Crickets Tennis

The Crickets occupy the bottom room on the pool side of the building. Kim and her staff train all the little crickets how to get ready for tennis and swimming. It's about changing outfits, finding the tennis sock, get out of a wet bathing suit, and keep track of the racket. The Crickets is also about developing motor skills on the tennis court by tossing balls, catching balls, rolling a tennis ball, hitting a tennis ball, and getting a water break. Also, ball pick up is an important activity to practice at this age, as coaches later in life will demand that players pick up the balls on the court.

In the pictures below, Coach Maisie shared her water break skills and tennis skills with some of the Crickets.

Get your motor running

Cardio Tennis is a great way to get your motor running and to improve your tennis at the same time. It's a pure exercise clinic, and no room for doubles play at the end. Just running down balls and hit FHs and BHs repeatedly across the court. This Wednesday morning group was tiny, but they worked hard. If you haven't tried a Cardio Tennis session yet, sign up for Saturday 11-12 or Wednesday 9-10. Get your motor running!

Meredith, Alice, Stephanie, and the boom box.

Monday Night Team Tennis Standings as of July 17

Team Larry: 505*                                            Team Magnus:  533*

*The score from 7/9 is missing... I am trying to locate the score sheet. It got lost in the bar when they figured out who should be charged for the drinks... Larry won that night, so with that score added to the total above, Larry will be in the lead.

Summer in the city

If you haven't noticed it, it is summer in the city of Boston. On the courts at Longwood, fathers and their sons from all over the country are competing for the 2012 Father/Son Grass Court Gold Ball. Good tennis was played all day Monday, also into the evening when the Monday Night Team Tennis took over the courts. We had 9 courts going. KC, Kathy, Jacqueline, Steve, and Jeff played for the first time this year, and were quite happy afterwards when they found out that they were all (except Jacqueline) on the winning team and got a free drink. But Miss J was still happy and enjoyed playing in the event.

Larry was busy running the Father/Son tournametn, so I was able to draft players very independently. As a veteran MNTT player, Joe McNay was signed early to my team. To even the strengths of the teams out, another heavy weight player, Bernhard Radtke, was quickly assigned to Larry's team. A fan favourite, Bob Dickie, made a comeback, having not played in a few weeks. As a protege' of Larrys, he of course had to be assigned to Larrys' team. Other regulars were Maria, Andrea, Debbie, Patge, Wallace, Dan, Cindy, Lenny, Peter, Bob, Ken, Bruce, Susan, Paul, JVH, and Lou.

The first round was key to the victory. And victory was sweet. After three weeks of coming in second, my team played very well and finally won again. My team was up 44-28 after the first round of doubles, and won 42 games in the 2nd round against Team Larry's 30 games. In the end, my team won 126-90. For the 3rd round, one of my players had to leave, so I filled in for him. Together with Jeff Z I clinched the victory with an impressive 8-0 win over [first name, last name] and [first name, last name]. (Names erased upon request by the losing team.)

It was a great night for tennis and everyone had fun playing and socializing afterwards. Next week will be tougher when Larry is around for some hands-on coaching again.

Final score MNTT # 5:    Team Larry  90                                        Team Magnus 126