Welcome to 4.5 little boy

[OrangePower]

Originally Posted by MNPlayer

See how rare it is - you know who I'm talking about right away.

Agree with your points, my only point was that he's playing his way up the ladder like the rest of us. Granted his coaching and hitting was with some of the top guys around.

Just curious; how old is this DC guy?

It's pretty rare for someone starting tennis as an adult to get to 5.0; even then, it can imagine it being a little more likely for a natural athlete still in his twenties, versus someone older. I would be very very impressed if someone in their late thirties / early forties could take up tennis for the first time and then make it to 5.0 ever.

[yonexpurestorm]

i know what it is like to play up at open when your not at that level. i lost first round in four of them this summer. some matches i felt more in the match than others, but constantly losing and not being put into situations where you have to win points can only go so far. i realized when i played opens i had fun, but since i was supposed to lose it was much easier to play all out and if i made errors and lost at least that was supposed to happen. when i would lose a match at 4.5 i would really learn something. matches that i am supposed to win, but lost really show your weaknesses. also, being in a spot where you know you should win and need to win a few crucial points in order to get that win are very helpful. it is easy to be down 0-3 and lose the the next game and keep playing. but when your supposed to win and the score is 3-3 and the guys breaks your serve, how you respond is a great lesson. when i got back into tennis last summer if i lost the first set i would basically admit defeat. now, i can remember multiple times losing the first set and relying on past experience to regain my composure and win. just the other weak i was down 4-0 in the first set. came back to win 6-4 7-5. in my opinion getting better is just like anything, experience. it is helpful to have experience playing open guys to know what it there, but it is also helpful having experience in crucial match deciding points. just as much as it is helpful to have experience hitting bh's during practice so when you need it you can fall back on your experience. the more experience you gain the better you will be. to bad for me i took 7 years off from tennis before getting back into it and now i am trying to cram all that experience into now.

[SlapShot]

Originally Posted by OrangePower

Just curious; how old is this DC guy?

It's pretty rare for someone starting tennis as an adult to get to 5.0; even then, it can imagine it being a little more likely for a natural athlete still in his twenties, versus someone older. I would be very very impressed if someone in their late thirties / early forties could take up tennis for the first time and then make it to 5.0 ever.

I would guess he's in his mid to late 20's now. Not sure of what his athletic background is, but he's a tall thin lefty who plays very smooth tennis - he isn't generally going to overpower someone, but he hits a solid ball and doesn't miss much.

Found an article on him, and it said that in 2008, he had been playing for 4 years, so he's got about 7 years of tennis in, but he's definitely in the 5.0 realm.

[Angle Queen]

Originally Posted by dizzlmcwizzl

I am committed to becoming a respectable (IE. upper echelon) 4.5 ... but nights like this make it seem so very far away. It is almost like Darth Vader is standing in the corner saying ... "come to the dark side, with a little sandbagging you could be a 4.0 again next season"

Hats off to ya, Dizz.

And you could be me...replace the 4.0 with 3.5 and 4.5 with 4.0 and you'd be describing my year to-date. I spent all last off-season (in preparation for playing 'up' at 4.0) ramping up speed -- my own serve/groundstrokes as well as those I saw. But did I see any of that at 4.0? Noooooo. It was so much more about placement than power. Don't get me wrong. Those ladies could hum it when they needed to. But they got just as many points by playing The Percentages. I, too, have felt called to The Dark Side since most of the points I won were of the Pusher variety rather than the form of attacking tennis I prefer to live and die by.

Regardless of what the USTA Powers That Be say I am next year, I'm still committed to my track. And while I never thought I'd see the day when there really was a "4" in front of the decimal beside my NTRP, there's no turning back. Perhaps it's time to listen to Yoda (instead of Darth) and I will:

Train [myself] to let go of everything I fear to lose.

Not really a fan of III as I'm Old School, so maybe we'll have to make it:

Control, control. You must learn control.

Regardless of how hard (or skilled) the ball is hit at you.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Signed,
Little Girl

[Fedace]

Originally Posted by dizzlmcwizzl

Previously as a 4.0 I have played up to 4.5 a couple of times. I was always on line 3 with no expectations and I had moderate success against lower tier 4.5s.

Last night I played the first match of my "career" with the 4.5 monicker next to my name. It was a 9.0 mixed match against a former college tennis player and a woman that apparently was some super jock (although not tennis) in her college days.

Any who, although I thought I played very well (for me) we went down 5-0 in about 7 minutes. We managed to claw back to make it a respectable 6-2, 7-5 loss, but that was probably due more to them relaxing than us improving. I felt completely unsatisfied with the comments ... "great effort" and "you really fought back there".

I am committed to becoming a respectable (IE. upper echelon) 4.5 ... but nights like this make it seem so very far away. It is almost like Darth Vader is standing in the corner saying ... "come to the dark side, with a little sandbagging you could be a 4.0 again next season"

was this jock girl hot ?

[Timbo's hopeless slice]

Originally Posted by Fedace

was this jock girl hot ?

did you really go to Stanford?

[dizzlmcwizzl]

Originally Posted by Fedace

was this jock girl hot ?

maybe 30 + years ago ...

My understanding was that she was an all american at some small college in some other sport (softball ?). Took up tennis after school and has spent some time as a 5.0.

Currently, she is a somewhat portly older woman who hits every ball she gets to exactly where she wants it to go.

So I would not say hot ... but very good for sure.

[burosky]

Just keep your head up. There is a reason why you got bumped to 4.5. There's no telling how many matches it will take but eventually, you will play a match where you will feel you "belong". When that happens things will start clicking for you.

[jhick]

Originally Posted by SlapShot

I would guess he's in his mid to late 20's now. Not sure of what his athletic background is, but he's a tall thin lefty who plays very smooth tennis - he isn't generally going to overpower someone, but he hits a solid ball and doesn't miss much.

Found an article on him, and it said that in 2008, he had been playing for 4 years, so he's got about 7 years of tennis in, but he's definitely in the 5.0 realm.

I think I know the guy your referring to. He is currently playing in 5.0 league, but is still computer rated 4.5. I remember a guy from my nationals 4.5 team beating him fairly soundly twice in 09. Then he told us afterwards that the guy he played was friends with and hit with some of the U of M players.

[SlapShot]

Originally Posted by jhick

I think I know the guy your referring to. He is currently playing in 5.0 league, but is still computer rated 4.5. I remember a guy from my nationals 4.5 team beating him fairly soundly twice in 09. Then he told us afterwards that the guy he played was friends with and hit with some of the U of M players.

Looks like your player was one of the only ones to beat him in 2009. I thought he had a 5.0 computer rating for 2012, but looks like he's still at 4.5.

[MNPlayer]

Originally Posted by SlapShot

Looks like your player was one of the only ones to beat him in 2009. I thought he had a 5.0 computer rating for 2012, but looks like he's still at 4.5.

Weird, I know he got bumped, he told me himself But maybe that was early start... Anyway he should be a 5.0 with his results.

[jhick]

Originally Posted by SlapShot

Looks like your player was one of the only ones to beat him in 2009. I thought he had a 5.0 computer rating for 2012, but looks like he's still at 4.5.

Yeah, the guy on our team was/is a young, solid 4.5 player who like me was briefly bumped to 5.0 after our nationals run in 2009. Looks like he's currently 5.0 according to the computer, but I think he was able to play 4.5 after the initial bump up.

[jhick]

Originally Posted by MNPlayer

Weird, I know he got bumped, he told me himself But maybe that was early start... Anyway he should be a 5.0 with his results.

Looking at his results, he would pretty much get smoked by any decent 5.0 in singles. He might have a chance to be competitive with some borderline 5.0's or good 4.5 players playing up.

[SlapShot]

Originally Posted by jhick

Looking at his results, he would pretty much get smoked by any decent 5.0 in singles. He might have a chance to be competitive with some borderline 5.0's or good 4.5 players playing up.

He definitely got smoked by Tony, but there have been 5.0 players who got smoked by Tony.

[jhick]

Originally Posted by SlapShot

He definitely got smoked by Tony, but there have been 5.0 players who got smoked by Tony.

Yeah, I'm not referring to Tony, more along the lines of former Gustavus players, older open level players, recently graduated top HS players, etc.

[Fedace]

Originally Posted by dizzlmcwizzl

maybe 30 + years ago ...

My understanding was that she was an all american at some small college in some other sport (softball ?). Took up tennis after school and has spent some time as a 5.0.

Currently, she is a somewhat portly older woman who hits every ball she gets to exactly where she wants it to go.

So I would not say hot ... but very good for sure.

they should make all advanced mixed doubles have a requirement. All women players must be 30 or younger