tennis, life and a few things in between

We woke up to a sunny day.  Since Slowpoke n her g/fs decided not to attend the service (of a Bat Mitzvah), so she’s free till 6pm.  “How about some tennis?”  Sure.  Should I call Katie?  K is taking her lesson with Martin at 1:30.  No, mom, I want to play with you.  How flattering!  Slowpoke kept up with me, moving me from left to the right; and she knew she was often late for her forehand.  I told her to keep a plan in mind, not just moving me, but make it point of moving me to the side she actually intended.  She’s hitting really well. 

When we begin to play a game, that’s when she showed her frustration: her serve was inadequate.  After only two games, she said she’d like to practice serving.  By the time she finished a basket (of balls), Kerner’s lesson was over, and as usual, he came over to give Slowpoke some advice.  Her grip is all wrong, he said …  It brought back some early memory of myself when I started learning to serve.  For the first few lessons on serving, I felt totally out of control.  But after used to the motion, I was ok with it.  After Kerner left for his next lesson, to my surprise, Slowpoke said she’d like to take lesson from him, “I want more discipline.”  I felt my jaw was dropping.  So she’s serious, or at least she knows what she needs to do to improve.  I had wanted her to try Craig too, but never connected with him.  I think different coaches would give you some insight that others won’t, and I told her about this.

Martin once said that when he was a kid, he played with Kerner who’s already coaching.  But looking at Kerner, I’d guess him as 30ish – Martin laughed, ‘no way … black men don’t age.’  Kerner has a 20 years old daughter who plays tennis.  So much for my guessing, lol.  Kerner has concession of this local park and he keeps it pretty neat.  I didn’t start playing there again till last year with Andy, Alex, etc.  The park has a decent size pool and a picnic area.  It used to be empty.  Last year I realized every weekends the park were packed, which is very annoying and noisy, plus the fumes, and we weren’t invited to the party to boot, lol.  Thank god Kerner is around, provides a little authority figure in an otherwise deserted park.  He’s always been nice to us, making small chat and giving short brief coaching.   But back then the kids didn’t seem to take to him as they took to Martin.  Now that Slowpoke asked for Kerner (instead Martin), I am very happy to oblige, in a way I could reciprocate Kerner’s kindness or good salesmanship.

As we were approaching the court where Martin and Katie were playing, we noticed immediately a puny girl dressed like gypsy was playing like a pro. I thought Slowpoke can’t serve cause she’s short, then think again. The Puny serves with such power, Roddick would have taken notice. She is small for a 9 years old, clearly enjoys the game, and has been playing for a long time.

Martin had lesson at the Cunningham where I have been playing for the past 10 years or so on the weekend mornings. As family, we’ve there been couple of times for the New York Philharmonic with our neighbors few years ago. It’s bit windy but warm enough for out door tennis. Slowpoke chuckled when she saw so many players were greeting me, “mom, how many people do you know?” lol . . . it’s also first time they saw Slowpoke. When she took lesson, I played with Kevin the Aussie. It’s pretty intense one hour hitting. At the end, he said, “your back seemed holding up nicely.” What back? Do I have one? Oh the painful one. It never exists till it starts bothering me, lol.. After her lesson, Katie came back and they played for an hour. Katie’s mom is also non stop picking up balls, gosh … I must be the laziest mom around. While they were playing, Martha (?) kept telling Katie what to do, to a point when Katie stopped and told her mom to be quiet. Thank god I have enough self restrain, haven’t done so yet. But I do talk with her, in private. Especially when we drive to the lesson, I found it’s a good time to bring up the subject, we always have good chat. Obvious she hasn’t watched enough tennis to know all the terms, so when Martin commented that she has flat forehand, she asked me what does it mean during one of her ball-retrieval trips. Sweet pie, lol .. don’t worry too much, do what’s comfortable n nature to you. She hits her flat forehand deep, which is better than mine. Was that Simon repeatedly telling me, hit it deep to the baseline?? So here you have it, flat might afford less options, but if you can hit it deep, it is effective. She also asked when can she switch to single hand back hand. Have you been reading my blog, baby? She complains that double handed backhand gives her less reach, and less flexibility. Single hand backhand? Sounds like music to my ears.