UK TT racquetaholics and tennis bums

[origmarm]

Originally Posted by Ross K

Rob,

As I'm pretty new to gut and given our weather, can you tell me what are the rules re playing in the wet. I'm presuming playing when raining is definitely out. But what if it's just damp out (say it had been raining a few hours before but wasn't actually raining anymore)? And can you play with gut in a small amount of drizzle?

On another matter, as an esteemed UK RH of long-standing haha, why not join the likes of Dave, Rich and myself on the FB group? IIRC you were dead against it and the idea of being on FB previously - which I understand. But you can simply join and do nothing else but post in the UKRHs group, which is a closed group, i.e., no-one but the groups members can have access to you etc. You wouldn't have to have anything to do with the rest of FB appartus, so to speak. There's definitely some good banter (some of it stuff we can't really say on TT). And, most importantly, some pretty good 'action' on the racketaholic front LOL. Anyhow, just thought I'd mention it.

The problem with gut is not necessarily the weather (though it doesn't help) directly but the ball getting very wet. That is what really gets the moisture on the strings and generally a good bit of grit too. As such it can not actually be raining but be pretty bad. Pacific and Klip (for example) are worse than VS. Overall if it feels wet I tend to avoid playing with gut. I just use a cheap syn for those sessions. With that or if I have a set I know is on the way out I don't care.

For me the FB thing is about the privacy to an extent but its more about the pressure from various quarters to friend certain people and participate in a lot of stuff. I don't have that kind of time and folk get upset. To give you an idea my wife has 54 first cousins. Only the very interested have that kind of time!! I'd never play any tennis!

On another note ill have some frames and some string to go soon if folk are interested. Let me know as I have a lot of mails.

Originally Posted by forthegame

Slow on here.
Did everyone have a good Christmas?
Still not played any tennis hence my activity here has waned considerably.
What's your reaction to the Nadal pull out? Easy ride for Djokovic?

Originally Posted by prostaff junkie

Probably, but it would be good to see one of the other guys to step up and challenge. Delpo or even Tsonga? Personally I'd like to see one of those guys in a semi.

I've been over in the US so no time to play but at least resting the ankle and picking up cheap gut (!)

It's a real pity the top four are so dominant. I'm really hopeful the weather is super hot and they put the roof down. For me if they do that perhaps Delpo has a chance if he plays some first strike tennis. Long shot but....

I reckon a Murray/Djoko final at this point.

[Meaghan]

Rob think you're missing ross' point....blank page, your name could be bob origmarm, set all privacy listings so only you can see them, join closed club, only we know who you are and we certainly wouldn't want to add you as a friend !!

Not played for a bit with weather and Christmas, not looked at tt for about a couple of months. Happy with one racket ha, I'm cured dyou hear me, cured I say....

[Dave M]

Originally Posted by Meaghan

Rob think you're missing ross' point....blank page, your name could be bob origmarm, set all privacy listings so only you can see them, join closed club, only we know who you are and we certainly wouldn't want to add you as a friend !!

that's actually a good idea, i haven't been on here much lately and rarely stray far from this odds page or the results one, fair bot of nonsense about!Yes we can all promise not o b e friends or "like" you!

Originally Posted by Meaghan

Not played for a bit with weather and Christmas, not looked at tt for about a couple of months. Happy with one racket ha, I'm cured dyou hear me, cured I say....

brave words!

[prostaff junkie]

[quote=Happy with one racket ha, I'm cured dyou hear me, cured I say....[/QUOTE]

Don't think we'll ever be cured Rich. I've been playing 95d's for about 10 months without any compulsions at all.......but.......I now have 2 N95's on the way, and am also tinkering with those Mega-age bats. May be investing in 2 more POG Mids before the week is up, and still have to deal with my lust for Angell/Vantage sticks. And I woke up this morning thinking about PB10's.......

[Dags]

^^ This Facebook group... would it be the best place to monitor the potential whereabouts of the aforementioned 95D's..?

[prostaff junkie]

Originally Posted by Dags

^^ This Facebook group... would it be the best place to monitor the potential whereabouts of the aforementioned 95D's..?

Yeah, if I do get rid it'll prob be on there. I'll keep you posted.

[Dags]

I've been watching the squash this weekend. Nicol David reminds me a lot of Federer: she seems to glide around the court in an absolutely effortless way. And in the men, Shabana is great to watch. Last night he executed a shot that you'd expect of Bahrami - pretended to hit a drive, but deliberately missed the ball and came round again for a drop shot. I played a bit when I was younger, but haven't touched a racquet in over 15 years. I might be getting an itch...

Do any of you guys play? I was searching for a squash forum last night as I'm completely out of touch with the game (even the scoring has changed!), and did find one with some posts from a guy called origmarm...

[origmarm]

I might play a little . One of my brothers was a top 20 UK Jnr some years ago. I tend to play in Winter with other slow, old folk. Shabs is great to watch but I love watching Gaultier or Ramy. Mind you Hicham just for the odd Mizuki! http://youtu.be/75RICjtqvkI

Not as in to it as tennis though. Too patterned and attritional for me overall. I did once win 2pts off my bro

[Dags]

Having someone that good in the family is great! Unless he's also the younger, better looking brother...

I watched some of the squash players whilst I waited for my tennis court tonight. The seemed to be pretty competitive: I reckon I'd get a bit of a hiding until I found my feet. I need to decide if I want to return to the bottom of the food chain... and whether it's worth risking my tennis form!

[Dags]

Has anyone has any contact with RAB this year? I placed an order online last week, but haven't had any despatch note. I thought maybe they closed the office over Christmas, so tried calling today - all three times the phone just rang out. Anyone got any ideas what's going on?

[Ash_Smith]

Dags - spoke to Richard this afternoon, all going well for them as far as I could tell! Perhaps just catching up after Christmas shutdown?

[Dags]

I got hold of him on Tuesday, and the delivery arrived yesterday.

A sequence of events occurred:

- he said they close twice a year, once around Christmas, and again in August.
- the IT guy forgot to put a notice on the website, or an out-of-office on the sales email
- they had a power cut, which meant the answer machine with an out-of-office message stopped picking up calls

His advice to me was 'don't order on the web'. I'll probably heed him on that, but will make sure that I have at least half an hour spare when I place an order as he does like a chat.

[Ross K]

Do we think Muzza will win the AO then, lads?

[Dags]

Why not Ross, why not?

He's been playing well, is fresher than anyone, and looks in a good mental place. You'd obviously expect Federer to be a challenge, but I like the fact that meeting is the semi rather than final as it gives a little less pressure.

I hope he's been watching footage of the other matches. Both Federer and Djokovic (assuming he reaches the final) have been pushed very hard by aggressive tennis. If he goes on the attack, he has a very good chance.

I'm interested to see his goals this year. If I've read it right, if Murray wins the AO he will be holder of 2 majors plus the Olympic gold, yet Djokovic will still be #1 even though his biggest title would be the WTF. It highlights just how consistent you need to be throughout the year to get that #1 ranking. Will he chase that this year, or is he more concerned about winning majors?

[prostaff junkie]

Originally Posted by Ross K

Do we think Muzza will win the AO then, lads?

Yes. He knows he can beat Fed and Djokovic in the biggest matches. It's arguably his best surface. It's all there for him if he still wants it enough.

[Ross K]

Nice work Andrew. Haven't been able to see game unfortunately as I'm working but, er... "Well in, son!" ... and so to Sunday we go.

[jimbo333]

Originally Posted by Ross K

Nice work Andrew. Haven't been able to see game unfortunately as I'm working but, er... "Well in, son!" ... and so to Sunday we go.

Andrew? Oh you mean Muzza

His career has really moved on in last couple of years, I was amazed to see his record now at only 25. He has 25 ATP singles titles, including 8 Masters 1000 titles and will have been in 6 Grand Slam finals (don't forget Henman didn't even get in 1). I think he is going to win on Sunday in 4!

[nickynu]

Need to go to rehab>>No No - Used my old Fischer Pro No 1 (Red and Black)yesterday, and all that sumptious feel came back. Gulp.

So anyway apart from that the guy I was hitting with suggested that we try the shots from the tennis-speed blog FFM2 a few weeks back and we have been trying to perfect it, with varying results, but mainly very good.

Its hard to incorporate the palm downwards straight arm position in a match, but our ball striking in practice has gone up several notches as has power.

Yesterday we tried the deliberate off centre hitting (bottom of strings) which I was fairly sceptical of. Bare in mind that we were using pretty old babolat gold balls, on a carpet court that just sucks the energy out of your shots, and it was bloody freezing inside Lloyds. The results were spectacular. The ball was hopping around like a mexican jumping bean. we were able to completely mess up each others timing when we got it right.

http://blog.tennisspeed.com/search/label/topspin
Has anyone else heard of or tried this stuff? The spin is ridiculous

[Ross K]

Nick,

^ Looks interesting mate. It's quite long but I'll read it through later.


jimbo,

^ Is that you???!!!... OMG where have you been?... no more racketaholicing for you in the last few years?... are you back among us now?... so many questions.

[forthegame]

Hi peeps.
Bye peeps.