Fiend at Court Unplugged
Fiend At Court spent a virtual six weeks with Dennis Ralston in 2020. To be more precise, this site spent six weeks on a structured improvement program inspired and derived from Six Weeks to a Better Level of Tennis, a book he authored with Barry Tarshis. Unfortunately, Ralston passed away last month following a long battle with cancer. Revisiting the Fiend at Court “Six Weeks” project became compulsory with his passing.
The Six Weeks project wasn’t this site’s first departure from the ITF Rules of Tennis. However, it was the first time a non-rules related topic produced a planned and sustained series of posts. Writing that series was personally rewarding. It spawned two days that now appear in the current Fiend at Court weekly rotation. It is the parent of “Tennis Technology and Training Tuesdays” and “Tennis Hits the Books” that runs every Thursday.
Six Weeks to a Better Level of Tennis opened my eyes to many topics that were significantly more interesting to explore than the minutia of the ITF Rule of Tennis. There were actually seven posts in the Six Weeks project. The seeds of what would become recurring themes are apparent in the synopsis of that series.
- Week Zero: Introduction of the inspiration and arc of the project.
- Week One: How the “Davis Court Circuit” hobbled me for a few days.
- Week Two: The tyranny of the tournament calendar and training periodization.
- Week Three: Watching better players, Steffi Graf, and the crossover recovery step.
- Week Four: The touchy subject of weight as an indicator of fitness.
- Week Five: Creation of a warm up routine.
- Week Six: Summary and recap.
Dennis Ralston’s impact on the game of tennis cannot be understated. He had success at the highest levels of the game as a player, captain, and coach. He was a part of the USC team that won 3 NCAA National Championships. He won 5 grand slam doubles titles as well as the Davis Cup as a player in 1963. He went on to serve as a coach and captain for the US Davis Cup team from 1968 through 1975.
The professional players he coached included Roscoe Tanner, Chris Evert, Yannick Noah, and Gabriela Sabatini. A quote Dennis Ralston gave to sportswriter Joel Drucker sums up what underpinned Ralston’s coaching philosophy. “There were so many things I learned the hard way when I was playing that I knew were important for the players. Everything from towels and water to the right approach to practice and what to do in big matches.”
This site was undeniably shaped by the systemic journey through Ralston’s Six Weeks To A Better Level Of Tennis. Thank you, Dennis Ralston. Rest in peace.
- Remembering Dennis Ralston, 1942-2020: Tennis Renaissance Man, Joel Drucker, tennis.com, December 6, 2020.
- Ralston, Dennis, & Tarshis, Barry, 1977, Six Weeks to a Better Level of Tennis, Simon and Schuster, New York, New York.
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