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2. In regards to god striking down on him, he says there was obviously a weather
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7. Pete Sampras is a retired American tennis player who has one arm that is
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Triple Digits
This is issue 100!
Valentine’s Day
It’s this Friday. Any drip of courage should be used
then!
Articles
Today’s Man of the World, Mr DAVIS!?
By: Dr. Prof. Gen. Hon. Rev. Sir Duke of Tennis Thomas Higginson
As I walked towards Cummins Hall last Tuesday, I saw a tidal wave of groupees roaring over the sight of Mr. Davis1. All the wannabe hipsters cried out, “I love you, Mr. Davis! OMG! You’re so cool!” Amongst this totally existent crowd, I saw friends, family, animals, and mystery. He wasn’t always like that, but I needed to know why he is now. So, I downloaded a voice recorder app, forgot to write down questions, and interviewed Mr. Davis. This isn’t the story of just another teacher. This is the story of tennis, and its glaring benefits to life.
It took me years to begin and understand tennis, but my knowledge is vastly futile compared to Davis’ years of experience. For those of you who don’t know Mr. Davis, he is an english teacher here at Bishop’s, and is a “practiontioner of two-handed tennis.” However, he offers such amazing insight into the dimension of one-handed tennis. He himself uses “one hand for the forehand, but [is] a two-handed backhand playa”, which confounded me. I proceeded to ask him, “So, you like to experiment with different tennis strokes?”
“Yeah, I think it’s important to add diversity to your tennis stroke.” It was such a seemingly simple truth, but I couldn’t help but to scratch my head at it. Mr. Davis is no standard tennis player—he was actually struck by lightning while playing, and recounts it as such: “…They [the tennis gods] struck down from the heavens. It was painful. It was a cloudy day, and I was about to serve. There was a loud blast, a big boom, and everything went black.” He claims that he “screamed in a very high pitched and unmanly fashion,” but when he came to, he wouldn’t give up and he carried on playing. That day, the tennis gods2 spared Mr. Davis and according to him, “it was really the two-handed tennis that got [him] through.” I wondered what he learned from this experience and he said that “two-handed tennis is a philosophy. If you’re hanging from a cliff by a rope, and that rope is all you have, are you going to hold onto it with one hand or two hands?”3 I concluded that you would obviously hold on with two hands, because you don’t want to loose your grip and fall. It’s life and you need to hold on with two-hands.
We discussed the situation further, and he explained that “many forget the importance tennis had in the evolution of homosapiens.”4 He compared it to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which was originally about tennis: “The central premise is that you have these people in a cave and they aren’t sure they can leave yet. Now that’s based on truth, our ancestors lived in caves as you well know. Tennis started in that cave, but didn’t truly start until people left that cave and played outside. Everyone who stayed in the cave ended up playing squash. Those were dark times. So if you look at it from an evolutionary standpoint, that’s why tennis players will be more evolved than say squash or indoor sports players.”5
After having a good laugh, I had to ask him, “Now, what are the differences between the two grips?” Mr. Davis smiled and proceeded to clarify that the one-handed grip is the standard. It’s used for more inexperienced players, who frequently grab the base of the raquet. The two-handed grip is similar, but you bring the other hand around to the racket in a slightly twisted wrist position. According to Davis, “It’s a stronger position because it lets you take the full impact of the ball. One-handed is a graceful stroke but doesn’t offer the strength and defensive maneuvering the two-handed backhand allows.” It was understandable, so I asked if he would agree with the following statement from Two-Handed Tennis6: “As the ball is contacted, it should be permitted to roll up a slightly open face.” He openly agreed and added that “any good backhand needs an open face to deliver it across.” In addition, he presented the quandary of only using one hand: eventually you get Sampras arm7. His solution was that you must be ambidextrous, and have a fair balance and rotation between both arms when swinging.
“Symmetry is the most important thing you can look for.”
Overall, Mr. Davis is one of the most enlightened two-handed tennis players. If you see him around campus, shake his hand and thank him for bestowing his wisdom upon me to share with you.
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