Hills Family Trip - Hawaii Day 3

Hey everyone,

Day 3 of Hawaii is in the books and it was another incredible day. After an early wake up we headed to our amazing hotel breakfast as I'm sure everyone watched on Jared's video yesterday. Before we knew it we were back on the courts for our first practice and we got some good singles work in. Practices are improving daily, along with overall team intensity. I can tell my teammates sense how close our first match is and the importance of starting off on the right foot.

After morning practice we went for lunch at a local sandwich shop and relaxed for around and hour. We then proceeded to our second practice which primarily focused on doubles. During breaks it can sometimes be hard to get solid doubles practices in so everyone was happy to put in the extra work. Not to mention doubles drills are some of the most fun (especially when they end with butts up as you will see in the video). After the second practice we had a couple hours of free time and most of the guys headed down to the beach. A couple of us stayed behind to lift some weights to make sure we were looking our best at the beach (suns out guns out as Coach P likes to say), and one or two took naps.

The beach was a blast as usual. Today we brought a tennis ball out and were playing the game 500. The rules are fairly simple with a designated thrower that calls out a number when he throws the ball in the air, if someone from the group catches the ball he gets the points, and if someone gets to 500 they become the thrower. Luckily everyone came out injury free! After a good hour and a half of hanging and playing around in the ocean we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Tonight we went to Duke's which was a fantastic restaurant with and even better view. It was half inside and half outside overlooking the ocean. Additionally, they had some great live local music.

Possibly the most noteworthy event of the day was the arrival of Cunha. After nearly 24 hrs straight of flying he finally made it to the hotel. He looked pretty tired as expected and promptly headed to the shower before having a quick bite to eat. That pretty much sums up day 3 of our trip, I hope you guys are enjoying our little recaps and the videos we've been making. Finally, I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm not the most technologically inclined person and my video didn't quite turn out as I had hoped but you should still be able to see some fun and interesting clips.

-Reid

Hills Family Trip - Hawaii Day 2

Aloha everyone,

Day 2 in Hawaii! Waking up to another 82 degrees and all sun, another day in paradise. We started off the day going to an amazing buffet breakfast with some of the best tasting fruits we’ve ever had. After eating a good amount of food, we all loaded up the vans and headed to the courts for a practice with the Louisville tennis team. It was a good way to really get into the match mode mentality and get the competitive juices flowing. After a set of doubles and a couple sets of singles, our day became even more exciting. We headed to the North Shore of the island where some of the biggest waves in the world are. A surfing competition was taking place so we watched that for a while and then decided to test the unknown waters ourselves. We made it in to about our knees until everyone was on their back falling into the water. The ocean kicked my butt today stealing my sunglasses and necklace, so mad!! After some tackling in the sand, some competitions of who would be the last knocked down in the water, and staring at some cute girls, we headed back to the hotel through a beautiful scenic route with mountains, crazy trees, and the ocean on our side the whole time. We had some good chicken and burgers for dinner, and are all so exhausted from the action packed day. Keep everyone updated, more to come about tomorrow!

-Jared Pinsky

Hills Family Trip - Hawaii Day 1

First of all I would like to thank the Hills family very much for this trip. It is the first time the whole Duke Tennis guys and girls teams are travelling together, and it is the first time we have had a chance to have such a great time in preparation for the spring season. Hawaii has been an absolute paradise so far, and we have only been here for one day.

Today was our first official practice day. We started the day with an awesome breakfast with a lot of fruits and a few new local dishes. Everybody was starving, probably because by then it was 1PM in Duke’s time zone. We headed straight from breakfast to practice where we hit for around an hour and a half. The weather is awesome to play and most of our players were playing shirtless exhibiting their muscles, specially our muscle monster Jared Pinsky (NOT). The courts are pretty slow and the ball bounces pretty high, very different from the indoor courts we are used to playing on this time of the year in the East Coast. So it was great that we got here early in the week to adapt.

After the morning practice we split the team in two groups to get lunch, some went to Subway and the others went to a local sandwich chain next door, which supposedly was amazing (of course I was in the Subway group). After lunch we headed back to the courts for our second practice where we played a few points to start getting into the dual match state of mind.

This afternoon after practice we had free time to do whatever we wanted. We divided in a few groups but most of us ended up going to the beach and the swimming pool to work on our tan and try and get into the Hawaiian lifestyle. At 6:15 we met up in the lobby to eat dinner in the Lu Lu’s restaurant.

Being from Brazil it was great playing tennis in the warm weather again and getting my Brazilian color back. It is a little weird to walk around and listen to everybody speaking English since I am so used to going to the beach only in Brazil, where everybody speaks only Portuguese. Also it is the first time I got to chill in the beach with my teammates, which was also great.

I hope this blog shows you guys a little bit of the insights of our amazing trip. It would be great if you guys could be here to enjoy these moments with us. This is all for today,

Alain Michel