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ST. LOUIS (MCT) — Tennis can be an intimi- dating sport for newbies and klutzes. Mastering it requires speed and stamina, agility and hand-eye coordina- tion, strength and finesse, smarts and prolonged mental focus. Cardio tennis, a group exercise program that consists of fast-paced drills, also requires these skills, and yet is not intimidating. I'm a novice and a klutz, and after taking a cardio tennis class, I can only surmise that it's because class members must move so fast and concentrate so hard on hitting the balls flying at them, that they don't notice those who miss simple shots repeatedly. At least I hope they don't notice. Tennis pros Tim Barnes and Mark McPhillips stood on side- by-side courts at Fron- tenac Racquet Club, pulling balls from a near- by cart and lobbing them to class participants recently during a drill called the "Three-Ball, Two-Court Weave." Barnes stood on the east side of one court hit- ting air balls to the women, who stood in a row on the baseline on the west side of the court. After each woman hit three balls, she ran diago- nally to the east side of McPhillips' court and lined up so he could hit three air balls to her from the west side of the net. McPhillips called each woman by name before serving to her. He looked perplexed when I stepped up. "What's your name?" he asked. "Cindy. And I have no hand-eye coordination," I warned him. He lobbed the balls softer than usual. As I returned each of the serves to his side of the court, he lobbed a new ball at me. After I'd hit all three, I ran to the other side of Barnes' court and got in line. We did this several times, hit- ting balls then running to the alternate side of the other court to do it again. After several minutes, we moved on to an even faster drill called the "One-Ball, Drop-Shot Weave." It required us to sprint from the baseline to the net on each court where Barnes and McPhillips were gently tossing balls over by hand. After hitting the ball — or not — we moved to the next court and so on, weaving back and forth for several more minutes. We occasionally stopped to collect balls and put them in the carts. Most of the women had beautiful swings that made a nice popping sound when the ball hit their racket. I, on the other hand, clomped like a drunken mule toward several easy shots, swung and missed. Nevertheless, I was panting, sweating and as thirsty as the next women by the time we completed a dozen drills over the course of an hour. A few of the drills required us to play out a point and accumulate three points to become "Queen of the Court" and move to a server position. After class, Barnes noted how cardio tennis offers a better workout than a lot of matches. "In matches, plays end after a minute or two and you have to stop and pick up the balls and you can catch your breath," he said. "With cardio tennis, there's no stopping for several minutes." Jodi Zook began tak- ing cardio tennis classes about three years ago. "It's a great workout, it's fun so the class goes fast, and Tim is always coming up with some- thing different for us," said Zook, 47, of Ballwin. Doing drills that require a lot of sprinting to reach the ball, she added, has taught her that she's faster and more agile than she once thought. "Sometimes in match- es, I would let balls go by," she said. "But now I know I can probably reach them, so I go for it." Gina Woodruff, 46, of Des Peres, also likes how the classes force her to sprint. "I don't get that oppor- tunity very often, other than between the grocery store and my car," she said. "It also keeps my skills smooth, my gears oiled and shows me what I can do and what I need to improve on." Barnes says the classes also help players improve hand-eye coordination, fitness levels, reflexes and footwork. He's been teaching cardio tennis for 10 years, first at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco and then at the Carlisle Bay Resort in Antigua. When he returned to the states three years ago, he brought it to Frontenac Racquet Club. Most of the women in his class, he says, play tennis regularly and have been attending cardio ten- nis classes for some time, which allows him to do the scoring drills with them. "If we had more peo- ple at your level," he said, chuckling, "we would do more of the ones that only require you to return the ball, so there's no scor- ing." 4A – Daily News – Monday, February 8, 2010 Come in and see our new lower prices We are open and NOT CLOSING Everyday 7am-3pm 200 So. 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You can place yours By phone any time Before Wednesday February 10 at 5 PM! 527-2151 Daily News Classified Vitality health&fitness Cardio tennis not for the faint of heart MCT photo Tennis Pro Tim Barnes, right, leads an instructional lesson, Jan. 15, at Frontenac Racquet Club in St. Louis. Barnes also teaches a Cardio-Tennis session, which combines an aerobic workout for students interested in tennis but without the instruction. Early diagnosis of dementia By JANE GLENN MCT Alzheimer's is increasing at a rapid rate in California — at least 66,000 Orange County residents have the dis- ease. Yet most individuals do not receive a diagnosis until they are well into the moderate stages of the disease. That's a concern for Dr. Malcolm B. Dick, neuropsy- chologist at UC Irvine's MIND Institute (the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders). "With the right diagnosis, we might be able to make a difference and lower the risk of the disease progressing to a different stage," he says. Q. You have diagnosed more than 6,000 people in your 20-plus years with the Institute. In fact, you have just been awarded the Institute's first MIND Award. What has changed about diagnosing the disease over the years? A. Boomers are so sensitized to cognitive illness that they worry if they notice a change. That is the good news. When the clinic opened in the 1990s, the majority of patients we saw were already into mild or moderate dementia. Now, we see a lot of people in the first five years of mild cognitive impairment. They may not have dementia but a memory loss from some other problem that they are concerned about. It's a good thing they are coming in. It might make a difference and lower the risk of the prob- lem progressing to a different stage. Now, something can be done to lessen the likelihood of dementia. Q. What percentage of the people you see have Alzheimer's? A. Probably 65 percent of the people I diagnose have Alzheimer's. Other causes of dementia can include a stroke, hypothyrodism or not enough B12. And then there are 10 to 15 percent who will have Lewy Body, a form of dementia which, like Alzheimer's, is not reversible. Q. I am told you have an accuracy rate of 90 to 95 per- cent in your diagnosis. The average rate for a diagnosis by a physician is 80 percent. What is your procedure? A. We do a comprehensive evaluation for dementia and that includes a complete medical history, changes in behavior, initial symptoms. There is a physical examina- tion and a neurological examination. This helps us to identify such problems as inappropriate use of drugs or a combination of drugs. The history tells us if this is a slow, insidious projection — more characteristic of Alzheimer's. We look for sensory or motor changes. How a person walks, the gait and the arm swing. It takes a little bit of time. Q. And the cost? A. About $450.