DATE: March 2010 [PDF]

Presidents Parley | From the Manager | Hunter's Lair | Results | New Members | Last Month's News

Presidents Parley [Top]

We had our second board meeting. I had asked for complaints and suggestions last month and got quite a few complaints. There were a number of the standard ones which Gary will address. The complaints were legitimate and I hope you will continue to make them.

One of the complaints dealt with the difficulty of getting court times. A painless way to help to alleviate this problem is to be sure to cancel your court time if you cannot make it so that it opens up that time for other members.

There is also the problem of three courts reserved for lessons at the popular 5:15 p.m. time. Beginning February 22, only two indoor courts rather than three will be allocated for lessons at that time. This is the amount of time given to Hunter in his contract. In general, lessons from that time on will only have two indoor courts and if there is a spillover because of too many students seeking lessons, Hunter will take them to an outdoor court.

Two additional items were discussed to make the club more pleasant. First, we have to think of maintenance and capital improvements. We welcome suggestions along these lines. There have been complaints concerning the women's dressing room, for example, another reason why it would have been nice to have more women on the board. At any rate, Stan Sevruk has agreed to be the point man for this undertaking. Give him an earful about any improvements you would like to see made.

We also have to be looking to the future. We have decided to set up a committee to look into creating a Five Year Plan for the club. These plans have to be dynamic, of course, and are subject to change as conditions change, but they will allow us to set goals and "hopes". In charge of that committee is our current vice president, Mark Koenig. The other members are Ken Lefton and Clay Higgins.

Among other long-range problems is our debt, which comes due in 2014. At the rate at which we are paying it down, we will owe around $360,000 at that time. Should we aggressively pursue refinancing the debt now or wait until 2014? There are other long range issues as well that must be addressed. Please let the committee members know your concerns.

We want to hear what you are thinking and how best to serve you. Last month, I got no bouquets. We do want both bouquets and brickbats. It is helpful sometimes to know when we do something right.

I would like to close on a tennis note. A critical shot of utmost importance that is often overlooked is the frame shot. What can be more demoralizing to an opponent who makes a beautiful shot only to have you barely reach it, hit the ball on the edge of the racket, watch it spin out of control and bloop over the net for an unreturnable winner. Ah yes, frame shots, practice them.

RBG

From the Manager [Top]

FIVE STEPS TO BETTER FOOTWORK

"Float like a butterfly … sting like a bee." Muhammad Ali's popular adage wasn't coined for the game of tennis - but the applications are there.

Good footwork is the prerequisite everything else in tennis. If you can't get to the ball, your fancy strokes won't help you at all.

There is a science to footwork that every aspiring player must understand and put into practice. The following five clues will improve your footwork and move you a few rungs up the ladder.

1. Hitting a tennis ball is analogous to hitting a golf ball. It helps to be on balance. Have you ever mis-hit a ball, shanking it on the throat of the racquet? Of course you have. One of the reasons this happens so frequently is because you are not set comfortably at the point of contact. Your skills improve when you make contact on balance, flat footed, front knee slightly bent, with your head motionless. Your footwork helps you reach this balanced positions
2. In between shots … don't stand around flat-footed. All good players use the bounce step to keep poised and ready to spring into action. The message gets from your head to your feet faster if you get the balls of your feet, flex your knees a little, and bounce rhythmically between shots.
3. Shuffle step to the ball. Don't walk to the ball - shuffle. Many small steps are preferable to a couple long steps. Unless the ball is wide (in which case you have to pick up your feet and run) good footwork means taking a number of shuffle steps to the ball so you can easily make an adjustment and be on balance.
4. Stride into the ball. Many players make the mistake of moving sideways or parallel to the baseline to play the ball. Move back to move forward! Shuffle step back so you have room to take a long stride into the ball. Step forward into the court. Collapse your front knee prior to the hit. "Shuffle… step… hit." Your knee acts as a shock absorber for your forward step. Keep your poise.
5. Slide-step back into position after making the play. If you cross your feet or turn your back as you return to the center of the court, your opponent may hit the ball behind you. To keep that from occurring, move back with your shoulders and feet parallel to the net. If, however, you find yourself out of the court after hitting the ball, then forget about sliding, put one foot in front of the other and run!

For more specific movement drills Hunter and Colby Jager (our new Assistant Pro) have lots of footwork drills that they can help you with. Just give them a call!!

Court Times
Court time in the Winter and Spring are very difficult to reserve, particularly Monday through Thursday at the 4pm, 5:15pm and 6:30pm court times. If possible try to work around those times if you have the flexibility to play at other times. Remember that you can start making reservations for a week in advance 1 week and 5 minutes before the court time starts (5:10pm for a 5:15pm court). One of the things we are noticing is that members are making a reservation and then don't show up, but don't cancel the court. We would ask you to please make sure to cancel a court as soon as you know you cannot make it and call the reservation system to cancel your court, so other members can use it. The Board has asked Gary to track courts and cancellations a little closer and then decide if they should implement the $5 fine for not cancelling a court.

Procedures For Cancelling A Court

Procedures for cancelling a court through the Timberhill reservation system are listed below.

1. Call the 541-757-2294 reservation system
2. Go to the #2 menu item for confirming or cancelling courts
3. Enter your account number
4. Find the reservation you want to cancel and then press the number 9.
5. Then press the #9 again to cancel the court.

The main item to remember in this process is to put in the lead reservation to cancel it. For example if I made the reservation using Quandt first and then using Smith second I have to impute Quandt's account number to cancel properly. If you search under Smith's number you will not be able to cancel the court. You must use the lead reservation. If you are having trouble cancelling a court just give Gary a call and he can take care of doing that as well.

Taking care of our courts
Everyone enjoys playing in a pleasant tennis environment and Timberhill is great environment. Please make an effort to keep Timberhill's courts clean and place of enjoyment. Some of the negatives I have heard from members over the past couple of months are listed below.

1. Not picking up all your balls when finished
2. Spitting on the tennis courts
3. Leaving cups and trash on the court when you leave.
4. Not bringing the pitchers of water back up to the clubhouse and refilling them

Remember that Timberhill is a member owned club, which means you the members own it. We just ask that you treat the club the same way you would treat your residence. Take some pride in Timberhill's appearance.

Hunter's Lair [Top]

The exciting news this month is the addition to your teaching staff here at Timberhill. Colby Jager will be serving as the new Professional on the staff, offering his expertise in junior and adult private lessons and groups. Colby grew up in Corvallis, winning the Valley League high school title four consecutive years before continuing his competitive career at University of Portland, where he was named to the All-West Coast Conference team his senior year. He continues to be a top open level player in the Pacific Northwest, and most recently has been teaching adult and junior programs at Vancouver Tennis Center in Vancouver, Washington. He will be here the second week of March to begin work, and you can get in touch with him to schedule a lesson as soon as you'd like by calling the club. Please introduce yourself when you get a chance, and welcome him to the Timberhill Tennis family.

Upcoming Friday night Junior events

Rallyball/Junior Team Tennis 6:30 - 9:00pm;April 16
Rookie League 6:30 - 7:45pm; March 5, April 9, May 7
Junior Fest 7:30 - 8:30pm; March 12, May 14

Results [Top]

Here are results of Timberhill's USTA Adult USTA League as of Feb. 26, 2010

New Members / Substitute List [Top]

Looking for substitutes or new people to play? Please feel free to use these new members listed below to fill-in play times, or you can join our Timberhill Yahoo Group, check out our substitute listings in the TTC clubhouse, or check out our Web directory. Access to that involves a user and password.
User: ttc
Password: GaryandHunter
There are lots of ways to find other players as well as joining up to play in many of our programs. If you really get desperate for players you can always call or email Gary and he can help you out as well.

Kathy Gibbs 503-302-5236: Kathy plays at the 4.0 level and can play mostly weekends and evenings.

Loraine Witzke 541-758-2002: Loraine plays at the 3.0 level and can fill in most times for singles or doubles.

Stephen Thom 619-402-8133: Stephen is a graduate student at OSU and plays at the 4.5 level.