USTA Camp Chapter 2

Today was the 2nd day of camp and I must say it was wicked tiring, but it wasn't so bad. All of the players were split up on a number of courts each with a coach working on 2 on 1s most of the time. My court however was a little different. It was myself, a player from georgia tech, and southern cal with a coach who has trained many top tennis players in the world. Literally 2 minutes into the start of practice we were drilling, we didn't even get a chance to really warm-up before getting run around the court. But the first drill was 2 on 1, and the one person had to work on depth, hitting past targets set up deep in the court. Well he wanted us to hit 30 balls past those targets and for every miss you would lose one in the count. It took me 10 minutes to get to 4. The most I got was I think 14. But in the time allowed none of us got to 30. Then the second drill was probably one of the hardest drills I've ever done. Here is the set up: the coach was on one side of the court up at net and there was one of us up at a time. We would hit everything back to him for only 1 minute but that 1 minute was hell. He would drop shot you, then lob you, then run you to one alley and then to the other. So you literally were running your ass around the court as hard and fast as you could for 1 minute while trying to get the ball back to him. After your 1 minute you had 2 minutes rest as the others girls took their turns. We did this for 30 minutes straight. My legs were like jello after the first minute. But I have to say once it was done you really felt like you got something out of it and that's a good feeling. The best part of the drill though was watching the other courts around us get like 7 water breaks, sitting down laughing and having a good time, as we were getting our asses kicked, unable to breathe or stand without the fence for support. I must say that was the best part. Then we switched courts, finally and we did volleys. I don't think any of us could keep our racquet's up we were so tired. But it was only for about 15 minutes so we pushed through it and completed the drill. And after all the drilling we had fitness, and to our surprise it wasn't running or lifting, just some abs, back, and hurdles. If it were anything else people would have dropped like flies, me especially. So that was our morning session. The afternoon was a simple practice match with a 10 point tiebreaker played if you split sets. So overall not such a bad day. But as I'm writing this I can feel the soreness beginning. I hope I'm able to walk in the morning, but we'll just have to wait and see.

USTA Camp - Chapter 1

Last night I flew into Ft. Lauderdale from Cleveland and to my surprise nothing was delayed too bad and the flight wasn't so bad either. In Cleveland I got onto the plane and sat in seat 1a then 5 minutes later a monstrous thunderstorm came rolling in. It looked like a monsoon outside and the lightning was like paparazzi. It was crazy. But the storm past quickly, thank goodness, I did not want to fly in that. But took off and headed for Detroit which was about a 25 minute flight. I got to listen to my Ipod for a total of 8 minutes. Really enjoyable. Half of the time I was looking for something good to listen to. But whatever we landed safely then went straight to my gate for my 2nd flight. On the plane they said it had free wifi but it isn't free, which sucks. To get it you have to sign up for all this crap that you are never going to use, ever. So that was kinda disappointing so I watched Fever Pitch instead. Then about 30 minutes left to the flight there were thunderstorms out the window. Then the pilot comes on and says its going to be turbulant so buckle up in a deep meaningful voice. A little scary to hear but it wasn't bad. It actually was wicked cool to see. And that was that. I got in at about 10:45, then got to the hotel around 11:30 and in bed by midnight.

I woke up at 7 wondering 'where am I' and 'why am I getting up so early'. Well turns out I needed to get up to participate in the USTA Summer Camp held for a few top college players. For those who don't know about it well here is how the 12 players are picked:
a) Top 6 American players in the final rankings are automatically selected
b) Two spots for the highest American doubles team
c) One spot for the highest finishing American in the NCAAs
d) The other 6 spots are decided by a committee of USTA Player Development Staff, USTA National Coaches, ITA Staff, and current college coaches.

So for this week the best American collegiate tennis players are practicing together. It's pretty cool actually. You get the chance to know them for who they really are and not just a tennis player you are supposed to hate because they are the enemy. So it's a awesome experience. And you have some of the best coaches in the country there with you helping you out and giving you advice.

Well today it started and I actually got to take the day off, well sort of. I warm-up with everyone then did some knee re-hab and shoulder exercises all while the others were outside running around in the heat wanting to probably die. I did feel bad for them because I ended up going outside and watching as they were running around. Then in the afternoon it was the same. We did a short 'educational session' which was on nutrition for tennis which served its point. You did learn something. After that I ended up biking for 30 minutes because I felt like I should be doing something even though my idea of a day off is doing nothing besides watching tv or a movie. But I felt good that I did something productive. Then I waited around for about an hour as the others finished up their afternoon practice. It was a pretty boring day but oh well days off for me are.

So tomorrow I'll officially start the USTA Camp. I hope it won't be as bad as 3 weeks ago...Check back tomorrow.

We are the champions

Hello again. Well its deja vu all over again. I ended up losing in the quarterfinals in singles and then won the doubles with Sanaz Marand. So not too shabby. Well here is a little re-cap of the week.

My first round match in singles was against a girl from Colombia. She couldn't make more than 3 balls in the court. However, she did have some occasional rockets that made their way to the corners of the court. But other than that it was just an ordinary day at the office. I won easily 6-1 6-1. Then second round I ended up having to play my doubles partner Sanaz. And it is tough playing a friend of yours. You start to feel bad at the beginning and then you kind of just say 'screw it. I want to win.' You're 'come ons' get a little louder as the match continues. But it was a battle I ended up getting blanked in the 1st set then came back and won the next 2. So it was 0-6 6-4 6-3. Then in the quarters I played a girl from Finland who looked like she wasn't going to get to a lot of balls but she did and made a good defensive play. So I ended up losing 3-6 6-7(5). I played better towards the end of the match but I lost focus and made a few too many mistakes. But you live and learn I guess.

In doubles we had a close match first round against two players who just had the belief that they would win, but not the ability. So we ended up winning I think 6-1 6-4. But who cares about the score. All that matters is we won. Then the next round I had to play against my doubles partner from last week Kaitlyn and her new partner. We struggled a little bit but ended up winning in straight sets 4 and 3. Then in the 3rd round we played two girls who liked to hit the crap out of the ball. Well too bad for them because we were on fire that day. We ended up killing them 6-0 6-1. They were lucky to get that one game thanks to the no-ad rule and a fluke return winner from one of the girls. Then in the finals we again played two girls who liked to really hit the ball hard. We started the match and they were just smacking return winners and hitting aces. We couldn't do much but wait for them to cool off and that is just what happened. They were up in the 1st set 4-1 and that was the last games they won. We won the next 11 games in a row to win the tournament. They even tried to change the momentum of the match by taking a 'bathroom break'. Well it did them some real good because the next game the girl who was serving double faulted twice, whiffed a forehand and then a well placed volley by Sanaz gave us the game. So nice try ladies! But we just played really well the 2nd set I don't think we would have lost anyways.

Oh forgot to say, the club that we played at was awesome. They had a man-made lake that had a small beach so you could relax on the lounge chairs and listen to the fountains. They also had this huge blow up thing called the 'Blob'. Where a person (a) would be on one end of it as another person (b) standing 10 feet above jumps on the other end and skyrockets the other person (a) into the air and into the lake. It was soooo much fun. A little scary standing at the top and if you didn't land on it perfectly you slid into the water. If you have ever seen heavy weights it is the same thing that Ben Stiller pops with a spear. But it is so fun. I wish I had one.

So that was that for Cleveland, Ohio. Now it is off to Boca Raton, Fl for a USTA camp were they have you play tennis for 5 hours a day plus fitness and an educational session. I hope I make it through the week. Wish me luck! I keep everyone informed.