Tennis

Today at Tennis it was just me and my mom. That hasn't happened in a long, long time. Because of that, I had a lot of individual practice - the same amount of time divided into fewer people resulted in a very intense training. 

Instead of making a few practice rounds and then playing a series of matches, we spend almost 40min doing individual exercises - 8 balls for my mom, 8 for me. This was tiring but also rewarding. I practiced both front- and backhand hits, this took me a lot of patients to repeat the same thing all over again, but I saw the progress afterward. 

Then I played two matches with my mom, and after that, we run out of time. I believe that I learned a lot - both today and throughout my entire tennis adventure. 

Tennis

 Today at the tennis lesson I practiced a lot of serves so that I can play double matches. My trainer says that in a real game they are responsible for most of the points. I am still bad at them, although I am getting good. 

At the practice rounds, I did not do so well, but later, in the game, I managed to get more than half of them right, resulting in our winning of the set. 

I am happy to be back on the court.

Tennis

 This was the last tennis hour of the year 2021, as the Christmas break is coming and courts will be closed and my family and I are going skiing. 

It was a good last training, containing all: pure practice, single matches, and the double (triple) one. Unfortunately, I was distracted by the workload of school to be my best self, but I was not far behind. 

The matches went great, although I lost most of them, it was just by a few insignificant points. 

Overall, seeing my progress and the fact that going there every single week does make sense, and is improving my skills, I am happy with what I had done this year in that area. 

Tennis

Today we played matches again, my favourite part of training. We played both one on one matches and the weird triple one. 

Previous exercises my trainer made me do to better my serve really paid off, and this time, most of my serves, although not the strongest, at least landed in the right spot.

It is really encouraging when I see the progress I am making. It is slow, and usually unnoticeable by me, but in times like these, it is just the best to see that I am indeed improving.

I have two more training Mondays until the end of the year, and I hope they will be as satisfying as this one. 

Tennis

Tonight's training was not very fascinating, it was all practicing hits and serves and no matches, which took the excitement of competition out of it. However, it really helped me to master the backhand hit, and greatly improve in serves. 

I hope the training from today will visibly pay off the next time we play the double or triple matches, as last time we lost all points depending on my serve. 

Vioin

 Today was the first lesson in a long time that was carried out online. It was because my teacher was sick, not too seriously to teach me, but we could not meet in person. 

As a new piece, she sent me the sheet music to an intro song from a tv show entitled "Polskie drogi" that aired in the 1970s. I never heard of this show before, and playing the music from it made me research and ask my parents and grandparents about it. 

This week's violin lesson gave me an insight not only into the world of mastering the instrument, but also into the history of my country's pop culture. I had an interesting talk with my grandma about the show, and I feel like I learned  a lot. 

Tennis

Tonight we were joined by another tennis player, who has more experience than any of the four of us. Due to the fact that there were more players than usual, we tried something new. 

After the usual training - warm-up, practice hits and so on, we played a version of a double match, but with three players on each side instead of two. It was an entirely new, and if I am being honest, weird experience for me. 

I did not know what to do, no matter which position I played, as in my team there was a person who is so much better at tennis than I am, so they took most of the balls.

I hope to get better at team tennis playing, as I believe I would prefer it to the one-by-one play, as soon as I get the hang of it.

Tennis

The whole training today was spent on the individual, and then double matches. 

Firstly I played with Agnieszka (one of the people who is joining me and my mom every week), and I managed to beat her, although just one point and things would have ended differently. I was really proud of my victory, as it is her who usually wins, and here I was able to see how, if I am well-rested and determined enough my skills are just enough to match hers. 

Then I played with Marcin (another training buddy) and unfortunately lost, although nothing could bring my spirits down after the first victory. 

Lastly, the match with my mom, which I won as well as opposed to last week when she won instead. To finish the training we played one double match, me and my mom versus Agnieszka and Marcin. I am happy to say it ended in a draw, though we finished before I got a chance to serve (probably why it was a draw, as my serving skills are not as good as I would like them to be yet).

Tennis

Today's Tennis wasn't much different from all previous trainings I've described. I will focus on other things from today then.

It was really hard for me to get myself to leave and play as next to being extremely tired and just wanting to sleep, I have deadlines pining on me. However, I still went to play, as it is one of my responsibilities, I made a promise to myself and to my mom that I would be going with her weekly, so I am doing that, no matter how tired I am. 

Although I did go and tried to do my best at the training, I saw that I was not being my best tonight, probably due to the overload of work and a limited amount of sleep.

Hopefully, next week will be better!

Tennis

 Today people we usually train were absent, and two others whom I have never played with filled their place. I immediately noticed their skill greatly exceeds mine and identified it as an opportunity to learn. 

This attitude began to be difficult to keep as I simply did not know how to defend myself against their attack. It was really frustrating and took a lot of self-control to keep playing, even though it seemed pointless (in terms of winning of course).

This is another thing I learn while playing tennis. I learn how to accept defeat and treat every game like this as an opportunity to learn more. I know that if one stays in their comfort zone it is really hard to improve, but it is also hard to step out of this comfort zone and face the challenge - which I am proud to have done today. 

(this week my mom didn't get a chance to take a picture of me on the court as we were always playing at the same time)

Tennis

 Today at tennis I played my first double match which actually made sense. 

My first try was last week, but I did not really understand what I am supposed to do, it all seemed pretty pointless to me as most of it depended on the serve. This week, however, I got a hold of it. 

I was in the team with my mom who is good at serves, which gave our team the opportunity to win. She started off and I tried to defend the court after that. 

I think we did pretty good as the match ended with a tie, which made me very proud. 

This is training in the thing I think tennis lacks - teamwork. I am always rooting for my mom and my friends, but I feel like when all the matches are played one on one it might be hard for someone to stay supportive when at the same time wanting to defeat your friend/competition. 

Tennis

 Today was my first tennis lesson after the holidays. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I did not forget much from what I learned 2 months ago. I played a usual couple of matches with my traning-mates and, although they won, I found it pretty satisfying. 

This was a challenge as I have not held a racket in quite a long time, and I felt others expecting me to be worse at playing than I used to be.

I had to be much more focused than I usually am because I wanted to show them that I did not forget that much, and am still good for my level. 

Tennis

 This week was my last tennis training before I take a break for the holidays. The hour passed extraordinarily fast and I could not believe it's been sixty minutes. 

I think there is visible progress in my game if one was to compare it to last September. I think I've learned a lot this year and believe that besides strictly physical abilities tennis has taught me patience and teamwork. It also helped me deal with defeat, as I often lost our training matches. It has also taught me regularity - some Monday evenings it was really hard to get myself to go out again, but I always did and I believe that to be good for me. 

I am looking forward to starting training again in September. 

Tennis

 Today I have again attended a tennis lesson. This week I focused mainly on serves as this is one of the most important parts of the real game (it is impossible to win not knowing how to serve).

However, this move is really tricky for me as I do not only have to coordinate the movement of the rocket but first throw the ball as well. I hardly ever succeed in this part of the serve.

This has thought me patience as it can be very frustrating having to repeat one thing over and over again. But I hope that soon enough I'll be great at this part of tennis as well. 

Tennis

Today next to playing matches which became the usual part of my weekly training I have further practised the hand movements. 

I have noticed that my sense of space, as of where should I stop and try to pick up the ball, is getting better. I am really happy to have noticed that as my trainer says that is one of the most important things in tennis - be on the right spot at the right time. 

Although I am aware of the progress I am making my luck in wining the matches has changed and today I lost all three of them. I guess it's just the way it is.

Tennis

 Thankfully the tennis court could reopen and as I came back from Spain I was able to continue my tennis adventure.

At the first training in a month I have played three one-on-one matches and have won each.

I would say that this is beginners luck all over again, united with overconfidence of my opponents who somehow continued to practise despite closed courts. 

Apart from those matches I have also practised serves, which I am really bad at. I am trying really hard to improve, however this area of tennis is very difficult for me. However, I am still working on it and will keep doing that in the future. 

closed courts

 Unfortunately, the tennis courts are closed again due to the Coronavirus pandemic, which makes it impossible for me to practise or do this for my CAS activity at the moment. I will come back to playing as soon as the courts are open again, which I hope will happen very soon. 

Tennis

 At this week's training I have played a lot of matches. 

We started off by playing two doubles. Me and my mom versus the couple who is also taking part in our training. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly we lost (they are more experienced than we are), but it was still great fun and a priceless experience. 

After that we played one on one matches, so that everyone would play twice. I have won the first one, but sadly lost the second. 

I do not get discouraged with my loss as it gives me more space for further improvement.

  

Tennis

Yesterday at tennis my trainer decided to focus on the forehand technique as I have been getting pretty good at the backhand hits. 

We spend around the half of the lesson practising this and although modifying moves and reflexes one is used to is hard and annoying after some time the new ones are made. 

For the next few weeks I will have to remember to focus on every part of the forehand move, but after that I probably will not even have to think about it. 

It is really good to know that my technique is getting closer and closer to those of professionals'.

Tennis

 At Today's lesson, after the usual warming up exercise we have played a set of matches. 

I am attending those lessons with my mom as well as two other people, with all of them I have played. I have won just 1 of those 3 matches, however I did so with a great advantage - 10:3.

The scores of following matches were 10:8 and 10:4. It showed me how much more room there is still for practise, and that I must not get discouraged to keep making progress.