Easter Tennis

In the 70s, there was this notion that wives of rich men would go play tennis with some young stud tennis pro, and there would be some tryst, as the shallow young men were typically in it for the money, and the lonely wife wanted attention from someone more virile and attentive than their husband.

Implicit in this scenario is that tennis lessons are expensive (also implicit is that the tennis lessons didn't teach much tennis, but that's besides the point).

That's still true today.

I've had two private lessons, from two guys, which I'll call Mark and Joe. Joe's approach to teaching was more holistic. He believed in the racquet doing work, that the hand merely flings across, and its momentum would do the rest. I met Mark this morning before dawn, which had more to do with the prices of the court. While Joe has a deal with the tennis center he works at that allows him to charge the same price regardless of when he teaches, Mark charges based on the cost of the court at that moment. In other words, the tennis center he works at doesn't cut him any deals on court fees, making it more expensive at peak hours, and cheaper at non-peak hours.

Thus, I was up at a little after 5 getting ready for a 6 AM lesson.

Mark's approach is far more conventional. He suggests specific improvements in your game. We started off with my forehand, in which he suggested striking the ball with a straighter arm, and maintaining an angle between arm and wrist. He also emphasized shoulder turn. This is basically how I wanted to hit the ball, after starting at Federer hitting his forehand slow motion.

My tendency is to keep my elbow into the body and let the forearm and wrist do the work, which creates, I suspect inconsistency.

From there, we went to the backhand, where he wanted my arms straighter, and again, a bigger shoulder turn. This felt a little awkward, but I was able to make this adjustment better.

It's surprising how tired I was getting hitting 10-15 forehands in a row. I was literally winded from doing this.

On my serve, he noticed my toss was not that consistent, and wanted me to toss the ball higher.

I felt I was shanking the ball hitting volleys as well.

There's a second contrast between Mark and Joe. Joe thinks coming for lessons every once in a while (once a month or so) is enough. Mark prefers lessons more often, like every week, and more often, if I can help it. While I can "afford" it, I don't want to take lessons that often, partly because of the expense. If he had some deal where he'd do 4 lessons for the price of 3, then maybe. It goes back to the expense of playing that often.

Think of it. If I have a membership at a fitness club, that's say 50 dollars a month. If I have lessons with him once a week, that's 65 dollars a lesson or 260 to 320 dollars a month (depending on the number of weeks in that month).

I think I'll probably end up taking lessons with Mark, partly because of proximity, partly because his hours are all over the place, and partly because I like the specific advice I get, over the more holistic approach Joe takes.

I will say, during the lesson, I felt more uncomfortable with my racquet than ever, but mostly because I felt I was hitting on the wrong places in the racquet. I think I need to pay attention to the old adage of keeping my eyes on the ball.

Now, for some sleepy time. 6 AM is awfully early for me.