Morning comes early at the Academy, there’s the alarm clock that goes off at 7:30, then its down the hall for a shower, shave, and the morning routine. Then its to Forde Hall for breakfast. No one talks much in the morning, Roger shows up wearing flip flops, a NY Yankees hat, Tom is fully dressed and ready to go, as are all the women counselors. I’m a flip flop T-shirt guy too but Mark is fully dressed and ready to go. I dont know where he gets all of this energy!
Mr. B is always up early and I hear the whistling in the morning. I can smell his coffee from the foyer apartment. He shows up at the courts about 7:45 and hits on the back wall. He has so much energy in the morning and is always happy as lark. Sometimes he pulls me aside and asks how things are at home. We hit it off and he tells me all kinds of things, one morning he told me stories about his mother and the time she won the New Jersey Lottery, another time he told me about being a kid and seeing Babe Ruth play baseball. He is a master story teller and I hang on every word. This Mr. B. is one in a million.
Mr. B. and Riley did a demo for the forehand. Mr. B told campers the left hand is critical for the forehand, from the ready position you have to push the racquet back and in a looping motion strike the ball going low to high, in a natural topspin motion. The he says its vital to recapture the racquet after the follow through and get back in ready position.
Mr. B also talked about heroes to the kids. He said we are a society of false heroes, that we sometime idolize people that are not worthy, rock stars, baseball players, tennis players, that the real heroes are underneath their noses, our parents who struggle to make a living, living with the pressures, all the crap at work, the long commute and they do it all over again without much attention. It was sobering.
It was hot again, and humid, I guess this is the norm here. We don’t have the humidity in Idaho, I hope I get used to this…also there are the nats, these bugs not only bite you, but they fly straight for the eyes. I dig a few out every day. I have a few mosquito bites too.
Because of the taping and viewing we were not very organized this morning, I got to teach on the hard court with the advanced players and it was fun but tiring. Im hitting very well on the hard courts, so my poor play is probably because I haven’t figured out the clay yet. I was so tired today that I rushed through lunch and took a nap at noon. It made all the difference in the world. I had so much energy the rest of the afternoon. The kids were able to play singles and doubles matches all afternoon. We stand at the net posts and correct mistakes and give encouragement…all afternoon. That’s three hours in the sun….Im so sun burned and my head is fried.
I played Lenny at 4:00 and we split sets. I lost the first 6-4, and won the second 7-5. I think the difference was that I kept the ball in play. I dictated the points…hit the drop shot and lob and made him run. He hits perfectly and wonderfully but on the run he is prone to mistakes. There must have been 8 or 9 counselors playing today after work.
I walked downtown for Ice Cream to a little store off campus called Wise’s. Its run by Mr. Wise and he has the best Hersey’s Ice Cream…You can get burgers and fries there too, It’s a cool place with lots of tables and juke box. The place was packed with campers.
After dinner I was on field sport duty and played volleyball. We had enough for two full teams. At one point I had a perfect set and went up for the spike. I came down hard and twisted my ankle on the standard under the net. I saw stars….I had tears in my eyes and ankle swelled up to the point to where you couldn’t see the bump of the ankle bone. Sandy took care of me, getting ice and we wrapped it. He just had a bad sprain a few days before. I had the ankle elevated all night, I hope I can play tomorrow. Tom came in and said we will play it by ear, he said we will trade day-off with someone so I can rest the ankle.
Mr. B is always up early and I hear the whistling in the morning. I can smell his coffee from the foyer apartment. He shows up at the courts about 7:45 and hits on the back wall. He has so much energy in the morning and is always happy as lark. Sometimes he pulls me aside and asks how things are at home. We hit it off and he tells me all kinds of things, one morning he told me stories about his mother and the time she won the New Jersey Lottery, another time he told me about being a kid and seeing Babe Ruth play baseball. He is a master story teller and I hang on every word. This Mr. B. is one in a million.
Mr. B. and Riley did a demo for the forehand. Mr. B told campers the left hand is critical for the forehand, from the ready position you have to push the racquet back and in a looping motion strike the ball going low to high, in a natural topspin motion. The he says its vital to recapture the racquet after the follow through and get back in ready position.
Mr. B also talked about heroes to the kids. He said we are a society of false heroes, that we sometime idolize people that are not worthy, rock stars, baseball players, tennis players, that the real heroes are underneath their noses, our parents who struggle to make a living, living with the pressures, all the crap at work, the long commute and they do it all over again without much attention. It was sobering.
It was hot again, and humid, I guess this is the norm here. We don’t have the humidity in Idaho, I hope I get used to this…also there are the nats, these bugs not only bite you, but they fly straight for the eyes. I dig a few out every day. I have a few mosquito bites too.
Because of the taping and viewing we were not very organized this morning, I got to teach on the hard court with the advanced players and it was fun but tiring. Im hitting very well on the hard courts, so my poor play is probably because I haven’t figured out the clay yet. I was so tired today that I rushed through lunch and took a nap at noon. It made all the difference in the world. I had so much energy the rest of the afternoon. The kids were able to play singles and doubles matches all afternoon. We stand at the net posts and correct mistakes and give encouragement…all afternoon. That’s three hours in the sun….Im so sun burned and my head is fried.
I played Lenny at 4:00 and we split sets. I lost the first 6-4, and won the second 7-5. I think the difference was that I kept the ball in play. I dictated the points…hit the drop shot and lob and made him run. He hits perfectly and wonderfully but on the run he is prone to mistakes. There must have been 8 or 9 counselors playing today after work.
I walked downtown for Ice Cream to a little store off campus called Wise’s. Its run by Mr. Wise and he has the best Hersey’s Ice Cream…You can get burgers and fries there too, It’s a cool place with lots of tables and juke box. The place was packed with campers.
After dinner I was on field sport duty and played volleyball. We had enough for two full teams. At one point I had a perfect set and went up for the spike. I came down hard and twisted my ankle on the standard under the net. I saw stars….I had tears in my eyes and ankle swelled up to the point to where you couldn’t see the bump of the ankle bone. Sandy took care of me, getting ice and we wrapped it. He just had a bad sprain a few days before. I had the ankle elevated all night, I hope I can play tomorrow. Tom came in and said we will play it by ear, he said we will trade day-off with someone so I can rest the ankle.
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