Can't really remember how I got started playing tennis.... I was never really good at it, never took serious lessons with it, didn't follow tennis great Michael Chang or Pete Sampras growing up, didn't have a hard-hitting uncle that gave me his old wooden racket from his playing days, inspiring me to seek greatness in the sport...Nope, I just started playing. One day I was at my community park hitting around with friends, the next I was going with my dad, my friends, more and more.... one day I showed up at high school tennis tryouts.......one day I started matches on the JV team...one day I made it on varsity and played some matches.
So it goes. My "career" at tennis has really been self-taught.... I just like the game. Not love; the game is too frustrating, too hard to improve, too prone to inconsistent stretches for me to fully love it. And I'm just not that good at it, so I lose more than I ever win. But being good at tennis seems like it could be really fun. Place the ball wherever you want, ace your opponent on command, hit drop shots like they're a piece of cake, shoot winners down the line.....basically, feel invincible. Unfortunately for me, I've only gotten that "invincible" feeling a couple times in my life, and never for more than 5 minutes. Here's what's wrong with my game (and what's wrong with many amateur's games).
1. My serve is wildly inconsistent. First serve: can hit it pretty hard, but not ace material, rely on the other guy to mess up. Problem is, I don't spend the time to ready myself and rush the serve. Second serve: I'm much too dastardly to try to do anything with the second serve. Basically a pancake to the opponent served on a silver platter with the ball screaming, "HIT ME HARD," and I'm on the defensive. It's to the point where I hit a semi-decent second serve on the first serve just so the opponent doesn't move up on me and whack it.
2. Backhand needs work. Many pros' backhands are better than their forehands. Not the case with me ( and most amateurs). My muscle memory with the forehand is sufficient to where I can get some control, but I just haven't hit a million backhand shots like Andre Agassi did before he was 15, so I often don't know where it's going when I'm prepared to hit it, so don't even ask what happens when I'm on the run and have to hit a shot. Birds fly away and squirrels scatter when I wind up to hit that backhand; it flies everywhere.
3. Net game. I love playing net; I like playing doubles more than I do singles cuz I'm already at the net. But playing the net is a lot tougher than it looks, cuz volleys are a whole 'nother game than groundstrokes. I have yet to develop the volley put away shot; usually my volleys look like I see the ball coming at my face and at the last second, I bring up my racket purely out of desperation to protect myself, not asserting any type of accuracy or tenacity at all. O, and I run through volleys like "Fast and Furious" actors run through red lights. It ain't pretty.
4. Mental mistakes. It's almost incredible, but I don't always focus when I play tennis on the game. When I play basketball, it's continuous, back-and-forth action; there's really no time to think about anything else, it's constantly go-go-go, gotta be everywhere, so I never lose focus. Chess, you're gonna be there for 2 hours and you make like a move per 2.5 minutes; you can space out a bit. Tennis is the in-between: I really shouldn't be spacing out, but I space out anyway. I think about my day, which players I'll be starting that weekend in fantasy football, and the next thing you know my opponent hits a strong serve right at my body, I don't move out of the way and attempt a cross between a dink and a push at the ball, and it goes wimpering feebly into the net. That's how about 10 of my points go each match, probably costing me 3 or 4 games in the process. It's really quite the problem, and I haven't fixed it cuz I don't have a coach, I never had a coach, and no one tells me these things. I'm on my own!!!!!
5. I just don't act like a tennis player. I don't look like a tennis player. Tennis players hit hard; they hit consistent ground strokes; they make good decisions;they stay poised under pressure. If anyone's ever seen me play tennis, I do the exact opposite. I often hit slices over the net to try to get spin and win my "garbage" and not power because I don't generate much power; I consistenly hit ground strokes into the net; at no time have I ever hit back-to-back strokes that are the same; I'm always all over the place and I have like 8 different forms; I make terrible decisions; I lob when I should pass; I go backhand when I should go forehand, I rush to the net imprudently and allow the opponent an easy passing shot; I hit a weak shot just because I'm lazy and give up the advantage on the point. All kinds of things. O, and when the pressure's on, I run around like a chicken with his head cut off.
The bottom line is, with tennis, I didn't really learn HOW to be a tennis player, I learned to hit the ball with a racket. I run around just trying to get to balls and hit them back; I don't know technique, I don't know style, I don't really know how to win a tennis match. Thus, I am bad at tennis. However, I still like tennis and will keep on playing; and I have fun playing, which is all that counts. (Unless you're Roger Federer. Or Rafael Nadal. Or Novak Djokovic).
Btw, I met a family with kids who all play football today at a Thanksgiving dinner party. Sound mundane? How bout when I mention it was a CHINESE Thanksgiving dinner party? Shocked that the parents let the Asian kid play football at all. Aren't they afraid the kids' automatically-thrust-upon reputations as nerds will be tarnished? That helmet-to-helmet hits will cause the kids to lose their great math-and-science intelligence abilities? That our fragile Asian bodies will be broken in half by pure American muscle? All kidding and stereotypes aside, I commend the fam and the kids on going into a sport that Asians are underrepresented in. Try something new, break stereotypes and tradition, DAMN THE TORPEDOS!!!!! That said, I'll still stick with tennis.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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