Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

The Olympics come around every 4 years. As a young boy, the Olympics always felt special to me. They allow everyone to watch the best in the world perform for two weeks under the spotlight. W e are seeing many of the competitors for the first time and for the athletes themselves, this could be the pinnacle of their careers, they may never get the opportunity to represent their country at the Olympics again. So why can't  I care less  about  watching the Olympics?   The only sports I will watch over the next two weeks in Tokyo will be the traditional Olympic sports such as track and field, swimming, weightlifting, and Judo, etc.  For me, it's a time for traditional Olympic  sports to shine on the world stage, particularly the Marathon and the 100-meters. The IOC has begun to get greedy. They know the popularity of the Olympics is dropping and are now including non-traditional Olympic sports, like tennis, to help boost their ratings. The Olympics are a Market...

A mentor of mine told me years ago "A good big man will always beat a good small man". What he was saying was that all other things being equal, size plays a big part in the result of a tennis match.  Today, I'm not so sure he was correct. There's no doubt that you need to be tall to play in the NBA, and for that matter to qualify for the Olympics in the High Jump. But while being tall may play a significant part in other sports, thankfully in tennis, we don't solely rely on height. We have mobility, strength, endurance, speed, flexibility, mental strength, and strategy as other necessary attributes.  Tennis requires a long list of attributes than many of the other sports. Currently, a lot of the new players making their mark on the game are tall. A quick look at the heights of the new generation of players shows us that many of the top players are well over six feet. Where tall players do have an advantage, is on the faster surfaces such as grass and indoors.  Ba...