tournaments, tryouts, & boys who beat me left handed

judging just from the title, can you guess what this post is about?

{if you said tennis, gold star for you!}

except for Sundays, and a few days we were on vacation, there hasn't been a day this entire summer where I have not played tennis. to start off my days, I would play for about an hour every morning with my mom. We would just do drills and hit together. this really helped me get ready for real practices with real people. (not that my mom isn't a real person.) it was also a really good time for us to talk to each other. this was one of my favorite parts of the day.

sometime in July, I had my last tournament with my city league. we did it at Mountain View High School in Orem, which is right by this fake stonehenge place. and of course my mom wanted to take my picture there. anyways, I played 5 different girls, all from Spanish Fork, and all close to my age. we just did a best of 3 games. first girl destroyed me, 3-0. second girl is one I have played before, and we were both doing really well. she won 1, I won 1, and the last game we were in deuce for a really long time. but I double faulted on match point. and I hardly ever double fault. Only when 1. it's windy, 2. I'm playing Jackson and he's teasing me, or 3. on the most important point of the game. so that was really frustrating. 3rd girl I beat 2-1, 4th I lost 1-2, and 5th I won 2-1. one of my strengths is because I'm short, people tend to underestimate me and think that I won't be able to get to their shots. but this is not true. I end up getting to the shots, returning them, and hitting them in the court. which can frustrate the other player. anyways, I think I did really well, even in the ones that I lost.

city league ended after that tournament, and I had a break for a while. so I just played with my mom. but at the beginning of August, Timpview tryouts began. everyone who tries out for girls makes it, but the tryouts help the coach know our strengths and what we are as players, and what spot to put us on the team. every morning, we had to be there at 7 to do 3 hours of conditioning: running, stretches, suicides, more killer stretches, some drills, more running, and trying not to die. the first day was really rough, but each day, it got easier. I was able to get 18 perfect serves in a row, which is my new record. every evening at 6, we would come back to Timpview and do 2 hours of matchplay. the first week, we did a round robin and I did really well. I won 7 games, and I only lost 4. I guess I kinda got a bit cocky and started thinking that I would get a really good spot on the team, and that I would win every game.

this did not go the way I expected. the next week, we started playing actual singles matches. the scores of these matches would be used to determine our placement on the team. so, because I was cocky and thought that I was going to win every game, I didn't really think too much about the way I was playing. this really came back to hurt me. the first match I had to play was someone who is a grade ahead of me, and I had beaten her once before and she had beaten me once, but I thought "well I beat her once, so I can do it again." I knew she was pretty good, but I still thought, for some reason, that I would be able to win. that's when karma comes in. as soon as I picked up my racket, I started freaking out in my head, and I had lost the first game of the match. I kept reminding myself that I could not lose. but as the match went on, I did worse and worse each game, hitting easy shots into the net, and just losing everything: my form, my serve, my topspin. It was like I had never played tennis in my life. I had forgotten everything. I kept trying to tell myself that I could win this point. I can take this shot. I know how to do this. I know this game. and then it hit me: I had just lost the match. 6-1. so of course I was a good sport and shook her hand and told her good game, told her how well she did because she was the one who actually played really well, while I played the worse I'd ever played. she talked to the coach while I got a drink. and when another player asked how it went, without warning, I just started to cry. I had felt so horrible about the way I had just played. when everyone was being nice and said things like, "oh, she's really good so don't worry" or "you did your best", that didn't help. I did not do my best. I did my worst. the whole time I was playing, I knew I could do better. I knew that I was messing up. I knew I was losing my form. and I tried, but I still missed shots. all because I got the whole picture in my head that I would win. that hit me hard. I have lost matches before, and from them I have learned what I can do better, and as a result, I usually do better in the next one. I know my strengths, and use them to my advantage. but if I get too ahead of myself, the result is devastating. and it was only my first game.

In my other games, I tried to improve and not have any more games like that. Some were really close and I did really well in, but I still ended up losing. after 3 days, I had only won 1 match. I guess, after that first match, I was too afraid to lose, and I would mess up. so my coach talked to me and gave me a break from playing all these singles matches, told me to focus on 1 point at a time and not the whole game, and not to think about things I've done in the past. but she said that if I continued not to do well, I would have to play JV Doubles instead of JV Singles. after hearing that, I tried my best in every drill, to show how bad I wanted to play singles.

to take my mind off of this hard week, I went up to my friend Jackson's and played a few games at his court. of course, being a 16 year old varsity boys player against a 15 year old JV girls player, he beat me 6-0. then he challenged to play me only using his left hand, while I could use my right hand. he still beat me, 6-0. but I actually scored some points. and we went into deuce a few times, which he of course won, even with just his left hand. finally, he challenged to play a 7 point game with his racket out in front of his chest the whole time. he could not swing, just block shots. and I could do what I wanted. that time, I beat him 7-1. this game is on the list of my proudest accomplishments. I beat Jackson in just 1 game. this is actually a pretty big deal. of course, he wanted to rematch and play 2 more games like that. and I did lose those, which is actually really pathetic. but both of us just really like winning, I guess. and he's the kind of person who would keep playing until he could beat me. even if it was something like a game where you couldn't even swing your racket. but this really helped take my mind off of things, and we both had lots of fun and I was able to calm down, and we were able to just talk about tennis and he gave me some advice on how to be a better player. since then, I have been getting back into the swing of things and made my comeback.

yesterday, I had my first match of the season! and I am on JV SINGLES! (I repeat, I am not on doubles.) except Wasatch High did not have any JV singles players at all, so all of us Timpview girls had to play doubles. Playing doubles is not one of my strengths. I have a really good serve that makes it in 90% of the time. I am not the best net player. and it's hard to communicate with a partner. me and my friend Raya partnered up and played 2 doubles matches. we lost the first, but it was my first time playing a real doubles match so I just considered that my "warm-up." we won the second one, which was the last match of the day, tying Timpview and Wasatch's JV teams, 5-5! our varsity team won, 4-1. it was a very good day for all of us, even the girls who lost.

 me and Gracie, one of my favorite freshmen in the world. and yes she's taller than me.

 and of course an awkward racket shot.

yes, I am on the timpview team. and our uniforms haven't come yet, and I was not on the team last year. so of course, I was the only one wearing purple and I stood out. but who cares.

anyways, now that I am on JV singles and had some experience playing doubles, I feel more confident in myself. I learned a really hard lesson last week, and now I know not to focus on beating your opponent in future matches, and just to focus on 1 point at a time. our coach says that we could go to state this year, and I believe it. GOOOOOO TIMPVIEW TENNIS!