I was a child in the 70's and had a tennis coach from the age of 8. Making out that intense coaching is something that is only something that has come into play with this generation is ill informed poppy cock.
and how many times a week did you train/ hit balls? seriously now... how many times. how about anyone you may know who actually played pro.
In the summer I trained every day. In school term twice a week, but I was never destined to be a pro, only a decent amateur I knew players who (generally pushed by their parents) played far more than I did, not one made pro to my knowledge. I played in plenty of tournaments where the rich kids had their own coach who travelled with them, the point being, there was serious amounts of coaching of youngsters going on back then. It wasn't the dark ages ffs The major difference today is the sports science that accompanies the coaching, the dieticians, sports psychologists, analysts etc etc.
Always fun to wonder who's clean or not in sports. My suspicion is that most at the top level in most sports are doped to the gills. Looks like Mo Farah's going to be the next big name to fall from grace when they do the proper investigation into Alberto Salazar. Doping testing in many sports is pathetically behind the times and far behind - many years in some cases - the advancements and drugs used in the doping process and programmes themselves. Cycling is obviously the one that makes the most headlines and the UCI says that they've got the latest tech to detect cheats and that they're 99.999999999% certain that it's a clean sport now, but the fact is the dopers have already moved on and are using newer, more sophisticated and different methods that the latest tech has fallen behind again. I don't believe that cycling is clean now. Look at Contador... has just won the Giro, has had two grand tours taken off him previously, yet he's still winning them, never mind being allowed to compete. Clean as a whistle that one, deffo. There's so much pressure to win from the companies in the sports industry that sponsor these athletes and who the athletes endorse and promote. It's always made out that it's the coaches or the athletes themselves persuading one another to dope in order to be the best, but I wonder how often they're getting calls from the higher ups at Nike and Adidas, whoever, pressuring them to get the result or lose the business and sponsor deal, or getting called in for meetings at head office when they don't get the desired results. These companies all base their advertising and marketing around being able to improve your performance and lifestyle, to lift your athletic level to it's maximum, and are all competing with one another saying they have the most advanced products of course, so they have to keep that perception of winning and success around the brand to have the edge on their competitors in a smallish but crowded market.
I know a few pros. The son of one of my old coaches who's about my age and I used to play with played at Wimbledon last year but went out early. Pros and aspiring semi-pros are basically training in some shape or form every day now, either in the gym, on court, working on conditioning, doing stretching, analysis whatever. And yeah the science side of it, diet and the mental approach to things - tactics too - are much more of a focus now than they have ever been previous.
Ivanovic and Safarova demonstrating why Serena is gonna crush whichever of them eventually wins this one and god knows neither of em want to it seems, utter display of choking from both, quite pathetic really. Especially Ivanovic who blew a 4-1 lead in the first set to lose it 7-5. Amazing stuff. Ivanovic serving to stay in the match now
Been out playin squash tonight. Haven't played in quite a bit but played 8 games against the guy (semi-regular opponent) and only lost one Came down awkwardly on my right ankle on one overhead volley though and just managed to save fully turning my ankle, still rolled it a little bit. It's not sore now but can tell I did something. Have done that ankle (right one) loads in the past though (last time was about 3-4 years back) and reckon it's actually stronger now for it
Hi guys. Sorry i have not been about at all but the real world was in the way : Been trying to catch up as best as i can. And hope to be more active from now on again. Have a great day guys.
