Pot moments in real life.

[javimgol]

Sherlock, if that story is real, you are a genius or absolutely crazy

[Atobe the king]

I'd say it's a bit of both ^_^

[Sherlock Holmes]

I think I'm more crazy than a genius, but I'll take that compliment XD

[Fayte]

I have a drop shot second serve, because I suck at hitting the ball lightly (overhead). So I spin the ball backwards, and underhand slice the ball backwards. It's funny because I can hit the box at 120 mph, then I will miss the box if I hit it at 20mph. So, I'm forced to do underhanded second serves. I make those in 10/10 times. lol

[Dansan1]

I played a wall today. Not just any wall, one of those nice green ones with the lines and everything that they hang on fences in tennis courts. He returned better than Yuki.

We played best of one set, 20 seconds per serve. 2 minutes on changeover. No boundaries.

I broke all of the walls service games to love because he kept running over time and never served.

The wall returned all of my serves with service winners to win my service games at love.

At around 4-4 I decided to hit lighter serves that the wall couldn't smash back and we had some rallies on my serve. He still won all of the points by either hitting winners off some of my good shots or wearing me down. I decided to wait till the tiebreaker to try and win. I didn't think I had a chance winning enough points to take one of my service games, but I realized one well timed point in the breaker would give me the match.

It went to the breaker. I was up 8-6 and started playing my match points for the win. I played them out the entire time trying to think of a way to win. I kept failing and it started to take it's toll on me. I realized the wall would not be able to win by closing it out, but would win by wearing me down till I retired.

At 58-58 I just decided to retire and was thinking about how I was disappointed because I wanted to post this story as a win, and as I was walking to the bench to get my things I realized two different things I had done (and most of you as well) in the past on accident that would constitute a point against the wall. I didn't think I had the ability to do the first without losing all the balls so opted to try for the second until I couldn't continue.

It took me a good while but I ended up hitting the shot perfectly and winning 95-93.

I beat a wall.


True story.

[DavenSodan]

Well, Im not certain how to respone to this ... Kiriahara would have certainly won against your wall. After all he cracked one in the Anime Filler ...

But about walls: I got someone in my team who is like a wall. Just makes no errors. Almost like Davydenko: no real good forehand nor backhand, no net play, no monster serve but just no errors and really shallow shots. And then he smiles in a really smug way which makes some go really angry . On top of that he is just our number 4 (me being 6). It is also fun to watch your team mates play and think of whom they could be in the PoT universe.

My team as a example:

No 1.: Is pretty much like Tachibana, hits very hard shots and cares alot about the outcome of the overall results.
No 2.: Our kid, almost like Echizen, a bit less cocky but has much talent and is just 14 years old plus he can do Twist/Kick serves
No 3.: From his playstyle he is like Fuji of course w/o all the crazy counters... but he is a counter punchers meaning the stronger the you attack the better he counters.
No 4.: Our wall
No 5.: The man with the fastest serve in the club, like Ootori, also our double expert
No 6.: me, like Kamio, quick runner and fast forehand when hitting it while moving

[Sherlock Holmes]

AWESOME STORY. Beating a wall is awesome. I also beat one once. I noticed it had a hole in it. A small hole though. But I figured that if I smashed the ball hard enough the speed would make up for the difference in size. It did.

So, if Mangahelpers was a team in POT....How awesome would we be? And who would play S3,S2,S1,D1,D2?

[Dansan1]

Well, all silliness aside I'm a 4.0, the only thing holding me back from being able to safely call myself 4.5 is my lousy combination of 1st serve percentage and second serve technique.

Give me D1 or S2 !!! Or I quit.

I too know a wall(person), I've actually mentioned him before in this forum. The difference is that he has practically no form or ability(2.0 at best, with the exception of court coverage). He's just really fast and good at blocking balls back. The only shot he can hit well is a lob (which he's actually really good at, much better than me).

He's even taken a few sets off my younger brother (who is a solid 5.0)

[alexlw92]

i call doubles 2.

btw, is anyone here from socal, and ranked in scta?

[Atobe the king]

Well, all silliness aside I'm a 4.0, the only thing holding me back from being able to safely call myself 4.5 is my lousy combination of 1st serve percentage and second serve technique.

Give me D1 or S2 !!! Or I quit.

I too know a wall(person), I've actually mentioned him before in this forum. The difference is that he has practically no form or ability(2.0 at best, with the exception of court coverage). He's just really fast and good at blocking balls back. The only shot he can hit well is a lob (which he's actually really good at, much better than me).

He's even taken a few sets off my younger brother (who is a solid 5.0)

So your friend is a pusher?

[Dansan1]

Yes, though in all honesty he's closer to 3.0, I realized 2.0 is selling him short. But still, bad bad strokes. But those kind of players can be really frustrating.

[Atobe the king]

Well from what I've been told a 3.0 is a pusher...

And yes from what i can tell they are frustrating..just bunting everything back in play...it's a sound tactic though it doesn't seem to work on the pro level.

[Dansan1]

Well pusher refers more to strategy of play, not level of skill. Low skilled people often play it by default, but there are exceptions and even some who play it deliberately at much higher levels. For instance I was a serve and volley player from the beginning. I played SV when I was 2.0

Being a pusher doesn't work at the pro levels because it's largely a game of screwing with the opponents focus, and if you're playing professionally a few soft balls aren't going to throw you. Well....Michael Chang might smile at that....(and Llendl might scowl....)

But no rating system is perfect because of generalizing. Footwork is often a common denominator when trying to rate yourself. You can't really play that kind of tennis effectively unless you can move, and so often they characterize 3.0s with poor court movement. So what happens when your footwork is completely out of sync with your stroke level? For everything else he's around 3.0 yet his court speed is great(that and that stupid lob). He's physically much fitter and faster than me.. After lots of playing his strokes haven't really improved, but his tennis sense has so now he's able to use that speed to cover the court well.

[Fayte]

My high school tennis team was amazing, and I can totally compare them to PoT characters.

Singles 1: Jake ( The captain. Personality and play is a lot like Tachibana. Excellent all rounder )

Singles 2: Kevin ( Co captain. Physically looks like a young Pete Sampras. Personality and plays like Chitose )

Singles 3: Dong ( Real life Kirihara. Super agressive, very cocky, and if he winds up his forehand, don't even bother running to the ball. He lost only 1 official match. Currently in college for tennis. This kid will be a future pro )

Dong Shao:

Singles 4: Nick ( Technician all rounder. Plays like Fuji. In the past, Nick and Dong would go head to head for the title of singles 1 )

[alexlw92]

pushers are usually nubs
(usually)
yukimuras a pusher
kaidoh's a pusher
jackal's a pusher

when they say "defensive player", they usually mean theyre pushers