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Why Tennis After One and One-Half of a Century Later?

Recreational tennis is as exciting as professional tennis I think, and I'd venture to guess it is actually more fun. There are many reasons we play this sport, at my age it is need to feel the satisfaction of self-improving in an area that is unrelated to work, career, or continuation of blood lines.

When I first returned to tennis, I thought I had somewhat of a unique story of having played competitively during middle and high schools year, taking a sabbatical for 30+ years and now returning after age fifty. I am so amazed that my story is probably the most common story within the recreational circles. Nearly everyone I meet playing tennis has a very similar story. This means that many of us are probably seeking something that's been left unanswered in our lives, some nostalgia perhaps, slowing down our degrading health, or some other reason. I think they are all valid ways to enrich our lives, elevate our self-value and even gain a new place in our complex societies.

No matter the reason, significant component of our reason probably lie in our need to continuously improve ourselves. My father, for example, has never stopped reading novels, stories, world views, etc. He never had interest in science fiction, or politics, but he certainly loves the classics particularly from Europe and Russia. His latest interest for the past ten to twelve years has been poetry. I send him various books, Paris Review, Boston Review, Poetry, etc. He reads, re-reads, takes notes, underlines, highlights, and completely immerses himself in them.  He is seventy-nine now, and I know he won't stop reading until his last breath. It enriches his very simple life, and happiness ensues. I admire him in so many ways.

I feel beyond fortunate that I am still in good health and able to play tennis, despite all the no-nos I have done to my body for the past fifty years. Just playing however is not sufficient for me to feel it is enriching my life, I have to know and feel that I am improving even in small steps. I have known many players, somewhat later in their age group, they stopped improving, that is not the purpose of the game for them. They play with the same people, using the same strategies, same shots, same movements, same doubles partners, etc. They have been doing this for many years apparently, and they play four to five times a week this way. Enjoying the game at a level that you can do it the same way each and every time for periods of years, requires enormous commitment and respect for the game. 

I always been a person that needed quick results, a desire for nearly-immediate action/reaction pairing, I have never been a person you'd describe as patient in any way. This trait of mine, for the better and worse, is reflected in my game. Furthermore, I don't have the ability to focus on multiple interests at the same time. Once I pick something I focus on it to a level of obsession. Tennis has certainly been an obsession for me, and part of its attractiveness is there is immediate action/reaction pairing and results are quite transparent.

I know I have been improving, I am enjoying my game more and more certainly and my match results are reflective of the improvements as well. Based on early recommendations from the coaches who have watched my game, I self-rated my game under the USTA's NTRP system as a 3.0 last year. 2015 was a rude awakening and I was in doubt I would even qualify for 3.0. However, since December of 2015 I have improved more apparently, and instead of playing exclusively at the 3.0 level leagues, I signed up for 3.5 leagues as well for 2016 winter and spring seasons.  Here are some stats:
  • 3.0 Adult Leagues: 1 doubles win, 1 singles win, 1 doubles loss; 66% win rate
  • 3.5 Adult Leagues: 5 doubles wins, 2 doubles losses (next two matches will be singles); 71% win rate
  • 3.5 Adult Flex League: 4 singles wins, 2 singles losses; 67% win rate
  • Combined 3rd set tie-breakers: 5 wins out of 6; 83% win rate
  • Any wins at 4.0+ levels: 0!
Based on my match record at the 3.5 league matches, I recently received a promotion by the USTA to 3.5 level as the computer deemed the results of the matches significantly better than expected. This resulted in disqualification of all of the three matches I played at 3.0 level this year, thankfully without negative impact to the teams I played for in those leagues. Now I am officially a computer-rated 3.5 level player.

This is a hard confirmation of what I and the players I have played with knew already. Having such confirmation is the type of result that fuels my passion to move forward. New target: 4.0.

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