A letter to all TW members

J

jakemcclain32

Banned
Dear TW members,

I have had a weekend to think about what I wanted to say, and since I don't have a thread anymore, this is the best place to bring it out in the open.

First off, I admit I am different. I take this verbal beating after verbal beating after verbal beating, and I don't seem to care. That is absolutely true, and it has nothing to do with any animosity I would have for any of my detractors. Nothing like that at all. I don't know them, and you don't know me, so I can't say anything is truly personal(with the exception of the coward that came out with that untrue story from long ago).

What I will explain is the motivation behind this tennis deal.

As I mentioned, I taught myself the game. Three hours a day against a garage door. Taught me a ton about hustle, but it didn't teach the technique, so now I do have bad habits that I've had for years. I didn't know my bad habits until recently. I mean I won a lot of matches against people I probably shouldn't have, and that can cloud your judgment a bit. I even played an A level guy in a rec and got exposed, but that didn't even open my eyes because I changed my game a bit and got some good shots in the second set. Even then I chalked it up to playing a guy much above my level, and I improved.

Then the tournament came around.

I should have probably opened my eyes in the first match I lost. Could not finish off my opponent, then go into a game that I'm not accustomed to, nor ready for yet and get bombed in the third set. Still, I should have a good chance in the consolation, right?

We all know what happened there, don't we?

That match opened every flaw I have in one fell swoop. Footwork bad, looping forehand, frying pan backhand, etc. Counter all that with having a real bad day, and not preparing my body, and it all rained down. I have watched that match probably 30 times to motivate myself. I will probably take that match down one day(probably months from now) when I am winning more, and I am improved. But I have to keep that around for myself, even as embarassing as it is to watch.

Now, about the DY comments.

I already reneged those comments, but I'll elaborate on them some more. As everybody knows, I never ever even came close to saying that my own game would take 2-3 games off of him...that would be mental. I was saying mistakes by himself would do that. I thought like that because, no matter how hard someone hit, or how precise they were, I always made it by, win or lose, with pure hustle and others mistakes. It's how I won against my peers, and stayed in matches against better players. That ended with the A level guy, and all of my past accomplishments ended with the tournament.

So I do want a fresh start, both with my game and with all of you folks here. I'm not mental, just a highly motivated individual that always wants improvement. That's where you guys can help. I do want to keep writing on my blog, and I do want to continue to show my videos for critique, but I don't want to continue the fighting. It's not worth it, and I want to get along with everyone.

I want to also explain about the "see how high I go" deal I do have. I actually hate simple goals because I always shoot for the stars. I'm always deathly afraid that if I set one goal, then I'll stick myself to that goal and plateau. Like for instance if I said I'd want to be a solid 3.5 to 4.0, then I wouldn't want to improve anymore. If I reach high over the years, and only hit 4.5 at tops, then that's no disappointment. That's a danged good improvement over where I have started from. But I'm just not a guy that wants to get really good at 3.5, and just keep winning 1st place trophies when that time comes. I don't want to be a 4.0 and sign up for 3.5 to obliterate them, when that time comes. I always want to improve and shoot for the stars. I do not ever want to plateau in anything I do.

Finally, there was someone that said that I need to figure out why people go on the attack with me. Well, let me explain my personality.

I have a strong personality. I do not let bad things get in my way, nor stop me from my goals. Been that way since I was in school. It has always given me enemies, and also given me some special friends that understand who I am, and what drives me every day. If I made 100% enemies, then I would try to figure why people hate me, or attack me, but since I've gotten the friends that I have, I just chalk it up to what I've dealt with all my life, and I'll deal with it the way I always have. In school, it was always 50/50. 50% of people hated me, 50% liked me. 50% of jocks liked me, 50% hated me. 50% of troublemakers liked me, and 50% hated me. I was the guy you called names, but never really picked a fight with because I'd fight back. It's just the way it always has been. I stayed single for five years saying that it'll take the right kind of girl to understand my personality, and love me for said personality. I've had that girl for eighteen months now, and while she irons out some wrinkles that I admittedly have, she doesn't want to change my personality, and I love that. I am who I am, and I am sticking to who I am.

So I digressed there for a second.

Anyway, I will start from scratch with my improvements. I just won a nice little rec match in a one setter 6-3, and put that on video, so I feel like I had some improvements here and there, but there's more work to do. Realize that I still stick to my original thought process of "I don't have a goal of how high, just want to see how far", but my timeline isn't so in a hurry. I saw my flaws on video, and what I have to work on now, and I do want help from everyone here on anything I can work on, and I would appreciate that.

Thank you for reading. I hope we can continue this.

Jake
 
Fed Kennedy

Fed Kennedy

Legend
Fight on! Smaller, uglier men than you have ascended the mountaintop.
davydenko-m.jpg
 
Devilito

Devilito

Hall of Fame
jakemcclain32 said:
Dear TW members,

I have had a weekend to think about what I wanted to say, and since I don't have a thread anymore, this is the best place to bring it out in the open.

First off, I admit I am different. I take this verbal beating after verbal beating after verbal beating, and I don't seem to care. That is absolutely true, and it has nothing to do with any animosity I would have for any of my detractors. Nothing like that at all. I don't know them, and you don't know me, so I can't say anything is truly personal(with the exception of the coward that came out with that untrue story from long ago).

What I will explain is the motivation behind this tennis deal.

As I mentioned, I taught myself the game. Three hours a day against a garage door. Taught me a ton about hustle, but it didn't teach the technique, so now I do have bad habits that I've had for years. I didn't know my bad habits until recently. I mean I won a lot of matches against people I probably shouldn't have, and that can cloud your judgment a bit. I even played an A level guy in a rec and got exposed, but that didn't even open my eyes because I changed my game a bit and got some good shots in the second set. Even then I chalked it up to playing a guy much above my level, and I improved.

Then the tournament came around.

I should have probably opened my eyes in the first match I lost. Could not finish off my opponent, then go into a game that I'm not accustomed to, nor ready for yet and get bombed in the third set. Still, I should have a good chance in the consolation, right?

We all know what happened there, don't we?

That match opened every flaw I have in one fell swoop. Footwork bad, looping forehand, frying pan backhand, etc. Counter all that with having a real bad day, and not preparing my body, and it all rained down. I have watched that match probably 30 times to motivate myself. I will probably take that match down one day(probably months from now) when I am winning more, and I am improved. But I have to keep that around for myself, even as embarassing as it is to watch.

Now, about the DY comments.

I already reneged those comments, but I'll elaborate on them some more. As everybody knows, I never ever even came close to saying that my own game would take 2-3 games off of him...that would be mental. I was saying mistakes by himself would do that. I thought like that because, no matter how hard someone hit, or how precise they were, I always made it by, win or lose, with pure hustle and others mistakes. It's how I won against my peers, and stayed in matches against better players. That ended with the A level guy, and all of my past accomplishments ended with the tournament.

So I do want a fresh start, both with my game and with all of you folks here. I'm not mental, just a highly motivated individual that always wants improvement. That's where you guys can help. I do want to keep writing on my blog, and I do want to continue to show my videos for critique, but I don't want to continue the fighting. It's not worth it, and I want to get along with everyone.

I want to also explain about the "see how high I go" deal I do have. I actually hate simple goals because I always shoot for the stars. I'm always deathly afraid that if I set one goal, then I'll stick myself to that goal and plateau. Like for instance if I said I'd want to be a solid 3.5 to 4.0, then I wouldn't want to improve anymore. If I reach high over the years, and only hit 4.5 at tops, then that's no disappointment. That's a danged good improvement over where I have started from. But I'm just not a guy that wants to get really good at 3.5, and just keep winning 1st place trophies when that time comes. I don't want to be a 4.0 and sign up for 3.5 to obliterate them, when that time comes. I always want to improve and shoot for the stars. I do not ever want to plateau in anything I do.

Finally, there was someone that said that I need to figure out why people go on the attack with me. Well, let me explain my personality.

I have a strong personality. I do not let bad things get in my way, nor stop me from my goals. Been that way since I was in school. It has always given me enemies, and also given me some special friends that understand who I am, and what drives me every day. If I made 100% enemies, then I would try to figure why people hate me, or attack me, but since I've gotten the friends that I have, I just chalk it up to what I've dealt with all my life, and I'll deal with it the way I always have. In school, it was always 50/50. 50% of people hated me, 50% liked me. 50% of jocks liked me, 50% hated me. 50% of troublemakers liked me, and 50% hated me. I was the guy you called names, but never really picked a fight with because I'd fight back. It's just the way it always has been. I stayed single for five years saying that it'll take the right kind of girl to understand my personality, and love me for said personality. I've had that girl for eighteen months now, and while she irons out some wrinkles that I admittedly have, she doesn't want to change my personality, and I love that. I am who I am, and I am sticking to who I am.

So I digressed there for a second.

Anyway, I will start from scratch with my improvements. I just won a nice little rec match in a one setter 6-3, and put that on video, so I feel like I had some improvements here and there, but there's more work to do. Realize that I still stick to my original thought process of "I don't have a goal of how high, just want to see how far", but my timeline isn't so in a hurry. I saw my flaws on video, and what I have to work on now, and I do want help from everyone here on anything I can work on, and I would appreciate that.

Thank you for reading. I hope we can continue this.

Jake
Click to expand...

i went back through your posting history and i really think you're genuine but have zero direction. You need to stop with tournaments and rec matches and everything until you get a base skill level down. You need to spend about a year in a hard core training program. The type juniors do 4-5 times/ week with a real motivated coach that gets you running lines doing drills and throwing up on court. After about a year you can come back and start tracking some sort of progress in regards to your match play. Now I’m not saying this to get your down it’s to motivate you. At your age if you are so motivated you can definitely learn and improve and get to a good level but you need to understand what it will take. If I was in your position and craved such goals this is what I would do. I would stop wasting time and do what’s needed to be done. Good luck
 
Power Player

Power Player

Bionic Poster
Jake, please get over yourself, which means stop posting to hype videos and blogs until your game has some gotten far far better.

Like Devil said, you need at least a year of work. From your videos you do not look like you have much athletic talent at all and I am trying to be nice here.

Now if you came back in a year or two with videos showing us a guy on a 3.5-4.0 level...that would be pretty impressive. But this whole concept of making a movie and hyping it on a tennis forum is not going to work...trust me. You spend too much time on "me me me" stuff and clearly have not invested that into the less glamorous reality which is practicing all the time. I am sure you are addicted to the instant gratification of seeing someone watched your youtube or read your blog or whatever, but that all means nothing unless you are a 14 year old girl.

Since you live off a trust fund and have no job I would imagine you could improve over a year's time faster than most, but you have a lot of work to do before people are going to find your blogs or videos anything more than comic relief.
 
M

MNPlayer

Semi-Pro
I'm curious about the "fake story" you refer to. Having looked at it, I know it is quite long. Why would someone make up something like that? You obviously know the person that was interviewed, somehow. Can you clarify what the truth is?

Regarding your tennis - you are a beginner tennis player (in terms of your skills, anyway, even if you've been playing for many years). There's nothing wrong with that, but you can't expect people to be super excited to watch your videos. The best reason to take video is for your own education, so you can see what you look like when you play and find things to improve. I do the same thing periodically and it's extremely useful.

I also would not suggest getting very excited about winning or losing matches at this point. At this point in your development, most matches you play will be against other beginners with rudimentary skills just like you, so the outcome is not that important or meaningful. Learn and practice the fundamentals, preferably by taking some private lessons and/or drills before you worry about playing tournaments and stuff. Not that playing tournaments is necessarily bad - just that you probably aren't really learning much from it at this point.

My own experience was a little like this - I played some 3.5 USTA league years ago and didn't win any matches (after playing rec for quite a while). I took a year or two off and just practiced in drills and took lessons. When I came back to 3.5 I started winning matches and now (after another 3/4 years), I'm near the 4.5 level. But I still train way more than I play tournaments or league.
 
J

jakemcclain32

Banned
Speaking of comic relief, thanks for giving me a laugh Power Player.

Every single word of that post was laugh inducing. I kind of needed that this morning. Thanks.
 
Power Player

Power Player

Bionic Poster
jakemcclain32 said:
Speaking of comic relief, thanks for giving me a laugh Power Player.

Every single word of that post was laugh inducing. I kind of needed that this morning. Thanks.
Click to expand...

You should break it down and tell us what you found funny. Sometimes the truth hurts and people cope with it in odd ways.

And also, let us know if you have indeed accepted the Eagle as well.

By the way, it is 2 in the afternoon dude. Wow...lol.
 
M

MNPlayer

Semi-Pro
Quick question: what do you do from 9 to 5 every day? Do you have a career from which you make your living or are you really a trust fund kid? If the latter, you can actually afford to spend serious time training in tennis, although it is too late to make it a career, so that is probably not a good idea. Tennis and acting are obviously hobbies for you, so you don't have to be very skilled (thank goodness!). Hopefully you are good at whatever "brings home the bacon".
 
I

ian2

Semi-Pro
jakemcclain32 said:
...I just won a nice little rec match in a one setter 6-3, and put that on video, so I feel like I had some improvements here and there, but there's more work to do...
Click to expand...
To me, this is the most worrisome part Jake. As far as your tennis skills, you look like a complete beginner which is puzzling considering that you've said you played tennis for years, but by itself not an issue: everyone has to start somewhere. You also demonstrate very little athletic ability, a deficiency that would be hard to overcome but perhaps not impossible. The real problem is the "magical thinking" you display on your blog and in your posts. The above quote is your constant refrain, and it shows a complete lack of understanding of what it takes to make improvements, and what "work" means. Now that is a problem that cannot be overcome, and it has nothing to do with tennis.
 
P

PushyPushster

Rookie
So, where are Jake's videos? If there's someone on TT who might suck more than I do, then by God I want to see the evidence.

Also, Jake, if you need someone to measure your progress against, I'm here for you. A low to middle 4.0. There's very little chance that I'll accidentally improve, so I would make the perfect Control case for your tennis project.
 
beernutz

beernutz

Hall of Fame
PushyPushster said:
So, where are Jake's videos? If there's someone on TT who might suck more than I do, then by God I want to see the evidence.

Also, Jake, if you need someone to measure your progress against, I'm here for you. A low to middle 4.0. There's very little chance that I'll accidentally improve, so I would make the perfect Control case for your tennis project.
Click to expand...
http://www.youtube.com/user/jakemcclaintennis

These are all unintentionally funny too, particularly Reel 1:
http://www.youtube.com/user/jakemcclain30
 
J

josofo

Semi-Pro
MNPlayer said:
I'm curious about the "fake story" you refer to. Having looked at it, I know it is quite long. Why would someone make up something like that? You obviously know the person that was interviewed, somehow. Can you clarify what the truth is?

Regarding your tennis - you are a beginner tennis player (in terms of your skills, anyway, even if you've been playing for many years). There's nothing wrong with that, but you can't expect people to be super excited to watch your videos. The best reason to take video is for your own education, so you can see what you look like when you play and find things to improve. I do the same thing periodically and it's extremely useful.

I also would not suggest getting very excited about winning or losing matches at this point. At this point in your development, most matches you play will be against other beginners with rudimentary skills just like you, so the outcome is not that important or meaningful. Learn and practice the fundamentals, preferably by taking some private lessons and/or drills before you worry about playing tournaments and stuff. Not that playing tournaments is necessarily bad - just that you probably aren't really learning much from it at this point.

My own experience was a little like this - I played some 3.5 USTA league years ago and didn't win any matches (after playing rec for quite a while). I took a year or two off and just practiced in drills and took lessons. When I came back to 3.5 I started winning matches and now (after another 3/4 years), I'm near the 4.5 level. But I still train way more than I play tournaments or league.
Click to expand...


i would imagine he is saying the part that is fake is he was never really the body double for vince gallo in the ******* scene of that movie.
 
goober

goober

Legend
Well if this Tennis blog/video/TV deal doesn't work out for you, may I suggest something that doesn't require a high barrier to entry like tennis (thousands of hours of practice just to be ok). Here are some choices:

Competitive Eating: My journey to take down Joey Chesnut.

Use your martial arts background and go around the country taking on all kinds of characters in different unusual fighting situations- i.e. Midgets and mudwrestling.
 
J

jakemcclain32

Banned
You know, I take some posts on here with major laughter, like being a trust fund kid or something. I'd probably brag about that.

But I also take some to heart, including training like I need to train.

So I'll still be at the tennis board, giving scores from tourneys, and keeping up. But I'll blog when I can give some updates, or show improvement in shots. It is for the best.

Thanks to all.
 
D

dennis10is

Banned
Jake, the OP

You have to get over yourself. You are not the center of the Universe.

Who do you know has been awarded the Soph-Frosh Most Improved Boy's High School tennis when he was a sophmore?

Moi? I'm the center of the universe. You can beginning by writing pages and pages about how wonderful I'm. Stop writing about yourself, silly, silly.
 
arche3

arche3

Banned
Stop trolling. You need to be banned. And you will always suck at tennis. Why don't you just stare at your Facebook updates instead?
 
Fuji

Fuji

Legend
What's even going on here, I think I missed a thread or something!

Anywho, your hitting isn't that awful. You are just a rec player like most other people on here, and there really isn't much else to it! Everyone, (I believe), wants to improve there tennis some how, otherwise they wouldn't be posting here. Just keep working at it, and I'm sure you'll get to a decent level! :)

-Fuji
 
M

MNPlayer

Semi-Pro
jakemcclain32 said:
You know, I take some posts on here with major laughter, like being a trust fund kid or something. I'd probably brag about that.

But I also take some to heart, including training like I need to train.

So I'll still be at the tennis board, giving scores from tourneys, and keeping up. But I'll blog when I can give some updates, or show improvement in shots. It is for the best.

Thanks to all.
Click to expand...

Why? Being a trust fund kid is nothing to brag about. Quite the opposite in many cases.
 
goober

goober

Legend
Power Player said:
He is a trust fund kid.

Example, he lives in GA and calls 2pm "morning" at over 23 years of age.
Click to expand...

Maybe he is just unemployed? Probably not a whole lot of work for actors in Ga I am guessing. I think if he were rolling in the dough, he could afford a real tennis coach, real training, pay for the film crew, ect.
 
beernutz

beernutz

Hall of Fame
Sometimes threads or at least parts of them don't really ever go away, even when they've been deleted, thanks to those creepy web crawlers.

Use Advanced Search on Google and search for the phrase "The Impossible Climb" on the "tt.tennis-warehouse.com" domain then click "cached" in each of the results. That will get you started.
 
Last edited:
G

gmatheis

Hall of Fame
where are the videos?

I thought the OP had some videos up .. I cant seem to find them. Searched through a bunch of OPs old posts and even checked his blog ... no vids ...can anyone link ?
 
atatu

atatu

Legend
Well, I think I was the first one to take on Jake with regard to his claims about Donald Young. I never did check out his blog or videos until just now...I think we should just lay off the guy. It's great that he has a passion for the game and that he wants to get better, he has a long way to go, but I don't see any point in ridiculing the guy.
 
G

gmatheis

Hall of Fame
suggestions

Jake

honestly ... I got a chance to watch your videos, and as someone said it's great that you have so much passion for the game.

That said .... and I'm not saying this to be mean ... you have no tennis form whatsoever.

You really need some good lessons. And the first thing you tell the pro giving those lessons is that you know your form is awful and although it may make you worse before it makes you better ask him to correct everything ... your grip, your stance, your footwork, etc...

Tell him (or her) that you want him to treat you like a 10 yr old that has never played tennis. Show you the proper grip, stance, preparation(backswing), strokes and everything else.

If you keep going the way you are I really don't think you will ever get much better than you are right now.

Just constructive criticism ... I wish you the best of luck with your tennis game.
 
Big_Dangerous

Big_Dangerous

Talk Tennis Guru
jakemcclain32 said:
You know, I take some posts on here with major laughter, like being a trust fund kid or something. I'd probably brag about that.

But I also take some to heart, including training like I need to train.

So I'll still be at the tennis board, giving scores from tourneys, and keeping up. But I'll blog when I can give some updates, or show improvement in shots. It is for the best.

Thanks to all.
Click to expand...

You don't need to train so much per say, but you need a clinic or lesson on form and footwork big time. Your serves were horribly weak, and this is coming from a guy who doesn't really leave his feet on the serve either. Biggest thing for your game is footwork, you have no footwork whatsoever.
 
K

KFwinds

Professional
After watching the vids... meh, I've seen worse at the local parks and school courts. Probably shouldn't be wasting time or money playing tournaments without a year or two (or more) of drills and private instruction, as others have suggested.

I never saw the other thread, so I'm sure the OP's getting flamed for having higher aspirations than bangin' the ball around with his buddies...
 
arche3

arche3

Banned
He got flamed because some (myself included) believe he made up all of his tennis history and goals to sell a reality tv show. Sounds stupid right? It was much worse. I still think he made all sorts of trolling posts to elicit a certain reaction. He is an attention starved ego fueled delusional individual. Typical wanna be actor with a rolled up script in there pocket. Thinking we are obligated to believe in his greatness. He is a troll and should he banned.


KFwinds said:
After watching the vids... meh, I've seen worse at the local parks and school courts. Probably shouldn't be wasting time or money playing tournaments without a year or two (or more) of drills and private instruction, as others have suggested.

I never saw the other thread, so I'm sure the OP's getting flamed for having higher aspirations than bangin' the ball around with his buddies...
Click to expand...
 
K

KFwinds

Professional
Ahh. I figured there had to be more going on here for the kind of responses he was getting. I'll have to go back and check the other thread for some good (or bad?) entertainment...
 
Power Player

Power Player

Bionic Poster
Large Ego clue : He wrote an open letter to all of TW. Like everyone on this site is worried about his training and latest 3.0 match.
 
gregor.b

gregor.b

Professional
PushyPushster said:
Yeah, that's going to be a long, long journey to 5.0.
Click to expand...

Don't know a whole heap about your rankings system and what level you would be placed at but to be honest after 28 seconds,I had seen enough.I think you need to start with learning how to hold the racquet.That is what I would do in the first instance.Not a critique,just a suggestion.I think a coach or maybe even FYB or ET could help with that.Probably wouldn't worry about tourneys till you know how to hold the racquet.Someone could get hurt.
 
gregor.b

gregor.b

Professional
arche3 said:
He got flamed because some (myself included) believe he made up all of his tennis history and goals to sell a reality tv show. Sounds stupid right? It was much worse. I still think he made all sorts of trolling posts to elicit a certain reaction. He is an attention starved ego fueled delusional individual. Typical wanna be actor with a rolled up script in there pocket. Thinking we are obligated to believe in his greatness. He is a troll and should he banned.
Click to expand...

Maybe he is acting as someone who can't play tennis.
 
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