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Sherlock Holmes and the Devil's Advocate...
To continue and conclude this little visceral dissection of the Oscar Borras service lesson video with Rafael Nadal...courtesy of Christophe Delavaut.
-Why is there no full swing video from 2010? The author concludes everything is alright and vastly improved with the view that ends with Nadal in the trophy position.
-When Nadal is throwing the tennis ball...notice the footwork. If the throwing motion is similar to the service motion...why not copy the footwork?
-At 6.39 Uncle Toni is between the coach and the student...at 7:03 is Uncle Toni being asked by Oscar to step back a bit. By 8:05 Uncle Toni is between the coach and the student again.
-At 9:21 Nada has moved up to the service line to work on “power” from his new trophy position. But notice the footwork...now when he is working on power, the natural move is not to use the pinpoint stance. Once again this should draw some attention to his footwork.
-Oscar spends an inordinate amount of time talking to Uncle Toni, while Nadal is constantly fidgeting around. Uncle Toni's interference in this session makes it virtually impossible to get anything of substance accomplished by the tennis professional. At the very least he decreases the likelihood. Nadal's body language is very inattentive and borderline disrespectful right to the very end of the video. He impresses me as being somewhat childlike. The author says at the end of the video “in my humble opinion”...and when I hear someone say that it makes me wonder if they are truly confident in what they are talking about.
Of course everything that I have mentioned here is “in my humble opinion” or "in my arrogant opinion" as bottle once said (I liked it when he said that)..it’s only food for thought or mental gymnastics, much like trying to discern the truth from the propaganda that passes for news nowadays...and it goes without saying dear readers, take it any way you like. Good old don_budge is just playing a little Sherlock Holmes here. The Devil’s Advocate. I am only playing “worldsbestcoach”...why not? It's good practice to sharpen your claws a bit. I am honing my coaching skills...my coaching eye. Critical thinking. Besides...it's good training against the WMD's...weapons of mass deception.
Rafael Nadal has of course a very adequate serve...afterall he did reach the pinnacle of success in the tennis world with it. I wouldn't necessarily call it a dominant serve. He doesn't need me to tell him how to improve it...does he? But I will bet my last dollar, my last Swedish krona...one of the remaining few, that these guys go to bed at night fondling their tennis racquets, standing in front of a mirror in their hotel rooms, wondering if their is any more potential to squeeze from their mortal bodies. Well, at least some of the time. Potential is the equivalent of room for improvement...that's what Sherman Collins always said. My dear old coach...my only coach, he was a like a second father to me in some respects.
When I was a “competitive player” my coach advocated playing the “what if” game...much like the game the Pentagon plays. What if, for instance, somehow one day I found myself on Center Court at Wimbledon? How would I react? Would I think that it was all a mistake for me to be there? A fluke? Or would I play the game like I deserved to be there? He instilled the attitude in me not to be afraid to go into the opponents home court against a hostile crowd, somehow they seemed to get peculiarly hostile with me, and take it to him...the opponent that is. I didn’t always win, but I never shrank away.
My little exercise here was only that. What if? What if I was the "worldsbestcoach"? What if I was Robert Lansdorp? What if I was Harry Hopman? What if I was Oscar Borras? What if I got a chance to coach a number one player in the world on some aspect of their game? Would I shrink at the opportunity? Or would I seize the bull by the horns and put my best foot forward? I wouldn't be afraid to give Rafael Nadal some advice on his serve...like stop bouncing the ball so much, stop pulling your shorts out of your butt and correct that backswing and fulfill your potential young man...but I would have to insist that Uncle Toni retreat to behind the glass partition. Under no uncertain terms.
What's the harm...what the hell. We had a little time to kill between events. Now I have got to get going. A little business to take care of in the barn. Horse poop to shovel and stalls to clean. It's reality setting in. The wife's back is sore so I have to pinch hit today. I tease her...I tell her she is a "poop engineer". She really knows her shit.
To continue and conclude this little visceral dissection of the Oscar Borras service lesson video with Rafael Nadal...courtesy of Christophe Delavaut.
-Why is there no full swing video from 2010? The author concludes everything is alright and vastly improved with the view that ends with Nadal in the trophy position.
-When Nadal is throwing the tennis ball...notice the footwork. If the throwing motion is similar to the service motion...why not copy the footwork?
-At 6.39 Uncle Toni is between the coach and the student...at 7:03 is Uncle Toni being asked by Oscar to step back a bit. By 8:05 Uncle Toni is between the coach and the student again.
-At 9:21 Nada has moved up to the service line to work on “power” from his new trophy position. But notice the footwork...now when he is working on power, the natural move is not to use the pinpoint stance. Once again this should draw some attention to his footwork.
-Oscar spends an inordinate amount of time talking to Uncle Toni, while Nadal is constantly fidgeting around. Uncle Toni's interference in this session makes it virtually impossible to get anything of substance accomplished by the tennis professional. At the very least he decreases the likelihood. Nadal's body language is very inattentive and borderline disrespectful right to the very end of the video. He impresses me as being somewhat childlike. The author says at the end of the video “in my humble opinion”...and when I hear someone say that it makes me wonder if they are truly confident in what they are talking about.
Of course everything that I have mentioned here is “in my humble opinion” or "in my arrogant opinion" as bottle once said (I liked it when he said that)..it’s only food for thought or mental gymnastics, much like trying to discern the truth from the propaganda that passes for news nowadays...and it goes without saying dear readers, take it any way you like. Good old don_budge is just playing a little Sherlock Holmes here. The Devil’s Advocate. I am only playing “worldsbestcoach”...why not? It's good practice to sharpen your claws a bit. I am honing my coaching skills...my coaching eye. Critical thinking. Besides...it's good training against the WMD's...weapons of mass deception.
Rafael Nadal has of course a very adequate serve...afterall he did reach the pinnacle of success in the tennis world with it. I wouldn't necessarily call it a dominant serve. He doesn't need me to tell him how to improve it...does he? But I will bet my last dollar, my last Swedish krona...one of the remaining few, that these guys go to bed at night fondling their tennis racquets, standing in front of a mirror in their hotel rooms, wondering if their is any more potential to squeeze from their mortal bodies. Well, at least some of the time. Potential is the equivalent of room for improvement...that's what Sherman Collins always said. My dear old coach...my only coach, he was a like a second father to me in some respects.
When I was a “competitive player” my coach advocated playing the “what if” game...much like the game the Pentagon plays. What if, for instance, somehow one day I found myself on Center Court at Wimbledon? How would I react? Would I think that it was all a mistake for me to be there? A fluke? Or would I play the game like I deserved to be there? He instilled the attitude in me not to be afraid to go into the opponents home court against a hostile crowd, somehow they seemed to get peculiarly hostile with me, and take it to him...the opponent that is. I didn’t always win, but I never shrank away.
My little exercise here was only that. What if? What if I was the "worldsbestcoach"? What if I was Robert Lansdorp? What if I was Harry Hopman? What if I was Oscar Borras? What if I got a chance to coach a number one player in the world on some aspect of their game? Would I shrink at the opportunity? Or would I seize the bull by the horns and put my best foot forward? I wouldn't be afraid to give Rafael Nadal some advice on his serve...like stop bouncing the ball so much, stop pulling your shorts out of your butt and correct that backswing and fulfill your potential young man...but I would have to insist that Uncle Toni retreat to behind the glass partition. Under no uncertain terms.
What's the harm...what the hell. We had a little time to kill between events. Now I have got to get going. A little business to take care of in the barn. Horse poop to shovel and stalls to clean. It's reality setting in. The wife's back is sore so I have to pinch hit today. I tease her...I tell her she is a "poop engineer". She really knows her shit.
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