To be honest, I played for half a year when I was 13-14 as well - we had a group of 6-8 kids and played either 1 or 2 times a week with a coach, but I stopped - do not remember how and why, but I believe it was either for financial reasons, time schedule or I just did not like it (might have been because of the other members of the group or the coach or my lack of confidence (I felt I was not as good as others etc)). If I could go back in time, then I would tell the younger version of me to keep playing, but to be more realistic what I could learn from it is that I would make sure that my children start to take tennis lessons young, that they have a great coach and a nice co-players and I would hope they like it.
Now lets get back to the present - I turned 28 one week ago and I am at the end of my first, or to be honest second, season of tennis lessons. How it started again? There are some free tennis courts nearby and I just went to play there for fun last summer, but then I started to like it a lot and I ended up looking for a tennis school for adults, emailing them and joining a group for beginners. I had the first lesson in September 2013 with my coach Andrus in a group of four beginners - I started with one hour lesson once a week, but then ended taking a second lesson a week as well with another coach, Julika.
At first, it was all a bit overwhelming. There were so many things to remember and to look out for, so many adjustments to be made and I could only concentrate on one change at a time, but after some time (probably 6 months), I saw that my ability to create power was getting much better and that is the thing I see most potential in - if I can get the technique in place and to hitting the ball in a direction I want it to go and within the lines then I believe I have the potential to be good. I have no intention to become a great player - (unfortunately) the lack of funds is the biggest reason, as it is quite expensive - I could make time to have a 2-hours training session each day, but I could not afford it and if I wanted to create more money then I would have less time, but I am happy with 2 sessions a week as well, and with 3-5 years I believe I could be decent already and join the national lowest level league (IV liiga ehk rahvaliiga) and we will see where I can go from there. I will try to go and see the tournament for the lowest level this summer so I would know to what level I have to get to start playing there.
I will try to be the greatest tennis player version of myself I could be. It takes time, but that is mostly to do with consistency. And in ten years time I will be happy that I started and did not stop.
A small list of things still to be fixed (actually I need to improve everything, but these are the ones that are currently my top list of improvements):
forehand: following through (löök ühtlaselt lõpuni (nn peale keerata)), keeping the wrist strong (ranne tugevana hoida (vahel pall keerab ka käes reketi ära)), getting into the shot faster (vähem hoogu võtta (üks neist asjadest, mis paraneb ka tugevamate vastastega mängides automaatselt))
backhand: stability and bringing the ball over the net (with forehand the problem is more that it would not go too far)(stabiilsus, palli üles toomine)
serve: I have seen some pretty powerful ones lately, but - the throw needs to be much more consistent, I am sometimes changing the grip turing the serve. Most important: stability (throwing the ball and hitting the ball correctly) and to always hit the second serve
net play: with this, I need much more practice, but I think I need to get the forehand and backhand correct first and then I will concentrate on net play. lendpall (eriti tagakäsi) ja rabak
running (this is something my coach pointed out in the last lesson - I need to go running (sprint). To be honest I have always been bad at sprint, but I never had a reason to improve so I guess now I have it)
We recently changed to clay court as well as the weather has been getting much nicer, but it is still very unusual to play on clay - the ball comes up much higher, but at the same time you need to run much more. I have only had 2 hours on clay so far, so I need to put spend much more time on clay this summer to familiarise myself with it.
P.S. I received a tennis racquet as a birthday gift 7 days ago, until then I played with the racquets provided by the tennis school - the new racquet is a bit heavier as the ones in school were too light for me anyway, but still need to get used to the new weight, and it is more powerful as well - but overall the feel is really good. I am playing with Yonex EZONE Ai 98 Lite (unstrung weight 289 g). Review for the EZONE Ai 98 is available here http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/YAI98/YAI98Review.html
There will be a 2 months break from tennis school in the summer and then here we go again in September - until then, I will try to go and play as much as possible myself and if someone wants to join then you are welcome!
