Rod Workman, PPTA Professional Director of Racquets at the Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest, IL, recounted the experience in a column on intermediate and advanced instruction in PTM:
Sixteen years ago, I was teaching a paddle camp in Eureka, Montana with the "Godfather of Paddle," Hank Irvine, when my ideas on the winning shot began to take shape.
A gentleman from Long Island arrived at the camp and said to Hank, "I've traveled all the way across the country for you to show me how to hit more winners when I play."
Hank's blood pressure spiked and he swiftly responded, "Sir, my suggestion is that you get on the next available plane back to New York because we won't be teaching winners at this camp. The game is not about hitting winners but never making errors!"
With that, I adopted Hank's style of teaching and playing, which I still use today.
Source: Platform Tennis Magazine,[...]
APTA President Mark Fischl met with 2008 Hall of Fame inductee, David Kjeldsen, and discussed the recent sale of Viking Athletics to Prince.
MF: David, there has obviously been a lot happening in your life of late. Is it true that you are selling Viking Athletics to Prince?
DCK: Yes.
MF: Are you excited by it? Are you working less now?
DCK: Excited yes. Very excited. I have been working harder in the last few months than I have in the last couple of years. There is so much information to share with and transfer to the great staff at Prince.
MF: Is it true you talked with other companies before selling to Prince?
DCK: Mark, I am not comfortable talking about that. It's not proper to talk about those that you dated in the past on your wedding day.
MF: What will this sale mean to the platform tennis community?
DCK: The platform tennis community will benefit in a number of wa[...]
Made for Living. That's the hometown slogan of Rochester, New York. The slogan just as well could be Made for Paddle. The Rochester area has had a proud platform tennis tradition for decades.
In 1988, the city was handed their first opportunity by the APTA to show what they could do. Local paddle guru and owner of the Shadow Lake Country Club, Fritz Odenbach agreed to chair the Nationals.
What the city lacked at the time in number of players and courts, they made up for with hospitality and enthusiasm. The Nationals brought together entertaining parties and a social aspect that had never been prevalent at a prior Nationals. The standards set in Rochester were the benchmark for all future Nationals. Odenbach was asked to host the Nationals again in 1996, 2000 and then again in 2008.
Today, Rochester platform tennis has grown by several fold. Fritz Odenbach has been [...]
Women's President's Cup: The Women's President's Cup took place on Thursday, March 13. Top women from six of the seven APTA regions competed for the prestigious cup. For the third time in four years, the Region IV women (Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toronto) won the title.
The team players included: Nancy Budde - Nathalie Lemieux, Holly Peck - Karen Henke, Lynn Thompson - Chrissy Johnson, Kathy Allen - Ann Turner, and Sandra Odenbach - Vicki Nagy.
Men's President's Cup: On Friday morning, while the women were taking to the courts for their main draw first round matches, the men were playing their President's Cup matches. For the second time in the Cup's 32-year history the Region II men won the event. The last time they did it was... in 2007!
The team players included: Bill and Leo Power, Jerry Albrikes, Greg Bennett, Rob Pierce, Johan du Randt, Matt Dana, Jeff Mitchell[...]
At the Saturday evening banquet during the Rochester Nationals, the 2008 Hall of Fame inductions took place. Patty Hogan read the introduction for inductee David Kjeldsen and Walt Peckinpaugh did the honors for inductee Fritz Odenbach.
The remaining two inductees, Scott Mansager and Flip Goodspeed were still on the court at 8 p.m. and were unable to attend their own induction, due to their opponents 3 1/2 hour previous round of 16 match. They eventually finished their match by 10:30 and their induction was postponed until January 2009 at the Cincinnati Midwestern tournament.
Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 9, Issue 5, May, 2008
The new APTA website - overview and ideas to consider:
Paul Wiggin gave a detailed report on the new website and led a general discussion. The site has gotten off to a great start and will continue to grow in size, quality and contribution. He suggested that the general mission of the website is to support the APTA Mission.
1) The APTA wants the site to be the repository for things such as the rules of the game and the history of the game.
2) The APTA wants the site to support the "grow the sport" and "increase player enthusiasm" parts of the APTA Mission. News items and instructional videos will help support this aim.
3) The site's cost is approximately $7,000 to create and about $1,500 per year in ongoing costs. This provider does not give the APTA a perfect platform, but for the price is reasonable.
4) The APTA now has the ability to process credit card transactions for a "$3.0[...]
The 2008-09 paddle season is here and the future of our sport is very promising. Junior paddle is on the rise with a record number of sanctioned tournaments (16) scheduled for this season.
The season kick off tourney is on October 25 in Cleveland and the 2009 Nationals in Long Island on January 31st.
Players of all levels are encouraged to sign up and will receive a tournament favor. Consider getting your child involved in tournaments. If they do not have a partner, contact the tournament director. They often get similar requests. It will be a positive learning experience. [enlarge image to read more]
The APTA Rules Committee (Martin Sturgess, Bob Callaway, Steve Nycum and Mike Stulac) filed this update with PTM:
There have been a couple of rule changes that you should be aware of before your next venture on to the court.
No, the let rule has not been changed and lobs out of the court are still a loss of point.
However, a major change passed by the Board at the May 2008 meeting is that a "carry" or "double hit" is now a legal shot providing that the player uses a continuous motion, and hits the ball before it reaches the screen. This rule has been changed mainly because it is felt that a "continuous motion" is a much clearer concept and thus should eliminate disagreements. Tennis made this switch many years ago for the same reason.
To summarize this rule, any ball struck using a continuous motion is now legal.
In 2007, a rule was established that if player A strikes a [...]
The weather forecast was dire. The flu bug was hitting the area hard. By Wednesday morning, the draws had shrunk to a total of 50 pairs. Those who played enjoyed a great day of paddle, friendship, camaraderie, favors, food and fun - and mostly good weather.
In the 60-and-over tournament, Helen Garrett and Sandy Simmers won for the 4th time in a row (and 5th overall) and took their gold medals home to Virginia. Betsy Heidenberger and Jan Shelburne took the 40-and-over gold medals back to Maryland.
The new team of Louise Cash and Mary Fenton kept the 60+ silver medals in New Jersey, and Bobo Delaney and Tonia Mangan kept the 40+ silver in Region I.
Other winners include:
60+ 3rd Place - Ginny Sniatkowski & Ruth Weil;
60+ 4th Place - Winnie Hatch & Sharon Hummers;
60+ Consolation - Colleen Burns-Keenan & Birgit Maio defeated Christa Ruppert & Dolores Krzanowski;
60+ Last Chance[...]
Buffy Briggs died on October 30, 2008, after a long bout with cancer. She was 82 and lived in Vero Beach, Florida.
Buffy teamed with Charlotte Lee to win the Women's Nationals in 1963 and 1964, and in 1968 she was runner-up with Do Deland. Shortly thereafter, her playing career was curtailed by a fall from a ski lift, seriously injuring her shoulder.
Although her competitive activity was ended, Buffy was a major contributor to the administration of women's activities , serving as Women's Tournament Director for the APTA over a period of ten years during the 1970's. She also served on the APTA Board. She was responsible for creating the point system, still used today, for ranking players and for use in doing seedings in women's draws. She also created reprieves for women's events, to provide further information for ranking and seeding. She traveled extensively to all of the women'[...]
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