scrappydoo
New User
Good playing Tony. If you ever need a hitting or training partner I'm in!
my strokes (5.5) if interested
- Thread starter TonLars
- Start date
Timbo's hopeless slice
Hall of Fame
read your blog
feel for you man!
Your friend might be right, this could be just what you needed.
Pretty sure you won't be giving up, though, not really your style!
feel for you man!
Your friend might be right, this could be just what you needed.
Pretty sure you won't be giving up, though, not really your style!
Larrysümmers
Hall of Fame
its because you didnt defend your contact point ;D solid effort! good luck in the future, make us TTWers proud
TonLars
Professional
Thanks guys, appreciate the support alot. These losses have got me motivated, rather than doing me in, so I think I will progress this year quite a bit. I dont see how I cannot get a fair amount better over the next 7 months by doing what I am going to do.
Im basically going to live in the gym, and nobody anywhere is going to out work me for this year. I will be making my strengths even better by putting in even more effort and time into that training, but also making sure to do the committments to new things that Ive brushed off, or things Ive neglected a little. Stroke-wise, I will be putting in alot of time serving, but also making the changes needed now that I am not in tournaments left and right for a while. Also going to make a focused effort to be extremely solid rather than going for as many risky shots, which goes along with using more spin and making better decisions. This will also fit with my strengths as well, allowing me to use them. Those really are the only things I need to focus on, and I think will go a long ways.
Thanks! Im not sure what you mean by "defend your contact point" though, sorry lol
Im basically going to live in the gym, and nobody anywhere is going to out work me for this year. I will be making my strengths even better by putting in even more effort and time into that training, but also making sure to do the committments to new things that Ive brushed off, or things Ive neglected a little. Stroke-wise, I will be putting in alot of time serving, but also making the changes needed now that I am not in tournaments left and right for a while. Also going to make a focused effort to be extremely solid rather than going for as many risky shots, which goes along with using more spin and making better decisions. This will also fit with my strengths as well, allowing me to use them. Those really are the only things I need to focus on, and I think will go a long ways.
Thanks! Im not sure what you mean by "defend your contact point" though, sorry lol
axel89
Banned
do you have another job?
TonLars
Professional
I teach tennis as well
M
MurrayMyInspiration
Guest
Im new to your thread and it's really inspiring....Thanks so much for documenting all your progress. Good luck for the rest of the year!! Btw Im gonna try and out work you in the gym haha!!
Larrysümmers
Hall of Fame
are any of your practice partners future players as well?
TonLars
Professional
Nope
College level players mainly, but I dont have anyone better than me around here to hit with unfortunately
cluckcluck
Hall of Fame
Palm straight to the face...International Tennis Federation.
cluckcluck
Hall of Fame
ITF is the governing body of professional tennis. It oversees all tennis, WTA, ATP, Juniors, etc. They design the rules of tennis, standardize the equipment, etc.
cluckcluck
Hall of Fame
It gets worse with age :shock:
Bergboy123
Semi-Pro
Tony, I'm curious about what kind of lifting you do and how long. Do you have tennis specific workouts that you use, or just general strengthing, or what?
By the way sorry to hear about your loss. I read this thread off and on and I love it because you're living the life I always wanted to in a way. When I read the blog update I kinda got chills just thinking about the insane pressure of breaking back at 5 all in the third. That's got to be hard, but if nothing else, realize that it IS possible for you to get that ATP point and you're literally right there with the rest. That's gotta be quite motivating!
TonLars
Professional
Hey Hunter! Yeah, probably not this time. Mainly because it is during the USPTA Hard court nationals in Texas and id have a good shot to make $2500 there, plus its a fun event. Victoria is probably going to be stacked with an 8k champion prize, but 3rd place on down is a huge drop off and I dont like that top heavy payout system. Maybe again someday though.
Tony, I'm curious about what kind of lifting you do and how long. Do you have tennis specific workouts that you use, or just general strengthing, or what?
By the way sorry to hear about your loss. I read this thread off and on and I love it because you're living the life I always wanted to in a way. When I read the blog update I kinda got chills just thinking about the insane pressure of breaking back at 5 all in the third. That's got to be hard, but if nothing else, realize that it IS possible for you to get that ATP point and you're literally right there with the rest. That's gotta be quite motivating!
Thanks man, appreciate the support alot, seriously from everyone on here! I have to say I have been working harder than ever the past 3 weeks, and once youve started its easier to keep it going and progress more. Something just clicked inside me even more from some tough losses last summer and a feeling of urgency of time. We'll see how it goes.
For lifting I do upperbody workouts every other day for 45 minutes to an hour with 30 seconds in between exercises. Most of it is currently using 30 pound dumbbells targeting the main areas, and other things are lighter weights for smaller muscles, or simply doing lots of pushups and pullups. Not trying to get bigger really, just strong and fit as possible. I may do some things on machines from time to time when at the gym. For the legs besides the tennis, I do alot of resistance belt/band explosive small distance sprinting stuff, or just doing sprints in general line to line, track sprint intervals, stair master, in addition to playing 2-3.5 hours of real tennis every day throughout the whole year unless I am taking a day completely off which is once every 2 weeks. I have done some squat workouts last winter as well, or other jumping plyometric exercises. I do core workouts 2 out of every 3 days with basic crunch and leg lift things, or medicine ball stuff, and planks.
Thats all stuff that I have worked at pretty hard always though, but I am doing some other new things that should also help. Im taking some top of the line nutritional supplements in addition to trying to eat more good foods. Ive cut out drinking soda completely and only drink water, milk and juices. I stretch every night whereas I never used to stretch ever. Im trying to get more sleep and on a sleep schedule where im going to bed and waking up consistently. Every practice I feel so focused and driven now too, and im focusing on getting to and making the toughest shots ill see on the day. I visualize Djokovic and imagine I am him playing out there, and his style and court personality fits me well. Throughout the winter I will take special time to serve out of a basket regularly and make some small changes to my form, and try to improve my backhand.
Hopefully it all helps!
scrappydoo
New User
Careful Tony, this is how people get scraped knees.:mrgreen:
KineticChain
Hall of Fame
Good luck..it's rough out there.
Give us a break! Yea, watching a match with a beer in hand it's easy to say "Oh he should do this and that", but if he's NOT a 5.5 I don't know who is.
If you want to get super critical, yet, he reacts instead of placing shots, he gives free shots to his opponents forehands, but to criticize, please......
I'm a 5.5, I played Justin Bower, who beat Mardy Fish, second only to Fed as far as longest time without a loss, and has been in all four GS's, and yea I could handle his shots, the DIFFERENCE is that no matter how hard or left then right I hit it, he was there, with a big smile on his face, once I was barely out of position, he NAILED a shot that only "Speedy Gonzalez" could get.
These true 7.0 players are off the charts, they create things. Knowledge is doing what it taught, creativity is CREATING KNOWLEGE, something humans have.
So please, rate the guy what you like, and yea he made mistakes in play, but in rough play he's there.
TonLars
Professional
Thanks for asking. Not well though; I injured my ankle really bad in the semis. Ive been out 2 weeks so far where I could barely walk and go down stairs. Now im able to move around a bit but its still really weak and hurts. Im trying to hit and it is incredibly frustrating how bad you will play when you are unable to move well. It will come though, probably another 2 weeks or so and then ill be able to hopefully do everything again. In the mean time ill do the workouts that I can, and just hit cross-courts and stuff.
There is a tournament here this weekend where the winning doubles team gets to play the Bryan brothers in an exhibition match. Im gunna play, but ill just get really frustrated im sure. We had a good chance to win it too.
Thanks for the support. When I started this thread many years ago I was much closer to a 5.5 or even high 5.0, so some of it was understandable. Ive improved alot since then and I wouldnt see my rating any lower than 6.0. Ive still got lots of things to improve on of course. Im confused on your comment though, which I underlined. Moving the ball around is one of the staples of my game, along with my court coverage, so im not sure which match you watched. If you watched me playing Brad Weston, then I could maybe understand as I played pretty off that day. Im not sure what you mean about "free shots to their forehands" either. But youre absolutely right, those top professionals have alot of inner levels with small differences separating their games. At a certain point anyone can trade shots and rally, but those little things make a difference over the course of a long match. You wont see many 6-0 sets even between a 7.0 and 6.0, but the 6.0 will never win.
Look man I'm not going to criticize you, but since you asked.....
It seems watching you play, when you have a shot where you can do anything with it, instead of going short cross court or to his backhand, you just FEED HIM a nice forehand shot, it's like you give it to him, and if you watch he takes it.
I DO NOT want to seem critical (I'm teaching my son so I do have a good opinion), but if you have CHANCE, DON'T hit the ball to his forehand unless you are at a certain pace then change it, or if you hit it to his forehand but make it shorter, or longer, but giving him a free shot will give your opponents a huge advantage.
It has to be worked on, it's natural to just return a shot, but go to his backhand, short shot, extreme to his forehand, it all boils down to that.
I played Justin Bower, and I was barely off on my backhand side, and he just JAMMED it to my forehand where I couldn't get it, no way!
Fed does the same thing, he'll hit for example a slice backhand to his opponents backhand, then again, then again, then RIPS IT short, his opponent is totally off guard.
Cheetah
Hall of Fame
Look man I'm not going to criticize you, but since you asked.....
It seems watching you play, when you have a shot where you can do anything with it, instead of going short cross court or to his backhand, you just FEED HIM a nice forehand shot, it's like you give it to him, and if you watch he takes it.
I DO NOT want to seem critical (I'm teaching my son so I do have a good opinion), but if you have CHANCE, DON'T hit the ball to his forehand unless you are at a certain pace then change it, or if you hit it to his forehand but make it shorter, or longer, but giving him a free shot will give your opponents a huge advantage.
It has to be worked on, it's natural to just return a shot, but go to his backhand, short shot, extreme to his forehand, it all boils down to that.
I played Justin Bower, and I was barely off on my backhand side, and he just JAMMED it to my forehand where I couldn't get it, no way!
Fed does the same thing, he'll hit for example a slice backhand to his opponents backhand, then again, then again, then RIPS IT short, his opponent is totally off guard.
huh??
Not sure what you are trying to say. What does 'barely off' mean? What does 'I'm teaching my son so I do have a good opinion' mean?
Sounds like you could have just said "mix it up".
Care to point us to a vid of Tony in this situation?
..........
Last edited:
Hope it heals up quickly for ya , It's nice for us mere mortals to have someone of your caliber posting here and interacting with us.
You don't know what barely off means? Or are you just being sarcastic? Barely off means exactly that, you will learn if you get good, instead of hitting right to your opponents forehand, you hit it "barely off" to his forehand. Following?
Instead of hitting to his forehand which is to his left, hit it more to his left, this throws a player off-guard, you can see Fed do it every match, he is famous for a slice to his opponents backhand, same shot again, then again, then rip it short, barely off what he did before, that's enough to take a guy out of his rythmm.
HunterST
Hall of Fame
Yeah, so where is the footage of this error? Sounds like a really specific situation that wouldn't have a huge impact on a match.
Cheetah
Hall of Fame
Oh i see. 'barely off'. yea we use that term all the time when discussing tennis.
You didnt say "you hit barely off to his forehand". You said " I was barely off on my backhand side". So unfortunately i'm still not good enough to understand what you mean here.
Maybe you mean you hit it wider? Hit it out of his reach? Don't hit the ball right to him? Hit it where he isn't? Mix it up?
You do know that tonlars is a 6.0 right? I'm pretty sure he doesn't hit the same ball right to his opponent over and over and knows how to mix things up and throw opponents off their rythm. Maybe during the point you saw that was the strategy he was employing.
So where's the vid of this point(s) in question so we can discuss the 'evidence' of your insightly observations?
TennisNinja
Hall of Fame
I can confirm that Bower is filthy. He coached me for a while when I was in juniors still. Absolute animal, you really wonder how his career would have panned out differently had he not had all his knee problems.
What do you mean by "Filthy"? He was unbelievable, he returned shots I thought no man could return. My son watched us, and he said Bower never changed his facial expression, that is he seemed unconcered about me.
Then when I was like one foot away he put it one foot away! Incredible player, I think you might be from another country, and "filthy" means "bad ass", that he was
TonLars
Professional
What do you mean by "Filthy"? He was unbelievable, he returned shots I thought no man could return. My son watched us, and he said Bower never changed his facial expression, that is he seemed unconcered about me.
Then when I was like one foot away he put it one foot away! Incredible player, I think you might be from another country, and "filthy" means "bad ass", that he was
It's obviously a comment on his personal hygiene.
tacotanium
Professional
Tony, where is your club? I am interested.
TennisNinja
Hall of Fame
What do you mean by "Filthy"? He was unbelievable, he returned shots I thought no man could return. My son watched us, and he said Bower never changed his facial expression, that is he seemed unconcered about me.
Then when I was like one foot away he put it one foot away! Incredible player, I think you might be from another country, and "filthy" means "bad ass", that he was
Haha yeah by that I meant bad ass. So good.
TonLars
Professional
It is in Fridley. Stop by and say hello!
Played the qualifying tournament for the Bryan brothers exhibition last Saturday and got to the final and lost
Ankle is at about 60% but it didnt affect me for doubles much. Would have been fun to play them, oh well
zapvor
G.O.A.T.
hahaha yea. this is funny
zapvor
G.O.A.T.
It is in Fridley. Stop by and say hello!
Played the qualifying tournament for the Bryan brothers exhibition last Saturday and got to the final and lost
keep it up! that's still a great result.
TonLars
Professional
Hello! Still on a bad ankle, its like 70% and hurts, but im able to move pretty well on it at least now and play sets. This summer wasnt as good as last, but I always come out ahead. The tournaments pay between $1000-$2500 or more for first and I usually get to the semis or better. I play a tournament weekly in the summer as well as some here and there in the fall/spring. Fortunately also, sometimes the events will cover your hotel or more, or if my dad comes along to watch which helps alot. I would still do it all even if they didnt pay a dime however. Hoping to play a tournament or two this winter once Im fully healed. Ive been playing well lately.
dominikk1985
Legend
Have you clocked your serve? how hard can you go?
yonexpurestorm
Rookie
its too bad you cant get down here in so cal to play some tournements. theres like an average of 2 tournaments a month with decent prize money here. during the summer theres more tournaments than one could even try to play in.
axel89
Banned
thanks for the quick reply and that's great that you're coming out ahead. I hope your ankle heals quickly you deserve to be in the top 500 or even more
TonLars
Professional
Well, MRI revealed that Ive had "the majority" of one of my ligaments in my ankle torn, so that expalins why its been painful and slow to heal. They said I dont need surgery, so that was good news, but that it could take 6+ months to heal and feel better.
Just within the last couple weeks, Ive finally been able to play and move close to 100%, with some discomfort, and without it getting really sore or worse the next day. So I think I will be alright, so very happy about that! It has just been a matter of getting my game back, which had been frustrating, but again just recently I have been starting to get close to good form again. I have a bit over a month before I will start playing tournaments again, so I should be in great shape and hopefully playing really well by then.
Just within the last couple weeks, Ive finally been able to play and move close to 100%, with some discomfort, and without it getting really sore or worse the next day. So I think I will be alright, so very happy about that! It has just been a matter of getting my game back, which had been frustrating, but again just recently I have been starting to get close to good form again. I have a bit over a month before I will start playing tournaments again, so I should be in great shape and hopefully playing really well by then.