Game Changes

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Exactly when did sports organizers decide to change the games we have known forever because they felt that they were no longer entertaining?

Look at them. Baseball decided it was all about the home run. So we had pitchers throwing as hard as they could (inviting arm trouble), and batters swinging as hard as they could regardless of the count and the situation of the game. Other than the World Series where they play the way it’s supposed to be played, most games feature more strikeouts than hits.

Basketball’s version of the home run was all about firing up 3-point shots without even considering passing to execute a play. Other than the climax of the NBA playoffs, that’s all we see.

Football’s home run is the deep pass for a touchdown. If you’re going to entertain, you better watch those holding calls up front and those pass interference flags downfield. Except, of course, for the Super Bowl and deep into the playoffs where you better be able to run the ball.

Tennis has also experienced its game changes. Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam of the season is into the second week of its fortnight championship. Fortnight is a cool way of saying it’s a two-week tournament.

How has tennis changed, other than the racquets which once upon a time were wood-framed?

Plenty in the way it’s actually played. It never dawned on me until we met a distinguished Australian teaching pro in Slovakia and Croatia at a tennis camp run by Bonjour Fantasies which conduct tennis experiences all over the world. His name is John Thompson, a 48-year old pro with 25 years of coaching savvy including being an International Ambassador at the tennis ranch of former Aussie great, John Newcombe. Thompson has been a keen student of the sport looking at tape and film from yesteryear and has studied the changes in tennis that I never realized. For you tennis buffs, do you remember serve and volley?

Of course you do. For those who are not, it was an exciting and daring style of serving to your opponent, then charging to the net to quickly win a point by volleying which means hitting before the ball it bounces. It actually is thrilling to watch because the server has to deliver not only the serve but shots to his opponent that will make him off-balance enough so that he’ll receive a ball that could be put away at the net.

But that wasn’t entertaining enough for the gurus of tennis, John believes. The points would end too soon.

So, the tennis rendition of the home run has become a million strong shots from the baseline (the deep end of the court), by each player, back and forth, until one of them hits the ball out, hits into the net, or hits a ball the opponent can’t return. The points are extended, which is what the sport wants, and that basically is what you see in every tennis competition.

Lately an age-old, but newly revived shot called a drop shot has come into play and it has tantalized observers because it represents the major change-up from the power groundstrokes from behind the back line. It is exactly how it’s described. A deft slicing shot that softly and simply barely clears the net. John also points out that the different surfaces the game is played on have also been altered. Hard courts are obviously the fastest, grass surfaces which are quick, and the slower red clay where the French Open is played have all kind of lost their distinguished style. Citing the current Wimbledon championships, if you watch, you notice how the grass gets worn down at the back, where the players serve and stay to play the point. Thompson talks about how you would see that same worn patch through the center of the court up to the net where the real action took place. It was more the front part of the court than the back. Also, John Thompson feels that getting to the net is more difficult now because of the increase in sheer power, and that the tennis balls are actually slower making it hard to advance to the net.

By being slower, the rallies last a lot longer because the ball is not traveling through the air as quick. Some of the best who played the serve-and-volley style were Rod Laver, Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, Boris Becker and Pat Rafter, an Aussie legend who got the net anytime he could.

To play that game you had to have great hands, and a mastery of touch and feel and overall finesse.

John Thompson says what everyone may be thinking. The current players are truly amazing at what they do. They are stronger, quicker, more powerful than the greats of the past. No surprise since that’s the story in virtually every sport. But the Australian teaching super star kind of dreams of a possible return to the days where strategy, and ball placement turn the tennis court into a chess board. However, it’s likely to continue its pattern of power tennis and long rallies.

Not a negative style by any means. Especially if the fans love it. But it’s okay to dream once in a while.

John, his daughter, and the great John Newcombe

Pete Sampras at the net