C/A/S

For this month, I don't plan on playing any tournaments. I learned a lot ever since my last blog, and I would like to use what I've learned and put it to test in practice. Other than practicing tennis, I've been volunteering at practice to help others. December is usually the time that new players join, so I helped my coaches by showing new players our stretch and warm-up routines. That would take around 30 to 45 minutes each time I went to practice. Although I can’t do the stretches perfectly by any means, I did my best to show the others the different kinds of stretches we do at our academy. Aside from helping new players at practice, I did take some time to focus on improving my game, more specifically, my mental game. So far I've done well in improving to a certain extent, although I can still improve a lot more. I have found it quite difficult to improve so I’ll continue to find new ways to get better. LO1 LO2 LO5

Throughout the school year, the NHS chapter creates volunteering opportunities through group projects that benefit the community. This month, the NHS chapter decided to help paint 2 classrooms at Marshall Middle School. I was part of the group that painted the walls of one of the Spanish teacher's classrooms. Once we got to the school, we found out that we didn't have quite enough materials for everyone to use. So for a short amount of time, I had to spend time painting a section of a large wall with a small paintbrush. It was challenging only because of the amount of time it took me to complete painting the section I had to paint. I was then asked to paint another section of the classroom which was even bigger, however, I was given a paint roller which I thought was better than the small paintbrush I was using. I was able to complete painting my new section a lot quicker than the previous one. All parts of the walls in the classroom I was in had been painted. So, I moved on to...

As I mentioned before, I have group and private lessons for tennis. Last week I talked about a group lesson I had, the same lesson repeated this week however I'll be talking about the private lesson I had yesterday. A little background information about my private lessons; I have them twice a week with my coach, Keith Diepraam, at the Houston Jewish Community Center for one hour. Keith is a pro who used to play on the ATP tour in the 60's. He is a member of the last eight, which you are admitted to if you reach the quarterfinals of Wimbeldon. I know that he's taught some of the world's best players for a long time, one example being Andy Roddick, I believe he coached him when he was playing junior tournaments. Now he coaches juniors and adults at the Jewish Community Center, I've been with him for about 2 years now. For about the past month we've been trying to perfect my backhand slice. This past week I did really well with it and it has improved a whole lot. O...

My first group lessons of the school year started this week. Although I hadn't played since summer break ended, I still think I played pretty well and gave everyone a good person to hit with. I should mention first that my practices are from 4:30 P.M. to 7:00, I have other types of lessons during the week however I'll only be writing about the group lesson for today's blog. Tournaments come by once a month so I'll be blogging about those monthly. My group lessons happen every week so I'll probably be writing about those the most out of any other type of practice I have. Anyway, my group lessons are two and a half hours long; for the first hour we warm up and do drills to get a rhythm going for our strokes and feet. How I play during this week is important because I have a tournament in Dallas this weekend, whether I play bad or good the week of a tournament usually determines how I play. This week specifically, other than getting out of a really stiff feeling, I thi...