12 year old vs you know who
- Thread starter AnyPUG
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zill
Legend
Beautiful. Hats off to the boy who clearly has found his strokes. Able to play so confidently and loosely and fully in control.
ballmachineguy
Hall of Fame
MEP exposed!
sovertennis
Professional
incredibly refreshing to watch a junior with such well-developed racket skills and court awareness.
giantschwinn
Semi-Pro
Knowing how hard trained 12 year olds could hit. I was going to say MEP has amazing shot tolerance.
vex
Legend
In fairness, the only challenge that a fully developed player would have in beating MEP is executing over a long match. He gives you so many balls that let you dictate the rally. Make him hit on the run with accurate groundstrokes, move in, collect your volley/overhead. That’s literally the entire game plan. The kid some “extra” stuff you don’t even need to do like hitting amazing dropshot winners. To MEPs credit, he can still beat good players by defending well enough that he tests your endurance/execution/patience.
Power Player
Bionic Poster
Let me just add that besides this kid being a great player, he gets UNDER the ball really well. That is another thing a lot of players don't do well. They may do it a few times but against MEP you have to do it the entire time. Really against any player you need to, but you get the point. This kid is great at lifting and ripping the ball over the net with great placement.
He's the only person I've ever played who had to reach up to hit my drop shots
tlm
G.O.A.T.
I did notice how well he consistently got under the ball.
Curious
G.O.A.T.
I’ve been thinking about this since you told me the other day ( getting under the ball ).
I’ve come to the sad conclusion that I’ll probably never be relaxed enough to drop the racket well below the ball always. I thought as a second option I might try focusing on bending the knees more when I’m about to hit. Seems to work pretty well.
Power Player
Bionic Poster
Im not sure if you can get a topspin pro where you live but they are cheap and can help you get the feel for it. Also bending the knees is never a bad option either.
Curious
G.O.A.T.
Wow. The kid is great. He makes very very few unforced errors, and he's a very smart player in terms of moving his opponent around. That backhand slice drop shot is a weapon. I'm impressed that such a young kid has developed the ability to come to the net so well.
Someone's done a great job coaching him.
Someone's done a great job coaching him.
ChaelAZ
G.O.A.T.
Hats off to Ben for keeping himself out there and enjoying/playing tennis. Most players would not even play against a young Junior like that, just for fear of the stigma of losing (but still talk about how they would beat them). I watched this the other day and I really don't think Ben played as well as he normally does, but then I don't think the kid was going all out either.
In comparison, I watched Ben play Simon Serves ( a 4.0 ) and again you can see how Ben has been so steady in his rating.
In comparison, I watched Ben play Simon Serves ( a 4.0 ) and again you can see how Ben has been so steady in his rating.
Not by way of excuse, but the results bear me out. I consistently do not play as well at the venue where I played this match as I do at other places. This is probably the place where I have the worst W-L record of anywhere in Atl that I've played at least three matches. I'm not sure why that's the case, but it tends to be consistently windy there, with a lot of noise and activity around you when you're playing. It's also on the roof of a parking deck- so come to think of it, maybe I just don't play as well at higher elevations
Losing to a junior is no big deal and moreover you can adopt a fatherly attitude and joke about it and give him some tip like hitting with more topspin.
What hurts is losing to Fat Bobs your age and older.
socallefty
G.O.A.T.
We have a 14-year old kid at our club who is a 4-star recruit with UTR above 9 and he is 6’1” tall. I played him when he was 12 and he was about my NTRP 4.5 level, but he keeps growing taller and improving so fast that he is clearly above the level of almost all adults at my club now.
ballmachineguy
Hall of Fame
The only higher elevation you had problems with was that of the kid’s skill level.Not by way of excuse, but the results bear me out. I consistently do not play as well at the venue where I played this match as I do at other places. This is probably the place where I have the worst W-L record of anywhere in Atl that I've played at least three matches. I'm not sure why that's the case, but it tends to be consistently windy there, with a lot of noise and activity around you when you're playing. It's also on the roof of a parking deck- so come to think of it, maybe I just don't play as well at higher elevations
ChaelAZ
G.O.A.T.
One great young man I have had the pleasure of hitting with often in the past is Kai Mills. Hell, at like 7 he was hitting with us and around 10+ could beat a lot of guys. I think he is currently like a UTR 11+ and a 5 star. Crazy good and young legs for days!
ChaelAZ
G.O.A.T.
Not by way of excuse, but the results bear me out. I consistently do not play as well at the venue where I played this match as I do at other places. This is probably the place where I have the worst W-L record of anywhere in Atl that I've played at least three matches. I'm not sure why that's the case, but it tends to be consistently windy there, with a lot of noise and activity around you when you're playing. It's also on the roof of a parking deck- so come to think of it, maybe I just don't play as well at higher elevations
I get it for sure. I certainly saw more errors than usual. In any case, always good to see you around amigo. Cheers.
I think the lack of pace by GSG made it very easy for that kid to hit all those great touch shots. He is so skilled I am sure he could do it with more pace too.
time_fly
Hall of Fame
time_fly
Hall of Fame
I just rewatched this match. What makes it fascinating is that the kid is clearly a very advanced player, but he's also only 12. And that makes it unique. Normally when I watched an advanced or professional teen or adult, they are also much faster than I am and capable of hitting the ball much harder. Because he's only 12, I can easily hit the same basic shots in terms of pace and RPMs as he is (and I am even a lefty topspin player, so it's not so hard to imagine). But he is so much more successful than I am. The control on his slice backhand (groundstroke and volley) are much better than mine. Aside from that, I want to keep watching to identify what could help me improve my game, because maybe being equal to a good 12 year old is something I can still aspire to.
ballmachineguy
Hall of Fame
ballmachineguy
Hall of Fame
He’s playing pickleball with tennis equipment.
I don't call anything anything. I mainly speak up when someone posts something objectively untrue about me. Otherwise, have at it.
That is GSG's greatest quality. He just shows it as it is. No excuses and no personal attacks.
He has unorthodox strokes and immense stamina which are enough to defeat most rec players (proved by USTA results). So it is not a joke. What is a joke is that rec players are truly that bad. Throw in a slow no-spin ball to a place which they normally don't expect and their technique collapses altogether.
PocketAces
New User
No joke. He's a good player relative to the vast majority of adult rec players. MEP puts himself out there and the videos of his matches are out there for anybody to see. I have a feeling the nationally ranked 12 year old received a bit of pre-match coaching to crash the net. To his credit, he had the skills to implement that plan. Most adult rec players do not.
ChaelAZ
G.O.A.T.
What do you mean? He isn't an academy, juniors program, college funded pedigree, but he wins often enough against whatever 4.5 players are in front of him to have earned and kept his 4.5 rating.
PocketAces
New User
If you're judging him based on this one match, then okay, he doesn't look all that great. What you have to realize is that as an internet tennis celebrity, his matches have been watched and dissected. He's seen as the archetypal "pusher" and Essential Tennis did an entire video series about him. Because of that, everybody that now plays against him knows his vulnerabilities. For a nationally ranked junior with a well-rounded skillset, that's like being given cheat codes. I'm pretty sure the kid would also have beaten Ben from the baseline, but I think it would have looked a lot more competitive.
44 years, 324 days.
