Chasing The Plock!

All Natural Gut Experience I initially did not like it much after my hybrid experience. After few hours of play I loved it, the feel and sound of it are addictive. I also got very good in managing my spins and flat shots, it seems to be the best compromise frankly.  Additionally, there is no guessing when the strings go bad; I felt a slight drop in tension 2-3 hours before the end, and then saw the filaments separating from certain spots, and then kaboom, string broke.  A total of 14 hours of play. On my backup racket I have VS Team natural gut on mains, and Luxilon 4G for crosses. Switching back to this setup, I am missing the all natural gut feel and sound, and I think my shots were more consistent, the only negative is I think my arm hurt more with all natural gut setup than the hybrid.  I will continue to play with this setup for another 14-18 hours and make a final decision then how I want both of my rackets strung and tensions.

1st Tournament I entered my first USTA tournament in Men's 3.5 Singles category last week. I was excited to play my first competitive match, I did not feel nervous.  Apparently I was nervous however; I lost the match 6-2/6-0 to a person I should have easily beaten.  My serve deserted me, my backhand was no where to be found, my drop shots all dropped to my own court and my forehand was below par at best. Although I was not feeling nervous, I was playing for points   consciously  for sure , and I think that impacted my touch and feel; I was really lousy. I feel very good however that I got at least one match under my belt, and hopefully I learned enough that I won't repeat the same mistakes next time around.  I am certainly lacking match experience at this point, my practice game does not translate on the match play, and that is something I have to fix.  I don't know exactly how to do that just yet, but I will condition myself mentally ...

First Practice Match I played a 4.0+ as part of a practice match last weekend, lost 6-2/6-0. I have to admit that I had a lot more fun that I thought I would. My forehand wasn't bad or good, my backhand was nearly non-existent, but my serves, volley and touch were... just superb! I think my 1st serves were nearly 50% and I was accurate to the point, wide or to the T. I had 4 aces, two in one game during first set, and returns were definitely not great during those serves. I also had 7 or 8 double faults, but I wasn't worried about those at all. Overall I was really pleased with my game, and now have a better idea on what to work on. First tournament is this coming weekend. I am not expecting to win any matches, but I sure will be having fun in the 3.5 Men's Single division.