I have always had incredibly vivid and intense dreams. I often awake from dreams in a state of confusion, unable to distinguish clearly what was reality and what was dream, because I experience all physical sensations in dreams as fully as if I were awake (actually, more fully, I'm much more aware of detail in dreams).
I've recently experienced a couple of dreams that I would possibly categorize as Lucid Dreams.
The first, a week ago, was rather simple... I awoke from a dream about an hour after going to bed, propped myself up on one elbow to check the time, and in my field of vision there was what looked like a transparent floating overlay of a computer screen going berserk - flashing random images like it had a short circuit. I recall saying to myself aloud, "How odd, I guess I'm still dreaming". It continued for several seconds. I tried to keep it going, but it just kind of stopped. As far as I know, I was fully awake, but I don't have any memory of lying back down to sleep.
The second, two nights ago, was a much stranger experience.
I was lying in bed fully awake (so I thought) and began to purposely breath in a strange pattern, imitating something that does happen to me every now and then when I sleep. I don't know if I was trying to get my wife's attention or sympathy, but I reached out and took a hold of her forearm, and said her name, knowing I wanted to wake her up.
Try to stay with me... I was fully conscious of my breathing, holding her arm, my temperature, the position of my pillow, the feel of the bed under me, everything. My eyes were open, I could see the whole room, I even knew the sun was about to rise by the ambient light.
What happened next was the real trip!
AS I'm seeing/doing/feeling all this... My wife comes running in the room so fast she startled me and my mind couldn't reconcile that I was seeing her and holding her arm next to me, and at the very same time she was coming in the room, so I did what any normal person might do... I shrieked like a little girl seeing a mouse!
So now it gets more confusing to me... My shriek woke up me and my wife instantly. Thankfully there wasn't really another her in the room, but I was in a very high state of confusion for several minutes as my wife tried to calm me down. (yeah, shes used to this kind of stuff from me).
My transition from what MUST have been a dream initially, even though I was sure I was awake, to my actual fully awake state was almost nil. Everything I was seeing and feeling before waking was the same after I awoke. I was indeed holding my wifes arm, the sun was about to rise, my position in bed was the same, etc. The only detail I recall being different was the position of my pillow under me. That, the phantom wife, and the sudden startling awakening, are the ONLY clues I have that lead me to believe the whole thing was a dream at all.
Why did I post this? Mostly because I'm a curious person, and wonder if any of you have ever had experiences like this. I barely understand the concept of Lucid Dreaming and would love to hear from others that might comprehend it better.
I prefer my flying dreams though, I've gotten quite good at those, I just wish I could really do it!
Sorry Willie - Feel free to move or delete this post, but the user experience on this forum seems to be going from weird to worse for me.
Logging in doesn't work right half the time, I actually get two seperate log-in boxes on the main page. My alerts box is so tall it goes "out of the browser" so I can't delete the alerts.
I come on tonight and the only forum I can access is Racquetball talk, which is now stuck in the Tennis Forums, I can't find the regular racquetball forum anywhere. I had to click a thread in my alerts to get here.
Would love to post this in the appropriate section , if I could find it!
Can't remember who started the thread on backhand power (was it Blunt Brad), but anyway...
I mentioned in that thread that I had been thinking a lot about where power comes from in a stroke, specifically backhand. So that got me out of "thinking" and into "doing".
I also said I have been serving backhand some for fun and it works pretty well for me.
What I was lacking though, is confidence in my backhand swing. I often would have a clear setup and as I stepped into the shot, my brain would always second guess my ability to shoot accurately and I would often take a shot that was a little more conservative tan it should have been, or I would flat out skip it.
So last night, I decided to serve backhand the whole time. first game... Down 5 points. Keep going backhand. I'm down at 14-15, great time to switch back to forehand, right? Nope. Commitment.
Took it to a win - 17-15. Whew.
Next game. More backhands... crack... ace... then sent two sweet bounces out of the corner my opponent couldn't get a racquet on. Nice!
4 backhand serves that he couldn't even touch.
Then a switch came on or something. All of a sudden I was taking backhand shots that shocked me both in power and accuracy (relative to my usual shots).
I easily took the next 2 games, because seemingly all of a sudden my range of reliable shots had increased.
I feel like I just stepped up my game 2 notches. Why?
Because I MADE myself do something to the point of uncomfortableness and then at that point it became comfortable. Very odd the way that works, but I like it!
Thanks for allowing me to offer my personal racquetball diary for your amusement.. :)
I can't believe I've been playing two years now, just rolled my anniversary.
I've had the privilege of playing a lot with someone that was once among the top players in the state I'm from. I say once, because he no longer plays competitively due to getting new knees a couple years ago. I'm constantly in awe of the shots he makes and his court sense. He doesn't seem to be missing much but the speed he used to have, and probably the drive he would get from playing better players.
I realized last night that he has brought my game way up in the last few months since we've played regularly as I watch what he does and try to emulate it.
Normally, I'm doing really good to take 10 points from him. Last week I nearly beat him for the first time, played to 12-15, 9-15, 14-16 (I was up 9-2 out of the gate and blew it).
I made the mistake of telling him why I got so close... he backed off from his soft front court shots that I feel I have no defense against. He botched a couple and stopped taking them.
Fast forward to last night... I'm back to 7-15, 6-15, 10-15 territory.
I'm pushing him harder every week but that SHOT of his leaves me flat footed every time. I can't find a way to defend it.
When he's up front and I'm behind him, if he gets half an opportunity, he bunts the ball against the sidewall and it bounces off the front wall within an inch or two of the floor angling toward the opposite sidewall. He knows where I am, and almost always hits it the direction that would force me to literally dive through his body to have any chance of getting the ball, even then, it hits so low I couldn't get it unless I were in front of him when he shoots, in which case he would be able to call a hinder or, more likely, he would force me back to the back of the court.
Sorry, this is becoming a book...
The only reasonable thing I can think of is denying him the opportunity to take the shot, but he seems to be able to do it no matter how the ball is coming at him. And he makes it look so easy...
If you understand what I'm talking about and have ANY words of advice, please chime in!
Naturally, I don't mean bouncing it off the wall or floor before taking up serving position.
I have a friend that drops the ball and lets it bounce two to four times before smacking it for the serve. Apparently, he wants it to be at just the right hight when he hits it. I haven't seen anyone else do this, and am wondering if it's "legal".
I'll probably let him continue and not make a fuss, even if he's not supposed to do it, because his serves aren't so hot anyway...
Just one of those things that bug me, like my other friend that doesn't want to understand that you can't camp out in front of my DTL or CC shot and gets all bent every time I call a hinder on him, or pop him in the backside.
OK, I'm getting older than I used to be. About to turn over 40 on the life-o-meter...
I'm wondering how many of you have consciously slowed down your aggressiveness as you've aged. I'm a fairly new player and I believe my game has a lot of room to progress, but I often forget my age and go at it like I'm twenty still. Not a bad thing all together, but I don't respond as well to hitting the floor as I might have some time ago.
I'm not really an agressive diver, but I will dig hard on occasion, and I tend to slide on my knees a good bit, an old mans dive, if you will.
Those of you that are or have been divers/sliders, have you let up on this aspect as you've gotten older or do you figure you'll just keep at it til you break?
No point is worth getting laid up over, to me anyway, but testosterone overrides the mind at times, and I just HAVE to go for it.
Can't seem to find any decent (current) videos of Kane playing. I really enjoy watching him but I only seem to come up with older stuff on YouTube. Any ideas? Links?
I purchased an Ektelon Blue as my first "real" racquet several months ago because I felt it would help my game "somehow". (Being quite new I didn't really know what to expect).
Well, I just managed to break my first set of strings so I have been forced to play with my Kmart special Head racquet a bit. While it's not really hurting my game terribly, it feels awful and I can't hit as hard with it.
I like the Blue, very comfortable to me and I plan to restring it if and when I find a local stringer, I just don't feel like I can move it as fast as my junky Kmart doodad. I've been considering upgrading again to possibly the Head Liquidmetal 170 or equivelant (something around $100).
Does anyone here know how these two would compare? Do you think I would notice a comparable jump in quality/playability from the Blue to LM170 as I do from the Kmart flyswatter to the Blue?
I like the "Heft" of the Blue, I think it weighs 190, but I have enjoyed the quickness of the KMart toy even though it feels like junk otherwise in comparison. I'd like to find a "faster" racquet that still smacks hard and feels solid... Are you as confused as I sound?
Just broke my first set of strings and don't know where to find a good stringer. Anyone near Dayton Ohio? I know I can send it in somewhere, but after shipping and the cost of stringing, I could almost replace the racquet cheaper.
Also, what's a decent price to pay for a good string job?
The courts I play on have several features that, from time to time, cause the ball to take a crazy bounce.
Examples:
1) The doors sometimes don't close completely tight and the ball will hit the edge of the door where it opens into the room.
2) There is a piece of trim at the top of the back wall where the upstairs gallery is that protrudes into the court an inch or so.
3) The trim on the lights in the ceiling are not quite flush in several places.
Last night I hit the trim referenced in #2 and the ball, instead of coming back down to aproximately center court as one would expect, bounced nearly sraight up to the ceiling, hit an A/C vent, and deflected to the side wall.
While this was theoreticly playable, my opponent stopped play and called it "out". I don't know what his reasoning was, except that he thought it would have bounced out of the court if it had not hit the trim.
I insisted that since the ball was actually still in the court and "potentially" playable but had bounced in an unpredictable manner, it should simply be replayed.
I thought that I have seen an official rule on this... something like "court obtructions" or "court hinders" but I may be crazy, either way I can't find anything about it and would realy like to have evidence to back up my position next time I see him. OR...I can apologize!BTW, he grudgingly agreed to replay the point. Thanks.
I have a different opponent that fairly regularly hits the ball and then posts up in the ready position in center court without regard for where the ball is going (He usually is not watching the ball when he does this).
Two problems arise often enough...
1) He blocks one or both of my entitled shots. (for this I occasionaly pop him with the ball lightly as a reminder, but usually just ignore it and go with an inferior shot)
2) I am often forced to try to run around him, which almost never works, or I end up running into him pretty hard, which I prefer not to do.
My question is this: I know he needs to stay out of my shot lanes, but I don't know if he has an obligation to get out of my path to the ball. He says he doesn't.
I try very hard to not impede his path to the ball, even if it puts me out of good court position. I think it comes down to him not watching the ball when he posts up, of course he can't predict where I will be or go if he doesn't know where the ball is.
I'm tempted to start leapfrogging him or hitting him like a linebacker but either would probably injure me. :)
Occasionally, I play someone that is so bad that I play with my left hand (I'm strongly right hand dominant). This gives me an opportunity to challenge myself in a different way, clumsy as it is.
I've noticed that I have improved considerably with my left hand the more I've done it, though it's a far far cry from playing the "right" way. (example - I resort to a two handed backhand sometimes)
I've been thinking about the merits of playing my off hand more often, to balance the body and develop the mind in ways its not used to. Does anyone else do this regularly?
Do you think it would be possible to eventually develop an equally strong off hand game? In other words, can we force ourselves to be ambidextrous? It seems to me that "handedness" is a matter of taking the path of least resistance, what comes more naturally gets developed more. I have a friend whos backhand shots are way stronger than his forehand, he told me thats what he worked on for years because it was week, now his weekness has become his strength!
I think I'm going to eat lunch today left handed, just because.
I know you are aware the search doesn't work. Unfortuneatly, that makes it hard to search whether others have had these issues or not.
I like this site and hope that it does well but a few things make it less than compelling to me as a user...
1) It took me nearly 10 trys to register. I would enter my account info to set it up and wouldn't get a confirmation email. I have no idea why I finally did get to log on. If I didn't like the information here so much I would have given up and moved on. I wonder how many have, if they are getting this also!
2) No search = redundant posting or users NOT posting because they don't want to be redundant. I'm taking my chances here. :)
3) I tried to add my local club and got a big fat screen of error mumbo jumbo. I'll try again once or twice and then probably won't bother. This totally seems to contravert the purpose of the site?
I'm trying to be helpful here, sorry If I'm telling you what you already know.
Open, A, B, C, etc... How do you know where you fit?
Yes, I have TRIED to search this. No, I haven't found an answer.
I'm very new to the game, under three months, I'm somewhat out of shape (getting better), but I am making a concerted effort to understand the game and get better. I would like to have some concept of where I would fit in IF i had the opportunity to play a tournament. Can someone help me get even a rough guess of how the skill levels are defined?
I haven't played enough different people, or enough that knew their level, to gauge anything. I have played an A/Open player that handily stomped me, as I would expect. I have played "perpetual beginners" that I have stomped handily.
I would love a link to good info on this or I could tell you my known strengths and weaknesses and maybe someone could make a close judgement?
Now that MNP has finally let me log in, I may as well introduce myself.
I'm 38, just played raquetball for the first time about 10 weeks ago, and loving it!
I feel like I'm making pretty good progress in the game, but I don't have much of a guide to measure by. My only consistent partner and I are very evenly matched and have some pretty intense games. I'm in it to sweat, lose weight and just enjoy playing.
I play at the YMCA in Greenville, OH and I rarely see other players at the courts. Any suggestions how I might be able to find prospective players? I can't stand staying home when my partner can't make it, and banging a ball around myself just doesn't do much for me.
