I think you all would agree with me if I were to claim ATGs tend to be within the 5'11-6'2 height range. Anything more, is what I define as excessive.
Before jumping to the negatives, let's look at positives. There are two major advantages of height in tennis. The first one is a potent serve. It is often agreed that the taller you are the better chances of possessing a good serve you have. Now, there is some further nuance to this, like how people can have differing physical proportions which in turn can impact the practicality of their height, but as a general rule it rings true. The second (and lesser) advantage is a taller player has a bigger frame and a heavier built, allowing him easier power. Some minor advantages exist too, such as the ability to hit better overheads and to have a better reach.
Overall height grants a lot of positives that are easy to take advantage of, in comparison to theorical positives of a shorter build which is often failed to be manifested to reality by the players that possess them. Compare the heights of the top thirty, fifty, hundred players and you'll see my point.
However there are far too many disadvantages that generally prevent players of such heights from ever reaching the very top status.
Some are obvious. Greater weight may cause injuries to be more common and more severe, and taller players generally don't move well.
I'm posting this thread because Medvedev has made some interesting attempts to circumvent the problems that come with his height. However this had it's own shortcomings.
Firstly, he is thin. Which has to be a major reason why he can move so well at his height, and he is content with it considering his playstyle. However, this causes a considerable lack of power when hitting the ball, and a perhaps a likeliness to exhaustion which directly clashes with his style. Many people who have watched the AO'22 F would agree with me on the last point. Overall, it's an interesting thought whether putting on some more muscle and raising that body fat percentage a bit more would benefit Med, but at the end of the day I'm not the professional athlete.
Another unique aspect of his is the shape of his groundstrokes. I'd love to be corrected, but I believe the sweeping motion he makes when hitting the ball is done to deal with the uncomfortably low or close or of any problematic bounce.
His return position is perhaps his biggest problem, at least when against top players. I'm not sure how I can connect this to height, maybe taller people have worse reaction times in general? Not a problem other 6'6 players on the court suffer enough from to adopt that RoS position.
Overall I am sad for his failures and I commend him for all of his accomplishments, but I have to ponder if it's possible at all one could have done better with his style and body type.
Discuss!
Before jumping to the negatives, let's look at positives. There are two major advantages of height in tennis. The first one is a potent serve. It is often agreed that the taller you are the better chances of possessing a good serve you have. Now, there is some further nuance to this, like how people can have differing physical proportions which in turn can impact the practicality of their height, but as a general rule it rings true. The second (and lesser) advantage is a taller player has a bigger frame and a heavier built, allowing him easier power. Some minor advantages exist too, such as the ability to hit better overheads and to have a better reach.
Overall height grants a lot of positives that are easy to take advantage of, in comparison to theorical positives of a shorter build which is often failed to be manifested to reality by the players that possess them. Compare the heights of the top thirty, fifty, hundred players and you'll see my point.
However there are far too many disadvantages that generally prevent players of such heights from ever reaching the very top status.
Some are obvious. Greater weight may cause injuries to be more common and more severe, and taller players generally don't move well.
I'm posting this thread because Medvedev has made some interesting attempts to circumvent the problems that come with his height. However this had it's own shortcomings.
Firstly, he is thin. Which has to be a major reason why he can move so well at his height, and he is content with it considering his playstyle. However, this causes a considerable lack of power when hitting the ball, and a perhaps a likeliness to exhaustion which directly clashes with his style. Many people who have watched the AO'22 F would agree with me on the last point. Overall, it's an interesting thought whether putting on some more muscle and raising that body fat percentage a bit more would benefit Med, but at the end of the day I'm not the professional athlete.
Another unique aspect of his is the shape of his groundstrokes. I'd love to be corrected, but I believe the sweeping motion he makes when hitting the ball is done to deal with the uncomfortably low or close or of any problematic bounce.
His return position is perhaps his biggest problem, at least when against top players. I'm not sure how I can connect this to height, maybe taller people have worse reaction times in general? Not a problem other 6'6 players on the court suffer enough from to adopt that RoS position.
Overall I am sad for his failures and I commend him for all of his accomplishments, but I have to ponder if it's possible at all one could have done better with his style and body type.
Discuss!
