Putting the brakes on technology...

[don_budge]

Technology...

Speaking of players being compared across eras…I just heard Mats Wilander say that Novak Djokovic is the best returner of all time. He said that he is better than Andre Agassi and Jimmy Connors.

I have no problem with the Agassi comparison as Agassi played with a racquet that was 108 square inches big. This is a little known fact about Agassi…that he played with such a huge racquet.

But the Connors comparison I have some really serious problems with. Connors played virtually his entire career with a Wilson T2000 which is only a bucket of bolts compared to the fastidious racquets that the modern player uses. Hands down to Connors. You cannot even imagine Djokovic with a T2000.

[don_budge]

Technology…washing machines and tennis lessons

I've been watching tennis for ages, and I like today's tennis. Yes, different from the days of wooden rackets, but much more athletic and longer rallies. (excluding the long, boring rallies between Borg and Vilas...) Watching Federer, Nishikori, Nadal, Wawrinka is always entertaining. I think our memories are imperfect, and we often look back at "the good old days" and forget that people at that time were probably also complaining about the same thing. Today's tennis has evolved, but I like it.

This is a familiar argument. It is not so much in many cases that our memories are imperfect…but they are also selective. People in modern times are mesmerized by the technology it seems. What about that "Human Touch"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsQTVcCh9Ks

We had bought a washing machine a year and a half ago. The warranty was for a year. Today we found out that it was broken and cannot be fixed. Fortunately the store that we bought it from is going to replace it free of charge. I'm going to say that we must have spent 350 dollars on it. Phewwy…modern technology.

In the States I had bought a used washer and dryer in 1981 for 300 dollars. I sold them with the house in 2004 when I packed it in and headed for Europe. I wonder if I had brought them with me…

My lessons are a performance. They make me feel like a rock star. The students seem to get off on it too. I do love to teach. I love to watch them improve from week to week. I use a big mirror. I have yet to use a camera…not that there is anything wrong with them. I should probably use them…but we are on a budget. So am I. I rely on the human touch…even in 2015. I am not teaching robots. Even if I am…I try to bring them back and get them in touch with their humanness. Empathy and communication. Eye contact. Voice. Demonstration.

[don_budge]

Technology...

With every invention comes a curse...

[don_budge]

The curse…Modern Life

http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-teenage-brain-2015-1?r=US

Houston…we have a problem. This one isn't going away either. Stephen Hawking has gone on record warning us that AI (artificial intelligence) may be the end of us. I am going out on a limb here…I have been saying that for at least ten years.

Put the brakes on technology??? Naw, let's just ride this one over the cliff. We're hooked. We are so smart…aren't we now?

In a word…SINGULARITY.

[hockeyscout]

http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-te...in-2015-1?r=US

Houston…we have a problem. This one isn't going away either. Stephen Hawking has gone on record warning us that AI (artificial intelligence) may be the end of us. I am going out on a limb here…I have been saying that for at least ten years.

Put the brakes on technology??? Naw, let's just ride this one over the cliff. We're hooked. We are so smart…aren't we now?

In a word…SINGULARITY.

I bought a phone, a nice Samsung Galaxy! I turned it off on the 25th and put it in my drawer. Today, I took it out and charged it LOL. God, I hate phones. Its like an invasion of my privacy. Its also a distraction when I spend time with my kids. Nothing in life drives me more nuts than people who are always staring at their phones.

[GeoffWilliams]

When you wait in line at Peets for coffee, every single person has their nose and eyes locked on their smart phone. Online, emails, all of them.

[hockeyscout]

I really believe a phone makes my dick soft, serious. Put that radiation next to your balls all day, drink red bull, Coke, Pepsi, Coffee with cream - sugar and wonder why you're not a stallion when it counts.

[GeoffWilliams]

Ed does not exist if you have this.

[hockeyscout]

Ed does not exist if you have this.

Believe it or not some guy is probably bored with it.

[gzhpcu]

Better get used to it. It isn't going to go away, it will get more extreme.

You will like this, for example: http://www.gizmag.com/cicret-bracelet/35109/

Soon virtual reality wrap-around glasses, direct brain-internet interface, and much, much more...

http://www.technologyreview.com/arti...internet-link/

It is called progress.

[stotty]

Wristband technology...

In soccer over here they some clubs have started using gadgets to assess fitness levels to work out how long they should leave a player on the pitch...how long he can last at his optimum level before he depletes. I hope it won't get to the stage where soccer players are allowed to wear wristbands during matches and the data fed back to the bench. It would be a shame to lose that decision making side of the game to computers.

[gzhpcu]

In soccer over here they some clubs have started using gadgets to assess fitness levels to work out how long they should leave a player on the pitch...how long he can last at his optimum level before he depletes. I hope it won't get to the stage where soccer players are allowed to wear wristbands during matches and the data fed back to the bench. It would be a shame to lose that decision making side of the game to computers.

Nadal uses a Babolat racket to keep track of the number of forehands and backhands he plays in a match. He said that if he plays fewer than 60% forehands, I believe he said, then he knows he is not playing well. He is allowed to look at the results only after the match.

[don_budge]

Life…past and present (the influence of technology)

Better get used to it. It isn't going to go away, it will get more extreme.

It is called progress.

I received the message below from dear old Mom today. This world is not progressing…and neither is tennis. It's strange how tennis can metaphorically mirror life.

No matter what our kids and the new generation think about us, WE ARE AWESOME !!! OUR Lives are LIVING PROOF!!! To those of us born 1925 - 1970.

At the end of this email is a quote of the month by Jay Leno. If you don't read anything else, please read what he said. Very well stated, Mr. Leno.
~~~~~~~~

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930s, '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then, after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets,
and, when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets, on our heads.

As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes..

Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter, and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And we weren't overweight. WHY?

Because we were always outside playing...that's why!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem..

We did not have Play Stations, Nintendos and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broken bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from those accidents.

We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches,ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand, and no one would call child services to report abuse.

We ate worms, and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and -although we were told it would happen- we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors ever.

The past 50 to 85 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas..

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

If YOU are one of those born between 1925-1970, CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.

While you are at it, forward it to your kids, so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.


Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?
~~~~~~~
The quote of the month by Jay Leno:


"With hurricanes , tornadoes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"


Those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us...go ahead and delete this. For the rest of us.....pass this on.

[stotty]

All very familiar to me, don_budge...but it's a time that man will soon forget.

I played a doubles match last Wednesday. The first in years. We played under floodlights. I only played because someone fell ill an hour before the match was due to start. I just happened to be around, packing up before leaving for home, it was tough to say no. I really didn't want to play because I get nothing out of playing for myself anymore and would much rather watch others play

I have never liked playing under floodlights because I can never pick up the ball as well as in daylight. Anyway to cut a long story short...

I got annihilated. The two young opponents hit the ball so bloody hard I couldn't see the ball most of the time until too late. It's not my opponents were that good...but sheer power is starting to show and has become a key factor even at amateur level. It would have been an uphill struggle even in daylight.

Power was available with wooden rackets but it wasn't on tap ALL the time. You had to have time and your body had to be fully behind the ball. Power is available with modern rackets from virtually ALL positions of the court with a skilled exponent.

The biggest victim is tactical artistry...which is perhaps one of the reasons why the game has now become so one dimensional.

Tactics in the modern game certainly exist, but they seldom involve artistry. I used to love the way McEnroe could render a player impotent through artistry, through slices and spins, through deception and trickery. Such a player cannot exist today.

Everyone on the forum is familiar with the difficulty the modern player has dealing with a low, shallow forehand. It's the modern player's achilles heel. The irony is that often players like Djokovic are presented with the shot more by accident than design, as it's a terrible risk to attempt the tactic by design. The tactic is intricate and so difficult to execute off incoming spinning bullets. Get it wrong and you're dead...

When I went to Wimbledon in 2014 I reported that the game had become even more powerful and that the younger players were hitting even harder than the present generation. don_budge lamented the game had gone that way some time ago and what was new. I am sorry, don budge, but it is about to get worse, much worse. The only good news for you is that Nadal will be unable to live in the environment too much longer. In fact he is already exiting grand slams early....

Technology is here to stay. The conundrum is how to tinker with the game so all court tennis and artistry can make a comeback.

The top three are likely to retire unmatched....untoppled. The game could be in for a huge slump when they exit...then will be the time to strike.

[don_budge]

Don Quixote…the voice in the wilderness

All very familiar to me, don_budge...but it's a time that man will soon forget.

I am sorry, don budge, but it is about to get worse, much worse.

You know that the one thing that you can trust about me…I know the score.

Now I am no pessimist. Nothing could be further from the reality of my deal. But if you ask me if the glass is half full or half empty I am going to tell you the truth...that it is both. I am what you call a realist…with Quixotic tendencies. You know…swords and windmills. Tennis racquets and establishment. That sort of thing.