It’s been quite a while between updates on the Thorpe Tennis blog, but it certainly hasn’t been an uneventful time out on the courts.

After a rough girls’ season over at Cate, some of the girls are looking ready to make another run at the playoffs this coming year. I’m excited to see what a healthy Marina Narain can do as a senior and if our last few court sessions are any indicator, Mady Snider is looking very dangerous coming into her final season. I’m also looking forward to seeing what all the hard work Kate Dehlendorf and I have put into her game over the last year will yield.

On the boys’ side, I’ve been working very hard with a number of players who are really turning the corner. It’s hard to pick a few guys to mention because there are really quite a few working hard and making gains. In particular, Jack Espy, Martin Barnick, Benji Sorensen, and Ben Furukawa have shown some real progression. Ben just recently won the K&W Junior Satellite Classic in San Diego without dropping a set and has been finishing in the top two of most of the local club tournaments all summer.

My younger students are also showing great promise. Alex Furukawa has performed well in local tournaments this summer and Daniel Newton made a strong showing in his tournament debut (much better than my 0-10 start when I was his age!!!). These two and a few others I teach are all headed to Laguna Blanca for high school, so this is 2x good news to me! I’m making a prediction for the future of the Condor League now: Laguna will be the dominant force and it’s coming soon.

Lately, I have been thinking about how important it is to show improvement over time, especially to those that improve. Sometimes it can be hard to see one’s own progression because it happens one day at a time, whereas, looking from the outside (perhaps a parents perspective, watching matches occasionally), change is evident immediately. One way I intend to do this is through more video analysis and archiving, but I also hope to pick this blog back up again. The future is bright and it’s important to celebrate and make note as things unfold.