Haha I know all about his attitude problems and his on- and off-court antics. I never said he was sportsman of the year or a model citizen by any means. But I've met the guy and I don't think he's arrogant, so you can take that for what it's worth. I just keep laughing at how you can say a guy who is a fixture in the top 10 is "below average."

And yeah, I play a little tennis from time to time.

so obviously your bias toward Roddick is b/c you met him. If you're his friend, and I'm being serious, tell him to quit trying to hit from the baseline with the big boys. Learn to expand on the strength of his game, which is his serve, by learning to play at the net and put constant pressure on his opponents. He wastes what little talent and advantage he has by not coming in behind his serve. You know it, I know it, everyone in tennis knows that his groundstrokes are garbage.

He probably has a bunch of people in his "camp" that are all "yes men" and will not speak up and tell him that his game sucks. Tell him it's okay to regress while learning to play at the net. Explain to him that Tiger Woods went 2 years without winning a major while changing his swing, his game regressed, but in the end it made him a better champion. Tell him I'll come in a get his mind right for free, b/c he must be paying fools that are taking his money. If he wants to call me, let me know b/c I'll get that s.o.b. motivated and make him a champion again. We'll take on Rafa, Fed, The Joker....all of em'. It'll be serve and volley down their ***kin' throats and we'll make em' love it.

The guy could be great, but will only be good and his best years will be behind him if he tries to play the game he is playing now.

I'm sure he would love to hear all about your plans for his game.

Let me guess, you're either one of his "yes men" or you never really met him. You know e/t I said above is true.

[This message has been edited by Greatest Of All Time (edited 1/31/2009 9:47a).]

Goat,

you're a tennis idiot. "below average?"

if ARod wasn't playing in the same era as Fed he'd have 4-5 more championships under his belt. I'm not saying he's anywhere NEAR one of the all time greats, but he's a great player and is just foiled by the best (or second) best player ever. It never seems like he can get to a championship w/out going through Fed. Sucks and he'll be remembered for that, but to call him below average is ignorant.

Andy is a former pedophile!


[This message has been edited by J Peterman (edited 1/31/2009 8:18p).]

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He added a slice backhand under Jimmy Connors, he can't decide if he wants to use a 2 handed backhand or a slice backhand. I'm not sure if you play tennis, but how do you change your backhand 5 different times. My point being he can't fully commit to actually making changes to get him better. Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer in the world, he's not afraid to make changes to his swing, even if he regresses he's going to fully commit to the changes to make him better.

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Greatest-

Sorry, but the slice background was introduced to him to NEVER be his every shot backhand. It's a change of pace and/or safe play when given a tough backhand to hit. If Roddick hit slice backhands every time he'd get destroyed. The blend of two hander/slice is the best option for him. When he gets a ball he feels comfortable ripping with two (or needs to pass a guy) he does, when not he generally hits the slice.

Overall, I believe you are too hard on Andy. Sure his game is dominated by serve, but it is what it is. He's just not that talented from the ground relative to the very top guys. All the work in the world probably won't change that. He's just doing the best he can with what he has. And he has tried to change his strokes to get better many times, but again he's just not as talented back there. Since you're so fond of golfing analogies, it would be like expecting Phil to mess with his swing and end up better than Tiger.. Probably not gonna happen.

Further, you seem to want him to go a serve and volley focused game, but the problem there is two-fold. First, he's not particularly good at the net (which I'm sure he already practices a bunch just like any coached professional player). Second, his problem is not generally lack of holding serve. On anything but grass he may have a harder time holding serve rushing to the net a bunch (and on grass he has in the past tried to do a bunch of serve and volley). Sure you could say he could try moving to a game where he goes to the net a bunch off return of serve..But his return of serve is not good enough to not consistently get torched.

But again, if you think his (strategic) use of the slice backhand has anything to do with "lack of commitment," sorry you know very little about tennis.


[This message has been edited by Aston04 (edited 2/4/2009 1:36p).]

quote:

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First, he's not particularly good at the net

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Sad thing is, he used to be worse! He actually improved on his horrific net game, and it still is mediocre.

Greatest of all time - As for the slice backhand, if the other guy is saying that he cant commit to a backhand, and cant decide if he wants to hit the two handed backhand or a one handed slice, then no other great player in the world can either. All of them hit the slice. Every last one.

If you dont know much about tennis, dont post stupid stuff like that.

[This message has been edited by bigfoot10s (edited 2/4/2009 4:54p).]