Thoughts about Tennis Tradition...

[don_budge]

Happy Fourth of July...My fellow Americans

It has been a while since I have written in this thread. Traditional thoughts. Happy Fourth of July to each and every American. The country is coming to a great point historically speaking and there is a great divide in the union. Somehow the word "United" is taking a back seat to diversity and this should never happen. Be that as it may...please do not respond with any disparaging remarks. In fact...I don't need any negativity at all. Just refrain.

My dear father just came out of his third surgery and I just spoke to him with my wife here in Sweden. It has been a tough ordeal. He's ninety years old. This is what life is about and how thin the balance is at times between life and death. My faith in God has only deepened because of this experience and the older my father gets the more he impresses me with what kind of man he is. The Lord is my Shepherd...I shall not want.

All of us have our fathers and we have our stories. This is something we all have in common. Perhaps we can at least try to draw on the things that unite us before we find ourselves too divided to go back. You see this in families a lot nowadays. The dysfunction gets to hysterical proportions. Members of families become estranged. It's unfortunate and in many cases totally unnecessary. Keep your heads and try to love your families, your neighbours and as much as you possibly can...our America.

[explorequotes]

Welcome to my playground! I'm Bigfoot. Wherever you hit the ball, there I will be. Once, John Yandell used a lovely parenthetical regarding myself. "If he behaves himself..." he said. The pressure has been on ever since. Still don't know if I can do it.

I, too, applaud the above article by Tom Allsopp on stopping time. Among its other virtues is its smashing up of one of those ready made ideas that can creep, insidiously and unbeknownst to the person, into anyone's unconscious.

From reading the old book RICK ELSTEIN'S TENNIS KINETICS, WITH MARTINA NAVRATILOVA and starring Mary Carillo in its visuals, I got the idea of little steps. Watching people like John McEnroe or Justine Henin or even Roger Federer only reinforced this.

But Tom, with eyes like a dermatologist, has noticed something that the rest of us can see only once it has been pointed out-- that when Roger isn't using small steps, he's using big steps.

This is essential intelligence for a tall person such as myself. Get there first.
Then refine position with small adjustments if needs be or maybe throw in a couple extra just to stay alive.

Also, in Roger's first match at The Open last night, he took countless balls on the rise-- talk about stopping time! It's fun to see an uneven match once in a while. The virtuoso comes out.

Friendship SMS

[don_budge]

explorequotes...interesting "new" contributor. He is actually quoting one member here on the forum and if I am not mistaken he should be nominated in the category of "Best Subliminal Troller". But that is only par for the course for a member who chooses as his user_name "explorequotes".

[don_budge]

Stefanos Tsitsipas...and all things Traditional

Geez...when did I start this thread anyways. May 20th...2011? What was I thinking? Well I guess you know. You can surmise. It's not like I have kept any secrets from you have I? Or have I? And if I did does that make me a liar? I believe that we are all liars at some point and certainly that is true if we don't tell about something we know...if we deliberately leave something unsaid. That's a lie isn't it...if you leave something out. A thought unknown.

My father made up this game that he played with all those close to him and some that were close to those close to him. He called it the two word game. I'll share it with you. The game was this in a nutshell. Not very complicated. He called it the two word game. I call it "Dad's Two Word Game". My dear old father. The game had only one rule for every participant...you cannot call them contestants. You see everyone is a winner according to my Dad. Although I insisted that I won. You know how I am. I guess that's two rules now. But the rule is only for the participant to state what they believe are the two most important words in human language. My father's words were "ME and WHY". Can't argue with that and it certainly makes you think. Particularly if you know dear Father. Me? LIFE and DEATH. I win...or so I thought. I still think so...but I keep it to myself.

I may have won. But my father's words will forever be on my mind. The word "me" is self-explanatory (no pun intended) and the word "why" is perhaps the most fascinating word in all of language...if not the most important. But as I travel through time and space it all comes down to two things for me...life and death. I know a tiny bit about life...from my perspective. Death I know nothing about. The great unknown.

[don_budge]

Anyone want to buy a horse? This little darling is only 80,000 euro. Going once...going twice...sold!

https://www.facebook.com/magnus.ting...epa=SEARCH_BOX

See the top video on this facebook page. We own this horse with the trainer...Magnus. She is seven months old and her name is Morning Rose. We bought the mare mother from America with Magnus. A gorgeous and courageous lady in her own right. The mare's name is Morning Glory.

[gzhpcu]

Talking about tradition in tennis: I think it has gone, just like tradition seems to have faded away everywhere. We are now, for better or for worse, on the electronic age, the age of internet, smartphones. Communication skills are rapidly disappearing, because to communicate via Whatsapp instead of by letter, the essential vocabulary has reduced itself to about 100 words and abbreviations. How can such an era produce "tradtion" in any sport in the Western World. Reading the cover article to the Swiss magazine "Beobachter", I read that 44k% of Swiss citizens feel lonely. Why? Decline of family, friends, rise of virtual communications....

[don_budge]

if that is true, then we need to roll back the technology a little bit to preserve SOME of the tradition of the game.

Thoughts?!
don

Talking about tradition in tennis: I think it has gone, just like tradition seems to have faded away everywhere. We are now, for better or for worse, on the electronic age, the age of internet, smartphones. Communication skills are rapidly disappearing, because to communicate via Whatsapp instead of by letter, the essential vocabulary has reduced itself to about 100 words and abbreviations. How can such an era produce "tradtion" in any sport in the Western World. Reading the cover article to the Swiss magazine "Beobachter", I read that 44k% of Swiss citizens feel lonely. Why? Decline of family, friends, rise of virtual communications....

The original quote I used to start this thread was one by the late, great tennis_chiro. I ran with it on "my thread" here called "Thoughts about Tennis Tradition". My main thesis has been that tennis somehow metaphors life a great deal and not so subtly. What you wrote is a culmination of sorts and I wonder if this is a change of heart for you? It seemed to me that for the longest time that you resisted the concept of my warning. Now it seems that you have embraced it.

For sure the electronic devices are having a great impact on human behaviour. It isn't for the better. For the first time in history we have to think in lines of devolution. The devolution of the species. Once we become too dependent on the technology that tennis_chiro referred to...we are devolving as animals. The "Artificial Intelligence" is evolving at rates the human mind cannot comprehend. Only people of age...only those that were fully cognisant by the time 1984 rolled by can really be aware of the change that has taken place. If you weren't aware by that year then your chances of fully understanding the implications of so much change in so little time is having on the species.

Sure the new apps are fun. A lot of it cast an illusion that somehow our lives are made easier or "better" because of them. But what happens if suddenly we have to do without? What happens if a sunspot knocks out the grid? Not a cheery thought...I know.

Tradition is the fabric that holds society and culture together. If that is destroyed or becomes unraveled...what holds it together? A new "Pie in the Sky" philosophy? Perhaps it will appear so for a while...but then the science fiction becomes a reality.

[don_budge]

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all...from don_budge.

[glacierguy]

Happy Christmas one and all. I hope Santa has left some Wilson Prostaff RF97 Autographs for me...

[glacierguy]

He didn't.

[johnyandell]

Wait! "late great"? That was just a metaphor right?

[don_budge]

Sorry about that...late as in he hasn't posted in a coon's age and great is self explanatory. I actually exchanged a couple of emails not too long ago to see what he was up to. He sounded good. I told him we missed his voice on the forum.

[don_budge]

Happy Christmas one and all. I hope Santa has left some Wilson Prostaff RF97 Autographs for me...

He didn't.

Start out the new decade on the right foot. 2020!!! Bring it!!! Don't make the mistake of waiting around for somebody else to do it for you.

Just go and treat yourself to something nice. A pair of Wilson Prostaff RF97 Autographs. What a great investment. An investment in your play time. Now that you have a lot of it what better way than to spend your money. Be a little selfish. A little self-indulgent. After all there is one virtue in being selfish. Quite a lot actually. You see...if you are taking care of yourself then nobody else has to. Tell yourself..."I deserve it." You are working hard. The gym. The serving reps. Straight out of the don_budge play book!

[glacierguy]

I'm nearly there...already scanning tennispoint and tennisnuts for best price. I'm going to play the Scottish Open Seniors ITF at the end of Jan with current RF85s and highly likely I'll change after that. Hitting the gym again today... Looking forward to 2020, let's see what we can do!

[don_budge]

The Birth of don_budge...December 31, 2009

Ironically today is my ten year anniversary of joining tennisplayer.net.

https://www.tennisplayer.net/bulletin/member/77352-don_budge

It's been quite a run. Interesting that I chose the last day of the decade to join and now ten years on it is soon to be 2020. The earth traveled around the sun exactly 10 times. Now we have returned the exact same spot in time and space relative to the sun. Round and round we go...where we end up nobody knows. Even though we always return to the same place.

I was looking for a video of the Don Budge backhand for a student of mine. I asked permission from the boss here in Sweden to join. When I joined I was asked for a user name and I chose the name don_budge. I had known the real Don Budge back in 1972 and 1973 when I had spent two summers at the Don Budge Tennis Camp in McDonogh, Maryland. Two truly wonderful summers and what an honour to be in the presence of such a wonderful human being. Mr. Budge further installed my reverance and appreciation for the Classic game of tennis. He personally added the finishing touches to my perfect service motion. A motion that would serve me in good stead for the rest of my playing days. I will never forget the way he said my name. How good it made me feel to be addressed by this legendary man.

So don_budge has grown to be my alter ego. I have written almost 5,500 posts under that name. It actually was a couple of hundred more but they were eliminated when the infamous "Donald Trump for President" thread was deep sixed by John Yandell as things sort of spiralled out of control. A member apparently lost his mind and was spewing accusations at myself and others of being Nazis. Adolf Hitler sympathisers. All because we accepted the results of the election and recognised Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America. That member was on this forum when I joined...along with many others. Some are still with us. Some have left.

The alter ego that I have developed here on the forum has become an important part of my life. Under the pseudonym I have written extensively not only about tennis but about life as well. It was easier to write under a pseudonym somehow. I found myself in a position where I rarely, if ever, used the words "agree" or "disagree". I never said that "you are wrong" or "I am right". I have just tried to express how I feel about a certain subject to the best of my ability and go from there. That's not to say that I have been some sort of "mamby pamby" when it came to being opinionated. Somehow being don_budge gave me a personna and a sense of freedom to say what I felt without being bashful or shy about it. Some had some strong differences of opinion from some of the things that I wrote and to them I say...it's all good.

It has been a whale of a good time writing here on the forum. Many of the contributors through the years seemed to feel the same way about the forum. It was like a neighbourhood. It still is. People move in. People move out. There has been some feuding. There has been a lot of good lively conversation. All of it revolving around a subject that all will agree that they passionately love. Tennis.

Tennis has been good to me. I actually began to play in 1968...the same year the game went "open". The professionals were allowed to compete at the Grand Slams. There were times in my life where conditions took a turn out of the comfort zone but I always had my game. I used to say that the women would come and go but tennis would always be there. You have no doubt heard me make the observation that tennis and golf are God's gift to mankind in terms of recreation. I passionately love both of these games and find that metaphorically they symbolically represent much that is life. The happiness and the sadness. The struggle. Trying to improve...to be something better. Perhaps that is what God had in mind when he gifted these sport to us.

So onward we roll into yet another decade. You know...ten years is not such a very long time. I am reading a novel about England by Edward Rutherford that begins around 6,000 years B. C. The creation of StoneHedge. The Roman Occupation. The struggles for centuries. Ten years is not such a long time. It is the wink of a young girl's eye. On and on we spin. Round and round we go. We get happy and we get sad. All points in between. Somehow we ended up here on the forum...you and I. It's a great place I think. It has been a home away from home. Which for me is of particular importance. I left the USA in 2004/2005 to move to Sweden. So it like a neighbourhood in my imagination. A place to hang out. I have written so much that it could actually be 10 books each over 750 pages long. I could call each..."The Year in Tennis 2010" and so forth.

Roger Federer has been the hero of my story. He is also the "Living Proof" of my stated tennis teaching paradigm. Let me just say it one more time to commemorate my invention of my character don_budge who is also a hero in my story.

The book is William Tilden III. The model is Richard Gonzalez with the Don Budge backhand. Harry Hopman is the coach. Roger Federer is the Living Proof.

Ironically...when I joined tennisplayer.net I wasn't aware that there was a forum. My first post was in 2011. I missed a whole year of the forum. Another 500 posts. I'd be over 6,000 now. Well...it about quality in the end. Not quantity.

To all...have a great year in 2020. Life gets more and more interesting. We all see it. The older we get the more perspective we have. Hopefully wisdom. It's been fun and then some. See you next year!