Thoughts about Tennis Tradition...

[lobndropshot]

It took its toll on him today...I won 4 games out of 7. What great fun it was...pretending to be a tennisplayer again. Getting him to chase the ball forwards is my strategy and anytime that I can I just love to send him sprinting back towards the baseline chasing a lob over his head. Drop shot and lob technique. Do this a couple of times to your opponent and you will see the discouragement etched on their face. Imagine that!

OOOOOOOOoooo yeah! Lobndropshot AKA the yoyo!

[tennis_chiro]

Doubles...old style.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/fr...ionship-finals

Fabulous. But remember, Hoad and Rosewall were just 19 and 20 years old.

don

[stotty]

Hoad, Rosewall...

Doubles...old style.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/french-international-tennis-championship-finals

[don_budge]

Underspin...

Finally, I think, a recreational player should put first interest in recreational tennis and relegate tour tennis for once to its proper place.

Well I cannot claim to have vanquished any 4.5 level players lately. But today I had some very interesting practice outdoors for the second time on the clay...the red clay of Sweden. The weather here finally turned...it has been a very cold spring. I love cold weather.

My message goes out as usual to anyone that wants to listen...hacks, losers or tour professionals. It is only food for thought and I would never think of asking whether or not anyone agrees or not. In fact in all of my 1,119 posts I have never said...I agree with you, or I disagree with you. I have never said "in my opinion"...except one time when I was joking I said "in my humble opinion". That is simply not the point of this forum...at least I don't think that it is. The point is to discuss...or rather to put your view out there as clearly and in any style that you choose...for others to ponder. It is never my intention to ruffle feathers...maybe just a bit of irony perhaps. It's allowed.

My practice partner is named Mats and he is 35 years old. I would say that he is at least two inches taller than my 6' 1"'s and needless to say his is 24 years younger. He is in pretty darned good shape too...he goes to the gym and plays several times a week. He told me that he used to be one of the elite juniors in Sweden and by that I took it to be top 50 or so....he certainly had accumulated enough points to win some pretty good level championships.

He has a huge ATP forehand (not certain if it is a 1 or a 2 or a 3...or exactly version it is) but he crushes it. He hit the lines so hard a couple of times today that I swear they were pounded into the ground and a bit more stable after his play. Mats likes to play a lot of topspin off of the backhand as well. We practice in a format where we start the rally off with a groundstroke. Usually the first shot is to the forehand but as the practice session progresses the first ball is usually played just a little less kindly than in the beginning of the session. We tend to get a little competitive...and aggressive off of the forehand. More and more the ball seems to gravitate to the backhand with the first ball.

So when Mats hits to my backhand, most of the time the ball is going to be a slice to his backhand and in this way I try to dictate the tempo of the game and slow it down so that my 59 year old legs don't lose the match for me. He destroyed me the first two games to 15...but I was working on him with what amounts to a bit of a rope a dope. My slices gradually started to turn into balls that I was cutting the bottom of the ball and the ball actually backs up on his side of the court which sort of neutralizes his huge top spin if he is in less than optimal position. Many times my severely sliced backhands are out right winners. Mixed in with this little devil, I can hit a very acute angled soft drop shot to the forehand which again completely neutralizes his ATP cannon. Another variation of my slice is low, short and wide to his forehand which again is very good at neutralizing his forehand...and yet another variation is deep into his forehand corner either driving or sort of lobbing deep. He seems to have more trouble generating his potential power and spin after I have worked on his head with all of the variations.

Keep in mind that the basis of this attack is the backhand down the line from me...ala John McEnroe as I am left handed. I can play it down the line in the same variety of ways with variation of depth, spin and speed. The key to the whole deal is consistency and placement. I rarely miss. He gets some short balls out of the deal that he absolutely eats up but all in all the strategy is one that I have used for my entire career.

The disguise of my backhand is also the other deal breaker...as I can hold off at the last split second before hitting the shot that I hit the bottom of the ball where it backs up...two balls came back over the net today. I love that when that happens. He was joking that I play ping pong tennis. My topspin forehand is 90 percent of the time trying to find his backhand or trying to make him play his forehand from as far as possible in his backhand corner...which leaves his entire forehand court open if I can reach his ATP cannon.

It took its toll on him today...I won 4 games out of 7. What great fun it was...pretending to be a tennisplayer again. Getting him to chase the ball forwards is my strategy and anytime that I can I just love to send him sprinting back towards the baseline chasing a lob over his head. Drop shot and lob technique. Do this a couple of times to your opponent and you will see the discouragement etched on their face. Imagine that!

[don_budge]

More from 1984 Wimbledon Finals...The Doubles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LyJ6BKKmSE&feature=endscreen

Just a short clip...of a 5 set doubles final...John McEnroe/Peter Fleming vs. Pat Cash/Paul McNamee. John McEnroe played this match the day before his thrashing of Connors. We don't get to see this anymore. Johnny was just warming up with the doubles final.

The tradition of the doubles...lost in the flood. Another indication that modern tennis has gone astray. The modern singles game is not conducive to stellar doubles play.

[don_budge]

My Original Response to Rick Macci...

Below are the original comments that I wrote to RickMacci in response to his comments to my comments to his video of Development of the ATP Forehand. I pared them down because...get this...I didn't want to appear to be argumentative. For me it is never a case of being right and being wrong. My only reason for ever writing anything is to state my case of how I feel...in my own style and in my own words. I know my tone...I have to live with it.

But at any rate...here are my original thoughts. I am not rebuking RickMacci and the ATP Forehand but I am suggesting that there is a whole other realm of tennis that is being ignored with the conventional wisdom that passes for tennis development these days.

Why am I sharing this with you now? It started with the traditional game of tennis. Scott's articles about the Kirsten Popp classical game and that morphed with a comment by stroke which further provoked me. Then Stotty and 10splayer said something and then it was off to the races...who cares if he flips or not? tennis_chiro had/has his doubts. It has something to do with the comments made about Tommy Haas at the Sony Open and it has something to do with the comment that gordonp has made about John McEnroe. It has a lot to do with the year of 1984 in tennis and that dubious Wimbledon final...and it has a lot to do with George Orwell and his vision. I am thinking critically about the USPTA and all the authorities in our lives that have led us astray. It may have had something to do with klacr's comments about modesty...probably not. I don't entertain thoughts like those. I only try to connect the dots...the three little dots. Just like dear old Ferdinand Celine...in his "Journey to The End of the Night".

I ran my thoughts by bottle...aka John Escher (multiple author of published books and our resident literary expert and former Ivy League English professor) and he agreed (I hate that word) with me that it was good form to abbreviate my remarks in the ATP thread and to not appear to challenge RickMacci. But in the end (and this is the end my friends) we are stuck with who we are. An old leopard cannot change his spots...although I maintain that he can change the grip on his tennis racquet. I swear...I will never be put in a box of somebody else's making. I get tired of tippy toeing around everyone's issues...except for my own. Of which I never tire...of course. You are there and I am here.

My original and traditional thoughts to RickMacci's response regarding the continental grip. Read 'em and weep...I say. With all due respect.



Thanks Rick...I enjoyed your comments.

At the highest level since the speed of the game is at an all time high and the spin of the ball is at an all time high, having the ability to naturally grab the ball with the racquet face slightly closed with a semi western or western( because the grip orientates the the racquet face) is much easier.

Rick Macci...
"let me explain...there can be little adaptions or flairs because depending upon how you are holding the racquet...western, semi, eastern...hopefully no more continental forehands out there..."

Thanks for your answer Rick. I totally understand your skepticism. But I watched John McEnroe and his continental grip based game dismantle Mats Wilander and his heavy topspin, strong gripped and standard issue two handed backhand in the Senior Tour Finals at London and he was asked after the interview if he thought that his style of play would be effective in the modern game of tennis and his answer was..."Yes"...if I am not mistaken. McEnroe himself thinks his approach to tennis is still relevant.

Even the announcers for this particular match were speculating about the court surface and how it would effect the fate of the match. Their rationale was that the surface was slower so that it should favor Wilander in that regard. But as it was the slower surface seemed to favor McEnroe ironically enough. It gave him a bit more time to maneuver Wilander around the court. In the end...Wilander was so thoroughly trounced that he ended up attempting to serve and volley. He said himself of McEnroe..."he has a way of making you feel terrible on the tennis court".

For the past several months I have been experimenting with the continental based ground stroke game, with the accompanying approach and volley game whenever possible, and I have had some very interesting results playing against much younger opponents using the current ATP style of play. Granted my experiment has been of a qualitative nature and not one supported by quantitative analysis but the results have been personally compelling. My conclusion is...I am not entirely convinced that the ATP Forehand is the only way to go here in the Modern Game of Tennis. Although you cannot argue with its' popularity.

I might add that I am a big admirer of the Federer technique as applied to the Modern Game of tennis and prior to my experiment with the continental grip I was pursuing my own play along those lines. I find the information that you are bringing forth on the ATP forehand to be very helpful and informative. It has only been recently that I rethought, retaught, relearned and retooled my game into its present continental gripped state.

The results that I speak of are of course personal in nature but I did try to document much of my experience in the two threads that I referenced. Due to their lengthy nature it is understandable if you didn't get a chance to peruse them. Your ATP Forehand video and the accompanying 3D Revolution thread provoked some rather curious thought within me. Albeit...my thoughts do not go lock step with the conventional wisdom that is taken for the basis of the technical philosophy for the Modern Game of Tennis as it stands today.

I understand everything that you have put forth so far and I have read Brian Gordon's articles about the same. Although Brian's stuff is far more technical and more difficult to interpret when discussing from a teaching point of view tennis technique...it is no less compelling. Brian even mentioned in a post that an explanation that I offered for the behavior of the biomechanics of the stroke were pretty good...even though they were so simple. Which is ok, I think...very technical material can be summed up quite simply sometimes thereby decreasing the risk of losing the students interest that are not so technically inclined.

So I have an idea for you and Brian to collaborate on in your spare time. Which I am certain is scarce...but what I propose is this. Measure quantifiably through the use of your electrodes and probes and computers the behavior of the wrist when it pertains to the differences in grip...western, eastern and the bane of modern coaches...the continental. Measure John McEnroe himself if that would be any help in furthering such a project or motivating one. He might be curious himself if this were to be proposed to him. Brian may find that this would be one of the most compelling studies ever done in tennis research. The Behavior of the Wrist and the Force that it Applies to the Ball as it Pertains to Different Grips on the Tennis Racquet. Do me a favor if you would...forward these thoughts to Brian. I wonder what his reaction would be. Would he altogether be dismissive or might he say to himself...Hmmm.

I cite the old rivalry between John and Björn Borg as the example and the possible corollary between the standard issue of Modern Tennis and possible alternatives. Borg was dominating the tennis scene at the time with his heavy topspin and his one and half handed backhand...in the waning days of classic tennis and along came McEnroe to challenge him...and his approach to tennis. He was very successful with it. Not that he altogether dispensed with the Borgian play...but it certainly proved that there was room for more than one interpretation. I wonder if the same might be true of today. Perhaps there should be an "American School of Thought" where more of an attacking style of play is incorporated into the game as well. Not that all American players would play in this style...just those that find it suitable given their physical, mental and emotional makeups. Perhaps there should even be some allowance for this in the composition of our tennis courts...make them less abrasive.

Thanks for all of your videos, drills and information that have been accessible to us in the general public via the internet. Thanks for sharing. Your contributions to the game of tennis are rather admirable...to say the least. Ever since the days of Bill Tilden and his masterpiece..."Match Play and Spin of the Ball", spin on the ball has been the game.

[don_budge]

The 1984 Wimbledon Finals...Tennis Warehouse discussion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Ypdrb4nIw

Some interesting discussion regarding the 1984 Wimbledon Final between John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors.

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=33174

Even in this discussion you can see that some people are in denial about the equipment.

[don_budge]

The Greatest Matches in Tennis History...

I find myself at least peripherally involved in three, four if you count my backhand experiment...of the greatest matches of all time...according to this source.

http://www.baseball-statistics.com/Greats/Century/tennis.htm

September 8, 1984...1984 U. S. Open: The Greatest Day

I was there with a coaches pass and did not miss any of the action. A freebie no less. Before Connors' match with McEnroe I was in the locker room and Jimmy kept asking his big black buddy..."Where's Patti? Where's Patti?" Jimmy appears to be an obsessively devoted man. Even before a big match he was really genuinely concerned for his wife. He went out and gave it everything he had. The first time that he used an oversized racquet in a Grand Slam Event. The result was much closer than the 1984 Wimbledon Final with the same.

Pat Cash nearly upset Ivan Lendl using a Prince Magnesium. Chris Evert played in the best women's match that I have ever seen and lost in three sets to Martina Navratilova. I believe that Chris was using a midsize for the first time in a Grand Slam event. The match between Stan Smith and John Newcombe was excellent...Newc used a Prince Magnesium.

1984 was the year...that the worm turned in the world of tennis. I promise to tell you guys the whole unabridged story here one day. At the end of the day...or rather into the night it was getting quite chilly...there was a decision to be made. Buy a sweatshirt or continue to drink Dewars and soda. Any guesses? My buddy Duke and I ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe later on somehow.

July 8, 1984...The 1984 Wimbledon Final: McEnroe vs. Connors

You read my account here on the forum. I feel like I was there. Another hallucination no doubt. Well what the hell...dreaming's for free.


July 20, 1937...1937 Davis Cup: Budge vs. Von Cramm

Don Budge personally told me his account of the match over a festive dinner with champagne that he was throwing for the counselors at his tennis camp. It was the summer of '72. Thanks for the memories...J. Donald Budge! You are still the man and always will be. God bless you.

September 19, 1925...1935 U. S. Championships

Tilden's defeat to Johnston inspires him to seclude himself from the real world to obsessively develop a topspin backhand. Hmmm....sounds familiar.

[don_budge]

McEnroe's Thoughts on the 1984 Wimbledon Final...

An extract from his book...You Cannot be Serious

http://tennis-buzz.com/1984-wimbledon-john-mcenroe-defeats-jimmy-connors/

And John...you could not be serious with these comments without mentioning the racquet disparity. To say that "Jimmy was just a little flat that day" is evading the truth. Guilty of truthiness. Penalty point to McEnroe. He even got the score wrong...it was 6-1, 6-1, 6-2. Notice the comment at the end of the article.

"Some people talk about my 6-1 6-2 6-2 destruction of Connors in the 1984 Wimbledon as my greatest match ever, but the truth is – between you and me – I thought Jimmy was just a little flat that day.
I was also having one of those days, when everything seemed to be going almost too right. I got out of bed in the morning feeling great, and in my practice session, the ball looked as big as a cantaloupe. Since I always manage to worry when things are going well, I stopped the session early – I was afraid of leaving my best stuff in practice.

But it just kept getting better.
In fairness, Connors had had a tough semi against Lendl, a four-set slugfest on a very hot afternoon,while I had won in three agaisnt that feisty Aussie whippersnapper Pat Cash. Cash was a tough serve-and-volleyer in that great Down-Under tadition, still a little green at nineteen, but a great athlete and a fine tennis player. I thought he was a comer – especially after he shouldered me on a changeover during the second-set tiebreaker. That, I felt, was a very interesting move: here I was, number one in the world, a two-time Wimbledon champ, one of the game’s grand old men at twenty five … This kid’s got the right attitude, I thought.

Meanwhile, my attitude had utterly changed. I had wasted too much energy at the French by getting angry, I realized; from the first match at the All England Club that year, I was determined not to do anything that would derail me from avenging Roland Garros – my only loss in fifty-two matches so fa in ’84 – and winning my hat-trick Wimbledon. I was on a five-match winning steak against Jimmy, and I felt confident I could make it six.
I just didn’t know it would be so easy.

The heat wave had continued, but I was hotter than the weather that Sunday afternoon. From the start, Connors just couldn’t find his rhythm, while I was serving unbelievably well – slicing it wide, popping it up in the middle, doing whatever I wanted. I hit seventy-four percent of my first serves in the match, with ten aces and no double faults. I had three -three – unforced errors in the match.

That’s the best I ever played

I said in the press conference afterward. It was also the best I’d ever acted at Wimbledon: The London tabloids dubbed me ‘Saint John‘."

[don_budge]

The 1984 Wimbledon Finals...Kyle LaCroix and George Orwell

As impressive and athletic as tennis is in its modern form, it will always be richer and deeper in its traditional form.

As a young boy I was inspired by the Wimbledon battles of Edberg and Becker. For me, that was my awakening. For some who are on this forum, Edberg/Becker may seem to be more modern or at least not as traditional or classic as it was to me, but I'm only 30 years old so it's all relative. Those guys were my Laver's, Rosewall's, Hoad's and Emerson's. I remember staring at the TV and saying to myself...

"That's what I want to be. That's the sport I want to play, That's how I want to play"

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

From the mouth of a babe. Not really. Kyle was a babe maybe in 1984. He may not even have been a twinkle in his father's eye. But...he understands. Kyle gets it. With tennis teachers like Kyle...the game will be in good hands.

Kyle grew up with Edberg and Becker. My father grew up with Laver, Rosewall, Hoad and Gonzales. I never grew up...it was McEnroe that had me spellbound. He and Connors and Borg.

You saw the match. You read what I had to say. McEnroe played splendidly. There is only one problem. Connors was cheated. Right in front of everyone and nobody said a peep. What a shame. This is what our sport came down to. One of the greatest champions of all time...one of the greatest tennis players of all time was cheated right out in front of everyone on center court in the finals of the 1984 Men's Singles Championships and nobody said boo. What a pity.

On a lesser level...I felt the same sting as James Scott Connors did on the afternoon at Wimbledon. I don't think that I was alone either. There must have been many that felt the same sense of outrage...the same sense of inequality during those times in the tennis world. When the smart money made a decision for the masses. When the royalty once again took matters into their control without consent or even approval. The decision was all dollars and cents. Tradition be damned.

Jimmy Connors refused to speak to Bud Collins after his 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 defeat at the hands of John McEnroe. Connors didn't even have a snowballs chance in hell against a younger opponent, at least as equally talented and who was using a racquet that was conservatively 14% bigger with state of the art graphite than his own antique Wilson T2000 made of stone age steel. It leads me to wonder...what were his motivations? The only thing that I can come up with is his reverence to the game. He worshipped those hallowed grounds of Wimbledon where he had been defined as a person and as a man. The new equipment struck him as sacrilegious...although he had the Wilson Pro Staff in the works. He just hadn't brought himself to use it yet. A blasphemy that his soul could not endure.

Psychologically we have this much on Connors. He was utterly devoted to both his mother and his grandmother. He has been married forever to Patti Maguire...they have two sons together. Whatever one might say about Jimmy Connors and his on court behavior or his public personna...privately he was a devoted man. Fiercely so...in a way that few of us can identify with. Most of us capitulate at the first sign of something better...ready to leave the past behind. The grass is always greener.

On McEnroe's side...it was the only thing to do. In the middle of his meteoric career it was the prudent thing to do. Not to lose anything of importance by being cheated out of it by a disparity in equipment. Once the players that had enough talent to make up the difference between theirs and Johnny's by switching to space age tennis racquets it was time for John McEnroe to make the switch. This is the genius of McEnroe...he didn't like it for sure. That much is for certain as he too grew up with traditional values and wood racquets...but he was forced to do it. The year before this championship he had met Chris Lewis, an unseeded New Zealander who had "cheated" his way to the men's singles final using the ultimate blasphemy in sports...the Prince Graphite. Nick Bolletieri was pimping the same racquet in a commercial during the 1984 Wimbledon.

Who was complicit in this travesty of justice? Well that is hard to say...but one has only to follow the money. But you can put Bud Collins and Dick Enberg on that list...and certainly McEnroe as well. Everyone as a matter of fact...which is not exactly a letter of recommendation for the species. The human species. It is survival of the fittest in the end...do whatever it is necessary to get a leg up on the competition. Bud Collins made only one remark about the equipment during the whole match and that is when he exclaimed...”McEnroe’s serve is just devastating, it practically tore through that steel racquet of Jimmy Connors”. This is the first and only mention of the Connors bucket of bolts equipment at 36.22 in the video...”the old style racquet that he has been using since 1967”, he continues. It was obvious that there was more than one reason for the disparity in the performance of the two American lefties.

In 1974...a mere ten years earlier at Wimbledon...Jimmy Connors used the same Wilson T2000 to bludgeon the diminutive "Muscles" aka Ken Rosewall in the finals 6-1, 6-1, 6-4. Ironically ten years later he was on the other end of the stick with McEnroe. 1984 was the year that tennis would turn the corner and classic tennis was replaced by "shock and awe" tennis with the ushering in of such speed demons as Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Pete Sampras. I saw it from the beginning...in the first days as a competitor playing against players of inferior talent with bigger racquets. The overemphasis of speed and exaggerated spin. This is what we are left with today. Forehands...forehands...forehands. Stotty says that the forehands of today are superior to those of yesterday. But what of the subtlety...volleys, serve and volley, half-volleys, touch shots, service tactics. Extinct as the dinosaurs.

Tennis Etiquette was in vogue for many years as the commandment to live by when conducting yourself on the tennis court. Never take unfair advantage of an opponent. In the mid 1970's the decision was made to dispense with that nonsense and the Bad Boy's started to appear on the scene. The authorities sort of let the side show escalate and one wonders in hindsight whether it was on purpose to serve as a distraction from where the real crime was being committed.

By 1984 Björn Borg had been chased from the game by the equipment. Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl stood alone using the standard equipment of the past. It is no coincidence that they were on the top looking down...they were the big guns, the head honchos in the tennis world. They were the last to need the "help" of the oversized racquets.

There is a huge story in the 1984 Wimbledon Men's Singles Championships. These are the things that I see...and nobody else talks about. A history lesson for those too young to remember it. A lesson for all of us when it comes to trusting the authorities. In the end...McEnroe had it right. He flipped them off at every occasion. He felt obligated...to the past.

Speaking of the past...if anyone out there feels that modern tennis compares to the classic of say the year 1974 take a look at this.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Share/Event-Draws.aspx?e=540&y=1974

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Share/Event-Draws.aspx?Year=1974&EventId=540&Draw=md

If you are old enough to be familiar with the names in the draw of 1974 then you know the obvious. Each and everyone of the players in the 1974 draw knew how to play tennis. There weren't any one trick ponies back them. If you had a weakness in your game opponents picked up on it and exploited it. Mainly because the game was slower...because that is the way it was meant to be played. But I wouldn't be fooled if I was you about the speed. These guys were plenty quick and tough. Take a look at the doubles draw sheet as well. These guys were all playing the doubles as well. Connors was playing with fellow "bad boy" Ille Nastase and Björn Borg made his maiden appearance at Wimbledon...in the doubles that year. Even 40 year old Ken Rosewall was playing in the doubles. So much for the modern day "tough guy" tennis players. Plus they weren't in the habit of ordering the ball boys and girls around the court to fetch them a damn towel every time they wanted to towel off. I feel sort of bad for the modern day tennis aficionado's...they really don't know what they are missing.

[don_budge]

1984 Wimbledon Final...Bud Collins and John McEnroe (Jimmy Connors declines)

"That's what I want to be. That's the sport I want to play, That's how I want to play"

Not sure if this post is in line with the others, or if it even deserves to follow up the previous post by don_budge, but I had to get that off my chest.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

Re: The above...it is all about the love and the respect for "The Game". It's what is inside the chest that counts! The Heart matters. In the end...it’s all about love. Not so much for each other or your fellow man or something like that. It’s about the love of the game. Hopefully we can learn to respect one another...and never take unfair advantage of an opponent. That is the line that separates the gentleman from the rest...from the beast. That is the line that makes a man a hero when it is his time to make a stand...when the bell tolls. But in the end...maybe that is not the way the beast is wired.

Just maybe Jimmy Connors was the hero...even though he lost. I always thought of him as somewhat of a Mama’s boy. But he has stayed married for some 37 years to one of the most arguably beautiful women on the planet, which is an eon...especially for a celebrity. Maybe most importantly though...he was true to the sport that he loved perhaps more passionately than all of the rest. He preserved her tradition...her honor right to the bitter end. He is a member of the human race and therefore not perfect. I was alway angry at him for the way that he used the crowd against my little buddy...Aaron Krickstein that night in New York City under the lights. But there is a reason for everything and he took a bullet for the game...for her. He used his body and his soul to shield her from wrongdoing. There is no truer love...in a game where love means nothing. He is in the end a hero in my book...with an asterisk beside the word because of that night in the Big Apple.

1984 Wimbledon Finals...The Interview with John McEnroe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Ypdrb4nIw

Yet another commercial for yet another midsized racquet. The die is cast...there is no turning back. This time it's from Head...is it Howard Head’s company? The originator of the Prince Racquet. If it is it only confirms that you have only to follow the money. The Head spokesman declares...”the new Director TXD, the choice is yours...you can play with it or you can play against it”. That sounds peculiarly close to being an ultimatum and of course it was. Jimmy Connors found out first hand what that meant although I suspect that he knew. He took a bullet for the game. He was going to be the last one to abandon ship. For a Mama’s boy he sure had a lot of balls.

The royalty begin to gather around...gracing us with their appearance for the trophy presentation. They are acting all humble chatting it up with the ball kids...they would be horrified or disgusted if they would have to sit down and break bread with the commoners on a frequent basis. They come out of their hiding places for appearances...for pomp and circumstance. The Duchess of Kent is looking somewhat hot and attractive. I wonder...is she sexy?

Then it is on to the post match interview...a tradition of sorts...with none other than Bud Collins. Here’s Bud Collins and John McEnroe...and the post match chat.

“and they will be coming around the corner...John could you wait just a minute...while we talk to Jimmy. (Connors waves his hand at Bud...he’s not talking) Jimmy may I have a word....and Jimmy doesn’t want to speak...you seemed in a great hurry, congratulations champion!”

“well after the French I didn’t want to...I was up two sets there and I was playing really well so I just wanted to uh...I mean it was one of the greatest matches that I ever played. I felt like I was serving really well...I must have served at least 70 or 75 percent with first serves. I was just hitting the ball really solid...and uh, he seemed about half a step slow in his shots and I was just really taking advantage of it and I got a few breaks on let chords and just played like the best match I have ever played.”

“do you realize that you made a grand total of two unforced errors?”

“I didn’t know that...I am glad to hear that I finally have gotten into a match and played, uh, real solid. I got a few bad bounces on a couple of backhand returns I felt like I was going to hit pretty well..but uh, you know...i didn’t miss...obviously I must not have missed too many easy shots.”

“let’s go back to Paris for a moment...what did that defeat do to you from two sets down?”

“well I got a little tired there in like the fourth set...you know, I still had a chance at 4-2 in the fourth set, he hung in there pretty good in that match and I choked that a little bit and I just didn’t want the same thing to happen here.”

“choked?...choked?”

“I had a chance to wrap it up and wasn’t able to...today I played really consistently well from the start and I felt really good out there and real relaxed. I wasn’t letting anything bothering me and I think that it helped me a lot”.

“John McEnroe...you have not said boo during this tournament.”

“well...I said that I was going to let my tennis do the talking and that’s what I did.”

“does that help your tennis?...does that improve your tennis to avoid the hassles?”

“well it put me in a little bit more relaxed frame of mind and it’s what I decided to do so therefore I didn’t worry about it that much which was good...it doesn’t help in the long run to get involved in the controversies so I am just glad that I could stay away from it...and if I could I would like to say hello to my mother right now...and I hope that she is doing alright. this one’s for you.”

“I suspect that she enjoyed that.”

“I hope she did.”

“what’s the future for John McEnroe? do you know? can you tell?...will we see more outbursts? can you read the future for John McEnroe?”

“I can’t read it. I just hope that I get better as a player...and uh, improve upon certain things...that’s what playing sports is all about. to try and reach your potential. I just hope that I can just get better and better in the next couple of years and if not I am going to give it a hell of a try.”

“look at this face because it is the true world champion. John Patrick McEnroe Jr.”

“thank you very much.”

“we return you to Dick Enberg...”

“alright Bud...that was the first interview that John McEnroe has conducted for a television camera in two weeks. it was nice to hear the things that he said. obviously he has improved...even at that he remembered a couple of points that he could have played even better the perfectionist and the man shown in his post championship comments. first serve percentage...he was right on...seventy five percent of them...and when McEnroe serves that way who can possibly give him a solid match? certainly it was not Jimmy Connors today...John McEnroe in select company with Don Budge, Bill Tilden, John McEnroe...champion of Wimbledon 1984!”

It was a great interview by a great champion. We won’t be seeing the likes of him in the near future and it is too bad. Much is made of his behavior and his temper. What the hell...he’s Irish isn’t he? He never killed anybody. He was a classic. He learned to play with wood and he switched when the time was right for him. He didn’t lose any titles on account of principle. I love McEnroe. Perhaps my favorite player of all time. He’s a character...the American Volcano. He was a product of the times. A rebel. The napalm smoke from the Vietnam War had barely dissipated into the atmosphere. Revolution was in the air. That dissipated too.

There was another American on the scene on this particular day and he opted to not talk it over with Bud Collins. Jimmy Connors...I am dying to hear his side of the story. He made the correct decision in not talking. He had too much to say...the audience wasn’t ready for it. The truth. If you read between the lines of what was said it is even more telling. Often it is what has not been said that tells the real story and that is much the case here. Anyways...have a look. Think about it. It was 1984. What a coincidence...or not?

My thoughts to follow...stay tuned!

[don_budge]

1984 Wimbledon Final...Nick Bollettieri and George Orwell

“As a coach I am often asked what are the benefits that a player receives from a Prince Racquet. Kent Carlsson’s strength is his topspin on both sides, the Prince Racquet has added to that strength.”...Nick Bollettieri for Prince Racquets.

Your theme: The uncritical mind. I like the parts about 1984 ads very much.

1984-- I remember it being different in a few ways from the same name prophetical book but not in many significant ways.

And by now Orwell's "fear game" is still more refined.

Bot Escher

The Match...McEnroe defeats Connors 6-1, 6-1, 6-2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Ypdrb4nIw

“This is the court where they were first introduced...McEnroe seven years ago an eighteen year old qualifier gets to the semis...said I didn’t know Jimmy Connors. Connors said I certainly didn’t know him. They shook hands and Connors won the match.” Bud Collins reminiscing on the two combatants first meeting in 1977. Through the first 21 meetings Connors led 12 matches to 9. At that point McEnroe went on to win 11 straight matches and pretty much owned Connors through the prime years of his career. This match would be the 6th straight win for McEnroe in that run.

The McEnroe and Connors rivalry ended with McEnroe leading the series 20 wins to 14 for Connors. As Collins recollected the rivalry began on the very same center court where Connors baptized little Johnny 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

As the final set gets under way, McEnroe hits a serve that swerves off course into the body of Connors...Collins says, “Jimmy got that bad bounce and made himself into a question mark to make that return”. This was one of the better lines for Collins in this championship...he wasn’t short on good lines as a rule. The statistics after the first two set were as follows...first serve percentage 81 to 69, unforced errors 0 to 7, winners 20 to 7, aces 6 to 0. All of the advantages going to McEnroe. Both Enberg and Collins note how remarkable it is to be playing on such an uneven surface and have zero unforced errors through two sets. It was a remarkable performance...in more ways than one.

Bud Collins says that “the court is playing like the Bonneville salt flats and the balls, particularly the McEnroe serve are coming through like racing cars. I have never seen the courts so fast". McEnroe serves a love game to begin the third set and Enberg says...”goodness, is McEnroe dominating this match". Collins too, notes the desperate plight that Connors is in and remarks, “Connors needs this game, he’s like a fighter that has been down 5 or 6 times...just trying to get out of the round on his feet. He cannot afford a break here to open the third set.”

He says...”It’s tough volleying the returns of McEnroe. Jimmy Connors wandering in a mine field.”

Connors does hold serve and evens the set 1-1 which marks the first time in the entire match that he is competitive in a set. McEnroe holds for 2-1 and Connors has won only ten points off of the McEnroe serve up to this point in the match.

Then comes the moment of truth. It is time to apply the coup d’grace. McEnroe is finishing up on Connors and at this point it is a foregone conclusion...it’s in the bag. But the network, the ITF and all of the smart money has one more card to play. It is none other than Nick Bollettieri. He’s hawking Prince racquets. Listen to this piece of 1984 propaganda. In the epic words of Jim Morrison of The Doors...this is the end. My friends. Nick, in all of his infinite wisdom. Using all of his honed and perfected salesmanship skills nearly to con artist proportions. He’s 29 years younger here which puts him to be around 53 years old or so. He’s just beginning to make his run on the tennis world...to make a large scale impact. After some checkered beginnings the smart money bought out Bollettieri in 1987. That smart money being IMG or the International Management Group. Nick was the chosen one...what you see today in professional tennis is what he was chosen to do. Lead the charge...leave the past behind. He did just that. Without batting an eyelash. Thirty pieces of silver can buy a lot...you know.

Here is Nick “Bowl of Cherries” as he was affectionately known at the academy selling the game down the river. Without batting an eyelash...looking dead serious, he delivers the following pitch. “As a coach I am often asked what are the benefits that a player receives from a Prince Racquet. Kent Carlsson’s strength is his topspin on both sides, the Prince Racquet has added to that strength.” Then he leaves it to his “protege” the sweet and innocent looking blond Swede boy with the charming melodic Swedish accent...”the Prince Racquet gives you the ability to hit with control, topspin and hit that serve with added power. It’s a racquet of the times. It’s a racquet that everybody wants to play with.”

Here is some little boy toy telling us that it is a “racquet of the times”...and he is still wet behind the ears. What the hell does he know about the times? More importantly what does he understand about classic tennis and the traditions? What does he know about tennis etiquette? Does he even know who Don Budge is or was? Never mind...the tennis world bought it. The big money breathed a huge sigh of relief...not that the outcome was ever in doubt. It was never any more in doubt than this tennis match...the finals of the men’s championships in 1984 where one of the evenly matched contestants in terms of skill is playing with a racquet that is at least 14% bigger than that of his opponents. A world of difference in the hands of the best player in the world. No matter. The voices in the booth never once mention that fact. Not once. That’s the way it works. You never know you’ve been had. You never know you’ve been conned. Until the dirty work has been done.

Then it’s Xerox again...this is getting Orwellian. A secretary is writing them a love letter of sorts..."Dear Xerox, I just wanted to thank the Memory Writer for making my job a sheer pleasure. Everything that I type looks like a million bucks. The secretary that sits next to me will have to get her own. I don’t like to share it. It’s cut my workload in a half and doubled my productivity. When we have to use another machine it is like going from a Rolls Royce to a mule".

What a telling piece this is. Orwellian speak. Making a job a sheer pleasure? Anybody out there still feel that way today? Going to work back in the seventies was like going to a party compared to nowadays. Everything she types looks like a million bucks? The same company that was touting the team of machines and people is now glorifying the envy of a fellow worker. Cut her workload in half? We can fire another employee management immediately concludes. Double productivity...there goes another. From a Rolls Royce to a mule? I will bet you that million bucks that the company rides her like a mule until she breaks down and then they will simply replace her with another mule...at half the price. That’s how it worked. Any doubters?

“The artist in the studio”...comments Bud Collins. Still ignoring the fact that the artist McEnroe is using a Rolls compared to his opponents mule. The mid-sized Dunlop compared to the antique Wilson. Ok...slight exaggeration.

McEnroe is sitting down during a changeover...the final one as it turns out. Collins commenting on the scene says, “John McEnroe sits with his back to all of the photographers, this is a different guy from Paris”. Dick Enberg pipes...”he has been in the last five championships counting this one. Winning last year, losing to Connors in ’82, winning in ’81 against Borg, losing to Borg in ’80". Bud Collins again continues about the French Open...”not a peep. I have a feeling about Paris when he was ahead two sets to love...he led Lendl in the third set two games to one, Lendl was serving love to thirty, it was all McEnroe and it was then that he marched over to the photographers and began bickering and pulling at their equipment...and he didn’t win that game. If he wins that game from love to thirty as it appeared that he was going to...3-1 with a break...I think he’s the champion. He’s leaving them alone...they are the same photographers...but he hasn’t said a peep to them".

The match stats compiled to nearly the end point spell out the lopsided result...first serve percentage 75 to 67, winners 33 to 11, unforced errors 2 to 13, aces 11 to 0, double faults 0 to 4. It’s a rout. It’s all McEnroe.

McEnroe lost only once in the 53 matches to this point in 1984. Don Budge is present to congratulate McEnroe as the first American to win back to back championships in 46 years. He is the first American to win three Wimbledon’s since Bill Tilden who won in 1920, 1921 and 1930. McEnroe ends the demolition of Connors with a final continental gripped forehand slapped up the line for a clean winner. The players shake hands at the net with barely a word said between them...if any. In fact...there were none. There was no love lost between these two either. No words would mask that.

This is the end...my friends. Of the match...that is. There is still the interview to go. Then the conclusion...or rather my conclusions. Two more posts should wrap it up. Stay tuned. I am almost done. Thanks for your time and your attention. Perhaps you might have preferred a video. Reading is becoming a thing of the past. One must concentrate to read. Watching video is so much easier isn't it? It's a passive thing...just the way we like it more and more. Less actual engagement. It takes so much energy to engage. By design...would you believe? I'm not saying so...it's just that...well, you know. Maybe we should make it a movie. That's how we roll...we make movies and videos. We like to reinvent things...like the truth.

[bottle]

Can't wait to say: BRAVO! Re Santana: Those front teeth are a great advantage. No, not 74, only 73 .

[don_budge]

A Day of Rest...thinking about today and 1984.

Today is a day of rest...exhausted. Too much tennis over the weekend. Never has tennis been so much fun...continental style. Two wins over the weekend...total age difference...43 years. My coach, Rolf Almgreen has been really, really helpful in sorting out the backhand drive.

That aspect of the continental transformation has been very enlightening as well...working with a coach. Being on the other end as a student is a great experience for the teacher. Nothing like being humble. I don't believe that I have ever had private lessons as such. We have worked together five times...each session has been fruitful. He's a Swede but he speaks English like an Aussie. That helps...believe it or not. He talks of Emerson, Laver and Rosewall. He's pretty fluent in McEnroe as well. To know Laver is to know McEnroe. That's my kind of tennis coach. He's 74...just like bottle!

Please come back tomorrow for the final set in the 1984 Wimbledon final. The John McEnroe demolition of Jimmy Connors. 1984...the demolition of Classic Tennis.

Please see...Roger Running Forehand All I Want. That's all that I had in me today. Tired. Playing tennis on my off days. Nothing feels better than to hit the ball. That's all I want. Nothing's so loud...nothing's so cold.

I'll be back.

[don_budge]

1984 Wimbledon Final...Greenfield Village and The Dearborn Inn and The Rouge Plant

Your theme: The uncritical mind. I like the parts about 1984 ads very much.

1984-- I remember it being different in a few ways from the same name prophetical book but not in many significant ways.

And by now Orwell's "fear game" is still more refined.

Bot Escher

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Ypdrb4nIw

Now ladies and gentlemen, here is a commercial that harbors near to my heart as I type these words thousands of miles from where I was born. From where I grew up. From where I originally learned how to play tennis. Somehow, someway the multi-conglomerate Xerox has chosen a spot that is in the precise geographic location where I grew up in Dearborn, Michigan. They have chosen Greenfield Village to shoot their spot in their quest for the almighty consumer dollar during the 1984 Wimbledon Men's Championships. Greenfield Village is actually a rather large restored historical village where much of the original beginnings of Henry Ford and even Thomas Edison have been preserved for time ever after. It actually is one of the biggest and oldest tourist attractions in the midwest of America.

Dearborn is, afterall, the home of the Ford Motor Company World Headquarters. I worked for the company for nearly 25 years...until my division was on the verge of a second bankruptcy and was sold to a Russian steel manufacturer. Old Henry must of rolled in his grave when that slick real estate deal went down. They showed me the door the day before the transaction took place. Office politics can be a real bitch sometimes...but it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. Honest to God. The best thing that ever happened to me was to be shown the door after 25 years of loyal service. I have the documentation to prove it. The highest performance review allowed...without canonization. It taught me something...DTA. Don’t trust anybody! At least not if they are wearing a suit and tie.

In the run-up to the bankruptcy all of my company stock was reduced to pennies so when they showed me the door...I was nearly worthless. It just so happened that I had gone to work that day with a rather bad cold and felt like shit anyways. In the meeting with Salary Personnel and my supervisor, who had been hunting me ever since I made the wrong turn to work in her department from the safety of the bowels of the Rouge Plant...they asked me if there was anything that I wanted to say as they were showing me the door. I asked them a question instead...would it make any difference if I did? Apparently not. They seemed a little bit surprised...I think that they expected me to grovel some. Actually I felt as if I was nailed to a cross looking down at them. I pitied them. Forgave them instantly. The only revenge in life...is success!

Down there in the bowels of Henry Ford's dream which in reality is quite a nighmare. Politely put, one might say it was the armpit of the world... it was where Ferdinand Celine did some of his early apprenticeship back in the late twenties or early thirties for his "Journey to the End of the Night". I was doing my own best impression of Colonel Kurtz at the end of the river deep in the “Heart of Darkness”. I was a wannabe actor as well as a wannabe tennis player it seems...whereas in reality I was a middle management working stiff. Not the typical type by any stretch of the imagination though. We weren't dealing in ivory...or napalm as in "Apocalypse Now"...we were only doing data. Test results in a quality control laboratory. Tensile tests. Microstructure analysis. That sort of thing. Just taking care of our customers. Our poor unsuspecting customers. Unfortunately I was hoping to see the light of day up in the Rouge Office Building, but what I found was another type of shark...just different clothes of course. In a word...bitch-driven. A woman in a suit. The worst kind.

Anyways...even though I was nearly worthless and felt totally worthless...the very next day when I woke up, I said to myself...thank God that I don’t have to go back to that godforsaken place again and I had no idea whatsoever what I was going to do with my life. That’s the truth in a nutshell. Amen. I never had to go back...I never did either. I will never buy a Ford either...as long as I live. Not that it matters to them. They have long forgotten me. They forgot me as soon as the door closed behind me. Corporations do not have feelings. They have bottom lines.

This commercial in the video came to me like a lucid hallucination the first time that I saw it. Greenfield Village is sort of an unreal place to begin with...time stands still. On purpose. The place that it was in my boyhood memories is sort of a sacred place. Across the street from the village is the Dearborn Inn. The Inn was sort of the poor man’s version of the Dearborn Country Club without a golf course. They had a pool where Mom liked to sun herself and catch up on a bit of girl talk with the other ladies that frequented the pool and the deck. I used to like the pool too, for reasons of my own. I liked to play the shark and come up from the bottom and to take my boyhood crush in my arms from below. Her name was Susan and she used to like to oil herself up really slippery with Baby Oil or Coppertone. I can’t remember which it was. What a bikini body she had! A real Goddess. She used to squirm out of my grasp. I never could hang on to her...she told me later that her father didn't approve of me. But I caught up to her later in life. Up in the sand dunes of the Leelanau Peninsula in northern Michigan. The Pool used to have the sweetest grilled hamburgers and fries you could imagine. I can almost taste them here thousands of miles away and light years in time down the road, it was the late sixties...back in the woods out in the tranquil golden countryside of Sweden.

The Dearborn Inn was also a village of sorts that had restored cottages that they rented out on a hotel basis. There were even two tennis courts that were nestled back under some nice shady trees. I used to battle it out with my father sometimes there. He beat me all of the time...he was patient, played with a continental grip and just never missed. Classic sliced backhand. He never could hit topspin off that side. He could have used tennisplayer.net...this website. He used to be a professional baseball player...some say he might have been the Detroit Tigers shortstop had it not been for a man named Harvey Kuenn. He hit .361 his rookie year. Oops...a slight exaggeration. But he did lead the majors in hits and was rookie of the year in 1953. Dad’s lateral movement was superb but he never really mastered the net or approach game. His serve was mediocre...he started to play the game at the age of 37. He had the legs of a god...as a boy I remember admiring his legs wondering if when I grew up would my legs would be so strong..so manly. I used to lose my temper when he beat me. I never threw my racquet in front of him though. He was paying for them. My on court behavior was always a source of consternation to him. I have never been an angel. No surprise there. He never lost his temper...or his cool. It drove my mother crazy...she being more hysterical like me. He prides himself on his emotional control...yet I make no apologies for my temper. Except to my wife.

The actor in the Xerox commercial, whose name I never knew and whose face is almost as forgettable, comes strolling through the village on a winter’s day. As he casually ambles his way on the snowy street of the village he remarks, “it looks like a typical small town with a small hardware store and a small clothing store with a small post office...a historical restoration museum of a small town with small shops with small people with small ideas. Xerox...doesn’t like the word small, they much prefer growing. Xerox thinks that the growing business should be treated as well as a more established business. They have even formed a team of machines and people to help businesses of all sizes...it is called team Xerox”. He continues to make an attempt to separate the American consumer from their dollars...”Yes, I know...you think that Xerox is just doing it for themselves. Well, they probably wouldn’t disagree with you”. The camera pans to a restored work shop of Henry Ford’s. “You see, they feel that somewhere in a little shop like this one you might find the kind of growing business man that started right here”...he picks the FORD logo plate off of some prehistoric antique motor drive buggy. ”Boy, did he have a big idea!” Then the voice of the company takes over the slot...”Right information in the right place at the right time with the right team”.

In the end it's all a bunch of window dressing. Merely applesauce as dear old Ferdinand put it. Xerox is out for the little guy...yeah and monkeys are going to fly out of your butt tomorrow. Then it was off to parts of the world unknown. Combing the earth...for cheap labor. Just like all of the rest. Sold out by the Republicans and the Democrats. The expensive suits all paid for by the powerful corporate lobbies plus our own hard earned tax dollars. They were and still are living high on the hog. The middle class sold down the river by the officials that we elected...and continue to elect. Not that we ever had any real choices in the matter. When was the last time we had the opportunity to vote for war...or no war? For almost thirty years it was either Bush or Clinton. That’s a choice? Sort of like deciding between Obama or McCain...pick your poison. Or Romney. Or Clinton next time around. Or whoever...does it matter? Merrily, merrily down the stream we go...life is but a dream. Much like tennis. Corporate tennis. Corporate States of America. It's No Country for Old Men!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od9FkRvvnrg