Episode description
If you become the least bit interested in tennis, you'll soon come across Arthur Ashe. If you watch any of the U.S. Open each year, you hear his name repeatedly since the main stadium for the U.S. Open is (you guessed it) Arthur Ashe Stadium. You may know that Arthur Ashe died in 1993 at the age of 49 from AIDS-related complications. He had an illustrious tennis career, winning 3 Grand Slam titles - the 1968 U.S. Open, the 1970 Australian Open, and Wimbledon in 1975. And he did more to break down the race barriers in professional tennis than any player of his time.
It wasn't too long after I took up tennis that I picked up Arthur Ashe's book, Arthur Ashe On Tennis: Strokes, Strategy, Traditions, Players, Psychology, and Wisdom. His book was published in 1995, after his death. So Ashe was not around to see all of the changes we see on the pro circuit today - powerful racquets, indestructible strings, open-stance strokes, exaggerated grips. But you and I aren't playing on the pro circuit (at least I don't think we are), so a lot of the points he makes in his book are still valid for recreational players like us, out to have fun and play some competitive tennis.
His book is wonderful and so easy to read. In it, he gives lots and lots of bullet-point tips on strokes and strategy.
For a complete review of this book, including a few of Ashe's great pointers, check out the show notes to this episode:
http://tennisfixation.com/quicktips64
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