Topic: "Ye Olde Castle" Volume #3 : The Castle Sports Bar

[masterclass]

I have been advising some of my friends and family who are Rafael Nadal fans not to get too excited about Nadal returning in the Abu Dhabi exhibition and then perhaps playing Doha and the Australian Open.

1. He hasn't set foot on a court in quite a while.
2. Once he starts practicing on hard court ( I'm betting he does, even though I would still recommend clay at first), there is no guarantee that he won't suffer another setback where he continues to say he is not in the right condition to play.
3. Even if he plays in the exhibition, it is no guarantee that he'll be fine for the tour events.

My advice is wait and see. If he can play in the exhibition, and some tournament like Doha or other prep, then with some luck, he might be able to do ok in the Australian Open. But we have to be realistic too. It will have been 6 months with no tournament play. From what I've seen of Nadal in the past, he needs lots of work to have his big swing in tune.

In my opinion, he will be lucky to be in top shape for the European Clay season.  Unless he really needs the money, and if he serious about getting back to his best with the least chance of injury, my advice would be to stay out of these hard court exhibitions and tournaments, yes, even the AO, and practice only on clay until February. If he is still healthy at that point and is able to play, then he should go to South America and play a 250 event(s) like in Brazil and/or Buenos Aires, then Acapulco 500 event, skip Indian Wells and Miami, then play Davis Cup (if they beat Canada in Feb, they will have home court April 5), and then go to Monte-Carlo April 15, and Barcelona, skip Madrid, then play Rome and Roland Garros.

Would he ever do that? Who knows?  

Respectfully,
masterclass

[Brick Top]

i have given up watching this stupid wtf tournament which has no meaning really.......it's hard to believe they award 1500 points to the winner........you can lose twice and still find yourself in the semis of the tournament.......

let's have abu dhabi exos already........

I think it is quite refreshing at the end of the year, since every other regular tournament is in same format.

[Clay Death]

great post general masterclass.
 
i have also seen zero indication of his desire and hunger. you will note that nothing stopped thomas muster.
 
even with just one functioning knee he was sitting on a speciallly designed bench on the court and hitting endless topspin forehands.
 
nadal has not managed to get on the court all these months. he has only reecently started practicing and like a true moron, he ran to the hard courts as fast as he could.
 
nobody told him not to get on the courts and hit endless volleys, serves, and forehands. you can do that standing still or sitting on a damn bench.
 
he will have nobody to blame if he fails to win a single event and drops like a rock in the rankings. he will be useless even on clay unless he makes it a point to practice and play more on clay.
 
so far there is zero indication of that. bogus talk is all i have seen from him.

[Clay Death]

hola general masterclass, general brick top, general shanks, general fed fan, general scott, and the others.

[FedFanForever]

What is it with Nadal and his hard court addiction?

[Clay Death]

you want a simple answer:
 
he is a moron who cant end his career fast enough.

[Brick Top]

Bad scheduling is a common thing for Nadal. Nothing new here.

[masterclass]

Hi everyone!

I returned from a short trip to the States after helping dealing with a disaster.
My brother and his family lives in New Jersey and his house was hit hard by Sandy.
We managed to get it in shape enough to live in and got him a generator as he has no electricity still after over a week.
Problem was a tree fell on a corner of his house and took out all wires directly to the house from the street, which the town will not fix. So now he is still waiting for a electrical contractor to show up, but as one can imagine they have thousands of others to deal with.  Believe me, these storms can do significant damage even if they are not category 3-5.  I know general Hercules has seen first hand what storms like those can do...

Anyway, glad to be back and hopefully all of you are well.  The World Tour Finals are coming down to the late stages. Federer is already guaranteed for the semifinals.  It's hard to believe, but theoretically everyone in Group A still has a chance.  I still think it will be Djokovic and Murray, but if Berdych and Tsonga upset them today, then anything can happen.

Respectfully,
masterclass

good to see you general masterclass.


hate to hear the tragedy your brother has been having to go through. if we had an administration worth a damn they would have done something about it already instead of stopping by to pose for photographs.

it is riduculous that people are still without power, shelter, food, and water.

Thanks general hercules. It's been tough. Yes it's unfortunate that people are still in bad shape, but everywhere they are working on things, and in the crisis, New Jersey Governor Christie and President Obama put politics aside and came together to try to get things done better. Read this article from the New Jersey web site , general. 

A great many people in the state did believe that Obama has helped the situation, and that probably contributed to him winning New Jersey by a bigger margin than in 2008.   In my opinion, the storm probably helped Obama in general, as it gave him the opportunity to show his "Presidential" side and also somewhat halted any Romney momentum gained from the debates.

Of course, the people suffering always believe that more could be done... but in these times, they are glad for any help from family, friends, local town, state and federal governments.  I just hope everyone eventually comes out ok.

Respectfully,
masterclass

[masterclass]

great post general masterclass.
 
i have also seen zero indication of his desire and hunger. you will note that nothing stopped thomas muster.
 
even with just one functioning knee he was sitting on a speciallly designed bench on the court and hitting endless topspin forehands.
 
nadal has not managed to get on the court all these months. he has only reecently started practicing and like a true moron, he ran to the hard courts as fast as he could.
 
nobody told him not to get on the courts and hit endless volleys, serves, and forehands. you can do that standing still or sitting on a damn bench.
 
he will have nobody to blame if he fails to win a single event and drops like a rock in the rankings. he will be useless even on clay unless he makes it a point to practice and play more on clay.
 
so far there is zero indication of that. bogus talk is all i have seen from him.

Agreed general.
For those who haven't seen it, this video shows what general hercules is talking about with Mr. Muster:

Thomas Muster recovery

Respectfully,
masterclass

[Clay Death]

Hi everyone!

I returned from a short trip to the States after helping dealing with a disaster.
My brother and his family lives in New Jersey and his house was hit hard by Sandy.
We managed to get it in shape enough to live in and got him a generator as he has no electricity still after over a week.
Problem was a tree fell on a corner of his house and took out all wires directly to the house from the street, which the town will not fix. So now he is still waiting for a electrical contractor to show up, but as one can imagine they have thousands of others to deal with.  Believe me, these storms can do significant damage even if they are not category 3-5.  I know general Hercules has seen first hand what storms like those can do...

Anyway, glad to be back and hopefully all of you are well.  The World Tour Finals are coming down to the late stages. Federer is already guaranteed for the semifinals.  It's hard to believe, but theoretically everyone in Group A still has a chance.  I still think it will be Djokovic and Murray, but if Berdych and Tsonga upset them today, then anything can happen.

Respectfully,
masterclass

good to see you general masterclass.


hate to hear the tragedy your brother has been having to go through. if we had an administration worth a damn they would have done something about it already instead of stopping by to pose for photographs.

it is riduculous that people are still without power, shelter, food, and water.

Thanks general hercules. It's been tough. Yes it's unfortunate that people are still in bad shape, but everywhere they are working on things, and in the crisis, New Jersey Governor Christie and President Obama put politics aside and came together to try to get things done better. Read this article from the New Jersey web site , general. 

A great many people in the state did believe that Obama has helped the situation, and that probably contributed to him winning New Jersey by a bigger margin than in 2008.   In my opinion, the storm probably helped Obama in general, as it gave him the opportunity to show his "Presidential" side and also somewhat halted any Romney momentum gained from the debates.

Of course, the people suffering always believe that more could be done... but in these times, they are glad for any help from family, friends, local town, state and federal governments.  I just hope everyone eventually comes out ok.

Respectfully,
masterclass

spot on general masterclass. no question about it.

that said, i think romney would have lost anyway. his team was not bright enough to understand the importance of reaching out to the latinos, women, and the blacks. but 93% of the blacks voted for obama.

so certainly the latinos and the women anyway. for that purpose, a huge mistake was made early on:

he should have picked marko rubio (a cuban born senator who started with nothing) as his running mate. secondly they should have aggressively addressed the latino market.

latinos are the fastest growing group in this country.

also why did 3 million republicans stay home? did they believe the election was won already by romney or did they just not care?

when all is said and done, i think the latinos and the single young women won it for obama. we knew nearly 100% of the blacks were going to vote for him. never mind the fact that their unemployment rate now sits near 15% and headed higher with the ailing economy.

600,000 more women are out of work since he first took office so what the hell were they thinking?

[Clay Death]

Bad scheduling is a common thing for Nadal. Nothing new here.

why does he refuse to learn anything from his scheduling and his training?

this has been happening to him for 5 years now.

[Brick Top]

Bad scheduling is a common thing for Nadal. Nothing new here.

why does he refuse to learn anything from his scheduling and his training?

this has been happening to him for 5 years now.

His fitness and health is in his own hands, hopefully he wont play every week like he did this year before injury.  I still think that playing in Halle right after RG is the most idiotic decision in the last decade. I agree with you guys maybe the most rational thing is to start season with South American clay swing, but...

[swish]

Bad scheduling is a common thing for Nadal. Nothing new here.

why does he refuse to learn anything from his scheduling and his training?

this has been happening to him for 5 years now.

Nadal has to play to his limits, without that he wouldn't be Nadal.
Nadal enjoys the struggle as much as the winning.
 

[Clay Death]

Bad scheduling is a common thing for Nadal. Nothing new here.

why does he refuse to learn anything from his scheduling and his training?

this has been happening to him for 5 years now.

His fitness and health is in his own hands, hopefully he wont play every week like he did this year before injury.  I still think that playing in Halle right after RG is the most idiotic decision in the last decade. I agree with you guys maybe the most rational thing is to start season with South American clay swing, but...

considering the fact that he was useless for the rest of the entire year after wimbledon, there is no question that he has only a limited time left on the tour.

i would protect and ensure that time by practicing and playing more on clay.

one would thank that after 5 years of damn near same thing happening to him he would have learned his lesson by now.

he has played in fairly serious knee pain for nearly 5 years now.

and he had them install an indoor hard court for him in mallorca anyway so he could wreck his knee around the clock.

[Clay Death]

general petraeus waits for 2 days after the election to resign his post.
 
he says he will not testify next week on the benghazi cover up.

[Clay Death]

Bad scheduling is a common thing for Nadal. Nothing new here.

why does he refuse to learn anything from his scheduling and his training?

this has been happening to him for 5 years now.

Nadal has to play to his limits, without that he wouldn't be Nadal.
Nadal enjoys the struggle as much as the winning.

there may be some truth to that general swish.


or he is stubborn as hell and wants to do it his way regardless of what happens to him.

clay is the wellspring from which he flows. the longer he continues to ignore that fact the faster he will be out of the sport.

[Clay Death]

Hi everyone!

I returned from a short trip to the States after helping dealing with a disaster.
My brother and his family lives in New Jersey and his house was hit hard by Sandy.
We managed to get it in shape enough to live in and got him a generator as he has no electricity still after over a week.
Problem was a tree fell on a corner of his house and took out all wires directly to the house from the street, which the town will not fix. So now he is still waiting for a electrical contractor to show up, but as one can imagine they have thousands of others to deal with.  Believe me, these storms can do significant damage even if they are not category 3-5.  I know general Hercules has seen first hand what storms like those can do...

Anyway, glad to be back and hopefully all of you are well.  The World Tour Finals are coming down to the late stages. Federer is already guaranteed for the semifinals.  It's hard to believe, but theoretically everyone in Group A still has a chance.  I still think it will be Djokovic and Murray, but if Berdych and Tsonga upset them today, then anything can happen.

Respectfully,
masterclass

good to see you general masterclass.


hate to hear the tragedy your brother has been having to go through. if we had an administration worth a damn they would have done something about it already instead of stopping by to pose for photographs.

it is riduculous that people are still without power, shelter, food, and water.

Thanks general hercules. It's been tough. Yes it's unfortunate that people are still in bad shape, but everywhere they are working on things, and in the crisis, New Jersey Governor Christie and President Obama put politics aside and came together to try to get things done better. Read this article from the New Jersey web site , general. 

A great many people in the state did believe that Obama has helped the situation, and that probably contributed to him winning New Jersey by a bigger margin than in 2008.   In my opinion, the storm probably helped Obama in general, as it gave him the opportunity to show his "Presidential" side and also somewhat halted any Romney momentum gained from the debates.

Of course, the people suffering always believe that more could be done... but in these times, they are glad for any help from family, friends, local town, state and federal governments.  I just hope everyone eventually comes out ok.

Respectfully,
masterclass

that is some video general. thanks for posting it and sharing it with your friends here.


it is of course sad and inspiring at the same time. what an amazing achievement by muster. he was able to overcome that accident and reach all the way to the top of the sport by reinventing himself on clay.

he did what he could and what he had to. he used clay to get to the top. that was his only option after that knee had been completely destroyed.


and another amzing fact: he went back to the same event where he was to face lendl for the final before that accident and he won that event.

i think he is one of the few players ever to have won a masters event on all surfaces---clay, hard courts, and indoor carpet.

[swish]

Well folks, I'm running on fumes.
I worked so much this week and have to go in tomorrow. Tuesday I put in close to 17 hours.
The check will be nice though. 

[FedFanForever]

why does he refuse to learn anything from his scheduling and his training?

this has been happening to him for 5 years now.

With better scheduling in 2009(no Rotterdam, skip Miami, Madrid) he would have won RG. He'd be sitting on 8 consecutive RG titles and Federer would have no career slam, probably no even 15 slams.

[Clay Death]

affirmative general fed fan. he could not help himself. he had to run to rotterdam as fast as he could after winning the australian open. there he would finish the final on exactly 1 leg against murray.
 
you cant teach a true moron a damn thing and that is pretty much the bottom line.
 
he was born with a gift from the gods that not many are. he had the speed and the agility of the fastest cornerbacks in the NFL.
 
now he cant even practice.