Putting the brakes on technology...

[don_budge]

The Truth is…Herd Mentality is now a Human Condition

Technology is here to stay. The conundrum is how to tinker with the game so all court tennis and artistry can make a comeback.

The truth is…there is no amount of tinkering to bring it back. It is a FUBAR…you should know that acronym by now. Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.

Much like the world has become. The problems are now too big to have any real viable solutions.

Technology is here to stay. But only as long as it takes to destroy us…which it is doing little by little on a daily basis. The human condition becomes a little less human every day. Anybody that thinks this is a good thing…is part of a very large herd. A herd that is rapidly headed for a very steep and very deep cliff.

[don_budge]

1984 and 2001…He who controls the past controls the future

All very familiar to me, don_budge...but it's a time that man will soon forget.

It's all designed to make you forget. Remember what the paradigm for the novel 1984 by George Orwell was:

"Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." Ingsoc (Newspeak for English Socialism or the English Socialist Party) is the political ideology of the totalitarian government of Oceania in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

We are there. It was game on September 11, 2001. The original 2001 Space Odyssey. Stanley Kubrick style. I went home and reread 1984 from cover to cover that night…I knew we had arrived.

[stroke]

All very familiar to me, don_budge...but it's a time that man will soon forget.

I played a doubles match last Wednesday. The first in years. We played under floodlights. I only played because someone fell ill an hour before the match was due to start. I just happened to be around, packing up before leaving for home, it was tough to say no. I really didn't want to play because I get nothing out of playing for myself anymore and would much rather watch others play

I have never liked playing under floodlights because I can never pick up the ball as well as in daylight. Anyway to cut a long story short...

I got annihilated. The two young opponents hit the ball so bloody hard I couldn't see the ball most of the time until too late. It's not my opponents were that good...but sheer power is starting to show and has become a key factor even at amateur level. It would have been an uphill struggle even in daylight.

Power was available with wooden rackets but it wasn't on tap ALL the time. You had to have time and your body had to be fully behind the ball. Power is available with modern rackets from virtually ALL positions of the court with a skilled exponent.

The biggest victim is tactical artistry...which is perhaps one of the reasons why the game has now become so one dimensional.

Tactics in the modern game certainly exist, but they seldom involve artistry. I used to love the way McEnroe could render a player impotent through artistry, through slices and spins, through deception and trickery. Such a player cannot exist today.

Everyone on the forum is familiar with the difficulty the modern player has dealing with a low, shallow forehand. It's the modern player's achilles heel. The irony is that often players like Djokovic are presented with the shot more by accident than design, as it's a terrible risk to attempt the tactic by design. The tactic is intricate and so difficult to execute off incoming spinning bullets. Get it wrong and you're dead...

When I went to Wimbledon in 2014 I reported that the game had become even more powerful and that the younger players were hitting even harder than the present generation. don_budge lamented the game had gone that way some time ago and what was new. I am sorry, don budge, but it is about to get worse, much worse. The only good news for you is that Nadal will be unable to live in the environment too much longer. In fact he is already exiting grand slams early....

Technology is here to stay. The conundrum is how to tinker with the game so all court tennis and artistry can make a comeback.

The top three are likely to retire unmatched....untoppled. The game could be in for a huge slump when they exit...then will be the time to strike.

What I still love about McEnroe's game is to me, it is really the perfect model for tennis as one ages. I do agree though that on today's tour, his style of play would not be a good model at all. I have watched McEnroe playing on the Champions tour(he is by far the oldest I have seen play on this tour) and his game, all continental, super short almost volley style take backs on most shots and taking the ball on inside the baseline, give the players who are no longer on the regular tour like Courier, Chang, even Sampras etc, fits. Of course, he uses an old style type heavy racquet(which to me lets the racquet do more of the work, seems smart to me). It is a 95-100 square inch head, about 370 grams, somewhat head light racquet. Wilander once said after losing to him on Champions tour, "McEnroe has a way of making you feel real stupid out there". I have discussed this issue with db on another thread before.

[stotty]

What I still love about McEnroe's game is to me, it is really the perfect model for tennis as one ages.


Wilander once said after losing to him on Champions tour, "McEnroe has a way of making you feel real stupid out there". I have discussed this issue with db on another thread before.

Mac's game is a good model for all club players because his style is minimalist and simple. His strokes were about as simple as strokes can get...

Many players have echoed what Willander said over the years. Mac was just so difficult to play against, especially in the days of wood where generating one's own pace was never easy. Mac was just perfect/made for the wooden era.

[don_budge]

Hawkeye…Technology (the curse)

Artificial Intelligence (AI)…get used to this term.

In modern tennis (read pseudo tennis) technology has trumped the human factor in making the "decision" whether or not the ball is (was) in or out. What implications does this have on the game? What "improvements" to the game made it necessary for an electronic eye to track a ball hit by a human being to be to fast for the human eye to judge whether it was in or out.

The original premise of this thread was about the racquet technology. Today's game is a product of engineering and not one of evolution.

This is sad. Tennis is cannablizing itself. Speed kills! What is the latest data on participation and viewership? Is it up or down? Maybe I'm the exception. I hope so because I love the game. And yes, these changes in the game are driven by $. That's normal and natural. The manufacturers have a right to make a living. The clock will not be turned back. What to do?

A nice quote. Lamenting the pathetic state of modern tennis. Pathetic in the sense that it mirrors life. FUBAR…Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. Look around you and tell me how much improved things are on a whole. Maybe if you have enough money you are able to shield and grow enough trees around you so that you cannot see beyond the forest. The game…the game within the game. To connect the dots you need perspective. A realistic perspective about where it came from and where it has been that enables you to speculatively project where it is going.

I love the conversation about serve and volley. First of all…it wasn't only serve and volley that the game of tennis aborted itself of. It is all court tennis. The game is being too fast to incorporate this kind of play. The racquets doomed this aspect of play. I knew it immediately.

"They have taken the art out of tennis"…I cried to nobody in particular.

Hawkeye…it's a sign. A very, very bad one. Human decision making gives way to Artificial Intelligence (AI). So what happens when "the Machine" starts to make decisions of it's own "free will". Don't think it can happen? What if it already is?

Putting the brakes on technology? Much too late to be thinking along those lines. Better to run for the hills…before they burn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJwea90rYHQ

"This River is Wild"…The Killers

You better run for the hills before they burn
Listen to the sound of the world
And watch it turn
I just want to show you what I know
And catch you when the current lets you go
Or should I just get along with myself

[don_budge]

Virtual Distance...

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1284988-virtual-distance-technology-is-rewriting-the-rulebook-for-human-interaction/

Just look at those little children…with their devices.

Does anybody here think that this thing is heading in the right direction? We all have heard of virtual reality. I made up a word a few years ago and I haven't heard anyone else use it yet…virtual morality. I think they are getting close though.

[stotty]

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1284...n-interaction/

Just look at those little children…with their devices.

Does anybody here think that this thing is heading in the right direction? We all have heard of virtual reality. I made up a word a few years ago and I haven't heard anyone else use it yet…virtual morality. I think they are getting close though.

Next week I am bringing in what is going to seem like horrendous rule to some of my workforce. All my coaches will have to leave their mobile phones in the store cupboard before walking on court to coach. They can only check their texts once they have completely their sessions.

If I am not posting next week, you will know I have been assassinated...

[gzhpcu]

You can't stop progress. I am all for it: iPhone, iPad Air 2, Zepp sensor, iCloud, etc. So the world is changing and getting wired. OK. You just need not to abuse the technology. Use it correctly and you are being enpowered.

But then having been responsible for future technology and IT strategy when I worked for the biggest Swiss bank, I saw resistance to change everywhere.

I am sure our forefathers were griping about the first radios and telephones.

In this rapidly changing world, if you don't want to become extinct, you need to adapt and keep up withe the advances in technology.

Restricting usage to certain times is OK though, so as not to interfere with physical activities as you suggest Stotty.

It also keeps your brain active and young.

[bottle]

You can't stop progress. I am all for it: iPhone, iPad Air 2, Zepp sensor, iCloud, etc. So the world is changing and getting wired. OK. You just need not to abuse the technology. Use it correctly and you are being enpowered.

But then having been responsible for future technology and IT strategy when I worked for the biggest Swiss bank, I saw resistance to change everywhere.

I am sure our forefathers were griping about the first radios and telephones.

In this rapidly changing world, if you don't want to become extinct, you need to adapt and keep up withe the advances in technology.

Restricting usage to certain times is OK though, so as not to interfere with physical activities as you suggest Stotty.

It also keeps your brain active and young.

I like this and think it true. How often is the new technology used "correctly" though?

[gzhpcu]

I like this and think it true. How often is the new technology used "correctly" though?

Problem is that any new technology can be used well or misused. Take the internet: information like Wikipedia provide up-to-date information as opposed to a traditional encyclopedia, but it also has pornography gateways. I think one can compare new technology to a big city: some areas are safe, others are dangerous. Guidance is needed, especially for children and young adults.

[lobndropshot]

Is it possible that the strategies and tactics used in the past may have gone away without a change in technology? I guess we will never know the unintended consequences of standardized technology.

DB all I ask is for you to give today's game the benefit of the doubt. It does not have the benefit of perfect hindsight.

[stotty]

Is it possible that the strategies and tactics used in the past may have gone away without a change in technology? I guess we will never know the unintended consequences of standardized technology.

I think this doubtful. You don't get to where we are today with a wooded bat. The tactics are there in today's game, it's just that you cannot use the intricate plays you once could in the past. Today you need fast thinking preservation tactics combined with fast thinking offensive tactics. Not that many players yet are highly skilled at both.

Defence today is a very tactical business. You have to know when and how. Aggressive defence is a vital component and players are becoming more and more skilled at it. No longer can you drift a ball to the baseline safe and deep. That's a vulnerable ball these days. No, you must defend aggressively with spin, depth and penetration so that you run the gauntlet of a disadvantageous position and have a chance to turn it into an advantageous one. This switching up and down gears amongst the best players is an immensely tactical business...when and how to give ground yet stay aggressive enough to neutralise rallies. That ain't easy in today's game, believe me.

Look at it like this: One false move and you're dead.

The mindset of being constantly aggressive and "on the attack" is incredibly dumb. The top four are the top four and have been for many years because their defence is a class above most of the others. And they have the guns in offence as well.

The future is in astute defence, make no mistake about it.