Cardio Tennis

Cardio tennis is a much better work out than playing singles or doubles for an hour. Especially if you go to Aarons' Saturday Cardio Tennis at 11:00. This Saturday 8 participants worked on their stamina and probably lost 300 calories each. Cardio is great for everyone. You can go at your own pace, and feel free to sit out for a little bit if you need to. Aaron makies sure the music pumps you up (sorry, no ABBA music), and he will also challenge you to run down every ball. Sign up by calling the Pro Shop. Remember to bring you water bottle, and take my advise to wear a headband or a hat to absorbe your sweat!

Shadow strokes in the warm up

Monday Night Team Tennis # 2

OK, so my team lost tonight... A tough one to swallow. Coach Larry mobilized his players well, and he also drafted very well. It was a bigger crew than last week, 64 players came out to play and we played on courts 1 - 14.

The first round was very even, 57 to 53 in favour of Larry. In the second round, his team expanded the lead by winning 65 games against Magnus' 55 games. In this round, three matches ended up 4-4, and nine matches 5-3 or 3-5. These scores indicate that me and Larry did good job making up the matches. It was three 6-2 wins by Larry's team that made a difference. Magnus' team won the 3rd round 61-59. Both teams had a 7-1 win in this round (maybe a less good match up by us...).

We were one person short for the last round, so I played in. I actually played for Larrys' team, b/c it was his team that was missing a player. Going full steam, I ended up winning 5-3, which in hindsight was a bad move by me. I should just have tanked the match so my team would have won the event. But, Monday Night Team Tennis is about competing, trying hard, and do your best, so once I warmed up a little I was able to put a few by our opponents.

Unfortunately for me, the hors d'oeuvres were gone by the time that I got up on the porch. One of my favorite members, but a non-participant in the event, was instead chewing along happily on the food... I ended up with one of Tony's stir fry instead, which was delish... But where was the Toast Skagen?

See you next Monday!

Final Score: Larry: 181              Magnus:  169

Womens' Member Guest

The 2012 Women's Member Guest started out under a blue sky on Saturday, but after lunch a cold wind moved in. Conveniently they players could put on their Longwood warm up jackets which was this years gift to the players.

The players were divided into 2 division, creatively named the "Billie Jean Moffitt" and the "Billie Jean King" divisions. As you know, Billie Jean King's maiden name was Moffitt. In each division there were 2 flights of 6 teams.

Grounds- and Tennis Directors planning the day

After a morning session of round robins, the number 1 and 2 teams of each flight moved into a Championship Playoff. Number 3 and 4 from each flight played for the 3rd and 4th position. The remaining teams played for position 5 and 6.

In the playoffs after lunch, Allison Taff and her guest Maggie Butorac ended up winning the Billie Jean Moffit Championship, 8-4 against Molly Hahn and her guest Nancy Grimes. In the Billie Jean King division, Cynthia Dareshori and her guest Cheryl Emery won against Nancy Hughes and her guest Carol Linde for the Championship.

Lunch was privided by our own Tony B. I had some left overs in the kitchen as the afternoon play off started. I couldn't find the Toast Skagen, maybe next weekend for the Men's Member Guest.

Look at me!

Looks like more action on the 2nd row

Maybe not... here's some action

Score sheet

Monday Night Team Tennis Opening Night 2012

Exactly 40 players came out to play Monday Night Team Tennis (MNTT) on a beautiful Monday night. For those of you who are new to the club, the MNTT is a competitive event between Larry and Magnus, who draft players to their respective team. Once the rosters are determined, about 6:05 PM, the battle begins. We play 3 rounds of tennis: doubles, mixed doubles, doubles. The format is no add scoring, and a total of 8 games. A reason why many members are so enthusiastic about Monday night is that there is no sign up in advance, just show up and play. Sign up is at the club outside of the Pro Shop, starting around 5:30. The idea is that the matches starts as close to 6:00 as possible. If you are arriving at the club at 6:15 the matches are already in progress.

On this first MNTT of the year, it turned out that the first round was key to victory. Coach Magnus' team came out to a jump start and took a comanding 20 points lead, and from there didn't look back. Although the round of Mixed Doubles was dead even, 40-40 points, Magnus's team rolled on to win the third round 45-35, and was declared winners of the event.

 

The winning team gets to enjoy a free drink afterwards on behalf of the runner ups. The players on the losing team are charged for 2 drinks: 1 for themselves, and one for an opponent. Wine and beer is charged a minimal price equal to a soda. Tony also provides some delicious finger food afterwards. If you haven't participated in the MNTT yet, come down next Monday and play!

 

Final Score: Team Larry 103, Team Magnus 137

Run for your life!

16 members showed up this morning for a Cardio Tennis workout, a record number. Aaron and Hanna kept everyone buys on the two teaching courts, forcing Director Wolf to move up to the Rt. 9 courts for his lesson.

Cardio Tennis is pure workout. If you want to work on your quickness by running down balls left and right, this is for you. If you prefer to do a few drills and play doubles at the end, Cardio is not for you. If you want to get on the list for the next Cardio Tennis, call the Pro Shop.

Women's Saturday Clinic

For those women who are able to play during the day, we have been offering many different women's clinics over the years. This season we are introducing a Saturday afternoon clinic for the players on or close to the 4.0 rating.

Last Saturday Coach Larry ran 4 women through different drills on one of the teaching courts. Instruction included court positioning for doubles as well as stroke production (volleys, groundstrokes, down the line, cross court, etc.).

Captains dilemma

Being a team captain for a Spring League team can be easy when everything is moving along smoothly. Especially if nobody on the team is injured and the weather forecast says sun and blue sky. Everyone just shows up and plays. No big deal. But then there is the Longwood Green team that has to play TCC this week, which typically is our toughest opponent every spring. Combined with a weather forecast that predicts rain for the next 3 days, it is a tough job for Captain Liz to set the line up. Some of todays practice time was spent figuring out who should play together. "Maybe X could play with Y, but X plays better with Z, so mabye X should play with Z, and I could play with Y". As we are playing at TCC, we know that the surface will be clay indoors. As for our line up, only the Captain knows what the final line up will look like. And you can be sure that we will not announce it on this blog prior to the game, as you don't know where the enemy will gather information about our team.

Great practice today with the Green team. Lots of volleys and groundstrokes. On my station the net players isolated a baseline player on either the deuce or the add side. The baseline player at the same time had to hit low balls, trying not to give the net players easy high balls. Lobs were banned in this drill.

The team goofing around at the water cooler.

What do you think? Should X play with Z?