Steve Ballard

About

Singles are most preferred, 3 set matches....will hit around if you want to assess skills and fine with just rallying and practicing too. Don't have to play a match at first meeting.. I play about 1x per week at lunch or weekends...can play evenings on weeknights or any time on weekends. Any weather, doesn't matter (30's-100's, light rain is fine too...it makes you have better footwork! :). ---Game Play and Theory--- (a) when in doubt, call it in. It's just a game (b) respect opponent and the game, tennis makes you humble 'cuz it's 50% a mental game between your ears and the physical part just takes practice and frequency...try not to get frustrated, let the shots flow and enjoy the exercise and mind/body coordination. ---Serve--- I don't know on MPH, maybe in the 60's? I don't know. It's not zipping fast, but it has some speed and it's not a lollipop speed but enough to make opponent be on their toes. Challenge for me is to loosely hold the racquet and let it whip behind my head. I double fault maybe 3-4 times in 2 sets ---Forehand--- somewhat flat delivery, sometimes loop it over, most of the time topspin with fairly okay speed, nothing epic though on speed ---Backhand--- about 40% topspin, single handed, 60% slice. Like to mix it up and decoy the opponent on which spin will be returned and depends on the speed of the return on if I decide to get over the ball or slice it. ---Net Approach---depending on how the game strategy and opponent is responding, will come in to net every so often especially if my return is deep to backhand. I'd say I may approach the net about 15% of the time (hard to say). ---Lobs and Overheads--- Urgh! Seems so easy but I hate it when I tank it into the net. Feel comfortable on hitting lobs, most of the time just try to hit down on the ball with some authority and away from opponent, sometimes just getting it over is best, don't try to kill it. ---Fitness---- I bike commute to work each day so cardio is fairly good. On runs, I usually try to keep about a 11 minute pace for 4 miles (nothing epic). Heart rate stays around 134 BPM during matches. I need to drop 20 lbs to help my quickness, at 210, it's a bummer carrying around that baggage on the court :)

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