NEWS AND COMMENTARY ON WOMEN'S PROFESSIONAL TENNIS
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Quote of the day
"Maybe there's something in the water!"
Petra Kvitova, on why so many Czech players are left-handed
2 comments:
Bobby Skipsey
said...
The Czechs no longer force natural-born lefties to be righties. That and the general suspicion of rules that grew a thousand fold under the communists, lead the adventurous among their youth to tennis, one of the few individualistic sports. More importantly, the Czechs generally employ different strokes, use different models that say, the Americans. Many hit the eastern or low-eastern forehand. Kvitova and Safarova also used the Ivanisevic model for the serve. We are still stuck in the modernized versions of Evert and Borg, as demonstrated by the windshield wiper forehand and the high elbow on the serve, with a premium on percentages derived therefrom. Etc.... Go Czechs! You and the French are the artists of the tennis world. Include as other exceptions, Roger, Gasquet and Dimitrov. The conformity of prosic baseline tennis in numbing. Fortunately for those of creative bent, there are a number of artistes.
You bring up a good subject: How many lefties are still forced into right-handedness? Sharapova is a lefty, and I've sometimes wondered what would have happened if she had gone with her natural handedness.
Czech pkayers do employ different strokes, and largely to their advantage. Talking about this is making me miss Benesova :) The high elbow on the serve has been modified by some players in order to avoid strain that could aggravate injury. The "back scratch" is not the most effective technique for all players, though it's easy to understand why it's considered essential in many tennis cultures.
2 comments:
The Czechs no longer force natural-born lefties to be righties. That and the general suspicion of rules that grew a thousand fold under the communists, lead the adventurous among their youth to tennis, one of the few individualistic sports.
More importantly, the Czechs generally employ different strokes, use different models that say, the Americans. Many hit the eastern or low-eastern forehand. Kvitova and Safarova also used the Ivanisevic model for the serve. We are still stuck in the modernized versions of Evert and Borg, as demonstrated by the windshield wiper forehand and the high elbow on the serve, with a premium on percentages derived therefrom. Etc....
Go Czechs! You and the French are the artists of the tennis world. Include as other exceptions, Roger, Gasquet and Dimitrov. The conformity of prosic baseline tennis in numbing. Fortunately for those of creative bent, there are a number of artistes.
You bring up a good subject: How many lefties are still forced into right-handedness? Sharapova is a lefty, and I've sometimes wondered what would have happened if she had gone with her natural handedness.
Czech pkayers do employ different strokes, and largely to their advantage. Talking about this is making me miss Benesova :) The high elbow on the serve has been modified by some players in order to avoid strain that could aggravate injury. The "back scratch" is not the most effective technique for all players, though it's easy to understand why it's considered essential in many tennis cultures.
Post a Comment