To: Scott Murphy and Kerry Mitchell

[ruymendes1]

running skills

Hi guys,
I would like to hear you in respect of the amount of progress
you got when improving your physical condition.
Remember the great article Running skills and your game"", by Kerry Mitchell, where he related that the biggest improvement of his game was a result of a increased cardiovascular condition, derived from the running exercises prescribed by a specialist.
The reaction time is much quicker when you are really fit, so the technical improve of the game is, as well, much easier to acquire.
Best regards
Ruy

[jhm36]

Well, I'm pretty lucky in that I'm fast for a guy my age (mid-30s) and I haven't done much work to improve on that part of my game/condition other than trying VERY hard to track down many many many balls, even though they are out, during non-match situations. I've always been pretty fast: fastest guy in highschool, fastest guy on my Ultimate Frisbee team (the sport I played before taking up tennis a while back). Not trained sprinter fast, of course, but I've rarely come across anyone my age who has had less training than I have who can beat me in a race. I could also, I'm proud to say, even though I'm 5'7'', dunk a basketball when I played that sport and had the most explosive leg skills/muscles of my life. Man, miss that vertical leap now that I don't have it anymore and people are lobbing balls over me when I'm at the net.

I have decent running/sprinting skills, in other words, and there's no doubt those skills have won me a lot of points, most memorably against people who are better but slower than me and don't often play against people who are as fast as I am. I remember one man I was playing for the first time hit a relatively slow ball into an open court and as I was running to track it down (and I actually had to catch up with it because it was behind me) I could see him start to turn towards the center mark so he could serve another ball, thinking the point was over because he'd hit a winner. HA! Did he ever look foolish when I ripped a running crosscourt winner. Those that can adjust their shots, quickly learn to hit with more pace to get the ball through the court.

I'm sure that since I'm naturally fast and have good reaction time (inherited from my dad was a pro baseball player (left field) who unfortunately couldn't make it in the big leagues and bounced around the minors for a while) I was able to pick-up what tennis skills I have in less time than others who weren't so lucky in the gene lottery.

So yeah, my experience is that running skills are very important.

Anyone else got speed stories to share?

[lukman41985]

A couple of things...

Ruy,

My fitness can definitely improve. I'm not working out right now--my workouts are my tennis lessons. That's embarassing to say, but true. It reminds me of something Connors said: "I don't play tennis to get in shape--I get in shape to play tennis."

Guys,

If you've checked out this month's Tennis Magazine issue, the one with Roger and Rafa on the cover, you'll see that tennisplayer.net's own Pat Dougherty contributed an article on the slice serve. In it, he uses the image of swinging within a cylinder--similar to the image my pro gave me of swinging in a phone booth. As i said, that image really improved my slice serve. Thought I'd pass along Pat's tip as it is an alternative visual that can achieve a good result.

[lukman41985]

Nate Robinson?

Jim,

You're 5'7" and can dunk--wow! Alright, you definitely have to change your user name to "Nate Robinson".

[jhm36]

I did see that article and I did think of the phone booth you told us about earlier. Thanks for bringing up the author of the article because I didn't even bother to check!

Yeah, I during friendly pick-up games of basketball I use to annoy everyone by doing a lot of goal-tending on balls that were clearly going in, cutting down on their satisfaction level by not allowing them to see their balls go down the net. I'd even do it on free throws. Like I said, very annoying.

I had a decent vertical leap. Something like 42 inches.

No monster slams, just enough air to shove the ball in the basket.

Can't do it now, though! Wish I could. I can still touch the rim. No dunking though.

That Nate has an insane vertical leap! He can do a two-handed slam, but I could only get high enough for a one-hander.