Thoughts about Tennis Tradition...

[gzhpcu]

Talking about the old days:



Kramer and Schroeder playing doubles on a grass court. Look how everything peaceful looks as opposed to today's tournament courts plastered with advertising.

[don_budge]

#3,000…and counting…for Frankie and Dylan and my Love for the Game

Underhitting? Overhitting? For any given situation there is a correct shot to be played within the context of your own game versus your opponent's game. How does one arrive at that decision and then how does one go about execution of that shot? Play lots and lots of matches…practice and otherwise.

Basically you have three situations when you are a student of the game and learning to be a tennis player. You have practice, playing while practicing and match play.

When you are practicing you are sorting out your technical thoughts and giving in to the process of analysis. At the same time you are trying to acquire "feel" which is in reality how this game was meant to be played. All of the endless discussions and thoughts about how to, have to somehow dissipate and become simply a feeling about how things are to be accomplished. When you are practicing I think that the average human being has room for just about one swing thought…maybe two if they are exceptionally intelligent. Practice something until you master it…so that you can do it without thinking. Just doing it. Just feeling it.

Learn to play coming from behind and learn to play when you have the lead. Get used to the "feeling" that comes when being behind and plotting your way back into a match. Get used to the "feeling" of trying to close out an opponent. When practicing while playing there isn't much room for thought for a lot of technical stuff…just get the feet in position and watch the ball…racquet back early. Think about preparation perhaps. Make it your mantra...

A milestone. A tiny one in the big picture. In the general scope of things. It's only me thinking…out loud.

But I think that I have managed to paint a picture. I could call it…"The Year in Tennis"…2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and now 2015. I could call it…"The Three Little Dots"…connecting the past with the present and into the future. Out of it I came up with a paradigm to teach by…you know the one.

Bill Tilden is the book. Richard Gonzales is the model with the J. Donald Budge backhand. Harry Hopman is the coach. Roger Federer is the living proof.

Make of it what you will…or don't if it doesn't suit you. That is the point afterall…every coach must come up with a paradigm. A paradigm that is rigid enough to adhere to certain fundamentals yet flexible enough to connect the past with the present. Flexible enough to understand that every single student is unique. I was at a trainer's seminar here recently in Sweden and a question was asked of the speaker…what is it that is most important that a trainer should bring to the court?

I will tell you what that is…every coach should endeavor to be a student of the game. No small feat these days with the propaganda and the hype. It's hard to separate the nonsense from the real thing. Modern tennis…and modern times. Tennis metaphorically morphing into life.

What a great pleasure it is to participate in this little neighbourhood of ours. I guess that I have made it my personal playground. I know that I have. For me…it's therapy. It's therapy against the reality of things. The truth is that life isn't all that great. Not for a lot of people. But we tennis coaches and players and students…we are lucky to have such a game to play. Somehow it found us and we become a part of it. It's a living thing…made up of you and I and everyone that has ever found the love of the game through the racquet meeting the ball in sweet spot of the strings. That's love…I can tell you.

Love is a tricky thing. It's a two way street. You get what you give…sometimes you get more than you bargained for. When I first started playing the game I never imagined this. For God's sake…I was privileged to spend two whole summers with J. Donald Budge himself. How did that happened? I was a poor kid from a broken home. I guess the game was finding me. For some reason I was privileged to meet Aaron Krickstein and his family and this gave me another wonderful insight into the game. How did that happen? I'm lucky I guess.

Along the way I took my tennis racquet with me wherever I went. Today it is paying my bills and putting food on the table. The game has been a gift to me. So I got a lot of love out of it…so I feel that I have to give it back. Maybe that seems strange…a strange thought to some of you. But you understand just how much I love the game. I love it enough to defend it as if it was a she and she was the love of my life. I live in a world of make believe…where I am the hero. Like don_quixote falling in love with a whore or defending the world from gigantic windmills.

Love is a tricky thing. I already said that didn't I. We don't deserve it. Therefore it is impossible to find. But I have found it…in a couple of places. Women? It seems that they come and go and so does our love for them. Not always…I suppose true love exists. I love where the fire never goes out. But the love that I found is the love of a dog. Not to mention the love of God. But the love of my dog has been a little heaven on earth. I lost Frankie the American Chocolate Labrador Retriever three days before Christmas last year and then my beloved Wolf Boy went down the day before my birthday in March and he was dead in five days. I lost. I lost big time. A loser of the biggest magnitude.

I was asking myself…where's the bottom? I was falling…at a speed that I was unfamiliar with. The truth is there is no bottom. That's what I found out. The truth is it is a hole…a bottomless hole. Sometimes whether you like it or not…you just keep falling. But you have to stop yourself…nobody else can.

The day the wolf went down was a day that being a student of the game of tennis helped me to understand. If not understand…it helped me to process. In March I was still numb from the loss of Frankie. I couldn't speak for a week…but I wrote here. On that day in March I went to work as normal…it was a Thursday. When I came home the light was on in the stable…which isn't normal. The hair on my neck prickled just a bit. I went in the stable and there was my wife with one of the horses who was having a bout of colic…which can actually be fatal. I went in the house to change clothes and I found Dylan, the wolf, more or less debilitated. I couldn't reach him. I went back to the stable and told my wife and she was very surprised. Dylan seemed to be ok all day.

We were waiting for the veterinarian to arrive and when she finally did it was a couple of hours of torture. For us and the horse. A four foot hose down the nose of the horse to fill her stomach full of water so she wouldn't dehydrate. Along with some solvent to move her bowels. We had to walk her all night long on the hour. I say we…but it was more or less my wife. But Dylan was not responding.

The next morning I took him to the vet. It Friday the 13th. They gave him some antibiotics for a possible infection and after a couple of hours we were headed home. Later on he seemed to revive. The next day he was trying his best to act as if everything was ok. It was a courageous act. He was to die three days later. I lay on the floor holding him…sobbing.

The irony of everything is that on that Thursday we went to look at a Chocolate Lab puppy. A litter of nine. I picked him out immediately…or did he pick me. I guess that we picked each other. Love at first sight. I named him on the spot…Puntzie. He was nine months old on Monday. He's sleeping at my feet right now.

You live to play another day. You keep your head in the game. It ain't over until match point is in the bag. I am not the same man that I was a year ago. The sun was passing us right about here as I remember. I'm a year older now. A year wiser. Happiness? What is that? Is that the name of the game? Or is it survival.

Love…it's a tricky thing. I quit tennis when I turned forty. I took my first golf lesson on my birthday. I never touched a racquet for some 13 or 14 years. I gave myself to golf. But I move to Sweden almost eleven years ago. I wasn't working for the first three years or so. Then one day…out of the blue. I somehow found myself giving a tennis lesson to a pretty French girl on an old and pretty much dilapidated court at the golf club. A couple of guys came walking by after finishing their round. One of them was my neighbour. Another was a man on the board of a local tennis club…they were looking for a tennis trainer. I got the call. The game came to me…again. That was about eight years ago. I began my career as a tennis teacher.

I found tennisplayer.net doing a search for a video of the J. Donald Budge backhand. One of my earliest students also turned out to be my best. Gustaf was switching from two hands to one. I never knew that there was a forum for the first year or so. When I first found it…I marvelled at bottle's writing. I even asked him about writing. He told me that you must know your audience.

When I first started writing here on the forum I mentioned Bill Tilden in one of my posts. Wouldn't you know it that GeoffWilliams was banging on me like I couldn't believe. In my world Tilden has always been discussed openly…without the distraction of his unfortunate personal life. I erased all of my posts that I had written to that point and called it quits. But then I thought it over. Nobody is chasing me away. Nobody. I will leave when it is time. My time is coming…it's coming sooner than later. But it's been fun. In a way you guys are some of the best friends that I ever had.

I dedicate my 3,000th post that I wrote to my beloved friends Frankie and Dylan. Puntzie too…can't forget the living. I dedicate it to my love for the game. To life. From the bottom of my heart. All of it. All 3,004. I did it for my students and you guys too…of course.

[don_budge]

The Illusionary…Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"... What about the main thing in life, all its riddles? If you want, I'll spell it out for you right now. Do not pursue what is illusionary -property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade, and is confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life -don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn for happiness; it is, after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. It is enough if you don't freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don't claw at your insides. If your back isn't broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms can bend, if both eyes can see, if both ears hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy of others devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart -and prize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well. Do not hurt them or scold them, and never part from any of them in anger; after all, you simply do not know: it may be your last act before your arrest, and that will be how you are imprinted on their memory." -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

[don_budge]

If…Rudyard Kipling (Individuality)

If…Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

[don_budge]

Ralph Waldo Emerson…Individuality

“They [conformists] think society wiser than their soul, and know not that one soul, and their soul, is wiser than the whole world…Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members….Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist…. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”

[don_budge]

Henry David Thoreau…Individuality

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

[GeoffWilliams]

Tennis tradition bitches go hand in hand with tennis technology bitches.

Serena got away with giant red under wear at Wimbledon, while fed got fined for a tiny red Nike swoosh. Where was the bitching then?

Fed didn't lose because he has a one handed back hand. He lost because his back hand sucked worse than in any previous match and he choked out from nerves: fh ues, and missed firsts on big points.

He will never win another slam with that back hand. Hey, fed, you better learn to keep your hitting foot grounded and forwards, not side ways, like Wawrinka does or die out. Blocking weakly back to the center of the court won't work with any top player in any big match ever again. Pretty cowardly of him not to fix something so badly in need of fixing, as if he can run around anything at all times and not have to face a Nadal or a Dj.

[don_budge]

James Fenimore Cooper…Individuality

“All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity.”

[stotty]

Nothing in the world says tennis has to move ever forwards or become ever better. Life doesn't know the meaning of such a theory...doesn't have a clue. What happens, happens.

In some ways tennis has gone backwards, while in other ways it has gone forwards. Equipment has been the main game-changer. I think this at least is universally accepted. You only have limited time to make a world-class tennis player. It stands to reason you cannot work on every conceivable theory that might or might not make a better tennis player.

Already we've seen what happens when certain aspects of the game, either through court surface or coaching, or both, become too specialised: we get one-dimensional tennis. We get advancement that is detrimental.

I really like this thread. It has a definite place of the forum. It's a thread that can be bounced back in to life when anyone has any meaningful thoughts about tennis tradition. I think John summed things up nicely once when he said it's "readers' choice". No need for others to put the boot in just because the content doesn't float their boat. Just go and read another thread or start you own. That's the bottomline with just about any thread come to that.

To me, this is a thread for meaningful, intelligent thoughts on tennis. The owner tends it like a garden and we should respect it so.

[hockeyscout]

And minions, I do like the movie. Its funny. Just like you.

Hold on my brother don't give up
Hold on my sister just look up
There is a master plan in store for you
If you just make it through
God's gonna really blow your mind
He's gonna mak it worth your time
For all of the trouble you've been through
The best seems double just for you

[Chorus:]
The best
Is yet
To come
The best
Is yet
To come
The best is yet to come

[Verse 2:]
Hold on my brother don't give up
Hold on my sister just look up
There is a master plan in store for you
If you just make it through
God's gonna really blow your mind
He's gonna make it worth your time
For all of the trouble you've been through
The best is just for you

[Chorus:]

Today is the first day of the best days of your life [x4]

[Chorus:]

[Vamp:]
You ain't seen nothin
You ain't seen nothin yet

[hockeyscout]

It appears you are anti-progress.

I call it Armageddon Tennis because I feel it will destroy the modern and classic paradigms of how tennis is played. And, it happens every 10 - 20 years, and I can really see a shift moving forward even if you do not believe it will happen.

Tennis is now developing into an arms race, and the player who accumulates the best all-around weapon's will have a tactical superiority, and blow the classic, and modern paradigms out of the water.

I will tell you what, if I was a top 15 - 19 year old player right now and performing at a world class level, I'd sign Geoff Williams to a contract so quickly, budget $100,000 a year for his salary and expenses, set him up with a top end shop and have him agree not to work for any player in the world. A guy like him would save so much wear and tear on an athlete, and help them achieve that 1% extra advantage that is a real separator. Hockey players really respect their equipment people, as you're worthless if you don't have the best piece of weaponry in your hands that'll maximize your performance. Tennis players really don't care to much about their rackets, and the stuff I see on store shelfs is real crap.

I truly value what he has to say on equipment that much, and it's guys like him are worth their weight in gold.

[don_budge]

Bat Sht and Thoughts about Tennis Tradition...

Anyways, I do not want to engage you in bible talk on a tennis message board as that would be bat shit crazy.

Minions? Like the movie?

Right up your alley. Minions? Like the movie?

Minions…GeoffWilliams. Gibberish.

This thread is entitled "Thoughts about Tennis Tradition…". Bible talk? You are the one advocating "Armageddon Tennis". You invoked that word. You put it in bold letters. To emphasis the point. It's obvious what side you represent…there are only two. It doesn't take a Bible to understand that. I'm making the sign of the cross on you just in case.

Obviously you are anti-tradition. So why post here? To disrupt? To mock? To provoke? To destroy? To prove something? Looking for trouble? Hockey style provocation where eventually the combatants drop the gloves and slug it out? This is a tennis forum. Bat shit is right up your alley.

Go now…you are nothing to me. But keep posting. It's amusing…the two of you. Like a duet. A very strange duet. Still waiting on that Tsonga forehand fix. You know…the one where you show us all the way.

[hockeyscout]

Ecclesiastes 1:9

There is nothing new under the sun ... the Bible tells me so.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 - ah, interesting, so you're into the Bible. Well, Corinthians 5:17 states (the old things passed away; behold, new things have come) and Isaiah 43:19 states (behold, I will do something new). Anyways, I do not want to engage you in bible talk on a tennis message board as that would be bat shit crazy.

Minions? Like the movie?

[don_budge]

The Times Have Changed…by hockeyscout

For you don_budge it will be the end of the world ... classic gone, modern tennis going to the way of the dinosaur, and the next (new) Armageddon style of game. I guess the name Armageddon fits perfectly doesn't it?

So, don_budge, times, they are a changing (and for the better).

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

BTW, I am kidding of course about the WWF, cheerleaders and horns.

I understand you hockeyscout. Everything you say is crystal clear to me. It doesn't matter to me if I like it or not. That is not the point…and you know it. You understand me too. I'm not kidding and you aren't either. Armageddon is a strong word but not for someone like you. It doesn't scare me…I know who butters my bread.

You are like one of the four horseman…of the Apocalypse. Conquest, War, Famine and Death. Not an actual one of the four…but you can be connected by anyone that can connect the dots. This I recognized for a long time with your references and reverence to death…and Satan. Your instinct is to attack me because I am on the other side. This has nothing to do with big racquets. But you are right again…this is the end of the line for me. I won't be around to participate in "your game". You can have it…I conceded that a long time ago. I am only a messenger.

As for your little evil song…"the times they are a-changin'". It's your New World Order and it began a long time ago. Your little ditty is Satan's call to action. There is nothing new under the sun….the Bible tells me so. You are not some great prophet…you are a tiny little cog in a very big and very evil machine that is rapidly destroying this planet.

You gloat…you swagger. You threaten and bully. You twist words…and the truth. But your agenda is an empty one and there is no 2020 or 2030. There is only now and you have swung mightily…and missed. You have missed the point. You and your minions.

Tennis is such small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. It is only a tiny metaphor of the much larger and much sicker picture. The fact that you think things are getting better is a surefire sign of just exactly how far from the truth you represent.

[hockeyscout]

I was laughing at Geoff's comments. They were funny. I was not laughing at you, don_budge. I apologize. It may have been inadvertently insensitive of me.

I'd certainly never question anything Mr. Williams has to say about tennis. He think outside of the box. Geoff is the type of person the USTA needs more of in the coaching ranks. I like people around me who are perfectionists, and Geoff is about as thorough as they come. His message is very consistent, and to the point. I never work with a guy, be-friend or hire anyone, that I would not want as a son-in-law, it is my number one rule of business, sports, coaching, investments and family.

Anyways, I have never met Geoff, but he comes across as a man's, man.

Now lets move on ...

Lets face it, the classic game is dead, and the "modern" game as we know will be as well soon, and it will be replaced by a technically superior brand of Armageddon tennis.

The deal in tennis (in my opinion) is the science of movement in the sport of tennis hasn't yet caught up to the brilliant advances in equipment, however, when it does watch out! It'll be a whole new game. Their are a lot of top end players who are not great movers (Tsonga and Raonic), and a lot of other talents who are quick, but lack proper field speed and control needed to excel consistently day in and day out. That will change.

In tennis, the athletic ability hasn't caught up to the equipment (yet). But, it will, and, when it does it will be a whole new game. Its inevitable. . I think between the years of 2021 to 2030 you'll see big 6'6 - 7'0" men (and woman) who can move, serve, volley and move like NBA players. Its a matter of time. Right now, no one is that big, and of that caliber in the world of tennis, but soon a new wave will arrive. I firmly believe tennis is on the brink of a revolution.

For you don_budge it will be the end of the world ... classic gone, modern tennis going to the way of the dinosaur, and the next (new) Armageddon style of game. I guess the name Armageddon fits perfectly doesn't it?

For you, well, you won't like it, however, for the rest of the world tennis will pretty exciting with big slam dunk serves, swinging drive volleys, flying body shots galore and short rallies. Now, if the power that be could just make the sport a bit more exciting, say like the WWF, cheerleaders, horns, rowdier fans, or something more like college football that would just be great wouldn't it?

Somewhere in the world right now some lucky kid has beautiful rackets with powerful strings, and they are learning to play the game in a whole new way where they can innovate and do things with a racket no one thought was possible EVER. And, if they truly understand new age technique, and have the disciplined "feel" and "respect" for the power of their equipment, and know how to respectfully use this new "hunting" equipment properly, they'll be deadly, dangerous players, who'll play a game of space age projectile bombing "shock - awe target practice."

I was watching a Chris Everett coaching video from the 1980's the other day with my daughter. She was watching it, and saying, "My god, this is crazy." 1980's tennis had a lot of myths, and the majority of coaches we're wrong about everything, unfortunately, and this site exposed a lot of those myths.

Modern tennis, ATP 3, science, John's site ... it really is incredible how much things have advanced. I am sure Chrissy looks bad on her 1980's training habits, and wonders, how good could I have been if I knew then what I know now.

So, don_budge, times, they are a changing (and for the better).

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

BTW, I am kidding of course about the WWF, cheerleaders and horns.