Archery - Tennis ...

[hockeyscout]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Yp9SjCU5E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEG-ly9tQGk

How many of your shoot guns and arrows?

This is interesting ... what do you think?

Thinking of working on this with my older daughter - it's a skill not many tennis players have right now. What components can be dragged over to tennis?

This second video is crazy. Wish I saw this when I was a kid. I thought my skills were okay, but this guy is crazy and I imagine the war acher's were all as good.

You gotta wonder what some of the real old time tennis players could do with a new racket, or if their skill sets may be better than we imagined.

[don_budge]

Zen and the Art of Archery...Eugen Herrigel

Here's a book that I have recommended numerous times on the forum. I wonder how many have taken up on my suggestion?

http://www.ideologic.org/files/Eugen...of_Archery.pdf

What components can be dragged over to tennis? Plenty...it's been a while since I read it but I found it compelling. A must read for coaches.

Real old time tennis players scoff at the modern player and their suped up machines. A wood racquet...the wooden bow. There was magic in that Dunlop Maxply...in that Wilson Jack Kramer. Bjorn Borg found his in a Donnay. It was a living thing...man! The skill sets back in the days of wooden racquets was way better. It's simple really to figure out. You talk about the athletic abilities and that is where it starts...the modern equipment allows players to play the game at a "seeming" atmospheric level but in reality they struggle with parts of the game that were fundamental forever.

I've seen videos and I think that I have posted about hockey sticks. Modern players turn into incompetents when they get the old stick in their hands. Anyways I could go on forever on one of my favorite subjects...the wooden racquet. Don't get me started...I can hear a collected sigh of relief on the forum. You can imagine how much respect that I have for the book "Zen and the Art of Archery" by Eugen Herrigel.

[hockeyscout]

Thanks so much for the book link - I will get my assistants to rewrite it, summarize it, explain it to me and give me some additional information. I got two people who research things for me, and that is right at the top of the list now. I did a lot of archery as a kid, and I need to teach this again to my children as it is a skill that will really help the oldest one especially who is having a lot of issues with that top hand, and syncing everything with the hip drive I want. I gotta get some archers on board here so I better know what to do with the left hand. How the eye lines up the ball will be a bit different, but, we will figure out how to cross sport synch. It's interesting don_budge - the new bow and arrows have targeting (basically like GPS systems). It was amazing how good the old man was in the second video wasn't it? I get what you are saying 100 percent when you tell me to be careful with these new rackets. My older one is a right-hander and loves to play with the right shoulder, but we both know the left shoulder and the hip is driving everything to the right. It's not right - right, its left gets the right started. It always goes wrong on the left doesn't it? If you look at cars, a big number of accidents occur when drivers go left, it slows you down going left and is bad for gas mileage. UPS trucks never make a left handed turn. So, that is an area we need work on, and archery is left based. I place a HUGE premium on left side work, and it's always done first for a good reason. Perhaps this will help cue that better and make her realize the importance of the opposite shoulder. Thanks for that links - it will help a lot.

[don_budge]

Well this book "Zen and the Art of Archery" is like white light. It should set off some fires deep inside the "Gold Mine". Obviously you get a lot of things hockeyscout...which is more that I can say about "most" people. Most people just don't get it. What is worse is that they don't take the time to try and get it. The nature of the beast. It's easier to eat the spoon fed slop instead of digging it out of the earth yourself.

You are going to like (love) this book...you are very welcome.

[don_budge]

My older one is a right-hander and loves to play with the right shoulder, but we both know the left shoulder and the hip is driving everything to the right. It's not right - right, its left gets the right started. It always goes wrong on the left doesn't it?

So, that is an area we need work on, and archery is left based. I place a HUGE premium on left side work, and it's always done first for a good reason. Perhaps this will help cue that better and make her realize the importance of the opposite shoulder. Thanks for that links - it will help a lot.

When I am teaching tennis...it amazes me how much I end up talking about the non-racquet side of the body. Particularly in students that I may inherit from someone else. It's a two handed game...or actually two sides of the body. Two sides of the brain. You must learn to utilize the whole enchilada. This is my living proof in the game...Roger Federer. The only totally engaged modern tennis player.

There is a book about golf that you should also set your researchers on called "Golf in the Kingdom" by Micheal Murphy. Another inspirational book about the deeper meanings of sport...human recreational activity. One of the chapters is devoted to "the right and the left". I lent the book out and I am going to track down the guy I lent it to and didn't return it.