You have likely seen the ads on TV. I am for it, we have to do something.

Jeff's driveway in Kentucky is an adventure in itself each time you leave the house on a street bike. The grade is about 15 degrees and the gravel is like driving in the snow. I don't think the video does it justice to the difficulty but needless to say if you can navigate a large street bike down this then you are a decent rider.

These humming birds were on the porch of some Omish friends in Crab Orchard, KY. Whole swarm of them which apparently they are there all the time.

Well technically I had my first losing season in K-Swiss. My win percentage was 43% overall. I had many close matches during the season. 2 tie break match's and another which was pretty close 3-6,3-6 match. The good news is I did make the playoffs. There were so many people that were disqualified for being underrated and the fact that they have 30 spots in the playoffs means you have to be ranked below 35 or 36 to not make it in. I ended up 21 out of 62. This makes it clear that I am in the correct division though. Falling just above the middle of the pack means I am in the right place.

Below are the screen shots from K-Swiss site showing how it all played out.

I played this match after my Week 8 match. I fully expected this to be a close match as my opponent had gotten similar scores than me on previous opponents he played. I played Gustavo who was playing in his first season. He seemed younger than me, he had a very inconsistent serve but when getting the 1st serve it was hard with plenty of top spin. His 2nd serve was a basic lob. His ground strokes were good and he seemed to hit most balls on a low trajectory with lots of spin. It was this shot I think that effected the match for me the most. I seemed to recall hitting the ball into the net LOTS of times which is something that I normally do not do a lot.

I lost this match because of those errors. I also was hitting weak backhands on his hard shots to my backhand. Mostly I was resorting to hitting a slice which sort of popped up in the air like a overhead gone wrong. This inevitably put me in a bad position time and time again.

Most the points I did win were on 1st serves and from hitting nice deep forehands.

Also what would a season be without some injury ? During this match I somehow managed to hit my ring finger with my racquet while serving or something. I remember the pain of hitting but do not recall exactly how I managed it. I think I was mucking around with my routine [Coach's fault] when the problem occurred. Anyway I cracked or broke the ring finger on my left hand. I got my wedding ring off before it swelled too much. Included a nice photo here for you.

 Lost 3-6, 3-6

 Because of this loss I am unsure if I will make to the playoffs this season or not. Anyway I moved up to get better so if I am not winning every match I must be in the right level.

I played my week 8 match before my week 7. I played Jerry whom I played in week 1 of this same season. Jerry is a nice guy but he is in the wrong division. He needs to move down to 2.5. As long as you keep it in on him and hit lots of shots to his backhand you will win. He makes lots of errors. He hits is forehand with the roll of the wrist which puts most of his shots he trys to hit hard in the the net. Every so often he will hit a nice one but that is the exception.

 I really thought I was going to get my first sweep during this match. At one point in the 2nd set I was up 3-0 and I could taste it. But he started hitting some decent shots and I let it slip away. I ended up winning 6-0, 6-2.

Well based on this post you can tell I have not posted about tennis for quite a while. The reason is due to being real busy and also being a bit disgruntled with the league in general. I will explain....

Week 3

This week I actually played after Week 4 because of scheduling conflicts. I played Jay who was new to the league. I remember coming to the match with a lot of concern as he had beaten everyone he played so far. I knew he was a good player and likely under ranked. Well he was good but not as good as I expected. I do not think I would have won but I really believe I could have done better and maybe won a set. I figured early on that he was a more consistent ball striker than me. Therefore I tried to attack the net more. Problem was is I kept making lots of errors at the net. This hurt me bad in the first set. 2nd set I abandoned this some and won a few more games. Bottom line is the guy was very consistent player and made few errors. Hopefully I will get another shot at him. I lost 1-6, 3-6.

Week 4

I played this week early because of a request from the player. This is the match where the drama starts. I played Jay (Micheal Thompson) again. We played in 2.5 together last season during Week 3 (see post). Last season was a 3 set battle which I came out the victor. There also was a incident with his wife being on the court and whispering to him during that match. After I said something to her she left and watched from outside the court.

Well this time he shows up alone. We start practicing and getting warmed up. We begin the match and then I see her. She comes on to the court next to us with a bag and her racquet's like she is there to play. She sits on the bench 1 court away watching. I don't say anything. I win the first set 6-3. It was tough and I lost the first 3 games and then came back.

She starts talking about the match during the 2nd set with other people on the court. I complain to Jay. He wins the 2nd set 6-2. Then I goto the bathroom and when I return she starts asking me "What my problem is..." and starts an argument with me. I tell her to leave. After her husband asks her too she does leave. I told Jay I was going to protest. I did and I lost. They said it was a case of he - said - she said. They apparently had a different story in which I started talking to her. Bottom line is I ended up losing the 3rd match 6-1 . I let her get in my head which I am certain is what she wanted. I made it clear to the lead next time I play this person if she comes on the court or causes any distraction I am protesting. It is ridiculous for her to talk to me during the match. The rules say she cannot be on the court, cannot coach, and cannot cause a distraction. Final 6-3,2-6,1-6.

Week 5 Buy Week

Week 6

This week I played Herbert Gersh. I do not know how old Herb is but he is old enough to be my Grandfather for sure. He is the nicest guy, a retired surgeon. He is one of the older players who can hurt you if they get to the ball. As the match wore on he got more and more tired. We played in the middle of the afternoon and it was very humid and hot. He nearly won during the 1st set and the final was 7-5. The 2nd set I felt bad because it was obvious he was out of steam. I won 7-5, 6-0. I little side note, he saw my wife at Palms Hospital where he still is involved and gave her a tennis lesson video. I got to call him and give that back and maybe play a match with him.

Thats it I finally caught up on this season. I have 2 matches left and I play them both this week. Season ends 7/27.

This recruiter from Robert Half Technology sent this email blast to 125 people and he just copied and pasted the emails into the CC field to share with the world. I am sure this was likely a big mistake on his part but in his line of work you would think they being a technology company would have some solution for this. There are countless CRM and Email Contact applications out there for doing such marketing and here this technology recruiter is left sending emails through the CC field.

 Poor guy, I of course filed a compliant via email to the parent company. Later that same day I got several emails and a call from a Regional Manager. Apprently this person is no longer working with them.

If your going to do email marketing - be careful. Don't blast other peoples emails all around.

Well I moved up to 3.0 for more of a challenge and that is what I got on this match. This was a 3 set battle with the winner being the person who physically out lasted their opponent. Unfortunately that was not me

I played Tony and we were very evenly matched. He was pretty fast on his feet, especially for his size. He was taller than me. He got a lot of balls in and every now and then would hit a real nice forehand which I could just not get too. His serve was not too good as he missed a lot of 1st serves and his 2nd was always something to win on. This kept me in the running more than anything.

I seemed to get easier returns with my spin serve so I kept using that throughout the match. I tried the harder serve a few times after he broke my serve but found that he returned those even better. I think he plays people with hard serves as he mentioned he plays a lot of doubles. The high bounce - deep serve worked best.

Most of my loss in this match was attributed to my backhand. He would hit a nice deep ball to my backhand and I would either miss it short or just get it over the net. When I just got it over he was fast enough to capitalize on this.

The thing that did work for me was hitting deep balls right down the pipe to him. He was normally only good for a 3-4 hit rally and then he would normally try some hard return and hit it into the net. I recognized this but failed to execute the method consistently because of my weak backhand and getting tired toward the end of the 2nd and 3rd set.

I got his number and look forward to playing this guy again in the future. I do not have to play him again this season but I definitely want to get some playing time in with him as we are very closely matched.

Final Score was: 6-4, 3-6, 4-6.

 My next match is against a guy who beat Tony 6-1, 6-0. It is his first season in the league, Tony says he better than a 3.0 player (clearly).  I also have a match coming up on Wednesday 6/18 against a guy I played last season and had a 3 set battle with, that one I came out a winner lets hope I do as well this time.

Well this was my first match playing in 3.0 in the league. What a bunch of hype I put myself through in moving up to 3.0 ? The guy I ended up playing tonight had not played in 3 years. Now he used to play real regular in the league and played 2.5 for about 5 years! His win percentage in 2.5 overall was only .22! What is he doing in 3.0 ? I asked and his response was that he is really about a 3.5 player (cough)

 I don't know but I guess it was a nice warm up match to get my season started. The biggest problem with the match is that after the first set I gave up a few games due to a shear lack of concentration on my part. I started taking him for granted playing flat footed. I kept hitting balls off my back foot which ended up in the net. The errors just made me more upset and it seemed to snowball a bit. Finally I shook it off but not before giving up 3 games. I am resisting the urge to blame several outside factors here because I know my coach will read this.

One real bad habit this guy had was he would stand 2-3 feet inside the baseline at all times. Then between each game during the break he kept saying to me: "You really hit a lot of balls near the baseline, they almost go out but seem to fall just short of the line." LOL - He never caught on I swear. I did not say anything because:

#1 I only give advice to people I don't know if they ask for it
 - and -
#2 I play him again this season.

Anyway I won 6-0, 6-3. All the way home I was kicking myself for those 3 games! I know that most of the players this season are not going to be like him and I need to capitalize on these opportunities to get lots of points.  Next week I play another unknown, he lost his first week 6-0,6-1 so I know he is not a ringer.