April Tennis Trivia Puzzle

I hope you enjoy this puzzle.  I have the answers posted in Tennis Thoughts off to the side.  If you want to print this so you can fill it out simply click on the picture and it open on a single page, then select print.  Have fun!!!

If you've come looking for the articles about the Central High School Tennis Team or LeBlond's Team they are posted below the "Mental Grit" / "Tennis Confidence..." Post.  

Mental Grit

Below is a great commentary on "mental toughness" or building your confidence in your tennis matches.  This weekend I played a couple of friendly tennis matches [a singles and doubles] and found my confidence in my game waning a bit, as my backhand and forehand top spins keep going long or into the net and when I would try something different I would lose power and control, eventually I lost it mentally.  It's strange how much of the game of tennis is mental - we know we have the shots to be able to win the game, or atleast to keep our competitors on their toes but we (or I) sometimes just can't muster the mental fortitude to keep it together.  Mental toughness - Confidence or Belief...whatever label you want to put on it, seems to be the hardest part of the game, I find anyway.   One of the people I greatly admire is Maria Sharapova she seems to have mental grit in spades; just watch her win she wins or even loses a point - compare your expressions side beside.  If you were to turn your t.v. on just after a successful or unsuccessful point you wouldn't know until the score came up whether she won or lost that point.  Maria just keeps playing one point at a time, believing always that she'll win the next point.  What a competitive spirit to be admired in any sport.  

Brent - the gentleman that wrote the article below nails the problem and the solution I think with great clarity.  Let me know what you think.  Enjoy!
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Tennis Confidence Is About Lying To Yourself

How crazy do we get trying to figure out what it is and how to then make it tangible?

Look, I’m no mental giant by any stretch of the imagination.

I’ve read a lot of books about the mental skills required to play well in tennis, but in the end, and alt least for me when I play, confidence for me is simply a sense of not having any fear at that moment.

I’m not talking about being fearless in a risky way, no, it’s simply for me about not considering something negative might or is about to happen on this next shot, this next point, the match, and on and on…

Confidence in tennis is about not perceiving a negative consequence.

And I’ll be the first one to admit that there are times when I have to overcome my natural fears of a negative situation by totally lying to myself.

There have been times when I instinctively want to to think something like this – “OMG, I simply have to win this point because if I don’t there’s no way I’ll ever get another chance.  This guy is better than I am and I’m just damn lucky he’s not playing well.  Come on Brent, don’t blow this.”

Uh, hello, I don’t think that’s really a good set of thoughts that will help me play the next point unencumbered by fear.

Fear is the ultimate killer of quality shot placement decision making and performing your needed fluidity of stroke fundamentals.

The absence of fear gives you the best chance of making the right decision of where you want to play this next shot and allowing you to perform your practiced stroke fundamentals within their ideal timing.

So, let’s get back to this notion of lying to yourself when you recognize you’re pumping a bunch of fearful inner talk.

I wouldn’t really call it pur lying, but I know I do force myself to not recognize the fear by over riding it with specific thoughts, self talk, and even sing a song to myself.

Your brain will allow you to play the game of tennis on a conscious level.

Whatever you’re thinking or telling yourself at that moment is what your brain believes.

And if your brain believes you’re scared, it’ll help you ply scared, but if your brain believes you’re not scared, it’ll help you play the next point without fear.

Without fear translates to you being able to play your best tennis.

But this goes on between every frickin point.  You can fool yourself into being fearless for awhile, but you can also allow yourself to be scared later in the match.

Ever play well for the first set and a half and then just can’t close out the match?

Yeah, well, get in line because you’re not alone.  Most of us allow our fears to take over in the latter stages of a match.  We actually stop lying to ourselves at that point and start believing our self talk.

This takes a ton of practice to be able to discipline yourself to keep lying to yourself throughout the entire match.

I keep saying lying, and I’m not sure that’s what I mean, but I know you know what I’m trying to say.

You must consciously over ride your natural fears with something positive.

What’s helped me over ride my biggest fears when I’m playing against the top guys out there has been my between points 4 part routine.

1 – Go straight to the hook of the song of the day immediately after the point is done;

2 – Take 3-4 deep controlled breaths where I literally do the meditation thing of focusing on each breath so I’m not thinking of anything;

3 – Then consider any specific strategy I want to use to start the next point (not how to win the point but how to start the point);

4 – A little self pump.  Something very positive like “OK baby, I love this, here we go…”

And that’s it.  There’s absolutely nothing in that between points routine that is negative, and if I’m scared out of my mind and want this match so bad I can taste it, I’m putting myself into the same mental place point after point after point.

One of the keys to being a consistent shot maker (at least for me when I play my best tennis) is to be extremely consistent with what we do between points.

I know you’ve heard this a kazillion times, but on average 80% of the match is NOT playing points.

That’s right, only 15-20% of the match actually takes place during a point.

What you do with the 80-85% of your match time, between the points, determines how well you’ll play that day.

So, stop being so darn honest to yourself between points by recognizing any fears, and start lying to yourself like a monster…

Brent

Sten ascends to No. 1 spot for LeBlond

This story is by:  Andrew DeWitt - St. Joseph News-Press

Read how Tyler Sten of Bishop LeBlond went from no. 16 on the Golden Eagles chart four years ago to number 1 during his senior year.  Click here to read more...

Central ties for 5th in home tournament

Ross Martin of the St. Joseph News-Press reports how Jason Simpson coach of the boys' Central tennis team (in St. Joseph, Mo) helped encourage his number one tennis doubles players to improve their game.  Click here to read more about it.

Grunting - Cheating or Fair Play?

Howdy Folks,

I don't know about you but I was watching the Sony Ericsson matches last week - and as always really enjoyed them and learned a lot.  One of the matches I of course watched was the final between Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Maria Sharapova of Russia.  Which The Seattle Times even noted that, "They could be heard across the street from the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Fla."  The screeching got so loud that the crowd couldn't contain their laughter.  It is said that Maria's yells actually reach 101 decimals - for reference the roar of a lion is 110 decimals.

Many big name players besides Sharapova and Azarenka are grunters: we also have the Williams sisters, Nadal, Agassi, just to name a few.  I've done a little research on this and I have found that there are many opinions on whether grunting should be legal or not, as well as, if it's fare to grunt or a hindrance.  I personally find it annoying (at least the extremely loud grunting) and I was curious in what you all thought.

Martina Navratilova chalks this extremely loud grunting up to cheating - now science is actually backing up her point of view.  The article that I posted below comes from Brian of tennismindcamp.com - a really good resource.  The article talks about the pros and cons of "grunting" and the scientific studies behind it.  I think you'll find it interesting as well.

Grunting In Tennis Is Good, But Is It Fair?

To grunt or not to grunt..
That has been the question of a lot of tennis players and fans alike for some time now.
I mean, does it really help? Or is belting out a loud yelp or scream just something that players like Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova do to be annoying?
Well, science says it’s both.  Thanks to a new study published in the journal, Public Library of Science ONE, we now have at least some concrete evidence that suggests that a “grunt” could actually give the aggressor a strategic and competitive edge and really do some damage to the receiving player’s game.
Two psychologists, from both the University of Hawaii and the University of British Columbia, recently conducted a survey which showed that making “extraneous sound” while a player is awaiting an oncoming ball can cause their response/reaction to decrease both in the speed and accuracy departments.
The findings of the experiment also gave support to the idea that grunting could compromise the receiver’s judgment when attempting to read and analyze the spin and speed of a ball as well.

How did they come to this conclusion?


The two behind the study, Dr. Scott Sinnett and Dr. Alan Kingstone, took 33 students from western Canada and showed them 374 video clips of a player hitting a ball to either the left or the right. In half of those clips, the player added a loud grunt while hitting his ball, and in the other half he remained silent.

Then, upon hearing the ball hitting the player’s racket, the students had to decide on the direction it would take. And they couldn’t sit there all day trying to decide.  It was imperative they come up with an definitive answer right away.

And what happened? Well, what was noticed was that the scores of those students suffered a significant drop off when viewing shots where the player made extra noise or became very vocal.

It quickly became harder to distinguish the ball’s trajectory and destination – much more difficult than it was when they viewed clips where no outside noise was provided (…when they only had to deal with the ball hitting the strings).

After this observation, Dr. Sinnett gave his obvious conclusion of the results when players are forced to analyze the shot of a grunting opponent. “They were basically slower and could actually be wrong-footed, if you could extend that to a real-world tennis court.”
OK, so they’re slower. But now you’re probably wondering exactly how much slower and how much longer a player would have to wait to make a movie, right?
Well, based on the findings, it suggests that a tennis ball struck along with a loud grunt can travel a whopping 2 extra feet in the air before the opponent is able to respond. Wow, that’s a lot of lost time, isn’t it? You bet!
Now, this is shocking, sure.  But not surprising at all, if you ask me.   If you think about it, these results truly make a lot of sense.  How so?
Well, I’ve always believed that the sound exerted during racket-ball contact can be a great indicator of what type of shot will be generated and where the ball may actually land inside (…or outside) the court.
For example, a player hitting a hard flat-bomb (…right in the sweet-spot) is going to sound much different than a backspin, slice shot, or even a mishit.
Hearing these sounds can assist you in understanding the proper positioning and stance you’ll need to acquire, in order to complete worthwhile return – two concepts extremely critical in the world of tennis strategy.

Examples include: A. The Flat Bomb (loud bang) = Stay back, execute a neutral or even defensive shot in return… Very quick and possibly short/contracted back-swing B. The Slice (knife cutting an apple) = Be patient, advance or stay neutral, multiple options on the reply (…topspin, slice, flat). C. The Mis-hit or Broken String (BOOINNNNG) = Up the aggression!  Prepare to advance forward to possibly put the ball away.

You see, since the a player generally will grunt at the exact same time he/she strikes the ball,  it becomes very difficult (…and at times), impossible to tell how well the ball and shot have been hit. Why? Because that sound indicator will have been totally masked or canceled out.

And with that, there comes an extra moment of indecision.  The receiving player is forced to wait a fraction of a second longer and (…24 inches of ball flight) to make his move.  So, he’ll find himself a step behind, when he could have been well on top of things.

It’s the same thing in baseball. Time is incredibly crucial there as well.  You need to be able to react within a split-second of contact.  The sound of that ball hitting the end of the bat is going to give you a big clue as to which area of the field the players should cover.
And heck, now you have multiple players (…more than 5) involved. So, it’s importance is magnified. Make the wrong move there, and you’ll run into one another and fall flat on your butt.
But when the volume of the crowd reaches a certain decibel, it becomes much harder to know where that thing is going (…grounder, left-field-right-field, or center field).  Again, you lose that second and forced to wait.  The only difference in tennis is, the player can control the noise. He can release it or silence it on a whim.

So, if you want to slow down your opponent in your next match, go ahead and grunt. Feel free to open up those vocal chords!  But hey, you don’t want to make it a point to be as loud as possible or overdo it.  That’ll displace your focus.
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Now before I head out, let me ask you… Is this strategy a fair one?  Many people, like Martina Navratilova, have believe grunting is awful and should be banned from tennis or at least be made punishable by the commission.
But if you ask the legendary tennis coach Nick Bollettieri, who has coached many “grunters” like Andre Agassi, he says grunting is natural and no action should be taken.


So… With all that said and the new evidence provided… Should grunting be banned from the tennis? Is there a significant enough of an unfair advantage in play here? Or should we all just forget about it and play tennis, because all is fair in tennis warfare? What do you think?


Have a great week guys!

Brian
TennisMindCamp