Upon retiring I wondered what I would fill my time with. “Hobby writing ” snuck up on me. At the same time technolgy offered some advances that erased road blocks. Six books and 500 plus blog articles followed. Every thing from Pickleball to cremation.

Acknowledging my novice bacground, I tried to comment on common sense observations. Entering my 83rd year I have taken a recent look back .

Here are some excerpts from a few chosen :

ON TENNIS

Tennis and Safety

Next Sunday concludes the 2023 season of tennis grand slams. TV tennis (save Disney vs Spectrum ) provides many viewing possibilities. Particularly THE TENNIS CHANNEL. Here are a few observations, plus this reminder: There many LEVELS to the game ( The pros are are many levels beyond beginners. They too break through barriers one at a time.) : There is a CLASSIC METHOD of Tennis instruction . A method that is best for most people. Viariations that work are ok ( “… if a flaw works, don’t change it !”)

GOOD NEWS

• All kinds of improved play on the home front. Men and Women.

• Vindication of College Tennis as a valid developmental pathway .

• Tremendous high levels of African/American play by many.

There were so many comments like “… for the first time since—–” , it was almost routine. Not quite.

There were 25 plus players in the men and women’s singles draws that were involved, at some point, college players. The same was true of the 2023 French Open and Wimbledon. Many Americans, but also many internationals. Humans attain maximum physical ability at about 27 years of age. Think football and “red-shirting” for the worth of an extra year (one year ! ) of growth.

GIANT STEPS!

• CoCo Rocks!!! Semi finalists Madison, Ben –Big Foe in quarters. Sloane Stephens, Chris Eubanks, Michael Mmoh, On Arthur’s court ! Yeah Serena, Venus and Richard Williams and to the black families that paid a big price in a difficult arena. And yet– how many atypical superstars could have made the leap with a college scholarship awarded to an international?
• Does the success of these kids not ask a question : Doesn’t our history of Family reared, college trained players prove better overall than the Academy pathway? (See partial history at https://littlegreenbookoftennis.com/2015/03/25/top-ten-ranked-american-men-tennis-players-1960-2013-113/www.tomparham.wordpress.com for lists of great American college/pro players.

Former college tennis players
Jack Kramer, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, John McEnroe, Bob and Mike Bryant, Jim Courier, Brad Gilbert, Bill Tilden, Roscoe Tanner, Jimmy Connors, Dennis Ralston, Dick Stockton, Vitas Gerulaitis, Michael Chang, Malavai Washington, Todd Martin, Bob Lutz, Bill Talbert, Tony Trabert,, Vince Spadea, John Isner, Steve Johnson, MANY MORE.

• P.S. The ACADEMY pathway may well be best for early blooming world class players. Academy programs house them, feed them. and hopefully provide education , and teach them tennis. Actually good colleges do the same thing–and maybe more wisely at a more mature age..
• Why not empasize high school tennis as it is the only place an average kid can get inexpensive, invaluable , match play experience? Can’t we find good coaches for our kids?
• Technology in coaching! Heard of SWING/VISION?

TROUBLE

• Medvedev d. Rublev 6/4, 6/3, 6/4. 29 games. Had they played the max or 5 sets of 7/6 (12 games times 5 =60 games—– plus 5 seven point tiebreakers. At a minimum, that would be 65 games. If Russians could survive that we do need to fear them!

• HEAD, HEAT, HEART–the real dangers in sports. US OPEN casts spotlight on hotter weather!

Heat illnesses vary in danger. HEAT CRAMPS ( SYMPTOMS ARE OBVIOUS ), HEAT EXHAUSTION (SWEATTY, PALE SKIN , SICK AND WEAK ), HEAT STROKE ( HOT, RED, DRY SKIN AND POTENTIAL KILLER ).

The weather dictates change (s). Shorter formats, longer breaks, air condtioned venues, etc, “Tme for a cool change.” Spectators are avoiding 95degrees on aluminum bleachers. SAW = SALT (ELECTROLYTES ), ACCLIMITIZATION, AND WATER. PS –Ice is the best tool you have.

Lots of tools to fight heat problems. Learn them , have them , use them.

*Parity dictates change too. There are few pushover matches now, Intense points cause injury. Fatique, back to back 7/6 in the fifth, demand study. Tennis has to protect the health of it’s product. Chris Evert won 90 plus tour matches in a row on clay courts. Rarely did she have to play a deuce set until the semis.

HATE MAIL

ON JANUARY 14, 2020 BY ETHOMASPARHAMIN C. COLLEGE TENNIS AND INSTRUCTIONEDIT

“TWO COACHING ERRORS

My advice to young coaches is to recruit good kids who are good players who can function academically and be happy in your school.

Perhaps the two biggest errors I see the “young ones” (coaches) make are (1) They insist on recruiting some borderline jerk who is talented. Eventually that star throws the team and the coach “under the bus.” Don’t bet on that guy, Coach! Get you some good people. You’ll win your share and have a fair chance of staying sane in the crazy world of athletics. Secondly, I see the young coaches work the kids too much. Your players are not employees, or machines, and you can run them in the ground. Perhaps the biggest criticism I heard of my teams was that we didn’t work hard enough. But, at tournament time we were fresh, eager and goal oriented. Very often we waxed the “hard workers” whose coach had worn them beyond caring much.

I never had a team that wasn’t ready to put away the racket for a while at the end of the season. It’s call “periodization.”

Twenty years ago I received one of a few “hate letters”.  I was published in a major tennis magazine suggesting a shortened format for college tennis.  The response was a very strong suggestion that I had no idea what I was talking about.  In fairness the staff writer thought I was talking about professional tennis, whose crowds were  setting records.

In the next twenty years college tennis made major changes to shorten the matches, individual and team.  Doubles  first,  pro-sets for doubles points, then standard sets only.  Tiebreakers instead of third sets in singles, and others.  The Australian open, a pro event, shortened its format this year.  Touche!

REVISITING

On two occasions (2007 and 2015) I tried to make note of the current changes or additions in the game of tennis.

“THINGS HAVE CHANGED “( B. DYLAN )

Time moves on. What has changed from the 1980’s up until now in the tennis world? Certainly some “physical” improvements have affected rackets. So much power generated with such ease.

There’s more night play. Lights are better, courts are better, and surfaces are improved.

Television continues to “spread the game.” Instruction is better. College coaches are now better paid and better informed.

Prize money, and more scholarships for Americans and internationals, has recruited athletes who now “pick tennis first.” These people are not people who “…couldn’t play anything else.”

And they are bigger, stronger faster. They train, their diets are better, weights are commonly used, etc.

A very positive change in governance of matches. The point penalty system cleaned up behavior problems.

College refereeing is better and they use more refs. Still two people can’t officiate six (or more contests).

Pro players are less likely to drink to excess now. “Rounders” or “tennis bums” have been “weeded out.”

Indoor facilities have leveled the playing field. Now many people, particularly young people, can play even year round, not just in the “weather-blessed” areas. When you don’t stop all year long, your “tennis education” grows expontentially (no re-learning” time needed, or wasted.)

One contrast with football and basketball is related to size. Soon there will be a 400lb, 6’9” football left tackle who is also quick (Read The Blind Side) or a basketball player who can dunk himself. Tennis and golf professionals still haven’t produced a dominating 6’7” superstar. Perhaps height produces more possibility for error in “lengthy shots.” Who knows, but “average sized” people still have a chance in championship tennis. (You do need a “big heart”)

The effectiveness of western grip forehands, like two-handed backhands, has been truly “certified” by numerous players. I would still encourage young players to add (“I didn’t change anything, I gave you a new one” – Jim Verdieck) a back-

hand under spin ball. It is a “tool” worthy of learning this grip change from Western to Continental, needed to hit this valuable shot.

If there were one other obvious suggestion it would be to observe how many forehands are now hit with “open” stances. Many “purists” of my day would straighten up that front lead foot. I think the rackets aid young players here, but the “western gripped – open stance- sling-shot forehand” stands on it’s own feet (one quite “open”).

All players now have access to what the great players of the later twentieth century taught tennis. Here are some examples (in addition to two handed back hands, and open stance forehands):

Bjorn Borg. I  think Borg taught the world to “hit is as hard as you can.” And he hit it in! It could be done. Topspin helped! (“I may hit long, I may hit wide, but I won’t hit into the net”)

Pete Sampras: Serve and volley with the same philosophy as Borg’s ground- strokes attitude.

If you hit it as hard as you can you eliminate a lot of judgment errors, based on “how hard to hit when?” (“Grip it and rip it” – John Daly)

Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King: Women can play the all court game. All things being equal groundstroke – wise, those who can attack also, will win.

There were at least two other contributions that are “must mentions.”

Andre Agassi:   Took ground strokes and the value of conditioning to a whole new level late in his career. Becoming extremely fit, Agassi had a period of time he ruled tennis by running opponents into oblivion with the simplest of strategies: Hit it hard as hell into alternate corners (with few errors) until the other guy was “spent” physically. That truly was impressive. No one had done this as well as Andre.

All made contributions, but none more so than the overall ability of Roger Federer and the ease with which he executes all of it. Perhaps no other player has had more “total” ability than Federer. His talent is staggering.

Would he be the same were it not for the lessons of Borg, Sampras, Laver, Agassi, Martina, and Evert? Is he the best ever? I can’t say.

What I suspect is there are youngsters watching, learning, and practicing to take it all to a new, and perhaps unknown “new level.”

Watching tennis is going to continue to be exciting. Bet on it!

The one constant is that “…things change!”  What’s new in 20014-15?

I do believe that Chet Murphy was right in concluding that the “old timers” (myself included) were right about most of the “classic” teaching methods.

One negative with racket technology is that the added pace they yield causes the player to have to move more rapidly, more often, more awkwardly; thus causing more injury. Therefore the role of conditioning and the necessity for good trainers and rehab have exploded.

Much changes, much stays the same.  Please keep the learning going.  Be adaptable, but again———-don’t neglect history and the fine teachers like Harvey Penick, Jm Leighton and Jim Verdieck.

A US OPEN ” HACKALOOSKI”

Daniil Medvedev played Chris Eubanks in the Wimbledon July tournament I had a deja vu moment watching the match on TV ( See PASSING SHOTS ) from THE LITTLE GREEN BOOK of Tennis.) I remembered watching Henry Logan, our league’s first black basketball player ( 1965 ). Henry scored 60 points, 42 in the second half. At 5′ 10″ tall he dunked nine shots.

With due respect, Medvedev had the same look on his face as we did watching Henry. (” Where the hell did this guy come from? And what the hell do I do with this level of serve and volley play ?)

As he received serve from near the back stands. To , stunningly no avail.

I found myself blurting out for him to move in on the return. Mid- set in the fourth , Medvedev moved up! The end of the match looked much like the college match in 1999.

Now here is the Hackalooski—In the US OPEN Finals, the match played at an unbelievable level and equal score, a pattern emerged. Serving from the deuce court at the wide forehand corner, with Medvedev receiving way back, the Joker ran off serve and volley points at will. Pretty soon John McEnroe joined my advice. John’s advice built on a career as one of the all time best serve and volley players, serving and receiving. Me having watched the small college match mentioned below. Often crucial points, this “ace in the hole” cracked the match.

I’ve got to ask—Why didn’t you at least try moving in on the return, Daniil ?

Passing Shots 

Dominic Moerstedt played on my first Elon team. A fine player, Moerstedt had grown up in a German academy that had also housed Boris Becker and Steffi Graff. Extremely talented, Moerstedt liked to try “big bombs” for passing shots, hit from way back at the fence. I told him about an earlier player, passing on the rise, moving in on service returns, etc. Still “boom—from way back.” The first match my team played without me there (25 years’ perfect attendance!) came Dominic’s senior year. My wife had to have a surgical procedure (kidney stones—ouch!), and I sent Dr. Alan White as an able substitute coach. He still brags about his tennis coaching. We both were lucky. After the first day of the tournament, my number one player jumped into an indoor pickup soccer game in our gym. Pop! Leg injury. No number one for the finals. I returned to a hobbled team plus another problem. Dominic was playing Alex Evans, an excellent Australian player from my old school Atlantic Christian. Evans “owned” Moerstedt. In several previous matches Moerstedt had never gotten more than two games a set off the talented serve and volleyer Evans. This match was for the tournament. My advice to Dominic went like this: “Dominic, we’ve tried it your way to no avail. Please at least move in aggressively on your service return and passing shots.” We had practiced this a lot recently, in all fairness, and Dominic had the kind of talent to pull it off. It shocked everyone—Evans, Moerstedt, our team members and me: 6–2, 6–2, Moerstedt, and Elon was Conference Champs. What really surprised me is why the strategy worked. By hitting the passing shots quicker I’d hoped that Dominic could make Evans volley from an unstable, unusual position. What actually happened is that Alex tried to get in quicker and it disrupted his ordinarily dependable serve. Confused by a different rhythm, he lost a lot of confidence.

College Doubles

The most fun in tennis is playing for your school team. The doubles point often dictates the team winner. American college coaches. all things equal, recruit players who are good at both singles and doubles.

I believe college women will find great pro possibilities in doubles because of the unique efforts in developing doubles teams.

One flaw in American Junior development is the emphasis on singles ranking only. Doubles play is considered a detriment to singles rank. What if players were ranked on singles and doubles combined. Or simply a combnation ranking?

RANDOM

Conclusion: The only revenue of sizable amount from non-revenue college sports is when an American parent writes that check to the schools.

What happens if internationals usurp collegiate basketball scholarships?

From the 1970’s until today, the number of scholarships awarded to internationals has spriraled upwards, as grants for Americans declined in response.

Within this same time period Americans among the upper tier of professional tennis has declined to the point of alarm. Obviously the two are connected.

In Division 11 Men’s College Tennis (2017) the top five combined team’s rosters housed 63 total players.  Sixty-two   were international.  

HIGH SCHOOL TENNIS

• Few good Americans develop without high school tennis.
• Girls high school teams and girls of limited ability are the most neglected learners and often the most receptive.
• The maturing of our women’s league players, coaches, and administrators is a gold mine of help for high school girls teams.  Boys too.
• There are a lot of different ways to help our high school teams and coaches.
• The two  toughest teaching spots are  developing  a working one hand backhand grip for 1. the slice and 2. the advanced serve.

Next Sunday concludes the 2023 season of tennis grand slams. TV tennis (save Disney vs Spectrum ) provides many viewing possibilities. Particularly THE TENNIS CHANNEL. Here are a few observations, plus this reminder: There many LEVELS to the game ( The pros are are many levels beyond beginners. They too break through barriers one at a time.) : There is a CLASSIC METHOD of Tennis instruction . A method that is best for most people. Viariations that work are ok ( “… if a flaw works, don’t change it !”)

???????

—- “People get all caught up in the coaching and all that stuff. Its Dudes ! You’ve got to have players, and these Dudes put in the work !” Kansas State Coach, Jerome Tang.

PS–Tennis elite players seem to come in small groups. The latest and greatest ( Roger, Rafa, and the Joker ).

While Novak defies injury, et.al. , Andy Murray gets the courage award. . He was just born in the wrong group! My guess is the upcoming groups will have shorter injury free careers. Unless some changes are made.

THE LITTLE RED BOOK of GOLF

THE LITTLE GREEN BBOOK of TENNIS

REMEMBERING MR. PENICK AND COACH LEIGHTON:

What struck me immediately was the common-sense
approach, yielding succinct lessons. Lessons Coach Penick describes as
proven help. I doubt if anyone could make me much of a golfer. But more
than golf was the realization that this man knows how to teach and coach.
And he was the same kind of professional gentleman as my mentor,
Mr. Jim Leighton. Coach Leighton was Harvey-in-tennis. Perhaps not as
well-known, but he had the same kind of effective teaching techniques.
And, as I read Coach Penick’s book, I was stunned by the similarities with
Coach Leighton and the career experiences I had gathered over 50 years
of teaching and coaching.

And,  historically , the FAMILY METHOD produced  a large portion of elite American players.

*******************

College Choices

I don’t remember the specific conversation with Damien, but it was one
of fifty I’d had with basketball players.
It went like this:
Are you the first from your family to go to college? Often the answer was
yes. You’re not going to make $100,000 playing pro ball, you understand?
You can get your degree and get a good job. People are looking for athletic
people with degrees.
Your job is to elevate your family and its expectations one generation.
Put your money in compound interest, and expect your children to go
to college.

Pickleball

PICKLEBALL

Let me make sure I’ve got this right:

I’m watching Jack Sock playing Pickleball, with a full audience in my homestate of North Carolina , on the Tennis Channel ? Am I dreaming or weren’t McEnroe, Aggassi, Roddick, Michael Chang and Steffi Graff on the same channel playing the same game earlier this month ?

Misprint ? My old home town (Wilson, NC) is building a 4 million $ facility with 12 pickleball courts, plus a tournament capable viewing stadium.

Nearby Raleigh NC , the same with about 30 pickleball, 30 tennis. And PADL ball?

Good news—both facilities include a sizable number of new tennis courts too!

FLASHBACK TEN YEARS : “USTA–Buy Pickleball !”

Good News 2—The pressure from Pickleball enthusiam will build more tennis courts the next 10 years than tennis only facilities! NOTE : School facilities were built for 6 singles matches. Boy’s !. There were no girls teams. Admnistrators, school boards, athletic directors—build a minimum battery of eight courts. Line them for pickleball too. Teach pickleball the first half of the semester, tennis the second.

HINT,HINT–The two games are not mutually exclusive.

Bad news for USTA tennis leagues. The audience on TV ,reflected almost totally “Senior” fandom. A considerable % of your base.

PIGGY BACK

Every time I look there is pickleball. New courts, exhibition courts , dual use lines, etc.

Among those benefitted—Tennis !

My guess is the demand for pickleball has created more court construction than any recent variable.

Every time I look there is pickleball. New courts, exhibition courts , dual use lines, etc.

Among those benefitted—Tennis !

My guess is the demand for pickleball has created more court construction than any recent variable.

Pickleball could be an obvious first choice as the best lead-up game for our junior tennis programs.   The mass of people are unaware of our  current programs to address junior participation.  Awareness of pickleball popularity grows daily.

* Unfortunately pickleball also adapted a scoring system much like badminton. And, while this idea can be applied to colleges, I would go ahead and grant
a degree to any college student who can master the scoring.

Fun is the HOOK.
***Don’t some Pilot programs merit a try? This is bigger than tennis or pickleball. Obesity, health, video games, mental health, and again–fun.
Rather than fight the “tsunami” and be overrun, why not ride the wave? USTA AND PICKLEBALL leaders should join forces.
The Outcome? In the long run what are the possibilities? 1. Both games will benefit 2. Each will have their own people.
3. Both games will benefit the players. 4. Some people who would not have played either will have some fun.

SPORTS (4)

Spearing /Football

How many over matched youngsters get hurt in these games? One player said “…our coach would give OUR lives for the school!”

PRESCIENT 2 1976 James Michener wrote SPORTS IN AMERICA. He made the statement then “…I might allow my child to play football, but I wouldn’t encourage him to play.” I asked this fall on this blog, won’t this be a critical year in football history? (FOOTBALL AT THE CROSSROADS). Seems like the year proved the point…Continued head injuries, lawsuits, dementia, suicides, pretty brutal stuff.. The game is brutal. Still many love the “lions vs the Christians”.

E = 1/2 m xV squared

In the late 1960’s an orthopedic doctor, concerned about the health of his football playing sons, wrote his observations.  Dr. O. Charles Olsen’s book, “The Prevention of Football Injuries”, made note of the adverse and pronounced effects of “spearing” or head gear to chest tackling. While this technique was effective and caught on quickly, the number of deaths and severe injuries rose as a rapid level never before witnessed before in football.

Dr. Olsen concluded that energy equaled one half of the mass times velocity squared. (e=1/2m x v squared).  The bigger, stronger, faster players were creating a force that couldn’t withstand head gear to head gear, or head gear to knee contact.

The consolidation of schools eliminated many of the smaller players.  African American footballers were added to the talent pool, along with weight programs, better diets, and better coaching, and in many instances steroids.  Tremendous contact ensued.

And, while efforts have been made to control this violent hitting, football is at a crossroads.

And while college and professional football are in the crosshairs of violence, perhaps high school footballers are even more vulnerable. And here is why: the weak and small and slow are eliminated at the college level.  But in many high schools small youngsters, who are very limited players, may face tremendous opponents that wouldn’t be admitted to college. These guys hitting the “canon fodder” can create catastrophe.  

The question of the long term effects of head contacts have forced the questions of (1) are we dealing with concussions properly,(2) are we legally liable if we turn our backs on the problem (3) are the linemen more vulnerable than we thought and  (4) can you “take the head out of football?” and on and on.  These questions have been around.  Perhaps no one has done more research than UNC Chapel Hill.  Dr. Carl Blyth and Dr. Fred Mueller have done yeoman’s work in an attempt to protect our young players.

This effort was begun a long time ago. Dr. Mueller still pursues the data (see “National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research”).

ON INJURY 2023

I was assigned to teach  a college course beginning in the fall of 1965: THE PREVENTION OF INJURIES TO ATHLETES.  And once a semester through 1985.   I served as a trainer to my own teams and many others for forty years,  learning as I went.  

There were milestones in my self education.  My core discovery was Dr. Don O’Donoghue and his book on the same topic.  It for decades was the Bible  of Sports Medicine.   

***********CONTINUED **********

When I spied ON ANY GIVEN MONDAY by Dr.  James Andrews I compared some content with O’Donoghue.   One of the best discoveries of an old teacher is the confirmation that what you taught holds up over time.  Much of this “new” book has origins from the last century.

This new book should be read in total.  I have “cherry picked” some comments and summarized  some information I found interesting:  

*50 % of all sports are related to overuse.  60% are preventable by common sense”.   

*Youth sports injuries cost  2.5 to 3 billion dollars annually.”

*Odds of a football player making a pro roster are 6,000 to 1.”

*27%  of all insurance monies for sports injuries are for cheerleading.  While 57% goes for football, there are ten times as many football players.”

*Serious injuries?  Knees-30%, Ankles-12.3 %, Shoulders-10.9 %.”

*Preparation is 90% of execution.”

• “Every team should have a trainer.”
• There is a fine line between beneficial training and that that is ultimately detrimental.”

*MYTH:  No pain no gain.”  Young ones don’t need to hurt big time.

*During the 26 years between1982 and2008, there have been 72 catastrophic injuries reported in cheerleading, with two deaths. Gymnastics, which incorporates many of the same tumbling passes and boasts similar numbers of participants , had a total number of nine catastrophic injuries during the same period.  That is a pretty drastic difference.  Clearly, something needs to be done to protect cheerleaders from increasingly common and increasingly serious injuries.  Football, too, deserves a critical examination.  In 2007 there were 920,000 players under the age of eighteen treated in emergency rooms for injuries.”

• Dr. Andrews cites parents looking for an agent for  a tennis playing child, age 6.

Portals Potholes

PORTALS AND POTHOLES

Was it Southern California that recruited twenty plus PORTAL footballers? Does that equate to that many legit freshmen who didn’t get that scholarship/ opportunity? How many times did this happen in all football programs combined? All sports? How many closed doors to the high school class of 2024?

For years football coaches have often recruited unhappy players from other teams. Or those who can legally transfer and play at a different school. The new NCAA “Portals Rule ” has jetstreamed this strategy. One of the sad side effects of “Portals ” is that high school seniors are overlooked for older and seasoned upperclass college kids.

My guess is that this avenue will adopted to American college tennis. And it will undoubtedly involve international players who can now easily move to “greener pastures.” American high school aspirants will be moved down the prospects list, or be dismissed even quicker.

Even the pros have a salary cap.

NCAA FUBAR ? Proximity ? Anyone ? Beuller?

Dream on ; College football schedule requirring no flights: Carolina, State, Duke, Wake Forest, East Carolina, Appalachain , UNC Charlotte, Western Carolina, ? Elon and UNC Pembroke for some?

COLLEGE ATHLETICS FUBAR ?

Between Portal/Nil issues and the recent Supreme Court ruling on college admission, the NCAA doesn’t know whether to punt or bunt. Nor does anyone it seems. Very few venture solutions.

The link below dares to take a shot. If nothing else it exposes the range of different opinions.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/09/opinions/college-admissions-elite-sports-harvard-affirmative-action-macintosh/index.html

PROXIMITY?

Radical ideal?–Carolina, State, Duke, Wake Forest, Appachian, and East Carolina all play each other? ps-UNC Charlotte will be ready soon. Western Carolina Univ. No flying required, football or women’s volleyball.

THE MYSTIC AND STEPHEN CURRY

How does this guy leave teams and players this good (and they ARE very good), standing around in the fourth quarter with a look of puzzlement and blame shifting on their stunned faces? Is it mystical, or fundamental basketball?
Me thinks it is some of both.

TITLE IX

World Cup soccer competition began in 1930. The United States men have never won it. Soccer is more widely played world-wide than any sport.
Title IX was implemented in 1970. The World Cup for women began in 1991. Our women have won twice. No other country has a “Title IX”.   Sports and sociology go hand in hand. 

David Epstein’s book, THE SPORT GENE, is truly informative. True research on nature vs. nurture in the development of elite athletes. I recommend it to anyone interested in sports and related research. 

I buy any copy of DAYS OF GRACE by Arthur Ashe I can find. Eventually I find a young African American to give it to. 

Malcom Gladwell says reading lovingly to every child is indispensable. Without this parental effort failure is imminent.

A fellow coach once suggested, “…the NCAA should be limited to 10 rules, and if they add one they have to eliminate one.”

3. Before football facemasks were required, 1 player is 3 suffered a dental injury.  After facemasks rule? 1 in 3800.  Good rule for eaters.

4.  Football has got to change the frequency of concussions.  Or lawyers will break anyone who charges to see the game.

5.  Women’s and girl’s soccer must create rules and training  that drastically reduce anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injuries.

Pat Conroy from MY READING LIFE: “…if anyone knows a more important profession than teaching i wish they would let me know what it is before I die.”  

When annual college/university costs exceed $70,000 per year, what sense does a “liberal arts” degree make?  

 Every time an Incorrigible is recruited, selected, hired, etc., a good kid will be eliminated, or cut, or not given a chance. Same for coaches, administrators, owners, all the way up and down.

DRUGS

   If the top (pro sports) demands usuage,  the news will flow to the bottom (even children’s sports).   Hopefully parents will guard their kids,  but some have turned the blind eye or even encouraged the madness.   Sanity is the only hope…

2019

Ask any old-timer about stipends for athletics.   They’ll say, “No, they are getting a scholarship.” But how much is Johnny Football worth to Texas A&M?   How about Cam Newton and Auburn.   The stipend ($2000) was voted in by the NCAA.   Then voted out.   Would it not escalate to $20,000 soon and thus be affordable to the much discussed “Super 60” only?

   Ask Campbell University’s  coaches, who just “came in from the cold!”   They were in a league with teams in 11 different states!   How is that a reasonable conference?   Maybe it’s just me, but I loved the “southerness” of the Southern Conference.   No need to fly anywhere. Believe me, with no TV revenue, and travel out the wazoo, these programs and people take big blows.

3. Vans, buses, and planes with loads of college kids are dangerous enough.  Add severe weather often experienced due north, to inexperienced, or young, or ambitious coaches and players, and a recipe for tragedy looms.

Daniil Medvedev played Chris Eubanks in the Wimbledon July tournament I had a deja vu moment watching the match on TV (see excerpt below from THE LITTLE GREEN BOOK of Tennis.) I remembered watching Henry Logan, our league’s first black basketball player ( 1965 ). Henry scored 60 points, 42 in the second half. At 5′ 10″ tall he dunked nine shots.

With due respect, Medvedev had the same look on his face as we did watching Henry. (” Where the hell did this guy come from? And what the hell do I do with this level of serve and volley play ?)

As he received serve from near the back stands. To , stunningly no avail.

I found myself blurting out for him to move in on the return. Mid- set in the fourth , Medvedev moved up! The end of the match looked much like the college match in 1999.

Now here is the Hackalooski—In the US OPEN Finals, the match played at an unbelievable level and equal score, a pattern emerged. Serving from the deuce court at the wide forehand corner, with Medvedev receiving way back, the Joker ran off serve and volley points at will. Pretty soon John McEnroe joined my advice. John’s advice built on a career as one of the all time best serve and volley players, serving and receiving. Me having watched the small college match mentioned below. Often crucial points, this “ace in the hole” cracked the match.

I’ve got to ask—Why didn’t you at least try moving in on the return, Daniil ?

Passing Shots 

Dominic Moerstedt played on my first Elon team. A fine player, Moerstedt had grown up in a German academy that had also housed Boris Becker and Steffi Graff. Extremely talented, Moerstedt liked to try “big bombs” for passing shots, hit from way back at the fence. I told him about an earlier player, passing on the rise, moving in on service returns, etc. Still “boom—from way back.” The first match my team played without me there (25 years’ perfect attendance!) came Dominic’s senior year. My wife had to have a surgical procedure (kidney stones—ouch!), and I sent Dr. Alan White as an able substitute coach. He still brags about his tennis coaching. We both were lucky. After the first day of the tournament, my number one player jumped into an indoor pickup soccer game in our gym. Pop! Leg injury. No number one for the finals. I returned to a hobbled team plus another problem. Dominic was playing Alex Evans, an excellent Australian player from my old school Atlantic Christian. Evans “owned” Moerstedt. In several previous matches Moerstedt had never gotten more than two games a set off the talented serve and volleyer Evans. This match was for the tournament. My advice to Dominic went like this: “Dominic, we’ve tried it your way to no avail. Please at least move in aggressively on your service return and passing shots.” We had practiced this a lot recently, in all fairness, and Dominic had the kind of talent to pull it off. It shocked everyone—Evans, Moerstedt, our team members and me: 6–2, 6–2, Moerstedt, and Elon was Conference Champs. What really surprised me is why the strategy worked. By hitting the passing shots quicker I’d hoped that Dominic could make Evans volley from an unstable, unusual position. What actually happened is that Alex tried to get in quicker and it disrupted his ordinarily dependable serve. Confused by a different rhythm, he lost a lot of confidence.

Right on ., Michael H

Mike H

Youth Tennis Coach for More Than 35 Years

RelatedWhy is professional tennis dominated by players from European countries?

As a US tennis coach at top training programs for more than 35 years I can answer this decisively, as I’ve personally witnessed this dispiriting fall from the United States ruling the tennis world to becoming an also-ran since 2003—and it has little to do with “training on clay”, “the everybody wins culture”, “new string technology” or the usual excuses, the reasons are much broader and deeper problems in American society and sports preparation.

1. The American “class bias” in tennis and the general collapse in America’s youth investment and social mobility. Tennis classes and equipment can be expensive, costing thousands of dollars a year, but in America, if you don’t already come from a rich family, you’ll get squat as far as help or assistance for your career, or you’ll be forced into debt. The USA has basically rejected the idea of community youth investment, for sports and in general, the same reason our college grads have $1.4 trillion in student loans for essential education. This is a dramatic change from when I started tennis coaching and it’s part of the general shift of America away from a socially mobile society to a practically feudal aristocratic one, that has pulled up the ladders for its lower, middle and even many of its “less than rich” upper classes. The short version: if you don’t start out with a trust fund, you’re stuck, especially for a sport like tennis that requires years of youth investment. This is a major, fatal disadvantage for American tennis. In Europe, South America and lately in Asia, kids from all social classes have a shot at a tennis career. If they show sufficient talent and motivation, there are numerous community organizations, government programs and general social assistance systems to help build up their careers, in part because these other societies strongly support investment in their youth. Even those who don’t show initial tennis promise are encouraged to keep at it, and many go on to develop that talent later on. Thus the other countries have a much greater talent pool and motivated, mentally tough kids from the lower and middle classes who see tennis as a shot to a solid career as a professional athlete and a tool for social mobility. Myself and a number of other coaches do what we can to provide free or reduced-cost tennis lessons to kids without major means, but every year we realize how much we’re swimming against the tide in the US, compared to our European and South American counterparts for whom there’s much more community support to assisting kids from all social classes.
2. The US healthcare and general health insurance mess. Anyone who’s followed the careers of tennis athletes from the Top 100 through the Challenger Tour and Futures Tournaments knows that injuries happen in tennis. A lot. So good general health care and medical assistance are a must. For Europeans, South Americans, Asians and Aussies this isn’t a problem, when you get injured, you simply go to a physician and get the problem fixed, and you’re back on the court with no financial hardships. In the USA? If you get sometimes even a minor injury on the court, let alone one that requires surgery, you can be set back tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket, even if you are insured! I can’t describe the frustration of seeing great tennis prospects going bankrupt or losing their savings due to medical bills from the lunatic American medical system. Again, the breakdown in American tennis is due to a much more fundamental breakdown in American society and policy, and until this is fixed, America will not have a tennis resurgence.
3. Parental involvement and family leave. Again this is a broader societal problem that has trickled down to throttle America’s tennis competitiveness. in Europe, Asia and parts of South America, parents are able to take advantage of a variety of family leave policies that allow them to take off time from work without a major career penalty, and focus attention on their kids, including taking them to tennis practices and academies and generally just being with them as they improve. America has Third World parental leave policies as well as skyrocketing costs of living that force both parents to constantly work or search for jobs when the economy is down, which then makes it impossible to help nurture kids’ budding tennis talent. The result? Very depressing and I see it all the time. A budding talent simply doesn’t have the family support network to do the little things that help their talent develop, causing them to get frustrated and quit.
4. General lack of motivation and mental toughness, maybe associated with all the social media obsessiveness today, from my observations much more in the US than in other countries. I was coaching US kids intensively back when Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, Andy Roddick, Todd Martin, MaliVai Washington and Michael Chang were rising through the Juniors Circuit, and worked directly with a number of kids out of the Bollettieri and other top academies. Those guys and girls were motivated to get better and better, building up confidence and not being rattled by setbacks. Today, there just seems to be much less patience for that sort of thing and a lack of the sustained attention that’s needed to become great at the sport. This applies to both the men’s and the women’s game—once Venus and Serena Williams retire, we just don’t really have anyone else of their sustained discipline and drive. On the men’s side, Jack Sock, Steve Johnson, Donald Young, Sam Querrey and John Isner— and potentially Frances Tiafoe, Noah Rubin, Ryan Harrison, Stefan Kozlov, Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz— certainly have a lot of the right stuff, but the difference compared to 20 or 30 years ago is that we’d have dozens of prospects like that in contention, and the sheer number of talented Americans would help to ensure that at least one or two of them would break through into the top ranks. Our talent pool is much thinner now in part because the persistence to develop that talent just isn’t there as much as before.
5. Plummeting birth rate in the US. This is a more subtle factor but ever since 2007 it’s been picking up steam and it’s hitting the USA especially hard. The costs of living, healthcare, student loans and other factors in the USA are much more of a financial burden in the United States than in any other country, combining to push the US fertility rates down to their lowest levels in our history, and those of us involved in youth sports coaching have been seeing the effects over the past 3 years especially with a steep and worsening decline in the number of young prospects we even have a chance to recruit and train. My team and I are involved in multi-city coaching clubs, and the talent pool among young kids has dried up in part because the births themselves, the country’s general TFR, have dried up. While it’s true that this is happening to varying extents in other countries too, it’s hitting the United States much harder since it compounds all the other factors above, and makes it that much harder for American youth tennis to make a recovery.
6. American kids opting for other sports. Yes, this is a factor but not nearly as much of one as is often made out. It is true that tennis is America has to compete with football, basketball, baseball, hockey, track-and-field, soccer, swimming, volleyball and wrestling for popularity, and this does reduce the potential talent pool. But here’s the thing, the same challenge was facing American tennis 20 and 30 years ago back when Agassi, Sampras, Courier and the other American top champions were working their way through, and if anything the basketball craze was even more intense than it is now. Yet we still had a massive talent pool for tennis, unsurprising given our overall population size. Not to mention that other countries also have similar competition for recruits into these other sports except for American football, and soccer is much more of a craze abroad. Yet they’re able to field and recruit top talent. So it’s really the other actors above that explain the sharp decline in American tennis, and the factors we’ll need to address if we hope to turn it around even slightly.

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