From “Swinging Volleys” while keeping “eyes on ball” to “Shaping Forehands”...

[stotty]

Timeless Bill

Several are available electronically for a song from Amazon (Kindle) and iBooks. They are more timeless than archaic.

Now you tell me...just my luck...I ordered a second-hand copy to be shipped from the US. None were available in the UK or UK amazon. The US amazon won't deliver to the UK for some reason.

It cost me $4 from some bookstore over there. It hasn't arrived yet. When it does I shall read it avidly.

Thanks for your help.

[stumphges]

I haven't read Tilden tennis books but one imagines they must be archaic. I am willing to stand corrected but cannot seem to find one to read! If someone can scan an excerpt or two and post them in this thread, I would love to pass judgement.

Several are available electronically for a song from Amazon (Kindle) and iBooks. They are more timeless than archaic.

[stotty]

Tilden/Gonzales/Fed

We cannot know how good Tilden was as a player. There is a big time gap between Tilden and the next great to come along. It's hard to know where "great tennis" started, actually. It may have started with Elsworth Vines...but most likely Don Budge was the first truly great player. He was then followed by Kramer, then Gonzales and Hoad.

For me, leave Tilden out any serious discussion about tennis. We have little to compare him with.

I haven't read Tilden tennis books but one imagines they must be archaic. I am willing to stand corrected but cannot seem to find one to read! If someone can scan an excerpt or two and post them in this thread, I would love to pass judgement.

It's hard to know the truth an deliver honest verdicts about great tennis players because we're all riddled with bias, or worse prejudice. Roger Federer versus Gonzales is all very much "pie in the sky" and comes down to who you like (personally) the most.

[don_budge]

If you wish to speak to me...first you must define your terms.

Alright. I shall begin. Amuse me. I try to amuse you.

First of all there is this matter of my motto that I have repeated numerous times in various threads. Perhaps a reader might wonder how or why I came up with such a motto...forgive me if I have not made it clear. I will try to define my terms.

My motto goes something like this...it is a simple statement that is meant to be as all encompassing as possible. An impossible attempt really about a subject so vast. Being a simple man...I try to keep it simple. Reduced to simplest terms. It's the LCD baby...the lowest common denominator.

The book is Tilden. The model is Gonzalez with the Budge backhand. The coach is Hopman and Federer is living proof.

With regard to Tilden. I know that there have been many books, articles and various publishings written about the game of tennis. But my bias always leads me back to Tilden when it comes to understanding the mystical game of tennis. There is no author who captures the essence of the game quite so succinctly and eloquently as William T. Tilden II...albeit the tragic figure that he was in his personal life.

The model is Gonzalez with the Budge backhand. Again, personal bias leads me to conclude that the Greatest Tennis Player of All Time was Richard Gonzalez. The overall package of this player is good enough to serve as a model when one goes about the task of developing a tennis player. Many conclude that if there was a weak link in this lion of a tennis player's game it was his inability to attack off the backhand side so I added the Budge backhand, again from personal bias, as I had the great pleasure of working Don Budge for a couple of summers when I was young...so many years ago. He was 57 years old at the time and the beauty and reputation of that great stroke was still evident even though he was well past his prime.

Harry Hopman was an interesting and compelling character. Somehow he managed to galvanize the entire Australian tennis program back in the 60's and 70's to lead the world in this great era of tennis. He led in the sense that his influence on the Australian players was so great that their performance had a deep impact on the style of tennis that was to be played in their respective era and for years to come. Possibly more important...he formed a team. It was a team that kept evolving through the years of his influence. The Australian players of the Hopman era considered Tilden's writings to be "The Bible" with regard to the written word of our great game.

Then there is Roger Federer as the living proof. Here is a man who has built himself into a modern day icon in the age of information technology and dominated the game as it has never been dominated before him...at least in the modern age of tennis. He appears to be the last link to the game that I fell in love with so many years ago...the classic game of tennis.

This is a brief summary of my conceptual model for my philosophy of the great game and sport of tennis.

[don_budge]

The Train of my Thoughts...Lost in the Flood

I seem to have lost my train of thought. All of those good intentions. I thought that I was on to something brilliant...in its simplicity. But yesterday the earth shook and today my world is upside down. Don't be concerned. It is nothing really...a little personal matter. It's all good.

The three dot's...let me see. I was trying to connect them...wasn't I? It was something to do with teaching tennis. From the net backwards. I was thinking of Moe Norman and natural golf and how it relates to tennis. My train traveled through the worlds of golf and tennis...the infinite and the finite respectively. It was about how Roger Federer is not playing to the tune of .'s or ,'s but he is instead playing to that inner drummer...that one that resembles the Nike swoosh...and the three dots.

It had to do with Nick Bolletierri and Harvey Penick and American tennis. And teaching from the net backwards. Then I remembered some topics such as building myelin...and going real slow. There were lots of things...lots of points of view that I was mulling over in the old noodle. Roller coasters, figure eights...there was bottle, tennis_chiro, licensedcoach, brian gordon, tommyenglish and, yes, even worldsbestcoach and 10splayer too. The whole crew. I got just a little confused. It's not hard to get lost, you know. A bit confused. Lost my way. My train of thought. Please give me a spell. Let me sort this out. I just wanted to clear some things up. Perhaps to give us some common ground. Afterall...in some ways it is one big boat. Or is it? To help our game evolve to the manner in which it was meant to be played. American tennis. I'll be back. I promise.

At least I hope that I will be back. Looking back the whole thing seems to be a labyrinth of my own making and I am not certain that I can unravel the thing for your understanding. I can only try. To do my best.

It is going to be interesting to see if I can talk...or rather write my way out of this conundrum.

conundrum...a confusing and difficult problem or question; or a question asked for amusement, typically one with a pun in its answer; a riddle.

[don_budge]

Connecting the dots from “Swinging Volleys” while keeping “eyes on ball” to “Shaping Forehands”...all the while watching John Yandell's work of art of Roger Federer playing tennis or rather dancing with the tennis ball to the tune of Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On) by Alison Krauss.

"Some sunny day when everything seems ok...baby...!"

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/music_videos/federer_fh_not_gone/index.html

Life is a game in which we try to connect the dots. We try to give meaning to something that seems to be largely an accident...in the end. Life is a game where the object of the game is to learn the rules. Ferdinand Celine was a French writer in the early part of the last century. A couple of the books that he wrote were "Death on the Installment Plan" and "Journey to the End of the Night". It is dark humor that doesn't leave a lot of hope or wiggle room for mankind. Part of my fascination with Ferdinand is that our paths seem to cross now and again, metaphorically and literally speaking...much as his did with another character whom he named "Robinson" in his fictitious autobiographical novels. He developed a writing style where he used the three dot’s to express something of this nature of the human experience in his writing. Human’s don’t really think or express themselves with period’s and comma’s...much of the time their thoughts and expressions tend to run together as they make up their minds about how to connect the dot’s. Celine is my favorite author...of all time. He connected the dots in his journey to the end of the night...and gave us a map. Of sorts. To nowhere.

But anyways...as usual it was an amalgamation of things that got me to thinking more and more about tennis. How it is taught. How it is played. How it is written about. How it is perceived. About my experiences in the game. About others experiences with the game. These three current threads made me think...about the three dots. Everyone has their opinions and some are more definitive than others. Some are more adamant about their being right or correct. Some are more biased than others...as it was stevenmilla who suggested to me that my bias was getting the better of me in my perception of the "Gold Medal Match" between Roger Federer and Andy Murray. But in the end we are all trying to connect the dots...whether we know it or not. Whether we like it or not. To which I say...show me a man whose bias does not “get the better” of him and I will show you a man...who is not a man.

Connecting the dots. After every shot that is played by a tennis player or a golfer for that matter...the ball leaves the racquet or the club and is given a trajectory through the air. The components of this trajectory are basically altitude, speed and spin. Oops, there it is again...the three dots. See what I mean? The path of the ball is governed by the the manipulations of the racquet that are made up of specific synchronistic movements of the hands, wrists, arms, shoulders, body, hips, legs and feet. I will leave out the conceptualization of the shot in the mind for now. All of the movements are transmitted into the face of the racquet which in turn communicates all of the information into the ball.

For every shot big and small...I tell my students the path of the ball is 365 balls consecutive balls in a row and I ask them to imagine the path of the ball after it leaves the racquet. To demonstrate this I might hit three balls...one high and slow, one medium height and medium speed and one low and hard. I hit all three at the same target to demonstrate the uniqueness to every shot and the need to commit ones self to the trajectory or the path of the ball. 365 balls in a row for every shot. 365 days in a year. 365 days for the earth to make one trip around the sun. One year of following through on any given shot in order to master it. Metaphysics. Mystery abounds in the concept of the “shot”. Challenging human beings to their very core to gain control of their shots...and of their lives for that matter. The path of their existence.