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A few years ago, when Federer was on a rampage, an article in New York Times became quite famous."Federer as Religious Experience" - by David Foster Wallace.I personally haven't yet attended a Federer match (and I am dying to) but this article perhaps comes close in explaining how it feels to experience the magic.I am reproducing the contents of the article here:Almost anyone who loves tennis and follows the men’s tour on television has, over the last few years, had what might be termed Federer Moments. These are times, as you watch the young Swiss play, when the jaw drops and eyes protrude and sounds are made that bring spouses in from other rooms to see if you’re O.K.The Moments are more intense if you’ve played enough tennis to understand the impossibility of what you just saw him do. We’ve all got our examples. Here is one. It’s the finals of the 2005 U.S. Open, Federer serving to Andre Agassi early in the fourth set. There’s a medium-long exchange of groundstrokes, one with the distinctive butterfly shape of today’s power-baseline game, Federer and Agassi yanking each other from side to side, each trying to set up the baseline winner...until suddenly Agassi hits a hard heavy cross-court backhand that pulls Federer way out wide to his ad (=left) side, and Federer gets to it but slices the stretch backhand short, a couple feet past the service line, which of course is the sort of thing Agassi dines out on, and as Federer’s scrambling to reverse and get back to center, Agassi’s moving in to take the short ball on the rise, and he smacks it hard right back into the same ad corner, trying to wrong-foot Federer, which in fact he does — Federer’s still near the corner but running toward the centerline, and the ball’s heading to a point behind him now, where he just was, and there’s no time to turn his body around, and Agassi’s following the shot in to the net at an angle from the backhand side...and what Federer now does is somehow instantly reverse thrust and sort of skip backward three or four steps, impossibly fast, to hit a forehand out of his backhand corner, all his weight moving backward, and the forehand is a topspin screamer down the line past Agassi at net, who lunges for it but the ball’s past him, and it flies straight down the sideline and lands exactly in the deuce corner of Agassi’s side, a winner — Federer’s still dancing backward as it lands. And there’s that familiar little second of shocked silence from the New York crowd before it erupts, and John McEnroe with his color man’s headset on TV says (mostly to himself, it sounds like), “How do you hit a winner from that position?” And he’s right: given Agassi’s position and world-class quickness, Federer had to send that ball down a two-inch pipe of space in order to pass him, which he did, moving backwards, with no setup time and none of his weight behind the shot. It was impossible. It was like something out of “The Matrix.” I don’t know what-all sounds were involved, but my spouse says she hurried in and there was popcorn all over the couch and I was down on one knee and my eyeballs looked like novelty-shop eyeballs.Anyway, that’s one example of a Federer Moment, and that was merely on TV — and the truth is that TV tennis is to live tennis pretty much as video porn is to the felt reality of human love.Journalistically speaking, there is no hot news to offer you about Roger Federer. He is, at 25, the best tennis player currently alive. Maybe the best ever. Bios and profiles abound. “60 Minutes” did a feature on him just last year. Anything you want to know about Mr. Roger N.M.I. Federer — his background, his home town of Basel, Switzerland, his parents’ sane and unexploitative support of his talent, his junior tennis career, his early problems with fragility and temper, his beloved junior coach, how that coach’s accidental death in 2002 both shattered and annealed Federer and helped make him what he now is, Federer’s 39 career singles titles, his eight Grand Slams, his unusually steady and mature commitment to the girlfriend who travels with him (which on the men’s tour is rare) and handles his affairs (which on the men’s tour is unheard of), his old-school stoicism and mental toughness and good sportsmanship and evident overall decency and thoughtfulness and charitable largess — it’s all just a Google search away. Knock yourself out.This present article is more about a spectator’s experience of Federer, and its context. The specific thesis here is that if you’ve never seen the young man play live, and then do, in person, on the sacred grass of Wimbledon, through the literally withering heat and then wind and rain of the ’06 fortnight, then you are apt to have what one of the tournament’s press bus drivers describes as a “bloody near-religious experience.” It may be tempting, at first, to hear a phrase like this as just one more of the overheated tropes that people resort to to describe the feeling of Federer Moments. But the driver’s phrase turns out to be true — literally, for an instant ecstatically — though it takes some time and serious watching to see this truth emerge.Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war.The human beauty we’re talking about here is beauty of a particular type; it might be called kinetic beauty. Its power and appeal are universal. It has nothing to do with sex or cultural norms. What it seems to have to do with, really, is human beings’ reconciliation with the fact of having a body.(1)Of course, in men’s sports no one ever talks about beauty or grace or the body. Men may profess their “love” of sports, but that love must always be cast and enacted in the symbology of war: elimination vs. advance, hierarchy of rank and standing, obsessive statistics, technical analysis, tribal and/or nationalist fervor, uniforms, mass noise, banners, chest-thumping, face-painting, etc. For reasons that are not well understood, war’s codes are safer for most of us than love’s. You too may find them so, in which case Spain’s mesomorphic and totally martial Rafael Nadal is the man’s man for you — he of the unsleeved biceps and Kabuki self-exhortations. Plus Nadal is also Federer’s nemesis and the big surprise of this year’s Wimbledon, since he’s a clay-court specialist and no one expected him to make it past the first few rounds here. Whereas Federer, through the semifinals, has provided no surprise or competitive drama at all. He’s outplayed each opponent so completely that the TV and print press are worried his matches are dull and can’t compete effectively with the nationalist fervor of the World Cup.(2)July 9’s men’s final, though, is everyone’s dream. Nadal vs. Federer is a replay of last month’s French Open final, which Nadal won. Federer has so far lost only four matches all year, but they’ve all been to Nadal. Still, most of these matches have been on slow clay, Nadal’s best surface. Grass is Federer’s best. On the other hand, the first week’s heat has baked out some of the Wimbledon courts’ slickness and made them slower. There’s also the fact that Nadal has adjusted his clay-based game to grass — moving in closer to the baseline on his groundstrokes, amping up his serve, overcoming his allergy to the net. He just about disemboweled Agassi in the third round. The networks are in ecstasies. Before the match, on Centre Court, behind the glass slits above the south backstop, as the linesmen are coming out on court in their new Ralph Lauren uniforms that look so much like children’s navalwear, the broadcast commentators can be seen practically bouncing up and down in their chairs. This Wimbledon final’s got the revenge narrative, the king-versus-regicide dynamic, the stark character contrasts. It’s the passionate machismo of southern Europe versus the intricate clinical artistry of the north. Apollo and Dionysus. Scalpel and cleaver. Righty and southpaw. Nos. 1 and 2 in the world. Nadal, the man who’s taken the modern power-baseline game just as far as it goes, versus a man who’s transfigured that modern game, whose precision and variety are as big a deal as his pace and foot-speed, but who may be peculiarly vulnerable to, or psyched out by, that first man. A British sportswriter, exulting with his mates in the press section, says, twice, “It’s going to be a war.”Plus it’s in the cathedral of Centre Court. And the men’s final is always on the fortnight’s second Sunday, the symbolism of which Wimbledon emphasizes by always omitting play on the first Sunday. And the spattery gale that has knocked over parking signs and everted umbrellas all morning suddenly quits an hour before match time, the sun emerging just as Centre Court’s tarp is rolled back and the net posts driven home.Federer and Nadal come out to applause, make their ritual bows to the nobles’ box. The Swiss is in the buttermilk-colored sport coat that Nike’s gotten him to wear for Wimbledon this year. On Federer, and perhaps on him alone, it doesn’t look absurd with shorts and sneakers. The Spaniard eschews all warm-up clothing, so you have to look at his muscles right away. He and the Swiss are both in all-Nike, up to the very same kind of tied white Nike hankie with the swoosh positioned above the third eye. Nadal tucks his hair under his hankie, but Federer doesn’t, and smoothing and fussing with the bits of hair that fall over the hankie is the main Federer tic TV viewers get to see; likewise Nadal’s obsessive retreat to the ballboy’s towel between points. There happen to be other tics and habits, though, tiny perks of live viewing. There’s the great care Roger Federer takes to hang the sport coat over his spare courtside chair’s back, just so, to keep it from wrinkling — he’s done this before each match here, and something about it seems childlike and weirdly sweet. Or the way he inevitably changes out his racket sometime in the second set, the new one always in the same clear plastic bag closed with blue tape, which he takes off carefully and always hands to a ballboy to dispose of. There’s Nadal’s habit of constantly picking his long shorts out of his bottom as he bounces the ball before serving, his way of always cutting his eyes warily from side to side as he walks the baseline, like a convict expecting to be shanked. And something odd on the Swiss’s serve, if you look very closely. Holding ball and racket out in front, just before starting the motion, Federer always places the ball precisely in the V-shaped gap of the racket’s throat, just below the head, just for an instant. If the fit isn’t perfect, he adjusts the ball until it is. It happens very fast, but also every time, on both first serves and second.Nadal and Federer now warm each other up for precisely five minutes; the umpire keeps time. There’s a very definite order and etiquette to these pro warm-ups, which is something that television has decided you’re not interested in seeing. Centre Court holds 13,000 and change. Another several thousand have done what people here do willingly every year, which is to pay a stiff general admission at the gate and then gather, with hampers and mosquito spray, to watch the match on an enormous TV screen outside Court 1. Your guess here is probably as good as anyone’s.Right before play, up at the net, there’s a ceremonial coin-toss to see who’ll serve first. It’s another Wimbledon ritual. The honorary coin-tosser this year is William Caines, assisted by the umpire and tournament referee. William Caines is a 7-year-old from Kent who contracted liver cancer at age 2 and somehow survived after surgery and horrific chemo. He’s here representing Cancer Research UK. He’s blond and pink-cheeked and comes up to about Federer’s waist. The crowd roars its approval of the re-enacted toss. Federer smiles distantly the whole time. Nadal, just across the net, keeps dancing in place like a boxer, swinging his arms from side to side. I’m not sure whether the U.S. networks show the coin-toss or not, whether this ceremony’s part of their contractual obligation or whether they get to cut to commercial. As William’s ushered off, there’s more cheering, but it’s scattered and disorganized; most of the crowd can’t quite tell what to do. It’s like once the ritual’s over, the reality of why this child was part of it sinks in. There’s a feeling of something important, something both uncomfortable and not, about a child with cancer tossing this dream-final’s coin. The feeling, what-all it might mean, has a tip-of-the-tongue-type quality that remains elusive for at least the first two sets.(3)A top athlete’s beauty is next to impossible to describe directly. Or to evoke. Federer’s forehand is a great liquid whip, his backhand a one-hander that he can drive flat, load with topspin, or slice — the slice with such snap that the ball turns shapes in the air and skids on the grass to maybe ankle height. His serve has world-class pace and a degree of placement and variety no one else comes close to; the service motion is lithe and uneccentric, distinctive (on TV) only in a certain eel-like all-body snap at the moment of impact. His anticipation and court sense are otherworldly, and his footwork is the best in the game — as a child, he was also a soccer prodigy. All this is true, and yet none of it really explains anything or evokes the experience of watching this man play. Of witnessing, firsthand, the beauty and genius of his game. You more have to come at the aesthetic stuff obliquely, to talk around it, or — as Aquinas did with his own ineffable subject — to try to define it in terms of what it is not.One thing it is not is televisable. At least not entirely. TV tennis has its advantages, but these advantages have disadvantages, and chief among them is a certain illusion of intimacy. Television’s slow-mo replays, its close-ups and graphics, all so privilege viewers that we’re not even aware of how much is lost in broadcast. And a large part of what’s lost is the sheer physicality of top tennis, a sense of the speeds at which the ball is moving and the players are reacting. This loss is simple to explain. TV’s priority, during a point, is coverage of the whole court, a comprehensive view, so that viewers can see both players and the overall geometry of the exchange. Television therefore chooses a specular vantage that is overhead and behind one baseline. You, the viewer, are above and looking down from behind the court. This perspective, as any art student will tell you, “foreshortens” the court. Real tennis, after all, is three-dimensional, but a TV screen’s image is only 2-D. The dimension that’s lost (or rather distorted) on the screen is the real court’s length, the 78 feet between baselines; and the speed with which the ball traverses this length is a shot’s pace, which on TV is obscured, and in person is fearsome to behold. That may sound abstract or overblown, in which case by all means go in person to some professional tournament — especially to the outer courts in early rounds, where you can sit 20 feet from the sideline — and sample the difference for yourself. If you’ve watched tennis only on television, you simply have no idea how hard these pros are hitting the ball, how fast the ball is moving,(4) how little time the players have to get to it, and how quickly they’re able to move and rotate and strike and recover. And none are faster, or more deceptively effortless about it, than Roger Federer.Interestingly, what is less obscured in TV coverage is Federer’s intelligence, since this intelligence often manifests as angle. Federer is able to see, or create, gaps and angles for winners that no one else can envision, and television’s perspective is perfect for viewing and reviewing these Federer Moments. What’s harder to appreciate on TV is that these spectacular-looking angles and winners are not coming from nowhere — they’re often set up several shots ahead, and depend as much on Federer’s manipulation of opponents’ positions as they do on the pace or placement of the coup de grâce. And understanding how and why Federer is able to move other world-class athletes around this way requires, in turn, a better technical understanding of the modern power-baseline game than TV — again — is set up to provide.Wimbledon is strange. Verily it is the game’s Mecca, the cathedral of tennis; but it would be easier to sustain the appropriate level of on-site veneration if the tournament weren’t so intent on reminding you over and over that it’s the cathedral of tennis. There’s a peculiar mix of stodgy self-satisfaction and relentless self-promotion and -branding. It’s a bit like the sort of authority figure whose office wall has every last plaque, diploma, and award he’s ever gotten, and every time you come into the office you’re forced to look at the wall and say something to indicate that you’re impressed. Wimbledon’s own walls, along nearly every significant corridor and passage, are lined with posters and signs featuring shots of past champions, lists of Wimbledon facts and trivia, historic lore, and so on. Some of this stuff is interesting; some is just odd. The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum, for instance, has a collection of all the various kinds of rackets used here through the decades, and one of the many signs along the Level 2 passage of the Millennium Building(5)promotes this exhibition with both photos and didactic text, a kind of History of the Racket. Here, sic, is the climactic end of this text:Today’s lightweight frames made of space-age materials like graphite, boron, titanium and ceramics, with larger heads — mid-size (90-95 square inches) and over-size (110 square inches) — have totally transformed the character of the game. Nowadays it is the powerful hitters who dominate with heavy topspin. Serve-and-volley players and those who rely on subtlety and touch have virtually disappeared.It seems odd, to say the least, that such a diagnosis continues to hang here so prominently in the fourth year of Federer’s reign over Wimbledon, since the Swiss has brought to men’s tennis degrees of touch and subtlety unseen since (at least) the days of McEnroe’s prime. But the sign’s really just a testament to the power of dogma. For almost two decades, the party line’s been that certain advances in racket technology, conditioning, and weight training have transformed pro tennis from a game of quickness and finesse into one of athleticism and brute power. And as an etiology of today’s power-baseline game, this party line is broadly accurate. Today’s pros truly are measurably bigger, stronger, and better conditioned,(6) and high-tech composite rackets really have increased their capacities for pace and spin. How, then, someone of Federer’s consummate finesse has come to dominate the men’s tour is a source of wide and dogmatic confusion.There are three kinds of valid explanation for Federer’s ascendancy. One kind involves mystery and metaphysics and is, I think, closest to the real truth. The others are more technical and make for better journalism.The metaphysical explanation is that Roger Federer is one of those rare, preternatural athletes who appear to be exempt, at least in part, from certain physical laws. Good analogues here include Michael Jordan,(7) who could not only jump inhumanly high but actually hang there a beat or two longer than gravity allows, and Muhammad Ali, who really could “float” across the canvas and land two or three jabs in the clock-time required for one. There are probably a half-dozen other examples since 1960. And Federer is of this type — a type that one could call genius, or mutant, or avatar. He is never hurried or off-balance. The approaching ball hangs, for him, a split-second longer than it ought to. His movements are lithe rather than athletic. Like Ali, Jordan, Maradona, and Gretzky, he seems both less and more substantial than the men he faces. Particularly in the all-white that Wimbledon enjoys getting away with still requiring, he looks like what he may well (I think) be: a creature whose body is both flesh and, somehow, light.This thing about the ball cooperatively hanging there, slowing down, as if susceptible to the Swiss’s will — there’s real metaphysical truth here. And in the following anecdote. After a July 7 semifinal in which Federer destroyed Jonas Bjorkman — not just beat him,destroyed him — and just before a requisite post-match news conference in which Bjorkman, who’s friendly with Federer, says he was pleased to “have the best seat in the house” to watch the Swiss “play the nearest to perfection you can play tennis,” Federer and Bjorkman are chatting and joking around, and Bjorkman asks him just how unnaturally big the ball was looking to him out there, and Federer confirms that it was “like a bowling ball or basketball.” He means it just as a bantery, modest way to make Bjorkman feel better, to confirm that he’s surprised by how unusually well he played today; but he’s also revealing something about what tennis is like for him. Imagine that you’re a person with preternaturally good reflexes and coordination and speed, and that you’re playing high-level tennis. Your experience, in play, will not be that you possess phenomenal reflexes and speed; rather, it will seem to you that the tennis ball is quite large and slow-moving, and that you always have plenty of time to hit it. That is, you won’t experience anything like the (empirically real) quickness and skill that the live audience, watching tennis balls move so fast they hiss and blur, will attribute to you.(8)Velocity’s just one part of it. Now we’re getting technical. Tennis is often called a “game of inches,” but the cliché is mostly referring to where a shot lands. In terms of a player’s hitting an incoming ball, tennis is actually more a game of micrometers: vanishingly tiny changes around the moment of impact will have large effects on how and where the ball travels. The same principle explains why even the smallest imprecision in aiming a rifle will still cause a miss if the target’s far enough away.By way of illustration, let’s slow things way down. Imagine that you, a tennis player, are standing just behind your deuce corner’s baseline. A ball is served to your forehand — you pivot (or rotate) so that your side is to the ball’s incoming path and start to take your racket back for the forehand return. Keep visualizing up to where you’re about halfway into the stroke’s forward motion; the incoming ball is now just off your front hip, maybe six inches from point of impact. Consider some of the variables involved here. On the vertical plane, angling your racket face just a couple degrees forward or back will create topspin or slice, respectively; keeping it perpendicular will produce a flat, spinless drive. Horizontally, adjusting the racket face ever so slightly to the left or right, and hitting the ball maybe a millisecond early or late, will result in a cross-court versus down-the-line return. Further slight changes in the curves of your groundstroke’s motion and follow-through will help determine how high your return passes over the net, which, together with the speed at which you’re swinging (along with certain characteristics of the spin you impart), will affect how deep or shallow in the opponent’s court your return lands, how high it bounces, etc. These are just the broadest distinctions, of course — like, there’s heavy topspin vs. light topspin, or sharply cross-court vs. only slightly cross-court, etc. There are also the issues of how close you’re allowing the ball to get to your body, what grip you’re using, the extent to which your knees are bent and/or weight’s moving forward, and whether you’re able simultaneously to watch the ball and to see what your opponent’s doing after he serves. These all matter, too. Plus there’s the fact that you’re not putting a static object into motion here but rather reversing the flight and (to a varying extent) spin of a projectile coming toward you — coming, in the case of pro tennis, at speeds that make conscious thought impossible. Mario Ancic’s first serve, for instance, often comes in around 130 m.p.h. Since it’s 78 feet from Ancic’s baseline to yours, that means it takes 0.41 seconds for his serve to reach you.(9) This is less than the time it takes to blink quickly, twice.The upshot is that pro tennis involves intervals of time too brief for deliberate action. Temporally, we’re more in the operative range of reflexes, purely physical reactions that bypass conscious thought. And yet an effective return of serve depends on a large set of decisions and physical adjustments that are a whole lot more involved and intentional than blinking, jumping when startled, etc.Successfully returning a hard-served tennis ball requires what’s sometimes called “the kinesthetic sense,” meaning the ability to control the body and its artificial extensions through complex and very quick systems of tasks. English has a whole cloud of terms for various parts of this ability: feel, touch, form, proprioception, coordination, hand-eye coordination, kinesthesia, grace, control, reflexes, and so on. For promising junior players, refining the kinesthetic sense is the main goal of the extreme daily practice regimens we often hear about.(10) The training here is both muscular and neurological. Hitting thousands of strokes, day after day, develops the ability to do by “feel” what cannot be done by regular conscious thought. Repetitive practice like this often looks tedious or even cruel to an outsider, but the outsider can’t feel what’s going on inside the player — tiny adjustments, over and over, and a sense of each change’s effects that gets more and more acute even as it recedes from normal consciousness.(11)The time and discipline required for serious kinesthetic training are one reason why top pros are usually people who’ve devoted most of their waking lives to tennis, starting (at the very latest) in their early teens. It was, for example, at age 13 that Roger Federer finally gave up soccer, and a recognizable childhood, and entered Switzerland’s national tennis training center in Ecublens. At 16, he dropped out of classroom studies and started serious international competition.It was only weeks after quitting school that Federer won Junior Wimbledon. Obviously, this is something that not every junior who devotes himself to tennis can do. Just as obviously, then, there is more than time and training involved — there is also sheer talent, and degrees of it. Extraordinary kinesthetic ability must be present (and measurable) in a kid just to make the years of practice and training worthwhile...but from there, over time, the cream starts to rise and separate. So one type of technical explanation for Federer’s dominion is that he’s just a bit more kinesthetically talented than the other male pros. Only a little bit, since everyone in the Top 100 is himself kinesthetically gifted — but then, tennis is a game of inches.This answer is plausible but incomplete. It would probably not have been incomplete in 1980. In 2006, though, it’s fair to ask why this kind of talent still matters so much. Recall what is true about dogma and Wimbledon’s sign. Kinesthetic virtuoso or no, Roger Federer is now dominating the largest, strongest, fittest, best-trained and -coached field of male pros who’ve ever existed, with everyone using a kind of nuclear racket that’s said to have made the finer calibrations of kinesthetic sense irrelevant, like trying to whistle Mozart during a Metallica concert.According to reliable sources, honorary coin-tosser William Caines’s backstory is that one day, when he was 2½, his mother found a lump in his tummy, and took him to the doctor, and the lump was diagnosed as a malignant liver tumor. At which point one cannot, of course, imagine...a tiny child undergoing chemo, serious chemo, his mother having to watch, carry him home, nurse him, then bring him back to that place for more chemo. How did she answer her child’s question — the big one, the obvious one? And who could answer hers? What could any priest or pastor say that wouldn’t be grotesque?It’s 2-1 Nadal in the final’s second set, and he’s serving. Federer won the first set at love but then flagged a bit, as he sometimes does, and is quickly down a break. Now, on Nadal’s ad, there’s a 16-stroke point. Nadal is serving a lot faster than he did in Paris, and this one’s down the center. Federer floats a soft forehand high over the net, which he can get away with because Nadal never comes in behind his serve. The Spaniard now hits a characteristically heavy topspin forehand deep to Federer’s backhand; Federer comes back with an even heavier topspin backhand, almost a clay-court shot. It’s unexpected and backs Nadal up, slightly, and his response is a low hard short ball that lands just past the service line’s T on Federer’s forehand side. Against most other opponents, Federer could simply end the point on a ball like this, but one reason Nadal gives him trouble is that he’s faster than the others, can get to stuff they can’t; and so Federer here just hits a flat, medium-hard cross-court forehand, going not for a winner but for a low, shallowly angled ball that forces Nadal up and out to the deuce side, his backhand. Nadal, on the run, backhands it hard down the line to Federer’s backhand; Federer slices it right back down the same line, slow and floaty with backspin, making Nadal come back to the same spot. Nadal slices the ball right back — three shots now all down the same line — and Federer slices the ball back to the same spot yet again, this one even slower and floatier, and Nadal gets planted and hits a big two-hander back down the same line — it’s like Nadal’s camped out now on his deuce side; he’s no longer moving all the way back to the baseline’s center between shots; Federer’s hypnotized him a little. Federer now hits a very hard, deep topspin backhand, the kind that hisses, to a point just slightly on the ad side of Nadal’s baseline, which Nadal gets to and forehands cross-court; and Federer responds with an even harder, heavier cross-court backhand, baseline-deep and moving so fast that Nadal has to hit the forehand off his back foot and then scramble to get back to center as the shot lands maybe two feet short on Federer’s backhand side again. Federer steps to this ball and now hits a totally different cross-court backhand, this one much shorter and sharper-angled, an angle no one would anticipate, and so heavy and blurred with topspin that it lands shallow and just inside the sideline and takes off hard after the bounce, and Nadal can’t move in to cut it off and can’t get to it laterally along the baseline, because of all the angle and topspin — end of point. It’s a spectacular winner, a Federer Moment; but watching it live, you can see that it’s also a winner that Federer started setting up four or even five shots earlier. Everything after that first down-the-line slice was designed by the Swiss to maneuver Nadal and lull him and then disrupt his rhythm and balance and open up that last, unimaginable angle — an angle that would have been impossible without extreme topspin.Extreme topspin is the hallmark of today’s power-baseline game. This is something that Wimbledon’s sign gets right.(12) Why topspin is so key, though, is not commonly understood. What’s commonly understood is that high-tech composite rackets impart much more pace to the ball, rather like aluminum baseball bats as opposed to good old lumber. But that dogma is false. The truth is that, at the same tensile strength, carbon-based composites are lighter than wood, and this allows modern rackets to be a couple ounces lighter and at least an inch wider across the face than the vintage Kramer and Maxply. It’s the width of the face that’s vital. A wider face means there’s more total string area, which means the sweet spot’s bigger. With a composite racket, you don’t have to meet the ball in the precise geometric center of the strings in order to generate good pace. Nor must you be spot-on to generate topspin, a spin that (recall) requires a tilted face and upwardly curved stroke, brushing over the ball rather than hitting flat through it — this was quite hard to do with wood rackets, because of their smaller face and niggardly sweet spot. Composites’ lighter, wider heads and more generous centers let players swing faster and put way more topspin on the ball...and, in turn, the more topspin you put on the ball, the harder you can hit it, because there’s more margin for error. Topspin causes the ball to pass high over the net, describe a sharp arc, and come down fast into the opponent’s court (instead of maybe soaring out).So the basic formula here is that composite rackets enable topspin, which in turn enables groundstrokes vastly faster and harder than 20 years ago — it’s common now to see male pros pulled up off the ground and halfway around in the air by the force of their strokes, which in the old days was something one saw only in Jimmy Connors.Connors was not, by the way, the father of the power-baseline game. He whaled mightily from the baseline, true, but his groundstrokes were flat and spinless and had to pass very low over the net. Nor was Bjorn Borg a true power-baseliner. Both Borg and Connors played specialized versions of the classic baseline game, which had evolved as a counterforce to the even more classic serve-and-volley game, which was itself the dominant form of men’s power tennis for decades, and of which John McEnroe was the greatest modern exponent. You probably know all this, and may also know that McEnroe toppled Borg and then more or less ruled the men’s game until the appearance, around the mid-1980’s, of (a) modern composite rackets(13) and (b) Ivan Lendl, who played with an early form of composite and was the true progenitor of power-baseline tennis.(14)Ivan Lendl was the first top pro whose strokes and tactics appeared to be designed around the special capacities of the composite racket. His goal was to win points from the baseline, via either passing shots or outright winners. His weapon was his groundstrokes, especially his forehand, which he could hit with overwhelming pace because of the amount of topspin he put on the ball. The blend of pace and topspin also allowed Lendl to do something that proved crucial to the advent of the power-baseline game. He could pull off radical, extraordinary angles on hard-hit groundstrokes, mainly because of the speed with which heavy topspin makes the ball dip and land without going wide. In retrospect, this changed the whole physics of aggressive tennis. For decades, it had been angle that made the serve-and-volley game so lethal. The closer one is to the net, the more of the opponent’s court is open — the classic advantage of volleying was that you could hit angles that would go way wide if attempted from the baseline or midcourt. But topspin on a groundstroke, if it’s really extreme, can bring the ball down fast and shallow enough to exploit many of these same angles. Especially if the groundstroke you’re hitting is off a somewhat short ball — the shorter the ball, the more angles are possible. Pace, topspin, and aggressive baseline angles: and lo, it’s the power-baseline game.It wasn’t that Ivan Lendl was an immortally great tennis player. He was simply the first top pro to demonstrate what heavy topspin and raw power could achieve from the baseline. And, most important, the achievement was replicable, just like the composite racket. Past a certain threshold of physical talent and training, the main requirements were athleticism, aggression, and superior strength and conditioning. The result (omitting various complications and subspecialties(15)) has been men’s pro tennis for the last 20 years: ever bigger, stronger, fitter players generating unprecedented pace and topspin off the ground, trying to force the short or weak ball that they can put away.Illustrative stat: When Lleyton Hewitt defeated David Nalbandian in the 2002 Wimbledon men’s final, there was not one single serve-and-volley point.(16)The generic power-baseline game is not boring — certainly not compared with the two-second points of old-time serve-and-volley or the moon-ball tedium of classic baseline attrition. But it is somewhat static and limited; it is not, as pundits have publicly feared for years, the evolutionary endpoint of tennis. The player who’s shown this to be true is Roger Federer. And he’s shown it from within the modern game.This within is what’s important here; this is what a purely neural account leaves out. And it is why sexy attributions like touch and subtlety must not be misunderstood. With Federer, it’s not either/or. The Swiss has every bit of Lendl and Agassi’s pace on his groundstrokes, and leaves the ground when he swings, and can out-hit even Nadal from the backcourt.(17) What’s strange and wrong about Wimbledon’s sign, really, is its overall dolorous tone. Subtlety, touch, and finesse are not dead in the power-baseline era. For it is, still, in 2006, very much the power-baseline era: Roger Federer is a first-rate, kick-ass power-baseliner. It’s just that that’s not all he is. There’s also his intelligence, his occult anticipation, his court sense, his ability to read and manipulate opponents, to mix spins and speeds, to misdirect and disguise, to use tactical foresight and peripheral vision and kinesthetic range instead of just rote pace — all this has exposed the limits, and possibilities, of men’s tennis as it’s now played.Which sounds very high-flown and nice, of course, but please understand that with this guy it’s not high-flown or abstract. Or nice. In the same emphatic, empirical, dominating way that Lendl drove home his own lesson, Roger Federer is showing that the speed and strength of today’s pro game are merely its skeleton, not its flesh. He has, figuratively and literally, re-embodied men’s tennis, and for the first time in years the game’s future is unpredictable. You should have seen, on the grounds’ outside courts, the variegated ballet that was this year’s Junior Wimbledon. Drop volleys and mixed spins, off-speed serves, gambits planned three shots ahead — all as well as the standard-issue grunts and booming balls. Whether anything like a nascent Federer was here among these juniors can’t be known, of course. Genius is not replicable. Inspiration, though, is contagious, and multiform — and even just to see, close up, power and aggression made vulnerable to beauty is to feel inspired and (in a fleeting, mortal way) reconciled.Correction: Aug. 27, 2006An article in PLAY magazine last Sunday about the tennis player Roger Federer referred incompletely to a point between Federer and Andre Agassi in the 2005 United States Open final and incorrectly described Agassi’s position on the final shot of the point. There was an exchange of groundstrokes in the middle of the point that was not described. And Agassi remained at the baseline on Federer’s winning shot; he did not go to the net.Here's a wonderful youtube video that complement's Wallace's article well.

Q. What are some of the most mind-blowing facts?54 Amazing Facts That Will Blow Your MindMindblowing Facts That Will Completely Change Your Perspective On The World20 Mind Blowing Facts You Probably Didn’t Know50 Random Mind-Blowing Fun FactsHere are some of the most mind-blowing facts about the universe100 Crazy Facts to Truly Blow Your Mind!54 Amazing Facts That Will Blow Your MindBY JASON ENGLISH (mentalfloss.com)GETTY IMAGES/ARNO BURGI1. Google's founders were willing to sell to Excite for under $1 million in 1999—but Excite turned them down.2. There was a third Apple founder. Ronald Gerald Wayne (pictured at home in 2010) sold his 10% stake for $800 in 1976.He co-founded Apple Computer, providing administrative oversight. However, he soon sold his share back to Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs for $800 US dollars, and later accepted $1,500 to forfeit any claims against Apple ($9,498 in 2017). As of March 2017, his 10% stake worth over $75.5 billion.3. The famous Aaron Burr “Got Milk?” ad from 1993 was directed by Michael Bay.4. According to Amazon, the most highlighted Kindle books are the Bible, the Steve Jobs biography, and The Hunger Games.5. Janis Joplin left $2,500 in her will for her friends to "have a ball after I’m gone."6. Wilford Brimley was Howard Hughes's bodyguard.7. During WWI, German measles were called "liberty measles" and dachshunds became "liberty hounds."8. In a 2008 survey, 58% of British teens thought Sherlock Holmes was a real guy, while 20% thought Winston Churchill was not.9. At one point in the 1990s, 50% of all CDs produced worldwide were for AOL.10. Fredric Baur invented the Pringles can. When he passed away in 2008, his ashes were buried in one.11. Nutella was invented during WWII, when chocolate became scarce due to rationing. An Italian pastry maker named Pietro Ferrero started adding chopped hazelnuts to chocolate to stretch the supply. The product, Pasta Gianduja, was renamed Nutella in 1964.12. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know. But on average, a Licking Machine made at Purdue needed 364.13. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima for work when the first A-bomb hit, made it home to Nagasaki for the second, and lived to be 93.14. A British man changed his name to Tim Pppppppppprice to make it harder for telemarketers to pronounce.15. In 1999, the U.S. government paid the Zaprude family $16 million for the film of JFK's assassination.16. William McKinley was on the $500 bill, Grover Cleveland was on the $1,000, and James Madison was on the $5,000.17. In the mid-1960s, Slumber Party Barbie came with a book called "How to Lose Weight." One of the tips was "Don’t eat."18. A 2009 search for the Loch Ness Monster came up empty. Scientists did find over 100,000 golf balls.19. After OutKast sang “Shake it like a Polaroid picture,” Polaroid released a statement that said, “Shaking or waving can actually damage the image.”20. New Mexico State's first graduating class in 1893 had only one student—and he was shot and killed before graduation.21. In the mid-1980s, Fergie of The Black Eyed Peas was the voice of Charlie Brown's sister Sally.22. Jonas Salk declined to patent his polio vaccine. "There is no patent," he said. "Could you patent the sun?"23. Just before the Nazis invaded Paris, H.A. and Margret Rey fled on bicycles. They were carrying the manuscript for Curious George.24. The 50-star American flag was designed by an Ohio high school student for a class project. His teacher originally gave him a B–.25. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the most commonly stolen vehicle in 2012 was the 1994 Honda Accord.26. After leaving office, Lyndon Johnson let his hair grow out.27. When three-letter airport codes became standard, airports that had been using two letters simply added an X.28. Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men is used by researchers to attract animals to cameras in the wilderness.29. Sean Connery turned down the Gandalf role in Lord of the Rings. "I read the book. I read the script. I saw the movie. I still don't understand it."30. E.B. White of Charlotte's Web fame is the "White" of Shrunk and White, who wrote The Elements of Style.31. Chock Full o' Nuts coffee does not contain nuts. It's named for a chain of nut stores that the founder converted into coffee shops.32. 12+1 = 11+2, and "twelve plus one" is an anagram of "eleven plus two."33. Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins also wrote for Clarissa Explains It All.34. Marie Curie's notebooks are still radioactive. Researchers hoping to view them must sign a disclaimer.35. The Arkansas School for the Deaf's nickname is the Leopards. The Deaf Leopards.36. If your dog's feet smell like corn chips, you're not alone. The term "Frito Feet" was coined to describe the scent.37. A sex pheromone found in male mouse urine was named "darcin," for Jane Austen's Mr. Darcy.38. Barry Manilow did not write his hit "I Write the Songs."39. He did, however, write State Farm's "Like a Good Neighbor" jingle.40. Reed Hastings was inspired to start Netflix after racking up a $40 late fee on a VHS copy of Apollo 13.41. Winston Churchill's mother was born in Brooklyn.42. Officials in Portland, Ore., drained 8 million gallons of water from a reservoir in 2011 because a buzzed 21-year-old peed in it.43. There's a basketball court above the Supreme Court. It's known as the Highest Court in the Land.44. If you start counting at one and spell out the numbers as you go, you won't use the letter "A" until you reach 1,000.45. In Qaddafi's compound, Libyan rebels found a photo album filled with pictures of Condoleezza Rice.46. The medical term for ice cream headaches is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia.47. After Leonardo da Vinci's death, King Francis I of France hung the Mona Lisa in his bathroom.48. Redondo Beach, CA adopted the Goodyear Blimp as the city's official bird in 1983.49. In 2001, Beaver College changed its name to Arcadia in part because anti-porn filters blocked access to the school's website. arcadia.edu50. Peeps Lip Balm is something that exists.51. Quentin Tarantino played an Elvis impersonator on The Golden Girls.52. Dave Thomas dropped out of high school but picked up his GED in 1993. His GED class voted him Most Likely to Succeed.53. Sleeping through winter is hibernation, while sleeping through summer is estivation.54. In Spain, Mr. Clean is known as Don Limpio.For more amazing facts follow @mental_floss on Twitter. Images courtesy of Getty Images and iStock. Ronald Wayne image via Karen T. Borchers/MCT/Landov.100 Crazy Facts to Truly Blow Your Mind!The mayor of the Alaskan town, Talkeetna, was called Stubbs and had been mayor of the town since election in 1997. Stubbs was a cat.Stubbs, small Alaska town's honorary cat mayor, dead at 20: family statement (CBS News)Viagra, when dissolved in water, can make cut-flowers stay erect for up to a week longer than they usually would. Try it!Justin Bieber once held up a sign from his hotel room window saying “Go to McDonald’s and get me a Big Mac”. He got his Big Mac.Surgeons who play video games at least 3 hours a week perform 27% faster and make 37% fewer errors.Hawaii’s state flag is the only US state flag to feature the Union Jack upon it.Approximately 1,000,000 dogs in the U.S. are named as the heirs of their owners’ wills.When written down, the word ‘almost’ is the longest word in the English language to have all of its letters in alphabetical order.A study was conducted that showed customers in a bookstore were 3.48 times more likely to peruse romantic books if the store smelt of chocolate, and 5.93 times more likely to buy them!The word ‘quarantine’ derives from the Venetian dialect of Italian and the words ‘quaranta giorni’, meaning ‘forty days.’ This is because when it was discovered that ships were infested with plaque-carrying rats they were made to sit at anchor outside Venice’s city walls for forty days before coming ashore.“Clearly, this man is an imbecile.”10 Mindblowing Facts That Will Completely Change Your Perspective On The WorldWEIRD NEWS By Todd Van Luling1. The continents look entirely different than you think they do.The map you’re used to is more Western-focused and stretches out the size of continents near the poles. Africa and South America are actually way bigger. Here’s a more accurate representation of the world, according to the The Gall-Peters Projection map, created in 1885.Image: WikiCommonsH/T: BuzzFeed2. If you believe that you’re truly one in a million, there are still approximately 7,184 more people out there just like you.You aren’t that special! There are over 7 billion people on the planet right now. Each and every one of them should be treated with respect.3. There are castles and even lighthouses that are less expensive than NYC apartments.With New York City rent rising over an average $3,000 a month even in Brooklyn this year, it’s becoming more and more appealing to perhaps move somewhere else. If you’re one of the lucky ones who has a bit of money to burn, might as well spend it on a real-life castle or lighthouse, right?Image: Monlin4. The United States hasn’t even made it into the Top 50 list of longest-lasting empires.The United States has only been around for a blip in history. Institutions like Bank of America aren’t even 100 years old. This doesn’t necessarily discount their trustworthiness, but just make sure to remember that not all pillars of authority are eternal.5. 10 percent of the entire world population is still illiterate.Unfortunately certain countries are also skewing the data upwards on this statistic. Nations such as Afghanistan only have a 28 percent literacy rate for the total population.6. You thoroughly enjoy celebrating some pretty dark holidays.Labor Day was created as a bandaid to coverup multiple massacres of American workers. Columbus Day is named after a brutal tyrant whose history is largely a fraud. Thanksgiving is a sham celebration of Pilgrims and Native Americans coming together. Really, just don’t celebrate anything.7. A whole ecosystem lives in your belly button.Scientists found 2,368 different species of bacteria living in belly buttons after swabbing the navels of just 60 people. In that study, 1,458 might have been entirely new to the scientific record. Aladdin could have showed Jasmine a “whole new world” just by looking toward their stomachs.8. You can’t see as many colors as a chicken. You’ll also never see all the beautiful colors of a rainbow.Everyday you are missing out on aspects of the universe simply because our bodies cannot process their wonders. How can we be supreme rulers of the world and have full domain over all other living beings when chickens can see more colors than we can? We need to rethink our place. Also rainbows are actually made up of more than 1 million colors, many of which we can’t see either. We are missing out!9. We haven’t figured out the secret to immortality, but this jellyfish has.imgur.com/aRP9hoxThe Turritopsis nutricula can live forever by reverting back to its early stage of life after becoming sexually mature. Although immortality may not be a real possibility for humans just yet, it is good to know that the basic idea isn’t just science fiction.10. Americans spend 38 hours a year stuck in traffic.Almost an entire work week of just being stuck! Washingtonians have it worst with an average of 67 hours a year, which is time they probably wish they could have back.20 Mind Blowing Facts You Probably Didn’t Know55 Random Mind-Blowing Fun FactsBy Antranik (antranik.org)Western Australia is twice the size of Alaska. (Be sure to watch what fits into Russia!)There are more stars than there are grains of sand on Earth.Almost all heavy elements (everything but Hydrogen, Helium, and a bit of Lithium) comes from stars that have gone supernova. You are made of stars.The solar system is in orbit around the center of the Milky Way. We’re moving at about 483,000 miles an hour.There are more molecules in a cup of water than there are cups of water in the ocean.There are almost more atoms in a grain of sand, than there are grains of sand on Earth.The word “bed” looks like a bed. Also… sharkThe mirror image of ‘3.14’ looks like the word ‘PIE‘.Pepsi Cola was originally known as “Brad’s Drink”Callipygous is a word dedicated to describing a perfectly shaped beautiful butt.The word “trivia” comes from the latin tri-vium, meaning the intersection of three roads. In the Middle Ages, local towns would post their news on billboards nearby that were at the intersection of three or more roads, so as to maximize the number of travelers who would see it. Random, obscure facts that were picked up while traveling then became known as “trivia.”Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” is a grammatically valid sentence.So is.. James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher.The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.Polish is the only word in the English language that changes meaning and pronunciation with capitalization.The sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” uses every letter in the alphabet.A group of gorillas is called a shrewdness.A group of flamingos is called a stand.A group of giraffes is called a tower.A group of unicorns is called a blessing.A group of crows is called a murder.A group of larks is called an exaltation.A group of ravens is called an unkindness.A group of ferrets is called a business.The name of Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg is Algonquin for “I fish on my side, you fish on your side, and nobody fishes in the middle.”A computer used to be a person.NACA High Speed Flight Station "Computer Room" (1949)Inflammable = flammable.Non-dairy creamer is extremely flammable.The guy that voices SpongeBob SquarePants is the narrator in Power-puff Girls.The sound you hear before water starts to boil is actually the first water vapor bubbles forming at the bottom and imploding as they reach colder water just above. The sound you hear is the shock wave that is created from the cavitation that occurs.A sunset is usually more brilliant than a sunrise because of the dust and particles that are kicked up by the sun heating the ground creating thermals. The dust then refracts the light and creates colors in the sky.Worker ants take 250 naps a day that last a little over a minute long on average and total to around 4 and a half hours of sleep. This allows 80% of the workforce to be active at any one time. Queen ants on the other hand, take 90 naps a day which average about 6 minutes each, getting about 9 hours of sleep a day. Scientists think this may be why worker ants live only for months while the queens live for years.Ants don’t have enough mass to die on impact, no matter the height.Cats are made entirely out of cat-food and water.There’s only 69 years between the Battle of the Little Big Horn and the dropping of the first atomic bomb.Personal odor is either entirely unique to you, or shared with an identical twin.“Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale’s vagina.”Don’t Act Like You’re Not Impressed.Helicopters do not take off or land by changing the speed of the rotor blades. The rotor blades are moving at the exact same speed at all times even when the helicopter is hovering, accelerating, slowing down or on the ground. It’s just the angle of the blades being changed.Looking up to the left can help you access you memory, to try to find that lost trivia.If you ask someone a question, and they look up to their left they are accessing memory, and are probably telling the truth, if they look up to their right they are being creative and potentially lying.The Sony VAIO logo represents the transition from analog to digital.Hugo Boss designed and manufactured the uniforms for the Nazi’s.New York is area code 212 and LA is 213 and Chicago 312 because the largest cities got the quickest numbers to dial on a rotary phone.Goats have horizontal slit-shaped pupils which increases their peripheral depth perception which is very important when climbing cliffs.The length of your forearm from elbow to wrist is the same length of your foot from heel to toe. Try it if you don’t believe me.With arms spread straight out, the distance from middle finger tip to middle finger tip is equal to your height.Ulysses S. Grant (our 18th president) got a speeding ticket riding a horse 20mph in Washington D.C.George Washington (Mr. First President) almost joined the British Navy, but his mother convinced him otherwise.How Much Is An 1899 $2 Bill Worth?The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache and is also typically shown with a sword behind his head, making him appear to be stabbing himself.Speaking of mustaches, some Indian police are paid an extra 66 cents a month (30 rupees) for having a mustache..999… is exactly equal to 1.With just 57 people in a room, the chance that there are two people who share a birthday is at least 99%! With 23 people in the room, there is a 50% chance.On a chessboard, a knight can visit each square exactly once.When you dream, everything you see in that dream, you’ve seen before in real life.Every time you shuffle a deck of cards, it’s extremely likely that your specific arrangement of cards has never existed and will never exist again. The chance that you’ve recreated a shuffled deck from any point in human history is similar to winning the lottery 100 times over.Or to say it another way: You can re-arrange a deck of cards into more combinations than there have been nanoseconds since the birth of the universe.Aladdin is Chinese.Aladdin in the Magic Garden, an illustration by Max Liebert from Ludwig Fulda's Aladin und die WunderlampeHere are some of the most mind-blowing facts about the universeeshemutaIt took humans about 10,000 years to go from the beginnings of agriculture to space travel.It will be 4 times that long (40,000 years) before Voyager comes close to another solar system.AnonZakA year on Venus is less than two days on Venus. Venus is the only planet that spins on the opposite direction earth does!MasterAdkinsThere are approximately 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the observable universe.Bright flares are visible near the event horizon of a super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way in this image released on January 6, 2003.SteelFi5hLook at your wrist, see the blueish veins? The blood flowing through them contains hemoglobin, a protein that has four iron atoms incorporated into its structure. Iron is only naturally produced in one place, it can only be forged in the core of dying stars.Every time you look at your veins, remember that you are built from, and kept alive by, pieces of stardust.secretcelebrityYou can fit every planet, right next to each other, in the distance between the earth and the moon! With room to spare!epicbeatthe color of the universe is called cosmic latteset111The magnetic field around a Magnetar is so intense that if you converted the magnetic field energy into mass using E=mc2, The energy contained in 1m3 of empty space would have a mass of around 500,000,000 Kg!We could be in a false vacuum. We may be in a higher pressure bubble within the universe, so what we perceive to be a vacuum is actually higher pressure than the true vacuum located outside of this bubble. If this bubble were to "pop", everything inside would be annihilated.EvisGamerPhotons of light do not experience time. That is, when a photon is emitted from some light source, say a star, from its perspective it arrives at its destination instantaneously, no matter how close or how far away it actually traveled through space. Only matter in the universe experiences time, so to some observer elsewhere, it may have appeared as though it took a billion years for that photon to travel from its source to its destination.So imagine this: inside the core of every single star, millions or even billions of years ago, hydrogen atoms were being fused together to create helium atoms. The energy released from all of those essentially infinite number of reactions steadily made their way to the surfaces of their respective stars, and photons were ejected into the vacuum of space. Those photons traveled across the galaxy for millions of our years, avoided the countless number of obstacles in between us, and entered the Earth's atmosphere. Those photons avoided even more obstacles as they passed through the atmosphere before finally reaching your eye's cornea, focused by your pupil, and landing on your retina. The absorption of these photons by the rods and cones in your eye triggers signals to your brain, which are then interpreted into the amazing cumulative image you are observing. That entire process, from hydrogen fusion to traveling for millions of years to triggering an image in your brain, is by itself an amazing thing to contemplate. But here's the mindfuck.Every single photon your eyes absorb are yours and yours alone, and from the perspective of each of those photons, that process from nuclear fusion to absorption in your retina occurred at the exact same instant. No one else can ever see those same photons. No one else can ever possibly witness the exact same set of photons from the countless number of stars in the sky. Every time you look up at the night sky, you are observing a beautifully unique image that will never ever be reproduced. And it's all just for you, this tiny little creature on a planet orbiting a star we call the Sun, in a galaxy we call the Milky Way.A Hubble telescope edge-on view of the ESO 510-G13 (Warped Disk) galaxy is seen in this undated NASA photograph100 Crazy Facts to Truly Blow Your Mind!The Real Reason the McDonald’s Logo Is Yellow and RedReader's DigestThe colors red and yellow were chosen for a specific reason—and no, it wasn’t because they looked nice with Ronald McDonald’s clown-like face. It actually has to do with science. The color red is stimulating and is associated with being active. It also increases heart rate, which helps to jump-start your appetite. The color yellow is associated with happiness and is the most visible color in daylight, so that’s why a McDonald’s sign is so easy to spot on a crowded road.The brain processes color before it processes words or shapes, so that’s why the fast-food chain chose these two colors for their logo and brand. Red and yellow makes you hungry, encouraging you to want to buy the product they sell, while also making you feel happy.McDonald’s has started to use this color philosophy to influence and change the way people currently think about their brand as well. Many franchises have started to incorporate more of the color green into their storefronts and interior design because it’s associated with nature and being environmentally friendly, something McDonald’s has been criticized for not being in the past. The company has been working to become greener by using environmentally friendly refrigeration and converting used oil into biodiesel fuel.So, next time you pass a McDonald’s, don’t be surprised if you find it really hard to resist going in and getting a burger and coke. Next, don’t miss these mind-blowing facts you never knew about McDonald’s.The post The Real Reason the McDonald’s Logo Is Yellow and Red appeared first on Reader's Digest.The Lost Generation: A Poem that has Exactly Opposite Meaning When Read Backwards! (mind.blowing-facts.org)Have you ever read a poem backwards? Have you ever wondered how a particularly poem sounds when you read it backwards?Well, The Lost Generation is a poem by Jonathan Reed. It was written as an entry for the AARP’s U@5o video contest. This contest was launched in the month of August in the year 2007. In order to participate in this contest, one had to create a two minute video that explained the vision of the contestant on how his life is going to be when he is 50 years old.When read backwards, it becomes uplifting.There is hope.It is foolish to presume thatMy generation is apathetic and lethargic.It will be evident thatMy peers and I care about this Earth.No longer can it be said thatEnvironmental destruction will be the norm.In the future,I will live in a country of my own making.I do not concede thatThirty years from now, I will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of my divorce.Experts tell meThis is a quick fix societyBut this will not be true in my era.Families stayed togetherOnce upon a timeI’ll tell you this:FamilyIs more important thanWorkI have my priorities straight becauseMy employer will know thatThey are not the most important thing in my life.So in thirty years, I will tell my children“Money will make me happy”Is a lie, and“True Happiness comes from within”I realize this may be a shock, butI can change the world.And I refuse to believe thatI am part of a lost generation.source : geniusMind-Blowing Facts That Are Totally True (25 pics) (izismile.com)

What is Puberty?Many teens do not understand the meaning of puberty and think when you take long without seeing any significant increase in vertical height then you have passed puberty stage so;Puberty is the stage in life when boys or girls become sexually mature. It is a stage of bodily change that usually happens between ages 10 and 14 for girls and ages 12 and 16 to 17 years for boysWhat are the signs of entering Puberty stage?Before boys and girls enter puberty stage, the only difference on their bodies is their genitalia.However, when they reach puberty stage, they are affected differentlyGirls:The first sign of puberty is usually breast development. Then growth of pubic hair and acne.Menstruation or period which occurs between 12 and 13 yrs is the major sign of puberty and normally comes last.Boys:Puberty usually begins with the testicles and penis getting bigger.Then hair grows in the pubic area and armpits. Muscles grow, the voice deepens, and occasionally acne and facial hair develop as puberty continues.But the major sign of puberty in boys is the first ejaculation and usually occurs around 13 yrs.Both boys and girls also usually have a growth spurt (a rapid increase in height) that lasts for about 2 or 3 years.This brings them closer to their adult height, which they reach after puberty (source).What should you do To grow taller Naturally During Puberty?1. Have A Right Diet Plan2. Exercise3. Get Enough Sleep4. Play Sports5. Stop Overeating6. Drink Plenty Of Water7. Pay Attention To Your Posture8. Go Outdoors10. Stay Away From Growth Inhibitors11. Ashwagandha12. Maintain Your BMI13. Stretching14. Small and Frequent Meals:15.Eat A Healthy Breakfast:16. Wear Lifts17.Understand that a majority1. Have A Right Diet PlanWe are what we eat. So, what you eat matters a lot. Actually, the nutrition gotten from food is considered the foundation of every good thing that happens in our bodies, including a height increase. Thus, to know how to grow taller, you should plan a balanced diet which can pep up grow-inducing hormones in your body and replenish lost cells. Some important vitamins and minerals found in foods that can boost your height are calcium, vitamin B1, vitamin D, phosphorus and zinc. You can find these vitamins in fruits and vegetables, cereals, dairy, and lean meat. Do not forget to take plenty of water to aid the process of enhancing height. In details, here is some specific advice for taking each of vitamins:Vitamin D:A healthy diet should also be rich in essential fats, complex carbohydrates, and proteins. Additionally, you need to understand the importance of vitamin D because it helps the bones absorb calcium, which is directly responsible for the bone strength and growth[1]. You can get this vitamin from the foods like mushrooms, fish, dairy products, pork, eggs, alfalfa, and tofu or through exposing to sunlight.Calcium:The intake of calcium is important because bones require nutrients to develop and grow. Some calcium-rich foods include soybeans, cheese, green veggies, fortified cereals and dairy products.Zinc:You had better increase your consumption of zinc by eating some foods like asparagus, peas, chocolate, eggs, and oysters. Deprivation of zinc in children will cause stunted growth2. How To Grow Taller – ExerciseExercise is important for everyone. It can stimulate nerve ends which are directly associated with the pituitary gland. As a result, it secretes more HGH. This can also lead to an increase in height even after puberty[2].The simplest exercises you can do are running and swimming. What you need is just a pair of running shoes or a membership ticket of a swimming pool. Or, you could also practice some specific exercises for growing taller, which are:Exercise 1: CobraLie down on the floor with your back up, your palms on the floor and under your shoulders.Arch the spine up towards the chin as far back as you couldDo this exercise a few times, each times lasts from 5 to 30 seconds.Exercise 2: Cat stretchStart with your knees and hands on the floor, your arms are locked outInhale when you flex your spine down, bring your head upWhile exhaling, bring your spine up into an arched position and bring the head downDo this routine a few times, each lasts from 3 to 8 secondsExercise 3: Basic leg stretchSit down, spread two legs far apartReach for the toes of each legTry to keep your knees straightMove into the posture of reaching for the other leg’s toes. Keep your spine straight while doing so.Avoid arching your upper spine. This stretch should work both your legs and your spine.Repeat this routine a few times, each lasts from 6 to 15 seconds.Exercise 4: The BridgeLie down with your feet flat on the ground as close to your butt as you could, your knees bentGrab your ankles and keep that position while rising your hips up and arch your spineThis will lift your abs upwards. Lift as high as you could.Lower your back down and repeat this routineEach repetition lasts from 3 to 10 secondsExercise 5: Straight leg upLie with your face down, hands behind your neckRaise one leg straight as high as possibleRedo with the other legRepeat this routine a few times with each lasting from 3 to 5 seconds.MORE:How to Grow 5 Inches Taller in a Month at Home NaturallyIt is a fact that a large percentage of the population these days are not happy about their height. In fact, many are worried that they are not as tall…https://medical-magazine.com/how-to-grow-5-inches-taller/3. Get Enough SleepSleep is very important for the growth hormones to perform their functions. Thus, getting proper sleep will help you achieve your goal of growing faster. Inadequate sleep will lower the amount of grow hormones that your body produces. Taking 8-10 hours to sleep will warrant that all body tissues are regenerated and rejuvenated so that you can be at your best in the following day [3]. 4. Play SportsThis tip on how to grow taller seems similar to the 2nd one. But, this tip is more specific. Have you ever noticed how tall swimmers or basketball players normally are? Part of the reasons is because of the sport they are taking part in. In addition to these, martial arts, baseball, badminton, tennis and cycling are some other sports that make you taller.5. How To Grow Taller – Stop OvereatingThis sounds irrelevant to growing taller. However, in fact, overeating will slow down the digestion, thereby making it hard for your body to assimilate required nutrients in an efficient way. This will cause a hurdle to your height; therefore, rather than taking 3 big meals per day, you should take 6 smaller ones.6. Drink Plenty Of WaterGuzzling down plenty of water will not make you grow like a towering giant, yet the human body needs to be hydrated to reach its potential height growth. Drinking water is usually overlooked in regard to growing taller. Nonetheless, water improves digestion, removes toxins, and improves the metabolism. So it impacts directly on your height.You should take at least 8 glasses of water daily for optimum health. Also, do not forget to add more water-based fruits as well as greens, such as cucumbers and watermelons, to your diet.7. Pay Attention To Your PostureYour posture impacts significantly on your height growth. Slouching suppresses your height by pressuring your spinal cord. Moreover, posture also plays an important role in assisting height growth. The ideal posture is upright position with head, shoulders, and spine aligned.Always sit or stand upright. This applies even when you are seated at the dining table or at a desk. The chin should be parallel to the floor, your shoulders back, and your spine bend a little bit at the back.MORE: Fast weight loss diet plan lose 5kg in 5 days8. How To Grow Taller – Go OutdoorsGetting sunlight is considered the easiest manner of absorbing vitamin D that helps your body absorb calcium. Therefore, the more sunlight you will absorb, the better your bone length and strength will be. You can jog or go for a walk in the sun, particularly in the morning when the sun is not at its brightest. Also, add more natural sources of vitamin D to your diet, which are milk, eggs, fish and cheese.9. Keep Your Immune System StrongOur immune system plays an important role in developing our height. If you have a strong immune system, you will less likely to get diseases and the growth progress of your body will not be affected too much. While some ailments could stunt growth during your childhood or puberty, you could still boost your immune system by eating healthy meals. Instead of eating processed, fast foods, you should diversify your daily diet with low-fat dairy products, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and proteins.Citrus fruits like oranges, grapes, and lemons are especially high in antioxidants and they can help counteract the damaging effects of free radicals in order to maintain a disease-free state of your body. Besides, foods like cod liver oil, fish and nuts can give abundant omega-3 fatty acids that are beneficial in boosting immunity.MOER:How to Grow 5 Inches Taller in 2 Weeks at Home NaturallyHow to Grow 5 Inches Taller in 2 Weeks is important, especially for those who have reached particular height and need to be taller.If you are unhappy with your height,…https://medical-magazine.com/how-to-grow-5-inches-taller-in-2-weeks/10. Stay Away From Growth InhibitorsSome certain growth inhibitors may keep you from getting your full potential height. You can keep such external factors from impacting your height by staying away from them.Alcohol and drugs are some of the most common growth inhibitors that should be eliminated since they interfere with your normal growth[4].Also, steroids have been found to disturb our growth if we take them at the young age. Such drugs should not be used if you are a teenager as they tend to inhibit the bone development by closing growth plates. Actually, according to researches, children and teens who use asthma medications that have small doses of budesonide (a type of steroid) often grow about 1 inch shorter than their normal peers.Not to mention drugs, steroids, and alcohol, caffeine is also another growth inhibitor, particularly for young children. Despite it does not inhibit growth directly; it keeps you from sleeping well. Sleep, as mention earlier, is very important for children and teens that need 8-10 hours of sleeping per day to develop appropriately. Large intake of caffeine will result in inadequate sleep, leading to the decreased growing progress. Furthermore, you should avoid smoking because it also stunts your growth[5].More :How to grow taller during puberty naturally