Positives

More and more I feel and become in tune with my own mental and physical readiness. I have three distinct levels of preparedness. Although it seems I warmup progressively from one to the other, it isn't always true that one of the three facets won't breakdown throughout play.

1) The racquet technique

squaring off to the side wall and following through my swing. pronate. adjusting racquet grip or swing to the varying space between myself, the ball, and the walls. keeping the head still throughout the swing.

2) The focus and concentration of the eyes and the timing of hand and eye coordination

firstly, seeing the ball and tracking it in flight. tuning in, watching, and not tune out between rallies or even between shots. finally, seeing trajectories of the balls and in reference to players and walls.

3) The movement of the legs and feet

lifting off my heels and standing on my toes. Bend of the knees. spring in the calfs. skipping and lunging. finally, quick recovery to the T and rapid one-two step movement around the court.

Many other techniques fall in place when these three facets come into focus - like the early racquet take-back preparation, lifting the ball, and smarter shot selections. I really don't have to think about these so long as I take care of the three core skills.

So I should note that the time it takes to bring all three facets into alignment is quite long still. During the last practice, it took 3 - 5 games to get into the groove. The two skills that took the longest to warmup are focus and footwork. Right now I won't try to speed things up, but just to explore cues to trigger each skill into play.