Santoro Lacoste Shirt

[djarvik]

I want that shirt!

It's a retro, 10 years old or so. He was recently wearing it at 07 US open. I hear he has a full closet of these

If anyone comes across to that shirt for sale (unlikely) or a similar color pattern shirt from a different brand, let me know!

On that note, what are your favorite tennis apparel?

[Moralspain]

I like retro too







love those jackets

[Yippie-Caiay]

roger federer's shirt color for paris masters last year



i have only two tennis shirts, and one of those is this one

it must have been one of the shirts that federer used the least lol it lasted one day (lost to benneteau in first round)

[Coolhand Texas]

I have that same fed shirt!

[jayl0ve]

dat shirt look like a dishrag

dat shirt look like a curtain!

[Sherlock 117]

I want that Santoro shirt too...didn't realize you were on TT Al. If anybody happens to find them let me know.

[djarvik]

I want that Santoro shirt too...didn't realize you were on TT Al. If anybody happens to find them let me know.

Yeah, I have been lurking for a while, but never really joined. About a month ago I decided to start posting...mainly crap

How did you find out?

[Sherlock 117]

Did a google search for the Fabrice Santoro shirt The dead thread you resurrected came up fourth or fifth.

Right now I'm reading one of your previous posts about teaching the OS FH to beginners. Pretty interesting actually. I'm thinking about getting into teaching soon, but I want to learn about all the different approaches first.

BTW, If you have seen TonLars (and his 2000 post thread) on there, he is my coach!

[djarvik]

Nice.

Yeah, some of the members there are down right clueless, yet try so hard to prove a point. I mean how can you try and advocate anything without having experience in the area?!

Open Stance Forehand is the way to go with newbies or anyone. When done right, there is no sweeter or more natural feeling. Whoever tells otherwise, and I am not afraid to say it, is either clueless, damn or ignorant ego driven snob.

I had adult newbies hit 20 shot rally (granted, mostly pushing the ball) in about 2 hours of training....and enjoying it! What better feeling that see that ball go over net again and again?

I myself was tough tennis traditional way, I learned to play SV as that was the winning formula the time, I can still remember my coach screaming about putting this racket back as early as I can and keep it there

....I could be kicking Nadals ass by now if it wasn't for him Thanks coach!

[Sherlock 117]

I'm glad my coach taught me OS right away, I have so much more confidence with that stroke now. Before my backhand was far stronger and my FH would always break down. Why? I went to a tennis camp with a "traditional" coach who taught me closed stance and a short through and up in front swing.

Of course I'm also learning proper closed and neutral techniques now that I'm able to hit decent.

[djarvik]

Indeed.

The way I look at it as far as "established" players go is this:

If you have time, execute the stroke you hit the most in your life, be it closed, open or neutral. But ALWAYS prepare and be ready to hit open stance first. See a slow ball coming? ...want to make that little step - be my guest.

As far as new players go - learn OS first! No doubt about it. We can later develop the open stance into a more neutral if a player has a more attacking set of mind.

Even withing the open stance concept there are different ways to hit the stroke that will make you more aggressive, defensive, recover better etc. There is pivot step, the walking step, the hop step etc....

[jayl0ve]

I had adult newbies hit 20 shot rally (granted, mostly pushing the ball) in about 2 hours of training....and enjoying it! What better feeling that see that ball go over net again and again?

Yeah this is a really good thing to do with newbs, seriously.

Just about a week ago I went to a local park to hit some balls with a friend who is a total, complete noob at tennis. Just...terrible. For about an hour we were having sporadic 5-8 shot rallies mixed with lots of him hitting the ball literally 20 feet past the baseline or over the court fence.

He was getting frustrated, I was getting a little frustrated (it's like being an alcoholic, really fiending for alcohol, and somebody gives you 15% ABV Malibu Rum when you really want 100 proof Bacardi. He was not satisfying my tennis craving) with it when I said "Let's just try to have a 20 shot rally. Just get the ball in the court". Lo and behold he's suddenly able to get 10 shots in a row in the court because we put a number on it.

They weren't good rallies by any means but it still kinda taught him how to keep the ball in court a little better.

Also you're totally right about people being pretty much clueless with regards to modern stroke technique. A lot of coaches still teach some insanely outdated stuff and a lot of people who are crap players themselves think they're using correct form when really they're just making life harder on themselves by using antiquated notions like "Don't back away from the ball" or 'Take the ball on the rise all the time'. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO THAT, WHO THE F**K DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, ANDRE AGASSI???

[Vieira151]

Hey Al, i had a go at coaching the other day. And man its frustrating Whats the best way to teach non-sporty girls(by that i mean, not with an athletic physique ) who have never played tennis in their life, and dont know to hit a stroke that will go in. I managed to get one to hit the ball decent(as in we could maybe get a 6-8 stroke pushing rally in the service box ) but the other one, no matter how hard i tried she kept sh1tting it and swinging early and either missing it or hitting the ball across her(and often onto the bowling green next door )

So aye, i will probably be doing this again sometime, so i wanted to get some tips

[djarvik]

Hey Al, i had a go at coaching the other day. And man its frustrating Whats the best way to teach non-sporty girls(by that i mean, not with an athletic physique ) who have never played tennis in their life, and dont know to hit a stroke that will go in. I managed to get one to hit the ball decent(as in we could maybe get a 6-8 stroke pushing rally in the service box ) but the other one, no matter how hard i tried she kept sh1tting it and swinging early and either missing it or hitting the ball across her(and often onto the bowling green next door )

So aye, i will probably be doing this again sometime, so i wanted to get some tips

First, I want to clear something up, I am not helping you to get laid am I?

OK, so what you want to do first, is take away her racket. You need to develop at least a minimal amount of hand eye coordination. Take a few balls (tennis balls) and throw it to her over the net by hand. Position her relatively close to the net, maybe a step or two inside the service line.

Throw the ball to her and ask her to catch the ball with BOTH hands on the second curve, meaning after the bounce and when the ball is well on his way down.

What that will accomplish is develop the first and most important thing it tennis - "spacing". She will start getting a feel of how close she has to be to the ball to "catch" it.

Once she is get decent at catching the ball thrown straight at her (should be 10-20 balls, unless she has some kind of inherited coordination problems) - throw the ball a bit to the side, make her take 1-2 steps and catch it. Make sure when she catches it with BOTH HANDS - she is more or less in balance and not crushing onto the court.

Once that worked out rather fine (another 20-30 balls). Give her racket.

Repeat this for the first 10 lessons at least, gradually making it harder for her to catch the ball and making sure she catches it on the way down after the bounce.

Explain to her, that she has to forget for a second that she has a racket in her hand and basically continue "catching" the ball. But, now, instead of the ball being in her had, it should be on her racket.

Next you want to teach the "Finish". DO NOT even mention back-swing thruout this all training, that will get her thinking about it all the time and she is "done" forever get another student at this point. Back-swing will occur at the later stages naturally.

From under the ball, up and across the body onto the opposite shoulder. Have her tap that shoulder 3 times after each shot (reduce tapping to 2,1, none as you progress and she gets the idea).

Do not bring attention onto her grip at this point. Let her hold the racket as she wants it. It is OK if she is choking it at this point. Only tell her how to swing and tell her to try and "touch" then "brush" the ball rather then "hit" it. In fact, don't even pronounce the word "hit" at all.

She will quickly figure out the right grip for her so she can brush the ball rather the hit it.

That's it, is she is not playing something that resembles tennis in 2-3 hours, I will give you your money back.

[Vieira151]

Hey Al, i had a go at coaching the other day. And man its frustrating Whats the best way to teach non-sporty girls(by that i mean, not with an athletic physique ) who have never played tennis in their life, and dont know to hit a stroke that will go in. I managed to get one to hit the ball decent(as in we could maybe get a 6-8 stroke pushing rally in the service box ) but the other one, no matter how hard i tried she kept sh1tting it and swinging early and either missing it or hitting the ball across her(and often onto the bowling green next door )

So aye, i will probably be doing this again sometime, so i wanted to get some tips

First, I want to clear something up, I am not helping you to get laid am I?

OK, so what you want to do first, is take away her racket. You need to develop at least a minimal amount of hand eye coordination. Take a few balls (tennis balls) and throw it to her over the net by hand. Position her relatively close to the net, maybe a step or two inside the service line.

Throw the ball to her and ask her to catch the ball with BOTH hands on the second curve, meaning after the bounce and when the ball is well on his way down.

What that will accomplish is develop the first and most important thing it tennis - "spacing". She will start getting a feel of how close she has to be to the ball to "catch" it.

Once she is get decent at catching the ball thrown straight at her (should be 10-20 balls, unless she has some kind of inherited coordination problems) - throw the ball a bit to the side, make her take 1-2 steps and catch it. Make sure when she catches it with BOTH HANDS - she is more or less in balance and not crushing onto the court.

Once that worked out rather fine (another 20-30 balls). Give her racket.

Repeat this for the first 10 lessons at least, gradually making it harder for her to catch the ball and making sure she catches it on the way down after the bounce.

Explain to her, that she has to forget for a second that she has a racket in her hand and basically continue "catching" the ball. But, now, instead of the ball being in her had, it should be on her racket.

Next you want to teach the "Finish". DO NOT even mention back-swing thruout this all training, that will get her thinking about it all the time and she is "done" forever get another student at this point. Back-swing will occur at the later stages naturally.

From under the ball, up and across the body onto the opposite shoulder. Have her tap that shoulder 3 times after each shot (reduce tapping to 2,1, none as you progress and she gets the idea).

Do not bring attention onto her grip at this point. Let her hold the racket as she wants it. It is OK if she is choking it at this point. Only tell her how to swing and tell her to try and "touch" then "brush" the ball rather then "hit" it. In fact, don't even pronounce the word "hit" at all.

She will quickly figure out the right grip for her so she can brush the ball rather the hit it.

That's it, is she is not playing something that resembles tennis in 2-3 hours, I will give you your money back.

No your not hahahaha It is one of my best pals girlfriend and her besty, who is a bit They were just wanting a game of tennis "cause they'd love to have a go" I'm not intending on giving them lots of "games", just a couple cause im moving away from this place for uni a thet start of september.

I shall try that catching thing next time we play
i hope she will realise i'm not doing this cause i think she is crap . The best friend of hers was better though, she had played tennis ages ago and was capable of a few shot rallies in the service box(with me using continental ) like i said. Only problem with her is she wasnt taking it seriously and just wanted to play a "game" so she wasnt trying to do the things i said.
The other, not so good one(the one who i want to teach better cause she got a little unhappy at her bf hammering the ball at her in a 2 on 3 game we played), i want to get better so she can hit the ball. So i will try out the things you suggested, and it will be funny to see the results

PS i didnt tell them anything bout grips. I said "hold it however you want". I told them to hold it at the bottom of the grip, but i'm not sure if that was a good thing to say?

Much harder than teaching my other friend - who plays table tennis - how to play better He had an erratic serve and forehand, so for his forehand, which was very table tennisy, all i really needed to tell him to do was to keep his racquet face more open on contact with the ball, cause his natural table tennis technique resulted in the ball usually hitting the net. On his serve, i just got him to throw it higher(his toss was really low) and a bit in front of him. I also got him to improve his second serve - throw the ball so that it would be landing on your head and swing the racquet from 7-2(on the clock face) to generate spin(basic, i wasnt wanting him doing much more than that). He caught onto it pretty well, he still produced a lot of double faults, but the more he does it the more he'll get in. Thats what happened with me