Tennis Club News
Thursday, August 12, 2010
"The pump don't work cuz the vandals took the handles."
-Dylan
(We just couldn't resist. The pump works fine. Here's a link to the bit from Don't Look Back.)
Ron is back in town. And old pal, Vin is still in the game. Try to catch a game with them.
The club was broken into last week, twice. Vandals broke 5 panes of glass but didn't open the windows or enter the clubhouse. Good thing for them: the alarm is, like, really loud. The villains would lose some decibels. The creeps threw porch furniture around and beat up the gate. They (he?) threw umbrellas out on the courts, threw deck chairs off the porch, and in a bizarre turn, threw an orange caution barrel from Mt. Auburn St. out onto court 1. They also threw gravel out on the courts. Tennis haters, apparently.
We've enhanced security considerably (sensors everywhere, bouncing betty mines, trip wires, etc), but if you have any info or clues or advice, please share. Also, if you see anything or anyone suspicious, please report it to the police. Or, you know, tackle the churls and thrash them.
Nick returns from Nepal next week. Ask him about anything. Ask him about everything.;
And here's a note from one of our favorite correspondants;
OK. For those who can't wait till Labor Day, who want to see the top 20 players in a smaller scale stadium, and/or hope for cooler weather in Toronto and Montreal than NYC, here are the home pages for the men, in Toronto, and the women, in Montreal. (Next year, they switch cities.)
Nota Bene, for real fanatics, these are played seriatim, so there is no reason not to attend both.
Rogers Cup
Ishmael
Our pros are plugging a-way, in spite of the heat. They have lots and lots of very popular group lessons and league action.
Lest you miss Johanne's latest missive:
Dear Tennis Enthusiasts,
The summer heat is with us now! Mornings and evenings are really perfect for tennis.The club has quieted down a little after the June frenzy. Several members are vacationing and there is a lot of court time available. If you are around, come and vacation on the courts with us.
For all who joined the club this year as a new member or as waitlist member take advantage of the one hour lesson at half price included in your membership fees. Now is a good time to book lessons.
All the kids participating in the Outreach Program are having a great time swinging their tennis racquets. We have seen some nice progress in their strokes. We have 5 different groups coming to the club ounce a week for tennis lesson's from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Stop by and watch them 'swing away!' They still have one week to go.
A very special thank you to all members supporting the program.
Mark the date, there is a Round Robin coming up:
- Thursday, August 19th* from 6-8pm. Sandwiches and salads will be served. Rain date Thursday, August 26th.
The calendar for August is as followed:*
MONDAYS: - Women's Night from 6 to 8 p.m. Organized women's doubles on 3 courts. To join, please contact Johanne at 617-710-9465. The cost is $8 per member and $12 per guest. Intermediate to advanced players.
TUESDAYS: - Double's Group Lesson from 10am to noon. Drills to help you add variety to your game, perfect your positioning and movement on the court. One hour of instruction followed by an hour of unsupervised play. Advanced beginners to intermediate players. To join, please contact Johanne. Cost $20
-
Men's Night from 6 to 8 p.m.
Organized men's doubles on 3 courts. To join, please contact Johanne.
The cost is $8 per member and $12 per guest. Intermediate to advanced players.
FRIDAYS: - Double's Group Lessons from 10 a.m.to noon & 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Work on court positioning, shot selection, poaching and strategy. Bring your tennis game to the next level. One hour of instruction followed by an hour of unsupervised play. Space is limited so please sign-up ahead of time by contacting Rick or Johanne. Cost $20. Intermediate to advanced players.
SUNDAYS: - Pick-up Doubles on court 1.
Open to all members from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. and open for intermediate to advanced players from 10:30 to 1:00 p.m. Players go on the court on a first come first serve basis with a rotation of players every half hour.
-
- Junior's Group Lessons from 5 to 6 p.m.
Drills from 5-6 p.m. for intermediate to advanced players. Cost is $17.50/per player. Open to members and non-members. Space is limited so please sign-up ahead by contacting Rick.
For private or group lessons you may contact Steve Counihan at (781) 929-7455, Rick Rose at (617) 642-3448 or Johanne Gauthier at (617) 710-9465. For all tennis activities information please e-mail Johanne at gauthierjooo@aol.com or call at (617) 710-9465. You will find the tennis activities schedule on the club's web site at: cambridgetennisclub.com; on the bulletin board at the club and copies will be made available at the front desk. Please take the time to sign-up ahead for activities because it helps us plan court reservations more efficiently leaving more courts open for members to play.
Please see the suggestion box at the front desk and let us know how we can improve your tennis experience at the CTC.
Looking forward to seeing you on the courts!
Your tennis staff,
Rick, Steve and Johanne.
We are drowned; we are stewed, basted, hammered, but we play on. We've slowed down a bit here in August. We have slow days that are, you know, kinda busy.
Tuesdays and Fridays are the busiest days. Tuesdays are crazybusy. Monday is the slowest, 'cepting Monday prime-time when there are 3 courts reserved for in-house league play and you, yes, you can't get a court. The weekends are slow. Go figure.
At 8:00 a.m. the phone is always, always busy. The action at 8:00 for reservations is frantic. Please be kind to your friendly staff member who takes your reservation calls. We're burning through staff members. Their ears are bleeding.
We seek contributions from members. Insights, jibes, cracks, questions, suggestions, remarks, jokes.
Craig Lambert wrote a must-read article for Harvard Magazine about Bruce Wright's take on the 'high set' stance and movement in tennis. Take a look: High Set The article is accompanied by a separate video demonstrating the technique. High Set Video Thanks, Craig, for sending this nifty technical riff along to us.
The book? The club directory should be in your hand, always, but the website has much of this year's info.
We are going to try out a new feature on the newspage. Let's call it The Book Blurb. The Blurb will note books not necessarily about tennis, but authored by CTC members. So, if you members have recently, or maybe not so recently, written a book that you'd like blurbed, please let us know.
Let's start with:
Our latest book to be blurbed is New Classic American Houses, a book by Dan Cooper about the architecture of Albert, Righter, and our own John Tittmann. "New Classic American Houses is an architectural page-turner brimming with creative interpretations of traditional forms."
Hot off the presses, a new book by Faith Moore, Celebrating a Life, Planning Memorial Services and Other Creative Remembrances. "Celebrating a Life" provides the ideas, inspiration, and how-to advice needed for creating a meaningful memorial service. Light-hearted but sensitive, this thoughtful guide covers it all."
While We Were Sleeping by David Hemenway.
"This book powerfully illuminates how public health works with more than sixty success stories drawn from the area of injury and violence prevention."
The Parents We Mean To Be: How Well-Intentioned Adults Undermine Children's Moral and Emotional Development by Rick Weissbourd.
The New Yorker review said, "In this ardent and persuasive inquiry, Weissbourd, a Harvard psychologist, warns that 'happiness-besotted' parents do children a disservice by emphasizing personal fulfillment over empathy."
Inside Urban Charter Schools: Promising Practices and Strategies in Five High-Performing Schools by Kay Merseth
"an inspirational and practical how-to guide for school reformers."
The club directory for 2010 doesn't exist yet. Membership hasn't been finalized. Other than membership listings, all of last year's information is available on the website.
Some useful links:
Here's a link to the espn site, with pro ranking.
And a club member (let's call him Sol) suggested a link to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. The site is rich.
We still have the tournament draws (from 2001 to 2004) available on-line (including all of the results), thanks to the Java Kid. We are re-locating the links, however.
"On the court, tennis players exchange not only ground strokes but lots of information. It's a richly interactive sport, both verbally and non-verbally. If players communicate clearly, simply, and consistently, the game will proceed more quickly, and with less fuss and misunderstanding. Here are a few guidelines that can make the game more fun, friendly, and fair for all...."
We've had some requests to run Craig Lambert's piece, sampled above, on Tennis Communication. (We'd better leave this link up on the newspage permanently.)
Take a look
at what was happening at this time last year.
The Yearbook
link will take you to the last newspage from 2008. From there you can see the whole of the Persistent Archive of last year's news.
Website Note: The time and temperature icon below is a link to a Boston weather site.
Joe DeBassio, Webmaster.
Website Note II: The honey-comb icon is also a link. It takes the clicker to an archive of all the past news pages so that said clicker can read the news pages for the whole year (2009). The less-than link (<) next to the honeycomb icon will take clickers to the previous issue of this year's newspage.
