Sobre la importancia del físico en el tenis, justo ahora acabo de leer dos posts relacionados con el tema. Uno es de un yankee cuyo hijo estuvo practicando en una academia española (la Sánchez-Casal, por algún ignoto motivo los americanos no distinguen entre ambas razas, the "Spaniards" y the "Catalonians").
El tipo no acaba de entender lo que ocurre: piensa que el tenis en general está virando "a la española", es decir: mucho juego desde la línea base y nada de ataque ni servicio+volea. Lo atribuye a una mayor predominancia del aspecto físico. Ese viraje del tenis hacia el juego desde el fondo de pista es un hecho, y en el mundillo del tenis somos universalmente conocidos los españoles por representar ese estilo de juego (propio de la tierra batida).
Y, sin embargo, se hace cruces pensando en que su hijo, que era físicamente mucho más fuerte y atlético que los demás alumnos de la academia, era vapuleado sin problemas por los alumnos españoles:
My son recenty spent some time at Sanchez-Casal academy in Spain. To tell you the truth, it was full of very, very high quality players. But none of them were real good athletes. My son was actually the best athlete there (not the best tennis player by far). And I'm not just saying that. It is true. And he's a good athlete, but not a great athlete. Athletically he dominated. They even had some recreational time Friday afternoons and he dominated playing soccer. WHAT! An American who never played soccer past age 10, dominating a bunch of Europeans at Soccer? Give me a break. There were no athletes there.
Talk about these academies pumping out baseliners. Well, they would practice on court 4 hours a day, 6 days a week. We already know that Spaniards are strictly baseliners. But you would think they would be able to squeeze in at least a little time for Serve practice or Volley practice. No, not a bit. It was all about pounding ground strokes from the baseline.
El segundo post es muuuy interesante (en realidad he copiado el anterior para meter este en contexto), es la respuesta de otro tipo al anterior hablando sobre la más que relativa importancia de la condición atlética en el tenis, y se ajusta bastante a lo que yo pienso sobre el asunto:
To be honest, as far as the comment about the Spanish academy, you do not need to be that athletic in tennis in my opinion.
There is not that much ground to cover. Raw athleticism is more necessary in sports like football and soccer and basketball, etc. because players need to run in full out sprint full-court/field. In tennis, it's a little salt and pepper movement here and there, but rarely a full out sprint. The actual playable court just isn't big enough for that. Put it this way, Agassi and Davenport might be able to catch up to a drop shot, but they're NOT going to be able to catch up to a healthy Bo Jackson in full flight...in fact, that would be laughable to even watch. Meanwhile put Carl Lewis on a tennis court against Agassi, and fast as he maybe, it's not going to matter. No human can catch up to a perfectly struck ball hit on the line if they're leaning the wrong way, going in the wrong direction. Why? It's not that it's impossible to run down the ball in tennis from a standing start, provided you know EXACTLY where the ball is going. But rather, it's because if you can't anticipate, if you don't have the instincts, if you're LEANING the wrong way, and the ball goes another struck at pro pace, the balls going to be by you. Now, however, IF you have pro level anticipation skills, THEN you will "sense" where the balls will be going, take two or three steps, and stick your racket out. You'll probably be ok. The tennis court is small, it's more important to have the knack for leaning the right way than it is to be uber athletic...i.e. facing an Andy Roddick serve, who has the edge? David Nalbandian and the little pouch around his stomach? Or...lean as a whistle, Michael Johnson? I think the answer is obvious, and it has nothing to do with athleticism or conditioning.
Seles, for the record, was an ABYSMAL athlete by ANY standard, NOT just "professional athlete" standards. This is per even Nick B.'s own confession. Meanwhile Graf was as astonishing athlete who was the European jr. sprinting champion. On the court though, Seles covered the court nearly as well as Graf during her prime. Why? Not because of her athleticism, but rather because of her ANTICIPATION and CAT-LIKE mental ALERTNESS (ever see the look in the eye of a cat stalking it's pray? Ain't NOTHING getting by it regardless of how tubby or lean the cat is).
What it all boils down to is that tennis is more a sport of anticipation and mental alertness in my opinion than raw athleticism. Players like Hingis and Martin and Agassi are not GREAT athletes by any means, but they are very alert to the ball and quickly anticipate where the ball will go. In tennis, that's 9 tenths of the battle. Getting to the ball is not THAT difficult, after all there is VERY little ground to cover. Don't believe me? Cry foul? You think catching up to a drop shot is something else? Well, how 'bout a wildly errant pass from a roided out quarterback in a massive field with stampeding buffalos chasing after YOU?
I'm not saying athleticism isn't important in tennis, just not DIRE important if you know what I mean. After all, Todd Martin and Magnus Larson can get to most balls anyway. Maybe not as many as Chang, but *enough.* Remember, Goran was a 400mm champion as a junior, so he's got a good set of wheels on him. So what? On a tennis court, Todd Martin concentrated a WHOLE lot better and that's worth at least a U.S. Open final.
With that said, I think at the highest level, the Spaniards who've made a mark on tour have for the most part been exceptional athletes. Corretja, Bruguera, Moya, Ferrero, Berasategui, and now Nadal are all to my mind top of the food chain athletically on the ATP tour. Bruguera is actually a pro soccer player now going on three years, not top division of course, but still that's pretty impressive to me given his age and injury history when starting. Muster used to be on the national Austrian junior soccer team, Stich on the German national junior soccer team, etc. Bjorkman was on the Swedish national jr. hockey team, etc. I think Goran even played a few pro soccer games after retiring. Courier could have probably at least made the minor leagues in baseball. Who's going to argue with Clistjers or Hewitt's parents' genes? How about Pioline, the son of two national level volleyball players, definitely a jock. Paes, cat like quick, the son of an Olympic field hockey playing dad. Borg? Freak of nature.
Heck, even Pierce and Davenport...eh, maybe not. But AT LEAST, they're able to get their racket on *enough* balls to make a living right? Jan Michael Gambill? You bet, all the way to his next Jaguar.
Y sí, por si algún profano total del tenis lo está pensando, España es actualmente, junto con Estados Unidos, la Meca de las academias de tenis donde enviar a los niños a practicar. Las academias catalanas gozan de una amplia fama ya desde hace años. Y últimamente también las valencianas: la de Ferrero (Equelite) está labrándose una enorme reputación a pasos agigantados. Aparte, está el hecho de que jugadores como Safin o Andreev se han formado en Valencia.
Quién lo iba a decir lustros ha.
