Pre-order James Blake new book Ways of Grace: Stories of Activism, Adversity, and How Sports Can Bring Us Together. Get a discount and have it delivered to your door June 27th.
Bollettieri: Changing the Game
Hall of Fame coach Nick Bolliettieri has been on the grounds of Flushing Meadows signing his recent biography, Bollettieri: Changing the Game.
In this tell all book, Nick shares his humble beginnings in a small town north of New York City to his triumphs on the center courts at Wimbledon, the French Open and the U.S. Open. Mincing no words, he discusses his ten world champions, including Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Maria Sharapova, Boris Becker, Monica Seles, Serena Williams and more; his eight wives; and all the successes and failures in between.
This motivational book is a must-read for any tennis player. And with any luck at all, you can get it signed by the HOF’er himself.
Available online at Amazon.com.
The Academy: Game On
The premise: Young tennis star Maya's dreams have finally come true when she earns a scholarship to The Academy. Plucked from her small town, Maya moves to the sports training facility/boarding school to start the beginning of her pro career. But Maya's fantasy of The Academy doesn't quite match the reality. Maya finds herself rooming with another scholarship student, and quickly realizes that the rules are different for them than for the paying students. Maya suddenly finds herself swept up into the world of privilege, and struggles to remember who she is amongst the newfound fame and attention she starts receiving. Her willingness to trust make her an easy target for those wanting to pull her down, and that's where all the trouble starts.
If you're looking for a story that is loaded with tennis training and tournament action, this isn't it. Hopefully, in future sequels more will be added.
Instead, what you will find is lots and lots of drama — mean girls, bad boys, hormones, embarrassing mistakes, jealousy, revenge and learning about true friendship.
A quick but fun read, that I have to admit, has me waiting for the next sequel.
Available online at Amazon.com.
Weekend Tennis Read: The Outsider By Jimmy Connors
If you're looking for a good tennis read to enjoy over the holiday weekend, you might want to think about checking out Jimmy Connors new bio, The Outsider.
While much has been said about the more scandalous issues — his storybook romance with tennis legend Chris Evert, to his battles with gambling and fidelity that threatened to derail his career and his long-lasting marriage to Playboy playmate Patti McGuire — there is much more to be gleaned from the book.
For the first time, Connors talks about growing up in St Louis and how he came to rule the game with his radically aggressive style of play and bad-boy antics that turned his matches into prizefights. In 1974 alone, he won 95 out of 99 matches, all of them while wearing the same white shorts he washed in the sink of his hotel bathrooms. Though he lived the rock star life away from tennis, his enduring dedication to his craft earned him eight Grand Slam singles titles and kept him among the top ten best players in the world for sixteen straight years—five at number one.
But in the end, it was his prolonged dedication to his craft that won him the public’s adoration. He capped off one of the most remarkable runs in tennis history at the age of 39 when he reached the semifinals of the 1991 U.S. Open, competing against players half his age.
Much to the chagrin of tennis fans everywhere, when Connors retired from tennis twenty years ago, he all but disappeared from public view.
Well, Jimmy's back, he's explaining and like all the rest of us, he has his demons…
Available online at Amazon.com.
New Holiday Tennis Reads
Several new books have hit the shelves just in time for holiday gifts or reading.
Muscles
Muscles: The Story of Ken Rosewall is written by Richard Norton with a forward by John Barrett, tells the tale of Rosewall’s remarkable career that spanned 25 years and gained him 18 majors in total, nine doubles and one mixed to go along with his singles triumph. Rosewall, who made four Wimbledon finals, lost in the 1974 championship match to Jimmy Connors at the age of 39, some 18 years his junior.
Recounted in part by Rosewall himself and extensively researched by Naughton, the book provides a fascinating snapshot of the worldwide tennis scene in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and is accompanied by photographs from Rosewall’s personal collection.
The book’s title is an ode to the ironic nickname his rivals gave to the 170cm-tall Sydney native, whose short stature didn’t hold him back from a remarkable career.
First in a Field of Two
First in a Field of Two is Barry Buss's personal memoir about his junior tennis experience and the strains that put upon his relationship with his father and how this influenced his developmental life as a person and athlete.
Famed Psychologist and author Dr. Allen Fox, who wrote the forward to the book says, "This book is a valuable guide for a tennis parent of how not to raise a tennis-playing child...Tennis culture portrays our sport as one big red carpet event riddled with fame, fortune and riches, and that's all true for a lucky select few. But there are a lot more stories like Barry Buss....There is a lot in here for everybody."
A Backhanded Gift
A Backhanded Gift is a new novel by Marshall Jon Fisher author of "A Terrible Splendor." Fisher explores
the life of Robert Cherney, a young American in post–Cold War Munich in the late 1980s, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Cherney, a 30-year-old aspiring writer, has left New York City for a job teaching tennis in Munich. Aside from private lessons, he coaches the Maccabi Club men's league team, a motley group of neurotics whose eccentricities seem exacerbated by their situation as Jews living in Germany. In addition to trying to figure out his life and not go crazy teaching tennis, Robert is trying to forget Lexa, the focus of years of erotic obsession back in New York. Helping him are Ingrid, a 40-ish Maccabi member and tennis pupil, and Veronique, a 25-year-old Jewish graduate student whom Max tries to set up with Robert. Love, tennis, sex, frustrated artistic ambition, and the dilemma of being a German Jew are all ingredients of this literary delight that is at turns serious and comedic.
If Fisher's previous tennis book, "A Terrible Splendor" is any indication, this is sure to be a good read.
Martin van Daalen Introduces New Tennis Book: Teaching Tennis
Former USTA National Coach Martin van Daalen has written a comprehensive new tennis instructional book, Teaching Tennis. The book is geared for players, coaches and parents to learn about the basics of tennis, how to teach tennis and how to solve problems concerning all aspects of the game.
It is easy to read and is a great first step for coaches to improve their knowledge and teaching skills when working with players. It illustrates all aspects of teaching and coaching in progression. Topics include:
• Showing the fundamentals of the game
• A methodology and progression to teaching tennis
• Technical, Tactical, Physical and Mental chapters
• Information on all other aspects of the game
• Examples of the strokes with photo sequences
• How to make a training and tournament plan
• Common mistakes and how to fix them
• Extensive section on problem solving
• Drills and exercises
Martin van Daalen has been coaching for over thirty-five years. After becoming a National Coach and Director of Coaching in the Netherlands, he worked for a long period of time with top juniors and professional tennis players in the US. As a National coach, working for the USTA, he has helped develop many top juniors and professionals on the tour today.
A definite must read for any tennis enthusiast who is a student of the game. And if the information from this top coach isn't enough, the book is full of photos of the world's top tennis players when they were youngsters starting out. That makes it worth the cover price right there!
Available online at Amazon.com.
Summer Page-Turners
Here are a few of the books we're reading this summer.
Come To Win
With Come to Win, Venus Williams, the multiple Grand Slam tennis champion and entrepreneur, along with an esteemed group of business leaders, politicians, and acclaimed artists, serves up a book of wisdom that shows how to turn a competitive spirit and athletic background into success off the playing field.
Hardcourt Confidential
In Hardcourt Confidential Patrick McEnroe uses his twenty-five-plus years in the trenches of the game to
tell true tales and wild stories about the players you think you know (from Sampras to Agassi to Roddick to the Williams sisters), how and why the game has changed since he first swung a racket, and what the future holds in store for American tennis. McEnroe takes an unapologetic look at the men, women, and events of the past three decades, right up to the epic Federer vs. Nadal rivalry that dominates the game today. He's got a lot to say and he's not afraid to say it.
Doubles
Tennis professional Slow Smith is in a slump. His wife is in a coma and he’s afraid he’s to blame. Left behind are her Polaroids, obsessive daily records of their life together. Meanwhile Kaz, Slow’s lifelong
doubles partner, is traveling the world while playing with someone new. Then one afternoon his old coach Manny appears in a dumpy Fiat convertible and persuades Slow to get in. When they return to Forest Hills — the site of a six-year winning streak — they reunite with old friends who call up long-buried desires and reveal a secret that threatens to destroy Slow’s marriage as well as his friendship with Kaz. Doubles serves up a tale of melancholy and redemption — both on the court and off.
Tennis Philosophy
In Tennis Philosophy, editor David Baggett assembles a team of champion scholars, including David
Foster Wallace, Robert R. Clewis, David Detmer, Mark Huston, Tommy Valentini, Neil Delaney, and Kevin Kinghorn, to consider numerous philosophical issues within the sport. It includes profiles of tennis greats such as John McEnroe, Roger Federer, the Williams sisters, and Arthur Ashe are paired with pertinent topics, from the ethics of rage to the role of rivalry. Whether entertaining metaphysical arguments or examining the nature of beauty, these essays promise insightful discussion of one of the world's most popular sports.
Acing Depression
Acing Depression chronicles the tumultuous life of the original bad boy of tennis, this engaging memoir describes one man’s public battle with clinical depression. Cliff Richey was best known for the 1970 season in which he won the Grand Prix, the Davis Cup, and was first in the American tennis ranking. He was also well known for his tantrums and boorish behavior that served to mask an internal, dark struggle. Describing torturous days in which he would place black trash bags on the windows and lay in bed crying for hours, this brutally honest narrative stresses that depression is a mental disorder that can affect anyone. This deeply moving story of nightmare and redemption serves to encourage and inspire anyone whose life is touched by mental illness.
101 Incredible Moments in Tennis
101 Incredible Moments in Tennis is a fascinating collection of true stories from courts across the world,
from outrageous outbursts to extraordinary events such as an unexpected death, and involving a host of characters from Authur Ashe to Lindsay Davenport and everyone in between including Borg, Conners, Navratilova, Nastase and Cash. Humorous, gripping and surprising by turns, 101 Incredible Moments in Tennis is packed full of fascinating stories, and often happy memories, for die-hard tennis fans and casual followers alike and will always serve up an ace. Joshua Shifrin is a tennis coach for nearly twenty years and is a member of the United States Professional Tennis Association. He continues to play, watch and write about tennis.
With Come to Win, Venus Williams, the multiple Grand Slam tennis champion and entrepreneur, along with an esteemed group of business leaders, politicians, and acclaimed artists, serves up a book of wisdom that shows how to turn a competitive spirit and athletic background into success off the playing field.
Hardcourt Confidential
In Hardcourt Confidential Patrick McEnroe uses his twenty-five-plus years in the trenches of the game to
Doubles
Tennis professional Slow Smith is in a slump. His wife is in a coma and he’s afraid he’s to blame. Left behind are her Polaroids, obsessive daily records of their life together. Meanwhile Kaz, Slow’s lifelong
Tennis Philosophy
In Tennis Philosophy, editor David Baggett assembles a team of champion scholars, including David
Acing Depression chronicles the tumultuous life of the original bad boy of tennis, this engaging memoir describes one man’s public battle with clinical depression. Cliff Richey was best known for the 1970 season in which he won the Grand Prix, the Davis Cup, and was first in the American tennis ranking. He was also well known for his tantrums and boorish behavior that served to mask an internal, dark struggle. Describing torturous days in which he would place black trash bags on the windows and lay in bed crying for hours, this brutally honest narrative stresses that depression is a mental disorder that can affect anyone. This deeply moving story of nightmare and redemption serves to encourage and inspire anyone whose life is touched by mental illness.
101 Incredible Moments in Tennis
101 Incredible Moments in Tennis is a fascinating collection of true stories from courts across the world,
NEW Patrick McEnroe Book "Hardcourt Confidential" To Hit Shelves In June
US Davis Cup Coach and tennis commentator Patrick McEnroe and award-winning tennis writer Peter Bodo have teamed up to pen Hardcourt Confidential, an entertaining and unfiltered look at professional tennis as seen through Patrick McEnroe eyes.
McEnroe has been in the world of professional tennis in one way or another for most of his life. As a player, coach, and ESPN commentator, he's seen it all. The significant tennis books of recent years have all been autobiographies--famous players burnishing their image or attempting to set the record straight within carefully controlled memoirs. No one has been willing to do a book that pulls back the curtain and presents an honest, no-holds-barred look into the ultimate gentleman's sport and the larger-than-life personalities that inhabit it. Curious to know which marquee player threw a tantrum and bailed early on a tournament? Why Roger Federer, presumably the greatest player of all time, has a losing head-to-head record with Rafael Nadal? Why certain tennis prodigies burned out early? The real role of coaches like Nick Bollettieri? Which player is as much of a diva off the court as on? The greatest match ever played?
In Hardcourt Confidential, McEnroe uses his twenty-five-plus years in the trenches of the game to tell true tales and wild stories about the players you think you know (from Sampras to Agassi to Roddick to the Williams sisters), how and why the game has changed since he first swung a racket, and what the future holds in store for American tennis. McEnroe takes an unapologetic look at the men, women, and events of the past three decades, right up to the epic Federer vs. Nadal rivalry that dominates the game today. He's got a lot to say and he's not afraid to say it.
Everybody in tennis is going to want to read this! Reserve your copy now.
Available for Pre-Order at Amazon.com.A Tale of Survival: On and Off the Court
We've heard stories like this before — how something very tragic and life-shattering ends up being a blessing in disguise. That's definitely the case Corina Morariu's new book, Living Through The Racket: How I Survived Leukemia…and Rediscovered My Self — a leukemia diagnosis brought her to the brink of death but in the end, it ultimately saved her life.
She was 23 and at the height of her professional tennis career—a top-30 singles player, the #1 ranked doubles player in the world in 2000, and the winner of Grand Slam titles at both Wimbledon in 1999 with Lindsay Davenport, and the Australian Open Mixed doubles in 2001.
Then, in May 2001, Corina was diagnosed with an advanced form of acute myelogenous leukemia and found herself in the match of a lifetime. After a grueling regimen of chemotherapy, she returned to competitive tennis 16 months after her diagnosis. Corina was named the WTA Tour Comeback Player of the Year in 2002, but the effects of the leukemia lingered. She was plagued by continual injuries, including two shoulder surgeries that diminished her physical capabilities as a tennis player.
In this honest, unsparing memoir, Corina opens up about what it’s like to be an athlete diagnosed with cancer, and how her battle with leukemia changed her in every way. And this is where it gets really interesting. She acknowledges that she started having a physical relationship with her coach at 15. When she was 17, they married. During her bout with cancer she and fellow tennis pro Justin Gimmelstob re-establish their friendship which ultimately leads to Corina's divorce and a tumultuous 3-year relationship. Through all of this, Corina reassesses everything: her family, her devotion to tennis, her marriage and relationships and her future. She took charge of her own life, often with devastating consequences to her and those she loved most.
In the end, leukemia gave this world-class athlete much more than it took away—the challenge to look deeper within herself, and the strength to change her life—and she reveals the extraordinary lessons she learned along the way.
Available online at Amazon.com.
2010 New Year's Resolutions
As we gladly ring out the old, and optimistically ring in the new, most of us have probably included a few things to help us get fit for the courts. If that includes you, here are a few of our favorite fitness aids that might help you accomplish your goal.
Complete Conditioning For Tennis
Take your game to a higher level! Now you can train to play like the pros by specifically conditioning each fitness component to meet the physical demands of tennis. Complete Conditioning for Tennis by Paul Roetert and Todd Ellenbecker improves your strength, power, agility, flexibility, quickness, and stamina. Experts from the United States Tennis Association provide the very best training exercises and drills, sample workouts from the game’s top players, and sample programs to maximize your tennis performance. You’ll finish strong in every match. Available online at Amazon.com.
Dyna-Flex Pro Plus Gyro Exerciser
Professional athletes use the Dynaflex Pro to strengthen your wrists, forearms, and other lower arm muscles. It's great to use as a carpal tunnel exercise (for prevention and rehabilitation), and also works great for improving arm strength for almost every sport and physical activity. Professional athletes use the Dynaflex Pro to improve grip, to improve arm strength, to improve shoulder strength, to improve coordination, as therapeutic relief for the hands, wrists, arms, biceps and triceps, and to gain a competitive edge in sports requiring hand speed, control, accuracy, and grip strength.They've been around forever. You may have played with one as a kid. They come in fun and different colors. Available online at Tennis Warehouse.
ETCH-Swing
ETCH-Swing is great to use for tennis strength training, whether you’re working on your serve, forehand
or backhand. At advanced levels, it has become an integral part of the training regimens of pros Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic and Victoria Azaeenka since the Etch-Swing allows players to merge movement drills with upper body strengthening for more efficient training sessions. The unique design of the Etch-Swing does much more than a weight on the end of a racquet. Available online at Etcheberry Experience.
Yoga for Great Tennis
In this easy-to-follow 45-minute video, avid tennis player and Jivamukti-certified and registered yoga
instructor Anastasia will guide you through this tennis specific yoga practice. Flexibility, strength and breath control, which is part of every Yoga posture, is the key to on-court improvement. Available online at Tennis Warehouse.
TenniSpheres
TenniSpheres are an innovative product based on an ancient hand exercise technique. Two iron balls are manipulated in the hand(s) with various motions. The exercises are believed to have beneficial effects not only for the hand, wrist and arm, but for the whole body. Not only on these little balls helpful to your well-being; they're very cool looking! Available online at Tennis Warehouse.
Timex Fitness Tracker
The sleek Timex Fitness Tracker, which combines a comfortable sports digital watch with a wireless digital transmitter that can help you track your daily activity — this watch works great on the tennis court. The Wireless Fitness Tracker’s digital transmitter easily clips to the waist and wirelessly relays information to a fashionable, highly functional wristwatch that lets you track your time, steps and calories. What a way to get a step on your opponent. Available online at Amazon.com.
PumpOne
PumponeNeed a little incentive to help you? Try PumpOne — a personal trainer that fits in your racquet bag. Here's how it works — you download a workout program, sync it to your iPod, iPhone, Nano, Zune or cell phone, and click through your workout while listening to your own music. When you’re done with an exercise, click the next button for your next move. Single workouts start at $9, packages start at $49. And for the tennis player there's even a tennis-specific stretch and core package. Available online at PumpOne.
Xtensor
The Xtensor is a glove-like device that uses elasticized bands for resistance as you open your palm and extend your fingers fully. The mini-workout can help rebalance your muscles, reduce pain from repetitive strain, and ward off join erosion. Use the Xtensor for two to three minutes a day. Work up to two sets of 15 repititions and while it may look a little strange, this little gadget works wonders to help build strength and relieve pain and tension. Available online at Amazon.com.
You make 'em and you break 'em but at least you have to try.