Best Tennis Books

Phantom

New User
Hi guys,

Let's put some literature to the business!
I just read Agassi's Open, nice reading, though i personally think he is not the nice guy the book shows.
What I thought was intresting was how well he spoke about winning ugly from B. Gilbert, i got curious and started searching for good mental / tactic tennis books. Got to this is list so far, though i didn't read any:

-Winning Ugly from Brad Gilbert
-Inner Game of Tennis from W. Timothy Gallway

Did any of you read these?? Have you got others to add to this list? Open to discuss!

Cheers
 
Hi guys,

Let's put some literature to the business!
I just read Agassi's Open, nice reading, though i personally think he is not the nice guy the book shows.
What I thought was intresting was how well he spoke about winning ugly from B. Gilbert, i got curious and started searching for good mental / tactic tennis books. Got to this is list so far, though i didn't read any:

-Winning Ugly from Brad Gilbert
-Inner Game of Tennis from W. Timothy Gallway

Did any of you read these?? Have you got others to add to this list? Open to discuss!

Cheers

Read them all, good books. Agassi built a school for inner city kids, dedicating years of his life to the cause. Sounds like he is plenty nice to me.
 

Phantom

New User
It's surely honored of him, but what i ment as a nice guy was regarding his personal attitude on the tour... doesn't change the merit of all he has done for the sport and for the society with his school.
 
It's surely honored of him, but what i ment as a nice guy was regarding his personal attitude on the tour... doesn't change the merit of all he has done for the sport and for the society with his school.

Agassi was clear to say he had those thoughts then, not now. So I would agree, he was not a very nice guy as he struggled his way through his younger days.
 

Devilito

Legend
i thought Open was amazing. Couldn't put it down

heard Pete's book was boring and stale and had no personal info mostly match recaps and about as much personal info as you can get from reading his Wikipedia page

heard Spadea's book was supposed to be a tell-all behind the scenes but it was no such thing and reveled almost nothing about the tour but how Vince loved going after chicks

Heard James Blake's book was mostly about the troubles he had with his family and health problems and little about tennis

I guess i'm still waiting for a true "tell-all" behind the scenes touring pro book that cuts all the ********. However, it’s going to be damn hard to top Open.
 

TheBoom

Hall of Fame
Winning ugly has some amazing advice and it has helped me be "better" because i know how to handle certain situations better
 

mightyrick

Legend
For me, "Winning Ugly" was a game changer. It really introduced the concept of playing the player, patience, and court geometry... instead of just focusing on myself and my strokes.
 

Phantom

New User
thanks for the feedback guys!

Now I got more confident about them I ordered both for a start, i have the inner game in my hands, but it will take ages (6 weeks) to have winning ugly, because i live in freaking brazil, it wasn't published here, so i will have it imported and read in english, hope it's worth the trouble!
 

mikeler

Moderator
thanks for the feedback guys!

Now I got more confident about them I ordered both for a start, i have the inner game in my hands, but it will take ages (6 weeks) to have winning ugly, because i live in freaking brazil, it wasn't published here, so i will have it imported and read in english, hope it's worth the trouble!


You can read a portion of it on Google Books.
 

Caloi

Semi-Pro
Winning Ugly was a good read. Helped me focus on each point.

Inner Game...I quit reading it. Inner self, outer self, middle self, screw that. It had me more frustrated than anything.

I got "Open" for X-mas this year...haven't had time to sit and read though.
 

Phantom

New User
I'll look for Pressure tennis, and Caloi, Open is a time very well spent!
It's funny but a shrink talked me into reading it after saying that he was reading and I had a lot of Agassi's mental issues. (doctors talk...)
At the end of the book I found out he was right! I just wish i could play like him as well.. :-?
 

Hewex

Semi-Pro
Tennis and The Meaning of Life: This is a great book, full of short stories revolving around tennis.
 

CoachingMastery

Professional
Beyond the obvious books I think are best, (lol!), I really enjoyed reading James Blake's book, Breaking Back. Andre's book was awesome...if you can get past the F-bombs which he doens't hold back in using in the text.

I also liked My Aces...My Faults by Nick and John Barrett's beautiful book, Wimbledon: the Official history of the Championships.

I've always felt most instructional books left something behind. (Hence, one of the reasons I wrote Tennis Mastery and Coaching Mastery...not to mention that I wanted to reference my father's incredible legacy...a man whose teams won 399 consecutive team matches in Southern Califronia over an 11 year period!)

I like a lot of Allan Fox's work and Gropple's "High Tech Tennis."

These are among the 117 books I own on tennis.
 

Frank Silbermann

Professional
Advanced Tennis, by Paul Metzler

Tennis: How to Play It, How to Teach it -- by Ed Faulkner

How to Play Your Best Tennis All the Time, by Jack Kramer and Larry Sheehan
 
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