LAST WEEK’S RECAP | FEBRUARY 6 – 12, 2017

FRIDAY

A player from Kinnelon found us a year ago and has been coming regularly to the Friday parties. Just around October or November he started bringing his now-16-year-old son who’s been practicing weekly. Quite comfortable around adults, he’s made a few friends here and will ask them to hit singles the last hour of the parties. Dad was surprised that son missed this week, choosing family dinner (with mom and brother) over tennis! I’m not surprised that the dad is here upon hearing and seeing the joy on his face as he talked about his childhood days since 12 yo, always playing tennis day and night in Ridgewood where he grew up.

Last week the father told another sports enthusiast friend also from Kinnelon whose 16-year-old go to the same school as his son. The 2 teenagers will be playing on the high school team this coming spring, and thus the practice now. The newcomer teenager attended the Friday party for the first time and had a nice time. Like the old-timer dad, newcomer dad is a sports fan, playing sports all his life including tennis, golf, and other sports I forget now. He was happy to hear about the group and said he wished he knew about our parties sooner. I’m glad at least he found us. Word of mouth is our best compliment!

It was great seeing a few people demoing racquets tonight. A former college player from Palisades Park trained in Florida, where he’s originally from, is trying out lighter racquets which I thought showed in his improved play tonight (and Saturday, he was a two-timer this week). I’ve been telling some players in the group that a heavy racquet can be a hindrance in different ways, e.g., cause pain or too heavy for a smooth swing. By the time the ball comes, you’re half way through swinging that heavy racquet. Even for this tall advanced player, he feels pain when he serves. Maybe he should stop serving 200 mph 🙂

I use a shopping cart to lug supplies from the parking lot into the lounge at the Friday parties. At the end of the party, I found an Amazon driver/partygoer from Jersey City fooling around with my cart, wheeling it back and forth, taking tiny steps as an old lady with a shopping cart would. To spice it up more, he said in a woman’s voice – “Amazon, Amazon, Amazon…” It was a great way to end the night, with a big smile on all of our faces.

SATURDAY

I watched some really fun matches tonight. I matched a former college female player from Hoboken with a tall and explosive (big serves, groundies, etc.) USTA player from NYC practicing for his playoff match the next day Sunday, versus an experienced older player and a younger player from Staten Island. Seeing that the USTA player is on his court, the experienced player said something like – Hm he’s really good. I told him – Not to worry, I’ve got a runner to be your partner. Not only will he run down every ball, but will get it back with a punch. And that he did! I watched a few points with our legendary player from Croton-On-Hudson (see last week’s newsletter) and asked what he thought of the match. He said that the SI player is fast and has a great forehand. I learned this amongst other things from the COH player. Quite happy with that matchup, I moved on to watch more fun points on other courts.

PS: I got an email from the USTA player on Monday:

Thank-you for the great matchups on Saturday! It was a perfect warm-up for my playoff match on Sunday. My partner and I won our court which was the deciding court for our team to win the finals! (Men’s 4.0 40+ Metro). We have sectionals next, but not until August.Thanks again!

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