jakemcclain32
Banned
Yup, I did miss you guys, even with some rough times towards the end.
Now I'm going to bring this up before I get to my point. I had a lot of assumptions laid upon me over those months. Was accused of having every mental condition this side of the world, and was accused of making up every accomplishment I ever did, and every story I ever wrote. All honesty, I can't quite blame most of you for thinking that, especially when I absolutely promised video proof of my tennis, and promptly laid the biggest egg you'll ever see. It's still on youtube because I punished myself for that horrible day. It won't go off my page till I feel like it. I've taken a verbal beating on there, and well deserved. I still beat myself up for that match.
For everything that I was accused of having, the one thing I WILL tell you is that I was guilty of living in the past. Guilty as charged, life in prison, and no possibility of parole. I think I did that because my life was damned fun, but looking back, a lot of what I did was ridiculous. Did I play hours upon hours in jeans? Yup, and in the hottest days imaginable. Did I win matches I shouldn't have? No doubt. But what's important is that I never improved. All the clomping on the court while running like a ox did nothing but make me the scrappy guy that'd give a fight to decent to good players, and get destroyed by great players.
That all came back to me in that one horrendous match, and tournament really. I ended that Conyers tournament losing 18 straight games, getting bageled three times. It was humiliating, humbling, and tough to watch.
It also motivated the hell out of me, which is a big reason that match is still up on my page.
I sincerely thought I was improving through those eighteen months, but it was a smokescreen. I was only improving as much as I was on the court, if that makes any sense. Still had horrible habits to test my "manhood", if you will, which included playing in blistering heat with no water for hours at a time(and my face went numb twice), and playing with sweat filled clothes, which slowed me down. Many more things also, but I won't bring those up.
After that match, through all the verbal beatdowns I took, I heard one great suggestion. Take time off of tournaments, go back to the basics, and start training. I had one more match(on my youtube page), then I decided to step back and see what I had to do.
So that's what I've been doing these months. Training. In that timeframe, I learned a lot about myself. I learned that, for all the ballyhoo I gave myself about me being impossible to pass because I'd run everything down, I didn't see the most obvious thing...that it's easy to do that when you are taking no chances on the court.
Anyway, before I go, I'll say two things.
#1. This weekend, I decided to enter a tiny little round robin tournament, which is the "O Tennisbaum" tourney. It's not big, and I'm not going to make it anything more than it is, which is a little momentum for 2012, and consistent improvement. Oh don't get me wrong, I'm way too competitive to make this anything but going for #1, but I know that it's a tiny tournament with very few folks in the middle of December, and it's a round robin/superset format. There will be no video of this tournament, but that's the last time that'll happen.
#2. I'm killing the written blog altogether. That talked ALL about my past, and the past includes anything before that fateful match. I'll do video from time to time, but it'll be more for asking for tips, and recording my matches.
We'll see what this weekend holds. I'm kind of interested in seeing if I've made improvements or not. It's round robin, so I'll get a couple mini matches at least.
Thanks for reading.
Now I'm going to bring this up before I get to my point. I had a lot of assumptions laid upon me over those months. Was accused of having every mental condition this side of the world, and was accused of making up every accomplishment I ever did, and every story I ever wrote. All honesty, I can't quite blame most of you for thinking that, especially when I absolutely promised video proof of my tennis, and promptly laid the biggest egg you'll ever see. It's still on youtube because I punished myself for that horrible day. It won't go off my page till I feel like it. I've taken a verbal beating on there, and well deserved. I still beat myself up for that match.
For everything that I was accused of having, the one thing I WILL tell you is that I was guilty of living in the past. Guilty as charged, life in prison, and no possibility of parole. I think I did that because my life was damned fun, but looking back, a lot of what I did was ridiculous. Did I play hours upon hours in jeans? Yup, and in the hottest days imaginable. Did I win matches I shouldn't have? No doubt. But what's important is that I never improved. All the clomping on the court while running like a ox did nothing but make me the scrappy guy that'd give a fight to decent to good players, and get destroyed by great players.
That all came back to me in that one horrendous match, and tournament really. I ended that Conyers tournament losing 18 straight games, getting bageled three times. It was humiliating, humbling, and tough to watch.
It also motivated the hell out of me, which is a big reason that match is still up on my page.
I sincerely thought I was improving through those eighteen months, but it was a smokescreen. I was only improving as much as I was on the court, if that makes any sense. Still had horrible habits to test my "manhood", if you will, which included playing in blistering heat with no water for hours at a time(and my face went numb twice), and playing with sweat filled clothes, which slowed me down. Many more things also, but I won't bring those up.
After that match, through all the verbal beatdowns I took, I heard one great suggestion. Take time off of tournaments, go back to the basics, and start training. I had one more match(on my youtube page), then I decided to step back and see what I had to do.
So that's what I've been doing these months. Training. In that timeframe, I learned a lot about myself. I learned that, for all the ballyhoo I gave myself about me being impossible to pass because I'd run everything down, I didn't see the most obvious thing...that it's easy to do that when you are taking no chances on the court.
Anyway, before I go, I'll say two things.
#1. This weekend, I decided to enter a tiny little round robin tournament, which is the "O Tennisbaum" tourney. It's not big, and I'm not going to make it anything more than it is, which is a little momentum for 2012, and consistent improvement. Oh don't get me wrong, I'm way too competitive to make this anything but going for #1, but I know that it's a tiny tournament with very few folks in the middle of December, and it's a round robin/superset format. There will be no video of this tournament, but that's the last time that'll happen.
#2. I'm killing the written blog altogether. That talked ALL about my past, and the past includes anything before that fateful match. I'll do video from time to time, but it'll be more for asking for tips, and recording my matches.
We'll see what this weekend holds. I'm kind of interested in seeing if I've made improvements or not. It's round robin, so I'll get a couple mini matches at least.
Thanks for reading.
