten. I can't believe it's been. What's that? Ten weeks? Two and a half months since I've started this podcast of my journey to go and compete in the Pan Pacific Masters Games in Queensland in 2024. That's now 492 days away. Times are ticking and hopefully I'm getting better at my chosen sport. I wanted to spend a bit of time this week just talking about this attitude I seem to have to my game. I think it's affecting my ability to win games and that's I'm just a softie. You know, I look at guys, I'm playing a guy tonight, for example, and I know he's got mobility problems. He can't run as fast from one side to the court the other. And he basically told me he's not going to run for anything. That's too hard to get. So I'm not hitting him hard shots because I just feel like it's taking advantage of someone and like sometimes I'll get into a position where I have a clear drop shot. The courts open, the player is off the end of the court and I don't take the drop shot because I just feel I just I just feel like it's a mean move. And I think this attitude of thinking that plays in tennis are mean. I've just got to drop that attitude. You know, I shanked the ball sometimes, as we all do on the racket on the edge of the racket or the racket frame, and it's a winning shot.

And I go, I just feel really bad because it's just not a good shot. Or I just insist on getting a baseline rally happening and I'm not taking advantage of anything there. You know, a ball might go short and I'll run up and hit it deep and I'll go back to my own baseline rather than going and attacking the ball and bringing the play to the net. And, you know, I played a game just a social hit with a woman a few nights ago and she she wasn't taking advantage of a few shots like I'd be off the court and she wouldn't drop shot me or something else would happen and she would just not take advantage of my really bad position. And I just told her, look, just just be mean and take the shot. So I'm telling you, you know, I'm telling other players to go ahead and take the shot and take advantage of me when I'm clearly in the wrong. And they're not doing it either. I think it's a mental hardness thing that people are generally nice. I'd like to think that everyone's generally nice and we don't like to take advantage of other people and when we bring that to the game, you're losing opportunities. You know, it feels like you're taking advantage of someone, but that's, hey, that's the game. You're there to win.

You're there to make the other player uncomfortable. You're there to hit shots at the other player can't hit even if they're crummy shots. You know, you see Nick Kyrgios sometimes do an underarm serve and it wins him games and people go, Oh, you know, it's an underarm serve. And when that sort of thing first came to the court, it was like, boo, hiss. But it's illegal stroke and it wins you the point. Then it's a valid stroke and incurious case. It's sometimes winds up being an ace. Well, you see a game I mentioned a while ago with Rafael Nadal playing Carlos Alcaraz and Alcaraz, you know, he must have hit about 30 drop shots during the course of the game. He won the game. You know, it's pretty special. Winning against Rafa and Carlos at time would have been 19 or 20 years old and Rafa would have been 36 or something. But he won the game and you could see that Rafa was getting more and more agitated. But, you know, he was he was falling for the same move every time. So who's the better player on the day? Well, it was Alcaraz who won the game and he didn't do anything wrong. He played good shots. He took advantage of all the tools in his in his toolbox. And, you know, next time we played, Rafa lost. But that time around, it was just made you it was a bit of an eye opener as to, you know, you're there to play a game and you might be friends off the court, you might be all happy and have a beer or whatever it is you're doing afterwards.

But when you're on the court, it's it's a one on one game and someone's going to walk away a loser and being nice isn't going to make you a winner. You know, people might complain a little bit about people might complain a little bit about it afterwards, but, you know, they'll change their game to suit your game style if necessary, or they'll just keep on losing. So I'm going to try and take a little bit of that to my next few games and try and be a bit, I hate to say it, try and be a bit meaner on the court, I guess. So today I'm losing one of my coaches. He's going to a different base court, which is a bit of a shame. So as is parting gift to me, we had a little bit of a service session looking at the second serve for a topspin or a kick serve if you like. And that's just such an unnatural movement for me and I'd really like to get it right because I really need a second serve. My service game is not too bad. I don't hit a lot of double faults these days, but my second serve tends to be a bit weaker and it's a little bit hit and miss, and I'd just like to have something reliable in my tool belt there.

So I've taken something away today and that is to try and develop a topspin or a kick serve over the next month or two, something that I can bring to my games maybe, maybe in 2 or 3 months time. I don't know how long it takes to develop a new skill like that, but we'll see how we go anyway. I've got a game tonight against. A guy who hits high topspin balls, they go really deep and it's like hitting against a ball machine. I don't know if you've ever played against a ball machine, but they go really high and they land. They skid off really, really quickly because they've got so much topspin. And that's how this guy hits all the time, even if even his serves are like that. So that'll be a challenge. But I know what to expect with him. He's not going to give me any second chances and he's certainly going to drop shot me or do whatever it wants, do whatever it takes to beat me. So there's no reason why I shouldn't return the the favor. Okay. So come along with me and we'll give it a shot. Okay, here we are for yet another Tuesday night game. This is the last Tuesday night competition game for the regular rounds. After this comes a semi and a final. I don't make the higher end of that, but they give the players a chance to play off of each other anyway just so that we all have an even number of games and we don't feel like we're missing out.

I think so. Tonight's player, I'm going to nickname the ball machine. He hits them high, hits them hard. They land really close to the baseline and they shoot off like a typical ball machine, fires off topspin balls high and with lots of spin. He's a he's a good guy. He's a nice guy. He plays well. And I'm going to I'm going to give it a good shot tonight. I think it's been been about three, maybe four weeks since I last played this, this bloke. And yeah, he taught me a lesson or two last time and I've thought about that game as I think about all my games and I think I could do a few things better this time around than what I did last time. So my other competition is running to an end as well, and we're moving off into the school holiday period, which typically doesn't have any competition games and very few group lessons. So I'll have a little bit of time on my hands to hit that wall and to hit hit that service practice. And I'm going to really get stuck into trying to hit a kick serve or a topspin serve as a second serve. All right, here we go again.

So I went into this game, and I know he beat me last time by a fair margin. But anyway, I decided to go out there with a positive attitude and do my best to try and make it difficult for him. But it was obvious from the outset that I was just hopelessly outclassed. I just don't have the experience to deal with a player of this caliber. I just can't handle the high topspin balls. It was just a rout. I got a game of him in the first set, but that was basically it was my service game. He's got some mobility issues. He's got a hip problem, and I just managed to hit a few serves out wide and he he couldn't get to them because he just wasn't mobile or quick enough to get to them. And and that's the way the night went. I got a few games over him from the serves, but my serves weren't consistent enough and it wouldn't have mattered in the end. Anyway, he just returned my balls in a manner that I just. I just wasn't capable of or I just didn't have the experience to deal with. So, you know, maybe in six months or a year I could make a better showing. But today it's just not my day and I'm okay with that. You know, you're going to come across better players. It makes you realize just how much of a beginner I still am.

I play against other players and I think, Hey, I'm playing really well. But I've got to remember that those players I'm playing against, you know, they're beginners too, in a lot of sense. They're not stronger players. They're not players that are going to go out there and beat this guy that I played today. I'm not sure if there's a lesson there. It's just as I said, it's a matter of I think it's a matter of a lack of experience on my part, and it's something that'll come with time. It's like a new hitting partner I've managed to pick up here well and truly outclasses me and it hits me and I expect that my biggest problem with him is the serves come across like missiles and I have real difficulty returning those. The gameplay is not so bad, but again, it's it's a lack of experience on dealing with those type of balls. And I think that it's just a matter of creating more game play time and more experience in dealing with difficult shots. In the end, it was I'm not going to say it was a disappointing result. It was like an expected result. I think it was. So game over. 616 love. I had zero chance. I went out there feeling hopeful and feeling like I had a plan, a strategy. But to be honest, the guy just hit balls that I just am not good at returning at the moment.

I just don't have the skill for it. They were high, really, really high over the net and had so much topspin and landed and when they hit my position, maybe a meter or two behind the baseline, they were well above my head and I just can't return those things at the moment. I just don't have the skill it takes to handle that sort of a ball. I did a couple of good shots. I went in there with every intention of making him run and I did that and I did a couple of drop shots and he didn't want to go for those. But all in all, he just smashed me. His serves were super fast and wide or down the tee. They were quite accurate. I couldn't get those suckers. And yeah, what a frustrating game. I play against players that I know are better than me and that's okay. But this guy is just just a whole other level for me and it makes me realize how much of a beginner I really am. I look at players like this and I go, you know, I just can't play a decent game against him. Best I can do is hit him really high and deep and he'll whack those back at me the same as he does everything else with bags of topspin and heaps of height.

And he's not even aiming that much. He's just getting them high and over the over the net and making him reach me really high. I'm always running back into the mesh fence at the back of the court. I'm not quite sure what I can do about it apart from gain more experience with that sort of player. In a sense, I'd like to recruit him as a hitting partner, but I don't think he'd want to waste his time with me. A tough game. I'm glad to have gotten one game off him. That was my service game and my serves were okay. One thing he did point out to me is my toss is a bit low and I already know that. He said if my toss was higher, they'd have a lot more speed and probably a lot more accuracy. And I get that. I know I throw a little low, but that wouldn't have saved me on the night anyway. I think it's going to come down to experience. I didn't do anything particularly wrong. I didn't make a lot of unforced errors. But the reality is he just hit balls to me that I just didn't have the experience to return in any meaningful way. So there's other players that beat me and are more comfortable with them beating me because, you know, they don't play right out of my comfort zone like this bloke.

And I think that's something that I'd like to learn to deal with, and I'm not sure how to do that because none of the people I play with on a, on a regular basis actually hit like that. I don't think they have the skill to do that. It's funny. He has a UTR ranking of, I don't know, three and a half or something like that. And I play against guys with that ranking and I don't have that much of a problem with them. I play with one regular guy who's ranked at nearly three and a half and I can regularly tie with him. So I don't know how he's got such a low ranking, but I suspect because he's got he's got an unconfirmed UTR rating, which probably means he hasn't played enough games to to really get a confidence level up there at 100% anyway. I'm truly hoping that's the last I see of him here. He's he's planning to play doubles. He doesn't want to play singles, so he thinks he's not going to play in the competition next semester. And I don't think I'll be playing him in the playoffs because he's going to be playing someone a level above me. Anyway, that was the game and that's the way it is and go with every intention of playing a better game.

But really, when it comes down to it, if you can't return those shots because you don't have the skills, then you're just not going to win the game. And really, that's just a matter of experience on my side of the fence. So I've got another competition game coming up in the morning. It's against a woman who I beat last time in this competition. She's she's got a very slight build. She's athletic. She, in fact, wants to start, I think, her own physical fitness business. So she'll run a lot. But I think I'm up for the task. But you never know with this game. Sometimes play well and other times you take a rubbish game to the court. So I'm hoping to take a better game to the court tomorrow morning. It'll be 6.30 game, so we'll see how that goes. Yeah, disappointing. You can hear it in my voice. Unhappiness is happening right here. I know I can't expect to be a red hot player after two years of game play, but playing a game like that where you just really can't actually even return the ball from a regular rally, return to serve. It's just, yeah, it makes you feel, I'm going to say inadequate, but I don't want to say inadequate. Makes you feel like you don't have the experience to play at that level just yet. It'll come. It'll come.