Bottle Clone Thread ... Road to Wimbledon

[hockeyscout]

Tennis Rankings My Style!

Okay, I did an interesting survey with the young one today! A few weeks ago I kind of joked around and said, hey memorize all the birth years of top 100 ATP pro players. Well, today, she knew the majority of them! Kids. Silly.

So, today I wanted to give her a computer lesson. I am teaching her two programs, excel and notepad ++.

I always tell her, if you want to be a world number one you need to be better than about 18 to 22 age groups to make it happen. Your separation cannot be 3-4 years like it may be now, it needs to be at least 20 to make it to the world number one. So, I split it all up, and we can see who is really who in the world of tennis. Their is some mind boggling data!

World number ones (I put their rankings for their age group - starts with 1978's, and goes to the 1996's ... the USA has two trained players who are at the top by the way for their age groups which is impressive, and Croatia has three (wow)!

1 74 Stepanek, Radek (CZE) 1978
1 27 Karlovic, Ivo (CRO) 1979
1 77 Estrella Burgos, Victor (DOM) 1980
1 2 Federer, Roger (SUI) 1981
1 10 Ferrer, David (ESP) 1982
1 24 Kohlschreiber, Philipp (GER) 1983
1 20 Simon, Gilles (FRA) 1984
1 4 Wawrinka, Stan (SUI) 1985
1 3 Nadal, Rafael (ESP) 1986
1 1 Djokovic, Novak (SRB) 1987
1 9 Cilic, Marin (CRO) 1988
1 5 Nishikori, Kei (JPN) 1989
1 8 Raonic, Milos (CAN) 1990
1 11 Dimitrov, Grigor (BUL) 1991
1 45 Sock, Jack (USA) 1992
1 39 Vesely, Jiri (CZE) 1993
1 53 Kyrgios, Nick (AUS) 1995
1 91 Coric, Borna (CRO) 1996

World Number Two's (no 1980's)

2 76 Haas, Tommy (GER) 1978
2 14 Lopez, Feliciano (ESP) 1981
2 17 Robredo, Tommy (ESP) 1982
2 33 Verdasco, Fernando (ESP) 1983
2 46 Seppi, Andreas (ITA) 1984
2 7 Berdych, Tomas (CZE) 1985
2 15 Anderson, Kevin (RSA) 1986
2 6 Murray, Andy (GBR) 1987
2 13 Gulbis, Ernests (LAT) 1988
2 34 Klizan, Martin (SVK) 1989
2 22 Goffin, David (BEL) 1990
2 52 Carreno Busta, Pablo (ESP) 1991
2 59 Schwartzman, Diego (ARG) 1992
2 40 Thiem, Dominic (AUT) 1993

World Number Three's (no 1978's, 1979's, 1980)

3 25 Benneteau, Julien (FRA) 1981
3 49 Youzhny, Mikhail (RUS) 1982
3 37 Garcia-Lopez, Guillermo (ESP) 1983
3 63 Monaco, Juan (ARG) 1984
3 12 Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried (FRA) 1985
3 19 Monfils, Gael (FRA) 1986
3 18 Fognini, Fabio (ITA) 1987
3 16 Bautista Agut, Roberto (ESP) 1988
3 38 Johnson, Steve (USA) 1989
3 44 Janowicz, Jerzy (POL) 1990
3 88 Kuznetsov, Andrey (RUS) 1991
3 66 Tomic, Bernard (AUS) 1992
3 98 Gonzalez, Maximo (ARG) 1993

World Number 4's

4 41 Becker, Benjamin (GER) 1981
4 93 Mathieu, Paul-Henri (FRA) 1982
4 42 Muller, Gilles (LUX) 1983
4 75 Jaziri, Malek (TUN) 1984
4 21 Isner, John (USA) 1985
4 28 Gasquet, Richard (FRA) 1986
4 26 Mayer, Leonardo (ARG) 1987
4 23 Dolgopolov, Alexandr (UKR) 1988
4 55 Sousa, Joao (POR) 1989
4 57 Struff, Jan-Lennard (GER) 1990
4 97 Krajinovic, Filip (SRB) 1992

[hockeyscout]

# 5's

5 64 Lorenzi, Paolo (ITA) 1981
5 47 Lu, Yen-Hsun (TPE) 1983
5 90 Brown, Dustin (GER) 1984
5 30 Rosol, Lukas (CZE) 1985
5 29 Cuevas, Pablo (URU) 1986
5 31 Chardy, Jeremy (FRA) 1987
5 36 Mannarino, Adrian (FRA) 1988
5 56 Young, Donald (USA) 1989
5 60 Pospisil, Vasek (CAN) 1990

# 6's

6 72 Nieminen, Jarkko (FIN) 1981
6 70 Berlocq, Carlos (ARG) 1983
6 92 Soeda, Go (JPN) 1984
6 48 Bolelli, Simone (ITA) 1985
6 43 Andujar, Pablo (ESP) 1986
6 32 Giraldo, Santiago (COL) 1987
6 61 Ramos-Vinolas, Albert (ESP) 1988
6 96 Gojowczyk, Peter (GER) 1989
6 62 Delbonis, Federico (ARG) 1990

# 7's

7 87 Hewitt, Lleyton (AUS) 1981
7 67 Gabashvili, Teymuraz (RUS) 1985
7 50 Istomin, Denis (UZB) 1986
7 35 Querrey, Sam (USA) 1987
7 89 Ito, Tatsuma (JPN) 1988
7 68 Lajovic, Dusan (SRB) 1990

# 8's

8 69 Almagro, Nicolas (ESP) 1985
8 54 Troicki, Viktor (SRB) 1986
8 51 Kukushkin, Mikhail (KAZ) 1987
8 80 Rola, Blaz (SLO) 1990

# 9's

9 78 Baghdatis, Marcos (CYP) 1985
9 58 Granollers, Marcel (ESP) 1986
9 65 Bellucci, Thomaz (BRA) 1987
9 85 Berankis, Ricardas (LTU) 1990

#10's

10 81 Matosevic, Marinko (AUS) 1985
10 71 Stakhovsky, Sergiy (UKR) 1986
10 73 Golubev, Andrey (KAZ) 1987

# 11

11 86 Dodig, Ivan (CRO) 1985
11 95 Kamke, Tobias (GER) 1986
11 79 Haider-Maurer, Andreas (AUT) 1987

# 12

12 82 Groth, Sam (AUS) 1987

# 13

13 83 Haase, Robin (NED) 1987

# 14

14 84 Sijsling, Igor (NED) 1987

# 15

15 94 De Schepper, Kenny (FRA) 1987

# 16

15 99 Lacko, Lukas (SVK) 1987

# 17

16 100 Ilhan, Marsel (TUR) 1987

[hockeyscout]

More statistics!

I've broken down players by ages now, so we can see who is in line for succession.

Two surprising stats for me, Donald Young and Steve Johnson are 11 and 13 in line in their respective age groups, and could conceivably make a leap in the next couple years as the upper tier begins to thin out and decline.

Grigor Dimitriev is perhaps judged a bit to harshly as he's a landslide number on in Under 23 tennis, Jack Sock is coming along nicely in his development as number four and Bernard Tomic is a quality player and at the number eight spot for his peer group.

The moral of the story here is two fold, you are never really as good as you think you are, and you are never really as bad as people think you are!

All I know from this survey, in tennis you really need to separate yourself from your peer group by a wider margin than any other sport to make it.

Over 27 Group (Old Tier Veterans)

1 1 Djokovic, Novak (SRB) (SRB) 1987
2 2 Federer, Roger (SUI) (SUI) 1981
3 3 Nadal, Rafael (ESP) (ESP) 1986
4 4 Wawrinka, Stan (SUI) (SUI) 1985
5 6 Murray, Andy (GBR) (GBR) 1987
6 7 Berdych, Tomas (CZE) (CZE) 1985
7 10 Ferrer, David (ESP) (ESP) 1982
8 12 Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried (FRA) Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried (FRA) 1985
9 14 Lopez, Feliciano (ESP) (ESP) 1981
10 15 Anderson, Kevin (RSA) (RSA) 1986
11 17 Robredo, Tommy (ESP) (ESP) 1982
12 18 Fognini, Fabio (ITA) Fognini, Fabio (ITA) 1987
13 19 Monfils, Gael (FRA) Monfils, Gael (FRA) 1986
14 20 Simon, Gilles (FRA) (FRA) 1984
15 21 Isner, John (USA) Isner, John (USA) 1985
16 24 Kohlschreiber, Philipp (GER) (GER) 1983
17 25 Benneteau, Julien (FRA) Benneteau, Julien (FRA) 1981
18 26 Mayer, Leonardo (ARG) Mayer, Leonardo (ARG) 1987
19 27 Karlovic, Ivo (CRO) (CRO) 1979
20 28 Gasquet, Richard (FRA) Gasquet, Richard (FRA) 1986
21 29 Cuevas, Pablo (URU) Cuevas, Pablo (URU) 1986
22 30 Rosol, Lukas (CZE) Rosol, Lukas (CZE) 1985
23 31 Chardy, Jeremy (FRA) Chardy, Jeremy (FRA) 1987
24 32 Giraldo, Santiago (COL) Giraldo, Santiago (COL) 1987
25 33 Verdasco, Fernando (ESP) (ESP) 1983
26 35 Querrey, Sam (USA) Querrey, Sam (USA) 1987
27 37 Garcia-Lopez, Guillermo (ESP) Garcia-Lopez, Guillermo (ESP) 1983
28 41 Becker, Benjamin (GER) Becker, Benjamin (GER) 1981
29 42 Muller, Gilles (LUX) Muller, Gilles (LUX) 1983
30 43 Andujar, Pablo (ESP) Andujar, Pablo (ESP) 1986
31 46 Seppi, Andreas (ITA) (ITA) 1984
32 47 Lu, Yen-Hsun (TPE) Lu, Yen-Hsun (TPE) 1983
33 48 Bolelli, Simone (ITA) Bolelli, Simone (ITA) 1985
34 49 Youzhny, Mikhail (RUS) Youzhny, Mikhail (RUS) 1982
35 50 Istomin, Denis (UZB) Istomin, Denis (UZB) 1986
36 51 Kukushkin, Mikhail (KAZ) Kukushkin, Mikhail (KAZ) 1987
37 54 Troicki, Viktor (SRB) Troicki, Viktor (SRB) 1986
38 58 Granollers, Marcel (ESP) Granollers, Marcel (ESP) 1986
39 63 Monaco, Juan (ARG) Monaco, Juan (ARG) 1984
40 64 Lorenzi, Paolo (ITA) Lorenzi, Paolo (ITA) 1981
41 65 Bellucci, Thomaz (BRA) Bellucci, Thomaz (BRA) 1987
42 67 Gabashvili, Teymuraz (RUS) Gabashvili, Teymuraz (RUS) 1985
43 69 Almagro, Nicolas (ESP) Almagro, Nicolas (ESP) 1985
44 70 Berlocq, Carlos (ARG) Berlocq, Carlos (ARG) 1983
45 71 Stakhovsky, Sergiy (UKR) Stakhovsky, Sergiy (UKR) 1986
46 72 Nieminen, Jarkko (FIN) Nieminen, Jarkko (FIN) 1981
47 73 Golubev, Andrey (KAZ) Golubev, Andrey (KAZ) 1987
48 74 Stepanek, Radek (CZE) (CZE) 1978
49 75 Jaziri, Malek (TUN) Jaziri, Malek (TUN) 1984
50 76 Haas, Tommy (GER) (GER) 1978
51 77 Estrella Burgos, Victor (DOM) (DOM) 1980
52 78 Baghdatis, Marcos (CYP) Baghdatis, Marcos (CYP) 1985
53 79 Haider-Maurer, Andreas (AUT) Haider-Maurer, Andreas (AUT) 1987
54 81 Matosevic, Marinko (AUS) Matosevic, Marinko (AUS) 1985
55 82 Groth, Sam (AUS) Groth, Sam (AUS) 1987
56 83 Haase, Robin (NED) Haase, Robin (NED) 1987
57 84 Sijsling, Igor (NED) Sijsling, Igor (NED) 1987
58 86 Dodig, Ivan (CRO) Dodig, Ivan (CRO) 1985
59 87 Hewitt, Lleyton (AUS) Hewitt, Lleyton (AUS) 1981
60 90 Brown, Dustin (GER) Brown, Dustin (GER) 1984
61 92 Soeda, Go (JPN) Soeda, Go (JPN) 1984
62 93 Mathieu, Paul-Henri (FRA) Mathieu, Paul-Henri (FRA) 1982
63 94 De Schepper, Kenny (FRA) De Schepper, Kenny (FRA) 1987
64 95 Kamke, Tobias (GER) Kamke, Tobias (GER) 1986
65 99 Lacko, Lukas (SVK) Lacko, Lukas (SVK) 1987
66 100 Ilhan, Marsel (TUR) (TUR) 1987

26, 25 and 24 (win now, make a breakthrough asap)

1 5 Nishikori, Kei (JPN) (JPN) 1989
2 8 Raonic, Milos (CAN) (CAN) 1990
3 9 Cilic, Marin (CRO) (CRO) 1988
4 13 Gulbis, Ernests (LAT) Gulbis, Ernests (LAT) 1988
5 16 Bautista Agut, Roberto (ESP) Bautista Agut, Roberto (ESP) 1988
6 22 Goffin, David (BEL) Goffin, David (BEL) 1990
7 23 Dolgopolov, Alexandr (UKR) Dolgopolov, Alexandr (UKR) 1988
8 34 Klizan, Martin (SVK) Klizan, Martin (SVK) 1989
9 36 Mannarino, Adrian (FRA) Mannarino, Adrian (FRA) 1988
10 38 Johnson, Steve (USA) Johnson, Steve (USA) 1989
11 44 Janowicz, Jerzy (POL) Janowicz, Jerzy (POL) 1990
12 55 Sousa, Joao (POR) Sousa, Joao (POR) 1989
13 56 Young, Donald (USA) Young, Donald (USA) 1989
14 57 Struff, Jan-Lennard (GER) Struff, Jan-Lennard (GER) 1990
15 60 Pospisil, Vasek (CAN) Pospisil, Vasek (CAN) 1990
16 61 Ramos-Vinolas, Albert (ESP) Ramos-Vinolas, Albert (ESP) 1988
17 62 Delbonis, Federico (ARG) Delbonis, Federico (ARG) 1990
18 68 Lajovic, Dusan (SRB) Lajovic, Dusan (SRB) 1990
19 80 Rola, Blaz (SLO) Rola, Blaz (SLO) 1990
20 85 Berankis, Ricardas (LTU) Berankis, Ricardas (LTU) 1990

On The Cusp (Young Guns)

1 11 Dimitrov, Grigor (BUL) (BUL) 1991
2 39 Vesely, Jiri (CZE) (CZE) 1993
3 40 Thiem, Dominic (AUT) Thiem, Dominic (AUT) 1993
4 45 Sock, Jack (USA) (USA) 1992
5 52 Carreno Busta, Pablo (ESP) Carreno Busta, Pablo (ESP) 1991
6 53 Kyrgios, Nick (AUS) (AUS) 1995
7 59 Schwartzman, Diego (ARG) Schwartzman, Diego (ARG) 1992
8 66 Tomic, Bernard (AUS) Tomic, Bernard (AUS) 1992
9 88 Kuznetsov, Andrey (RUS) Kuznetsov, Andrey (RUS) 1991
10 89 Ito, Tatsuma (JPN) Ito, Tatsuma (JPN) 1988
11 91 Coric, Borna (CRO) (CRO) 1996
12 96 Gojowczyk, Peter (GER) Gojowczyk, Peter (GER) 1989
13 97 Krajinovic, Filip (SRB) Krajinovic, Filip (SRB) 1992
14 98 Gonzalez, Maximo (ARG) Gonzalez, Maximo (ARG) 1993

[hockeyscout]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iDTsCSaXgU

Ozzy Smith baseball, wow.

[GeoffWilliams]

I would incorporate hypnosis as well.

[hockeyscout]

I would incorporate hypnosis as well.

Hmmm ... cool idea ... how can we master that idea?

[hockeyscout]

Interesting how Cuban knows basketball

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAkVnlA9CJo

[tennis_chiro]

It sounds like a wonderful situation you are developing there. In a lot of ways it sounds just too good to be true. In a lot of ways, the whole operation and situation sounds kind of like a frustrated developmental coach's wet dream; not yours... mine! Sometimes I wonder if you aren't just a guy at a computer somewhere in a basement in the Ozarks with a tremendous imagination playing out a little fantasy on our Forum. I know so little about so many of the things that you make such casual reference to here that it is hard for me to differentiate what is true and what might just be made up. On top of that, I can't figure out, with everything you are doing every day with your daughter and in the gym every day, how do you find the time to post so much on our little Forum. Of course you are in a war zone or at least a potential war zone and that kind of puts a little damper on things.

But I'm taking it on faith that you are real and you are actually doing the things you are telling us about here in the Forum. First, I don't know how you find the time to do it all. Furthermore, I don't understand how you can finance it all. You must have finished your NHL career 15 years ago and I didn't realize they were already paying that much. Did you take your earnings and invest them on margin in EBay, Apple, Amazon and Google? Something like that would explain how you finance all this. Just coaching hockey, ... doesn't make sense to me.

But as I said, I'm enjoying the dream, so I'm going to take it on faith that it is real. And in that case...

Wow, what a wonderful opportunity for not only your daughter, but also for the "hitters" you are using as training partners. I'm not sure how you keep an 8-year-old girl on track with the regimen she is on 2, 3 or 5 years from now. You really have to be careful (and it sounds like you are) not to overtrain her young body. But you also have to be really careful that you don't burn her out. Is she getting to study art, history, music, literature, math and science so that she can appreciate the world that will be laid at her feet if your quest and her quest is successful.

What prompted me to write this post, besides your immediate post on your activity today, is I was watching Sharapova today. We all know that lady works really hard and she has achieved greatness. When 60 Minutes last night talked about Li Na being the 2nd highest paid woman athlete in the world, they didn't mention that Sharapova was the one making even more money. And yet she keeps working so hard. At least that's what they tell us.
But there is something missing in Sharapova's game. At 6' 2" tall, she is the epitome of "Big Babe" tennis. And you seem to think your daughter is going to be significantly bigger. There's no question you are trying to develop next level skills for your daughter to play the tennis of the future. And if she stays at it at all, she will have great tennis skills with all you are setting up. But I have read in some of your posts that you have accepted the idea or at least I have interpreted that you have accepted it, ... the idea that she is going to be a little slow because she is going to be so big.

If I were you, I would be doing everything I could to maintain and amplify that "little girl" flexibility and explosiveness that she has. Did you write that she is already well over 5' tall at 8 years old?

Look at this clip from my student that was part of what I posted in my thread on him. The stroke was important in the context of that thread, but on it's own there is a lot wrong with the way he is setting up to hit the ball (or not setting up), but what I find is really amazing and, for me, encouraging is how light he looks on his feet. He should really be doing an advertisement for those orange shoes:

http://youtu.be/KwMqQp9j-aMC

Certainly he is no Roger Federer, but he is just a 16 y.o. amateur with a good local ranking and compare that movement and explosiveness to Sharapova. Maria is 28 years old and has over 12 years on the pro tour already and the scars of injuries to go with it, but she just has no spring when she moves. And it is hard for me to come up with any big girl who looks good moving the way my young student does here. I don't buy the argument that women can't move like men. Perhaps not as fast, but they should be able to demonstrate the same kind of weightlessness. Dancers do it all the time (and I understand that they are smaller). To me one of the great movers was Dementieva. 6' tall is big for a woman and she moved unbelievably well. When she was a lot younger, Venus had real spring. But I think the thing to do with your "young one" would be to really emphasize that she develop and maintain as much flexibility and spring and explosiveness in her movement as possible. No she may not be as fast as Li Na, but she can make up for it with her length, but not if she has all the spring trained out of her like Sharapova. I didn't try to identify a clip for Sharapova, but you can find anything you want on her on youtube, except spring in her legs. That is one of the key things that got me so excited about Janowicz. I couldn't think of a single big man over 6'5, maybe even not over 6'4 who has the quick feet that Janowicz does. Unfortunately, he doesn't choose to use them to get into the positions he should be on the court to take advantage of his height and power, but that's another story.

But if you really train your daughter to have the flexibility, explosiveness, balance and strength that she is capable of developing and maintaining if she trains the right way, she could have groundbreaking skills on the tennis court by the time she is 18 years old and then she can use those skills to take tennis to another level by the time she is 23. She'll make millions and may even pay off the investment you are making in her. For her to make tens of millions, she's going to need a good agent and business manager; to make money like Sharapova, she's going to need all that and a smile like Genie Bouchard's. I hope that is not why you are doing all this.

But I kind of expected, that if you anywhere near as aware of all the elements of developing an athlete as you portray yourself to be on the Forum, you have already considered all of this and have laid out a detailed plan to accomplish all of it. If so, I would love to hear some more detail on the kinds of things you have her doing that really address the issues of maintaining flexibility and explosiveness while developing strength and power in a young body that should not be doing any serious weight training according to the preponderance of current state of the art developmental science. Please share some of the details of what you do to develop your daughters other skills. In my own journey and search to improve my game when I could still move a little bit, I found, for example, that expanding my integration of the right and left hemispheres of my brain by studying "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" I played better. Similarly with Transcendental Meditation. When I did extended fasts on nothing but apple juice and topped it off with a Liver/Gall Bladder Cleanse, I saw the ball much better and got off to a much quicker start. Admittedly, my endurance sucked for a week or so, but damn did my return of serve improve. There are really all kinds of ways to get an edge. I really wish you would share more of the details of your daily routine in addressing these issues.

I'll make it a point to address your questions from the other thread about the use of the ball machine, but I wanted to touch briefly on that as well, especially as it regards this issue of training balance and explosive movement. You see the fellow that designed my ball machines comes from the world of dance. Renzo Raiss was a dancer and then a choreographer and in his early 40's he rose to become the director of the NY Metropolitan Opera and then finally the Harkness Ballet. He was just a recreational tennis player who fell in love with the game and left the world of dance to get into the tennis business and that is how I met him in about 1972 as he was observing my tennis academy in Grand Central Station in NY. He built up a number of tennis schools in Europe in the 70's and 80's under the name WCT Intertennis. I worked for him in Augsburg in 1973-4.

(continued below)

[tennis_chiro]

Renzo came to the US in the early 90's, buying the Laver Resort in Delray Beach out of the Resolution Trust Company (bankruptcy). When he first owned that resort, he rented it out to Rick Macci for his academy. At the time, Venus and Serena were under Rick's coaching. 4 coaches would show up for the girls every morning for 3 hours and for 3 more hours in the afternoon. The coaches(hitters - satellite players) would either trade off or work 2 on 1 against the girls. I have no idea how they raised the money to finance all that, but someone ponied up. To my mind, that is where those girls got their big edge; thousands of hours of high quality hitting at the developmental point where it would do the most good, plus, of course, infinite confidence instilled by Richard and very good genetic makeup. They did this for a couple of years instead of playing junior tournaments. Just think of the ratio of good hours of work that most kids, even in full-time programs at academies or under the direction of their associations and all the time they waste waiting in lines or sharing a coach or traveling back and forth to worthless 6-0, 6-0 matches that teach them nothing. Part of the reason your situation could be so good for your daughter.

Anyway, Renzo came to the states partly because he wanted his own kids to benefit from the Florida tennis environment. And his kids became good players, but they used their tennis to go to Ivy league schools and have great careers outside of tennis. But Renzo is still teaching. He always used hitters and he got fed up with the hitters not being good enough to do what he wanted them to do, so he invented the Twins, The Global Tennis Teaching System (GGTS)

You are telling us about all the money you are spending on hiring everthing from hitters to cooks to athletic trainers to create the best possible situation and it seems like money is no object. These hitters are expensive. But worthwhile also. What I'm telling you is that the GGTS is like having another hitter that never tires and always delivers exactly the ball you tell it to. The last machine that was leased was going out for less than $150/wk. Now, I would not suggest that you use the machines all the time, but you really should try to get to Florida to see how Renzo trains the kids in his program. It was pretty amazing for me seeing him lead the kids in their morning exercises out of the dance discipline. Emphasis on balance and explosiveness! It was 11 years ago when I was last in Florida, but Renzo was already in his 70's.

I wouldn't suggest using the machines all the time, but if I had a kid on the court 4 hours a day (plus a couple of hours fitness, flexibility and balance, maybe juggling, and drawing or playing music to expand his mind), I would have him on the machines for a full hour to two hours every day. If you want your hitters to work on developing their game and you want these other kids in your program besides your daughter to develop their games, you need them all to be hitting with the GTTS an hour a day. If you use the machines, they are only costing you $5 an hour for a world class hitter. The work they can get done is incomparable to anything I have ever seen. I have only had a couple of kids who ever worked with me even a couple of times a week for a little more than an hour each time. I just dream about having the opportunity to work some of the kids I see an hour a day 4 or 5 times a week. I get them to a point at the end of a lesson where they are moving and hitting the ball beautifully, but by the time they get back to me, I have to rebuild all over again and progress is barely incremental. And yet, I've had some outstanding success stories with kids that did get even a hundred lessons in with me over a couple of years (a little over an hour a week over time).

I'm hoping I can load this pdf of the story of Valeria Solovieva when she was 12. She worked almost exclusively on the GTTS Twins for 8 months, came through the qualifying and won 10 matches in all to win the Orange Bowl 12s as an unseeded entrant, smallest girl in the field!

story of Valeria Solovieva:

Can't get it to load, but the story is amazing. Won Orange Bowl Xmas 2004


Despite this kind of success, Renzo was unable to get the powers that be to recognize the difference his GTTS was making. They cling to the old pro and a basket paradigm. Now the rage is the Spanish way which uses a lot of hand-feeding. You can't begin to compare hand-feeding to what I can do with my Twins.

Anyway, the point is, you owe it to yourself to get yourself to Delray Beach and see what Renzo does with his machines and his "Wall" and how he trains his students for balance and flexibility and explosiveness. You can probably talk him into selling you one of the sets of machines that he has in storage for less than I ended up paying him or you can lease them. You really should check it out. But realize it is not just another fancy ball machine. It is a robot-hitter that will do your bidding.

And I hope you will give us a few more details about how you actually address some of the issues I am raising here. Or maybe just confess that you are just a computer nerd somewhere in a basement in Kansas?!

don

[tennis_chiro]

Thanks for the response

HS,
thanks for the response. Digital dragon! That explains a ot. Your situation still seems like a dream to me.

I reset the video from private to unlisted so you should not having any trouble opening it. I thought "private" meant that if you had the link you could open the video; it just wouldn't be available to anyone just trolling youtube.

I still think you should be more aggressive in developing the grace and athleticism of a dancer or a gymnast. To give you an idea of how I feel about this, I once had a very good student who spent a lot of time with me. I told him to study Fred Astaire and he said he didn't know who that was. (I hate that. A lot of kids tell me that about Gonzales and Laver, not so much Laver.) So I recorded one of Fred's movies on cable and sent him home with a video cassette of the film with instructions to study it. Class and grace are special. Power and speed tend to be more obvious. But effective and consistent power and speed come from a base that includes class and grace. Also leads to fewer injuries.

My point is that if your daughter is going to be that big and powerful and also has the kind of grace and balance that is missing altogether too much in too many of today's players, she can be a game changer.

I haven't watched that much women's basketball. But I have watched "Big Babe" tennis. They seem bent on power and speed, but not foot speed. I want to see a woman tennis player as big and strong as your daughter may be, but with the grace and balance of a ballerina or a gymnast (all the world class gymnasts tend to be very small).

And it seems like you have the opportunity to achieve that. But you have to put that emphasis on grace and balance in early.

don

[GeoffWilliams]

When one feels the foot work as fast and effortless, and feels the set up before it arrives, that describes Connors' foot work. Fast and small steps no matter how or what the incoming ball felt like. Feeling the power before it's delivered. Feeling the strike before it's struck. Mma fighters feel the foot work as their life depends on it being fast and accurate. That is what is striking about Sampras as a child: fast foot work for a child or an adult. Foot work is the separator.

[hockeyscout]

I kid you guys not! The propensity for size and strength in Russian woman is out of this world. I am 6'4", and their are girls here everywhere who are as tall as me. Its outrageous. So much potential talent in this area of the world. If an American academy set up shop over here they couldn't help but produce champions in girls tennis because their is just so much special talent (with size, which can't be taught, and is at a premium in woman's tennis where a hard heavy ball can win a point, as opposed to mens tennis where everyone hits hard, and neutralizes with ease). We call it "Old Woman Strength" over here. You get the older generation of woman over here, and they are big and so, so, strong because they work! I've run into a few of them, and its like a brick wall, solid! You'd better get out of the way in the market because here the old woman who work their will just run you over if you don't get out of their way. So, much potential in this country. And, its not being realized.

[GeoffWilliams]

Looks like my mother in the garden. I once saw her beat the shit out of two black women, who caused me to bloody my head on the old Nash dashboard, off a left turn in Berkeley ca. You don't often see a white woman doing that! That old dash board had a knife blade edge, designed to decapitate.

[hockeyscout]

Looks like my mother in the garden. I once saw her beat the shit out of two black women, who caused me to bloody my head on the old Nash dashboard, off a left turn in Berkeley ca. You don't often see a white woman doing that! That old dash board had a knife blade edge, designed to decapitate.

Yah, I remember those old dashboards on my dads ambassador as a kid, yikes.

[hockeyscout]

These guys look like masters at what they do. It all applies to tennis! Success is inevitable when you take care like these guys do!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FZCHY8o0Zs