re: Tennis 2019 -- The Unofficial Non-GS Thread

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Have you ever skied or snowboarded before?

If not, be aware of different learning curves. Snowboarding is a miserable miserable experience the first day. arse, neck, head, wrists....all will hurt by the end of the day. The second day is rough as well. But then by the third day, you'll kind of have it figured out. Fundamentally it's easier than skiing. Toe edge, heel edge...that's it.

Skiing isn't as much of a nightmare the first day, but it takes years to get legit good....like me #humblelikefederer

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As someone who can do both, I always tell people:

-Skiing is easy to learn, hard to master
-Snowboarding is hard to learn, easy to master

Any clown with reasonable balance and coordination can ski. If you put on a pair of skis and can't easily make your way down any green slope within a couple hours, I judge you. Most should be doing groomed blues by the end of the first day, if not by lunch time. The difficulty with skiing is going from solid to really good. That's what takes years of practice and usually some very specific lessons as it's so much more technically challenging than snowboarding.

Snowboarding, however, is a totally different story. Idk anyone who didn't struggle for many, many days. Some even need multiple trips before it takes. Once it does, though, it's pretty easy to go from eh to pretty damn good.

Back to tennis, got tickets for the men's semi and finals of the Dubai Duty Free tournament. If Osaka makes it to the finals I'm gonna go see her too, don't have time to takeoff from work to see her in earlier matches.

I'll post pics of any matches I go to, been told we got sick tickets.

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I probably overrate Grigs since his shots look aesthetically pleasing

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That's very self-aware of you, Bunk. I think that might be a significant factor.

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As someone who can do both, I always tell people:

-Skiing is easy to learn, hard to master
-Snowboarding is hard to learn, easy to master

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That's exactly right, and stated with more brevity than I used.

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Any clown with reasonable balance and coordination can ski. If you put on a pair of skis and can't easily make your way down any green slope within a couple hours, I judge you. Most should be doing groomed blues by the end of the first day, if not by lunch time. The difficulty with skiing is going from solid to really good.

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I mean, it's like your stealing my material. I first ski'd when I was 7 or 8, but then I moved to WV when I was 9, and we were about 30 minutes away from a ski resort (not snowshoe...a shittier one).

I was always a very serviceable skier. Serviceable enough, even, to where they had no qualms hiring me on as a ski instructor my junior year in HS. But between friends, i really wasn't worth a shite. I was good at getting down the mountain in a way that didn't draw attention to the fact that I wasn't worth a shite. But I wasn't worth a shite.

And then one day, sort of all at once, I was. I still don't know how that happened; it just did. I ski'd less frequently my senior year than I had my junior year, but I was nonetheless way better than the year before.

One of my happiest moments was the time my buddy and I -- and my buddy, had always been better than me, and got very used to reprsenting himself as such -- went to snowshoe one day. And it was actually on the leftmost black diamond at silver creek. It was like I had hit a new level. My friend was still a damn good skier, though, and I still assumed he was better than me...because back then it was tougher to see yourself ski.

Anyway, it was either at the bottom of the run or at the bottom of a subsequent run, but this middle aged guy with his kid came up to me -- like went out of his way to specifically approach me -- and asked where I had learned to ski like that....he said nothing to my friend, but ogled like me like he wanted to slob on my knob. Oh man, I was the happiest little fricker on earth looking over to my friend while this guy talked like he had just seen the second coming of alberta tomba. Not only did I know I was better than him, he knew it too, and I knew that he knew it. I'm pretty sure a full orchestra was playing in the background.

Sorry I'm being arrogant as frick, but it was just kind of awesome to be not that good at something, and then all of a sudden really good. Especially when your buddy is kind of an arrogant a-hole and has always quite clearly enjoyed the fact that he was better than you.

And putting aside my own self-satisfaction, it makes skiing pure joy to this very day. Every turn, the centripital (or centrifugal...I always forget) forces are the only thing keeping you from not falling over even thought you are so sideways while carving a clean line with your edges through a turn that you can drag your knuckles. And then you release off that turn and it's like you literally float over the ground all the way from beign sideways in a left turn to being sideways in a right one. It's pure bliss. And the faster the better.

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as it's so much more technically challenging than snowboarding.

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And physically demanding. Skiing hard and fast is brutal on your legs. I could snowboard all damn day and never get the least bit fatigued.

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Snowboarding, however, is a totally different story. Idk anyone who didn't struggle for many, many days. Some even need multiple trips before it takes. Once it does, though, it's pretty easy to go from eh to pretty damn goo

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For me it was the third day. Maybe 4th. The first day is just hell on earth. Your feet are bound in in a very unnatural way since that isn't how we walk and it's just so awkward. You've never felt that kind of physical/athletic confusion and your legs jus don't know what to do. And you fall and then again and again and again Your wrists hurt. your neck hurts. Your arse hurts. Your back hurts. Your abs will hurt the next day from poppping yourself back up. Hell, if your dick is long enough, it probably hurts too.

But by day two you've started to figure out how to navigate down a run on your heel edge.

By day three or four you've finally taken the crucial step, which is being comfortable going from heel edge to toe edge.

And that's really it. At that point you've got it. Can you get better...sure. But no matter how good you get, you're still just going back and forth between heel and toe edge. It's fundamentally very simple.

I am glad that i made myself learn to snowboard. now I can be a full-fledged ski snob and never ski on the east coast. just board. And save the sticks for the rockies, where I can have a couple days a year of sideways bliss.

I have no idea how long this post is going ot be. I'll see in two seconds after i hit submit. I gotta feeling it might be WAY longer than I intended when I started.

Opelka bageled Tennys in the second set. Wow. Didn't see that coming.

Is Opelka potentially legit? is he more than a mere servebot, perhaps?

I'm gonna pull a MidnightVibe, but all in one post.

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I suppose you could say that talent could be success/practice time. Can kid A that has hit half the tennis balls as kid B get the win? Then I'd say that they were born with more talent. But I would guess that rarely happens after a certain level.

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Agree here, but now it feels like we're talking about tennis-specific talent instead of just physical talent.

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kid B

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kid Bourbon? He would probably lose.

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I break physical talent (or athleticism) down into two simple components: hands and feet. The hands part is your hand-eye coordination. In tennis, this manifests as shotmaking skill. The feet is your speed and agility. How quickly and easily can you get from point A to point B (and, yes, point B could be 10 feet off the ground).

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I don't disagree, but wouldn't this put someone like Goffin at the very top? And isn't that the opposite of how we normally view players of his ilk?

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INteresting point. I suppose one would have to begrudgingly give Raonic the benefit of the doubt on being a natural server. One can't simply practice their way to a serve like that by being "professional".

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Funny how begrudingly is a thing when it comes to serves and servebots. We never "begrudingly" give Delpo the benefit of the doubt for having a monster forehand.

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I think talent (and mentality) separate you after that, especially at the top level of pros.

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We haven't even touched on mentality at all, and whether it's a natural talent or not. I would think the consensus is that it's mostly a learned trait, but one could argue otherwise. It's possible that Rafa had a killer instinct in the womb.

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I wonder how many dudes just aren't good with strategy. I think is where Murray made his bones. He was a bit of a pusher, but a really good tactician.

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Strategy, game planning, shot selection, shot variety, anticipation, willingness to gamble at the right times, and on and on. All of these are important but can be easily overlooked.

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Is Opelka potentially legit? is he more than a mere servebot, perhaps?

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Doubtful. Not that I've seen him play lately, but it's just unlikely. I would think if anyone pulls this off, it would be Kyrgios.

Basically told him "You have no friends. No offense though lol"

Bitch.

how did that conversation become public?

yeah that's weird

I’m guessing dubs for the first match?