OK, I do not see your irony.
My main partner is 5.5-6.0. We play very agressive balls at full speed. We use the best balls and play on a good court, at good conditions. Strong topspins and slices, deep balls, angles etc.
Now imagine that I want to play a recreational tournament. I use quite advanced kinetic chains, many muscles involved. I'm not the youngest one, so I need a long warmup to play with good dynamics. There are no warmups at tournaments here. So, you know one reason - I do not want to risk injuries, my dynamics is wrong.
Second reason - the court. Clay courts here in Poland are very different. I play on a very fast surface, hard clay. I can adapt to a new surface, but I need time, an hour or so. At our friendly tournaments journalists hear: "5 mins on the court and please start the match, we do not have time". Every tournament is played at another centre, on a different surface. So, you know second reason of problems.
Bad lighting is another reason. I'm a journalist, work a lot of time at computers, my eyes hate high contrasts. Polish tennis reality: a few strong lamps just above your head and a quite dark interior. I serve and when I see the ball again, it's close to me. Huge problem.
Fourth reason: technique. If you use an advanced technique, you need perfect timing. You need to know the kick of the ball and you need to see the ball perfectly. So, my technique works against me. Sad but true. If you work on really good technique, better ask yourself about your tennis goals.
Fifth reason: poor combination of balls/racquet/strings. I use the heaviest racquet on the market, k6.1 Tour and Luxilon BBAPR at 24 kG. Prince Tour are dedicated for club players. If a stroke is hit at huge dynamics, the ball doesn't transfer rotation, everything goes into velocity. During the last tournament I saw a former top10 Polish player, he had the same problems. He was able to correct them by huge speed of racquet's head. Unfortunately for me, it's not possible with my racquet without killing my wrist. He was able to make corrections because he is younger and his racquet was lighter and balanced differently. I need a new setup just for these tournaments. I can't decide, do I really want to buy a different racquet to play better at a recreational tournament...
Add very serious wrist problems and you know the answers. I can adapt to new conditions, but I need time. Also, I can adapt to one or two changes, not to five, not in five minutes.
Now you know why I play these tournaments for fun.
Yes, you can say that the conditions are the same for me and my rival. But that's not true. My rivals are ~20 years younger, their eyes too. Their muscles do not need long warmup. They do not need to adapt to new balls because they use them before. Also, their technique is not so extremal as mine. They use power to modify the depth of the ball. I, usually, use rotations. To be competitive at these conditions, I should change my whole style of playing. I do not want to do that.
As you can see, at amateur tournaments good technique can work against you. But ask yourself, what do you prefer: to win against a player like dozu or to loose against Roger Federer? I work to be able to loose against very good players. Playing against them gives me motivation and satisfaction. A win over dozu? Come on...
I write on Polish tennis forum
http://forum.slajs.pl - in Polish, of course. Most of my posts are about tennis science. That's all I can say now, sorry.
onehandbh, dennis10is - what do you know about real tennis...
