Cameron Norrie

indiana · Tennis legend

Cameron Norrie

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
davidn wrote:
The benefits of rubbing shoulders with the creme de la creme of GB tennis plus experiencing the cauldron of an away DC fixture
outweighs any potential loss of points. Plus in the event of a quick win perhaps an opportunity to play a dead rubber.

Even without Raonic this won't be easy even if on paper we should win

If Andy doesn't play and the rest are fit the team will surely be Dan, Kyle, Jamie and Dom. So Cam wouldn't be able to play any dead runner.

I thought it was a tennis tie, not an athletics event, let alone one with a shoot-to-kill policy! wink

RJA · Hall of fame

Vandenburg wrote:
indiana wrote:
Cam has withdrawn from the Dallas Challenger, no doubt due to the info The Optimist gave us in the Davis Cup thread - that he has been added to the DC squad as a hitting partner. I guess potential singles cover as well, prior to the team selection, for Kyle and Evo if Andy doesn't play.

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 28th of January 2017 02:46:28 AM

A bit of a silly move. It is good to bring in new kids so they learn about the DC and get the to meet the team etc, I agree, but cam is a different kettle of fish. He needs to be playing Dallas this week as he may have a limited season points wise due to college.

The whole point of playing college tennis is for a player to develop their game and not to worry about short term things like ranking points and prize money.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

What a fantastic opportunity, there was a similar period in Kyles development when he missed an opportunity to score points playing challenger tennis choosing to hit with the squad when we played the US away. An experience you can't buy, there is always next year to win in Dallas, although it is a tournament I have a soft spot for in an ideal world he will never play it!

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Sunday 29th of January 2017 06:53:08 PM

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Sunday 29th of January 2017 10:44:25 PM

davidn · Junior player

Thanks for clarity on DC rules Indiana

wolf · Tennis legend

Nice blog from Cam - https://spark.adobe.com/page/aRjH348Sb1mrV/

NB he has entered the Guadalajara challenger week 12 commencing 20th March.

Spectator · All-time great

That's a great blog: thanks, Wolf. So he's turning pro at the end of this school year ... should be very interesting.

Was interested by this, too: "I lived at the tennis center there at the National Training Center in London, where it was all tennis, all the time, and quite honestly, I grew a bit sick of it." It's what CD has often intimated - much better to have an atmosphere where there's some sense of an outside world.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I really enjoyed that too, it gives a little insight into the choices that Cam and his family made when choosing college. Life is definitely as much about enjoying the journey as much as the end goal. If not there is that sense of "so what was that for when you get there".

I completely understand that for a player with talent but with other interests and aspirations the set up at the National Tennis centre could to be frank be pretty boring. By it's very nature you would only mix with a very limited number of other contemporaries, definitely not for everyone. You could see someone like Nicole Gibbs struggling in the same way.

I do however feel Cam is not your average tennis recruit and indeed similarly college is not for everyone. He has always been right at the very top of college tennis and by hook or by crook/serendipity managed to find an insightful coach/team of coaches that have been very flexible and delivered for him a schedule of appropriately challenging professional events (futures and later challengers) that have stretched him and facilitated his development. Obviously the resources at TCU are a major factor and the nuturing environment of college (and I speak as a slow learner re time spent) facilitating personal growth in an intellectually stimulating environment fantastic. The true level of competition he needed to grow technically though was outside of that.

All that said there is a cohort of players at the same level (elite youngsters) who I feel are equally not suited to college, they have completely different backgrounds, values and motivations, and other personal demons to battle. Evo for example I feel has matured on tour, at times it has been a painful watch and you could argue vanishing off to USC or Miami for 4 years (and I am sure such institutions would find a way) would have protected him. The reality is that just want going to happen and for British tennis to really flourish we need to harness as many Dan's as we possibly can.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Saturday 4th of March 2017 08:14:30 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I think the first thing one has to ask about re going to college is does that person have interest in doing further academic studies?

For some (a lot?) of the programmes, at some (a lot?) of the unis, we're not talking high level rocket science, far from it.
But if you've absolutely had it with academics (and many 18 year-olds have and that's completely fine) then college isn't for you.
I know a couple of our lower-ranked (unranked) players who that applies to. And they're right - even if it's the best thing for their tennis, the very basis of college is lectures and book-learning and if you're done with that, you're done with that. (A tiny part of me says but why not give it a go? might be different...but I know, really, that it's not true or not relevant).

So I have a huge problem with kids dropping out of (all and any) education before 18 (unnecessary, can be done by correspondence, doesn't help their tennis - practically none of the French do, lessens them as individuals, cuts options, etc. etc.). But college isn't for everyone.

However, the truth is that the alternative is really not great either. Especially for the boys/young men.

And, yes, the NNTC is a really strange place - stuck in a non-driving youngster's definition of the middle of nowhere, hugely sterile, with none of the hustle and bustle of a normal club, nor like a normal high-performance centre that has other sports, more like a Civil Service office (tons and tons of admin people), very strange ....

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Some of the students at some of the elite sporting institutions in the US are in no way academically inclined or gifted, absolutely everything that can be done to get them in and keep them is done.

The offensive lines at LSU, Alabama and Miami are not going to win any Nobel prizes, similarly the basketball players at Kentucky and Kansas, they are there for one thing and one thing only, a shot at the NBA or NFL. Academics at these institutions are an irrelevance for the elite (student)ATHLETES. Essential they recruit from the same pool as soccer academies do in the U.K.

Within reason there is a place and a course for everyone who can sprint 40yds in under 5 seconds or weighs 300lbs or is over 6'6" but can still move. Some of these boys are from very diverse backgrounds.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Sunday 5th of March 2017 10:54:14 PM

Spectator · All-time great

The question, though, is not whether, as you have stated earlier, some universities make questionable use of the athletic scholarship system for the purpose of generating income from a few key sports, but whether university is good and useful for GB tennis players. I'd tend to agree with CD on this. If you're someone who really doesn't care about study, then going to university, whether you're athletically inclined or not, doesn't make a lot of sense. And if you have any academic inclinations at all, I think that - except under exceptional circumstances - it makes quite a lot.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Point taken, there are very few if any kids from similar backgrounds playing tennis in the UK or US for that matter.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Could be exciting times !!!

Cameron Norrie @cam_nozza 3h3 hours ago

Gonna miss my boys at TCU, they fought like dogs this year and couldn't ask for anymore. -->England tomorrow to kick start my pro career

JonH · All-time great

Good news - presumably taking a run at the AEGON Trophy Series Challengers and then see what wild cards pop up for him?

skibbarriz · Strong Club Player

Cool cool cool. Am looking forward to following his progress. He's an exciting prospect, one of our few talents. And in case Dan asks, he's a Brit!

-- Edited by skibbarriz on Monday 22nd of May 2017 01:54:58 PM