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Robert Lansdorp
ok,here's a thought,someone contact P.Mac and suggest to him to throw a ton of $$$$ to hire Robert Lansdorp and have him take over the Jr. development program....With Robert's track records I say it's a safe bet that he can come up with another great American champion... Carson is right down the street from him and SoCal still has enough promising Jr. players for him to have a nice 'pick of the litter'. USTA can have their swan song and this will give Robert a nice retirement gesture for all the fine work he has done in the past...Robert has been there ,done that , so he can do it again. Why not???Comment
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Supporting Lansdorp, et all
If PMac would simply make the decision to support successful pros, it wouldn't take much to put Robert to work. After all, he says himself that he only wants to see a student a couple of times a week. PMac would simply put Robert in charge of 10 kids of his choice. Then he would support those lessons with practice sessions and hitting partners at Carson, or wherever they might be. Pick up the tab for court fees, those hitting partners, etc. Those hitting partners could be former college players trying to do the old, "Be the best they could be" even though they have no real chance of making a real living on the ATP tour. They could chase their dream a little longer while developing their skills a little further. Plus, since they'd be directed by Lansdorp, they'd get some help with their own games in the process. If you could add a couple of my Global Tennis Teaching Systems, you could really develop players in shifts. three or four 3-hour shifts a day at Carson could service a lot of players. And if these hitting partners could get in a car and drive, the kids don't even have to drop out of school! They do a 2 1/2 hour to 3 hour shift with the hitters every day, see Robert 2 to 3 times a week, maybe 2 at a time, and do their fitness under direction of USTA organised training programs, and arrange a couple of match practices a week as well as playing the local tournament schedule. The best way is for the "hitters" to go out to the kids. They can put in an 8 hour day to get 5 to 6 hours in on the court. Kids trying to go to school can't put 2 hours a day or more in driving back and forth to Carson! The more I vent the more I like it. So much that I'm going to include here a description of how my GTTS ball machines work
John may want to eliminate this. It is not meant to be an advertisement, but this system is different from using just a ball machine. Hopefully, we'll do an article about it sometime soon. These notes were written about 4 years ago so they are bit dated.
Unmatched Variety and Flexibility. The system is two ball machines with 4 computers each, a Blue-Tooth enabled Palm PDA to program it, and a wireless remote control to fire the balls. It's one thing to have a machine that can fire to anywhere on the court switching from an 80 mile per hour topspin drive to an underspin drop shot and back to a fast drive with as little as one second between shots, but this system does more. If you have used any of the machines on the market that offer a variety of spins, you know they need a few seconds between shots to spin up or slow down to execute the designated shot. The motors on this system are much stronger and are able to spin up or down with just one second or less between shots.
Realistic Rhythm of Play. With the Global Tennis Teaching System, the coach calls the firing of the balls with a remote control. The coach waits for the player's shot to go past the point where it would reach the opponent and then he fires the next shot in the preprogrammed sequence. So the player can run through a drill at a realistic rhythm of play. Remember, the time between shots varies according to the kind of shot that has been hit, where the shot is hit from (net to baseline or even further back). If you want to emulate Agassi, you fire earlier; for Kuerten, you let the player’s return penetrate beyond the baseline before you fire.
Note: The wireless remote control would normally be fired by the coach from across the net between the two machines giving his player some visual clue as to when the next shot is coming, but the coach can also fire from next to the players when he wants to work on specific elements of stroke production.
Realistic Geometry of Play. The two machines are hooked electronically. If the player hits his shot to the deuce corner, the coach calls the answering shot from the machine in that corner; if he hits it into the ad corner, the shot is called from the machine in the ad corner. So the player gets to experience the geometry as well as the rhythm of real play.
Programming. The Palm PDA communicates by Bluetooth technology with the machines. Any number (literally 100’s if you want) of drills can be stored in the Palm. It takes only a few seconds to change the current drill (a sequence of up to 9 shots) that is programmed into the machines. If you pause for more than 4 seconds between shots, the system automatically resets to the first shot of the chosen drill. And if I want to compose a new drill for a particular situation, that is literally a matter of a few strokes with the Palm and a matter of just a few seconds more.
The Drills. The Palm stores 25 different shots which are combinations of top and bottom wheel speeds and angle of shot for each machine. These shots can all be edited according to the preferences of the coach. Then these shots are fired in one of 9 different directions. (Whether a ball comes from the deuce or ad machine, if it is set to go to [2], it will cross the baseline at the right corner of the singles court.)
Wear and Tear on the Instructor. Anyway, with this machine, an old man like me(55) can train and coach players of any level. I can run a player through tougher and more effective drills than I could create with a world class player as a hitter. From a knifing Rafter slice to a Corretja topspin, I can recreate the shot. Obviously, you have to work in real play with live balls and practice match play, but if you want to practice patterns and execution and get lots of reps, this is a great way to do it. In the twenty seconds a player needs to recover between points (and he will need those twenty seconds), I can run a second player through the same sequence. Top ranked 16- or 18- and under or pros might be able to go for a half hour, but not without lots of breaks. In the meantime, the coach is coaching instead of trying to catch his breath.
Training Elite Players. If I wanted to work with Pete Sampras and prepare him to play Andre Agassi, I would want him to get used to having a ball fired deep to alternate corners which he would have to neutralize until he got a ball he could get a ball he could attack with his forehand (what Annacone calls his “go ball”). He has to make that shot, then approach and make a winning volley. Who do I get to create that situation for Pete to practice against? With this system, I can create a realistic pattern and put him under pressure enough that he will actually benefit and practice his transition. You say, how do I make him practice his service game? Then it’s even more relevant. How often will a practice partner give him Agassi-like pressure on a return? This system can do it every time.
But Kal, we are just dreaming. Organizations do not destroy themselves. Doesn't happen. But it is nice to dream.Comment
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Dreams are good--and I've seen that ball machine in action as well. It'll do everything Don says.Comment
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all I have to do is dreammmm ,dream ,dream,dream
[QUOTE=johnyandell;6307]Dreams are good--
Hey Don and John
I've always been a dreamer... wanted to change the world when I was young, a wannabe artist... now all I do is teach tennis... Ask Jonny why does he wants to go pro== my dream is still in him... my dream is still alive...kal
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