Bradley Hughes Cuts Loose!

[twomasters]

For Australian ABS followers:
This coming Sunday April 14 at 1pm eastern on Channel 9 there is a package show from the recent Victorian Open event that I played well in.
The show is called “Life is Greener”
Early in the year I agreed to have cameras follow me around throughout that event. Was good timing that I played well also!! The show details the week in the life of a golf pro. I had cameras film some practice, range warm ups, waking up and breakfast on the early Thursday round, interview in the car on the way to the course, post round interviews and thoughts, Friday night barbecue at the house we rented- lots of different things
The show also follows Kim Felton who I coach and who I stayed with that week (5 of us rented a house for the week) and a few other golfers doing different things - wine tasting, AFL training, stunt plane ride etc etc. i believe the women will be featured also as the mens and womens event were run concurrently at the same venue for the 4 rounds.
I havent seen the finished product as yet so hopefully it comes out good and gives a little insight into tournament golf from a different perspective.

[tinman143]

Can someone post the vid pls.

[snaphook]

http://www.golfaustralia.org.au/default.aspx?s=newsdisplay&id=76225

No wonder I couldn’t find it in the TV guide - only showing in vic & tas.

Would love to see this.

[twomasters]

Here is the link to the full episode of the Victorian Open package. It goes for about 45 minutes. There is a creepy looking night vision interview at around the 13 minute mark where I was up early and getting ready for the 1st round. This is the main part of my involvement in the show. Has a cool player camera in sunglasses that my mate Kim Felton did where you get to see things from a players perspective…and a lot of other stuff. The magician golfer Henry Epstein is pretty good with a couple of tricks at the beginning. Anyhow there is a fair bit to view and a good program.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/63803650[/vimeo]

I also edited out the swing footage and condensed it into a small file.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/63992883[/vimeo]

[snaphook]

That’s gotta be Vegemite on toast ur chewing on there at 5 am. How Aussie is that?

Entertaining viewing thanks for posting.

…and 10 under with no practice? Not bad at all!

[twomasters]

Vegemite it is- quick and easy and good for you. Puts a rose in every cheek…so the song says

[BomGolf222]

Thanks for sharing, Two, looks like you’re swinging it well. Nice work down there! Regardless of where you’ve been, it takes some balls to sign up for something like that. Fair play to you, man.
Keep up the good work…
BOM

[twomasters]

Haven’t been on the course much since the New Zealand PGA in late February. Had 4 rounds with friends in that time (10 weeks). Have not hit any range balls at all except when I smack a few during my lessons getting a point across to my students.
Went out last night ad played 9 holes with one of the pros at Commonwealth (who I grew up playing with)…wonderful course that doesn’t get much respect. Peter Thomson won an Australian Open there the year I was born(1967).
I took my persimmon driver with me and used it on 3 holes from the tee. This would be an absolute perfect golf course for persimmon…and actually a better golf course and design as far as the doglegs and bunker positioning and trees to use persimmon as the weapon of choice. We played the back nine.
I actually have been punching out a few drills the past couple of days to get half ready for playing a couple of pro ams the next 2 weeks in Perth. So I was interested to see how I would play with a persimmon and void of practice. Hit the ball great… hit 8 of 9 greens…3 birdies and 6 pars and 3 of the pars were massive lip outs for birdie. Hit every iron approach within 15 feet of the flag…
The module work really works… do the work and its always there. Couldn’t be happier with how my game is…and the beauty is I dont practice one bit. I put in my years of grinding and finding…now it is warm up and away we go. Much more fun & stress free to just play golf and not golf swing…

Some pics of the course:

[lagpressure]

Who designed that layout? What a great looking track. I miss playing those wonderful courses down there.

[ocat1979]

@lagpressure

Who designed that layout? What a great looking track. I miss playing those wonderful courses down there.

A club pro Sam Bennett laid out the initial 16 holes between 1920-24, then Commonwealths captain Charles Lane took over the design and construction to what it is today. Lane studied golf architecture in Britain and the US and spent a lot of time with Harry Colt

[lagpressure]

68-70-71-67 – 276 12 under par
Tied 10th New South Wales Open
Fairways hit : 48 of 56 86%
Greens In Reg: 65 of 72 90%
16 birdies
4 bogies (3 were three putts)

Had a real hard time putting on the slow greens but ball striking was amazing this week.

Congrats! and nice striking and playing…

Good warm up for the Australian Open…
Get that putter going!

[twomasters]

Been pretty busy the past month or so but starting the week of Feb 3 the Australian PGA events start again. For the entire month of February I will be playing the Victorian PGA, The Queensland PGA, The Victorian Open & The New Zealand Open.
I haven’t done much practice of late…in fact zero!!! but I have been playing more to ready myself for the events. I have probably played about 12 rounds since Christmas on all varying courses and it has been good to get out and play the course and use all the shots instead of trying to perfect a shot or a swing on the range. Ball striking has been good and will just do some practice on my wedges this upcoming week to zone in my distances and that should just about do it.

Had the unique opportunity to spend 6 hours with 14 time Grand Slam tennis champion Pete Sampras yesterday. He wrote me 2 months ago to inform me he was coming out to Melbourne for a few days to present the trophy to the winner of the Australian Open Mens tennis final in recognition for his first victory in the event 20 years ago.
When I first received a note from him I honestly believed it was someone pulling my leg but we talked back and forth a bit and it was him larger than life.
He said he was obsessed with golf now that his tennis had ended and he had seen all my videos and read over my website and had worked on a few of the things I had mentioned and it had become beneficial to his game…so seeing he was heading to Melbourne he asked if we could catch up for a few hours one day and run over some thoughts and see what I could do to help him gain more consistency with his game.
Pete is a good player. A legitimate 4 handicap and had a sound swing. It was a pleasure to hang out with him for 6 hours and work on his game and some thoughts and talk about tennis and all sorts of things. Our temperaments and styles really clicked well together and I had an absolute blast. We talked about the opportunity for me to drop into Los Angeles and spend a few days with him playing when I next visit the USA in the mid year- which would be fantastic if we can sort it out around our schedules.
As an added bonus he gave me some tickets to go watch the mens final between Nadal and Warinka- which was a blast also.
Doesn’t get much better than the day I had yesterday!!! An absolute gentleman with my own sense of humour and so easy to get along with.

[RangeRat]

I know I kid a lot about you being from down under Bradley, but the weather looks fantastic compared to up here. We are up to our ass in snow and frigid cold. Not enough covers for Rats to crawl under for warmth.

Can you give a sense to us behind the rope readers what, of all the things you discussed with PS, he understood almost immediately maybe based on his professional athletic background, and which areas seemed maybe contradictory to him.

[Rio_NZ]

Hey Brad, good luck with the upcoming opens. Will keep an on eye on the news for your progress when you get down this way.

Man, how big are Pete’s calves! He must have built up some crazy leg strength over the years. Do you think, or, did he show he was able to get a pretty fair amount of ground force through those puppies!

On a side/serious note, how much of an advantage do you think it is in the modern game to be physically bigger/taller than most players. I read recently that a taller player has the potential to generate more club head speed at impact due to the longer arm length (can’t recall the tech reasons, something to do with the greater distance and momentum as the club head travels around the larger arc??).

Seems the classic courses, clubs and balls evened out the playing field so that skill and technique were more a factor than sheer force/power. Now days it’s seems it’s more power focused.

[slight_fade]

That is really something, giving a golf lesson to one of the all-time tennis greats. Congrats on being sought out for that job!

[lagpressure]

Great stuff Bradley,
Thanks for posting those pics!

A weird coincidence is that Pete went to my high school. I never met him as he is a bit younger, but there are a lot of high schools in the United States…

Stranger yet is that in the Module 9 video which covers drawing and fading the ball, I was demonstrating some things on the deck with a wooden tennis racket. This was shot quite a while back. I have only played tennis a couple times but I used the racket to demonstrate clubface action so it could be seen on the video. Certainly not my tennis abilities! Just a bit crazy that Pete is now learning some ABS stuff from Bradley. Pretty cool for sure.

[JesseV]

Does anyone know how we can view the Australian events here in the States?

Can I view the broadcasts on the Internet?

In the old days the golf channel used to broadcast Australian golf. There were many nights I would wake up just to watch Peter Senior and the rest compete. Adam Scott, Aaron Badley, Michael Campbell, and yes, even Brad Hughes. I loved watching Australian golf, the scenery, the courses, the fields were and are always world class.

I didn’t realize at the time I was watching that I I would be taking a lesson or two from Bradley 16 or 17 years later.

[nicelikejohnny]

Lag, Good to see you went proper old school with the racket! You bend that thing couple a degrees flatter too ?

[lagpressure]

By Douglas Robson, special for USA TODAY

Novak Djokovic held it lightly, feeling the contours as if he were examining a T. rex bone at a natural history museum.

To be fair, the Wilson Jack Kramer Autograph tennis racket is a dinosaur.

“It’s the first time in my life” to hit with it, said Djokovic, born in 1987, long after wood joined the museum shelves of tennis history. The fifth-ranked player in men’s professional tennis who competes with a Wilson nBlade graphite racket added, “Now I realize how tough for the players it was 30-40 years ago to play.”

During the last three decades, racket technology has advanced astronomically. The sizes, shapes, materials and performance of the main tool of tennis, on display Monday as the fortnight of Wimbledon begins, are nothing like they were two or three generations ago.

UPS & DOWNS: Current, former players discuss the changes

To understand these technological changes and help shape the debate about increasing power in tennis, USA TODAY enlisted nearly a dozen top pros to hit the 1970s-era wood rackets. They were supplied by the Newport, R.I.-based International Tennis Hall of Fame.

The wonderment Djokovic experienced brings to mind how the generation of Rod Laver and wood rackets gave way in the 1970s to Jimmy Connors and his metal T2000. Next came the stronger, lighter, bigger, more powerful frames used today.

Laver, the last man to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a single year, said it “just wasn’t that big of a deal” when the metal era arrived. Perhaps not. But it definitely grabbed everyone’s attention.

So did our hitting experiments in March at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Fla.

It wasn’t quite like Bode Miller barreling down the slopes on wooden skis without release bindings or Lance Armstrong tackling the Alpe d’Huez on a three-speed bike. But almost across the board, it was an eye-opening experience. Many, including Djokovic, had never played with wood.

“It feels like a different game out there, to be honest,” 2005 U.S. Open semifinalist Robby Ginepri said. “It doesn’t give the pop or the spin that the graphite rackets have today.”

It would be “almost impossible (to win a match on tour) unless your opponent misses every single shot,” 18-year-old Vania King, one of the USA’s more promising players, said while laughing.

Although most could hit proficiently after a few minutes, the pros noted a significant decrease in power and spin and a diminished sweet spot. Only one player, 2004 U.S. Open champ Svetlana Kuznetsova, felt confident enough in her strokes with a wood racket that she could win a match on tour.

“Your chances of missing are a lot higher,” top-10 player Tommy Robredo of Spain said. “That racket doesn’t get much spin. … If I played with a racket like this, for sure I would have a lot more touch, because you cannot play with power. You have to play with other things” such as spin.

It’s a far cry from today’s rackets, which, depending on your point of view, have helped democratize the sport or dumbed-down technique and given way to brute force.

“I love the new rackets because they have made, and kept, tennis fun for players of all abilities,” said pioneer Billie Jean King, who won the 1967 U.S. National Championships (which became the Open in 1968) with a then-new metal frame.

Wood good for touch, technique

Players trying the old rackets felt they had less maneuverability with wood, which is 25% to 40% heavier than modern frames. In many cases, they were forced to alter their grips and flatten their strokes to hit the ball cleaner because the hitting area of the older frames is considerably smaller (80 square inches vs. 90 to 120-plus square inches).

But a few players noticed more “feel” with wood.

“I tried a drop shot, and I knew exactly where it was going to go,” said Mike Bryan, who, with twin brother Bob, is part of the top-ranked doubles team in the world. “You can feel it all the way to your hand through the wood.”

“Definitely for the feel and touch, it’s great,” 10th-ranked Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia said.

But using the wood also led some to observe how much easier the game has become with today’s technology.

“You have to have very good technique to play with this one,” Russian Kuznetsova said of the wood.

“Technology can hide flaws in your game,” Bob Bryan said.

Hall of Famer and TV commentator John McEnroe agreed. Comparing the power surge in rackets and strings to modern-day baseball, he said, “If they had some of the equipment we have in tennis, they’d be hitting the ball 700 feet.”

“I’m 48 now, and I hit my serve harder than when I was 25,” added the three-time Wimbledon champion, who transitioned from regulation wood to midsized graphite over the course of his pro career in the 1970s and '80s.

“It’s gone way too far.”

Tools become artifacts

Carrying around three antiquated rackets — Jack Kramer, Spalding Pancho Gonzales Autograph and Wilson Stan Smith Autograph — at a pro tennis tournament is akin to driving a shiny 1920s-era Cadillac into the parking lot.

Heads turn. Passersby stop and stare. People approach and want to handle them or share stories of a bygone era.

Standing in line at the food court at the Sony Ericsson Open, Susan Mueller of Miami rushed up. “Where did you get those?” the 70-year-old asked.

Mueller has collected wood rackets for years from bargain sales, antique stores and estate sales. She has 55 displayed in her playroom at home.

Some just couldn’t avoid the sarcasm when they noticed the old-time rackets.

“Good luck with those!” one said.

But most were fascinated and nostalgic. “Oh wow, I remember playing with wood” was a common refrain.

Crowds gathered to watch today’s pros hit with yesterday’s relics. Many snapped photos.

Tennis insiders, though, say it is just nostalgia.

“Advances in racket technology have in many ways enhanced the entertainment value of tennis by enabling players to do things with the ball that they couldn’t do 10 or 20 years ago,” said Larry Scott, CEO of the women’s Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

In many respects, tennis mirrors the inevitable march of progress in all sports as equipment, fitness and athleticism improve.

Stuart Miller, technical manager for the International Tennis Federation (ITF), which oversees testing and regulations in tennis, said space-age materials such as boron compounds, graphite and Kevlar have made rackets bigger, lighter and stiffer. That and improved manufacturing processes allow players to swing harder, better manage off-center hits and generate more spin.

“It has unlocked many performance advantages,” Miller said.

Nine-time Wimbledon champ Martina Navratilova, however, blames the tennis industry — $108 million in U.S. racket sales last year, according to the Tennis Industry Association — for boosting the power quotient as it endeavors to produce more powerful rackets for pros and amateurs.

“Racket manufacturers are dictating the type of rackets we are seeing today,” Navratilova said.

Until the late 1970s, governing authorities in tennis took a laissez-faire approach to racket technology, leaving the design and dimensions open to the whims of players and manufacturers.

“You can play with a tomato can on a broomstick if you think you can win with it,” U.S. Tennis Association President “Slew” Hester Jr. said in 1977.

Tennis has periodically imposed rules on racket technology in response to advances that seem to threaten the integrity of the sport. That can only go so far.

“You can’t un-ring a technology bell in any sport,” former tennis pro and TV sports commentator Mary Carillo said. “I have a hard time renouncing technology the way a lot of people do. There are all kinds of ways to frame the argument for or against it.”

String to swing bigger

Indeed, rackets aren’t the only factor that has contributed to the increase in power and speed, according to players.

Better strength and athleticism are backing up juiced-up rackets. Many male pros launch serves in excess of 130 mph with regularity. The women, too, have jumped on the power bandwagon. Venus Williams holds the serve speed record at 128 mph.

Some cited synthetic strings as a reason for today’s baseline-hugging style, in which winners can be launched from deep in the backcourt. The strings bite into the ball more, which allows for bigger swings with more margin for error.

“You couldn’t really generate as much spin as with the newfangled rackets,” U.S. teen King said of playing with wood.

The Bryans said their volleys with wood felt almost the same as with today’s rackets. But like several other players, they said serving and hitting groundstrokes were compromised.

“You only get 50%-60% of your normal power,” said Bob Bryan, who nonetheless would like to see a “cap” on some of the advancements in racket technology.

Others are more resigned to technological advances.

“That’s the evolution of the sport,” five-time Grand Slam champ Martina Hingis said. “It’s hard to stop that.”

But Djokovic can envision a dystopian Brave New World where players are secondary to technology.

“I’m imagining myself standing next to the court and (having a) robot in-stead of me play with the racket, like PlayStation,” he said with a laugh.

[JesseV]

But Djokovic can envision a dystopian Brave New World where players are secondary to technology.

The article about technology and tennis rackets seems to mirror the history of golf, club and ball technology. If you substitute golf club or golf ball in many of the comments in the article, you pretty much have the same effect, good or bad, that technology has played in the game of golf.

While its great hat so many more are able to play and enjoy the game sacrifices are made. This begs the question; Are technological advances always good for the sport they influence?