4th day/3rd hour of practice

[McNerdius]

I didn't have to work today and it was nice.... well 20° ... but NO wind. So i doubled up my clothes and grabbed the uni. I was going for 2 hours but only made it to about 1.25. This was mainly due to the cold air doing strange asthma-like things to my lungs.

Anyways, i ramble. I did phenomenally well, again. After the 3-4 days or so it's been, i'm surprised... hopped on and right off the bat i was doing BETTER than my last practice session. Last time, i was too paranoid to try uni-ing away from the fence. Also, i've been noticing that i've been doing better with the fence on my right than with the fence on the left. Soooooo... just practice more with the fence on the left, right ? No. My first instinct was to practice with the fence on the right till i didn't need the fence at all. After all, why practice with the fence on the "uncomfortable" side when the goal is to eliminate the fence, right ?

Lemme back up... I think at least a little bit of what helped me so much was the snow. Slowed me down a bit. But after a while, as i did more and more laps, something cool started happening. The snow packing up under the uni started creating little obstacles for me to... either drive over and develop that skill, or avoid and develop that skill. Avoiding them involved uni-ing farther away from the fence. Far enough to where i couldn't reach it, and the "Side of the fence" issue became moot. To an extent. I no longer needed the fence, but i also discovered the reason for the fence issue. I'd been veering to the left. SHARP. If i just uni and don't worry about straight lines, it's about a 15-20 foot radius. Seems bad.

I gave up the fence, and just pushed off from the fence and went. 16 times. An average of 18 strokes per run. Keeping in mind the max the run could be would be about 20-25, that's not bad. I had only 2 failed-starts, with 2 and 3 strokes. Everything else was 10+ as i recall. My max run was 29, that was a fluke though, as it was basically a perfect quarter-circle... I also did a 28. Anyway though, the breakthrough in this session was not length, clearly. It was independence. And i can't go very much farther than i am now in this tennis court. The max run i could do would be maybe 45 or 50 and i'm pretty sure it'll be a few more sessions before i can do that. If i'm near the fence i tend to use it. If i'm not near the fence, it's harder to go straight. Midway down the court, is, of course, the net... which for a newbie is somewhat of a tight squeeze. So i need to:
1) Travel towards the net away from the fence, going straight.
2) Veer towards the fence just enough to avoid the net.
3) Veer back away from the fence... if i go straight after this, who cares.

Actually... that could give me about 60, if i veer left after the net.


After doing my "norm" practice for a good clean hour, i was going to give up but on my way down to the car i saw a looooooooooooooong straightaway that i was going to practice in. Messed around trying to freemount for about 5 minutes before i got pissy. Then i wanted to see how far i could go... feel like a REAL pro, ya know ? But it was uphill... or downhill, however you look at it. I could go about 4-5 strokes uphill, and could barely even mount downhill. I think this area was a bit more slick than where i'd been before too.

[Tak]

Hey, that's awesome! Sounds like you're ready to break free from your tennis court bondage!
Keep it up, man!