tennis, life and a few things in between

Had friends over for dinner.  When conversation drifted to our neighbors, tennis .. .. I told them about my calling police at the court.  To my surprise, one of them said,
“The first court?”  More of a statement than question.
“Yes.  How do you know?” I asked.
“Oh, they did that to me/us few times.”
My jaw dropped.
“What did you do?”
She replied, ‘no big deal, I moved to the next court.’  She then went on to assure me that this kind of thing happens all the time and the police know about it.
This sounds right, because I remembered when the cops got to the court, they didn’t do any investigation or interrogation, just told the kids to leave.

Yuan Meng has a dilemma, her mom/manager/financier. Pix on FB

Tony arranged a lunch with Ras last weekend in a Greek restaurant in Astoria.  I was dumb founded.  The two women had skipped the town; he’s just her one time practice partner.  The relationship should have ended.  They go their separate ways.  Apparently it’s not.  Tony wanted to help the Dream Girl, so does Ras.  Tony’s interest was purely doing good.  Ras’s bit more, he’s also interested in finding coaching/managing  in China in the near future, for he is smart enough to know that he isn’t going to make it on the ATP circuit.
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He is the same age as Dream Girl but much more mature, can have a conversation.  Not just “I like to read comic books, I love to watch TV ..”  He ranked #2 in Greece as junior, but didn’t get alone with the president who ran the federation.  Not only been denied sponsorship, he’s even scratch off fm the Olympics in Athens in 2004.  Right now he lives in LA, attending Irvin as senior or had just graduated.  He and Tony agree on one thing: Dream Girl needs help, needs a know-how coach, needs a worldly manager, and on top of them all, a solid financial backer.  Yu’s smart enough to take her so far, but now she stands on the way.  After all, 鸟枪换炮 era, you got to use the cannon to survive, in order to win.  Yu just doesn’t have it.  They reasoned that when she saw Dream Girl leap at Australian Open, shot up to 90+ in ranking, she thought the time to reach top 10 was just few more months.  (She perhaps signed the Adidas deal without consulting a lawyer, or anyone with tad of knowledge.)  But she didn’t realize the higher you go, the more difficult it becomes.  She has Dream Girl practice only 2 hours a day.  There is no training regime.  This just doesn’t cut.  Jonathan’s said he could be her manager, but too bad she can’t afford him; he also commented on my question whether they had consult a lawyer before ink the Adidas deal: “hiring a lawyer needs money … .. ”  Yu is very sensitive about people who offers help (suspicous of their motives?) – she doesn’t seem to be asking, and is very protective of Dream Girl (guarding her investment?).  I found it’s one of the saddest things that one doesn’t know his or her limit.  (Or Yu knows but afraid losing control, hence her investment?)  Would Chairman Mao be remembered or judged differently should he retired after 1949?  I’d think so.

This shortsightedness, 鼠目寸光 sounds familiar?  China’s improvement over the past 30 years is tremendous, and I’m very proud of it.  But in the company of other highly developed nations, China is green, unsophisticated, can only see what’s under its nose.  If you want to be in the major league, make the investment.  Lacking education?  Hire a pro.  Between financial means (that can make many things happen) and talent, I think talent plus hard working is more vital.  Ivan Boesky had hoped that his son would make into tennis.  He even built an indoor tennis court on his compound.  Obviously money can’t buy talent in this regard.  (Or maybe his son found better thing to do.)

I asked out loud, does Dream Girl want your help, or Yu appreciate your help?

On the eve of US Open, Pete gave an rare interview with FT, in which he mentioned that his era was different from current Federer’s where there is much less real competition.  I agree.  It gets so boring that we see FedEx plays on Sundays and wins all the time.  Thanks god he doesn’t grunt, and moves fluidly with impeccable form, especially single hand backhand.  The only player who has an edge over him is Rafael Nadal, but it’s only limited on clay, so FedEx ends up with other 3 slams.  In no time, he’ll surpass Pete’s 14 slams record.  Sampras still has bit fire in his belly, for he said IF he gets in shape, he’ll still be a force to reckon with on grass.  WTG, Pete!  Yuan Meng’s practice partner Ras said he saw Pete from time to time in LA, “he plays 3x a week, keep in shape … plays with everyone ..” page

• 2010.08.26, Making of a Champion
• 2008, A Champion’s Mind
• 1991, unfairness of the commentator in Europe

I played with new serve over the weekend – without any practice – did well.  Only couple of more doubles than usual, which surprised me.  (I had many doubles on Sunday afternoon when I played at a party, after 3 serious hours of playing in the morning – I was so poppped.)  So years ago’s advice actually blossomed, although I never thought of making use of it.

Couple of weeks ago, there’s book review on Gerd Gigerenzer’s Gut Feelings by Catherine Arnst (Business Week 8/20).  It sounds very familiar with a book I read few years ago – Blink.  No coincident, by 3rd paragraph, the reviewers mentioned that Blink‘s author Gladwell drew heavily on Gigerenzer’s research.  Every time when I committed a double fault in tennis, I thought of Blink: we all develope an innate and unconscious rules that govern our negotiation in life – most of those doubles are made when I thought of making it, not I wanted to make it.  Like telling myself, oh no, don’t double fault.  And I was not flexible (or quick) enough to avoid making it.  Is this the thin line distinguish a good player from a great player?  This theory not just applies to tennis.

Last Thursday I took my first lesson with Barry.  He’s trying to correct my strokes, not just one, but basically all of them, from forehand to serve.  Shhishe, I’ve been taking lessons on and off over the years, group or private.  None of the coaches tried this hard.  They all say how good I played 🙂 guess not.  I didn’t like it – IF indeed I’m good, than how come I don’t improve much, stagnate at 3.0? Well, I never gone out of my way looking for one that can pick my game either.  Hopefully Barry is the man.  He first worked on my forehand.  My problem is I don’t shift my weight, and hit short, hooves around the serve line, which isn’t good, baseline is the target.  Simon had said it hundred times.  So was Lou, so’s Barry.  After a while, tired of telling me to hit it deep, he said my lacking of power is due to my skinny arms.  Hey, I eat lot of spinach, will it mean that I’ll get my popey’s arm, soon? 🙂

Right before ending of the session, he showed me how to serve .. the right way.  I remembered one of the coaches years ago, who said, “your serve is great, but you should consider adding more varieties, like twist the grip when you’re up 40 love..”  I was lazy, and my serve has always been very dependable with very few double faults.  If I could force errors and gain points here and there, there is very little incentive for me to add anything to my repertoire. 

I told Pumpkin how did I learn to serve when she asked: that for the first few times, I felt totally lost of control and the ballet movement. Ya, the ballerina, the metaphor coined by Gerald at Queens College.  Barry showed me how to do it, which I thought that’s the way I’m doing it. 
“Oh no, you don’t” he replied. 
Geee, now I see the purpose of mandatory continuing education in many industries, to refresh and to improve.  Many things I thought I’m doing it the right way, but after years of doing it, I somehow found a way to do it incorrectly, cutting corners, out of laziness.  Same with swimming.  Once a girl asked me to teach her, did I realize how badly had I been swimming.

Dong Yi Feng 东溢丰 698 Cafe / 新東溢豐
135-29 37th Ave,
Flushing, NY 11354

We had dinner last night with Yuan Meng 袁梦, Dream Girl and her entourage, Ras and Yu at Dong Yi Feng Seafood.  More than 20 of us showed up.  Tony collected more than $5k for her.

It’s my second time meeting Yuan and her coach/manager Yu. Both are warm.

After Dick gave a short welcome speech, Yu spoke, mentioned that there are many sponsors chasing them, but they refused. This $5k  donation was different, very heart felt … Over the course of 10 (?) years, Yu said she never hide anything from DG, except tonight’s dinner.

“I didn’t tell her a thing.”

So its a bit surprise to DG. After fumbling with words, DG got emotional, cried. They lived in a family style hostel in Flushing because of tight budget. Yu blamed the landlord’s fight late in the night, “I heard knife ..”

So they didn’t sleep well at all. DG lost in the first qualifying round.

If she’s still at it, next year they certainly can stay with any of us. I’ve a few moments to chat, I found DG to be genuine, content, talkative (mostly about herself), acting younger. She certainly isn’t like the scary kitten Yu first encountered – distrusting everyone.

Jonathan said to DG, as long you tried your best, we’re here to support you. Is this experience talking?  Yu was circling the room, asked me for videos of the night to bring home for the media.