DATE: November 2009 [PDF]
Presidents Parley | From the Manager | Hunter's Lair | Results | New Members | Last Month's News
The holidays are fast approaching and I'm sure everyone is planning their Halloween costumes, Thanksgiving dinners, and holiday presents and activities. But before those things dominate your thoughts, remember the importance of tennis and the tennis club. This time of year is time for new board members, sweeping out some of the old and bringing in new members with new ideas and new ways of doing things. Next month includes the annual board meeting during which the board president gives the state of the club message. Also, we elect the new board members. So before that can happen we need a confirmed list of the new potential board members so we can vote for our new members by Nov 9. If you're interested or know someone interested in becoming a board member, forward there names to Gary as soon as possible.
On another note, you may not have noticed a slight decrease in natural light as there has been some work done to try to reduce rain water coming onto the courts. Some sort of sealant was recently applied to key areas of the roof. With the potential for steady and periodic rain coming in the next week or two, we should get a good reading on the effectiveness of the current treatment remedy.
Remember that October is "bring a friend to play" month so bring a friend and introduce them to the club. Note also that people considering joining the club will not have to pay the normal initiation fee during this month.
The capital improvement committee has a long list of improvements that the board could consider, most of them of the aesthetic kind. For example, we could spend money to have all the spider webs removed. But the board thinks that unless the webs actually affect play, we'll live with those unsightly webs. What are your thoughts?
Remember to squeeze in a game or two during the holiday period - stay in shape. You'll thank yourself later.
Werner Evans
See you on the Courts,
Werner Evans,
President, TTC Board
WHO WINS AND WHY
The point of a contest is to see how one can raise one's level off performance.
Some don't see it that way, however; they see competition as a means of dividing
the people into winners and losers.
An important distinction is that competition is not so much with the opponent
as with oneself. It's basically true that if one plays well enough, it doesn't
make any difference what the opponent does. It's also true that figuring out
how to out wit an opponent, especially one with superior ability, is a lot of
fun.
Any discussion of winning begins with the subject of desire. Certainly, desire
is a greater gift than physical ability. For some people there is a need to
win, losing is a blow to their self-esteem; most of us, however, would prefer
to win.
Eventually, each athlete discovers that others are better. Contrary to how it
sounds, this is helpful and it allows him to focus on his own development, and
not continually compare himself to others.
When asked about his level of play, the player responds by describing his best
wins. To protect his self-esteem, he offers contrived excuses for poor performance.
An honest self-evaluation is more than a reality check; it's essential for learning
the basics of the sport.
Tennis is not a test of pretty strokes but of attitude and effort. It's easy
to get discouraged, especially when one thinks he is losing to a less talented
player. Confused and disrespectful, he asks; how can I be losing to this guy?
Consider the plight of the tournaments #1 seed: Supposedly the best player,
he should win, and then what does he have to gain?
Confidence. One gets it from a variety of sources, but mostly from winning.
When the #1 seed wins the tournament, he walks away with the trophy and, most
importantly, with the belief that he can succeed. He knows that there may be
better players in other tournaments, and that this victory will assist him in
defeating one.
In every match there are problems to solve; naturally, we prefer it easy, but
when it's a struggle, we gain more. Look at it this way: with each failure we're
one step closer to success, and the most useful lessons take the longest to
learn.
Learning how to win is easier than learning how to handle winning. There is
a celebrated phrase from Kipling that suggests success and failure should each
solicit the same response. (It's painted above a locker room at the entrance
at Wimbledon.) For most of us, though, that's tough to d if we allow defeat
to depress us, and we celebrate too much winning.
A loss can be motivating and gives you a clear picture of what you need to work
on. Winning may be the greater problem. A victory can deceive you into believing
that you've arrived. By the time you finish congratulating yourself, your next
opponent has you down match point. The student must learn that even with his
trophy there are still lots to learn. By doing so, he'll be able to win bigger
trophies.
TTC Annual Meeting
TTC will hold it's annual general meeting on November 9 at 7:00pm in the TTC
clubhouse. We will give a state of the club address as well as go through last
year financial statements and announce the winner of the Board elections. The
ballot is in this newsletter and you can vote by sending back the ballot with
your bill or dropping it in Gary's mailbox at the club. This general meeting
is also a great place to air out any ideas, both positive and negative about
the club. We will have some refreshments at the clubhouse and you can stay and
play afterwards.
"Meet the Members Social"
We will host the annual "Meet the Members" social event Sunday November
8 from 4- 8pm. We will provide organized tennis as well as have a sign-up for
a potluck dinner. Main dishes will be soup, salads and chili. This is a great
event to meet other TTC members as well as many of our newer members. All with
a few special things happening during the evening will have a great time. Put
this one on your calendar.
USTA Adult League Organizational Meeting
We will hold our usual USTA team meeting December 14 - 17 for the upcoming USTA
adult league. We will be putting a sign-up sheet for teams the middle of November
and the meeting dates and times will be on the sign-up sheet. At the organizational
meetings we will talk about assigning captains, how the teams will operate and
other team concerns. We will have an agenda available at each meeting.
New Winter Couple Social Event
We will be starting a new winter couples social potluck event. We will take
the second Saturday night of the month starting with Nov. 14 from 4:00 - 6:30pm
and have a potluck sign up to bring dishes to sit down after the tennis is done
at 6:30pm. We will reserve courts 1-3 for this so we will max out at 8 couples,
with one couple-playing host to the event. The tennis will be geared around
doubles and be more social than competitive. All levels are encouraged to participate.
Please feel free to contact Gary for more info and look for the sign-up sheet
in the clubhouse.
New York New Year's Eve Party
We have planned a New Year's eve party on Thursday evening Dec. 31 from 6:30
- 10:15pm.We will bring in the New Year at 9:00pm as we watch the ball drop
in New York's time square. We will have appetizer and desserts at the event
as well as open tennis. This will even give you time to clean up and get to
a midnight party later for those with the energy to do so. Put this event on
your calendar. If you are interested in helping with the event, John Myers the
host of the event.
Roof Patching
Some of you may have seen the roofers working on patching the skylights on the
indoor buildings. We have taken a much more aggressive stance in trying to stop
all the leaks. Hopefully by the time you read this we will have a handle on
them. We are taking away some of the light coming through the skylights in sake
of patching, but it should still have quite a bit of light coming through. Thanks
for your patience during the work.
The main thing to mention this month is that we've re-vamped our Junior offerings
so there are more pathways to play outside of the lessons. We are still hosting
Junior Fests every other month (look for this month's on Nov. 20), and on the
opposite months we will run a night split into two programs--the first half
called Rallyball, where beginning kids can learn to keep balls in play, and
can progress from using foam balls and short courts to transition balls to real
balls on a full court, moving as they pass pre-set milestones on each type of
court. The second half of these nights will be Junior Team Tennis, run in a
Davis Cup format with teams of two. We will require advance signups for these
nights; you can either call the club and leave a message or sign up your name
on the sheet posted on Court 6 door. The next Rallyball/Team Tennis night is
Dec. 11. In addition to these nights, we will run our popular Rookie League
one Friday per month. This program is geared toward kids who are starting to
serve reasonably consistently, but need more match play. We will have a pro
there on these nights to assist with scoring, rules, and sportsmanship so the
kids learn to be more confident playing matches.
Look for a full schedule on our calendar.
Rallyball/Junior Team Tennis 6:30 - 9:00pm; Oct 23, Dec. 11, Feb. 26 and April
16
Rookie League 6:30 - 7:45pm; Oct. 16, Nov 13, Dec 4, Jan 8, Feb. 19, March 5,
April 9, May 7
Junior Fest 7:30 - 8:30pm; Nov. 20, Jan 22, March 12, May 14
The final results of the Roy & Arlene Burnham All Comers Classic tournament
held at Timberhill Tennis Club October 2-4
Women's 2.5 Singles: Julie Meunier (Corvallis) def. Erin Smith (Corvallis) 6/3,
6/2
Women's 3.5 Singles: Jennifer Yang (Corvallis) def. Alissandra Wittig (Albany)
6/4, 6/1
Men's 3.0 Singles: Kasey Wang (Corvallis) def. Kyle Evitts (Corvallis) 6/3,
6/4
Men's 3.5 Singles: Russell Rinker (Springfield) def. Patrick Meunier (Corvallis)
6/1, 6/1
Men's 4.5 Singles: Hank Wright (Corvallis) def. John Wilson (Corvallis) 6/1,
6/1
Men's 3.5 Doubles: Robert Rice-Steven Chapman (Corvallis) def. Kasey Wang -
Colton Wright (Corvallis) 6/2,6/1
Women's 3.5 Doubles; Kelly Smith-Toni Thomas (Corvallis) def. Ann Yost - Katrina
Blair (Albany) 6/2, 6/2
Women's 4.0 Doubles: Jill Chapman - Debbie Ryan (Lake Oswego) def. Luki Hammond
- Kim Schlessinger (Corvallis) 3/6, 6/2, 10-3
Mixed 3.5 Doubles: Robert Rice - Sally Clark (Corvallis) def. Jeff Dragila -
Kelly Smith (Corvallis) 6/3, 6/2
Mixed 4.5 Doubles: Jeff Tatro - Shannon Fraser (Salem) def Steve Bolstad (Portland)
- Jill Chapman (Lake Oswego) 7/1, 6/1
Roy & I want to thank you for honoring us as sponsors of the All Comers
Tournament October 2-4, at our club. We enjoyed the recognition from the Timberhill
Board in naming us for that position. Timberhill has been a center part of our
lives for more than 30 years and we enjoyed the many wonderful people we have
met through the years. We want to say thank you for all the effort it takes
to run a tennis club and keep everything running smoothly. Thank you for giving
us the opportunity to share our love for the game with our fellow tennis players.
Sincerely, Roy & Arlene Burnham
Welcome New Members!
Please feel free to give these new members a call and set up a or just give them a hearty TTC welcome
Katrina & Leland Blair 791-1604; Katrina is a 3.5 player player
looking to play singles or doubles and is pretty flexible with her time. Leland
is a 3.0 player who can play evenings or weekends.
Ann Yost 926-3123: Ann is a 3.5 level player who is looking to play singles,
doubles or mixed doubles. She has some flexibility to her schedule.
Tim Altamimi 805-542-5720: Tim is a 23.0 level player who can play evenings
and weekends. He will play singles or doubles or is willing to do drills with
someone else as well.
Lauren Bailey 738-2707: Lauren plays on the high school team and is looking
to practice or play some matches with other juniors.
Bruce Bakhshai: Bruce is a 3.0 player who is looking to sub in any groups,
and will play singles as well as doubles. Bruce is retired so he can play just
about anytime.
Seth Adams 541-691-7465: Seth is a 3.0 level player that has some flexibility.
He prefers singles but will also play doubles
Will Agnew-Svoboda 758-3652; Will is a senior at Corvallis High School
and plays one of the top positions on the team
Pat & Kim Garcia 541-222-0671; Kim is a 2.5/3.0 level player who
played on the 2.5 team last year. She likes singles or doubles. Pat is a 4.5
level player.