Tennis in the Winter? – Shubert Blog

Written by: Staff on 26th October 2011

Tennis in the Winter? - Shubert Blog |

It’s officially Winter here in Southern California, which means gloomy days filled with cold fog and dense conditions… I know I know, it’s not really Winter, but bear with me in this breakdown. What this change in weather does for me as well as my practice partners is make things less ideal. The sun is no longer shining, people lose their patience quicker, the balls don’t bounce as high. It’s a constant struggle to remain focused when you’re feeling warm and then all of a sudden the breeze comes along and ices you down. That in turn makes you constantly aware of your body temperature, you’re more willing to jump and run around just to stay warm out there, regardless of whether you’re playing tennis or not. Also, keep in mind I did play tennis for 4 years in Utah, where if there was any trace of sun, I’d be shirtless in 40 degree weather trying to get some rays outside our indoor facility. But that was then, maybe I’m not as tough now, and these conditions provide challenges for me. I’ve only hit tennis balls twice this past week, so today’s practice was very difficult. Luckily I had my former coach Brad Pearce’s voice in my head, reminding me to play for consistency and depth rather than power. I remained calm and relaxed while executing shot after shot until my wrist started to give out. There’s no sense in trying to whack dead balls around thinking you’re improving, you might as well focus your mind, grind it out, execute the same stroke each time and not have to rely on bailing out of a point by going for a winner. One of our drills was to simply hit 200 balls total across the net crosscourt to each other. First we did the forehand side, then we did the backhand side. About a 100 balls into the rally on the backhand side, my partner who I was hitting with threw his racket to the ground in disgust. I immediately walked off the court, ending the drill based on my low tolerance of this behavior. I’m am not without sin in this department, but I can’t recall the last time I threw my racket, especially when I’ve been having to pay for them out of my own pocket the past few years. Back at BYU, racket throwing meant immediate ejection from practice for the day and possibly the next day’s practice. I definitely encourage people to inhibit this type of outward show of anger because it’s completely unnecessary in my professional opinion. Anyway, whether it was the balls or loss of patience, people seemed on edge today. I bet if the sun were shining, nobody would be complaining, but since Santa Barbara is now blanketed in fog during the day, it makes for perfect weather to get the mind right and get back to training. I suppose Hawaii will be a different story…

Oh yeah I almost forgot, I leave for Hawaii early tomorrow morning, still need to pack even though I’m approaching the midnight hour right now; It’s alright, I’ll sleep on the plane. Managing my time will be key in Hawaii because even though I’ll be helping out Christopher, Nick, and Dylan, I need to maintain my game and fitness with Coach Ben. I think it’ll be a great experience returning home with younger players sort of under my wing, and definitely a good learning process to go through. I just had an amazing experience with the Champions Series Tennis tour, and am looking forward to increasing my global-tennis views through the game’s many avenues.

Lastly, Youtube approached me via email inviting me to make some money via my channel/videos. I immediately jumped on board because I’d love to have the opportunity to fund my tennis career via my videos that I take while on the road, practicing, or watching pros play the game of tennis. It’s all a work in progress which I hope to continue doing on top of blogging, playing tournaments, and whatever else I can do to keep up this livelihood. (Can the term Jack-Of-All-Trades apply here?).

Talk to you soon from my hometown Honolulu,

Shubert

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