Growth spurts?? Developmental question...

[MLtennis]

So I'm curious as to how other's have grown throughout their tennis experiences... I'm currently playing as a 3.0. I played back in highschool and was probably a 3.5 at my very best but we didn't rate back then. Now its 14 years later - I'm 32 and getting back into the game after not playing all that time. I started hitting again last September and joined a club in October. I've learned to hit a much better serve than when I started, my backhand is really getting strong and I'm more consistent than I was even in January. My forehand is still not nearly the weapon I'd like it to be and my volleying needs work too. Overall, though, I have much better form than most people I play against but I keep getting beat by very consistent players. I'm growing a lot in experience and have beat some people who used to beat me but the growth seems slow. I feel like at some point though I'm going to have a breakthrough mentally and suddenly play at a 3.5 level and maybe even 4.0 later on. Am I nuts or is there a big curve in the learning development??

[goober]

Everybody is different.

I had a huge upward rise in my game within a couple years of starting. I had delusions of grandeur then I hit a plateau where my progress has been minimal and mostly related to match experience rather than actual technique. I hit a huge wall against 4.5 players. I can beat lower level 4.5s or at least hang with most of them but mid to upper echelon ones beat me easily. Unfortunately I have to come to the realization my progress is not going to be much further because of my lack of time to commit to it and I am not getting any younger So now I pretty much play for fun and to keep my current level from deteriorating too much.