Beyond the Baseline Tennis Blog ----------------JV's Blurty
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Beyond the Baseline Tennis Blog ----------------JV's Blurty:
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| Tuesday, November 11th, 2003 | | 9:42 am |
How Tennis Players Respond to Stress
There are 4 types of reaction to stress a tennis player exhibits:
1. The Tank, in which the player gives up,
2. The Choke, in which the player feels nervous,
3. Anger, in which the player loses his self-control and self-destructs,
4. Challenge, in which the player picks up confidence and determination and plays his best game.
Tennis players respond in the following ways to cope with stress:
1. Physical response: Jumping up, bending, stretching and walking around.
2. Relaxation response: Taking deep breaths, taking more time and relaxing.
3. Preparation response ? Rehearsing next shot, anticipating what is likely to be the next ball, focusing eyes on the opponent?s court.
4. Ritual response: Moving to a predetermined position, swaying back and forth and waiting for the next play. | | Wednesday, September 24th, 2003 | | 4:08 pm |
Tennis is Intense but Safe!
High intensity sports are usually associated with high injury risk. However, for tennis, it's exactly the opposite.
Tennis, particularly singles, is known to provide a great full body workout.
The data below show that tennis is also an extremely safe sport. If one computes the fitness benefit/injury probablity ratio, tennis is far and way the best sport out there to get and stay fit safely.
Injuries Per 1000 Players
Archery 0.66
Paint Ball 0.31
Baseball 27.67
Basketball 22.04
Bicycle Riding 11.30
Boating 0.92
Bowling 0.50
Boxing 11.34
Fishing 1.37
Football 27.50
Golf 1.13
Gymnastics 7.13
Hockey 12.46
Ice Skating 2.79
Lacrosse 223.79
Rugby 23.14
Soccer 10.54
Snow Skiing 3.44
Snowmobiling 2.86
Swimming 1.30
Tennis 1.09 <<<<
Volleyball 4.43
Water Skiing 1.90
Wrestling 27.37
These injury statistics were collected thru a collaboration of insurance companies and national medical associations. The injury was only tabulated if it required medical attention or caused the person inured to lose at least one day of work. | | 3:56 pm |
HS Phys Ed Declining
Only about 26% of U.S. high school students get daily phys. ed. 40% of high school students are not enrolled in gym classes of any kind; for high school seniors the number is a staggering 75%.
Only one state ? Illinois ? requires daily Phys. Ed in high school.
Three states ? Colorado, Mississippi and South Dakota ? have no Phys. Ed. requirement at all.
Source: National Association For Sports & Physical Education. | | Tuesday, July 29th, 2003 | | 12:17 pm |
USTA Tennis Participation Survey: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics?
The August issue of Tennis Magazine has a report on "the largest study ever completed on recreational tennis". The study shows that there were 23.5 million Americans playing tennis at least once during a year. We have all heard the old adage of "Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics", but this is ridiculous. Someone in the tennis establishment must be very desperate, calling someone who has played tennis once in a year 'a tennis player'.
Let me try an analogy. Around here, at the North Carolina coast, there are zillions of recreational fishermen. I am not one of them. Suppose I borrow a rod from a neighbor and mosey down to the pier, about ten minutes from our home, once a year, am I then a recreational fisherman?? But wait, it gets worse. The study also deals with 'frequent players'. What is a frequent player? Someone who plays 21 or more times in a year - less than two times per month! Give me a break! In my more active days, I considered four - five times per week - and mostly singles - was optimal for me, and that was true for most of the hundreds of recreational tennis players I knew. So, now we have five million 'active tennis players' who hit the courts less than twice in a month?? The report also states that the average age of 'frequent players' is rising. My guess is that if they looked at players who play at least two - three times per week, there would be a very dramatic increase in the average age. I still believe, as I said last time, that there are 'pockets' were tennis is played the way it used to be played, but this report really gives the picture of a sport in deep trouble. It is very sad.
Kjell Petterson
kjell@ec.rr.com | | 11:55 am |
Stretch to Avoid Injury Time to improve your stretching smarts Here's a look at some new ideas on this fitness must Tuesday, July 29, 2003 By Pohla Smith, Post-Gazette Staff Writer A cat wakes up after a long nap, and the first thing she does is stretch. Ditto a dog. When it comes to maintaining joint and muscle health, they're a lot smarter than most of their owners. Contrary to popular opinion, stretching isn't the exclusive purview of athletes and yoga buffs. It's for everybody Read More | | 11:41 am |
Sounds Like a Good Idea Tennis being overpowered TUESDAY , 29 JULY 2003 LONDON: Tennis chiefs are exploring ways to save the sport from the bludgeoning brutes of the baseline currently populating the professional ranks. The enormous power and spin provided by hi-tech modern rackets are eliminating subtlety from tennis and sapping the sport of its popularity, leading figures said today. While a return to wooden rackets would mean a backward step for the sport, players wielding smaller weapons could be the key to the future of tennis. A plea to address the problems facing modern tennis was made by a number of former champions during Wimbledon earlier this month. The sport's governing body, the International Tennis Federation, said today it would address the issues endangering the modern game's popularity, in particular the increase in power in the last decade due to advances in tennis racket technology. "We must conserve the game ... the integrity of the game," ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti said at the International Congress on Tennis Science and Technology in London. "We want to work with the manufacturers to work out what can be done. This is an issue for the future." Former player and current television commentator John Barrett is championing the campaign to curb power and spin in the sport. His call has been backed by former greats including John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Boris Becker and Stan Smith. Barrett said exaggerated topspin, as used by most baseliners in the game, was the greatest danger of all to the future of the sport. "Variety is the spice of life," the former British Davis Cup player said. "Diversity is what makes tennis such a wonderful sport. "The baseliner against the serve-volleyer ... that is what people want to see. "But these days what I see is a rather monotonous sport with rallying from the baseline. Something must be done if we are going to restore balance." Barrett and a panel of experts from universities around the world agreed increased racket head size was what made hitting top spin so easy and it was the use of exaggerated spin which was killing off the art of serve-and-volleying. "In the old days, with the restrictions of making a racket out of wood, a racket head nine inches wide was about the maximum you could make. "That stayed the same for about 100 years and was perfect. "You could still hit topspin ? nobody hit a backhand topspin passing shot like Rod Laver," Barrett added, referring to the Australian who won all four grand slam crowns in the same year in both 1962 and 1969. "The difference was you needed perfect timing then. Now, with the wider racket face, anybody can hit it." One solution could be for professionals to use modified, smaller rackets while amateurs could still use the larger models. "There is a history of this in other sports," guest Professor Howard Brody of the University of Pennsylvania said. "In the US in baseball there are different rules. Professionals are permitted to use only wooden bats while amateurs can use the more powerful aluminium versions." Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2584080a6562,00.html | | Monday, July 28th, 2003 | | 7:57 pm |
USTA Tennis Participation Survey
Results of a recent USTA poll:
Number of tennis players within the state - percentage of population - top 15 states
1. 13.1% New Jersey
2. 12.9% Maryland
3. 12.5% Minnesota
4. 11.8% Washington, DC
5. 11.2% Wisconsin
6. 10.8% Rhode Island
7. 10.3% Virginia
7. 10.3% New York
7. 10.3% Delaware
10. 10.0% California
10. 10.0% Illinois
10. 10.0% Massachusetts
13. 9.7% Pennsylvania <<<<-------
14. 9.7% North Carolina
15. 9.6% Washington
1.1 million people play tennis in Pennsylvania.
(A tennis player is defined as someone who plays tennis at least 4 times a year. It's not clear if "play" means play some type of actual match or just set foot on a tennis court.)
1 out of 10 people walking down the street play tennis? This sounds high to me. | | 7:47 pm |
Sampras First Not to Defend US Open Title in 33 Years
Reigning champion Pete Sampras today officially withdrew from the 2003 US Open. Sampras was automatically included on the initial entry list last week with a 52-week ranking of No. 26. He has not played a professional tournament since winning his fifth US Open and record 14th Grand Slam singles title last year. Sampras will be the first US Open men?s singles champion not to defend his title since 1970 winner Ken Rosewall. | | 7:44 pm |
Spain 14, USA 11
The United States has 11 players who received direct entry into the 2003 US Open, second only to Spain?s 14. | | Monday, May 5th, 2003 | | 9:06 pm |
What's Unique about Tennis?
You are expected to compete on a variety of surfaces that each favor different styles of play. | | Sunday, May 4th, 2003 | | 12:00 pm |
Promoting Area College Tennis I guess we should thank Phil Axelrod for mentioning regional college tennis in his article in this morning's PPG. If you don't subscribe to the PPG, the article is available here: http://snurl.com/1a8m.However, the publicity he gives to college tennis is after the fact, it's history, the season is over. It will be forgotten and have little impact on stimulating the popularity and support of collage tennis when the 2003-2004 season comes around. Here's what we need BEFORE the area's men's and women's collegiate tennis seasons begin: 1) Home match schedules available on Web sites and in print pubs. All schedules must be collated together in one place for convenient reference. 2) A communications mechanism that ensures all regional high school and junior tennis programs know about these schedules as well as the Atlantic 10 Conference and National Collegiate Clay Court Championships. 3) Articles featuring the area's primer players and teams. (Can we get area college, or even high school, newspaper sports writers to write them? Have a contest?) 4) Constant reminders of upcoming matches (where, when & who). 5) College tennis night at the Women's Challenger. (Structured so it's not just for varsity players.) | | 10:57 am |
Will Pittsburgh Double Fault? I just read Phil Axelrod's article in this morning's PPG and it made me sick. If you don't subscribe to the PPG, the article is available here: http://snurl.com/1a8m. Axelrod describes how Pittsburgh came very close to losing the Men's Futures Tournament to Cleveland. Cleveland!? In fact, the tournament was in Cleveland's lap and they shanked it back to Pittsburgh. We should consider ourselves very fortunate. Ding, dong, this is wake up call. If we're not perceptive enough to recognize this, and prepared to do something about it, then the AMD Board shouldn't be blabbing about how our mission is to promote and grow the game of tennis! I've often pondered why a city like Cincinnati, which is demographically very similar to Pittsburgh, can attract and sustain a world-class tennis tournament like the Masters Series event each August. While attending the Community Tennis Development Workshop in Cincinnati I talked to a few people from that area's tennis community. I got an inkling as to why they have a Masters event. Simply put, their success revolves around cooperation, organization and community. One revealing example is that they have an organization consisting of all the area's tennis clubs. Clearly, they get the concept of "cooperative competition" and how it serves everyone's interests. The thing that upsets me most about the Men's Futures episode is that the AMD Board, and even USTA/MS, were apparently out of the loop, clueless, about this situation. In my view, the Futures, the Challenger and even the National Men's 40 and Atlantic 10 Conference Championships are events that must be leveraged to bring the area's tennis community together, creating cohesion and camaraderie within it. Instead, they are isolated islands, just like the doomed autonomous societies portrayed in the Kevin Costner film Waterworld. The opportunity is sitting there. Are we going to pick it up and score or fumble it to a city like Cleveland? | | Thursday, May 1st, 2003 | | 4:33 pm |
What's Unique about Tennis?
Occasionally a thought comes to mind about what sets tennis apart from other sports.
Today's thought is the dignity, integrity and etiquette inherent in the game. For example, players still shake hands at the conclusion of every match and they offer first serves to opponents when a distraction warrants it.
Is there comparable behavior in any other sport?
Isn't this worth preserving and engraining in junior players? | | Tuesday, April 29th, 2003 | | 9:27 am |
How Can College Tennis Survive? We can moan to college presidents and athletic directors all we want, but it won't do any good. They can't print money and money is the fundamental issue driving their decision making. There's also the related problem of the adverse impact of Title IX on collage athletics. For a revealing story about this see: http://www.tennisfax.com/comment.htmThe best thing we can do is offer collage administrators and staff specific suggestions and programs for preserving college tennis in some format. We also need to accept that the present format may not be the best format, particularly at levels below Division 1. What's the biggest problem with college varsity tennis? It's not a spectator sport. It should be, and it could be, but it isn't. Why? Here are some reasons: 1) Little effort is made by college coaches or athletic departments to promote the sport to the student body or community. Potential spectators don't know when matches are scheduled and where they take place. Because of the lack of tennis facilities (indoor and outdoor), matches may take place off campus at little-known tennis clubs. Matches are frequently held on weekday afternoons. Matches can change venues at a moment's notice, and with no notice to spectators. 2) The format of collage matches makes it virtually impossible for spectators to know what's going on in terms overall competition and even in individual matches. This is especially true in multi-team events such as the Atlantic 10 Conference Championships. If players even bother to flip the score boards, spectators don't know who is red or black. It's a simple, easily solvable problem but it has a major negative impact on fostering spectator interest. These shortcomings eliminate the elements of suspense and drama in a tennis match, keys to spectator excitement and interest in any sport. 3) Tennis pros think it's better for kids in their junior programs to spend their time endlessly wacking tennis balls, instead of occasionally watching players at the next level, the level their kids are aspiring to. I have little contact with junior tennis players, but I can't believe they wouldn't get pumped after watching a good college tennis match, particularly a tournament like the Atlantic 10 Conference Championships. Wayne Bryan passionately made this point at the Middle States Tennis Conference a couple of years ago. A second important issue is weather it may be better to invest limited resources and energy in intramural rather than varsity college tennis. Varsity tennis programs directly impact a dozen or so students. However, intramural programs can engage a far greater number of students in a positive social and physical activity. Unfortunately, intramural tennis programs are non-existent at most universities. While attending the Community Tennis Development Workshop in Cincinnati I learned about an intramural collage tennis program developed a few years ago at Virginia Tech called the Collegiate Club Tennis Association ( http://www.cctatennis.com/index.asp). The developer of the program, Seth Lipstock, received a USTA award at the CTDW. For details see: http://www.usta.com/tennisnewswire/fullstory.sps?iNewsID=27944&itype=&iCategoryID=Regrettably, this valuable program hasn't spread beyond a few colleges in Virginia. If the USTA truly appreciates the value of this grass roots program they need to help Lipstock market and promote his innovative concept. The format and details of Lipstock's program may need some tweaking or latitude ( http://www.cctatennis.com/rules.asp), but the concept is solid and needs the support of organizations whose mandate it is to grow tennis. The Collegiate Club Tennis Association is exactly the type of program college presidents and athletic directors must be made aware of if we expect a positive response to our outrage at the elimination of varsity tennis programs. | | Sunday, April 20th, 2003 | | 10:38 am |
Oops, They Did it Again: WVU Cuts Tennis Program WVU Cuts: 'We feel lost' Sunday, April 20, 2003 By Shelly Anderson, Post-Gazette Sports Writer This was the toughest match for every member of the West Virginia men's tennis team, and not because visiting Maryland-Baltimore County was a colossus on the court. The Mountaineers' worst enemy in their 4-3 loss Thursday was inner turmoil. Twenty-four hours earlier, they had faced a searing serve that they neither saw coming nor had the training to handle. They learned from university athletic officials that men's tennis is one of five sports being discontinued after this school year. "It was just too much to overcome," said eighth-year West Virginia men's tennis coach Ed Dickson. >> More | | Thursday, April 17th, 2003 | | 10:21 am |
Frick Park Tennis Courts: Wasteland or Tennis Club? We are coming up on the third summer that the Frick Park tennis courts have remained closed and unplayable. When one inquires about the reasons for this, you encounter the usual fast talking and finger pointing that attempt to cover for the underlying stupidity, incompetence and sloth of those responsible. While walking at the other side of Frick Park last weekend, a light bulb went off. Across from the Frick Art Museum is the Frick Park Lawn Bowling Club. The club is a membership organization that maintains the facility at no cost to the City of Pittsburgh. Why can't a Frick Park Tennis Club be formed? Replace the un-maintainable dirt (clay?) surface with Har-Tru and charge membership and or hourly court fees that support the maintenance and oversight of the facility. Those in charge (or who say they are in charge) will tell you that Frick's will stipulated that the courts must be clay. I've never read the details of this arrangement, a lawyer probably needs to be involved, but Har-Tru IS considered clay, it's just not red clay and has many advantages over red clay. What do you think? | | Monday, April 14th, 2003 | | 10:28 pm |
James Blake: Gotta Love Him!
The May issue of Tennis Magazine has a feature article about James Blake.
A short anecdote in the story encapsulates the man:
Recently, a writer for Tennis Magazine visits Tampa, Blake's home, to do an interview. As the writer makes his way to a court where Blake is practicing, Blake notices him, stops playing, approaches the writer and says, "Hi, my name is James Blake."
If you already know James Blake's story, the article doesn't reveal anything new. However the writer raises the issue of whether Blake is too low key and self-depreciating to express the killer instinct many believe is needed to win a major. | | 3:30 pm |
Tennis Eliminated at Edinboro U
Edinboro cuts baseball, tennis programs
By Dave Mackall
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, April 14, 2003
The budgetary ax fell recently on the Edinboro University athletic department, reducing the school's sports offerings to six men's and eight women's programs.
"This is a day I have feared for quite some time," Edinboro athletic director Bruce Baumgartner said following Thursday's announcement by university President Frank Pogue.
Edinboro is eliminating its baseball and men's and women's tennis teams at the end of the spring seasons as a result of the poor economy and a decrease in funding from the state.
The sports were dropped after the NCAA Division II school spent years attempting to make budget cuts without resorting to elimination of athletic programs. | | Sunday, April 13th, 2003 | | 10:46 am |
Coaching During Matches?
The Atlantic 10 Men's Championships are run using a team format. This means players can consult with their coaches during change overs.
This brings to mind the often-discussed question of whether coaching should be permitted during all tennis matches.
An interesting point was raised by one of the recipients at last Sunday's USTA/AMD awards luncheon. He noted that tennis is one of the few (and perhaps the only) sports where players compete one on one, both physically and mentally. It's you against an opponent with no intervention from the outside world until the match is completed.
Golfers have their caddys and don't compete physically against opponents. Boxers have their corner men between rounds. Any team sport involves both coaching and the contributions of multiple players.
Introducing coaching into tennis matches encroaches on one of the unique aspects of the game that must be preserved. For this reason I vote "no" for coaching during matches. | | 10:23 am |
What's Interesting Tennis?
I spent some time watching matches at the Atlantic 10 Conference men's tournament at Oxford yesterday.
Lots of very big serves and groundies!
However, what really makes a match interesting to me, the spectator, is when one or both players display some creativity in their shot selection. In one outstanding mach, players alternated soft slice shots with laser forehands, high top spins with flat drives into corners, great approach shots, followed by equally spectacular passing shots. What a match to watch! |
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