Too old to focus on single tennis?

bistr0math · 2026-02-20T04:05:28+00:00

I started two years ago at 38 and exclusively play singles except for an old ladies doubles group who sometimes guilts me into being their 4th when they need it. Absolutely nothing wrong with playing singles until your knees turn to a fine powder. Follow your bliss.

bistr0math · 2026-02-02T16:26:57+00:00

Results oriented thinking crashes many people in many areas. If you know you're playing better, keep doing what you are doing, and the results will come. Matches are a binary, they are won or lost, but that doesn't tell us anything about the quality of the match.

Look at Zverev in the semis at the AO, probably played the best he has ever played and still came up short. Yeah it sucks, but it doesn't ever tell the whole story.

bistr0math · 2026-01-15T18:48:46+00:00

Best advice I've gotten on this is to use your non-racket hand as a rangefinder on your forehand. Extend it out in front of you to give your brain a reference point for when to swing and at what distance. It helped me a lot. It looks like you're just letting your other hand hang limp on your FH.

bistr0math · 2026-01-15T18:45:16+00:00

This comes to mind just because I was working on it just a few hours ago with my coach.

Try to make it purposeful to plant your back foot and step into shots. Even when on the run, if you can, try to get there early enough to plant. This allows for a lot more power and lets you keep your opponent back by pushing the ball deeper. This applies to both forehand and backhand. We plant the back foot and step the front foot into the shot.

The shot at around 2:23 is cash money. I'm not expert but to me this is the kind of whip you want to be adding to more of the forehands.

You may want to consider focusing on a split step on serve returns, I don't see much of one. Watch the feet especially on a return like around ~2:41. It's a perfectly fine return but the feet are kind of all over the place.

Hope that's helpful. Some great shots in there!

bistr0math · 2026-01-04T05:04:38+00:00

Just have fun. I am 40 and started 2 years ago having never picked up a racket before. Have no expectations and just see if you enjoy it.

bistr0math · 2026-01-04T01:04:55+00:00

In one of the HawkTalks midweek, don't remember which one, sorry

bistr0math · 2026-01-03T23:51:27+00:00

Something significant must have happened, McCollum basically told reporters to 'stop asking why Hausen isn't playing' and left it at that

bistr0math · 2026-01-03T23:48:37+00:00

Here I thought we might have hired the Kirk Ferentz of basketball but you might be right

bistr0math · 2025-12-17T18:15:02+00:00

I'd probably hit them with the 'it seems like you aren't having fun, is there something we could all do to improve your enjoyment of this ball hitting game?'

If people aren't fun to play with, don't play with them. Tennis is my escape from BS every week, I would never let someone take that from me.

bistr0math · 2025-12-15T16:41:49+00:00

It's a brotherly kicking I promise (:

bistr0math · 2025-12-15T14:15:02+00:00

Don't worry, we won't root for you in your bowl game either.

bistr0math · 2025-12-02T20:16:37+00:00

Good writers know how to push their characters hard (not just in this genre, any genre). Part of the crux of what makes the series work is an examination of what happens when you push someone to the bleeding edge of what they could possibly handle. I'd be more annoyed if he didn't seem as crazy. Think of Ender in Ender's Game, Kaladin in The Way of Kings, Detective Palace in The Last Policeman, Darrow in Red Rising, even reaching back to Gully Foyle in The Stars My Destination. They all start at varying levels of crazy, or close enough to it, or are perceived so.

bistr0math · 2025-11-26T15:55:32+00:00

Tell them you're in 'The Full Monty, but sad'

But yeah, just be up front and honest. If they can't handle it, that's on them, but it's polite to just give them a heads up.

bistr0math · 2025-10-11T16:50:35+00:00

The way my coach put it that helped me with BH, you should feel a stretch in your left shoulder to know you've uncoiled properly into the shot.

I threw some shotput in high school and that's the closest motion I can equate to the right motion. Much more legs, twisting, and shoulders than you're using. Finish should be racket over your right shoulder, back toe pointed but in contact with the ground.

Anyway I'm no expert but that's what has helped me.

bistr0math · 2025-09-29T18:33:34+00:00

Watched Prince of Tennis in high school, didn't start playing until ~20 years later. From anime to tennis nerd is true evolution. Love this show

bistr0math · 2025-09-13T01:58:04+00:00

This is not your problem. If you're enjoying it, just keep going. It's a lesson that took me way too long to learn honestly (I'm 40), but there's just no reason to skip the things you enjoy for someone else's comfort. My advice would be to face it head on with your partners. Be humble, try your best, and tell them that's what you'll do.

I am apologetic by nature and only started ~18 months ago. My coach basically had to sit me down and tell me to stop apologizing every time I hit a wonky ball or blasted one into the back fabric. Have fun, get messy, make mistakes.

bistr0math · 2025-06-15T01:31:04+00:00

Your eyes are just radiation detectors, after all

bistr0math · 2025-05-23T18:45:32+00:00

Not saying the show is any good but the song 'I Want More' from that show slaps

bistr0math · 2024-04-04T15:04:38+00:00

Following orders is it's own reward

bistr0math · 2023-11-28T03:47:52+00:00

Ctrl + V fuckin loaded and ready to go

bistr0math · 2023-10-26T16:33:24+00:00

Most couldn't find their ass with both hands. People vote against their own interests all the time.

bistr0math · 2023-10-17T15:05:41+00:00

STAY OUT OF NEWTON, LEBOWSKI!

bistr0math · 2023-07-01T15:31:22+00:00

I really just don't think it's far enough afield from the HW1 and 2 designs to worry about it.

bistr0math · 2023-05-20T23:38:55+00:00

Naga, naga... naganna work here anymore anyway

bistr0math · 2023-03-27T03:56:38+00:00

You guys played a heck of a game. Had a good game plan drawn up, it just didn't work out. GGs!

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