Product Description
This biography offers a complete portrait of Nick Bollettieri, a man who has overcome adversity and betrayal to become a living legend. Author David R. Legge will capture the story of the greatest tennis coach, or perhaps any coach, who has ever lived. Legge has had unlimited access to Bollettieri, his family, his personal letters and papers, and, of course, many of his world-champion players.Bollettieri has trained ten No. 1-ranked players in the world, including Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Venus and Serena Williams, Monica Seles, Jim Courier, and Maria Sharapova. This is a book about winning--on or off the court--and what it takes to be the best in any field. ... Read more

Product Description
Dan Waintrup never played the US Open and he never made it onto the World Tour. His career flourished in high school and college, but landed him in the world of a country club teaching pro - junior clinics with bratty adolescents, lessons with executive studs of Fortune 500 companies, and couples’ tournaments which ended marriages. His teaching exploits provide the backdrop for this humorous memoir that reveals how a rabbi’s son from Philadelphia with a hankering for Tastykakes chose this line of work and devastated his parents, had a photo op with The Donald, ran his car into a tree, found the woman of his dreams and got an MBA without learning how to use a computer. One of Dan’s many gifts is his ability to laugh at himself and, in turn, allow others to have a laugh at his expense. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

"It's Not My Fault" is fun, fun, fun....and entertainingly informative...
An intelligentlyhilarious and refreshing bouquet of passages of life of a Jewish tennis celebrity, cultivated and well depictedin a book written by a son of a rabbi, an entrepreneur and talented story-teller. Although, the book is a rainbow of jokes, its author tenderly imbibed it with wit, tragicomic wisdomand heart felt expressions. Most certainly, country clubs members, tennis players and Waintrup's father enjoyed the stories told in the book and Waintrup's entertaining style. But this is the beginning of the enjoyment, for the"humanistic" humour, and delightful narrative style of "It's Not My Fault" will appeal to a wider and multi-layered audience, Jews and non-Jews, tennis lovers and Mercedes owners, martini mixers, Bernard Shaw's fanatics and Donald Trump's groupies.

"It's Not My Fault" is fun, fun, fun....and entertainingly informative. The book is an umbrella for a stormy weather and a rod in an arid Sahara. It encompasses various and unexpected portraiture of life, usually un-depicted on the tennis court, such as growing up in a rabbi's house, getting paid to play tennis, celebrity correspondence,mingling with pretty girls on" the set", the ex-wife who begs to differ,how old pros never die, instead, they go to business school, a shrink's book and notebook,the art of winning, justice or lack of justice in the world. You name it and you will find it in Waintrup's tragicomic book. Of course, you will see the world according to Waintrup.

Waintrup has a lot of imagination. But he candidly admits that thousands of unique, often crazy students and friends provided him with "the inspiration for much of the material" of his book. This is a plus. For certainly, unique and crazy enthusiasts who believed in Waintrup could and would add an extra mile of laughter and excitement to this most wonderful "crazy and captivating" book. Waintrup's book is a monumental accomplishment. Get a copy or two, if you have two good friends.

WORLD JEWISH NEWS AGENCY
NEW YORK JEWISH HERALD
WorldJewishNewsAgency.com

Double Fault
Waintrup, the son of a rabbi, spent fifteen years as a teaching tennis as pro at a New England country club.He tries to tell the story of his life in this book that's a mixed up collection of anecdotes, biography, letters and actual tennis advice.However, he doesn't know if he wants to be a stand-up comedian or a writer as he tells the story.The book fails to come together successfully.He totally missed his shots with this book.

Not just for tennis fans, hysterical book will have you laughing out loud!
It's not my fault is a hilarious look at the life (so far) and experiences of Daneil Waintrup aka "The Wall." Though this book may appear that will only interest people who like tennis or religion, Dan has proven to me that this book will have anyone laughing even if they don't know anything about tennis or religion. You will get a kick out of the many humerous stories he tells, lists of excuses, and funny quirks about the people who take tennis lessons from Mr. Country Club Tennis Pro. Look into the world of affluence, big spenders and princesses who have money and seem to want to learn to play tennis. This book will have you laughing out loud.

Buy this book, read it, laugh, then read it all over again.
It doesn't matter if you have ever played tennis, been to a country club, or are Jewish - this book will make you laugh. And without realizing it perhaps you'll learn a few things about life even if your serve never improves. Mr. Waintrup pokes gentle fun at the Jewish country club set, setting himself up as the target of a joke more often than not.

Take for example, the Definitive List of Country Club Drills, number thirteen. "The 'Hit the Pro"' drill, or as it's commonly known 'Maim that Pro' ". Variations are "Aim for the Pickle" (nose) and "Mash the Matzah Ball". Daniel Waintrup offers himself up as a moving target for his student, relatives, and occasionally, even for his wife. Nothing is sacred - not even the cars in the parking lot as outlined in drill seventeen : "Hit the Mercedes, Hit the Porsche" drill. A junior student in this drill can also make points creatively by hitting a passing golf cart or setting off a car alarm.

Buy this book, read it, laugh, then read it all over again. It's good for the spirit and if it improves your backhand so much the better.


TCM REVIEWS
TCM-CA.com

No one is safe from his quick wit...
In his memoir, It's Not My Fault -or- can a rabbi's Son Find Happiness as a Tennis Pro? Daniel I. Waintrup employs a tongue and cheek approach to the telling of his life as a Rabbi's son, tennis pro, husband, and father.

No one is safe from his quick wit, to include himself.

As an instructor at a New England country club, Waintrup had a unique way of teaching. Throughout the story he introduces his readers to his various clients (whose only common ground seemed to be that they were rich) with a selection of letters. Reader beware he doesn't answer in Dear Abby style.

His life makes a full circle as he takes the reader from high school to college to the country club, and then back to college again.

Waintrup's style is all his own. His humor is at times biting, often sarcastic, but always entertaining. The reader need not be into tennis to enjoy this novel -- just being into life works. Between the laughs there is warmth that generates from the pages, perhaps it's Waintrup's love of family.


WORD MUSEUM
Bringing Authors and Readers Together ... Read more

Product Description
A Davis Cup winner and Pepperdine coach has written the first book on the strategy and mental dimension of the game since the bestselling The Inner Game of Tennis. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Very Good!
Very informative! Learning quite a bit of strategy and tactics. Can't wait to put it to use.

Thorough and Understandable
Enjoyed this book.It was helpful in understanding basic tennis strategy for someone who has the basics of groundstrokes, volleys and overheads, but needs help understanding where to hit shots and when

GOOD BUT A LITTLE ANTIQUATED
I'm a clay court tennis player 6.0-6.5
This book is a contribution to the strategic view of the tennis game undoubtedly.
However, the groundstroke instructions are a little "old style" or "antiquated methods". Today the biomechanical research, have shown that the wrist must to be involved in all the groundstrokes, like a kinetic chain. This is the reason of the tremendous power in the modern game. Nevertheless, this book is a very "educational book" of the world of strategic tennis. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Perfect for New Intermediates
This book very clearly explains the purposes of various shots, how to decide on a winning style for yourself, and how to construct winning points from the baseline and from the net. For a college player or old timer most of this will be old hat, but for the vast majority of intermediates who have learned the strokes but can't win against experienced players, this is mandatory reading. The diagrams are clear but they do require a few seconds of thinking and visualization; this is strategy after all.

Great teacher but average book
Having throughly enjoyed Brad Gilbert's book, I hoped to learn even more from his former coach who shaped Brad into the world class player he was.Unfortunately this book is written in the typical how to play tennis and be better at it.There are pictures showing the different strokes and grips.It's actually not similar to Brad's book at all although it does have a couple examples of how Brad and other players used mental advantages to win matches against better players.

If you are a beginner and want to read a good "how to" book, this would be fine.But if you already play and are looking for some useful tips from a master, this doesn't quite fill the bill. ... Read more

Product Description
This tennis text uses the Personalized Sport Instruction model of teaching (PSI), which is widely respected as an effective, interactive, student-centered teaching model. This text, as part of a six-book series, features a common organization and framework for planning, managing, implementing, and evaluating the fundamentals of learning tennis. Each module includes specific directions for setting up learning tasks and criteria for demonstrating mastery. Because the text is a self-contained course, it eliminates the need for lengthy unit and daily lesson planning. ... Read more

Product Description
The greatest sports stars characterize their times. They also help to tell us who we are.

John McEnroe, at his best and worst, told us the story of the 1980s. His improvised quest for tennis perfection, and his inability to find a way to grow up, dramatized the volatile self-absorption of a generation. His matches were open therapy sessions, and they allowed us all to be armchair shrinks.

In this book, Tim Adams sets out to explore what it might have meant to be John McEnroe during the turbulent 1980s, and in his subsequent lives, and to define exactly what it is that we want from our sporting heroes:how we require them to play out our own dramas, and how the best of them provide an intensity by which we can measure our own lives.

At the heart of this book are two fascinating characters—McEnroe and Bjorn Borg—and the extraordinary rivalry that defined them, a rivalry as compelling and dramatic as Ali and Foreman or Spassky and Fischer. Their great Wimbledon match of July 5, 1980—the central event in Adams’s narrative—was, as he writes, “a confrontation between two highly developed states of mind: a struggle between extreme consciousness and an absolutely studied containment of consciousness.”

It’s a book that’s “full of pleasures,” according to the London Sunday Times, and will appeal to any tennis fan or serious sports reader. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fantastic writing. A slim, smart, and very funny book.
I don't follow sports really, but I like tennis, and I borrowed this thinking i'd just kind of skim it over lunch. Jesus. I became totally engrossed in this slim but potent mix of cultural analysis, pop psy, sports writing,and biography. I came to think of mcenroe not as a famous jerk, but as a famous jerk who is utterly fascinating, and yes-- a little admirable. You have to admit, that kind of sustained indignation, total disbelief when things don't go as planned, suggests powerful, delusional optimism. And it's not just about mcenroe-- there is great stuff in here about Borg and others too. Fantastic writing, and I laughed out loud.

nice writing about someone not so nice
I would categorize this book as nice writing that takes a former star and tries to analyze him, while acknowledging his icon or idol status.

Too late. McEnroe's glory is gone, and there is no need for a whitewash, since nobody cares anymore. Yesterday's star is today's has-been.

Having read two David Evans books about John McEnroe and also "You Can't Be Serious", and being a reformed tennis addict, I
desired something that dared to be more critical. "On being John McEnroe" was not the book I was looking for.

This book is a very quick read. Even though I am a slow reader, I read the entire 173 pages in about 3 hours. There is little of substance here, just many beautifully worded anecdotes that paint a murky picture but leave no real impression.

Shamefully abusive on the tennis court (even now while playing on the seniors tour), McEnroe gave tennis a bad name and helped end the "tennis boom" of the 70s.

Had McEnroe played during the era when Wimbledon and the other grand slam tournaments were amateur events, he probably would have been banned from competition had he acted the way he did.

I'm hoping that the book "Bad News for McEnroe" will give me more grit, sustenance, and truth. ... Read more

Product Description
Let the game’s most brilliant players and coaches teach you World-Class Tennis Technique! Written by some of the world’s top experts in biomechanics, tennis technique, and coaching, this book gives you a complete blueprint to develop the modern game. Former world-class players, national coaches, and past or current Davis Cup Captains offer their advice on every aspect of the proper execution of each stroke. Contributors includeStan SmithPatrick McEnroe Vic Braden Mary Joe FernandezJack KramerPam ShriverDennis van der MeerTom GulliksonAndrew CoeDavid MileyTodd Ellenbecker Craig TileyDonald Chu Lynne RolleyHoward BrodyBen KiblerRon WoodsRichard HerbstJim Loehr Miguel CrespoJose HiguerasFrank van FraayenhovenMichiel SchapersBruce ElliottNick SavianoPaul DentPatrice HagelauerDuane Knudson

In-depth analysis of the proper fundamentals of each stroke are presented with full-color sequence photos of the game’s best players. You’ll also improve in other facets of the game, including footwork and positioning, choosing the right racquet and equipment for your style of play, adjusting to different court surfaces, and maintaining proper technique under pressure.

Learn the science behind the strokes to hit the ball with greater force, accuracy, and consistency. Then master and fine-tune your execution to excel in competition. With World-Class Tennis Technique, you’ll soon play better than ever. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

the book is useless
it is equally useless for an expert and for a beginner. Actually I was amazed how much text can people write and say nothing useful. Do not buy this book, I would gladly sell you minefor few dollars

More style than substance
There are some nice stop-action photo sequences of various strokes, but the actual techniques described are pretty basic and can be found free on the internet - lacking the world-class depth that the title would lead you to believe.Deficiencies are quite glaring in the serve section, where nothing is mentioned about hitting the different serves such as slice, kick, topspin etc.As the book is a compilation of many different authors, it lacks a unifying process for describing and teaching the strokes, which are broken up into different chapters, making it overall too general and inconsistent.

An Scientific Treatise on Tennis - dry and with some holes
An all-star cast was called to write this authoritative primer on modern techniques. There are contributions from Jim Loehr, Dennis van der Meer, Howard Brody (tennis physicist), Vic Braden, Jose Higueras (reknown clay court coach), Bruce Elliot (Australian biomechanist), Don Chu (strength and conditioning expert), etc. The graphics are quite good and the reseach is based on the latest in sport science. Some problems do exist, however. It appears that the book is written for the serious tennis player in addition to coaches and teaching pros. However, the use of language is dry and scientific in many areas. Even advanced players may find it too theoretical. Practical implications are often up to the reader to draw. The use of high-speed multiple-frame photography isn't exploited enough considering the resources of the contributors and editors. Disappointing sections are the backhand (Braden and Jack Kramer) -- barely an effort considering it follows a brilliant section on the forehand (Crespo and Higueras), volleys and overheads (van Fraayenhoven & Schapers) -- which attempts to cover too much in little details as possible (except for approaches), and tactics and technique (Herbst and Patrick McEnroe) -- also didn't seem very well thought out. Best sections include Revolutionary Rackets (Stan Smith and Brody) --which is written for the player(!understandable and enjoyable!), Kinetic Chain (Kibler and Van der Meer) -- well thought out analysis, court surfaces (Coe and Miley, ITF), specialty shots (Paul Dent and Patrice Hagelauer) and the forehand. A must for the serious coach/pro and a good buy for the serious player if you like reading analyses. Comparable in science for the teacher is the German Tennis Association "Tennis Course" series. Roetert and Groppel's book, however, is a rarity in that it analyzes top pro modern techniques rather than giving a template for beginners and intermediates as most books do.

An excellent primer on the major strokes and much more
The full color, high speed sequence shots have already helped my game.The in-depth analysis of each sequence preceding each major stroke have given me the confidence to go to the next level.I play for fun but it's nice to surpass those that I never thought I could beat before.

This book spends a chapter on such topics as forehands, backhands, volleys( learned alot here), serves and returns, and the tactics of the overall game.From there, there are discussions on the kind of player you are, how to analyze your game and those you play. Other topics include what works for you and what to do when your game isn't working.

I certainly don't win all the time, but since purchasing this book my serve speed and has improved greatly and I've only lost once.That may have been due to the breaking of yet another string on my serve in the third game.Looks like it's time for a new racket as I've broken my fourth string since May. There is a discussion on racket designs in Chapter 2 of the book as well.

Enhanced with full color sequence photographs
In World-Class Tennis Technique: Master Every Stroke, Paul Roetert and Jack Groppel have drawn from some of the world's top experts in biomechanics, tennis techniques, and coaching to provide the aspiring or practicing tennis player with a comprehensive guide covering every aspect of the game as it relates to technique. An in-depth analysis of each stoke is enhanced with full color sequence photographs. If you are an amateur player seeking a professional level of mastery, or an aspiring tournament contender, give a careful reading to Roetert and Groppel's World-Class Tennis Technique! ... Read more

Product Description
Now children and beginning tennis players can hone their skills and mind their manners on the court with the help of Bouncy and Fuzzy.

Bouncy and Fuzzy love to play tennis and know that proper groundstrokes are important to a beginner’s tennis game. Together they illustrate the correct form for forehand, backhand, and volley shots. They detail the right way to serve and maintain control of the game.

To teach game strategy, Bouncy and Fuzzy outline zones of the court, target areas, and tactics even the very young player can use. To insure good sportsmanship, they list twelve pointers on courtesy and respect for other players. For trivia fans, Bouncy and Fuzzy have assembled statistics for such greats as Chris Evert-Lloyd, Martina Navratilova, and Jimmy Connors. ... Read more

Product Description
Written in a lively, readable style, this book profiles two women who broke new ground in tennis. Alice Marble (1913-1990) became the first woman to play "power tennis, " and by 1939 had won several Wimbledon titles. Althea Gibson (1927- ) broke the racial "color line" in tennis by entering many previously white-only tournaments, and became the first black person to win both the U.S. Open and Wimbledon competitions. ... Read more

Product Description
A memoir by the founder and director of the St. Albans Tennis Club in Washington, D.C., who, in the 1960s and 70s, helped establish tennis as the sport of choice of the capital’s power elite.Among his students were Jackie Kennedy, Robert McNamara, Katherine Graham, and presidential candidates, senators, and supreme court justices.Ritzenberg became seriously competitive in senior tennis and is now ranked #1 in the world among players 85 and older. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Packed with telling glimpses of dozens of public figures
Capital Tennis: A Memoir is the personal musings of Allie Ritzenberg, founder and director of St. Albans Tennis Club. Ritzenberg's club was at the crest of a sweeping change, sparked during the Kennedy administration, in which Washington's power elite favored tennis rather than golf, the favored sport of the Eisenhower administration. Ritzenberg personally coached such memorable figures as Jacqueline Kennedy, Robert McNamara, George McGovern and Donna Shalala. Ritzenberg's memoir is packed with telling glimpses of dozens of public figures, as well as his own personal efforts to found the club as a place of equality as surely as the spirit of sports - though St. Albans was a private club, it would not discriminate on the basis of race or religion, an almost unprecedented decision in 1962, two years before Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill of 1964. An inset selection of black-and-white photographs rounds out this revealing, heartwarming, and inspirational testimony.
... Read more

Product Description
At Wimbledon in 1990, Zina Garrison became the first African-American woman to reach a Grand Slam final since Althea Gibson in 1958 Olympic gold medalist and three-time Grand Slam mixed doubles champion, Zina Garrison took the mostly white tennis world by storm, climbing to number four in singles ranking and earning millions in prize money. In this intimate account of her life, she shares the ups and downs of her experiences as a professional athlete, including the glory of Wimbledon, the trials of a rocky marriage, her battle with bulimia, and the difficulty of losing her mother. Throughout her struggles, disappointments, and triumphs, she maintains the determination and inner strength that made her a champion. "It's tough to focus on your forehand when life gives you a backhand slap. . . . There were times when I wanted to escape the pressures of being considered a role model." - from the book ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Solid, endearing piece of work
Zina Garrison will go down in history among the ranks of "favorite" athletes who had the heart, the talent, the physical tools and the skills to conquer her sport's pinnacle -- yet sadly, never did.

An Olympic doubles gold medalist; a 1990 Wimbledon finalist; a two-time US Open semifinalist; the player who ended the great Chris Evert's career and the ONLY player to be a top 10 women's rankings mainstay in the modern tennis era for eight years who spent half that time WITHOUT an endorsement deal ... Zina's pro tennis career is marked with near misses, disappointments and victories indistinctive enough I'm scared the average tennis fan will forget her in 10 years.

Lost between Althea Gibson's trailblazing, shocking Grand Slam championships of the late 1950s and the awe-inspiring, megawatt champion Williams Sisters of the new millennium stands Zina Garrison -- a crafty player from Houston, Texas who served and through experience suffered the pains of being one of the few top African American tennis players in a lily white sport.

This book brings you Zina's childhood ... learning the game after following older brother Rodney to a local park and rising to become the best junior in Texas and eventually the Junior Wimbledon & Junior US Open women's singles champ (I think those titles are curses sometimes -- Chanda Rubin also won both titles in the 1990s and never made good in her pro career).

In between her triumphs of making it to the World's top 10 with best friend and fellow Houstonian Lori McNeil, Garrison battled boughts of depression (stemming from both of her parents dying during her childhood -- her dad as she was but a babe and her mom during her teens years -- as well as her first husband's infidelities) and bulimia she later attributed to looking at images of her trim, white competitors and feeling "ugly" because, by today's more celebrated standard, she had a more full-figured, muscular, curvacious body like J. Lo and Serena Williams.

If you're the kind of reader who likes interesting books with tons little known facts, you'll really enjoy "Zina: My Life In Women's Tennis."

For every champion, there's an also-ran who was good enough to be that champ but for whatever reason never reached that summitt.

Particularly for African Americans who understand our struggle in this country for equal rights, an equal playing field and for general social acceptance, this "one step forward, two-steps backs" idea is nothing knew.

Hopefully, Zina Garrison does realize that her success and her late 1980s/1990s image on television had more to do with the budding childhood successes of a new generation led by the Williams Sisters who dared to dream of conquering tennis because they saw other positive role models before them that made that dream possible.

You'll find no tales of drug abuse, sexcapades or alcohol addictions in this book.Zina, by comparison, led a pretty quiet and well-adjusted life both on and off the tennis court.

Her story, like many, is a throwback to a different time in American sports history when top athletes conducted themselves with class, competed hard but still found time to value friendships among their competitors.

Zina was that kind of champion. ... Read more

Product Description
A warm, revealing, and touching memoir by USC's legendary tennis coach written in collaboration with a writer who produced what Sports Illustrated judged to be one of the 100 best sports books ever written. It brings the reader into intimate contact with some of the great names of professional tennis -Tilden, Kramer, Riggs, King; the celebrated tennis venues of Wimbledon, Forest Hills, Paris, Los Angeles; and the innovative ideas that gave tennis its world wide status. Extensively indexed with an encyclopedic list of championships won by Toley's players with dozens of Toley's tips on what makes a better tennis player. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

AN UNSUNG HERO
George Toley is an unsung hero who coached the great Stan Smith and presided over a tennis program at USC that was, in its sport, as dominant as John Wooden's UCLA basketball team or Rod Dedeaux's USC baseball team. Pete Carroll would love to have half as many national titles in football as Coach Toley earned on the hardcourts. The battles with Arthur Ashe and UCLA were fore-runners of great pro battles of the 1970s; social statements that indicate the power of sports in society. Coach Toley was respected and admired. He did not merely recruit and hone the skills of champions, but taught young men to be champs off the court, too. Bravo and kudos, this book is about time, and about a great time! Fight on! ... Read more

Product Description
This is an updated biography of Andre Agassi, who said "Image is everything". Despite the George Michael designer stubble, the Farrah Fawcett hairstyle, the earrings, the nail varnish and the shocking pink thigh-hugging cycle shorts, the kid from Las Vegas had the image of being a loser. That was until the 'Great White Hype', as his critics were fond of calling him, became Wimbledon Champion in the summer of 1992. As a baby he used a tiny table-tennis bat to swat a balloon tied to his high chair, at four he was knocking up with Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg in front of a huge audience in Caesars Palace, and at seven he was winning under-10 tournaments while his father, a former Olympic boxer, battled officialdom and parents of rival players. Andre Agassi is accustomed to rocking the established order of things. A teenage rebel, he dropped out of school at 13, drank and smoked marijuana. On court he cursed and smashed rackets, while railing against the army-camp discipline of Nick Bollettieri's Tennis Academy. After turning professional on his 16th birthday, his rise was meteoric and, by the age of 18, he was ranked third in the world and had `found God'.His fellow players accused him of gamesmanship and `tanking' (deliberately losing matches). John McEnroe said, "His act is wearing thin". To keep outsiders at a distance, he surrounded himself with an infamous entourage - his brother Phil, his trainer Gil, and his personal agent Bill (dubbed Dr No because of his attitude towards the media). Agassi was earning millions without ever having won a major championship. Then, in only his 13th ever match on a grass court, Agassi beat Croatia's Goran Ivanisevic to win perhaps the greatest prize of all, the Wimbledon men's singles title. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Essential Agassi
If you are an Agassi fan, then this book is a must-have. If you are only a casual tennis fan, it is still a great and entertaining book. Andre has a very colorful story, and this book provides an in-depth look at his life.

Life of a star
Extremely enjoyable and interesting book which tells the story of Andre Agassi from birth to the age of 21. Explores the ups and downs of a professionals day to day life and the pressure and expectations placed on the shoulders of a teenage boy. Comments on wins, losses, family, romance and other players. Truly a masterpiece!!!!!!

Only the truth
Going deep into the Andre Agassi character, Robert Philip focuses towards his not-well-known difficult childhood, telling the reader almost everything about Agassi's life in Las Vegas, just before introducing us tothe all-new, all-different life he would go on living in Florida, playingand training to become the player he is today. Remember the book waswritten right after Andre's Wimbledon title, his first Grand Slam, so itwould not tell the reader about anything that happened after. Beside that,it is a great book. ... Read more

Product Description
Tom Brown is one of the few serious tennis players left from the immediate post WWII era. Now in his mid-eighties, he is blessed with a clear and detailed memory, as well a droll story-telling style, as well as a collaborater, Lee Tyler, who is a professional sprotswriter. After a stint in the Army during WWII, he balanced a rapidly rising tenni career with law studies and a law practice. He was a winner at Wimbledon at age 23, winning both the Mens and Mixed Doubles Championships in 1946.He continued to play and compete as a young man, then returned to the game in the 1980s to become a pre-eminent senior player of the USA inhis age bracket. Ful of tennis celebrity name-dropping, tells of a tennis polayer and charming man. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

great book
great book....I have known Tom Brown pretty well for many years...he is a hero of mine!The book is very well written!

Nice little Memoir
A nice little memoir of a tennis player. He could have gone into more detail about the time when he was in his prime (post WW II). The last chapters are a bit of a bore about people he met and courts he played and a very little history of tennis.
But in the end I enjoyed reading it, getting to know Tom and the era of his most competitive tennis.

Tennis in forgotten days
An interesting book by a man who played tennis all his life. He reached the Wimbledon final in 1947 and the U.S. final in 1946, losing both times to Jack Kramer. But he could have been be more in depth what it was like playing the circuit in the forties and fifties, how the amateurs got paid under the table and how the USLTA dealt with shamamateurism. He is perhaps too much a gentleman to let us know exactly what happened. And why doesn't he tell so little about his debut in the Davis Cup final in 1950?
There was a lot of trouble with the American team that went to Australia in 1946 to recapture the Davis Cup. Tom Brown was one of the members of that team. The non-playing captain was Walter Pate and he wanted the players to vote who would actually play the singles and doubles. In 1985 Brown was interviewed in the book'Once a champion' by Stan Hart about the vote.He could not remember that there was a vote. Now, in his own memoir, more than twenty years later, he remembered exactly what happened...Strange.
But I like what I read, because it gives you an idea what it was: the game by gentlemen in the forgotten days of tennis. It is good that he wrote the book.
Ruud Paauw. ... Read more

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Product Description
Open Your Heart with Tennis shares one woman's story of how a sport -- and the legs of young, fit men -- inspired her. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

Better to Look Elsewhere
I must say that I can follow any given technical manual but this book just does not motivate me to do so. The book is rather dull and requires work to follow, and I din not feel that it would be worthwhile to find out what was awaiting at the end of each chapter. It is rather thin, and tries to cover the topic of tennis mechanics, but in my opinion does a poor job.

I am a solid 4.5 player and this book did not help me to fill in any missing holes required to move on to the next level. This book might be helpful to a 3.0 to 3.5 player who still need to see another perspective on understanding the mechanics of a tennis swing. There are much easier ways to achieve this, however. Lastly, the illustrations seemed distorted and this was really annoying to me. I would have rather seen a live model demonstrating these points.

A little something of nothing
Should have been called, "Some biomechanical considerations in tennis technique". Even this suggests a bit more than this book actually has. No models, no physics (all existent models are incomplete and they are not worth mentioning, according to the author). One looking for forces, moments, conservation of energy, etc. would be totally disappointed. But then, so would be a six grader's tennis coach who skipped physics in high school, because there is nothing in this book he wouldn't know already.
I regard it as pretty much useless, I don't even get what type of reader is the author targeting with it.

A good general overview
I never write reviews but thought I'd add one since the only other one was negative and I quite liked this book. I haven't read any other biomechanics books and can't do a comparative review, but this book is definitely "Biomechanical Principles of Tennis," so I can see how this would be old hat if you've already read someone else's version.

This book is a mix of "general introduction to biomechanics applied to tennis" and "practical tennis stoke technique". It begins by describing some common mechanical principles that apply to all strokes, such as balance and inertia, and explains how these forces work and how they're produced. Then there's a chapter on injury prevention -- how various injuries are caused and how to avoid them. Finally, there are chapters breaking down in detail the biomechanics of the serve, forehand, backhand and volley. Throughout, the author summarizes existing academic research and cites the relevant studies, with charts and photos.

Now, these sections aren't detailed prescriptions for how you "should" hit these strokes, but that's what I liked. This dude isn't a tennis coach, he's an academic kinesiologist. A lot of coaches advocate techniques, but this guy is more agnostic and doesn't advocate so much as describe. In explaining principles like how the legs, trunk, shoulders, arm and wrist coil and then uncoil into a shot, the author separates the fundamentals of technique that are important from motions that aren't, while debunking some of the standard tennis pro wisdom as either wrong or not supported by research (i.e., details of the follow-through motion -- if you're trying to copy Rafa's or perfecting your window-washer, you're probably wasting time).

For instance, the author does a good job of explaining the tradeoffs between hitting the forehand from a square vs. open stance or serving from a feet-together vs. feet-apart -- how they affect preparation, static and active balance, stroke power, accuracy/time racket's in the hitting zone and recovery. In these explanations, he differentiates between players at the pro and rec levels (in terms of power, prep time etc., since academic motion studies are done with at different force levels and speeds), and there are some important distinctions there.

Personally, I gained several insights that I think will help my game and in other ways the book underlined things I've heard from coaches or read in tennis instruction books, which is useful in itself -- underscoring what's important and exposing what you can happily ignore. When you read about what individual muscles are doing, realizations like "Oh, that's why I'm not supposed to squeeze my racket and all that stiff wrist stuff is bollocks" pop to mind. Techniques go in and out of style, but the fundamentals of the human body's mechanics do not.

Precious little useful information
I very rarely write reviews, but felt compelled to review this book. This book is basically useless. You will learn precious little to improve your tennis game. It is poorly written, and consists mostly of a lot of hemming and hawing about how few proper scientific studies have been conducted on this or that aspect of tennis. I got a lot more out of Cross & Lindsey's Tecnical Tennis, from the same publisher. ... Read more