Rod Laver: change your game as you get older – World Tennis Magazine

Many eyes remain on Roger Federer as the 16-times big tournament winner 29 Years old on 8 August 2010 with an ATP World Tour ranking for No. 3 -his lowest ranking since 2003. Will the Swiss Maestro change his game, his strategy and this playing style in the last years of his career to continue to win large singles titles far into its thirty?

Rod Laver, the only player in the history of Tennis to win the Grand Slam of Tennis twice, won his second Grand Slam in 1969 at the age of 31. In his newly released and updated memoirs, the training of a tennis player ($ 19.95, New Chapter Press, www.newchaptermedia.com), Laver discusses “change your game as you get older” in this exclusive book fragment below.

In 1963 in Adelaide, when the American team of Chuck McKinley and Denny Ralston took the Davis Cup from Australia, the crucial victory was the double match.

The Yanks largely defeated Neale and Roy Emerson because Fraser could not touch his overhead costs. McKinley and Ralston are obliged to feed him when they could, and Fraser’s failed made sure that an astute observer, Jack Kramer, made sure: “The first to go into a aging tennis player is not his legs – but his overhead.”

Now Fraser was by no means an antiques. He was thirty, but he had not played as much as the others. It was a good lesson to remember. The overhead is the most tiring blow to touch, and if you can let older opponents hit a lot, you will cause a malfunction. (Unless the older opponent you have in mind is Pancho Gonzalez – although Pancho can also be tired a bit by good lobs.)

Pancho was a good example of a cautious change by a man older than forty. He used a much lighter racket than years ago, barely 13 grams. Red Hoehn, former Education Pro at the Badminton & Tennis Club in Boston, which lay to Pancho, was turned back on the day when he weighed Panchos Rackets. “This is the same weight that my twelve -year -old daughter uses,” said Hohn.

The lighter racket is easier to beat around, which causes less tension. Pancho became a dedicated of the metal racket. Again, it can easily be waved and offers less resistance with the split axis. Serving with the metal rackets is not that tiring.

On the serve it is double important for the older player to get the first ball in, because this is also a tiring stroke, and you want to serve as little as possible. Older players are people in the nineties who continue to play playing to use VASSS (Van Alen Streamlined Scoring System) Rules, in a single point or no-Ad-shape. Single-Point is similar to scoring the table tennis, whereby the serve changes every five points. No-ad eliminates Deuce; So the first to reach four points wins the game. Both reduce the tribe of serving long Deuce games or sets. Jimmy van Alen, the daring enemy of conventional score, also came up with the sudden sky, a revolutionary newcomer in Forest Hills in 1970. These Outlaws Deuce sets, which came into force on 6-6 in Games. Sudden death is a best-of-nine series of points that end the set. The professional tours have not accepted AD for Doubles and a Tie-Breaker instead of a decisive third set. Jimmy would be happy. Full rules of VASSS are available on request from the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Newport, Rhode Island.

Older players can be surprised to find themselves better in many ways than as young people, have learned not to always blow away with the feathers of days gone by, and have to play more in a more sense. Hitting the ball in the rise uses the pace that the opponent puts on the ball and uses less energy. Do not run for a ball clearly out of reach, or at a point that probably doesn’t mean much, say at 40-0 or 0-40.

Gonzalez was a good example and collected his energy, saved the big serve when he really needed it. He kept his return low and soft and used the lob often and well. When he came to the net, he made sure it was behind a valuable shot. He felt that his eyes and reflexes had gone a bit and had problems with balls that hit the net directly on the net. This is always a good tactic to use with a volleyer – it allows him directly to him – and it pays more to an older opponent.

Older players are more likely to pull muscles, so they must be sure that they are warmed up well and have to take it easy if they do not play regularly. It is a great game at any age. So take it easy and enjoy it.