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How Emma Raducanu was discovered by a Driver at 8years old
How Emma Raducanu was discovered by a Driver at 8years old
Emma Raducanu’s New York miracle represents a transformational moment for tennis in Britain. Or, at least, it should do – as long as the Lawn Tennis Association manages to harness her extraordinary marketability.
However, there is a beginning to every journey in life.
No grand-slam nation has come up with a surefire method for success, although the Czech women and Italian men offer a glimpse of what can be achieved. In Britain’s case, meanwhile, Raducanu’s New York miracle has provided posthumous vindication for “Talent ID” – a controversial development pathway established by Draper soon after his appointment in 2006.
Clipboard-wielding coaches tested children as young as eight on various physical and technical metrics, before forwarding the highest-scoring kids into a system of competition based around colored balls. They started on red squishy things the size of a small grapefruit and then worked their way through orange and green before reaching the standard yellow.
Talent ID was bold and innovative. Other governing bodies around the world sent scouts over to see what the LTA were doing. At the same time, though, it created massive ill-feeling within the British junior game. Junior tennis is always characterised by a fair amount of jealousy and dissatisfaction, such are the often unrealistic expectations that tennis parents have of their children, but this was now compounded by the extra sin of novelty.
How Emma Raducanu was discovered by a Driver at 8years old
Making predictions at the age of eight is a challenging business. One common objection was that the chosen ones. – who received so-called matrix funding based on their ranking and results. – were often natural athletes who lacked competitive fire, and thus consistently lost junior matches to more dogged and driven characters.
But Talent ID could have been made for Raducanu. She was monstrously good at every aspect of it. Mark Hayden, who now works as the LTA’s National Pathway. Coach for the South East, remembers her performing a fan drill, which requires the child to pick up balls laid out in a pattern around her as quickly as possible.
“Her balance, her change of direction, her foot-speed – it was on a different level,” said Hayden. “Let’s say that the other kids were doing it in 18 seconds. She would take 16 and a half.”
One coach who worked at Bromley Tennis Centre remembers. Raducanu chewing opponents up with the green ball at the age of eight or nine.
“The green ball is a bit weird because you move up to a full-sized court after orange mini-tennis on a half-court. It plays very dead, like an ordinary ball that has had the stuffing knocked out of it. And that can favor people who play horrible, hacky tennis. Not in Emma’s case, though. She was outstanding because she covered the big court so well. Which most of the young kids couldn’t do.
I was watching her at the US Open thinking. ‘She is such a good front-runner,’ and then I realized that that is what she is used to doing. She has been slaying people from an early age.”
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Hamilton in a quandary: “Have to talk to Toto”
Since his announced move to Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton has been hanging between chairs. The early timing prevents the seven-time world champion from concentrating fully on his tasks at Mercedes. A conversation should now provide clarity.
After Lewis Hamilton announced his move from Mercedes to Ferrari on February 1st , the seven-time Formula 1 world champion is in a dilemma.
The Brit is currently concentrating on his last season with the Silver Arrows, but the time will come when he will also have to plan the coming season with Ferrari – and of course Mercedes will do everything in its power to ensure that Hamilton does not provide any details about the new Silver Arrow for the coming one year gets to see.
A 25-year-old racing game is too hard: even Lewis Hamilton despairs of the tutorial
Old games can be really cool. Formula 1 legend Lewis Hamilton also discovered this when he tried out some retro racing games.
You’ve probably all experienced situations like this: you have that one game or that one mission that could drive you absolutely to despair.
There are some classics, such as the “damn train” from GTA San Andreas, which you should catch up with CJ, or the little remote-controlled RC helicopter from Vice City that just didn’t want to fly the way you thought it would. Let’s just hope that GTA 6 just brings back Vice City , but leaves out the RC helicopter.
Lewis Hamilton was also confronted with such a classic. The Formula 1 legend discussed some racing games from his childhood on YouTube, as you can see in the video on YouTube here:
Hamilton fails because of the infamous “Driver” garage
What does Hamilton play? In the video, the racing driver plays various retro racing games. Hamilton certainly has experience with games; he says that today he mainly plays Call of Duty and Fortnite. But he also played games like Gran Turismo, Mortal Kombat, Mario, Street Fighter, Crash Bandicoot and GTA.
One of these retro games is Driver, which was released in 1999 for the original PlayStation. And it is exactly the game that makes Hamilton despair:
“Driver was crazy,” Hamilton remembers when he tried out the game. In the garage intro level, however, he quickly realizes that he can hardly figure out what he needs to do. After a few tries he says: “Damn, I didn’t do a good job. Time’s up, I can’t even make it through the first level.”
Not the only one: In fact, the garage level in “Driver” is notorious for being the most difficult part of the game. For years we have been reading reviews from players who emphasize that they never actually got through the tutorial and therefore failed early on in the game.
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Jimmie Johnson “Racing With One Arm Tied Behind His Back,” Claims Dale Jr as He Trashes Chase Elliott
Jimmie Johnson “Racing With One Arm Tied Behind His Back,” Claims Dale Jr as He Trashes Chase Elliott
If you look at Jimmie Johnson‘s record so far in the races this year, you would not really see a 7-time Cup Series champion. J.J. finished P28 at Daytona and P29 at Texas. But is that his fault? No doubt, Legacy Motor Club has had trouble being competitive, and Dale Earnhardt Jr believes that with the right machinery, Jimmie Johnson can be quite competitive. Junior also spoke about the difficulty of having short practice sessions, contradicting Chase Elliott‘s words from a few days ago.
Dale Earnhardt Jr blames the car for Jimmie Johnson’s misery
The Hendrick Motorsports driver won the race at the Texas Motor Speedway, so Dale Earnhardt Jr is more inclined to take his word for it as he is the one doing the racing on the track. As far as Jimmie Johnson is concerned, his former teammate wants him to be a lot more competitive than he has been of late. Given the 7-time Cup Series champion’s age, perhaps it is not possible for him anymore to challenge for wins, but competing against drivers in the top 10 or 15 could be achievable if he had a better car.
Dale Earnhardt Jr exclaimed, “He’s (Elliott) the driver that’s just won the race this past weekend…if he tells me that this is the way it is and this is good, I’m gonna probably take his word for it cause he is the one out there doing it. I am sitting at home watching from a distance and like I say all the time, we got a lot of opinions on here and we sometimes get it right and sometimes get it wrong. Maybe I am wrong about this one.
“Maybe I am wrong about practice. I just know that I’d love to see Jimmie run better and if he thinks practice will help, I’d love to give him more practice cause I wanna see Jimmie Johnson be competitive. I feel like he is racing with one arm tied behind his back,” Dale Earnhardt Jr said on a recent episode of his podcast.
Maybe the practice session also played a part in Johnson not being able to compete too well. According to Dale Earnhardt Jr, the practice sessions in the NASCAR Cup Series are quite short and it leaves drivers no time to process the data and formulate how they can improve the car’s performance.
Chase Elliott does not agree with that, as he had said earlier that the shorter practice sessions were good enough for him. Perhaps shorter sessions are more advantageous for teams like Hendrick Motorsports that have many things already figured out than some of the smaller teams, like Legacy Motor Club. Dale Earnhardt Jr spoke about his experience with a short practice session in the fall Xfinity Series race at Bristol last year, where he finished P30, and it was just barely enough.
“Yes, more practice. I would love more practice. When I went to Bristol last year, was it enough? Yes. But it was barely enough. Right at the end of that practice, I started to feel like I was sort of gaining on it and everything happens so fast, Practice, 20 minutes, Qualifying, and you’re like…you’re just spun out. There’s no time to download and think and process and change what you are doing to make adjustments and improve but anyhow, Chase thinks it’s fine,” the NASCAR veteran added.
Whose side are you on in this debate? Are shorter practice sessions better, or should the drivers be afforded longer practice sessions to get their cars as fine-tuned as possible? Let us know what you think.
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It’s because he’s a part-time driver so i will never take that: Chase Elliott refuses Jimmie Johnson’s request
It’s because he’s a part-time driver so i will never take that: Chase Elliott refuses Jimmie Johnson’s request
Currently, NASCAR races provide 20 minutes of practice time for Cup drivers before qualifying, except on certain weekends. Johnson is advocating for an increase in this time to 40-45 minutes, as he believes it will allow drivers to develop a better understanding of the car and enable their teams to make necessary adjustments. However, his former teammate Chase Elliott has a different opinion on the matter.
During a media interaction in Texas, Elliott expressed his belief that drivers already have enough practice time. He suggested that Johnson’s desire for additional practice stems from his limited race appearances this season, similar to other part-time drivers. Elliott hinted that Johnson does not have enough opportunities to familiarize himself with the car, leading to his request for more practice time.
Prior to the Cup race in Texas, Johnson revealed the reasons behind his struggles in the Cup series. He highlighted that the current cars no longer allow him to effectively use the right rear wheel, which was his characteristic racing style. Due to changes in aerodynamics and tires, Johnson now needs to rely on the right front wheel to steer.
Fortunately, Johnson’s new approach to driving Next-Gen cars has shown promising results. He achieved his best position since joining Legacy Motor Club and was able to complete the race on the lead lap for the first time in this era. Johnson hopes to maintain this positive momentum and potentially convince NASCAR to implement changes that provide part-time drivers with more practice time.
Hamilton in a quandary: “Have to talk to Toto”
Jimmie Johnson “Racing With One Arm Tied Behind His Back,” Claims Dale Jr as He Trashes Chase Elliott
