One of my roommates came home with the new wii resort last night. All the games are pretty standard, except for the table tennis game which is AWESOMMEEEE!!!
I may have never been able to take a real set of tennis off of Cory yet, but I have his number in this game. We played seven rounds and went a perfect 7-7.
Here is a gameplay video of the game below....
I am issuing a challenge to anyone of my readers who wants to take me on in this game, i guarantee victory.
Also, we are having an apartment wide table tennis tournament, we need three more people to make an even 8 person draw if anyone is interested.
Results will be posted later this week.
Showing posts with label Cory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cory. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Re-Match
It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon when Cory and I decided to finally take to the court again to see if I could do the impossible and take a set off of him.
Standard rules applied with a best two out of three sets. The first player to win six games in a set wins the set.
I began the set serving and was broken at love (without winning a point to those of you who are not familiar with tennis lingo). 0-1
Cory then double faulted an entire game as his serving troubles have continued. 1-1
Some botched drop shots, and a few misplaced back hands cost me another service game. 1-2
Cory double faults four more points in a row and I win another game without having to put the ball in play. Cory then proceeds to scream at the top of his lungs, and chucks his racquet against the fence surrounding the court. Luckily the stick survived without cracking. 2-2
Standard rules applied with a best two out of three sets. The first player to win six games in a set wins the set.
I began the set serving and was broken at love (without winning a point to those of you who are not familiar with tennis lingo). 0-1
Cory then double faulted an entire game as his serving troubles have continued. 1-1
Some botched drop shots, and a few misplaced back hands cost me another service game. 1-2
Cory double faults four more points in a row and I win another game without having to put the ball in play. Cory then proceeds to scream at the top of his lungs, and chucks his racquet against the fence surrounding the court. Luckily the stick survived without cracking. 2-2Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Who Art Thou Cory!?!
Cory has been my best friend since the day we met seven years ago. That we played the same three sports, were involved with all the same extracurricular activities, and shared most of the same classes throughout high school basically meant that we had to be friends.
The problem with this friendship: we have played 500 plus sets of tennis, and I have never won a single one of them.
Zip
Nada
Nil
The underlying goal of this blog for me is to finally get to the top of the mountain and beat Cory. Since I have yet to accomplish this in the 7+ years of tennis we have played against one another I feel the hike is going to be pretty steep. I do have a couple ideas on how to beat Cory.Here's the tale of the tape:
Justin Cory
Serve: X -
Forehand: - X
Backhand: - X
Volleys: X -
Intagibles: - X
As seen from the highly technical chart from above Cory has the advantage 3-2.
My serve is better, and thanks to my doubles experience in high school i can volley quite well.
Cory's groundstrokes are much better than mine because he is much more consistent. Also, since I have never beaten him I gave him the edge in the intangible department because of the psychological advantage he has on me.
How do I beat him? I need to draw him into the net and put pressure on his serve because those are the weak points of his game. Hopefully, by using my knowledge about his game, various strategies and different racquets I will hopefully be able to finally get the monkey off my back and beat him.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Talkin' Tennis Strategy: Serve-and-Volley
Serve and Volley tennis is a style of play in which the player rushes to the net as often as possible to hit more volleys and fewer ground strokes. Below are a couple videos from the best serve-and-volley player of all time, Pete Sampras.
I chose to use this style because it's less tiring to serve-and-volley. Hitting a serve and coming into net repeatedly it drastically shortens the points. After a player hits the serve and comes up to the net he can either A. a shot out of the air as a volley which gives the player a good shot at putting the point away right there, or B. get passed by the returner.
If a player hits a bad serve or something that the person on the other side of the net is anticipating he/she can hit a good shot off the server and give that player a tough shot from closer to the net or get the ball hit passed them on either side of the court. In either instance, the points will be shorter than grinding out a match from the baseline. If both players hit shots from the baseline the whole time you can get into long rallies and become more susceptible to fatigue.
Which was the problem in my last match with Cory.
I also wanted to implement the serve-and-volley technique because I played doubles for a good portion of my high school tennis career. Through all this doubles playing experience I was stuck at net alot and had to learn how to volley properly to win matches. So, having the experience volleying I think that this technique might work for me considering that volleying is one of the strongest aspects of my game.
While I think this technique could work for me, I also think it has its disadvantages for me. I am not confident enough in my serve right now in this stage of my epic comeback to think that i can set myself up for a good ball to volley consistently. I am hoping that I don't just keep serving winners that Cory can smack by me at any given time.
I am also shorter and have a greater risk of having the ball lobbed over my head. If I am consistently at net Cory will realize to just pop the ball over my head so I cannot reach it and thus lose the point. The lob is also one of Cory's best shots, which hurts me even more when coming into net.
Ultimately, this technique can win me some more points and hopefully games because of the strength of my net game.
By keeping the points shorter as well I hope to be able to keep a higher level of energy throughout the match and not be completely fatigued so early.
I chose to use this style because it's less tiring to serve-and-volley. Hitting a serve and coming into net repeatedly it drastically shortens the points. After a player hits the serve and comes up to the net he can either A. a shot out of the air as a volley which gives the player a good shot at putting the point away right there, or B. get passed by the returner.
If a player hits a bad serve or something that the person on the other side of the net is anticipating he/she can hit a good shot off the server and give that player a tough shot from closer to the net or get the ball hit passed them on either side of the court. In either instance, the points will be shorter than grinding out a match from the baseline. If both players hit shots from the baseline the whole time you can get into long rallies and become more susceptible to fatigue.
Which was the problem in my last match with Cory.
I also wanted to implement the serve-and-volley technique because I played doubles for a good portion of my high school tennis career. Through all this doubles playing experience I was stuck at net alot and had to learn how to volley properly to win matches. So, having the experience volleying I think that this technique might work for me considering that volleying is one of the strongest aspects of my game.
While I think this technique could work for me, I also think it has its disadvantages for me. I am not confident enough in my serve right now in this stage of my epic comeback to think that i can set myself up for a good ball to volley consistently. I am hoping that I don't just keep serving winners that Cory can smack by me at any given time.
I am also shorter and have a greater risk of having the ball lobbed over my head. If I am consistently at net Cory will realize to just pop the ball over my head so I cannot reach it and thus lose the point. The lob is also one of Cory's best shots, which hurts me even more when coming into net.
Ultimately, this technique can win me some more points and hopefully games because of the strength of my net game.
By keeping the points shorter as well I hope to be able to keep a higher level of energy throughout the match and not be completely fatigued so early.
Back on the Saddle
Keeping with the whole point with the blog I decided it was finally time to finally get on the court and see what skills I still had left.
On Sunday I played my good friend and roommate. Cory was the second best tennis player on our high school team, and someone I have never been able to beat in a tennis match. We have probably played over 200 times but alas, he has my number.
We are going to try and play at least once every week and how I end up doing in the match every week should give me the best indicator of how my tennis game is coming along from week to week. Also, since Cory is one of the most consistent tennis players I know, the results should stay constant.
For this particular match I didn't wanna try any new strategies or equipment I just wanted to go out and hit for the first time in awhile and see what I still had left in the tank. As far as my game goes I use an eastern grip on the racquet on the forehand side, and the continental grip for my serves, backhand, and volleys. These are two of the most standard grips and I want to try and explain them in a later post, but for now on to the match.
We started playing at around 2 in the afternoon and we both used the same tennis racquets we always do. Cory used the Yonex RDS 001 while I stuck with my usual frame the Head Flexpoint Radical. These two racquets are pretty similar in weight and headsize, but the shape of the head of the two racquets are completely. This slight fact does matter alot in identifying how each racquet plays.
Cory and I agreed on a best of three sets match, with me serving first. The match could not have started any better for me. After a couple month layoff from the game all together I won the first game to take a 1-0 lead in the first set after serving a couple un-returned bombs to my opponents backhand (the clearly weaker part of his game).
After the confidence I gained from my first game victory I could have experienced a let down in the second game. However, Cory double faulted three out of the four points putting me up 2-0 in the set.
The next game Cory finally got on the board with a couple unforced errors off my forehand. 2-1. Cory kept the double faults coming in the next game and I was able to break his serve and take a 3-1 lead in the first set.
I could not consolidate my insurance break of his serve by losing a tight game. On break point I thought i had put a forehand away by hitting behind Cory to the add side of the court. He surprisingly cut back and got a piece of the ball, having it hit the net chord, and barely bouncing over on my side.
On Sunday I played my good friend and roommate. Cory was the second best tennis player on our high school team, and someone I have never been able to beat in a tennis match. We have probably played over 200 times but alas, he has my number.
We are going to try and play at least once every week and how I end up doing in the match every week should give me the best indicator of how my tennis game is coming along from week to week. Also, since Cory is one of the most consistent tennis players I know, the results should stay constant.
For this particular match I didn't wanna try any new strategies or equipment I just wanted to go out and hit for the first time in awhile and see what I still had left in the tank. As far as my game goes I use an eastern grip on the racquet on the forehand side, and the continental grip for my serves, backhand, and volleys. These are two of the most standard grips and I want to try and explain them in a later post, but for now on to the match.
We started playing at around 2 in the afternoon and we both used the same tennis racquets we always do. Cory used the Yonex RDS 001 while I stuck with my usual frame the Head Flexpoint Radical. These two racquets are pretty similar in weight and headsize, but the shape of the head of the two racquets are completely. This slight fact does matter alot in identifying how each racquet plays.
Cory and I agreed on a best of three sets match, with me serving first. The match could not have started any better for me. After a couple month layoff from the game all together I won the first game to take a 1-0 lead in the first set after serving a couple un-returned bombs to my opponents backhand (the clearly weaker part of his game).
After the confidence I gained from my first game victory I could have experienced a let down in the second game. However, Cory double faulted three out of the four points putting me up 2-0 in the set.
The next game Cory finally got on the board with a couple unforced errors off my forehand. 2-1. Cory kept the double faults coming in the next game and I was able to break his serve and take a 3-1 lead in the first set.
I could not consolidate my insurance break of his serve by losing a tight game. On break point I thought i had put a forehand away by hitting behind Cory to the add side of the court. He surprisingly cut back and got a piece of the ball, having it hit the net chord, and barely bouncing over on my side.
Luckiest shot I have ever seen.
I blew the next point by shanking a forehand, 3-2.
Cory's serving was still awful and I was able to break him and go up 4-2. At this point I was feeling very good about my prospects to maybe win my first match against Cory, and then....
DISASTER STRUCK!!!!!
I ended up losing the next four games, giving away the set. The next set was even worse because I could not even manage to win a single game falling 0-6 to Cory and losing the match in pretty embarassing fashion.
Final Score: 4-6, 0-6
It felt really good to come out and play for the first time in awhile, but I discovered just how rusty I really was. The fact that I could not muster a single game in the second set might be a sign of how unfit I am and how that might be the first thing I need to work on. Next week I am going to try and change my strategy and see if I can't put up a more respectable score. Instead of trying to beat him with my ground strokes, I want to try and impliment a serve and volley game. I will explain more about how to play serve and volley tennis in a later post, and what makes it different from my normal style. Hopefully switching my strategies will put me over the top!
Cory's serving was still awful and I was able to break him and go up 4-2. At this point I was feeling very good about my prospects to maybe win my first match against Cory, and then....
DISASTER STRUCK!!!!!
I ended up losing the next four games, giving away the set. The next set was even worse because I could not even manage to win a single game falling 0-6 to Cory and losing the match in pretty embarassing fashion.
Final Score: 4-6, 0-6
It felt really good to come out and play for the first time in awhile, but I discovered just how rusty I really was. The fact that I could not muster a single game in the second set might be a sign of how unfit I am and how that might be the first thing I need to work on. Next week I am going to try and change my strategy and see if I can't put up a more respectable score. Instead of trying to beat him with my ground strokes, I want to try and impliment a serve and volley game. I will explain more about how to play serve and volley tennis in a later post, and what makes it different from my normal style. Hopefully switching my strategies will put me over the top!
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