getting worked over by senior citizens :D

[goober]

So I am playing this guy who is 55 years old who use to play college tennis and open level events when he was younger. Now he is playing 4.5s. He is completely schooling me with placement, drop shots and and all kinds of junk. Next court to us is some woman who looks like she is in her 70s whaling on a 50 year old. She had really good strokes for her age.

On the change over she starts lecturing me. "Don't lob that guy. Don't you have any pride? How old are you- 20? That is an old ladies shot! Rip a passing shot past that bastid!" She was completely serious. The next game I use a drop shot on the guy and I hear a loud sigh from the peanut gallery.

talk about tough afternoon!

[Datacipher]

ROFL. Those punks!

You do have a tough gang of seniors there....oh well, look at it as inspiration...imagine how much experience you'll have when you get to be their age....and maybe you'll still be able to really play just like them.

Don't listen to her about the lobs though, maybe she knew that more passing shots were called for....if you overplay the lob...it gets less and less effective and you have to hit them more and more perfectly....but there is NOTHING inherantly wrong or "wussie" about a good lob. Actually, when Agassi, Chang, Lendl would cut guys apart from them, it could be one of the most beautiful shots in the game! That old lady just needs to cut back on her testosterone injections......

[Richie Rich]

approach down the middle and be ready for a lob. Guys like this drove me crazy until i realized I couldn't hit them off the court. They want you to play their game and you start making errors. Most can't pass well and rely on lobs - if you are ready for it you win almost all the time.

[HookEmJeff]

Who cares how old the guy is across from you? If you're out there to win, you do whatever it takes to run that guy around. If he has to get a pacemaker installed on a changeover from chasing down your numerous drop shots, do it. If you're just playing for fun, then I'd say nevermind, but if you're playing this guy with somethign at stake, make him pay for being old. Someone else will and they'll move on if you don't.
We have a guy here in our 5.0 league who is in his early-to-mid 50's I'd say. I think he's like one of the top 2 or 3 guys in Texas in his age group, and he probably really belongs in a 4.5 group, but they let him in because he's been playing so long and actually wins a couple because he is consistent as hell.
No pace but he can seriously place the ball.Still, I don't show the guy any mercy because I know he's trying to win just as much as I am. Besides, you've got to add up all the wins on your side now, because when you get older, they'll be a lot harder to come by.

Jeff

[HookEmJeff]

Also, you should be hitting better approaches, if this guy is able to even throw up a decent lob on you, you're not making him run enough. Either that or you need to work on your overhead.

Jeff

[goober]

uh jeff, this was suppose to be a humor post. I found the whole situation pretty amusing with this 70 year old woman getting cranky on me for playing an "old ladies shot"

[Radical Shot]

Last weekend I got aced by a 75 year old lady....

...I guess there goes my "You serve like my grandmother" heckle.

[chad shaver]

Back in my college days, I agreed to lay a set with an old, gray-headed man one evening. I won the first point of the set with a beautiful, inside-out 2hbh service return winner. I then proceeded to lose every single point thereafter in under 15 minutes.

[bertrevert]

Lost to a couple of septugenarians last weekend. Shook hands at the net and he says "thanks for playing so bad, we won ha-ha". We played out the mixed doubles and we won the afternoon by one game.

I lose my sense of humour when my partner gets all tense and we lose leads and momentum and these older guys play us out. We all have comfort zones and I like a fast match. I can't stand taht lack of pace thing. Ah well, a perenial lament.

[Geezer Guy]

I don't know what's worse - getting beat by somebody that's on Social Security, or some kid that's not even in High School! When I was at Newk's Tennis camp last year they set up a match between me and one of the kids in the academy. I think they said he was 14. Well, his serve wasn't great - so he didn't ace me, but every time we'd get into a baseline rally he'd either out-consist me or he'd smack a winner down the line. He smoked me the first set. I was able to force the 2nd set to 5-5, but then he held serve and broke me to win the match. He had more on the line than I did - I imagine if an academy kid let some off-the-street old guy beat them they'd have a hard time of it. All in all, even though I lost - it was a lot of fun. He was a very good sportsman.

[bertrevert]

Hi Geezer

I have had the same thing, yes, happen too at the other end of the spectrum, a 14 year old, and with a very similar scoreline!

I don't know about you but I didn't play when I was 14. I came to this game late and although I have natural athletic ability I lack tennis nous. What I mean is that when it comes to those long rallies yes it's me who makes the mistake or goes for too much. What I notice with the youger crew, or with the older crew, they have a better understanding of the bigger picture (of a match) and know when to wait and rally - they have more tennis nous.

I've been playing 5 years, but that 14 year old could have been playing 7, that Septugenerian - 70! Although I might be fitter, stronger, there is no substitute for experience. My opponents simply have hit more shots in more awkward situations and know the feel of what to do. My 14 year old opponent was just second guessing me off the court. He knew where I was hitting and anticipated it (this was singles so it was different from the doubles match) and he ran everything down.

I didn't feel so bad about losing to him.

In fact losing to either of these opponents is making a better sportsman of me.

[Kaptain Karl]

I'm #2 on our Town Ladder. #3 plays for a local college team ... and it drives him BATTY that he cannot beat me, a 48 year old man. (I try not to gloat too much, though. He plays really REALLY well when he's ticked-off!)

There's always somebody stronger, faster, better....

- KK

[tennis-n-sc]

I'm #2 on our Town Ladder. #3 plays for a local college team ... and it drives him BATTY that he cannot beat me, a 48 year old man. (I try not to gloat too much, though. He plays really REALLY well when he's ticked-off!)

There's always somebody stronger, faster, better....

- KK

And older......

[Phil]

Back in my college days, I agreed to lay a set with an old, gray-headed man one evening. I won the first point of the set with a beautiful, inside-out 2hbh service return winner. I then proceeded to lose every single point thereafter in under 15 minutes.

Chad - I feel your pain. One extremely hot July 4th, it was just me and this "old man" on the courts and he asked if I wanted to play. He turned out to be 63 and in incredible shape. Chased everything down, didn't hit the ball so hard, but outstanding placement, and no mistakes at all. In 100 degree/85% humidity (and I consider myself a hot weather player) the guy beat me 2 and 3. Only way I could cop a point off him was on a big serve or coming to the net-and he got plenty of my serves back. I was seriously humbled.

[Exile]

One of my mentors taught me a very valuable piece of advice in that ive been running over in my head ever since.

"When in doubt, always aim for the crotch."

[chad shaver]

Phil,

At least you got a few games off the old guy.... Imagine what it's like to have your girlfriend sit on the side of the court and laugh at you for losing to the old guy with the Bozo the clown hairstyle and Chuck Taylor shoes? Your right, though. It was a serious lesson in humility.

[Geezer Guy]

Was that you Chad Shaver? I would have said "Hi" if I'd known. Your GF gave me her number, said to give her a call. No hard feelings, OK?

[chad shaver]

Eh, never liked her that much, anyway. Moved on to greener pastures.

[johnmcc516]

I get beat by my 53 year old father everytime we play. He beat me yesterday 6-0 6-3 6-2. :(

[gmlasam]

approach down the middle and be ready for a lob. Guys like this drove me crazy until i realized I couldn't hit them off the court. They want you to play their game and you start making errors. Most can't pass well and rely on lobs - if you are ready for it you win almost all the time.
Don't under estimate these experienced veterans. These old veterans have played just about every type of player and for them to still be playing at these older age is an indication of their tanasity for the sport.

I once played some 50 something tennis veteran and he had me running around with some fantastic placement. He was able to neutralize every hard pace topspin stroke that I was giving him.

Fortunately, I was able to out last him on long rallies and I held my serves to get some cheap points.

Nevertheless, the older veterans are fantastic tennis players.

[supersmash]

"When in doubt, call it out."

haha.

[Geezer Guy]

My favorite piece of advice (from right here on this forum, I think) was to "accidently" knock over the old guy's GatorAid bottle during the change-over.

[wingit]

One is very fortunate if they are a senior...they've lived. Good senior tennis players are fortunate still to play this fine game. Respect what they've accomplished and maybe some day someone will do likewise for you. Just like Love, tennis is too wonderful to be wasted on the young. The neat thing about the journey is that what you lose in sheer physical ability is often compensated by a much deeper understanding of the game: bash away against a good senior and you'll come to understand there's much more than power to this game. Yes, I've lost to these folks more than I care to recall.