Carlos seriously injured
-
@daniel not at all.
I used a two handed backhand finding it gave better control, and a forehand similar to Borg but less top spin so flatter.
Couldn't serve properly though, never had lessons, saved up for a quality Slazenger laminated raquet.
Remember Vitas Gerulaitis? US/Lithuanian with long fair hair? At times he would be zen like, play instinctively, goodness in full flow he was fantastic to watch. Intercepting early, jumping athletically, and he'd mercilessly wallop the ball. (like the great Ronaldinho playing football, so naturally dribbling round and through multiple players without thought). -
@andyd I'll post about my HS tennis "career" some time. Lol.
I never had professional lessons but once.
Our HS coach booked lessons for the team at Bardmoor.
For this of you who don't know, Bardmoor is kind of a big deal tennis establishment/ couching center a few miles from me as the crow flies. It is clay courts. All of them. At least then.
It's not in inner city Tampa. Lol.
So, I did get to spend a day taking a lesson on clay.
I haven't been able to step on a clay cour since.
This is the US.
They had this business model of selling these public school teams lessons.
It was something far below the level of seriousness.
My lesson- the trainer was "over it" before we started.
My only memory (the lesson was 30 min or as little as 15 min so there wasn't much to take away from it) is:
The trainer was hitting balls to me while standing at the net.
So he hit a few to me.
Then he hit another one.
I turned to my left, coached, set up a two handed backhand, and aimed at his person (I guess a violation of etiquette in this situation but whatever).
My shot was fast, cleared the net by a few inches, and slammed into him .
That's how you would play it and since this was once in forever time to hit on a clay court, I don't regret doing this at all.
So then he got all berserk.
I just kind of ignored him.
I was 16. He was unprofessional.
He was "the tennis player" (and I have no doubt a very mediocre one).
He has a racket in his hand.
He had little awareness and poor reflexes. Too bad.
-
-
-
-
Link to video
Ok, I lell my HS story. My best friend Hara and I were the two alternates.
We couldn't serve well enough.
We had no game to speak of.
We didn't have the knowledge needed to get through a match.
If we had the experience we would still not have the stamina.
So we enjoyed hitting with each other. I loved hitting in the concrete "courts" they have for this.
We spent a lot of time together at city parks for tennis.
We listened to music (Broadway, Streisand, almost every album). No disrespect to Streisand at all, but when I hear her voice now, I switch it off. It was definitely a brief musical phase for me though.
We talked outback dating (others, not each other, lol).
Good times.
I wish I could have done more in HS but there wasn't much opportunity for playing tennis in inner city Tampa, and more to the point, I didn't have the opportunity to take lessons.
So yeah. Glorified waterboy. Lol!
-
-
-
-
️Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login