Invited to Pro-Am, as the Pro

This does not happen for me too much, because I peaked at a 5.0 level during my playing days, but I was invited to play in a Pro-Am as a Pro, presumably with 3.5 players and lower.   Either way, serious training has commenced today!  Got out for some hits with a 3.5 lady I know who is friendly, available and always ready for a hit.  

I told the promoter of the event, that I would be a standby in case he could not find someone else, but I have to get ready just in case.  Tomorrow the plan is to hit with a 3.5/4.0 man, and also hit with my male students...  

Ramping it up.

I have a bone spur in my left knee on the outter edge of the joint that makes it very painful to bend my left knee to push up with my left leg to serve.  After just a few serves it hurts pretty bad and I don't want to go for more cortisone just yet (2013) 

So, today I started experimenting with serving with no left off, hitting primarily slice serves, flat serves with some slider action, and some flat serves.   NO PAIN!   Besides, hard to hurt your shoulder with slice, as opposed to a kick serve.   I can still hit the kicker, but the way its going, that will not be my bread and butter, just a surprise shot.  My kicker could be eaten alive.  

So I got a few more minutes of serve practice in, then I got really busy.   So the afternoon of the event with an hour to go, I get my teenage son, who can kill me, and we head out for a little tune up.   It worked fine.

Results:   The organizer wisely paired me with the worst Amateur, who seemed to think that if you sprint onto every ball including volleys that he is being 'aggressive enough'.   Nice guy, really wound up!   We lost all of them, I hit a couple trick shots, got the yips on the toss from lack of practice and talked a lot of crap during play.   All FUN!

I survived and so did my partner, and he seemed blessed by the experience.  

Now:  Bruised Heel, Swollen right knee, sore shoulder.  Im going to be just fun.    Thanks for listening.