My Return to Tennis!

[fundrazer]

I'm going to start up a thread here to talk about my return to playing tennis more often and whatever else comes to my mind Don't think anyone will be too interested but who knows. I'm looking to start playing my club's tennis league in march or april. So most of what I blab about will be my progression from rusty technique to solid league player.

So why haven't I been playing tennis? I used to help help out with my old high school's tennis team, but after a bit of a falling out with the head coach last spring I decided to move on from that. Since then I have played very little and have not played any sort of competitive match. I kept active over the summer with road cycling, but seeing as how it's winter time now I haven't been going out. My solution was to join a local athletic club! Can play tennis and even get sessions in on the stationary bike. I joined last Friday, and today is going to be my first time playing tennis again in a while. I signed up for a 4.0 ntrp clinic and am a bit nervous but also excited.

So what about my tennis game? I guess I'm somewhere around 3.5-4.0 ntrp. I've never played tournaments or been rated by a teaching pro, but I'll be evaluated by one of the club pros when I decide to start playing the tennis leagues at the club. My main goal is to get back into playing shape and be competitive...and to have fun too! But back to my game. The big strength for me has always been the forehand. It's always been the shot I can rely on the most for just rallying or if it's time to end the point. Solid 2h backhand and a solid 1h slice to accompany it, but I'm trying to switch to full 1hbh. I've played on and off with both, but after playing 2h for a while the 1hbh technique kind of left me. Hoping the club teaching pros can help with that I would rate my serve as my 2nd best shot overall. Can hit the first serve with decent pace and placement, and second serve is solid also. Good pace and spin on my second serve I think. Decent volleyer, (very much inspired by Pat Rafter, but not the success he had ) my backhand volley is usually the side that breaks down. Looking to fix that also. I'm also a decent mover around the court with some good footspeed and not half bad footwork.

And lastly, I'll talk about what some of my gear. After a bit of time with the blx prostaff 95, I've gone back to the prestige line. My main stick has been the microgel prestige MP, but I've got an anniversary IG prestige that I'm going to play with also. Even if I don't end up liking the IG prestige, it's still a very cool racquet to have. A lot of the pros to use the prestige are some of my favorite players of all time (<3 Safin), and the black paintjob is just sick. I stick to x-one at around 56 usually. Love the feel and I the control provided is still excellent. Probably going to try out the yonex polys at one point as well. Some of the yonex polys seem to be very highly regarded. As for shoes, I'm still on my Breathe 2k10's but will be retiring them for CC feather II's soon. Love the fit on those new feather II's, but my Nike's still have a bit of play left in them.

So I guess that's it for now. I will report back after my clinic session tonight.