A day at EDC camp

A bead of sweat ran down my face as I steeped onto the court! I was nervous! Why?

I was at an EDC--Early Developmental Camps--in Spring, TX hosted by Giammalva Racquet Club. It was an Orange Ball camp when I signed up, but now I'm Green Ball level. I still went to the camp because it would help me improve. 

I joined the other players and caught up on the warm up. The warm ups were easy, but useful! Do not ignore your daily warm-ups. Afterwards the coaches divided us into groups. I was with two other girls. We practiced and worked on backhand slice transition shots, approaching the net, and finishing the point. 

The slice transition shot is a fun shot to do. When it is my turn, I would do a split step, perform a unit turn, my racquet is up high above my head, executing a downward, high to low with a forward momentum in the meantime my crossover footwork aids my transition to move closer to the net in a fluid movement. After we spent a few good minutes doing this, the groups now work on a few conditioning drills to improve our balance and coordination.

My handwritten notes after training camp.

Next we played point game much like king/queen of the court where the challengers would do a slice transition shot and come to the net and volley to finish the point. The "royal" (me) would try to prevent the challenger unsuccessful to come to the net to volley after the transition shot. And we had a 20 minute break! 

After the break, supervised matches were conducted. My first match was a doubles match with a really good partner. His movements and volleys were really good. I'm glad I had him for a partner; it made my "game" even easier! The other team was also good, they were solid players. We ended up winning the practice set, 4-3! Hooray!!!

My singles match was with my doubles partner, the boy who was really good. We had a great practice set; I barely won the set my a measly two points, so the set score was 4-3. We ended the camp with a game; it was a team game, which my team didn't win but I know everyone had fun. 

What is tennis anyways? It's a game! Why was I nervous in the first place?

With lots of love...
Karina Zaharieva