The Cochrane Parson’s Project Takes KC Open
By Kyle Francis Aaron “Platform Beat Reporter”
When speaking of a dynamic duo, certain criteria must be met. They must have the friendship of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the intuition of Jordan and Pippen, and the shear brute force of Tango and Cash. However to be a legendary partnership, two individuals must synergize on higher plane of excellence. Such excellence was witness at the Kansas City Platform Open.
The State of the Field (At the Break)
By Alex Bancila
At the halfway mark of the 2012-13 season, there have been quite a few interesting developing stories. I did not take a look at the current rankings before writing this because I did not want that to influence my opinion(s). Below you have my rankings after the first half of the season:
Platform Tennis as a Beginner…
By William Morse
I have played tennis most my life, squash for over 30 years, and have been involved in well over 100 tournaments. So why take up platform tennis? A few years ago my son Bob invited me to play the Italian Center Member Guest Platform Tennis tournament. To train for that one day, I hit with him for an hour the day before and I hit once with my wife. Two out of three years Bob carried me to the finals. I liked the game and the players. Everyone was welcoming. There are always better players out there, and losing helps you keep things in perspective. But getting pounded by opponents all the time isn’t much fun, so I decided to give it a more serious try. Platform tennis is addictive; I am getting started late, so I have pretty much given up my other two sports to focus on platform tennis.
Paddle Partnerships
By Cynthia Dardis and Amy Shay
Finding the right partner in paddle is similar to having the perfect spouse. It’s that important! Amy Shay and I have been paddle partners for approximately nine years and have been monogamous our entire tournament career! We are currently ranked number one in the country in Women’s Open Platform Tennis. This achievement has not come easily. Much like a marriage, we have had our good times but also some rough patches along the way. Although some could view our longevity together as stale or stagnant, we view our long standing partnership as a huge advantage over other teams; we have good communication, very disciplined playing strategies, know what to expect from each other, know our roles within the partnership and are able to anticipate the other’s shot. This has brought results.
Lunch to Launch
By Maurice Sanchez
It began with lunch. Two friends at Hajime-Sushi in Harrison, New York, were talking about one of their favorite sports. Nothing unusual in that, right? But then one of them floated the idea of starting a website for like-minded enthusiasts. The other looked up from his Toku-Jo and said, “Let’s do it.”
The Tournament Player Mindset
By Mark Parsons
I was once happy to be part of the show. I was happy to be one of the guys and enjoy the social aspect of paddle. If I made the quarters of a tournament I would get butterflies in my stomach and start to think about all the what-ifs: what if I beat this team, what if I play so and so next round, what if I win this tournament, what if, what if…!? I was concerned about many things that were not under my control. Looking back I wonder if that is why I never had the results I desired a little earlier.
Footfault!
By Christian Buck
As the paddle culture starts to change, you have to be ready to adjust. As Alex Bancila stated in his editorial piece on this site, 2011 – 2012 The Home Stretch, the norms that applied ten years ago, no longer apply.
An Interview with Johan du Randt
Greetings to all paddle enthusiasts. I hope that everyone has had a fun, healthy and productive season to date. I have enjoyed reading Alex Bancila’s Q&A here on paddle player.com in the past and thought I might do my own modified version of the same. Actually, I am going to let one of my students ask me some questions and I will do my best to give some information or answers that will help. My student is Mike from Vermont (MFV) and he is 65 and a “B” level player. So lets get started.
Preparing for Nationals – Physically and Mentally
By Christian Buck
With the National Championships coming up next month, it got me thinking about how athletes prepare for their sport’s biggest stage. Preparation is the key. When you line up the eight fastest sprinters in the world on the line at the Olympics, the one thing that will separate each of these individuals is how they have prepared – physically and mentally.
2012 Indy Open Recap
By Alex Bancila
The 2012 Indy Open took place this past weekend and featured a draw comparable to last year’s: no Gambino, Broderick, and Johnson but instead you had Goodspeed, Berka, LeFevre, Fiedler, McKnight, and Rose. Notables who played both years are Uihlein, Mansager, Eberly, Bondurant, English, Heil, Struck, Reed, Bakker, etc. All in all, a strong draw that made it tough to hide, reflective of the current depth of the sport. 43 teams were spread across a 64 team draw and there were some brutal round of 16 match-ups.
2011-2012 The Home Stretch
By Alex Bancila
Men’s platform tennis is at an all-time high as far as level of athleticism, shot making ability, and speed of play – few would argue that. Without a doubt, there are a few “special players” but everyone else’s level ranges from good to very good. Even players whom I have never heard of are at least good. That was not the case ten years ago. They used to hold the “Players’ Party” on Fridays (the day before the tournament) and many of those attending would “let it rain” big time if you catch my drift. They would play the next day under a severe hangover but guess what!? They couldn’t lose before the quarters or semis even while still drunk – some of the stories are legendary! But I digress. Platform tennis players have always been split into two distinct groups: players who win tournaments and the rest. With the Nationals fast approaching in mid March on Long Island, I will handicap the field by splitting the contenders into three groups instead of two.
2012 Short Hills Invitational Recap
By Alex Bancila
The 2012 Short Hills Invitational featured the weakest Men’s Open draw since I first played it in 2005 with John Milbank. Anytime superstars and tournament regulars Brian Uihlein, Chris Gambino, Johan duRandt, and Mark Parsons are not in the draw the tournament is not what it could have been – in a capsule, the draw was four top teams short. That being said, it was still a loaded tournament: Cochrane/Estes, Broderick/Stulac, Arraya, Lubow/DeRose, Caldwell/Cordish, Cosimano/Haller, Rothschild/Schmitt, LeFevre/English, etc.
The Four Horsemen (Part III)
An Interview with Mark Parsons
Q: How is the game different today than it was when you first started playing!? Is it different!? How do you see the game changing in the next decade or so!?
The Four Horsemen (Part II)
An Interview With Chris Gambino and Drew Broderick
Q: How is the game different today than it was when you first started playing!? Is it different!? How do you see the game changing in the next decade or so!?
The Transformation of Platform Tennis
By Mark Fischl
Observing the final rounds of the Men’s APTA Nationals in Chicago last March, I could not help but wonder how platform tennis had evolved to such a wonderful place. Having played the game competitively (for the most part) on the National level for the last 15 years, the transformation of our game has been astonishing to witness. In the mid 1990s when I first started playing tournaments, the game was very slow and downright boring. Watching some of the best teams in our sport was like watching paint dry. The successful teams were the ones that played patiently, lobbing to the extreme. And while you would think the late matches in the Nationals would be the most exciting to watch, they were monotonous. How many times can you watch someone lob the ball?
Self-Awareness, Knowing Your Limits and Shot Selection
By Alex Bancila
One of the definitions of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results. In order to avoid falling prey to this dangerous trap, you need to be self-aware every time you step on the court. Self-awareness determines your limits as a player, which in turn determines your shot selection. This sentence is loaded with fancy terms. Let’s go over them one by one.
The Paddle Attitude
By Mark Parsons
I’m annoyed. Could it be the two hours sitting at the gate waiting for my plane to take off? Could it be the 50 minute drive I have once my plane touches down in New York to get to my house? Maybe it is the fact I am dead tired and have to be up early to teach 10 hours of paddle tomorrow. All of the above could annoy the calmest of people and none of it bothers me at the moment. I am annoyed because I lost. I lost in the finals of the second biggest tournament of the year in three sets to arguably the best paddle team in the nation. 95% of the teams in the draw would probably happily trade places with me and yet I’m annoyed.
The Four Horsemen
By Alex Bancila
If you play platform tennis tournaments and have a top 25 APTA ranking you are not a professional athlete. You are the closest thing to it without actually being one. In platform tennis, there is no prize money. Instead, you need to have money in order to play the sport. Over 95% of all platform tennis courts across the country can be found in exclusive country clubs where only the 1 or 2% of the population has access to them. This exclusivity angle puts platform tennis on par with squash in that regard and it makes tennis look blue collar by comparison. Despite this small sample size, some of the best athletes I have seen in my life are platform tennis players. How can that be!?
FYM
By Johan Du Randt
This shot is obviously a bit of a controversial shot. Lets talk about when and how to hit it and then we can talk a little about the ethics.
This shot is one of those shots that should be used very sparingly and as a surprise or it will cost you more points than you will win off it. The problem with all potentially point ending shots is that you can easily get carried away and overuse them as a result of winning a couple of cheap points off it. The bigger problem is when you start earning some points from these shots and you start overusing them is how to get back to finding the balance to hit them the right amount of times.
Fairfield County Paddle is Going Strong!
By Ron Gayda
Platform Tennis is BIG in Fairfield County Connecticut. How Big? Well there are over
1,200 players organized onto 84 teams in seven separate divisions and with all of that,
there is still a waiting list of teams to get into the league. The Fairfield County Platform
Tennis League is comprised of 26 clubs each of which has anywhere from one team to
eight teams playing.