Invisible Greatness: Part 4

[hockeyscout]

HS,
And that's fine. You disagree. It doesn't mean he can't have his opinion--or that necessarily it has no validity or isn't worthy of respect. Maybe if you encountered more of the parents we see every day in this country you would have a different or moderated reaction. But that was one of about 20 points.

"Parents are the same in every country in the world. The Russian, Ukraine, etc, much more motivated I am sure you can understand they have rather limited options."

Is there something "invisible" about the person, the spirit, the physicality of players like Graf?

There is nothing "invisible" about Graf. I once heard a story about a good pro, who decided they would be dedicated and get up early in the morning to play at an unheard of time at 6:00 (meaning they had to be up at 430 or 5:00 to eat, travel and get to the courts. They show up at 545 am, and Graf is finishing up a two-hour practice. Not much invisible about that - she is like every law student, mom - dad with a screaming three-month-old and single mom trying to run a business, make a living and feed some mouths with no dad around the house in a single parent family. John, some players are just going to put the work in necessary to make it, and do the things no other athlete in the world is willing to do.

Practice--the idea that playing "better" players has limited value.

"Disagree. Sensitivity, you need to learn to lose and deal with emotions that come with not succeeding. Some can do that, and many can't. Fake it until you make it. Sport, business, life - a young businessman doing a project that is over his head, you trying to run a sophisticated web portal with no experience in IT technologies and a young player trying to surpass their peers. We want to coddle players, and it's important they learn to lose and take it on the chin for years and years. As don_budge says, don't get bagelled, and see how far you can go."

The idea that the feeling of the warm up dictates the rest of the day. Ever seen Novak warm-up in person--so slow and deliberate.

It call it dynamic activation. Activating an athlete is tough. I generally see coaches and players doing the same warm-up over and over. Not sure that works - you need to activate a lot of muscle groups, and see what is firing, and what isn't. That is a one hour job or so before you can even hit a ball or spar. The better an athlete you have the more neurology you need to start up, and get firing on the activation front. Guys like Novac warm up, and then they activate down after the match. This is clearly getting more and more sophisticated, and the older you get the more you need to do it. Young fighters look at my oldest fighter doing all these strange exercises, and using many tools in the process and never doing the same thing ever in the activation phase (we go by feel, and follow a testing baseline protocol before we jump to warm-up) and say, "What the hell?" Well, when they are 24-30, they will get it. Generally if you have an imbalance or something that is not activated properly, you will not be able to install the skillset that is required. My young athletes are all very healthy, but the older ones are tougher to deal because you have a lot of bad neurology, concussions (in the fighters), aches, pains, past surgeries and you've got to work through a lot of things in unique ways and pay super close attention to food so the athlete is always in a good position to recover, and grow.

We have this idea that there is some formula--and the USTA just has it wrong and that's why there are no American champions. I don't think so. The USTA might have it wrong or right and that still might not be much of a factor either way. Remember the last great generation of American players weren't in any real system.

Very interesting.

[hockeyscout]

The Key to Any Organization...



I have written quite a bit about American tennis here on this forum. My criticism has been unwavering.

faultsnaces...what is the key to any organization? This is a rhetorical question that I used to ask prospective employees in my department at the old Ford Motor Company Steel Division. The answer to this question is "its organization". The key to any organization is its organization. That includes everything doesn't it? The furniture, the money...the computer systems. How about people? Get the square pegs in the square holes and the round ones in the round holes. No easy task...unless you are an organization man. Organization is an art and there are very few people on the face of this earth that truly possess the skills to understand the big picture in order to have all of the little pictures contribute to the betterment of the whole. To understand that you must change the little pictures to change the big picture...this is a big hurdle for the small mind.

Show me the man that walks into an organization that is in complete disarray and he sees only solutions to problems and this is the kind of man you will need to clean up the mess that is American tennis. This is the kind of man that sees opportunity in chaos. Much of the solution is often in the logistics but who really understands the logistical problems inherent to a national tennis program? First you must understand that you need many little pictures contributing to the big picture.

Here's a word...Synergy. Here's another word related to organization...Synchronicity.

Synergy...the creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts.

Synchronicity...the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection.

If you can somehow get an organization based on these two fundamental principles of parts working together that are seemingly unrelated to get a supercharged unit that is over-achieving...you probably have a great organization man behind it. You've got to get the thing all pulling in the same direction. Unity...the beauty of unity. To get all of the diverse elements to pull together...now you've got something.

The USTA lacks a coherent vision of first of all what it wants to produce and the consequence is that it has no idea how to get there. If only they would ask me...I am a first rate organization man. I have answers to questions that don't even exist...yet.

Here is a good example of my organizational skills...I jump into a conversation that has virtually gone to the wind and suddenly everyone realizes that they all possess a small piece of the solution. Then I unite everyone to a collective cause...and VOILA! There you have it.

Connect the dots...the three little dots.

Good post. Actually, great post.

[faultsnaces]

The Key to Any Organization...
I have written quite a bit about American tennis here on this forum. My criticism has been unwavering.
...
If you can somehow get an organization based on these two fundamental principles of parts working together that are seemingly unrelated to get a supercharged unit that is over-achieving...you probably have a great organization man behind it. You've got to get the thing all pulling in the same direction. Unity...the beauty of unity. To get all of the diverse elements to pull together...now you've got something.

The USTA lacks a coherent vision of first of all what it wants to produce and the consequence is that it has no idea how to get there. If only they would ask me...I am a first rate organization man. I have answers to questions that don't even exist...yet.
...

db, I agree with everything you say in your post - very insightful. But the scariest thing to me is that I get the impression that the USTA is actually fully on board with a unified vision, it's just a terribly wrong and misguided vision: their goal is to produce an organization, a machine, for training tennis players according to the One True Way. Crucially and critically, they don't have a vision of producing tennis players / champions, they are focused on building the machine. I very much get the impression that the USTA believes there is One True Way to turn kids into tennis champions, and if only kids had access to coaches and facilities who followed this One True Way, we would have legions of American tennis champions. They see all the different approaches taken by all the different tennis coaches / clubs / academies in the US and they see it as a great mish-mash, and blame the dearth of American tennis champions on this ad hoc collection. And so their approach is structure: institutionalize and deploy the One True Way, and kids will enter the machine at one end and pop out the other as champions, and American tennis will once again reign supreme.

It's a simple formula: Tennis World Domination = big_machine(big_population)

Alas, to me, seems that the guts of the machine - the actual training - has never been proven to work even once, so this all seems horribly misguided. Worse, the One True Way seems to me to rely on a lot of the "participation trophies / trophies for all" "feel good" psych, along with an unhealthy dose of instilling the attitude that somehow greatness results from just going through the motions for a sufficiently long time: pay your dues, collect your trophy. And still worse, I personally believe that developing athletes into champions is an endeavor that does not lend itself well to institutionalization. (Assuming that you're not opting for the pharmacological route - there's a substantial history of institutional success using pharma to produce champions.)

Now admittedly, I'm not exactly an insider in the world of tennis / USTA etc, so all of this is just my impression, and maybe I'm completely wrong....

[Guest]

Alas, to me, seems that the guts of the machine - the actual training - has never been proven to work even once, so this all seems horribly misguided. Worse, the One True Way seems to me to rely on a lot of the "participation trophies / trophies for all" "feel good" psych, along with an unhealthy dose of instilling the attitude that somehow greatness results from just going through the motions for a sufficiently long time: pay your dues, collect your trophy. And still worse, I personally believe that developing athletes into champions is an endeavor that does not lend itself well to institutionalization.

Outstanding.

[don_budge]

Nate Chura...Welcome to the tennisplayer.net forum

Like dancing the Argentine Tango...it isn't always nice. That's what my Tango teacher once told me. She had the same birthday as me but that didn't stop her from totally betraying me with my dance partner. WE were down in Buenos Aires. Stella...a thousand points of light. At least with her makeup on...she turned out to be more of a psycho drama queen than I would ever have imagined. People are strange...did somebody say that? Jim Morrison.

But the forum isn't always nice as Amy said. But somehow there is something for everyone if you have the balls to hang around. In Nate's case he delivered on an article and he got some rather pointed criticism and well...the rest is history as they say. But the ensuing conversation turned out to be pretty good...but conversations tend to run out of gas eventually too.

http://nordic.businessinsider.com/10000-hour-rule-practice-talent-genetics-2016-9?r=US&IR=T

This idea of developing greatness is nothing new. The conversation has been going on for a rather long time. There is nothing new under the sun. Although these days everyone is reinventing the wheel...just like those guys down in Africa or in the jungles of South America. Give them credit though...they don't have any iPhones to tell them any differently. The USTA and those guys down in the jungle have more in common than they might think initially. Although they would never admit it. Reinventing the wheel.

As far as the forum goes...it isn't necessary that one agrees or disagrees I don't think. The object of the game is get your thoughts across...and to do it in a manner that you are clearly understood or clearly misunderstood. Get my drift?

These threads sometimes take on a life of their own. They can be sort of unpredictable. That's the fun I suppose. It's the contrasts...the difference in way people think. It's the ironies in life that make it so colorful. To a point. But when it comes to politics...well you know the rest.

[Guest]

Nate Chura...Welcome to the tennisplayer.net forum

Like dancing the Argentine Tango...it isn't always nice. That's what my Tango teacher once told me. She had the same birthday as me but that didn't stop her from totally betraying me with my dance partner. WE were down in Buenos Aires. Stella...a thousand points of light. At least with her makeup on...she turned out to be more of a psycho drama queen than I would ever have imagined. People are strange...did somebody say that? Jim Morrison.

But the forum isn't always nice as Amy said. But somehow there is something for everyone if you have the balls to hang around. In Nate's case he delivered on an article and he got some rather pointed criticism and well...the rest is history as they say. But the ensuing conversation turned out to be pretty good...but conversations tend to run out of gas eventually too.

http://nordic.businessinsider.com/10000-hour-rule-practice-talent-genetics-2016-9?r=US&IR=T

This idea of developing greatness is nothing new. The conversation has been going on for a rather long time. There is nothing new under the sun. Although these days everyone is reinventing the wheel...just like those guys down in Africa or in the jungles of South America. Give them credit though...they don't have any iPhones to tell them any differently. The USTA and those guys down in the jungle have more in common than they might think initially. Although they would never admit it. Reinventing the wheel.

As far as the forum goes...it isn't necessary that one agrees or disagrees I don't think. The object of the game is get your thoughts across...and to do it in a manner that you are clearly understood or clearly misunderstood. Get my drift?

These threads sometimes take on a life of their own. They can be sort of unpredictable. That's the fun I suppose. It's the contrasts...the difference in way people think. It's the ironies in life that make it so colorful. To a point. But when it comes to politics...well you know the rest.

LOL! Thanks for the warm welcome, Don Budge, a tennis great who continues to connect with me! LOL!

[hockeyscout]

Why do some athletes win? The tail of Van Halen explains it all! Love this article.

At first glance it appears to be a crowning symbol of obnoxious rock star excess, yet a closer look reveals a deeper story about how a band used a tiny candy to alert them to major problems.

The 1970s saw the rise of Van Halen. Like every band, when Van Halen was hired to play a show, they provided the promoter with a contract “rider” that outlined specific things the promoter would be responsible for. Standard riders include sound and lighting requirements, instructions for the set up of the backstage area, security needs and nutritional requests for the band and crew. These details can be as critical as the precise weight of the speakers or as trivial as the specific brand of toilet paper that the band demands in their backstage washroom. It’s all in the rider.

Buried amongst dozens of points in Van Halen’s rider was an odd stipulation that there were to be no brown M&M's candies in the backstage area. If any brown M&M’s were found backstage, the band could cancel the entire concert at the full expense of the promoter. That meant that because of a single candy, a promoter could lose millions.

For decades this stood as a humiliating act of self-indulgence, a rock band forcing someone to search through candy, removing every last brown one, for no apparent reason. Yet when lead singer David Lee Roth finally divulged the real reason for the bizarre clause, an entirely different picture was painted, one that serves as a valuable lesson for business.

In now-departed arena's such as Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens, the original Boston Garden and Chicago Stadium, Van Halen was loading in massive amounts of staging, sound equipment and lighting. Unfortunately, these buildings were never built to accommodate a rock band of Van Halen’s scope. Without specific guidelines, old floors could buckle and collapse, beams could rupture, and the lives of the band, their crew and fans could be at serious risk.

To ensure the promoter had read every single word in the contract, the band created the “no brown M&M's” clause. It was a canary in a coalmine to indicate that the promoter may have not paid attention to other more important parts of the rider, and that there could be other bigger problems at hand.

Whenever the band found brown M&M's candies backstage, they immediately did a complete line check, inspecting every aspect of the sound, lighting and stage setup to make sure it was perfect. David Lee Roth would also trash the band’s dressing room to prove a point -- reinforcing his reputation in the process.

Van Halen created a seemingly silly clause to make sure that every little detail was taken care of. It was important, both for the experience of the fans and the safety of the band, to make sure that no little problems created bigger issues.

The bottom line?

In the world of tennis every detail matters.

Trivial details that don't matter to your opponents will ensure you win.

Last week at the court my oldest daughter was playing a match. It was against a very good senior man tennis player, aged 46. He is at least top 20 in the country. He is only about 5'9, and my daughter is 5'11, but, it is man strength against a 10-year-old still finding her legs and only once in a while showing a flash or two of brilliance. She gets hammered, but, it's not as bad as it has been in the past. We are not big on letting her win. She is learning to earn it. Anyways, she won 17 - 89 points. Not bad for a ten-year-old. He cuts her no breaks. This guy knows the deal. Tennis is a sport where you are always chasing the person in front of you, and, if you are VERY lucky, one day you will be the player everyone is chasing (and, that is where it gets real hard). She played one absolutely brilliant point, but, lost. Actually, it was four in a row. Did everything to win. It was a brilliant four points. But, not good enough to beat a guy who suffered 41 years of trials and tribulations. She looked frustrated. So, I stopped it. I said, "Learn from it. And, when you are done this match go watch the video of what happened, and go to the outdoor practice court and work on that sequence 1000 times so you can be one or two centimeters more exact. It's a game of lucky inches. The more you work at it, the luckier and more talented you'll become! Come back tomorrow and be half of one percent better, and stay the course. Good luck."

I admire her patience.

Not the most talented kid, but, she wants to be a player and isn't a dreamer.

Gypsy tennis ... take a bit ... and, end up being the king at the end of the road (maybe, nothing is for sure).

[hockeyscout]

Winning - This guy gets it.