Tenniszine - UK tennis blog.

I'm still playing, and watching

2009-12-16T16:30:00.002Z

Boy have I let this blog go quiet. I'm still playing regularly despite getting closer to sixty. Had plenty of injuries along the way including a nasty 'separated shoulder' from a fall on a hard court.

I still visit Eastbourne, now mens and womens, and the Masters Tennis in the London Royal Albert Hall, and so far also Queens. I don't think I will go to Queens again because it's become too big and you can no longer be sure of getting a good seat close to the action.

London now hosts the mens end of season ATP Tour World finals which I went to on one day this year and that was great (but also too big for a close seat).

Maybe I'll start blogging again the 2010. Still love the tennis!

New racket for Amelie?

2007-01-10T23:13:00.000Z

I couldn't help noticing this photo on Yahoo tennis news. (Photo courtesy AFP).

That's not the Dunlop MFIL 300G which is my new racket.

So I watched Eurosport and sure enough in the match against Jankovic, Mauresmo was using what appears to be a new Dunlop racket. Its paint job is predominantly yellow and white with some black, which doesn't seem to be from last years stock of Dunlop rackets.

It's a shame that Dunlop can't get their act together on the US website which has been 'due for relaunch in January 2007' status for some time now. In fact the whole Dunlop Slazenger Sports marketing effort by its parent company seems to be abysmal, IMHO. Apart from a site in Australia, trying to find some more information about this company and its products is hard work. The MFIL 300G rackets I have came with a postal address, telephone number and email for contact in the UK, but no website!

Anyway, does anyone know anything about the racket Amelie is using in 2007? She seemed to be still adjusting to it in her loss to Jelena, as she shanked quite a few shots. Or was it just windy in Sydney and the racket is just a new paint job?

Update: Tommy Robredo too!

Tags: Amelie Mauresmo, Dunlop Slazenger, Tommy Robredo

Rios v McEnroe

2006-12-09T18:14:00.000Z

It was a drizzly and overcast grey day in London on Friday 8th 2006 when, after a lot of press hype about a grudge match and some pre-match sparring between the players, Rios and McEnroe faced off at the Royal Abert Hall in the season ending Blackrock Masters quarter finals. This was the second meeting between the two this year, and had come about with Rios winning his group in the round robin and McEnroe coming second (lucky loser) in his.

The crowd was overwhelmingly in favour of McEnroe, evidenced by the sustained applause he received when walking on court, also on his winning shots, and the numerous shouts of encouragement "come on John". There didn't seem to be a single Rios supporter in the audience, although there was applause for his tennis.

The match started out as a tense affair, with both players trading safe groundstrokes. McEnroe lost his temper quite early when a wide Rios swinging serve to the ad court was called in, whereas McEnroe obviously thought it was out. I was quite surprised over the fuss he made, as I was sitting with a good look down the line and the ball was 'on' the line, and not even close to out.

The first set continued much in the same way with McEnroe losing most of the extended rallies and having only about 50% success on his forays to the net. Either his volleys were short resulting in a successful Rios pass, or Rios won with exquisitely judged lobs. Both players had breaks but it wasn't until Rios came to serve out the first set that he appeared to go up a level in both service and the quality of his shots. It was as if Rios was playing within himself until the time came to close it out.

The second set was slightly more competitive (despite the eventual score), although there were two occasions when theatre intevened. Rios was at one stage unhappy about one of the balls which was eventually replaced by the umpire, and McEnroe had a hissy fit over what he considered to be unfair line calling (of course).

Rios won the second set quite comfortably 6-2. His shot making wasn't awesome, just very controlled, often taking the ball quite early for a winner, his movement and speed were quite good. He didn't use his trademark double handed backhand with both feet off the ground but maybe that's because of the low bounce on a fast court that he had complained about. He also didn't make a single cross court forehand passing shot when pulled out wide to the ad-court side (he's a lefty like McEnroe).

Anyway, although Rios may not be the most charismatic person he let his tennis do the talking. It was difficult to tell his chances of winning the Championship, as his play didn't seem outstanding, doing just enough to win. A test against Haarhuis in the semi-finals will reveal more about his form, and on this court Ivanisevic's serve bombs and serve volley game might be too much if they both get to the final.

Update: Haarhuis beat Rios and faces Ivanisevic in the final.

Annual trip to the Royal Albert Hall to see the seniors

2006-12-09T13:46:00.000Z

On Friday the 8th December I made my annual trip to the Royal Albert Hall in London to watch the quarter finals of the seniors tour. Of course it's more commercial these days so the tour is called the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions and the season concluding event is the Black Rock Masters.

Also the description of seniors is no longer apt in an age context since the 30 year old Marcelo Rios also plays. There's a lot of noise about this from John McEnroe and maybe others. It's possibly justified since although none of the players play full time, it's certainly the case that the older you are the harder it is to maintain the form at high level over several days of intense competition, and anyway you're at least a step slower or two with each decade.

I saw Rios take out McEnroe, and will blog separately about that match.

In the other quarter final I also saw Pioline defeat Leconte. That was pretty much a friendly affair, with a lot of exhibition stuff, some good natured bantering between the players and the crowd, but when it came to the competitive points it was Pioline who had the goods, or really I suppose it was Leconte who missed a few sitters.

In the doubles I saw Fleming and Gullikson take on Muster and McNamara. I had been looking forward to seeing Muster, a previous favorite of mine (despite his lack of flair), but I would say on the evidence that he is not a doubles player by choice. The maestro out of the four was McNamara, making incredible angled drive winners and remarkable reflex volleys. Even so they lost to Fleming and Gullikson in the tie-break.

All in all, as ever, a most enjoyable day out.

Book review: Play better tennis in 2 hours by Oscar Wegner

2006-12-04T18:37:00.000Z

I was recently given this book as a gift. Its full title is "Play Better Tennis in Two Hours: Simplify the game and PLAY like THE PROS" and the Play like the Pros bit sounds good to me.

Reviews on Amazon range from "too basic" and "aimed at beginners" to "revolutionary". I found it to be rather basic, a bit slim and can be summarized (for me) as follows:

1. Forehand groundstroke: use topspin by using a 'windscreen wiper' action and think about your stroke's finish.

2. Backhand drive groundstroke: show the ball your butt, your rackets butt that is.

3. Serve: use the triceps more than your shoulder muscles.

4. Movement: find the ball.

5. Forehand volley: cut from above.

6. Backhand volley: turn from the shoulder.

Of course there's more than that, but that's really all I got out of it, and I've simplified the explanations given in the book with photo's to a one line summary.

So how did it work for me?

Forehand: I already have a topspin forehand with a wrap around the shoulder when I'm not nervous (which I am most of the time in a competitive match!) but not the windscreen wiper action. I've seen Federer and others do this with a wrap to the side, but selectively. Thinking about the finish action helps when you're not hitting through the ball.

Backhand drive: I tried it, instead of thinking about take back, hip rotation and stepping in, and it seems to work.

Serve: I was really interested in that because of the chronic shoulder problem I have. Of course we're taught to back-scratch anyway but now 'I get it' and it seems to have added more power.

Movement: yes it works. When you're on your game and playing well you're actively looking for, tracking, seeking, wanting and getting to the ball. Just remember this tip and it helps.

Forehand volley: juries out.

Backhand volley: maybe, juries also out.

So would I recommend it? It depends on your level of play. Beginner and improver then yes. Intermediate and Advanced, borrow a copy, you'll skim it in 30 minutes.

I was intrigued to see the acknowledgement Oscar gave to Ron L Hubbard the founder of Scientology.

Dunlop M-FIL300 mini-review

2006-11-27T11:52:00.000Z

Following my entry reviewing the Babolat Pure Storm Team, I recently demo-ed a very similar racquet in specifications: weight, size, power, balance, etc, the Dunlop M-FIL 300 as used by pro's Amelie Mauresmo, Tommy Haas and Tommy Robredo. You can read some feedback by others at Tennis Warehouse.

I was attracted to this racquet by the low flex rating of 61 shown on the Tennis Warehouse site, since I'm still seeking a cure for my now chronic arm and shoulder problems that is restricting my playing. The flex rating shown on the racquet itself is however 64RA.

The racquet is quite light for a pro's racquet, and whilst it's power rating is low I found it can be lively although this could be the strings it came supplied with in the UK (Dunlop M-FIL Tour 16). Compared to the Pure Storm Team there is less weight in the head, and the swing weight figures bear this out. Therefore the racquet is quite easy to handle at the net or when dealing with high bouncing backhands. It feels quite soft and is arm and shoulder friendly which is what I'm looking for. Certainly after an hours play I was not sore the next day which is encouraging. It's also control oriented, low to medium powered and quite a joy to use as part of an all round game. It was easy to generate lots of topspin off both sides, and I would say is more suited to a topspin stroke player than a flat heavy hitter. I had no problems serving with it but there was nothing special.

Compared to some rackets I've played with, it lacks a feeling of solidity which probably comes from heavier weight and stiffness of those rackets. Its soft flex rating can be felt in the overall damped response. Overall I would say, hmmmm....this racket has prospects, I'm going to stick with the demo a while longer. I think some aspects of it need getting used to, but it could be just what I'm looking for, and its weight and balance is open to some tweaking with lead tape, or a change of strings or string tension would also affect the control/power balance. In other words nothing jumps out that makes you go "wow, awesome racquet", but there's nothing bad about it either.

As one of the reviewers said on the Tennis Warehouse site, this could be one of the best kept racquet secrets around. Certainly the price in the UK, is low, obtainable for around £50 or less. I tried to find more details on the Dunlop Slazenger International web site but it's under construction for re-launch in 2007.

Update: it's going on my Xmas prezzie list!

TNR Blog of the US Open

2006-09-03T10:47:00.000+01:00

This is worth reading, IMHO, a blog covering the US Open written by various journalists and hosted by The New Republic. Some sparklers in there including the one that Murray didn't beat Federer with power but courtcraft and tactics. Yes we've all heard that Federer had an off day, but Murray also made it an off day for him!

Davis Cup update

2006-07-23T22:10:00.000+01:00

Oh dear, as I was saying!

Picture courtesy of BBC Sport.

Davis Cup, GB v Israel, first day

2006-07-22T23:10:00.000+01:00

The GB v Israel Davis Cup tie took place in Eastbourne on grass at Devonshire Park, which is where I go annually to see the ladies WTA warm up for Wimbledon. I was lucky enough to visit on Friday 21st the first day of the Davis Cup tie in which the two opening singles matches are held.

During the opening ceremony I found the occasion to be rather surreal seeing the Israeli team parading in the pleasant surrounding at Eastbourne, knowing that their country was currently engaged in the wanton destruction of Lebanon and its civilians. The other side of the argument is that is just what Hezbollah are engaged in against Israel. This blog is not the place to debate those arguments, but I still found the occasion surreal.

The normally gentile grounds of the WTA visit were transformed into the harsher tones of the advertising hoardings and colors of the ITF Davis Cup. The crowd were noisy, raucous, decked out in the slightly common look of the Union Jack. This was quite different from the polite audience that occurs during ladies week. It occurred to me during the opening ceremony that the UK flag needs a makeover, some modern design to replace the dated look that has associations with football hooligans, yobs, and chavs. So too does the National Anthem. The Israeli National Anthem was grand, stirring, emotional, but sadly for me the UK National Anthem reminds me of Billy Connolly's send up of it during one of his classic shows.

By comparison to the ladies, the speed and power of the men was there to be seen. Best of five sets too for the Davis Cup instead of best of three which the ladies play. Rusedski was out, injured with a labral tear in the hip. I saw him retire at Queens and he missed Wimbledon too, so let's hope he recovers. That let in Alex Bogdanovic. His talent was there to be seen at times, but his opponent Noam Okun rose to the occasion with solid first serves and powerful backhands that proved too much. The second set could have gone either way, but Alex lost it and that gave Noam more confidence and he won quite easily in the end. Second rubber was Andy Murray against Andy Ram.

Now I've blogged about Murray before, and seen him in person too a couple of years ago at Superset tennis before he was well known, and I was looking forward to watching him ply his craft. He took to the Court like a menacing warrior and it was soon clear that he is not a one-dimensional player. However his game took a while to click and for two sets he was a petulant teenager, scowling, distracted, and unhappy with his game and everything around. He went down two sets to love and the crowd were stunned. He scraped the third set with some courageous, harrying play. The fourth set finally showed his full range of talent: screaming passing shots, drops shots, lobs and counterpunching at its best. Irrespective of the fact that his opponent is a doubles specialist ranked a few hundred places below him. there's no doubt that Andy Murray showed he has the grit and heart that makes a champion. Read the BBC report here. I have to say I was won over.

However I fear that five sets over four hours is too much since he's scheduled to play in the doubles and reverse singles.

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Babolat Pure Team Storm mini-review

2006-07-13T14:00:00.000+01:00

I blogged earlier this year that I was using the Prince O3 Tour racket. Nice racket, arm friendly which is why I started using it, but sadly it gave me a nasty shoulder problem and I had to stop using it. My shoulder eventually healed but the golfers elbow wouldn't go, so I reverted to an older racket of mine the Babolat VS Control which has a softer flex rated at 64RA.

I started looking for a later soft flex racket and play tested the Babolat Pure Storm Team which has similar specs to the VS Control except for the balance. The Pure Storm Team has a more even balance than the VS Control and so you can feel the weight in the head even though it is head light. It feels solid and reassuring and is quite low powered with the emphasis on control. The reviews at tennis warehouse indicated it was arm friendly and sure enough I was amazed to find that after playing with it, despite having golfers elbow, I had no need to ice my arm as usual, and the next day there were no after effects.

On that basis I purchased one. I played with it once in a match and just couldn't get on with it. It's probably the strings as when I played with the demo there was much less power and more control than the one I purchased. Then just to sway my overall view I went home with a slight shoulder pull. Now that may not have been the racket, rather it's probably because I didn't warm up and stretch properly, but being paranoid about shoulder injuries I'm not going to risk it again. So, that's another racket, brand new this time, that's going to go on ebay. A bargain for someone since I'll sell below the retail, even below the 'two matching rackets' discount price.

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Pro Kennex Kinetic 5G mini-review

2006-07-03T22:52:00.000+01:00

With my golfers elbow arm troubles I was fortunate to get hold of and play with a Pro Kennex Kinetic 5G tennis racket. This racket has a well established reputation as being arm friendly especially for people with tennis elbow. The one I got hold of, and still have, is a couple of years old and so has the older colours with black paint and carbon fiber laminate styling, although that I believe is just a clever flashy looking stencil.

The racket feels solid, quite heavy, 336gms on my scales. If you shake it gently you can hear a rustling like sand in the frame. I suppose this is part of the kinetic system technology. It swings quite freely because it is several points head light. After playing with it I would characterize it as a players racket. It's low powered, almost dead, requiring a good swing to generate any depth or power. I happen to like low powered rackets but this was just about one of the lowest I've ever hit with.

At the time I tried it I was suffering from golfers elbow and a shoulder problem. I played with it for two hours in a social match as a test hoping that my arm would not feel any adverse effects. The next day I was sore. In retrospect I don't think it aggravated the injuries since I recovered quickly, instead I was muscle sore in both the forearm and shoulder where I had been handling weight I was not used to, and swinging harder to generate power on groundstrokes and serves. So if you're big and strong and hit groundies with long fast swings then maybe this racket is for you.

I never used it again and now have it in my collection. I plan to put it on ebay sometime, but if anyone reading this is interested, especially in the UK, feel free to email me and make a sensible offer around £30. That's half the price of a new one. It's not new, but the frame is sound with some chips around the top of the head which I've painted over using black gloss (I fill in the chips on all my rackets). The grip size is probably 3 which is ideal to make larger which I started to do. It's a good racket for the right person, almost a collector's item I would say.

Young guns at Wimbledon

2006-07-02T11:14:00.000+01:00

As we start the second week in Wimbledon the Brit status is very much the same as last year, except that we still have James Auckland and Jamie Delgado left in the men's doubles.

It's interesting to see the number of younger players still in the slam. McEnroe said on the BBC that he wouldn't be surprised if Federer got caught out this year, much like Sampras in 2001.

So who's left of the youngsters, starting with the men:

The superlative Nadal who's looking increasingly useful on grass. Read Agassi's post match interview. He's full of respect.
Murray of course. He's a dogged hustler of a tennis player with a touch of class. He can win his next match too, against Baghdatis.
Berdyc h. Don't know much about him. What's he done since the Paris Masters? He's got to get past Federer next.
Baghdatis. Can he repeat his success at the Australian Open and then go one better. I don't think so because he's carrying an injury and Murray is going to make him run.
Djokovic. Who's he?

I guess the French youngsters don't like grass!

The women:

Ivanovic. Who's she?
Jankovic. Who's she? She's the lady who put Venus Williams out!
Vaidisova. OK I know who she is, especially after her run in Paris this year.
Radwanska. Who's she?

Just kidding with the "who's he/she" but I'm going to be saying "who's she" a lot more in the future when it comes to women's Chinese players.

Eastbourne ladies semi finals

2006-06-25T11:02:00.000+01:00

I went along on my annual outing to the Ladies semi's at Eastbourne. The weather was kind, hot and sunny with very little wind. Apparently it had been very windy earlier in the week with a few odd showers.

I saw the Belgium contest between Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne. Justin won 6-3, 5-7, 6-1. The last set was much closer than the score suggests, it just got away from Kim but Justine's persistence and aggression on key points paid off. It was my first chance to see Justine in person, and I was impressed by the power this rather diminutive person is able to generate on both sides. Her footwork and speed just have to be seen to be appreciated. Constant glances towards her coach make you wonder what's going on there - insecurity or just part of the coach player bond?

I also saw the Russian match up between Anastasia Myskina and Svetlana Kuznetsova. I first saw Kuznetsova two years ago at Eastbourne which she eventually won. On this occasion she was favoured to win over the two Russians, but Myskina's groundstrokes were awesome. Flat and hard into both corners and Kuznetsova was just off the pace so Anastasia deserved her win 6-4 2-6 6-4.

Then it was the doubles.

First up was Raymond and Stosur v Navratilova and Huber. I'm a big fan of Lisa Raymond but sadly on this occasion she was unable to make up for the off day her partner Stosur was having, and they lost eventually in the tie breaker on both sets. There was a special presentation after the match to honour Lisa Raymond's win at the French Open this year which means she has now won doubles at all of the Grand Slams.

Next up was Kuznetsova and Mauresmo v Bartoli and Peer. I first saw Bartoli last year practising with her father coaching, and it was intense if not rather unorthodox too. She was small, very slim and lithe but this year she has grown and gained quite a bit of weight. Too much I would suggest unless there is a plan to convert that in the gym into muscle. Her style and technique is definitely unusual, but effective. She hits double handed off both wings, takes the ball very early, stands inside the baseline to receive serves and overall has very strong returns and groundstrokes. She plays with the Prince O3 Red that I was using for a while. Peer was also using a Prince O3 racket but I could not make out the model as it was painted black all over which I have not seen anywhere before. Maybe this is a hybrid under development or test? It was also my first time to see Mauresmo who I had not seen before in person. She is nowhere near as hunky as TV would suggest, but quite tall and slim, legs especially so and overall a nicely proportioned athlete. Then the last thing to get my attention was the racket Navratilova was using, presumably a custom build from Bosworth. Anyway Bartoli and Peer put up a good fight but lost to Kuznetsova and Mauresmo 6-3, 6-2.

Wondering around the ground I saw pieces of an exhibition mixed doubles that included Ian Hislop the editor of Private Eye and Trevor McDonald the TV presenter. I'm a subscriber and fan of Private Eye and Ian Hislop and although the tennis was good fun, it was also a bit cringeworthy.

Overall a good day out, but I do hope the building of Eastbourne's new Cultural Center does not spoil the rather pleasant and gentile feel of the tennis grounds.

Queens club and the Stella Artois

2006-06-18T22:53:00.000+01:00

I had the pleasure of visting the Stella Artois championships at Queens Club this week. It was my first time. I saw several good matches including Henman v Agassi, and many players practising, including: Monfils, Mathieu, Davydenko, Philippoussis, Gonzalez, Mirnyi, Knowles, Nestor.

This week I am going on my regular annual visit to the Hastings Direct at Eastbourne.

The two tournaments contrast in many different ways.

The Stella of course is mens and was busy, busy, busy, and very cramped, whereas Eastbourne is far more pleasant and not just because it's ladies. Even so, the seat I had at the Stella on Centre Court was excellent as were most seats because the venue is so small. So the hectic and cramped environment is more than made up for by the proximity to the top men players. When I first arrived I resolved "never again" but by the end of the day and that was nearly six hours of play, I had changed my mind. If you're a tennis fan then Queens is OK. I suppose my main criticism is the limited access to watch players practising. Eastbourne wins hands down in this respect.

Murray and McEnroe, Wow!

2006-02-20T21:26:00.000Z

I've blogged previously about the time I saw these two play one another over a year ago.

The San Jose win has really put Murray on the ATP map. I didn't watch it on TV but just saw the first game, which he lost; however it was lost by Murray rather than won Hewitt and when I went to bed I was already thinking that if he held his nerve he could win it.

McEnroe did OK. I saw that as a replay on TV. I wouldn't say he played great, but let's not diminish the fact he's won another doubles title on the men's ATP tour.

I've only played once in the last week, last night at club night. The UK weather has turned cold again so it was a bit of a miserable session. My play was solid but not outstanding.

Warmer weather in the zone

2006-02-13T22:58:00.000Z

The weather in the UK has warmed up, but only because a low depression has moved in which means rain.

In the UK, unless you have access to an indoor court the rain inhibits play quite a bit. I suppose you could play outside in the rain but the problems are the slippery surface and the balls get wet and heavy. Then the ball sprays water all over you when you hit it or when it bounces. The heavy balls also aggravate or cause arm problems. Great fun! It would be worth trying to invent and patent a Teflon felted tennis ball, or something similar, that did not hold water but whose spin still influenced its trajectory through the air; just for the UK. Given the interest in tennis in the UK that idea is probably not going to be a winner.

So although I have paying access to a nearby David LLoyds I have not played much in the last week. I played twice, once was just a hit and the second time was a doubles match. On both occasions I was hitting and playing really well. After my last blog entry about Dementieva being in the zone I wondered if I had been in the zone. I am aware now that I was not concentrating on my strokes but instead concentrating on what I was trying to achieve with each shot. After that the stroke seemed to take care of itself. This is very similar to the model described in The Inner Game. Now if only I could do that in singles instead of worrying about losing which I inevitably then do.

I really don't like the sound of Henman's or Agassi's back problems.

Club day (33) sunny all round

2006-02-06T19:00:00.000Z

Sunday in the southern UK was bright and sunny with a temperature of around 10 degreesC. I was tempted to do some tidying up in the garden but instead went along to the club and played some tennis for a couple of hours. It was great, and quite a few other people did the same so we mixed tennis with social chat and drinks (non-alcoholic for the players). I'm beginning to enjoy playing again now that my arm no longer hurts.

I watched the final of the Pan-Pacific Open on Eurosport as it was my first chance to watch Martina Hingis play since her return. Martina's defensive game is still respectable but in this case she was on the receiving end of an on fire Elena Dementieva who was clearly in the zone.

Tim Henman back problems

2006-02-04T16:52:00.000Z

I mentioned in my last post that Tim Henman looked to be regaining form and confidence in Zagreb. Today he lost in the semi-final, but the report is what is worrying. Back injuries are notoriously fickle, and for tennis players are just not good news. Just ask Agassi. Let's hope it's not going to be a chronic problem for either of them this year.

Ice outside but not in!

2006-02-03T20:51:00.000Z

Played for an hour today outside with the temperature hovering around freezing, and that was the temperature before factoring in the wind. It was really quite unpleasant, even with four layers of clothing on, reduced to three once I had warmed up playing singles. Today was one of those 'bad tennis' days when I wasn't moving or hitting the ball well at all. I put it down to the weather and was not too bothered.

Afterwards when I got home, for the first time in many months I felt no need to ice my arm for golfers elbow. Yes! Although I've been saying it for a while I think I'm recovering, and this despite playing three days in a row last weekend. Is it the new racket, or the new arm band or the new exercises? I did change technique and grip on the forehand a while ago after realising I was probably too old to change to a full western without the help from a coach.

Tim Henman has had three good wins at the Zagreb indoors. OK so two of the players were ranked lower but they're all in the top 75 so it has to be good match practice for Henman. Now if he can only stay injury free we'll see what he's got left. Richard Gasquet really has had a bad start to 2006.

Zagreb is a city I've had the pleasure of visiting. I really would like to go back to Croatia, preferably on the Adriatic coast. Maybe a tennis holiday.

Club night (32) still cold

2006-01-30T13:59:00.000Z

Played for 2 hours Sunday evening a mixture of singles and doubles. The UK is still quite cold at 4 degreesC, but with a bitter East wind that brings the temperature down further and plays havoc with the ball in the flood-lighting on outdoor courts.

I am starting to serve better with my new racket. My golfers elbow is no longer a problem, though there are remnants lingering, but just to ensure I remain with at least one injury my shoulder is now playing up. Some part of the Deltoid muscle I think caused by serving. I just hope its not the weight of the new racket. Fix one thing and break another! We'll see.

At least the evenings are lengthening, and I participated in the annual Big Garden Birdwatch. Last summer I had the pleasure of seeing a woodpecker in my garden eating the bird nuts put out for the finches and blue-tits.

Aussie Open, what a start to 2006

2006-01-30T13:31:00.000Z

I wish I had been there for some of it, but what a success story for tennis the Australian Open was this year. It had everything, surprise, pathos, tragedy, controversy, and best of all the 'good guys win' ending.

Surprise: Marcos Bagdhatis unseeded gets to the final. Maybe he wasn't surprised, but we certainly were.
Pathos: Justine Henin-Hardenne quits in the final. I could classify this as controversy too but I just feel sorry for her, in an uncomplimentary way. Here's an alternative view. So what do I know.
Tragedy: Kim Clijsters exit and 2 months out. At least she gets the number 1 spot as consolation.
Controversy: Tommy Haas' comments about Jim Courier and Nicolas Kiefer's actions following his throwing of the racket.
Good guys: In this case the good guys were Amelie, Roger and Martina. Oh yes let's not forget men's doubles and the Bryan's.

Baghdatis - wow!

2006-01-26T20:38:00.000Z

What a story! Can he go all the way? Roger is still an obstacle.

Club night (31) in the cold, again

2006-01-25T19:11:00.000Z

The weather in the UK is a bit different from that in Melbourne. At club night yesterday it was hovering just above freezing when I started and there was ice on the car when I left. Only five of us turned up, 4 men and 1 lady and she left when she saw she was the only female. So we played doubles for just over an hour and decided after that it was too cold. One of the other players wore glasses. I meant to ask how he copes with them misting up in the cold which was a problem I used to have, and one of the reasons I wear contacts when playing.

I played with my new O3 Tour racket. The stringing seems different, looser maybe than the demo I had tried. It is certainly livelier which I don't like. I could get it re-strung straight away, but...we'll see.

Excitement at the Australian Open is building with Roger having some tough matches and by all accounts scraping through and Nalbandian getting better. So will Nalbandian put out Baghdatis's fire? If so that's got to be a rerun of the Master's final since I fancy Federer to beat Kiefer.

Not sure about the women's singles since I have not had a chance to watch any on TV. Will Amelie freeze again and can Justine blunt Maria's erratic firepower leaving possibly a rematch of the previous Grand Slam meetings between Kim and Justine?

What I've missed!

2006-01-22T20:46:00.000Z

Back from some family business and what a lot I've missed. Time for me to start playing again with my new racket. My arm is still slightly sore though despite no tennis!

The Australian Open enters its second week and all I've managed to see on TV was Tim Henman's first round loss to Dmity Tursunov. That was quite a strange loss too, as in the fourth and final set Henman seemed to be clearly in charge and playing almost exhibition stuff. But then Tursunov gathered his focus, shots, and form, and all of a sudden it was over.

Then there was the media fuss about Andy Murray. Well I think it was just media fuss. For goodness sake he's just an 18 year old. ...and a tennis player. The UK media don't give Henman his due anyway and expecting too much from Murray too soon doesn't help the British angst.

So Venus and Serena went out in the first week. Who is surprised? Top class tennis needs top class preparation and maybe a bit of luck.

Martina Hingis, what a story. She could even get past an injured Kim Clijsters.

I saw the Doha match on TV when Federer defeated Haas, and rather easy it was too. So I don't know what happened in Kooyong but Haas seems to be playing confidently and their meeting in the Australian Open will be an indicator of Federer's form and talent. It will need to be good as the former Federer nemesis in the form of Nalbandian is looming.

I also saw the Doha match on TV when Federer defeated Baghdatis, and that too seemed rather easy. It's good though that Baghdatis is flying the flag for the teenagers after the tame defeats of Monfils, Gasquet and Murray. At least Berdych went a few rounds but I guess he's no longer a teen.

Disappointments for James Blake (blog), Guillermo Coria, and maybe Andy Roddick; but first week kudos go to Fabrice Santoro, Marcos Baghdatis, Sebastian Grosjean, Nicolas Kiefer, Tommy Haas, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Samantha Stosur, Patty Schynder and Peter Luczak.

So the doubles lawsuit against the ATP has been dropped. I've already blogged about this before. The outcome is mostly OK, except I personally don't like the no-ad scoring rule.

Club night (30) with the O3 Tour

2006-01-12T22:40:00.000Z

Turn out at club mix-in on Tuesday night was low, even so I was able to play some men's doubles using the Prince O3 Tour racket. Reading the patent on the racket is fascinating - it's made from two moulded parts!

I resolved in my mind the contradiction reported in my last blog concerning the rackets power. The racket is very damped and a short or half swing does not produce much power. A full swing however brings the rackets weight into play, and that with the larger sweet spot produces more power than my existing Prince racket, even though the O3 has a lower power rating.

Serving was still a problem for me, but strangely only when I played in a match. During the warm-up I was serving fine. Hmmm...during the warm-up I was looser and not forcing the action, so I think this is something I will adjust to.

I'm going to buy one! Or two. I already have four rackets so I will use ebay to sell my existing two Air Launch rackets.

Club night (29) with the O3 Tour

2006-01-08T22:40:00.000Z

I spent Sunday club night playing mixed doubles and a singles with the Prince O3 Tour as I mentioned in my last blog. The weather was quite cold and also very damp making it quite treacherous underfoot and in the evening floodlights. Even so I worked hard and certainly worked up a sweat in both the doubles and singles. Maybe it was the racket but I won two sets at doubles and one set singles and lost none.

My initial concerns about the weight of the racket, compared to my current racket, were soon put to one side as the O3 Tour is a very comfortable racket to play with. It's very easy on the arm, my long term golfers elbow was not affected at all, and that was after two hours solid play. The extra head light characteristic makes it a joy to move around for volleys in doubles, and I was soon playing groundstrokes and volleys with confidence. The one difficulty I continued to struggle with was my serve. Some of my first serves, flat and hard were fine, my second serve slice soon came around too, but I did not master the second serve topspin kicker which was strange as the racket is excellent for spin on groundstrokes. Usually I was serving the kicker long and I hope this is something I can improve on as I get used to the racket.

Playing singles against a 'retriever' who slices a lot on both wings and provides no pace was a bit more of a problem. Normally I tackle these players at their on game (since that used to be game!), with lots of slice, spin, dropshots, angles, etc, but since the racket was so new to me I wasn't confident enough in its handling to do this consistently. This led to some contradictions when occasionally I would find the racket had too much power if I tried to drive past my opponent, yet sometimes it was quite dead and I could not generate power off his no pace floaters. This was completely different to the doubles I played earlier when the racket handled with ease normal or fast paced groundstrokes and also volleys in rapid fire doubles exchanges. Even so I was able to win the singles set quite comfortably and I think it's just a question of getting used to the different feel of the racket.

I am surprised it's classed as a Tour racket since it is quite light by pro standards, and despite the low Prince power rating 800, which is lower than my current racket rated at 850, I found it to provide more power than my current racket. I'm not sure why, either the extra weight or the (factory) strings and tension.

I think I'm sold on it. I will play with it one more time at the next club mix-in, but my mind is pretty much made up. The racket is good, for me. Of course YMMV.

Prince O3 Red and Tour rackets reviewed

2006-01-07T16:21:00.000Z

I first blogged about the Prince O3 rackets back in May 2005 when they were quite new, and briefly hit with the O3 Tour last summer when I blogged a short comparison with the Wilson nsix-one tour used by Roger Federer.

At last I have had the chance to demo both the O3 Red and the O3 Tour and this is a quick review based on first impressions after about 1 hours play with them. Tennis Warehouse has longer reviews on the Red and Tour along with feedback from other players also for the Red, Tour and other O3 rackets.

I started by comparing them at home. With the rackets strung the Red weighs 298gms and the the Tour 324gms. Both are head light but the balance on the Tour is several points lighter in the head than the Red so that the swing weights feel quite similar and are stated on the rackets as 285 for the Red and 295 for the Tour. These numbers differ from those on the Tennis Warehouse site. So although the rackets feel much the same when you swing, it's clear from the weight difference which racket is which when you first pick them up. But most of the Tour weight feels as if it's in the handle. The Red is a midplus with a slightly larger head at 105 sq ins than the Tour at 100 sq ins. The Red is also longer than normal at 27.25 ins.

On the court I started out hitting with the Red and immediately felt comfortable with it. Despite the Prince power rating of 1100 it did not seem to exert too much power compared to my existing Prince racket which has a power rating of 850. Both forehands and backhands were giving me good control, which is the major part of my game, with power there when I needed it. There was no noticeable shock and I did indeed seem to be aware of a larger than normal sweet spot. Serving was fine and it was here that the rackets power rating seemed to compensate for the lighter weight. A few volleys and the racket was easy to manoeuver but slighlty overpowered for me.

Reluctantly switching to the Tour I was surprised to find even more control AND power. More power on tap with control than the Red. As I had already found at home the swing felt more or less the same as the Red but the difference in racket weight as it hits the ball is noticeable. The Tour is also comfortable with no noticeable shock and the feel of a large sweet spot. Forehands were better than the Red but I initially struggled ever so slightly on backhands due to the extra weight, which is more than my existing racket. Serving was not as easy as with the Red and would need more time and work. Volleying was fine with more control less power than the Red.

So on the face of it, although I had more difficulty with the Tour on backhands and serving, it is definitely the racket that I prefer of the two. The Red is fine but too light and I would be inclined to add some weights to it. The tour has that magical blend of control with power (the order here is important for my game). However I am worried about the extra weight for me of the Tour compared to my current racket.

I have the chance to play again tomorrow, mostly doubles, and will persevere with the Tour to see if it is a racket that I would seriously consider buying.

2006 - New season

2006-01-06T17:28:00.000Z

Happy New Year but it's back to work, sigh, however the good news is there's been plenty of tennis. Thank goodness for Eurosport who have been showing live matches from the Qatar Open at Doha and recordings from matches at Chennai. No coverage however from the WTA matches at Adelaide, Auckland the Aussie Gold Coast or Hong Kong exhibition. Let's not forget the Hopman Cup either won by the USA.

The Eurosport tennis website has also been more up to date than the BBC tennis website which is quite disappointing lately.

I'm still hitting once a week and have had a chance to demo two Prince O3 rackets, which is something I've longed to do all during 2005. I will blog about them next.

Ticking over

2005-12-31T11:03:00.000Z

It's been quite cold in the UK over the last few days, temperatures below zero even in the South where I live. I went for a run in the cold after Xmas which was not pleasant and had to worry about not stepping on ice patches. Last night it was warmer and I had my regular weekly hit with a coach and was hitting better than him. My wrist is better but my arm still slightly bothering me, even when I'm not or havn't been playing!

At last there is some tennis activity with the Hopman Cup as many of the players, men and women gather in Australia, although there are other tournaments elsewhere in the world.

Most of the news at the moment is about the return of Martina Hingis to the tour, and some discussion on the injury toll from 2005, with both Safin and Nadal still injured.

Interesting list of predictions for 2006. Not sure I agree with all of them and will have to think about my own list.

Last hit before Xmas break

2005-12-23T20:53:00.000Z

Today I went to the club and had my last hit before Xmas. Alas my wrist is playing up once more! This is since last Sunday when I played for two hours. I don't think there's a specific injury but just general inflammation and tendonitis. Just when I my arm has been getting better, something else flares up.

It seems Roger Federer shares my enthusiasm for going to Australia at this time of year. Of course he has business to attend to with Tony Roche, but I find it strange he plans on playing in Doha before Kooyang and the Australian Open. I don't think I could cope with all the travel fatigue and jet-lag. I suppose he feels obliged to defend his Doha 2005 title, and the points.

What can I say about Puerta? A ban for eight years is the end of his career. I will leave the comments to Boris Becker.

Happy Christmas.

A winter game, in Australia

2005-12-19T22:55:00.000Z

Judging by the photo and reports from Australia about Jelena Dokic's success in qualifying for an Australian Open wildcard by winning the playoff's, maybe I should think about spending my winters there. Certainly a trip to the slam in Melbourne is something to dream about.

At least Eurosport usually shows the event in the UK. So that's something to look forward to.

A winter game

2005-12-18T23:11:00.000Z

The latest issue of British Tennis magazine has an article about playing outside in the winter, something I've blogged about in the last few weeks. Last night was the coldest so far this winter in the south, -3 degrees C on my neighbours min-max garden thermometer.

Although I've hit with one of the coaches a few times lately I've missed a few club sessions, but encouraged by the magazine article and the bright sunshine during the day, I turned out Sunday evening and played for two hours, first hour doubles and second hour singles. My form was pretty good considering I'm not playing much at the moment. The temperature was a balmy 6 degrees.

I agree entirely with Andy Murray's choice of Barcelona as his base.

ATP and WTA 2006 tour schedule

2005-12-13T20:56:00.000Z

The ATP schedule for 2006 has been published as a pdf here or non-pdf by the BBC here.

The WTA schedule for 2006 has been published here or by the BBC here.

Tennis doldrums

2005-12-09T17:44:00.000Z

Not much time for blogging or tennis with work related end of year activity taking me around the country. Ah, the pleasure of cheap hotel rooms and driving in torrential wind and rain, or on icy roads for early morning starts.

I have played twice since my outing to the Seniors Masters Tennis as reported in my last blog, which was won by Paul Haarhuis. I saw the match on BBC. Courier was outgunned in the first set, but like a true champion he made Haarhuis, who was clearly in the zone, have to keep the level up in order to win. Myself, I tried to carry over the inspiration gained from watching Courier and Bruguera play in my own games, and to some extent that worked.

The good news is that my arm is nearly recovered from the golfer's elbow I first reported back in May and I am back to using my regular racket. I no longer have pain doing normal activity, stretching or playing, and have stopped the regular icing and application of NSAID creams. I will maintain a low schedule in winter until it's completely gone and just hope the corrections I have made to my forehand, along with the forearm strengthening will prevent a recurrence next year.

For all tennis elbow sufferers this sounds interesting. Or scary!

There's a few interesting items in the world of tennis:

McEnroe will play on the ATP Tour again
Croatia won the Davis Cup
Hingis will play on the WTA Tour again
Dokic is an Australian again
Hewitt is a Dad
The men's double fiasco is closer to being resolved
The Williams sisters are still making news off-court
This is worth a read

Seniors Masters Tour at the Royal Albert Hall

2005-12-03T00:11:00.000Z

On Friday I spent the afternoon with my daughter at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the Masters tennis from the Seniors Delta Tour of Champions.

We saw Courier v Pioline and Bruguera v Jarryd. Two matches of contrasting styles.

Courier beat Pioline 6-4 7-5 and his legendary inside out forehand was working well, as was his serve. Pioline on the other hand was not at his best at the net and his serve was not firing well enough to serve-volley. Even so, Courier was made to work for his win. Power was most evidence in this match.

Bruguera beat Jarryd 6-4 6-4 and I was stunned by his magical clay-court style albeit on a medium fast indoor hard court surface. He mixed heavy top spin on both sides with slice also on both sides (forehand too), and showed deft touches with lobs and drop shots. Jarryd was uneasy coping with the heavy topspin, and this was something that pinned Jarryd back such that he was unable to effectively show his skill at the net from being a former world no.1 at doubles. This was a match of skill and finesse.

Tomorrow in one semi-final Courier will face McEnroe who beat Muster, much to my surprise. Just goes to show what a competitor and tennis player McEnroe is. In the other semi-final Bruguera takes on Haarhuis who as I remember used to be Sampras' nemesis.

The matches were played with the hawk-eye line system. The players were able to challenge calls they thought were incorrect. Courier asked for a few and was right about half of the time and it was the same case for Bruguera. It was interesting to see Bruguera apologized at one stage to Jarryd for incorrectly challenging a call.

We also saw an 'entertaining' doubles match with Chris Wilkinson and Henri Leconte v Mikael Pernfors and Joakim Nystrom. Chris Wilkinson, former UK no.1 and current over-35 world champion played very solidly and Henry Leconte showed his usual skill despite growing midriff, and they really won quite comfortably 6-1 6-4.

Tags : Hawk-eye, Royal Albert Hall, Courier, Pioline, Jarryd, Bruguera, Seniors Tour, Masters Tennis

Club night (28) cool doubles

2005-11-27T22:54:00.000Z

Sunday's club night was better than last week, with four of us turning out, three men and one lady. The weather was still quite cold but above freezing and very damp. We played doubles and rotated the players after every set and played for a couple of hours.

Well I didn't win any tickets to the Aberdeen Cup and couldn't watch it on TV since SKY had exclusive rights, so the good old BBC tells us what happened. Seems that although Rusedski and Murray had honors even after two matches, Scotland beat England overall. Scottish tennis is certainly on the up.

Tags : Aberdeen Cup

Club night (27) what a difference

2005-11-24T23:40:00.000Z

What a difference a day makes. Turn out at Tuesday's club night was fantastic with 10 of us there. All men. So we had several good sessions of doubles and singles. The weather was slightly warmer, 4-5 degrees C but very damp which made the hard-courts slightly dodgy. The weekend weather outlook is wintry however, so Sunday club night coming will be interesting again. My form was mixed and I just couldn't make much impact against some of the better players. I think it's because I haven't been playing much, or competitively, lately - well not since summer really.

There was some discussion about the Federer - Nalbandian match, with feedback from the lucky ones who had seen it on Sky Sports. Maybe I should switch from NTL.

There's still a few events left to look forward to before Christmas:

I am visiting the Seniors Masters Tennis next week where McEnroe opens against Bruguera.
The Davis Cup final should be a cracker, especially if it's on Eurosport.
I entered a competition at the BBC to get tickets for the inaugural Aberdeen cup where Scotland take on England.
Maybe Eurosport will show the Spanish Masters.

Any others?

Not tennis, PC malware

2005-11-21T22:05:00.000Z

It's funny how things turn out. First I infected my PC, rather stupidly, with a mix of spyware and adware.

Then, like most folks I got caught up in the furore over the Sony DRM mess.

Well I was suspicious that my PC was not clean because I kept getting unexpected pop-ups whilst surfing, and eventually Zone Labs complained about sendeapi.exe.

It was because I had been reading Mark Russinovich's blog about the Sony mess that I decided to try the RootRevealer tool from sysinternals security utilities, and lo I had indeed a hidden infection. Thanks to the Forum I was able to clean it up using further advice by Calamity Jane here.

Tags : sendeapi.exe, Mark Russinovich, www.sysinternals.com

Club night (26) practise wall

2005-11-21T21:41:00.000Z

Sunday night was even colder, and although I was prepared for that, I was not prepared for being the only one to turn out! I spent 20 minutes hitting against the practise wall and decided every one else knew better than me after all, and went home!

So congratulations to David Nalbandian on his Masters victory,especially over Roger Federer. Didn't Nalbandian used to be Federer's nemesis? The BBC put some photo's here.

Club night (25) colder still

2005-11-18T23:35:00.000Z

Friday club night was miserable with the temperature hovering around freezing. There was a thin layer of frost and ice on my car when I left home for the club. This time I dressed sensibly.

Turn out was poor which is hardly surprising. All the sensible folks stayed home whilst the youngsters no doubt hit the clubs and bars as usual for a Friday evening.

I hit with one of the coaches and even worked up a sweat. This instantly turned into an 'ice-vest' when I stopped playing.

I am disappointed that Eurosport is not able to show recordings from the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, so I've been following events as best I can using the BBC's tennis site, but even that has been poor. Thank goodness for Court Coverage, and given my moan about the WTA Championship web-site the Master's Cup web-site is much better.

Tags: Tennis Masters Cup, Court Coverage

Not tennis but Sony DRM

2005-11-16T20:01:00.000Z

Given an earlier rant in one of my first posts about CD DRM from EMI and BMG I am really not surprised by the activities of Sony and eventual climb down.

OK so we won a battle, but as Bill Thompson at the BBC says we will probably lose the war. He had previously argued that the fans should decide but I don't think the average fan with their latest iPod, MP3 player or mobile phone with MP3 cares as long as they have the latest gadget. It's a pity and I for one have spent some of my own money supporting the Electronic Freedom Foundation.

Unfortunately the company I work for supports the Trusted Computing Initiative and I hope the EFF's voice gets heard.

Tags : EFF, DRM, Sony rootkit, BMG, XCP, TCG

Club night (24) colder

2005-11-16T19:24:00.000Z

Tuesday's club night was slightly colder outside than my previous blog, and I spoke too soon about it being unseasonably warm as the UK weather forecast is even colder. Last night it was 7 degrees C (45 Fahrenheit) and again I turned out again in shorts, which was a mistake. But the bigger mistake was a single short sleeved top and jacket. I really needed another under-vest or T-shirt. I will be playing again Friday evening which has warnings of overnight -1C. What to wear? I will be playing singles so will develop a sweat, but need to keep warm at the beginning and end. Sounds like I need thermal layers. This is tennis UK style!

Turn out last night was pretty good and I played a round robin of singles and doubles amongst other men. This was good as some are clearly better than me, although I feel able to cope but just not consistently enough at the same level. My regular doubles partner and I won our turn however, even though we were both slightly below par.

Once my arm injury has healed and I can practise more often I'm going to work on early preparation, taking the ball early, serve and tactics. Probably in the spring next year.

Club night (23) triples and cold

2005-11-14T13:15:00.000Z

Quiet at club night last night, only three of us turned up so we played two on one and rotated after three games. I've blogged about this before.

The temperature playing outside was about 9 degrees C, and was a bit chilly for only a single top and wearing shorts. It's been down to 5C in the UK but that's still unseasonably warm. I remember when the first ground frosts would start towards the end of October and we're nowhere near that. I also remember from last year that I start wearing a tracksuit bottom when the temperature is around 7C.

Playing in cooler weather is always a concern for keeping warm and avoiding injuries. I was playing quite well, apart from my serve which was erratic. In this cooler weather the balls fly quite slow, and are reluctant to bounce. Then there's the glare from the outdoor flood-lighting which is needed in these dark evenings.

WTA Chamionships

2005-11-14T13:02:00.000Z

Well done to Amelie Mauresmo on winning the seasons ending WTA Tour Championships.

Get all the news here, well maybe *NOT*. What an absolute let down of a web-site for this prestigious season ending event.

Surely the WTA could have done better than this? Or maybe it's all part of the ploy to get you to go here to find out more. Pics here.

Club night (22)

2005-11-13T10:58:00.000Z

Club night mix in this week had the usual suspects. My regular doubles partner and I were both struggling to find some form and clawed back a set from 1-5 down to eventually win it 7-5. It wasn't pretty tennis and we both just cut down the errors and ground out the win. The second set was better and we deserved it 6-1.

I see my predictions in the previous post have jinxed both Lindsay Davenport and Kim Clijsters with the two French women in the final at the WTA Tour Championship.

So Lindsay finishes no.1 anyway, which after thoughts of retirement is amazing reward, and Kim has had a successful come back year topped with her first Grand Slam.

So what of Pierce v Mauresmo. The popular vote has to be for Mauresmo who has never won a Grand Slam and to win the year end Championship would compensate a bit for that. Can she hold her nerve though?

Tags : Lindsay Davenport, Kim Clijsters, Amelie Mauresmo, Mary Pierce

ATP doubles news

2005-11-07T21:28:00.000Z

The Times online has an interesting story about the doubles fiasco on the ATP tour. This sounds really promising.

WTA Tour championship preview. I normally like to predict the winner at the Grand Slams, and wished Kim to her success in the US Open. So it has to be a Clijsters v Davenport final with Kim prevailing.

Technorati Tags : ATP doubles tennis., WTA Tour Championship

Club night (21) and PC adware

2005-11-06T21:47:00.000Z

I have played at the club two nights in a row now, slowly recovering my form. My movement is better, but backhand lacks power. My arm is sore but holding up as I've said before. I will be playing league singles matches over the winter so I need to improve.

I have not been able to post for a few days since my PC got infected with some adware, VX2 and others I believe. It was my own fault, safe surfing and all that, I ignored a rule deliberately and got burnt. That was a lesson in itself, and removing the various malicious files was another set of lessons I had to go through and could have done without. I now have half a dozen spyware and adware scanners, and related cleaning tools which I hope I don't actually need in the future.

Congratulations to Tomas Berdych for his win in Paris, didn't Murray beat him recently? Congratulations too to Amelie Mauresmo for her win in Philadelphia.

Tags : Tomas Berdych, Amelie Mauresmo, VX2, adware

Club night (20), UK no.1 2005

2005-11-02T18:02:00.000Z

After several weeks absence I went to my first mid-week semi-serious club night session last night. Turn-out was low which surprised me since there's not much else to do, for a tennis player, in these long dark evenings. On the positive side most of the people who turned up were solid players. So I played a mixture of singles and doubles, and was playing quite well with my backhand marginally improving but still not where it used to be.

My arm is holding up quite well today, sore but no more than it was before. So I think I have fixed the forehand action that was causing the injury and just need to give it time to heal. This will probably take a few months since I will continue playing although at a reduced frequency.

I haven't read the book Duel for the Crown about Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski in 1998, but it is general if unsubstantiated knowledge that the two players are not friends by choice. So I am sure that Rusedski's charm at his press conference at not finishing no.1 in the UK at year-end hides a bitter and deep felt disappointment. Conversely Henman must be secretly pleased although disappointed with his latest injury.

Next year is going to be interesting for Henman, Rusedski and now Murray the new kid on the block. It's going to be interesting anyway with the other youngsters, Roddick still without a Grand Slam and of course the ongoing Russian and American saga with the women's tour. Hooray for Patty Schynder qualifying for the season ending championships.

Tags : Henman, Rusedski, Murray, Roddick, Schynder, Staples center Los Angeles

Club night (19) hooray

2005-10-31T23:25:00.000Z

Went along to club night doubles mix-in last night and had a good time. Some rustiness as I mentioned on my previous post, mainly movement and slightly wayward backhand. I was also conscious how fast the game is, or how slow my reactions or anticipation is, having been away for a while.

This morning my arm felt quite stiff and sore, but it eased during the day. At the moment I plan on playing again tomorrow at the club singles and doubles mix-in, so that will be a real test. Three sessions, one every alternate day, will tell me how it's holding up.

I've been keeping an eye on the seniors tour which has just completed its penultimate tournament with a win by Goran Ivanisevic. Now I know which players will be at the Albert Hall for the Masters which I'm looking forward to going to with my daughter. The players are: McEnroe, Thomas Muster, Cedric Pioline, Pat Cash, Jim Courier, Sergi Bruguera, Anders Jarryd, Krajicek, Haarhuis and Mikael Pernfors.

I would love to know what happened to Muster at Essen to lose to Pat Cash 0-6, 1-6. That must have been a really bad day at the office, or Pat was on fire.

Tags : Delta Tour of Champions, Essen, Thomas, Muster, Pat Cash, Albert Hall, seniors tennis

First hit for 3 weeks

2005-10-29T23:57:00.000+01:00

Visited the club last night and hit with one of the younger coaches for an hour. I was hitting the ball quite well on forehand, slightly less so on the backhand, so on the drills and exercises we did for the first 40 minutes I was in surprisingly good form given that I have not played for 3 weeks. When we played a few games however the rustiness showed, mainly on movement and anticipation.

My arm felt really solid with no pain whilst playing, but some soreness today, although I have other general soreness in the shoulder and legs so I'm not too concerned. Will wait and see how I feel on Sunday before deciding whether to try Sunday nights regular doubles session.

Clocks go back tonight, that means dark at 5pm in the UK, and getting darker earlier as we move to December 21st. I hate it.

Henman v Murray, post match analysis

2005-10-26T20:20:00.000+01:00

Well I was going to blog some thoughts before the match. Roughly my thinking was along the lines of:

Henman hasn't played much lately because of his back injury and when he has played he hasn't been convincing; but will have something to prove against Murray. It's called pride.
Murray is on a high and the player on form, and although he too has not played in the last month because of an injury should have the confidence to take the game to Henman. Also he is ambitious.
On balance Murray could well have the edge, but it's too close to call.

Well thanks to Eurosport I was able to watch the match and although it wasn't particularly good tennis Murray took it, just. I felt that in the end Henman didn't have the belief and it could have gone either way. Both players showed flashes of brilliance but overall it wasn't a classic.

I'm sure the UK newspaper media tomorrow will be shouting about the changing of the guard, and that's probably going to be true over the next year or so, but if Henman can get fit over the closed season and stay fit next year I think he still has the game to be competitive. Probably not top 10 but top 50 for sure. The question is will he be satisfied with that?

As I've already mentioned Murray has some competition from other teenagers, so although he could crack the top 20 which is his goal for next year it's going to be tough.

As for my own tennis, I've been doing some arm strengthening exercises as well as my normal exercise routine. For example I went for a run today. Although my arm still has some soreness I will hit with a coach on Friday and see how it holds up. In the past when I've had long term chronic injuries such as jumpers knee, back stiffness or tennis elbow, I've been able to return to the game without the condition completely clear, but slowly recovered by protecting the injury and continuing with the rehabilitation. Since I play less in winter anyway let's hope this works again.

Tags : tennis, David Swiss Indoors, Henman, Murray, Eurosport

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Back home

2005-10-22T14:49:00.000+01:00

Back home after flying on a Virgin red-eye from JFK. The new airtrain system is awesome and takes you direct to the Hertz parking lot from your terminal. The flight was pretty smooth and took less than 6 hours. I have picked up a raging sore throat during my time in the states, probably the start of a nasty head and chest cold, and still have a sore arm. Can't blame Virgin for either of them. Suffering from the time difference too today as I only managed about 3 hours of dozing on the plane.

Drove along the Van Wyck Expressway (why do they call it an expressway? - it crawls) which is nearly alongside the USTA National Tennis Center where the Arthur Ashe stadium is clearly visible but dwarfed by the even grander Shea stadium. That's probably the closest I will get to the US Open.

Went for a short run but took it easy and hit a few balls against a practise wall for 10 minutes. After a sedentary week of conferencing I just want to ease back into the demands made on the body by the motion and movements of playing tennis.

Trying to catch up on tennis news, I see Nadal is still on the ascendancy and Robby Ginepri is continuing his good run in the second half of this year. They play each other next in Madrid.

Technorati Tags : JFK airtrain, Virgin atlantic

Missing tennis

2005-10-21T03:13:00.000+01:00

I'm still in NY State and missing tennis and exercise. Strangely my arm is still quite sore even though I have not played for nearly two weeks. I'm beginning to worry that the stretching exercises I'm doing are keeping the inflammation active. I will restart strengthening exercises when I return at the weekend. First thing I will do is go for a run to get all this American gaseous food bloat out of my system.

Well done to Lindsay Davenport no.1 again.

This post is just an excuse to try out the Qumana blog editor, after I received an email from Luan. The reason it took my interest is that it seemed as if Luan actually read, at least the last entry of, my blog. I had already downloaded Qumana ready to give it a try after reading James Governor at MonkChips a couple of weeks ago. It still doesn't do drafts though :-(

Tags : Qumana

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Richard Gasquet and me

2005-10-14T22:51:00.000+01:00

Sad to hear that Richard Gasquet is out for the rest of the season with an elbow injury.

A bit like me! I wish.

It doesn't say if the injury is the same as mine, golfers elbow.

I last played a week ago, and my arm felt pretty good two days later so I'm hoping I'm nearly OK. I have not been blogging or playing mainly because of work, and next week I'm in NY State in the US, also work. So I'm using this time to exercise and rehabilitate my arm by stretches and strength building. There's still some pain so I'm taking it slowly at the moment, but I hope to start playing again on Friday 28th.

Interesting to read Guy Forget's comments about Gasquet, and Monfils. I wonder why John Wertheim raves about Monfils but not Gasquet?

Tags: Richard Gasquet, Gail Monfils

Playing with asthma

2005-10-07T19:38:00.000+01:00

With the interesting story behind Alex Bogomolov's ban and the oncoming winter season in the UK, I thought I would write about playing with asthma.

As an asthmatic I am quite lucky that my asthma is not severe and under good control. This was not always the case. Things improved in my mid 30's when I changed my sedentary lifestyle to a more active one with regular walking and gardening, and additionally started taking Beclomethasone which is an inhaled steroid. Further changes included taking up tennis and the associated aerobic fitness exercise (running, cycling) that is needed to maintain a good standard of play. I still occasionally need to take a Ventolin inhaler, which contains salbutamol the drug that was detected in Alex Bogomolov's test, but typically this is only if I get a heavy chest cold or cough, or sometmes in cold weather.

Playing tennis, running or exercise in cold weather with asthma needs some precautions. A slow build up or warm up is needed to prevent the irritation caused by cold air that can trigger asthma. I usually do a 10-15 minute warm up anyway before playing tennis, summer or winter, and then in winter when the air is cold will take a pre-tennis puff on the Ventolin inhaler.

Like many asthmatics I am allergic to aspirin and some NSAID's such as Ibuprofen. This is a pity since not be able to orally take anti-inflammatories for injuries can be a problem. However I have found by trial and error that the NSAID creams and gels, Movelat, Voltarol and BIOFREEZE, mentioned here are tolerated just fine by me. I do have some problems with some of the smellier creams, such as Deep Heat or Radian B, which typically have menthol or some other strong smelling agent. It's the smell which my lungs are unhappy with and not the absorption of the NSAID through the skin.

More information at these links:
http://www.sma.org.au/sportstrainers/hints/asthma.asp
http://www.lung.ca/asthma/exercise/athletes.html
http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/1997/03mar/storms.htm
http://www.nationalasthma.org.au/publications/amh/st_sport.htm

Tags: Alex Bogomolov, asthma

When is losing 3-6 5-7 also a win?

2005-10-02T20:28:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Andy Murray for making his first ATP tour final against Roger Federer the worlds no1. Sadly, but also like Federer, Murray lost in his first final. The BBC is even changing its regular and publshed program schedule to show it on TV in the UK, albeit at the 'enthusiasts time' of 22:55. Of course these days it's easy to tape, record to DVD or Tivo what you watch and since it's not live that's probably what I will do too.

I played on Friday with one of the club coaches, following some of the Junior sessions at the club. The youngsters were buzzing with Murray's progress to the finals, and it certainly does seem to be giving the grass roots a lift, and not just the UK media.

Bad luck on Tim Henman the other long suffering stalwart of British tennis, whose withdrawal from the Thailand Open made room for Murray and who has now had to withdraw from the Japan Open. Henman is certainly a class act who was never appreciated by the UK media, and I fear that a bad back will make it tough for him to get back into the top 10. I hope he is able to prove me wrong but a back injury is tough to deal with, as Agassi is finding out.

Tags: Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Tim Henman,

Club night (18) losing with style!

2005-09-28T20:07:00.000+01:00

Club night attendance was down again last night, possibly because of the football. I played a mixture of singles and mens doubles for two hours which was enough for me as my foot starting hurting towards the end (sore toe, don't ask).

Although I was hitting the ball and moving well, I didn't win any of my singles matches. The problem was that despite hitting good shots and covering the court quite well, the ball kept coming back! Time to learn how to play tennis rather than just hit great shots.

It reminds me of the time Agassi dropped back into the Challengers in an attempt to recover his game after a slump in the mid 90's. I saw him on TV play Becker on one of his first regular tournaments when he was regaining some of his form, and trying to re-establish his ATP rankings. Agassi was playing great, with the terrific groundstrokes he has and pounding Becker. But Becker kept getting the ball back, and sometimes with more than he had received. Then Agassi would pick the wrong shot, still terrific stroke and technique mind you, but the poor shot selection was enough for Becker to finsh it off.

In other words, you can have great shots and technique but you need to learn the tactics of the game of tennis and how to exploit your opponents weakness. Just what Brad Gilbert says in Winning Ugly. I've been concentrating a lot lately on improving my groundstroke technique, and worrying about injury niggles, and I've let that side of my game go a bit. Except in doubles where I like to think am still very tactically astute.

Tags: tennis, Agassi, Becker, Brad Gilbert

Club night (17) mixed doubles

2005-09-26T07:48:00.000+01:00

Played mixed doubles last night at the club mix-in. My lady partner was nursing an injured leg so I was doing a lot of covering and running, which was great. My form carried over from Friday and I was seeing and hitting the ball quite well. We clawed it back from 3-5 down to win 7-5.

Iced my arm when I got home, and it's not too bad today. Still sore but nothing new as far as I can tell. I've been saying that for weeks though.

Croatia v Slovakia in the final of the Davis Cup. Amazing and with such good wins over Russia and Argentina. I once sat next to Dominik Hrbaty, I think it was at either London Olympia or Docklands when there used to be an ATP event in London other than Wimbledon. In fact he came and sat next to me as he watched his compatriot Jan Kroslak lose to either Tim Henman or Thomas Johansson, or was it Krajiceck. I really don't remember as it was a few years ago now.

Played again, inspired by Andy Murray

2005-09-24T23:15:00.000+01:00

Played again yesterday, for the first time in a nearly a week after resting my arm. Five days rest is probably not long enough, but today it has not reacted too badly. Some slight tenderness over the medial epicondyle but no stiffness or undue soreness.

I went back yet again to using my old Prince Triple Threat Graphite racket, which I find quite comfortable and the extra weight compared to my regular racket is hopefully better for my arm while it heals. I hit with one of the club coaches and we played a few games. My form was quite good, and my arm did not hurt whilst we were hitting or playing except on two occasions, a high volley and a mishit serve.

I am due to play again on Sunday, but might give it some more rest. We'll see.

I did watch the Davis Cup doubles on TV, and for the first time out of the few occasions I have seen him, was quite impressed with Andy Murray. He was very solid and capable all round even in front of Roger Federer. In fact he seemed to show up some weaknesses in Federer's doubles game on occasions, passing or beating him regularly. I don't think Federer played that well, but well enough to win I suppose. To say that future tennis hopes of a nation rest on Murray is really quite unfair, and for the media to expect him to win in the opening singles was optimistic given the rankings of the players.

I have seen Murray in person, at the Superset tennis in London Wembley Arena last year. He played and lost to McEnroe 6-1, and that was quite an opener. In the very first game with Mac serving, Mac initially stayed back and it was clear that Murray's groundstrokes would overwhelm him. So McEnroe switched to his normal game, at the net, and that was the end. However McEnroe was quick to heap praise on Murray and has continued to do so. There's quite a few useful male teenager tennis players around, Murray, Monfils, Gasquet, Berdych, Nadal, Mathieu; who have I missed?

What did happen to Superset tennis? It certainly seemed to fill Wembley Arena with a non-traditional tennis crowd, mostly full of exuberant youth that the LTA seems to want to encourage to take up tennis. I was quite an 'oldie' amongst the crowd but thoroughly enjoyed the event as well.

Tags: Andy Murray, McEnroe, Superset tennis

Under siege in the Davis Cup

2005-09-23T22:17:00.000+01:00

Well I suppose it was to be expected that without Tim Henman, and with Greg Rusedski being tactically rested, it was going to be a mountain to climb.

2-0 down on the opening day of the Davis Cup is the worst we could have expected and it's happened.

Let's hope that for Andrew Murray it's all good experience for his future, and I am sure Alam Mackin will have enjoyed the masterclass lesson from Roger Federer and it may help his own career.

Do we really have a chance with the doubles? As an enthusiast I'll be watching on TV.

Tags: Davis Cup

Forearm and Wrist exerciser

2005-09-21T18:59:00.000+01:00

I have got an exerciser like the one shown which is from Gripstik. The one I have is several years old, and is called 'The Advantage' but I cannot find the original model or manufacturer on the web.

I remembered I had it after searching for wrist and forearm exercises to help my recovery from golfers elbow and came across wrist roller devices. I was just about to go and make my own wrist roller, from a broomstick and weight when I remembered that I had the Gripstik type device stored away somewhere.

I have started using it and it sure makes the hands sore which I'm going to have to watch, but in no time at all it pumps the forearms up, so I hope that means a good blood flow with improved vascularization to my injured elbow tendons.

It should supplement my Powerball which has fallen into disuse lately.

Tags:Gripstik, wrist and forearm exercise, golfers elbow

Resting and thinking of the Seniors.

2005-09-20T20:33:00.000+01:00

I have only played a couple of times lately because I am trying to rest and recover from some of the current injuries, golfers elbow and chest strain, and just general soreness. In fact the rest is only from tennis as I use the time to do recovery stretching and strength building. I will blog about my own exercise routines sometime.

I do hope Jim Courier makes it to the end of year Masters tournament, following his win in Paris, since I have tickets for the semi-finals day at the Royal Albert Hall. I have been going to this Seniors event, now called the Delta Tour of Champions for several years, and saw Courier defeat McEnroe last year.

I have also seen other players including Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg, both against McEnroe (he won), also Boris Becker, Peter Korda, Pat Cash, Guy Forget, Henri Leconte, Yannick Noah, Mansour Bahrami, Ilie Nastase, Mikael Perfors, John Lloyd, Jeremy Bates, and others.

I have not yet had the pleasure of watching Sergei Bruguera or Thomas Muster. I used to be a fan of Muster, despite his grinding style of play. I remember watching on TV a hardcourt tournament in the US, where Sampras defeated Muster in the finals, and amazingly Sampras played mainly from the back of the court instead of his usual serve and volley. At the time it seemed as if Sampras was saying I'm the no.1 and can beat you at your own game.

Tags: Seniors Tennis

Club night (16) quiet again

2005-09-15T22:11:00.000+01:00

Despite the new injury, which I iced on and off for two days after it occurred I went along to the usual Tuesday evening club mix-in. I held back on serving and mostly used my (flat!) topspin second serve.It was a bit sore, and still is but it's healing.

What was surprising was the low turnout, only five of us. I wonder what was going on in the UK on the evening of Tuesday 13th September that kept so many folks away? Maybe it was the hangover from celebrating the previous days sporting success.

Also seems quiet without the US Open, it's like somethings missing.

Tags: Cricket, Ashes

Resplendent Roger

2005-09-12T13:35:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately I have not had the privilege of watching Roger Federer in person so this photo comes courtesy of the BBC and ATP. What an inspiration to all us club hackers and dinkers.

Special mention too of the achievements of Andre Agassi in reaching the final, and beating some good players on the way. What an inspiration to older players like me!

Tags: Roger Federer, Andre Agassi

Kim Clijsters US Open champion

2005-09-11T12:13:00.000+01:00

Well it was nearly a prediction that Kim Clijsters would win the US Open, and she has. What a story!

I took the photo in Eastbourne where she was also the winner of the tournament this year.

Tags: Eastbourne, Kim Clijsters, Hastings Direct
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Another injury, oh boy!

2005-09-10T23:22:00.000+01:00

Had an excellent hitting session with a coach today, working on movement, depth, short balls. I'm still trying to improve power on the backhand with a full eastern grip and and fix the forehand contact point. We played three games at the end where I won one, and took one to several deuces. I didn't get a single point on his service game though.

Unfortunately I pulled a muscle serving. It feels quite deep and just below the collar bone in the front center of the chest. Based on this anatomy chart I think it's either the Subclavius or the Supraspinatus or the Pectoralis Major muscle.

Clicking on the link for the Pectoralis Major leads to this drawing where I have circled the point of pain which is where the muscle attaches to the head of the Clavicular.

I applied an ice pack when I got home, can't compress the area but will skip my regular Sunday club session since it's quite painful (after saying that I never rest too!).

Waiting for the US Open ladies final and watching the live scoreboard of the Federer - Hewitt semi. I'm rooting for Kim and Roger.

ATP tour proposed doubles changes

2005-09-10T11:54:00.000+01:00

The proposed doubles changes on the mens ATP Tour have caused quite a storm with some players suing the ATP, and that includes winners from the mens doubles and mixed doubles at the US Open.

Jon Wertheim discussed it in his mailbag here and here . I think he has it pretty much about right. At club level in the UK most of us play doubles most of the time and we certainly don't want to change the game scoring format. Let's hope the WTA do not come under similar pressure from the tournaments to propose similar changes.

However I can see the point of view from the tournament directors if they perceive that doubles is a drain on expenses and not the same revenue earner as singles. In business however, although we try to cut expenses, we also try to improve the sales or marketing of the end product first. So for those reasons I hope the ATP changes do not endure and some alternative comes to the rescue.

Update: Just found this site in support of the players.

Tags: ATP,ATP Tour doubles, Jon Wertheim

Two pro rackets compared

2005-09-08T22:08:00.000+01:00

I had the chance to hit with two pro rackets, the Wilson nSix-One Tour as used by Roger Federer and the Prince O3 tour as used by Guillermo Coria. The two rackets are very different.

The Wilson is quite heavy at 12.4ozs/352gms, solid and chunky and I would never buy or use one as I don't have the strength, strokes or skill to handle it effectively. I can see why the pro's use it though so if you are an advanced player and have the strength, strokes and technique then you should try it. I think I understand now what they mean by a 'players racket'.

I have raved at a distance about the new Prince O3 rackets when I also wrote about the Head Flexpoint Radical. The O3 Tour weighs in at at 11.6oz/319gms so is quite light for a male pro's racket. Compared to the Wilson I preferred it, but am surpised that Coria uses it as I would not have considered it to be a 'players racket'. It is not as heavy, or as strong as the Wilson and has more power. Maybe Coria strings it really tight? I certainly liked the O3 Tour and when I have some cash to spare will consider taking one out for an extended trial.

Just for a laugh I got out my collectors wooden Dunlop Maxply Fort Tour racket (link is to a great great web site by the way!) and weighed it. Strung, it weighs 14.5ozs/412gms and the head seems tiny! See here for a discussion on using wooden rackets.

Tags: Tennis rackets, Wilson nSix-One Tour, Prince O3 Tour, Head Flexpoint Radical, Dunlop Maxply Fort

British wheelchair tennis champions

2005-09-07T17:01:00.000+01:00

Probably not a well know fact but in the UK we have a number 1 world ranked tennis player in Peter Norfolk who plays in the Wheelchair Tennis quads.

We also have Jayant Mistry in the top 20 singles rankings hoping to do well in the US Open following his success at Wimbledon this year.

I have seen the occasional wheelchair player at our local indoor tennis center. The rules are slightly different and the local players I have seen all have good shots, mainly slice. with excellent hand to eye co-ordination and of course outstanding upper body strength and athletic ability. The players I have seen usually play doubles alongside legged players and are quite capable of holding their own. Their wheelchairs are the very essence of technology and not the sort of thing to run around town in and do the shopping.

Tags: wheelchair tennis

The winter season approaches

2005-09-07T12:14:00.000+01:00

School has started after the long summer break, it's nearly dark at 8 p.m, court prices have gone up at the local public tennis center and David Lloyd, and the summer club schedule has given way to the closed season schedule. Gloomy thoughts of approaching winter. But at least the weather is bright and sunny, 23 degrees. Oh, maybe it's the global warming, gloom again.

Played at the club mix-in last night. Trying out my new full eastern backhand grip , not very successfully. Not sure whether to persevere with this or not. It gives me more power for a topspin backhand but so far less control. Also trying to improve my forehand with earlier take back and fuller swing. This was partially successful and I hit a couple of outstanding shots. Yes I know it should be more than a couple, but my forehand is usually pretty solid anyway, I just want to make it a weapon.

My long shot picks for the US Open have gone, Patty Schynder, Richard Gasquet. The others, who were more or less favourites anyway are still there. The surprise is James Blake. What a story that would be, to go with Kim Clijsters, if they were both to win. If Kim gets past Maria Sharapova in the next round then you really have to fancy her chances. James has to get past Andre, and of course Roger is still working his way to the final.

Just found the revolutionary tennis site.

Treating injuries

2005-09-06T23:32:00.000+01:00

This is how I handle moderate injuries, like strains, sprains, muscle and ligament pulls and tendinitis, etc. At 50+ I seem to get a lot! I use the I.C.N.H method adapted from R.I.C.E since I almost never rest or stop unless the injury hurts sufficiently whilst playing to stop me from enjoying playing. I have stopped on occasions for a sore back, jumpers knee and wrist fracture, and more recently for golfers elbow. The N stands for NSAID or alternatively Novasonic and the H stands for Heat. So, Ice first, then compress, then apply an NSAID externally, then in the later stages of healing use Heat, but see the link below on cool packs for a further discussion.

The application of ice immediately after an injury occurs, and for the next 2-3 days is aimed at reducing inflammation, and this does reduce short term stiffness, swelling and pain. I have a stock of cool packs that I keep in the freezer, much to my wife's annoyance, and often make use of them after playing.

To keep playing with small injuries or niggles I swear by the Movelat and Voltarol gels. Other players at the club say that the various Ibuprofen gels, an example is Ibuleve are effective. The sports injury book I use from the U.S recommends BENGAY and I remember the smell of Tiger Balm, still available in the UK, from my youth. The drugs or active constituents in these are NSAID's. It is not clear if the external application of NSAID's actually aids healing, and most strain or sprain type of injuries will heal themselves if you rest. The ointments I mention do appear to ease the pain in my case, possibly by reducing the inflammation or maybe just by the massage effect of rubbing it in.

However there is a school of thought that suggests the reduction of inflammation inhibits healing and instead recommends the deliberate aggravation of inflammation using a technique called prolotherapy. This is possibly more suitable for long term injuries which are not responding and the inflammation has become the cause of some debilitation. I have never tried prolotherapy since AFAIK it is not available in the UK. For long term chronic injuries I have been to see physiotherapists for help.

Some physios, including in the UK, are now offering variations on forms of Extracorporeal Shockwave Treatment for tendon related injuries. For example Marat Safin's website talks about his treatment for Jumpers Knee. However the American Academy of Family Physicians has published some papers in 2003 and 2005 that discount the effectiveness of this form of treatment. I have no personal experience of the effectiveness of this but would be prepared to try it if other forms of treatment were unsuccessful.

Whilst on my recent four day non-stop tennis vacation at Windmill Hill, my arm already suffering from golfers elbow got quite sore. One of the other players introduced me to BIOFREEZE. This is marketed as a cooling analgesic gel and not as an NSAID although it does contain herbal anti-inflammatory extracts from a Holly plant. I have to say it seems to be quite effective as a pain killer. After application it does not work immediately but I noticed reduced pain in my arm 30-40 minutes later, certainly enough to continue playing. My view is that it can be used as an aid to healing, by reducing pain sufficiently to allow normal movement, rehabilitating stretches and moderate exercise. I strongly believe in strengthening the muscles in the area of the injury, especially if a joint is affected by using eccentric muscle exercises.

Although I own a Novasonic device and occasionally use it, I am not yet convinced of its therapeutic value. I got one because the physiotherapists I have visited used an ultrasonic device, so I assume there must be some benefit. I also noticed that the physios use some sort of electrical stimulation device, rather like but not the same as a TENS device, which is instead aimed at pain relief. There is a list of the types of electrical simulation therapy here but the actual article is off topic for tennnis.

I did once borrow an infrared lamp for the heat phase of treatment, but usually just use a hot water bottle. Update: I have just discovered Helios heat pads, useful both at home and away. As a contrast to BIOFREEZE cooling gel there is Fiery Jack cream which is a warming muscle rub. It's a bit too smelly for my liking but it is good to use if you play with a slight injury and put a neoprene wrap over it, for example an arm band or knee support; then it really fires up and soothes away the pain.

Most chronic injuries I have had in the past have been related to some form of tendinitis, for example: Jumpers knee, wrist RSI, tennis and golfers elbow, and head of the biceps. There is a useful and interesting article on the treatment of tendonitis by the American Academy of Family Physicians here.

The Physician and Sportsmedicine Online is another excellent resource for research and articles covering sports related injuries.

In an earlier blog entry I discuss typical tennis injuries that I've had and their treatment.

Tags: Voltarol, Movelat, BIOFREEZE, Novasonic, Tiger Balm, NSAID, Fiery Jack, Ibuprofen, Physiotherapy, Extracorporeal Shockwave Treatment, tendonitis

US Open thoughts

2005-09-03T22:48:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately since I've been on vacation I have not had much chance to watch the US Open on TV. I did manage to see parts of a couple of matches at Windmill Hill, in the bar with a drink in hand amongst a group of rowdy fellow players. For example Rusedski against Blake and Murray against Pavel. Rusedski was unlucky to hit an in-form hot Blake, and Murray showed real toughness and spirit especially in the fifth. It's funny how none of the re-runs on Sky, BBC and Eurosport show the projectile vomiting incident!

Regretfully I don't have Sky Sports but do have Eurosport who are able to show some of the matches not on the main billing. Since I always said that my style of play is like a (much weaker version of) Fabrice Santoro, then I was pleased to see some of the highlights of the Federer v Santoro match. Wonderful entertainment.

My picks are still in there, Patty Schynder, Richard Gasquet, Lleyton Hewitt, Kim Clisters, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, Anna Myskina. Oh, and Roger Federer.

The only Grand Slam I've been to is Wimbledon. Since I have been to NY State many times here then one year I must save some money and make the effort to attend the US Open. A dream for the future.

Whilst thinking of the US Open my thoughts and yours should go towards the people of the US states hit by Hurricane Katrina.

Tags: US Open tennis,Hurricane Katrina

Windmill Hill

2005-09-03T11:03:00.000+01:00

Enjoyed an excellent 4 days at Windmill Hill tennis and golf academy. The weather was unbelievable for the UK, sunny 27 degrees Tuesday, 30 Wednesday, 23 Thursday and again on Friday. It caught me out a bit Tuesday afternoon, with no hat or sunscreen and I suffered slight de-hydration and fatigue. Drank lots of water and orange juice that evening and was still dryish the next day.

Interesting mix of about 22 players of all ages and both sexes. I was in the 'club players' group, where 6 of us concentrated on tactics and movement rather than re-learning the strokes, although Brett the coach was very good at pointing out things to improve. It included video analysis of forehand and backhand ground strokes and I have a couple of things to try that should lead to better shots.

I stayed in a standard room with shower in the mansion. Accomodation was quite basic, a bit like a 2-3 star hotel in the UK, and there was a letter from the management apologising for the 'tired look of our rooms'. I found the rooms to be OK, after all you're there for the tennis not the luxurious accomodation, although I would prefer better sound proofing as the person next door to me over indulged in the late night poolside bar and woke me one morning around 05:30 with the sounds of their vomiting. There is another option of a more spacious room than the one I had, and going the other way cottage rooms with shared bathroom facilities; OK for families or groups. The Windmill Hill grounds set in rolling East Sussex downland with a view to the sea more than makes up for the rooms, which are undergoing refurbishment anyway. Excellent buffet style food at breakfast, lunch and dinner, all included in the price.

Then there's the tennis, with around 4 hours coach led tuition or practise each day, and free use of the courts in your own time. We used the 4 astro-turf courts since the weather was good. There are 4 indoor courts that get used when it rains, 2 hardcourts, and several grass courts which were closed for the season. The coaches were excellent, friendly, knowledgable, and with great practise drills some of which I had not come across before. A mix of serious with fun. I played a couple of doubles matches outside of the coaching sessions, and was amazed by one players kick serve that forced me to return the ball from above my head.

So overall, good fun, good holiday, good value, although I think the weather makes a difference, as I am not so sure how pleasant it would be if it had been raining, damp and cold. Then you would be stuck in the cramped rooms when not playing tennis. Would I go again? Yes, and some people do go every year. The refurbishment programme should be finished next year too.

Tags: tennis holiday, Windmill Hill

I'm on vacation, hooray!

2005-08-29T16:08:00.000+01:00

No blogging or email for a few days as I'm taking a personal 'tennis holiday' at Windmill Hill where I hope to enjoy myself and pick up some hints on things I can work on to improve my tennis.

Will blog again at the weekend on my experience at Windmill Hill and progress at the US Open.

Tags: tennis vacation

US Open predictions

2005-08-29T10:39:00.000+01:00

The US Open starts today, so as per my attempts to predict the winners for the French and Wimbledon I will try and pick the winners again. I got the mens winner right at Wimbledon .

For the men I can't see who is going to stop Federer especially now that Safin has withdrawn. It would be interesting to see one of the young guns break through like Nadal did in Paris. One of Gasquet, Mathieu or Monfils. I don't think Monfils has adapted to the pro tour yet despite winning his first title and I don't think Nadal can sustain 2 weeks on hardcourt. So my second choice after Federer is Hewitt. He might not have the power, but he's hungry, has done it before, likes the atmosphere, settled personal life, and so it could be his turn again.

For the women I would really like to see Kim Clijsters get her first grand slam title. What a story that would be. Otherwise it has to be one of the usual bunch, a Russian or an American, but which one? I wonder if the Williams' are hungry enough.

So being adventurous and sticking my neck out, if I had the money and gambled I would put it on Richard Gasquet and Patty Schynder.

I suppose I should mention the Brits (with apologies to the Scot). I would guess that Rusedski has the best chance of getting to the second week based on his recent form, and the injuries that Henman and Murray have had.

Match post-mortem

2005-08-28T22:52:00.000+01:00

Played today at the club mix-in, back on normal fastish hardcourt surface and talked to my doubles partner from yesterday about our disappointing loss. We both agreed that we enjoyed the match and noted some things to work on our individual games and doubles play. For example, I lost focus in the second set and started pushing at the ball instead of swinging through. No recriminations though, as the match could have gone either way. For example in the deciding tie-break that we lost 9-11, we were hurt by a cruel net cord that deprived me from putting away a volley.

Received an email from Nawin who blogs the regentville tenis blog. It really bought back memories for me of (too much) Tiger beer when I was a lot younger. Although I rarely drink these days, I will have a bottle of Tiger beer when dining out at a local Chinese restaurant.

The doubles match

2005-08-27T22:34:00.000+01:00

Played in the mens doubles at The Avenue on grass. Very nice club and although the prices seem a bit steep on first glance, a full tennis subscription works out at only £20 a month which is pretty good with 4 club mix-in days and no further court fees.

So how did we get on? After two and half hours we lost 6-4,2-6,6-7(9-11). At the moment I'm a bit gutted.

Tags: mens tennis doubles

BBC and tennis shoes

2005-08-26T10:48:00.000+01:00

I have been able to play several times in recent days, both indoors and out. Playing outdoors in the UK is always a challenge and especially so at the moment with our typical British summer. I was sheltering under a tree at one stage from rain and hailstones and five minutes later struggling to serve with the sun in my eyes on the ball toss.

The BBC tennis site is a real disappointment at the moment with nothing at all on the New Haven or other tournaments. Interestingly there is an alternative default tennis page at the BBC. Spot the difference.

I am breaking in a new pair of tennis shoes. They are Wilson Pro Staff 710 which felt just right in the shop. I always buy 1 size larger than a normal shoe so that I can add a full strike sorbothane insole and some carnation heel pads. I find I need the extra heel lift to avoid achilles problems. I also take a sharp knife and make a vertical cut through the heel padding at the rear and top of the shoe as shown in this photo.

Tags: Wilson tennis shoe

Grass court practise

2005-08-23T12:50:00.000+01:00

Plenty of practise over the last 3 days. Some hardcourt and some on grass. I'm trying to change my forehand and use less wrist so that I can cure my golfers elbow. I think I'm getting there since after playing 3 days in a row my arm feels pretty good with little pain, and that I hope is a left over from the original injury.

Despite some rain last week some of the practise was on grass. This was not grass at the club, where we only have hardcourt or the artificial grass surface (why they call it that beats me),but on public municipal grass courts. So the courts were soft and mushy because of the rain, and slightly unpredictable bounce since they're not really well maintained. Oh, and the lines were pretty difficult to see as they had either been worn out or washed out.

Slice works a treat. The ball hardly bounces anyway, and flat or slice shots skid through. Some balls didn't bounce at all, but just skidded through an inch above the surface. This was a combination of the effects of both the slice and a poor bounce. My practise partner and I both struggled with adjusting to the timing and bounce, and had a tendency to be late in getting to shots, and then overhitting. Can't say I enjoyed it really. Who was it said something like "grass is for cows"? I think I agree

Interesting discussion here but of course the court I played on was nothing like Wimbledon.

Tags: tennis

Video analysis

2005-08-19T10:57:00.000+01:00

In search of the cause of my golfers elbow I borrowed a camcorder and made a video/DVD of myself hitting groundstrokes against a practise wall. Boy what an eye opener!

Played at normal speed it's easy to spot problems with footwork, racket preparation, follow through, contact point, weight transfer and so on. Really valuable, and lots to work on I think.

The golfers elbow problem is as I surmised in a previous post most probably caused by poor technique on the forehand since moving my grip round to the semi-western. On many shots my forehand swing leads with the forearm and the wrist cocked back, and contact is often made with the wrist still back as I try to generate topspin by brushing over the ball with the wrist rather than using the stroke low to high with a closed racket face. So the inside of my forearm, already stretched with the wrist back, takes the full force of the ball impact stretching it even further.

That's my theory. So I need to try and fix that by keeping the wrist straighter whilst ensuring the racket face is closed on contact and improving the swing action low to high.It's probably going to take time now that I have this bad habit engrained.

That still leaves all the other problems to analyse and work on.

Club night (15) no coaches

2005-08-18T21:08:00.000+01:00

No coaches at club night to organise things, since they're all on a 1 week RPT course. So we organised a mix of singles and doubles amongst ourselves. Played for 2 hours, won some lost some. At the end of it my arm felt quite surprisingly good. Still some soreness but not too bad. Said this several times before but I think it's on the mend.

Been keeping an eye on Cincinnati where the Brits are suffering.

Another player and I have entered the mens doubles in the open summer tournament at The Avenue. Need to get some practise in. On grass.

Tags: RPT

Club night (14) - quiet

2005-08-15T18:30:00.000+01:00

Pretty quiet at club night with only three of us turning up. I have described what we do with just three players on another blog entry.

My arm is quite sore today so all is not well. Thinking of trying acupuncture. Bit impatient really since I know from experience these things take ages to heal. My worry is I'm re-injuring it each time I play, either from too much wrist on the forehand or my home grown racket mods.

Coaching session

2005-08-12T19:37:00.000+01:00

Had a coaching session today with one of the younger male coaches at the club. I wasn't after lessons on technique but instead we did drills on handling a change of ball direction (e.g. cross court to down the line), tackling short balls and the subsequent possible net play. Since he has a tricky topspin forehand and (second) serve, which I find tricky to deal with, it was a good work out for me and I will do it again next week.

Club night (13) - new faces

2005-08-10T12:27:00.000+01:00

Good workout at club night last night, with three new faces. All were good players, one visiting from France, a leftie with clay stained shoes and heavy topspin; another a former player returning to the game; and the last a Greek lady who I have played doubles against on previous occasions. My judgement was that they all have a more advanced game than mine but not by a lot.

I played singles and doubles against the two men and tried to analyse the difference. The lefties topspin serve was difficult to cope with because of the angle and curve it was coming over the net, and his heavy topspin groundstrokes were also a challenge. The other guy just had a good heavy serve, and once I got a return back and was in the point I was able to play against him OK.

My conclusion was that my game was almost up to theirs but I need to adjust and cope with the extra pace and spin. All part of the learning to advance to a new level and I came away quite heartened.

Attendance was down a bit, not sure if this is because of the holiday season or because the football season has started.

Club night (12) - the rematch

2005-08-08T12:37:00.000+01:00

Played last night at the club for the first time in two weeks. Started pretty slow, but soon got back into it, although I struggled with my serve most of the evening.

We played the usual mixed doubles which is pretty slow anyway before my usual male doubles partner and I took on two ladies in the rematch I mentioned previously.

This time we won 7-5! Despite my erratic serve I did not lose my service game once, and even served a couple of aces. It was almost a re-run of the game two weeks ago, we went down at the beginning, came back to 4-4, then went ahead but this time served it out. I think it was pretty good quality doubles, played in good spirit and enjoyed my everyone.

My forearm, wrist and elbow felt pretty sore when I got home, so I applied some icepacks and did the usual Movelat massage. Today it's pretty good, no new injuries I think, just some muscle soreness where I have not played for a while.

Back home

2005-08-06T22:15:00.000+01:00

Well South Africa was interesting. The country has changed a lot since my last visit with the dismantling of apartheid. All is not well with Johannesburg and it was summed up by a conversation I overheard between two Afrikaner's "These days we all have to go abroad to visit our grandchildren". Let's hope the South African government learns some lessons from Zimbabwe .

Strangely my golfers elbow is still playing up even though I havn't played tennis for two weeks. It's not bad but there's a constant reminder when I use my hands and bend my wrist in a certain way.

Flew back on the Virgin red-eye and went for a short run yesterday afternoon. Legs are a bit stiff today so I hit for 20 minutes against a practise wall. Tomorrow I will play again in the rematch.

Tags: Johannesburg

No tennis!

2005-07-29T19:50:00.000+01:00

Well I suppose a blog about tennis from a club level player about has to reflect their playing, and that is why I have been quiet this week, and will be next week too. No blog, no play.

Work, work, work.....

Next week I am in South Africa on business. In Johannesburg. It's my second time in South Africa. In 1971 I was in Cape Town when apartheid was a fact of life. It will be interesting to go back to this great country.

It's strange that this week, when I have not been playing, the tendinitis in my hand and wrist has been really bad, and so has the pain from golfers elbow. What is going on? It can't be the tennis.

In my previous blog I reported that I had purchased the book The Inner Game of Tennis. Well this week I lost it by leaving it behind in a hotel I stayed at in Cornwall. I had read about 80%. I have not contacted the hotel so it will be interesting to see if they contact me or just add it to their lounge collection.

Club night (11), mixed with a difference

2005-07-26T14:46:00.000+01:00

Interesting club night. Played the usual mixed doubles, average quality where the 'rules of mixed' apply and my partner and I were fortunate to win 7-5.

After that we played mens doubles versus ladies doubles, where my regular male partner and I took on two ladies. The two ladies wanted some practise for a competition they had entered. One of them is a local club coach for the juniors so they play at a reasonable standard, but probably lack match practise. Of course my partner and I also really lack match practise, although we seldom get beat amongst the circle of players we associate with.

The 'rules of mixed' were not applied, by us.

The game see-sawed back and forwards, with the ladies gaining an early 3-1 lead despite the fact that I didn't think they were playing very well. We clawed it back to 4-4 at which point I thought we had the upper hand and went ahead 5-4, then went down 5-6 and eventually lost the set 6-8. (We don't always play a tie-breaker in practice when there is time to continue.) There was a mixture of good rallies, and some unforced errors, from both sides, and that's what got us in the last deciding game.

So how do I feel about being beaten by a ladies double team? Well not good. But should it matter? Probably not although it's not something to shout about, and also something not to get upset about. We plan a re-match in two weeks, and somehow I think the outcome will be the same.

The Inner Game

2005-07-24T11:15:00.000+01:00

I have just bought The Inner Game of Tennis by Tim Gallwey. I bought it in a bookshop almost on a whim as it is rather expensive at £6.99 for only 128 pages.

Although I have not yet read it through a couple of sections that I did read in the bookshop rang a bell with me which is why I bought it. Two examples:

One time I had an important evening match and would like to have had a good night's sleep the night before with a restful day to prepare. However it was not to be and I was up early, around 5 a.m with just over 4 hours sleep and then a frantic day at work. I arrived for my match feeling quite tired and expected my timing to be off and focus gone. In fact what happened was that I played 'in the zone' where it seemed at the time I just let the unconscious part of my mind and game take over and play. I played brillliantly.

Another time I played really well, in the zone, I remember being in some sort of strange focus where all I was really conscious of was a ring or halo around the ball and tennis action. There were no other conscious thoughts of, "must step in, racket back, high to low, move feet," etc,

The book seems to explore these psyche's calling them Self 1 and Self 2 whereby it is normally the dominant and conscious Self 1 that interferes with the unconscious spiritual Self 2 and messes up our game. If only we could recreate the 'in the zone' state at will or get someway towards it.

More on this in the future after I have read the book and tried to put into practise whatever its recommendations are.

Tennis injuries, past and present, and their cure

2005-07-22T23:14:00.000+01:00

I really don't think this applies to me! :-)

The book I use as a reference for most of the injuries I get is this one by Allan Levy but I see that he also has one specific to tennis. As well as the book I use the previously mentioned Primal Pictures at Anatomy T V, and have bought my own set of CD's.

So as mentioned in my last blog here is a list of all present and past injuries, from head down, the cause where known and the treatment I undertook. In a later blog I describe my approach to treating injuries.

Torn contact lens

I wear glasses for short sight when not playing tennis after wearing contact lenses full time for many years. Since I switched to glasses I started using disposable daily contact lenses for tennis, since in the UK, in winter, I have not found how to prevent glasses misting up when playing. Disposable contacts are thinner and more fragile than regular contacts, and shortly after I started using the disposables I had a lot of difficulty in getting them out.One time I ripped one in half leaving half in the eye which promptly disappeared under the eyelid. Hospital eye nurse got it out.

Cricked neck

Past injury. Think I did this serving and it lasted several months. Performed neck stretches, rotations and shouder rolls until it cleared.

Sore inflamed shoulder

Past injury, well maybe. Shoulder problems started when I started to use the same Prince Warrior racket as Pat Rafter. Great racket but I ended up with a sore shoulder caused by serving with a strain of the deltoid muscle and subscapularis and eventually tendonitis of the biceps tendon. This lasted a couple of years, even after I stopped using the Warrior racket.I started doing shoulder strengthening exercises, experimented with changing my service action and it eventually cleared. In fact, interestingly, it cleared soon after I had a coaching session with Brad Langevad, and the main thing he did was to correct my grip when serving.

Update: having suffered from a chronic sore shoulder caused by serving, I eventually sought some help. The physio told me that since there are several muscles involved with shoulder movement: lifting, rotating, abduction, etc, it is usually best to get the specific muscle or tendon injury diagnosed before starting a course of rehabilation. In my case I had a sore supraspinatus and there is a specific exercise for that: stand with arms down at side, rotate arm so that the thumb points into the side, now lift the arm - not straight in front or out to the side but at 45 degrees using a weight or band to provide resistance. That used to hurt! Other useful exercises for me are the so called pendulum as a warm up and internal and external rotations. I now do all of these as part of a general exercise routine.

Tennis elbow

Past injury. It was a couple of years after I first started playing that I got tennis elbow. I had it for 2 or 3 years and tried lots of things to get rid of it. It was tolerable after doing regular strengthening and stretching exercises, and playing with a grip slighly larger than I would normally choose, but always present. I changed rackets twice. Eventually I found more by chance than anything that playing with a head light racket was the answer, and ever since I have always used a head light racket and no longer suffer from tennis elbow. I still keep up with the exercises though.

The usual suspect for tennis elbow, if the above things don't apply, is poor technique on the backhand. Usually hitting the ball with a bent wrist. See your local pro for advice.

Interesting articles on tennis elbow treatment that I have found amonsgt the many out there on the Internet: Introductory, introductory with exercise recommendations, a report on the use of NSAID's, steroid injections and physical therapy, and an in depth report that includes all of them including Acupuncture, Extracorporeal Shockwave Treatment, Magnetic, Orthotic, Physical and other forms of treatment.

Try using an EpiSport CLASP. I found it definitely helps and is much better than many of the softer braces.

Golfers elbow

Past and new injury. I have spoken about this before and described it in more detail here. I think I'm on the mend again, using an older head light racket that weighs 11 ounces which is heavier than my usual racket. It's the extra weight that helps with this injury, or the use of a not too stiff graphite racket.

The usual suspect for golfer's elbow, if the above things don't apply, is poor technique on the forehand, especially a topspin forehand with western or semi-western grip. See your local pro for advice.

The reports I link to under the section on tennis elbow apply here too.

Try using an EpiSport CLASP. I found it definitely helps and is much better than many of the softer braces.

Wrist fracture

Past injury. I fractured the trapezium in the wrist from a clash of rackets playing doubles. It was a hairline fracture that was not initially detected by x-ray. My wrist was not put in a plaster cast but a plastic splint for four weeks. I could not hold a racket for 6 weeks, and had pain serving after 8-10 weeks, before it eventually settled down. I did intensive hand and wrist physio, strengthening and stretching, and the last thing to hurt before it finally cleared was the wrist snap associated with serving.

Wrist tendonitis

Current injury. This comes and goes almost at will. Since I use a computer a lot I've switched to using the mouse with my other hand, that helps. Also I do not use a mouse-pad or trackpoint that comes with most laptops or IBM Thinkpad's, and instead I use a proper mouse. At the moment I strap my wrist every time I play using cohesive strapping.

Wrist ganglion

Current injury, probably associated with the wrist tendonitis. I have a ganglion on one of the flexor tendons in the forearm. It sometimes impacts the Palmar Carpal Ligament and affects the whole hand. I'm waiting to see if it subsides before seeking medical treatment.

Hand blisters

Past injuries. I'm sure everyone gets blisters when they play or practise a lot. My own prevention is to ensure I have a good padded grip that's not too worn, file down excessive hard skin calluses, and use surgical spirit to toughen the skin. I always remove the grip from a new racket and file down the edges of the octagonal frame-grip. Why do they make rackets like that? I don't remove the octagonal shape but do remove the corners.

Hand soreness

Past injury. Strange pain in the the back of the hand where the little finger bone runs. Never satisfactorily diagnosed, but I think it was caused by the racket slippping or twisting when serving, especially when trying to get a kick topspin serve.

Finger ganglion

Past injury. Had two ganglions in the past on the forefinger knuckle joint, both caused by violent racket twist on forehand volley of a hard shot. At the time I found partial loose taping of the forefinger to the next finger would add some support. These ganglions were around for several months before subsiding.

Lower back pain

Past injury, but recurs. For 45 years I never had any back trouble, until the day I hurt it serving. I always had a very twisting arched back serving motion, and eventually I damaged something. At the time I had the classic symptoms, sciatica, couldn't bend, muscle spasm, difficulty turning over in bed, difficulty getting in and of the car, and so on. When it's acute you have to rest, in fact you can't do anything else because of the pain and stiffness. I personally have not tried an osteopath or chiropracter but have tried physio. I also tried Pilates but did not find that useful, although I hear lots of success stories. I started stretching exercises, also stomach and back strengthening, and now it's mostly under control. Oh yes I bought a recliner chair for home instead of slouching in a sofa or couch, and regularly hang by the hands from a chin bar, just hang for 30 seconds or so, no chins-ups.

Jumpers knee

Past injury. Patella tendonitis, This came on insiduously. At first I just noticed pain going downstairs the morning or day after playing. Eventually it got so bad I couldn't play. I don't really know what caused it. Maybe because my right leg is the main push off leg. I rested it for 6 weeks and had physio but it came back. I started knee strengthening exercises to balance the muscles around the kneecap, stopped jogging and cycled instead for aerobic exercise, and swam regularly. Eventually it cleared, and I think it was the cycling that helped. Now I'm back to jogging but keep up the knee strengthening exercise.

Interesting report on Jumpers knee here and a further discussion on treatment here.

Sore achilles

Past injury, but recent recurrence. This was probably my first injury after I took up tennis well into middle age. When I started I dug out an old pair of plimsoles (plimsolls) from the early 70's that I had managed to hang on to all these years. Sure enough my feet started hurting but most especially the right achilles tendon. I soon realised I needed proper tennis shoes for the hard courts I was playing on and everything got better. A few months later, and some new tennis shoes and the achilles soreness was back. I had it for quite a while until by chance I added some soft heel supports to the shoes, because of a heel problem, and the achilles problem was cured. These days I always add one or two heel cushions in addition to a full length Sorbothane sole to any new trainer, details in previous blog, as well as slitting the back support with a sharp knife as shown in the photo.

Sore heel

Past injury. Felt like a bruised heel at the bottom of the heel bone. Added extra heel cushioning to my tennis shoes.

Luckily I have never had plantar fascia for which treatment is described here and stretching exercises here. Update: I suffered symptoms of plantar fascitis this year that wasn't bought on by tennis but was quite unpleasant with a sore arch on one foot. I iced it regularly, stretched, and started using Sole ultra footbeds, which provide arch support, in my normal day shoes. The tricky bit is finding a level of support that helps without irritating an already sore arch, and I did notice, but didn't try, the Scholl gel arch support comes with a range of three differerent grades of support that you can choose to suit your need. My condition cleared after about 2-3 weeks.

Ankle sprain

Past, but lingering injury. I turned my ankle over on the outside stepping on something. At the time it didn't hurt much, but there was a lot of fluid swelling, and still is several months later. It gets stiff sometimes, but mostly I ignore it. That's the main reason I bought the wobble board in my previous blog. I expect it will have cleared completely in another six months. Oh to be young again when these things cleared up in days or weeks. An alternative to the wobble board is standing on one leg for several minutes at a time. Try starting with just 5 minutes and you'll be surprised how tough that might be for the lower leg/ankle muscles.

Big toe

Bruise:
Past injury. I'm sure many of us have done this or something similar: I walked into a doorframe in bare feet! Hurt like hell at the time but then I discovered I couldn't play tennis either. Tennis is very harsh on the feet with the constant changes of direction and stops and starts; and the toes, especially the big toe take a lot of the stress. Lucky I didn't break the toe.

Sore (Hallux Rigidus):
Possibly a sign of old age in my case, the main big toe joint started playing up when I walked a lot in my normal day shoes. Nothing to do with tennis. Eventually the pain got so bad I googled it and found it's a well known condition 'Hallux Rigidus'. The fix is to get a new pair of shoes with a stiffer sole, and it worked. Easy. I now ensure there's plenty of firm support under the front part of the foot in all my shoes, including tennis shoes.

Groin injury

Present injury, and new for this year. I hurt something in my groin area for the first time this year, and it's been off and on since then. I don't really know for sure what it is, my guess is the Adductor longus or Iliopsoas. When it flares up it hurts to bend or lift the leg to go up the stairs. I think it was caused by the rotation from an open stance forehand and not bringing the right leg round as part of the follow through. At the moment it's OK and I just try to take care off it by taking small steps when playing with no lunges or stretches. If it continues to flare up I will have to investigate some stretching and strengthening exercises in that area.

Collar bone

I sufferered a muscle pull in the front of the chest where the muscles attach to the collar bone as described in this blog entry.

Tags: sports injuries
tennis elbow

Wobble board, knees ankle and feet

2005-07-21T18:04:00.000+01:00

I've had one of these for a few weeks now. Ever since I turned over on my ankle after treading on a stone using the practise wall. I do use it occasionally, standing (wobbling) on it for 10-15 minutes in the evening whilst watching the news on TV.

It is meant to aid the Proprioception of the ankle and knee. Certainly you can feel the strain around the lower leg after 10-15 minutes if you deliberately wobble and recover.

I mention it now because I've thrown my old trainers out and switched to a new pair. As well as all the other injuries I've mentioned to date, I now have sore achilles! I usually get this with new trainers anyway, and add two or three carnation skippies heel pads, as well as full strike sorbothane insoles.

On my next blog I will list all my present and past injuries and their treatment (will be a big blog :-)).

Club night (10)

2005-07-20T20:03:00.000+01:00

Enjoyed club night mix in yesterday. One of the club coaches warmed us up first with a singles 'king of the court' across several courts. The coach joined in, and I was pleased to win a couple of points against him.

Later my regular doubles partner and I teamed up to play two sets of mens doubles which we won, but not easily. I was playing solidly, not outstanding but with few errors.

Today I can feel a new injury. The front of my shoulder is a bit sore. I've had this before, and suspect the old racket that I'm using to help recover from the golfers elbow as explained in previous blogs. Well, it is helping the arm but I am suspicious that it aggravates the shoulder when serving, because I've had the shoulder problem before when it became quite acute with some form of tenidinitis along the biceps tendon and lasted for many months. At the moment I think it's only a muscle strain and nothing associated with the joint, but it gives me a dilemma on whether to continue with my old racket which I'm really enjoying using, or revert to my usual racket and hope the golfer elbow does not recur.

Club night (9)

2005-07-17T22:34:00.000+01:00

Still fairly quiet at club night. Says something about British tennis I suppose, since people must prefer the beach, barbecue or whatever's on TV to playing tennis. Still a couple of us keen regulars turned out with a few others. I was playing pretty well again, following on from earlier this week. Wish I knew what the secret was so I could turn it on at will.

Still one Brit is doing really well, or as he might let you know himself he's a Scot.

Club night (8)

2005-07-13T15:30:00.000+01:00

Low turn out again yesterday at the club mix-in despite, or pehaps as a result of, the glorious hot and sunny weather. Unfortunately I was hobbling around having pulled an adductor in the groin yet again on Sunday night. Anyway we had a pretty good quality mens doubles, and although my partner and I lost I took comfort in the thought that it was only because I was impaired through injury. Hah!

The other injury, golfers elbow is holding up quite well. It hasn't gone completely but is no longer extra sore after playing and recovers to near normal by the following day. I'm still playing with my older heavier racket and took the opportunity to weigh it: dead on 11oz or 313 grams on my scales, so probably quite light compared to rackets the pro's use . My normal racket is 10.25oz or 293 grams and that's with lead weighting added by me. I also checked the balance and although both my rackets are head light the older, heavier one, is more head light than my regular racket whose belance is close to even. I'm gonna stick with my older racket for now until I'm sure my arm is healed.

Odd numbers

2005-07-11T22:06:00.000+01:00

Only three turned up last night at club night. We usually play two against one for three games, then rotate round so that everyone gets a go at being the single. Of course the lone person plays in the singles court with the doubles court their target against the other two, and everyone gets to serve once. It's not to everyone's taste as neither situation is ideal: the singles player is not constrained to a singles court target and the doubles players are constrained to a singles court target. I find it OK to practise serve and volley when one of the doubles. We sometimes have variations on this, such as for example the non-serving doubles player is not allowed to intercept at the net on the return unless of course the ball comes to them.

An alternative is to play singles, best of three, or three games, and rotate. I personally don't like that so much , especially in winter, when it can get cold.

We also have a pattern for when five turn up, either a singles game and a threesome as described, or more usually a doubles with one sitting out for one game and a continual rotation of players. This works fine for 30 mins or so when we need to break the pattern of usual couples, servers, returners, that has developed. We have not found the easy answer to that except for someone sitting out twice or reversing the direction. Again we have variations for this pattern, for example, a sudden death point on the second deuce in a game, so that the player sitting out in not left waiting interminably on long deuce games.

I have noticed that coaches have developed different strategies for dealing with groups of odd numbers, examples are king of the court, or the game 'winner', or they join in to even the numbers. It would be interesting to know how other clubs deal with odd numbers of people turning up. Maybe people just sit out?

Taking a backseat

2005-07-08T21:02:00.000+01:00

With events in London, work and family distractions, I have not had much time for tennis or blogging. In fact a blog about tennis really seems quite meaningless and irrelevant at the moment. As an avid reader of a lot of geek or nerd blogs I notice a predominance of the British attitude is to go a pub and have a drink and get on with life. Personally I don't enjoy drinking, except the proverbial cup of tea. Oh I used to drink, a lot, in my youth but that's a long way behind me. I also used to feel quite embarassed about my non-drinking until I discovered I was in the excellent company of the late Richard Feynmann. My equivalent, I suppose, is to hit a few balls or go for a run. But hitting balls is great, other tennis players will know what I mean. So I've been doing just that, against a practise wall. I usually lose.

Club night (7) and rackets

2005-07-06T11:20:00.000+01:00

Mix in club night last night where I played both singles and doubles. It was going quite well until I broke the strings on my racket. Since we were in the middle of a game I borrowed a Volkl Catapult 8 V-Engine racket. I found the weight and balance to be OK, but the power level was a bit too lively for my liking. Of course this could have been the strings.

After finishing the singles I used the spare racket I keep in the car. This is not the same as my regular racket which I keep a spare at home, but an older racket I used to use: the Prince graphite classic mid-plus. The Prince classic is heavier than my regular racket and generates lower power. At first I was struggling a bit with the extra weight, but since this used to be my regular racket I adapted pretty quickly. In fact I was quite pleased with it and played pretty well from then on.

Wimbledon round up.

2005-07-03T21:50:00.000+01:00

I have already commented on the success of the womens singles with both Venus and Lindsay being winners. I also managed to correctly predict the mens winner, boy that was a tough call . Worth mentioning is the mens doubles winners Huss and Moody, also a fantastic achievement. The ladies doubles winners fared better than their experience in Eastbourne.

The surpise for me however was the smooth charm and ease on camera, as well as well as the intelligent and articulate commentating of Jimmy Connors for the BBC. John McEnroe watch out, just like old times.

Wimbledon predictions

2005-07-01T22:41:00.000+01:00

So my predictions for the ladies singles at Wimbledon was off, since we have an all American final. That's really well done to Venus for coming back so well after a couple of years injured, and Lindsay for the drive and motivation after the low point of last year.

Club night (6) and Wimbledon wannabees.

2005-06-30T13:25:00.000+01:00

Played solid 2 hours of mens doubles last night at a pretty good standard. My serve was a bit erratic though, one ace, one game with three double faults, not sure why, but even so my partner and I won by 2 sets to 1. Today my arm feels pretty good, doesn't really hurt just some slight soreness so I think the golfers elbow is nearly, but not completely, gone. I'm gonna keep up with the recovery program however.

I mentioned in a previous post that the TV coverage of Wimbledon usually brings out all the people who've seen tennis on TV and think that it looks like fun and is easy, so they get out onto the public courts and give it a go. Last night was such a case, as the courts were quite busy near me with a mix of youngsters dressed in a range of eclectic outfits, wielding rackets and knocking the ball backwards and forwards. Of course they were discovering that it's not quite so easy after all, to serve, keep the ball in play, hit it with a reasonable stroke with some pace, etc..Anyway let's hope a few of them are keen enough to think about taking up the game.