Grigor Dimitrov

[don_budge]

I should have...

The sky's the limit. It's only about effort and sacrifice at this point. Does he have that kind of wherewithall or is his destiny one of a playboy? Workhorse or galavant?

"Galavant." A great word. I looked it up.

...looked it up. I must have been thinking of an alteration of the alteration of gallant.

gallivant...go around from one place to another in the pursuit of pleasure or entertainment: she quit her job to go gallivanting around the globe...or he got fired from Ford Motor Company after 25 years of loyal service and went gallivanting around the globe.

ORIGIN early 19th cent.: perhaps an alteration of GALLANT.

[klacr]

The sky's the limit. It's only about effort and sacrifice at this point. Does he have that kind of wherewithall or is his destiny one of a playboy? Workhorse or gallivant?

Where is the blueprint?

Two things for the off season...if I am his coach.

1. Retool and reengineer that service motion. Some relatively minor changes in the backswing can pay huge dividends. Totally reschool service tactics after the engineering is done.

2. Beef it up a bit. Tall and slender is good...tall and moderately muscular is even better. Better in the sense for applying the hammer on the serve and also stepping in a bit closer to the baseline. The ability to drive the backhand a bit better as well. A little extra mustard won't hurt anything on the forehand either.

3. Approach game 101.

4. The goal for 2014...London! No rest for the wicked!

That isn't a whole lot to demand of a professional athlete. The question is do his handlers have the vision. Do they have the blueprint? Do they know how to connect the three dots to the goal? What is the goal? More Babes? Higher ranking?

Well...it's a no brainer. Higher rankings means more money which in turns brings on more babes. Get to work...Grigor. He's top five if he understands the problem...the equation. The variables are solvable with the right guidance. Is there a job out there for me? Advisor to the pros?

You know where to find me. klacr? John? Sven? tennis_students?

I'm with you on this one don_budge.
You're hired!

Dimitrov's game has a huge upside. Some muscle here and there would help. Service motion gets under my skin as well but not sure how much he's willing to change that. Maybe just x's and o's. We'll see what his coach Roger Rasheed has planned for the offseason.

But with Approach game 101, you can work on that with most players out there. I'm wondering when players are going to stop hitting their shots cross court and then getting upset when they get beat down the line.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

The Approach Game...going, going...gone.

But with Approach game 101, you can work on that with most players out there. I'm wondering when players are going to stop hitting their shots cross court and then getting upset when they get beat down the line.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

Yes...it's surprising. Or not.

Yesterday we had a bit of an exchange day with the "other" club in town. A couple of the 12 year old girls came over and after hitting a couple of balls to them it was obvious that I had to leave the forehands alone...as much as it sickened me. Here you have a couple of energetic, talented young kids and the forehand backswings were way above their heads. Ok...I know when to leave well enough alone.

So I started to give them a volley treatment which they really enjoyed and appreciated. Go through the doorway...racquet directly to the ball. Three things...foot meets earth as racquet meets ball slightly descending and decidedly through...chest on the ball and inside shoulder leaning. All good.

Then it was back to the baseline to begin to work on how to get to the net. The approach. It was comical to watch these poor little things flailing at balls bouncing in front of their feet with backswings that were still over their heads. It is no wonder that the modern professionals are so uncomfortable going to the net. They have never been taught to transition.

Enough of the cross court approaches. Enough of the predictable overspin approaches that invite the passing player to take the big swing. Where is the subtlety and the tactical acumen? Answer...gone and lost forever.

"In times of great deceit...telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

[stotty]

don_budge does exist...

You may be tucked away in Sweden...but you seem to be President on the forum, don_budge.

It's interesting to look at the side views of Dimitrov and Federer serving. Federer has more of a rotary toss which I think works better than Dimitrov's more straight out method. The ball toss is a great way to get rotation going well from the outset. I also think Federer's shoulders and right upper arm work together better as a unit.

That said, Dimitrov's stats on his serve seem to be improving. He is getting plenty of first serves in and winning the majority of points behind it. He is an emerging force it seems. Whether a serve can hold up at 5-5 in the fifth in a grand slam match in a true test of any serve, not to mention the player himself.


Dimitrov's serve

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8X9NKMhB_s

Federer's serve

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNQ9JWFmGIE

[don_budge]

So goes the Serve...So goes Grigor

Dimitrov's serve

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8X9NKMhB_s

Federer's serve

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNQ9JWFmGIE

Very interesting Stotty...the youtube clip does not appear to be the same motion that we see Grigor use in match play. The hesitation has mysteriously disappeared. Maybe it is the angle of the camera...maybe it is the slow motion. I don't like slow motion to analyze a serve...one of the most important aspects of a service motion is tempo and slow motion destroys the real time tempo.

Dimitrov and Fognini are playing a really stylish match as I type. Grigor won the first set 6-3 and had Fognini looking moody...looking moody. As Jiminy Glick said to John McEnroe. "You're looking moody."

Grigor has a break at 4-3 in the second with him serving. He lost his serve to Fognini and Fabio held. The serve may be looking good then in a pressure situation the little anomaly turns into friction in the machine. Then all of a sudden the tables are turned. Good servers get even better when the pressure is on...like the old Roger Federer. Like Pete Sampras. Like John McEnroe. Like any of the old Australians. Like Richard Gonzales. Like Jack Kramer. Like Don Budge. Like Bill Tilden.

Grigor is looking good. He is looking stylish. The groundstrokes are really nice...he uses the slice backhand in good stead. Wherever he can pick up a bit of an asset here and there will empower him against any given opponent. Particularly as he gets more of a reputation when the young guns start gunning for him...he will need something to mow them down with. When the young guns start taking aim at you that is a whole different pressure in itself. The serve is the key to his game and to his future success. The motion and his tactics need to be scrutinized with a fine toothed comb.

Oops...Grigor just lost his serve to get himself into the tie-break with Fabio. Two letdowns in the same set. Hmmm...I wonder how it will hold up after a couple of blows to the confidence.

[don_budge]

On the Waterfront...and Kid Gallivant!

Very interesting Stotty...the youtube clip does not appear to be the same motion that we see Grigor use in match play. The hesitation has mysteriously disappeared. Maybe it is the angle of the camera...maybe it is the slow motion. I don't like slow motion to analyze a serve...one of the most important aspects of a service motion is tempo and slow motion destroys the real time tempo.

Dimitrov and Fognini are playing a really stylish match as I type. Grigor won the first set 6-3 and had Fognini looking moody...looking moody. As Jiminy Glick said to John McEnroe. "You're looking moody."

Grigor has a break at 4-3 in the second with him serving. He lost his serve to Fognini and Fabio held. The serve may be looking good then in a pressure situation the little anomaly turns into friction in the machine. Then all of a sudden the tables are turned. Good servers get even better when the pressure is on...like the old Roger Federer. Like Pete Sampras. Like John McEnroe. Like any of the old Australians. Like Richard Gonzales. Like Jack Kramer. Like Don Budge. Like Bill Tilden.

Grigor is looking good. He is looking stylish. The groundstrokes are really nice...he uses the slice backhand in good stead. Wherever he can pick up a bit of an asset here and there will empower him against any given opponent. Particularly as he gets more of a reputation when the young guns start gunning for him...he will need something to mow them down with. When the young guns start taking aim at you that is a whole different pressure in itself. The serve is the key to his game and to his future success. The motion and his tactics need to be scrutinized with a fine toothed comb.

Oops...Grigor just lost his serve to get himself into the tie-break with Fabio. Two letdowns in the same set. Hmmm...I wonder how it will hold up after a couple of blows to the confidence.

What a great thread...klacr. Genuinely worth of discussion. This young man has all of the makings of a great tennis player...but will he realize all of that brimming talent? Will his handlers have the vision that will see him to the highest echelons of the game? Or will he end up as one of those promising aspirants who somehow become underachievers for this reason or that.

Thanks to your initiation of this thread it was great fun to watch him very closely the past two weeks or so at The Stockholm Open, Basel and now in Paris. Obviously the jury is still out but the question remains about the path forward. It's cool to be the arm chair quarterback and speculate about his chances and about his possibilities.

The Grigor Dimitrov game is a complete game and in this sense his obvious study and mimicry of the the Roger Federer game has served him well. I believe that he has emerged from the copying phase and he is well into his own interpretation. He doesn't seem to be encumbered with any compulsion for copying any longer as he has recently stated...he wants to emerge from the shadow. He is ready.

Yesterday in his win over the "Fabulous" Fabio Fognini he lost his serve six times out of how many service games. That is six too many. This guy is a dominant server deep down inside of himself...he just doesn't know it yet. He has a glitch in the process that is inhibiting him up to perhaps a number as high as 25 to 35 percent of his potential. It isn't just the little tiny physical flaw...the problem is that it has crept upwards into the cranium...into the stratosphere of confidence as tennis_chiro is writing about the original in the Parisian thread. It's about confidence...and the confidence factor now hinges on reengineering the flaw and reschooling the tactics.

If I had one wish...I would sit down Grigor and his surrounding advisors and give them a proposal and a map for the future. The goal? Number one in the world and nothing less and nothing in between. No prisoners. One determined effort with one goal in mind. Don't enter races with second place in mind. The rest of his game will only naturally come to another level if the service game transcends to the hundredth percentile of his potential...and that hinges on the service aspect of his game. I might need some technical support with the necessary video of his service motion but other than that I am prepared to spell it out.

This guy is the real thing. It's about that ethereal aspect of the game now. Confidence. And it all rides on his service game. Domination of the lesser animals and full scale warfare with the big cats on the big stage. There is white light in my "Gold Mine" and I am dying to pass it on to "The Kid". I am really impressed with him the past few weeks. He has emerged from "Baby Fed" and I am calling him "Kid Gallivant" now. He's his own man and in control of his own destiny. I hope that some day he is not lamenting in the back of a taxicab somewhere in New York City..."I could have been a contender..." like Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront".

[klacr]

Belief

Everyone seems to believe Dimitrov can be a superstar. And Dimitrov may want that for himself. But does he believe it?

I had an nice chat with former ATP player, partial Boca Raton resident and parent of a player in a junior event I run, Mr. Sebastien Grosjean. I've known Grosjean and his family since I've lived in Boca. We chat occasionally when he's in town which is more and more rare with his duties for French TV and Richard Gasquet.

I asked him about Dimitrov. Grosjean said his game lives up to the hype but mentioned that everyone around him realizes it more than Dimitrov does. His handlers know the faberge egg that they have in their possession. Grosjean said the biggest hurdle for Dimitrov is not the desire to be the best, but the belief. At that level, everyone wants to be the best and everyone is remarkably talented and skilled beyond belief. But the actual confidence, understanding and almost foolish self delusional belief that you belong at the very top is something he must embrace.

Grosjean said that when he reached #4 in the world, everyone in the locker room, including him, knew that he wasn't the biggest, strongest or most skilled. The difference is Grosjean forced himself everyday to ignore the self doubts, complacency and "someone pinch me" attitude of being "good enough" and feel that he was somehow destined to be in that elite. He's low key and almost uncomfortably modest about his accomplishmentsand skill level but will also be the first to tell you he worked his tail off to get to where he was and with every hard practice gave him a greater sense of entitlement to be in the top 5 in the world. It wasn't a few good weeks on tour, it was years worth of work and sacrifice and daily pep talks to himself that made him feel like he belonged. Once he got into the locker room, this belief turned into "I'm on a mission from God and I belong here no matter what" that differentiated him from the rest.

For those wondering, Grosjean still hits once in a while. I can also tell you, having been the victim of many of his passing shots, too many to want to remember, he still remains a "very very very adequate player". His words, not mine.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

"Belief is the only thing that kept me going today..." and Fast Blue Courts.

Everyone seems to believe Dimitrov can be a superstar. And Dimitrov may want that for himself. But does he believe it?

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

Ok...on the other end of the spectrum of up and comers is our "Kid Gallivant" Grigor Dimitrov. He is talking about believing in himself as a result of long toiling hours and millions of trials and tribulations. On the court and off. It all adds up...you know.

But the fact that he is talking about believing in himself is a great sign that he is about to take a quantum leap in the rankings. Maybe not all at once but a little at a time. Afterall...how do you eat an elephant? Answer...one bite at a time. Just ask Stanislas Wawrinka.

His march to the title began with a couple of nice straight set wins until he hit the straights of Magellan. A three set revenge of the loss in Rotterdam against "Ernesto" Gulbis, a three set thriller against Britain's Great White Hope Andy Murray and culminated with a three set nail biter against Kevin Anderson in the final.

It mentioned in the article that the courts were fast blue hard courts...more engineering going on? Subtly? Under the radar? Stay tuned...it changes everything if they speed them up.

[klacr]

Ok...on the other end of the spectrum of up and comers is our "Kid Gallivant" Grigor Dimitrov. He is talking about believing in himself as a result of long toiling hours and millions of trials and tribulations. On the court and off. It all adds up...you know.

But the fact that he is talking about believing in himself is a great sign that he is about to take a quantum leap in the rankings. Maybe not all at once but a little at a time. Afterall...how do you eat an elephant? Answer...one bite at a time. Just ask Stanislas Wawrinka.

His march to the title began with a couple of nice straight set wins until he hit the straights of Magellan. A three set revenge of the loss in Rotterdam against "Ernesto" Gulbis, a three set thriller against Britain's Great White Hope Andy Murray and culminated with a three set nail biter against Kevin Anderson in the final.

It mentioned in the article that the courts were fast blue hard courts...more engineering going on? Subtly? Under the radar? Stay tuned...it changes everything if they speed them up.

“I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.” - James Joyce


Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[GeoffWilliams]

Anybody who has had sex with Serena (twerkin expert) and Sharascreecha does not take himself seriously.

I can see him yelling,(TO EITHER ONE OF THEM) "Show me your forehand, now, you ******!", while en-flagrantedoglicto.