The difference between ‘use’ and ‘mastery’ of any instrument lies in ‘man’ who has the ability to give ‘soul’ to it. Giving the sensuous soul will make any instrument come alive. It is easy to understand this in music as a song will make the instrument come alive, in the hands of a good artist. [...]

The Sunday Times Sri Lanka

Magic of Maestros

Making a Tennis racquet come alive
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The difference between ‘use’ and ‘mastery’ of any instrument lies in ‘man’ who has the ability to give ‘soul’ to it. Giving the sensuous soul will make any instrument come alive. It is easy to understand this in music as a song will make the instrument come alive, in the hands of a good artist.

Few Tennis players have given a ‘soul’ to the racquet. Such players were never beaten easily, they just faded away gracefully leaving ever lasting memories. From the bygone era, one has to admit that John McEnroe had this ability that made him go out of the game without injuring his body. Ramanathan Krishnan of India hardly hit a shot hard. His canny ability to sense the ball movement, court space and to use the racquet for his shot selection is etched on stone. Right now, we have Roger Federer with the very rare ability of artistic racquet handling ability to create variety.

A constant in the change

In the world rankings, a change of guards has been forecasted and is happening to a good extent. The mastery of Roger Federer in every department and especially in his ability to use the racquet, is giving him a place even within this change. This is proving every world ranking forecast wrong. Whenever Federer plays, his racquet performs the most difficult task with fluency, elegance and effectiveness. His losses are now more due to drop of physical reaction speed. Now in his thirties, Federer does not recover adequately to play matches in successive days and that is telling on his game. He has opted not play Miami-Open. Although not stated, physical recovery cannot be ruled out for his absence in Miami. Even in the current top ten of the world there is no other who can match Roger Federer’s racquet handling ability.

Secret of Variety in Tennis

The Tennis racquet can be used as a hammer for power or as an artist’s brush for variety. The latter is pleasing to watch and will be remembered for a long time. This is what induces racquet handling ability. In the development phase of a player, few guidelines can induce this.

First is to keep the racquet parallel to the ground and if possible to the net too at the point of contact. It is also a safety factor which reduces unforced errors. Many players get air-borne to achieve this, to play high shots. The appropriate foot-work for coordination is the secret to have the racquet parallel to ground at contact and it evolves as a habit from training.

Second is never to have the back of the racquet handle point towards your own body at the point of contact with the ball. This will make the face point to point out of the side lines of the court. In Tennis, more errors happen doing this, than anything else. With the racquet handle pointing at the player’s body, power-transfer to the ball will suffer. Much of the joint pains of the arm and even the knee pains arise from this as the joints will have to arrest much of the residual power which have bad effects on the body.

Third is to have the wrist, elbow and hip relaxed and loose when hitting the ball. This is what gives Roger Federer the angelic floating effect and permits him to handle the racquet as an extension of the arm. The Tennis racquet is the same length of an adult arm. We are good at arm’s length in achieving our daily routines. Try using an instrument to do what we do with our arm. All the trouble will begin. Equipment handling ability in human needs training. When trained it becomes natural. Keeping the body relaxed is not easy in the middle of a tensed match but this mental ability is the secret of keeping the body relaxed in a match. It is an ability which competition players will have to develop; there is no choice here.
The last is the secret of shot-selection. Two aspects restrict a player in this department. First is the opponent’s effect on the player and second is the use of game making tactics. Not taking these aspects into consideration will not permit good racquet handling ability. On the whole, on a very rough estimate an average player’s racquet handling ability is well below 30% of their full potential. This is mostly because of unawareness, never trained for it and the use of power as the sole means of winning.

Spain’s Nadal and Argentina’s Del Potro

Nadal and Del Potro are certainly most accomplished players of our era. On a given day, they are formidable and incomparable. At present both are injured. Nadal had to skip much of the last year’s events and lost in Indiana-Wells and Miami-Open. Former US-Open winner Del Potro, one time top five in the world ranking is currently ranked 600 plus, played his first match at Miami last week and lost. These two players use the racquet for power and almost for power only. To such players, injuries come faster and are often permanent. More than 20 of the top past players who played this way are living with bone replacement. These players too did exhibit a method to use the racquet. It was violent and destroyed the body. Nadal and Del Potro are over six feet and the latter is six foot, six inches.

Maestros and reality

The choice of using a racquet is based on the mental makeup of the player, early tutelage and the environment. The matches in Miami-Open will show how fast the game is. Players after playing a shot in Miami, at over eight miles per hour or serving at one hundred and thirty miles per hour, have to recover from that massive work load and reach the next ball well under one half of a second. In such a situation, artistry and racquet handling could be considered ‘myths of day dreamers.’ This is where one has to appreciate Roger Federer. In this mythical situation, his artistry has not depreciated nor has he abandoned variety, but perfected it, by giving a soul to the racquet and making it come alive. We have to consider ourselves lucky to witness such a treat feat at present. It is definitely not a common occurrence in sports. Thank you Roger!

-George Paldano, former international player; Accredited Coach of Germany, National coach, Davis Cup and Federation Cup Coach; ITF and USPTR; –gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com-

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