Nastase v Connors Wimbledon 1972

[stotty]

There aren't many decent clips of Nastase but this one is pretty good. You can actually see the ball and follow it around the court...most old clips you can't.

The first set is patchy and not very good. Connors hasn't yet become the player he became and Nasty is clearly the superior player. The last game of the first set (from 35:45) is superb. Nastase reels off four exquisite shots to capture the first set. The final shot to win the set is a stunning backhand pass that no one else could play with a wooden racket quite like Nasty...maybe McEnroe but even he couldn't pull off the shot in quite the same way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIBQ71N2YJk

After winning the first set, Nasty then takes full control of the match. The second and third set are littered with more lovely backhand passes and topspin lobs. Nasty's speed and movement are as good as anyone's in the game today. He floats and darts around effortlessly. He has a lovely flowing service motion and fabulous racket head speed.

When you watch these clips you need to understand that the game was vastly different back then. Wooden rackets only allow so much. Nasty's talent, however, is clear to see. I don't think I have ever seen such a naturally talented player. I didn't like his antics much, and he was a nasty piece of work at times, but he was sublimely gifted...so he gets forgiven.

Interesting both players serve from a very central position along the baseline...an inch from the centre line. These days players adopt far wider positions.

There isn't much interest in this stuff these days..but if nothing else go to 35:45 and watch four great shots.

[arturohernandez]

Great stuff! Funny that they are now selling some very small wooden racket that supposedly the pros use for training. Watching this made me wonder if we could use wood to teach some things that kids are not picking up these days. Kind of like Futsal is used in Soccer. Using a small ball in a super small space like they do in Futsal is supposed to help with spacing and movement. In a similar way, I wonder how much playing with wood would teach players touch, feel, more classical mechanics.

I am guessing that someone may already be doing this. Is that the case?

[stotty]

There is merit in getting good juniors to use a wooden racket from time to time. I did it a while back with a group of six junior performance players. Each week they used wooden rackets for the first 30 minutes of a 90 minute session. All the boys found they had to watch the ball much better and get down to balls a little more usual. None could smash with a wooden racket and seemed to find the shot close to impossible to execute. There is no question they all found wooden rackets difficult to play with. However, once they came out of the first 30 minutes and into the following 60 minutes of a session, all of the boys played noticeably better. That 30 minutes using wood meant they had to sharpen everything up to be able to play.

Best of all, all the players found this weekly exercise really good fun.