Nice guys finishes...

It really pisses me off when I play against 3.5's. They play an unorthodox game, they interfere with your movement and they don't even acknowledge when they have walked into a stroke, let alone a let. Excuses aside, I did not play well today. Coupled lack of sleep with nervousness, I was slow on my feet and not watching the player and the ball. I did learn a big lesson from today. One that I think I have ignored until today. The simple lesson is how I hit the ball. I'm savvy to the notion that I want to hit the ball deep to the back, but I don't do it well at all when I'm hitting a ball that's at my heels. My stroke doesn't have enough lift to drive it to the back even when I'm standing at the service line. This is something I have to practice in order to raise my confidence against these 3.5 players. Just like my second opponent today, he drives low and fast from the back and front court, but cannot hold the T without hitting the ball back to himself. Against an opponent like that I just have to hold the T and hit high to the back. Holding the T wasn't the problem, it was hitting to the back that I failed to do today. That was greatly due to the fact that I could not get enough lift and pace on the ball. I will have to practice these shots and practice bending really low to do it.