How to choose a tennis racket

[thirddan]

thremp, jbrown...

i have never played tennis so im curious about why women would get destroyed by men...is this mainly a strength difference? women are unable to serve fast enough or return the fast men's serves? what is the vertical game thing?

[Mason Malmuth]

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i have never played tennis so im curious about why women would get destroyed by men...is this mainly a strength difference? women are unable to serve fast enough or return the fast men's serves? what is the vertical game thing?

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It has to do with hand-eye coordination reaction time. Men are just faster.

Best wishes,
Mason

[Mason Malmuth]

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I think I could beat your wife, though. In college I played regularly against a girl who was the state champion of New Hampshire and a full scholarship D1 player and always won.

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When I was in my early twenties I use to play regularly with a girl who held the Number 1 ranking in the United States as a junior and was briefly ranked in the Top 10 of the US Women before she quit the tour. (We were very evenly matched.)

My wife, while not as good as this person, would certainly be able to give her a good game if they were both in their twenties again. So you may have a much tougher time than you think.

best wishes,
Mason

[1C5]

speed difference is also a HUGE factor.

sure, surena has weapons and has a bigger serve than many men (most men probably) but she is just so slow compared to the majority of them and that would be her big downfall.

[J.Brown]

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i have never played tennis so im curious about why women would get destroyed by men...is this mainly a strength difference? women are unable to serve fast enough or return the fast men's serves? what is the vertical game thing?

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It has to do with hand-eye coordination reaction time. Men are just faster.

Best wishes,
Mason

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Mason,

you are the last person i want to disagree with on this or most topics, but it isn't hand eye coordination in any way.

it is physical strength. speed. upper body strength particularly that is much greater in men. it is simply power (the ability of men and their superior strength to generate much more) this power translates to court coverage, racket head speed, explosiveness of all kinds, etc.

women can equal men in terms of reaction and hand eye coordination in most things that don't involve strength primarily.

i taught a ton of tennis and played a bit in college (not quite good enough for D1 scholarship, but good enough to walk on and play) so i am not speaking out my ass on this topic as a point of reference.

strength/power issue where men are superior, not hand eye coordination reaction time that is the separator between men and women in tennis. later. J.

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi J.Brown:

While I agree with most everything you say, it's my opinion that reaction time trumps everything. For instance, it's a lot easier to return a serve that's going at 80 miles per hour than one at 120. I also think it's the main reason why players like Federer almost never lose. Surely there are others who are stronger then him, hit harder than he does, run a little faster, and so on.

But the bottom line is being able to see the ball a little sooner, understanding where it will be, and knowing how you're going to hit it back. The faster you're able to do this, the better you can play.

By the way, and this goes back to my Arthur Ashe experience. In short talk to our campers, he emphasized concentrating on seeing the ball well, and then getting your racket back quickly so that you'll be ready to hit the ball. I first thought his talk was a little silly, but over the years I began to realize that hand/eye coordination tied to reaction time was the key.

Best wishes,
Mason

[J.Brown]

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Hi J.Brown:

While I agree with most everything you say, it's my opinion that reaction time trumps everything. For instance, it's a lot easier to return a serve that's going at 80 miles per hour than one at 120. I also think it's the main reason why players like Federer almost never lose. Surely there are others who are stronger then him, hit harder than he does, run a little faster, and so on.

But the bottom line is being able to see the ball a little sooner, understanding where it will be, and knowing how you're going to hit it back. The faster you're able to do this, the better you can play.

By the way, and this goes back to my Arthur Ashe experience. In short talk to our campers, he emphasized concentrating on seeing the ball well, and then getting your racket back quickly so that you'll be ready to hit the ball. I first thought his talk was a little silly, but over the years I began to realize that hand/eye coordination tied to reaction time was the key.

Best wishes,
Mason

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Mason,

I 100% agree with everything you say on this, but I think we didn't address the issue exactly.

I think hand eye coordination/reaction time/seeing the ball early and being able to adjust to it quickly/having great court sense are some of the tangible things combined with the numerous intangible ones make someone like Federer so tough to ever beat. I tend to equate it with people who have great card sense....some people can just play! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I just don't tend to agree that the reason he (Federer or any top male player)can beat Justine Henin is because of these things. I think she is close to his equal in many of these categories, but she in NOT his equal in ANY of the things I wrote about earlier. The serve and court coverage are just the two areas that this becomes most prevalent.

There is a quote from Goran Ivanisevic talking about Martina Hingis hitting crushing returns of serve against him in mixed doubles simply because this IS a reaction time/hand eye coordination issue and she has that in spades, but then look at her terrible second serve. That is not from a lack of anything other than not being able to produce her own power.

I am not sure how you currently match up with your wife on the court, but when you used to be able to beat her fairly easily it was because you were a bigger, stronger, more powerful creature. Considering that you strictly hit with a continental grip I would guess she is a prettier ball striker than you and maybe even looks better doing it [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img], but I would guess her reaction time etc. is much closer to yours than you would like to admit.

Anyway I love talking tennis on 2+2!! Thank you.
Did you go out and watch any of the pro tennis in LV this March? It was great and I will definetly make it annual trip. Cheers. J.