Volume 14, Issue 3
WWW.CVTATENNIS.ORG
July 2, 2008
CVTA Dominates League Play, Two Teams are Undefeated
Three 4.0 Men’s
Teams Win 17 of 24
With USTA Mixed Doubles play
completed and the USTA Adult
League season coming to a
close, CVTA teams had a winning record of 48-30, including
two undefeated teams.
The undefeated teams were
Dave Jansen’s 4.0 Men’s team
and Mark Webster’s 3.5 Men’s
team.
The 3.5 Women’s team captained by Paige Hayes had lost
CVTA Thanks
BTA For Offer
To Run
Boulder
County Cup
This Year
Adult
League
3.0 Women
Captain(s)
3.0 Women
Machholz/Dolan
3.5 Women
Hayes
3.5 Women
Gallagher
Buckley/Hagerty
4.0 Women
Elting
3.0 Men
Fowle
3.5 Men
Webster
4.0 Men
Brommel
4.0 Men
Jansen
4.0 Men
Kranz
7.0 Mixed
Kennedy
only one of seven matches.
The next
leagues due to
start were
4-2
USTA Senior
2-4
and CTA Twi6-1
light. If none of
these leagues
4-3
are quite your
2-5
game, there
2-4
are still three
other leagues
8-0
with open
3-5
team registra8-0
tion:
6-2
CTA Women’s
2-3
Summer Daytime,
(doubles) team registration deadline is July 11.
Record
(See ‘Still Not Too Late,’ pg. 2)
The fifth annual Boulder County
Cup will be held this year in
September, and for the first
time in the event’s history, the
Boulder Tennis Association will
take responsibility for organization and management.
The event was created in partnership between the BTA and
the Centennial Valley Tennis
Association, and the Longmont
Tennis Association joined the
competition in 2006. For the
first four years, the CVTA ran
the event.
“We are grateful to the BTA
for its willingness to help perpetuate this exciting event,”
said Steve Caulk, vice president
of the CVTA. “We also hope
the BTA will be kind enough to
show some mercy on the tennis
courts this year.”
The BTA has won the trophy
every year since the event was
founded. It is a “traveling” trophy that stays with the winning
team for the full year. Competition has been based on World
Team Tennis rules; however, as
the BTA begins making its plans,
the event’s structure could
change. In the past, the event
has generally attracted about 80
participants.
No details of this year’s Boulder County Cup are available,
but Caulk said he expects
CVTA members to receive
email updates, and members
can regularly check the CVTA
Web site (www.cvtatennis.org)
Inside this issue:
Social Tennis on Tap
2
Tennis Ladder
2
Tennis Tips
3
Caulk Talk
4
Mature Tennis
4
Contact information
5
It’s Still Not Too Late to Sign Up for More Leagues
(continued from pg. 1)
ITA Fall Mixed Doubles (x.5 combined-NTRP teams),
team registration deadline is July 18.
CTA Men’s Tri-Level Singles, team registration
deadline is Aug. 1.
In the Men’s Tri-Level Singles, teams are combined
NTRP, 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0. Each weekly match consists of
three singles matches – one at each level. Matches will
be played on Saturday afternoons beginning Aug. 16.
With all this league activity on the Louisville courts, it
can be hard to find a court when you want to play. You
can check for league-related court reservations on line.
Click the “Court Reservations” link on the CVTA’s
website, then the name of the courts you’re interested
in – Centennial Park, Pirates Park, or Monarch High
School. Here you’ll find a copy of the reservation signs
that are posted at each set of courts. If you’re trying to
make up a match or schedule a practice, this will help
you figure out which courts are unavailable.
As always, send any league-related questions to Paige
Hayes, [email protected], or call 303-442-2153
or 303-589-5517.
Lotta Tennis Lovers
More than 30 CVTA members and
guests turned out for the CVTA’s
spring social, and the CVTA has decided to do it again, this time at the
Centennial Courts on Garfield Street
in Louisville July 26.
CVTA’s Event at Ranch Tennis Ladder Heats Up; Stromp
Prompts Renewed Effort Moves into Men’s Lead over Filmer
Members of the Centennial Valley Tennis Association indicated that they particularly enjoyed
the mixed doubles round robin held at the
Ranch Country Club in March, and the CVTA’s
board of directors has decided to build on that
success.
The CVTA’s next mixed doubles round
robin will be held July 26, 4 p.m. to approximately 6 p.m., at Centennial Park in Louisville. The event will have the same format, with
limited capacity; so the first CVTA members to
sign up will be the first assured a spot to play.
After the matches, participants will enjoy food,
beer and soft drinks.
The event will emphasize casual tennis, giving
members an opportunity to mingle and get to
know each other.
Anyone interested in signing up can contact
Judy Hooper via e-mail [email protected], or by calling her at 303817-9407. She will request your tennis rating
and phone number. There will be a $5 perperson fee.
Richard Stromp leads the
men’s singles ladder after victories over Steve Filmer and
Shuaibin Lin. Stromp is 2-0,
while Filmer is in second place
in the 20-point leap frog system with a 5-1 record. Lin is
fourth, behind Steve Caulk.
The women’s singles ladder
has not had as much activity,
but Sonja Russell is in first
place.
No mixed doubles matches
have been played.
To sign up for the tennis ladder, send an email to [email protected]. All administration of the tennis ladder is automated on
www.tennisengine.com.
Tennis Tips
Volume 14, Issue 3
Try to Resist ‘Rubber Snake’ Syndrome
By Jim Pagano
Teaching Pro
Managing fear is critical to competitive success. At one point in
our history, a fast automatic response to danger kept us alive
when we faced lions, tigers, and
bears. When we compete, our
brain can at times react to the
stress of competition as if our
lives depended on success. Competitive stress is like a toy snake
on the bedroom floor, it seems
dangerous at first, but after
awhile, you stop diving for the
bed when you see it. Understanding the mechanism behind
this reaction will help you succeed
in the most stressful moments of
competition.
When stress triggers the fear
response, such as a first tournament match, finals of the club
championship, or a face-off with
your league nemesis, our brains
react through two neurological
pathways, commonly referred to
as the high and low road.
When the low road controls our
response, three areas of our brain
create an immediate and decisive
reaction – fight or flight. This
response is associated with shallow rapid breathing, tense muscles, and a desire to freeze or run
away – also known as panicking.
This reaction is hardwired and is
completely unconscious and does
not lead to good tennis.
When the high road controls, two
more areas of the brain become
involved to examine the situation
to figure out if we have encountered this situation in the past,
and whether what we face is truly
dangerous. If there is no real
danger, we relax and handle the
stress appropriately. If there is
real danger, we go straight back
to “fight or flight.” This response
allows the high road to take advantage of training and experience
and creates a measured, thoughtful response to stress, rather than
running away from it.
The problem is the low road is
loud and pushy. Because the
low road once kept us alive,
we tend to listen when it tells
us to freak out and run.
However, nothing on the
court is going to eat us (I
think); thus, the low road
serves no function to a competitor today.
In match situations, the key is to
stop, take things slowly and not
react to the messages coming
from the low road, because there
is no real danger. When the low
road controls, our breathing is
shallow and rapid. To trigger the
high road, take long breaths and
slow your respiration. The same
goes for moving your feet and
releasing tense muscles.
The
important part is to realize that
panic has set in and deal with it.
Success under stress in competition is an incredibly rewarding
experience. If you want more of
it, train your response and correct yourself when you feel the
panic rising. Remember, it’s only
a rubber snake.
[email protected]
720 273 2752
New Board Member for
Baseline Banter Seeks
CVTA; Membership
Exciting Stories to Share
Coordinater Still Priority
The Centennial Valley
Tennis Association’s
Board of Directors recently approved the appointment of Sheble MeConnellogue to an empty
director’s seat. She is the
ninth member of the
board. Others are Eric
Witte, Paulette Witte,
Steve Caulk, Carey
Beneke, Jeanne Batza,
Tim Brommel, Marie
France Robbins and Judy
Hooper.
The CVTA is also seeking
a volunteer to fill the
post as Membership Co-
ordinator by the end of
this year. The new Membership Coordinator
would receive training
from Susan Rasmussen,
the current Membership
Coordinator. She reports
that the time commitment at the beginning of
the year will be about
eight hours per month,
with a considerable decrease in activity after
April and May. For more
information about the
position, or to express
interest, please send an
email to [email protected].
To learn about the
CVTA’s
Membership
Coordinator
opening, contact
membership@cvta
tennis.org.
The Baseline Banter would like to run regular features about CVTA members, teams, issues, or points
of interest. If you know of a member who might be
the topic of an interesting feature, or if you have
other ideas that you would like the Baseline Banter
to explore, please contact us at [email protected].
Perhaps you know of a member who has been competing with a handicap, or someone who used an
unusual technique to improve his or her game. We
are also interested in receiving updates on some of
our more successful league entries. Contact us, and
we will write the story. Also, if you have especially
interesting photos from league matches, tournaments, or even recreational play, please send them in
so we can publish them.
Page 3
Caulk Talk
Sarah and ‘Mates Hold CVTA’s Future
Centennial Valley
Tennis Association
Tennis For the Fun of It
“ U NLESS
YOU’ RE A
3.0,
NOB ODY WANT S TO TALK
TO YOU. ”
By Steve Caulk
At the Centennial Valley Tennis
Association, a 2.5 player is a
cherished commodity.
They don’t last long. They have
a habit of disappearing for one
reason or another. They improve and become 3.0 players;
or they don’t, and they get
frustrated and quit.
But the 2.5 player represents
our future. The CVTA hopes
to grow so that it has the resources to help make all our
tennis activities more enjoyable. The easiest way to grow
is to encourage non-tennis
players to pick up the sport.
Those are the 2.5s.
I have nothing against 3.0 players, or even 3.5s. Some of my
best friends are 3.5s. But the
2.5 player is going to make or
break the tennis community.
That’s why I love what Sarah
Hoepfinger is doing. She is a
2.5 player, and she has created
a Women’s 2.5 Twilight League
team.
Think of it. Not only is she out
there working diligently to
improve her own game, she
feels good enough about herself to say, “Sure, I can serve as
a leader in this sport that is so
new to me.” And, “By the way,
what is a Coman tiebreak
again?”
Every year, the CVTA Board of
Directors wishes it could register a 2.5 team for league competition, and every year in my
memory, we have come up
empty. Now we have Sarah to
Sarah Hoepfinger
the rescue.
Sarah has been playing tennis
off and on – mostly off – for
the last five years. When she
took lessons with her sevenyear-old son last August, she
realized she would like to get
back into the game more seriously, so her husband went to
the Internet in search of an
outlet. He stumbled first upon
a competing tennis association
and, guess what – they weren’t
set up to accommodate 2.5
players. Sarah had encountered
her first example of tennis
elitism.
“I didn’t get good vibes,” she
said. “Unless you’re a 3.0, nobody wants to talk to you.”
I hope that is never the case at
the CVTA, whose motto is,
“Tennis for the fun of it.” As
soon as we start discriminating
against people on the basis of
skill, I am going to find myself
looking for a bowling league.
“When I took lessons in Georgia
with my sister, it was just about
having fun,” Sarah said. “The camaraderie -- that’s what I’m shooting
for. I know it can get competitive,
the higher up you go; and we all
have ambitions of moving up to
3.0. But right now we’re just having fun, being supportive of each
other.”
One of her teammates is Shaun
Howe, mother of two boys, 2 ½
years and four months old. Her
goal is someday to be able to hit
with her husband, Keaton, without
boring him after the first five minutes. I’ve had the privilege of seeing Keaton play. I hope the camaraderie among her new teammates
inspires her to stay on the court
for a few years. She will need the
time.
One of the first things Sarah had to
do was buy a tennis racket. She
chose a Wilson, because she had
seen other players with Wilsons
and figured that must be the way
to go. She didn’t realize Wilson
makes models to suit big swingers
or other players who need a little
more pop. Whatever she ended up
with, it seems to be working.
She found Shaun and about six
other 2.5 women willing to expose
their tennis foibles, and she has
had no problem assuming the captain’s duties.
“The only thing is re-learning all
the rules,” she said. “Like, the
scoring, and where to stand when
you’re serving. But we’re getting
there.”
Trust me, Sarah, you are already
exactly where you need to be.
Seniors Use Round-Robin Format
Page 4
The Senior Racketeers have continued their weekly drop-in doubles activity with a round-robin
format at Centennial Park in Louisville.
Play begins 8 a.m. every Wednes-
day, weather permitting, and the
group usually fills three of the
four courts off Garfield Street
north of South Boulder Road.
The group plans to continue well
into the fall.
Anyone over 55 years old is welcome to join, and CVTA members are encouraged to bring
guests. Questions? Call Judy
Hooper at 303-817-9407.
League Coordinator: Paige Hayes – [email protected]
Webmaster: Yeida Chang – [email protected]
Membership Info: Susan Rasmussen – [email protected]
Newsletter Editor: Steve Caulk – [email protected]
Membership Classifieds – Members can run an ad free of charge in
the newsletter. All ads will run for one issue unless noted otherwise.
Business Classifieds – If your business would like to advertise in the
“Baseline Banter”, business card ad space can be purchased for $24/
year.
Comments, announcements, information, advertisements, and articles
can be sent to: CVTA – Baseline Banter, P.O. Box 574, Louisville Colo.
80027
Or emailed to: [email protected]