Back on the Practice Court, Focus Tested – Shubert Blog

Written by: Staff on 3rd November 2011

Back on the Practice Court, Focus Tested - Shubert Blog |

I’ve been getting a few requests to explain Halloween in Hawaii with a little bit more in depth coverage. I think it’s safe to say Halloween is many islanders’ favorite holiday in the year, based on cultural aspects and festive spirit. Downtown and Waikiki become overrun with thousands of people every year, even causing people to drive in from the North Shore (2-3hr drive based on traffic). Monday night, before my dinner date, I headed to Ala Moana mall to pick up gifts for my friends back here in California. The entire mall had put on a Halloween trick-or-treat for the local children who maybe did not have a neighborhood route they could take. It was totally mapped out for parents too, all the retail stores that were participating were displayed on a special Halloween map so that they could wait outside while the dressed young children could go inside the store and pick up candy. How awesome is that? To go trick or treating at the largest mall on the island? Furthermore, because Oahu is such a small island, everybody knows everybody, dressing up in costume gives people a reason to go out again and possibly create more stories and experiences. It’s entirely fun, there isn’t a single “party-pooper” during Halloween celebrations – I had a few friends that wanted to flake on the festivities, but ended up showing up in full costume later on. Even government offices were holding dress-up day on Monday, so I’m sure local businesses also engage in the spirit. My old school, Punahou, has costume contests and if you ask anybody who attends/attended will tell you that if Halloween is on a weekday, the entire school and its teachers will be in full costume to show off creativity and a little rambunctiousness. All in all, what I’ve been conveying is that Halloween isn’t just a holiday on Oahu, it’s a transformation and an event.

Today’s practice in Montecito consisted of set play. It’s been a while since I’ve served a lot and my shoulder and knees definitely felt stiff after a midnight arrival last night at LAX. I’m actually about to go downstairs to roll out soon; can’t be feeling this way leading up to my upcoming tournament this weekend. Despite the physical demands, we had a solid group show up today. Ben gathered me, Booie, Nick, Ricardo, Brendan McClain, and two UCSB freshmen. Our 7-man squad took up 4 courts and were banging ball all afternoon. I played 2 sets, coming out on top in both only because I managed to get around my backhand and hit a few good forehands. Other than that nothing really special took place today as I worked on my match-play movement and steadiness. I can recall going down 3-0 double break in my first practice set to one of the UCSB players, but I realized this wasn’t reason to panic because I knew I had time to work my way back into the set and find my footing. I’m sort of anxious about my Men’s Open event this weekend, the Top Gun tournament usually attracts alot of good players because of the prize money. I’m hoping to do well of course but I’m apprehensive about my shoulder at the moment – It’s been a month since my last tournament despite all the fun tennis gigs I’ve been a part of throughout October. I’m still using Solinco 17g Revolution and find I can’t find another string that offers the same pop on the ball. I tried Solinco’s BarbWire in Hawaii, which is black and matches the color scheme of my racket more, but found my balls dropping a little short due to the massive amounts of spin I was able to generate. Nowadays you need to be able to hit a deep penetrating ball that is lower over the net than the usual high/heavy combo that works in the juniors/collegiate level. I am definitely sticking with my 17g Revolution because the ball will just zing and land in the corners! Not to mention it also holds tension which is important to me because in a 98sq inch head, a droppage in tension means back fence…

So happy to be on the court practicing again,

Shubert