Cowboys and angles

[atatu]

Played some interesting doubles last night, these two older guys, I'd describe them as cowboys (this is Texas after all) guys who wear boots and jeans everyday and chew tobacco....Anyway, on the court, they hit amazing angles, not the usual straight ahead volleys, but sharp angles that take your breath away. Cowboys and angles...just saying.

[JoelDali]

These guys are solid 4.0 players with strong 4.5 overheads.

[LeeD]

3 dozen years ago, a bud and me were at Corpus, looking for some hit and giggles doubles (windsurfing trade show, AWIA). Found some likely courts, were hitting around (both of us former A/Open players, but 12 years out of practice) when a couple of cowboys came around to watch. They asked if we wanted to play doubles.
Of course, we said yes, seeing how they were old farts (around 30), stocky, shorthaired, bow legged, 6' tall guys.
After the first set (tiebreaker loss for us), we found out they were the No1 5.0 doubles team in the area, had won every 4.5 doubles that year, and had been playing together for 10 years since college.
We lost the next set 4, as I crumbled under the 90 degree heat. I just could not understand how a couple of old folks without real big anythings could beat us. My bud actually played better, some shots looking like the former A he had been. Me, I reverted to C level tennis, pushing and only keeping the ball low.
My bud and I had never played doubles on the same court with each other.
10 years of experience trumps newbies who hit harder and often as consistently.

[blakesq]

sigh, wish i was in Austin!

[LeeD]

Oh, to tie in my post to the subject....
Both those old farts used short angles, never hitting anything we could swing at, keeping the ball low and short of our reach. When we moved in, they'd hit shorter angles, so we were constantly digging UP to return their shots.
My partner was a singles player, me a bit of both. We tended to hit deep volleys and tried to use pace. They ate this up.

[Mike Y]

In my experience old people always have those sharp angled drop volleys. It's difficult to really hit your shots against, and they can beat lots of good teams that try to bash their way to victory. You almost have to serve and volley and try to get to the net first, you want them to have to hit groundstrokes, not volleys. And you can't play from behind the baseline, you have to anticipate those shallow volleys and play inside the baseline. Lobbing is key to get them off the net, trying to hit passing shots when they are both at the net will not work in your favor.

[LeeD]

If only we knew how good they were at warmups.
They tanked the warmups, of course, hitting stunted weak shots constantly, making us think of them as an inferior team. Once play started, their strokes got longer and the ball was hit lower.

[Lefty78]

Looks like I'm the only one who got the Dustin Lynch reference

[atatu]

Originally Posted by Lefty78

Looks like I'm the only one who got the Dustin Lynch reference

Well, I really did play against these guys...but yeah I couldn't resist.

[Maui19]

Originally Posted by atatu

Well, I really did play against these guys...but yeah I couldn't resist.

I had to look it up. That's a good one there. Nicely done.

[Mauvaise]

Originally Posted by LeeD

...seeing how they were old farts (around 30)...

I'm just going to be over in this corner crying while I poke holes in my old tennis balls to fit my walker.

[corbind]

I'm laughing at the story from the OP and others. Makes you want to quit the game. But this made me laugh:

Originally Posted by Mauvaise

I'm just going to be over in this corner crying while I poke holes in my old tennis balls to fit my walker.

Because last winter I had so many old tennis balls I affixed 4 of them to the legs of a chair I use in my garage.