Tactical game- the ‘Big Leap’
Success in ‘International Open-events’ is the final destination for a Tennis player. The ‘Big-Leap’ in Tennis is the transition from junior ‘stroke maker’s game’ to the full fledged mastery over the ‘Tactical-Game’. This is what international Tennis competition is all about. Players in the ‘open-platform’ have a tactical brand of their own. It could be the missing link in our country and many others like ours.
Developing a tactical game involves knowing and understanding of all aspects of Tennis as a game and incorporating only the ‘essentials’ to create an ‘effective-weapon’ of domination. Observing good players and analyzing their game plan plays a very big part in this progression of development. The biggest challenge a junior players will face is to adapt a tactical game suitable to the individual. Such a game evolves though tournament match play easily than all other orchestrated systems.
‘Tactics in Tennis is foxy’, opponents cannot be given certainties but must be made to guess all the time. This disturbs their smooth reaction and slows them. It is the effect of every tactic in Tennis. So Tennis without tactics is not winning Tennis! Incorporating tactics into the game is the ‘Big leap’ of competition Tennis.
The Indian circuit – study
India was big in Tennis in the 50’s through 80’s. Some would remember names Ramanathan Krishnan, Premjit Lal, Jaideep Mukerji and the most likely name many would know is Vijay Amitraj. Before that a string of Indians dominated in Wimbledon. The design of the Indian circuit by ILTA was the secret of their success.
The Indian circuit as it was known was a string of Tournaments from late November to end of March in Indian state capitals. It attracted players from every corner of the world. During the northern winter Indian Circuit was the best attraction for players worldwide to stay in competition Tennis. Far easterners, west and east Europeans, Australians and the Americans came to play the Indian circuit in numbers. It proved to be the best mechanics of ILTA to popularise the game in India and to produce world class players.
We too benefitted from this immensely. First we had the opportunity to see best in the world play closer to home. Then gradually we had the opportunity to play them if we survived the early rounds. It was a great experience to develop a tactical game. Once a certain competency is reached, players benefit through coaching process gets reduces. It is the match play experience that pays to develop a tactical game. Earlier in Colombo good players provided the match play experience to the juniors to evolve as tacticians. This gave our juniors the ‘Big Leap’ to succeed in competitions worldwide. This trend has ceased to exist now.
Making ‘Peak and prime’ coincide
It takes about 8 to 10 years to ‘tactically peak’ and have the control over the game. ‘Physical prime’ in Women is between 18 and 30 and for men it is from 20 to 33. If these two can be made to coincided, good performance can be expected in the International competitions from our players. The present Tennis court was designed around 1892. It was done by the Royal Navy in London for the Wimbledon championships. It is said Royal Navy had a recruitment standard in height and in muscular weight. Court was designed to challenge such a built with skills. For this reason individuals and national associations cannot ignore to make physical prime and tactical peak in their development design. I believe this aspect applies to all sports.
Graded divisional
events -missing link
A design of an integrated practice and tournaments is the missing link of Tennis in many countries to exploit the technical peak and physical prime of players. We had it and lost it. In the last 15 years it has got worse and has vanished. Of all the methods necessary to bring back our Tennis ‘integrated systems’ have proved to be most rewarding. It is the only way to achieve the Tactical game – the ‘Big Tennis Leap’.
‘Open events’ is the road to our Tennis resurrection. As we do not have a strong base in open events we have to select and go for overseas participation. I will place this to be more important than ‘Talent scouting’ for our Tennis. A parallel set of ‘Graded Divisional open events’ should slowly replace our closed age group system. This has to be sustained at least for 10 years to turn our Tennis into something good. Right now our Tennis is travelling on a ‘deceiving’ road. India too took the ‘age group’ road and now they have only doubles players in the International circuit. The good news is ‘Indian circuit’ is still available for those want to develop a good tactical game.
What are Tactics?
Tactics take a while to be sensed and can be sensed being on the court and not from the side lines. Side line is good for ‘visual stroke making only’ not for a tactical game. Here is a story to understand the ‘Big Leap’ of Tennis. Tactics – A very big plant in a factory stopped working. A humble factory ‘floor man’ offered his help. He was ‘shot down’ to his ranks by his superiors. After many weeks of shut down and many millions lost in finding a solution, the humble floor man approached his superiors again. This time he wanted a fee for doing it. Reluctantly the management agreed. The floor man walked up and down a few times then he marked a place on the plant. Then he rolled the wheels with his hands until a certain sound came out and then gave a blow. The plant started production in one minute. Floor man demanded one million and one dollar for his service. Startled management wanted his bill itemized.
It went like this; Knowing ‘where’ to hit half a million dollars; knowing ‘when’ to hit another half a million dollars; and one dollar for the ‘hammer blow’. The ‘Big Tennis leap’ is ‘where and when’ of Tennis.
-George Paldano, former international player; Accredited Coach of Germany, ITF and USPTR; National, Davis Cup and Federation Cup Coach–gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com-