The American and UK Tennis Industry

There is a lot of money in the tennis industry. A crazy amount when you look at the numbers.

The American tennis industry alone has 18 million players and the industry worldwide has over 100 million players. Americans currently buy approx. 3.4 million new tennis racquets and 127 million tennis balls per year. In the USA the tennis industry is worth over $6 billion dollars*.

* Not counting the gambling that also goes on court-side, and also not counting the sponsorship deals that tennis players make on the side worth millions. eg. Roger Federer made $65 million USD just from sponsorships in 2013.

Tennis is also very popular in the UK, where the tennis industry is worth $2.6 billion. The global value of the tennis industry is in the 10s of billions. So if you counted the sponsorships, the 3rd party gambling, etc then it is worth even more.

Gambling in the tennis industry is so prevalent and common that some gamblers have even found a way to game the system by exploiting a loophole known as "Courtsiding". Courtsiding involves spectators watching a live game and then gambling on the results of individual serves by betting on the person who won the serve seconds before the umpire inputs the results of the serve into the system. Essentially the Courtsider already knows who won the individual serve, so they aren't really gambling like a normal person would as they already know who won the serve when they place the bet at the last second. What they are counting on is the umpire being slow to input the results of the serve into the computer, meanwhile the Courtsider (and often an accomplice) places the bet and seconds later the computers on the online gambling websites are updated with the results, but it is too late. The Courtsider has already won on the virtue of being a second or two faster than the umpire.

Courtsiding has also become so common many tennis events now ban cellphones and the use of bluetooth devices, so some savvy Courtsiders are now hiding their bluetooth devices under their long hair or hats. In Europe there are so many Courtsiders it is even skewing the odds, which means it isn't even profitable in most European countries.

Now you might think, wait, why don't they just have a delay or something to prevent people from doing this? Except nobody knows when the tennis players will win the serve so you can't predict when that will happen. So they can't make a delay as it is too unpredictable.



Many of these online gambling sites (aka bookie websites), especially those in the UK, like Toals and others allow people to bet on almost anything. Sports, politics, many different topics. You can probably even bet on whether the UK will have a no deal Brexit. At present that looks like a guarantee.

Personally I think the only thing I would ever gamble on is horse races, and only for fun. Less than $20 for a single day at the track. Why?

Because I used to work at a racetrack when I was younger. I like horses. Someday I would like to have my own horse farm and do horseback archery.

I also know that in Ontario the horse racing industry is propped up by gambling. Without gambling the industry wouldn't even exist.

So if I lost $20 at the race track that is basically a donation to support Ontario's horse racing industry. Go there, watch the horses, eat some food, donate your $20, and then go home. Enjoy the entertainment of watching the horses thunder past.

That said I am taking my son and wife to the Hanover Racetrack (a small racetrack in Grey County, Ontario) this weekend, where we will get to see the "horsies" go thundering by.

Earlier in the day we will be visiting family and petting kittens.

And then the day after we are going to a petting zoo.

An animal filled Labour Day Long Weekend. Visit family. See kittens, horses and the petting zoo. Wanna bet we will have fun doing all that? You betcha!

Youth Recurve Bow / Youth Archery Equipment

The following is a follow up email I sent to a client after teaching his daughter this past weekend. After the lesson he had a series of questions about purchasing equipment that I answered, during which I mentioned my Archery Equipment Checklist.

 

Hey I!

Good meeting you both on Saturday!

If you are considering buying equipment here is that equipment checklist that I mentioned after the lesson:

http://www.cardiotrek.ca/2017/04/archery-equipment-checklist.html

The biggest change is that you will be looking for a youth recurve bow instead of an adult recurve bow given in the example. When your daughter is 12 roughly she should be tall enough for an adult bow, in which case you could sell the youth bow and buy a new one. (The good news is used archery equipment, if you take good care of it, usually has a fairly good resale value of about 80% of what you paid for it.)

So for example you could get something similar to a Samick youth bow in 14 lbs. (She was shooting 12 lbs on Saturday, but an extra 2 lbs will be okay.)

Youth Samick Recurve Bow - Priced at $159.85 CDN on Amazon.ca

If you have any follow up questions feel free to ask. Have a great day!

Sincerely,
Charles Moffat
CardioTrek.ca

2-in-1 Archery Hand Guard / Arm Guard, Product Review

I purchased the armguard / handguard shown in the above two photos for use with longbows and horsebows a few months ago and I have been wearing it during that time period whenever I am shooting any of my longbows, flatbows or horsebows that don't have an arrow rest.

The handguard protects your hand from the fletching ripping into your skin as the arrow goes past your hand at a hefty speed. The flatbow I have been testing it on is 36 lbs, while the horsebow I have been using lately is 50 lbs.

The armguard is also excellent (and easy to put on and adjust with the drawstrings), although it only covers the forearm. Some archers who habitually hit their elbows or even their biceps may want a larger armguard that offers protecting for their elbow or bicep. I fortunately don't have that problem.

Fashion wise it looks very good and the colour I got even matched my thumb release glove I got years ago, thus whenever I am shooting with a thumb release on my horsebow they at least match.

Price wise it was only $19.99 CDN on Amazon.ca. Visit the following product listing:

• www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07P9GDS5M/

Now there are probably fancier handguards out there, just like there are cheaper handguards out there, but a two-in-one solution for $19.99 CDN that is both a handguard and armguard, and it works very well and easy to adjust... well that is a very good deal.


Notes

This product review was not sponsored. I simply wanted a new armguard / handguard that I can use with my various longbows and horsebows, both for my personal use and for my archery students to use.

Now that I have confirmed that this one works well I may in the future buy a left-handed version for any left eye dominance students who want to learn longbow or horsebow.

Are you looking to learn how to shoot horsebow or longbow? Sign up for 3 or more archery lessons in Toronto and make a request to learn a specific style (or multiple styles).

The Old Archers Thumb Trick

Pretend for a moment you are used to standing up and aiming at something and then one day you decide to try shooting while sitting down or kneeling or even sitting cross-legged. Suddenly the angle of the ground to the target has shifted and it confuses you as to where to aim.

You could shoot... but if you've never shot from a kneeling or sitting position before then you could miss easily. It really does take practice and experience to learn how to shoot from sitting / kneeling positions with a greater degree of accuracy.

Fortunately there is an old archers trick for how to adjust your aim and make sure you are still aiming at the correct spot.

#1. While standing use your thumb to measure the distance between the center of your target and where you would normally aim off the tip of your arrow. Use the wrinkles and marks on the sides of your thumb to measure the distance. (This is where having a wrinkly old thumb is arguably better.)

#2. Sit down or kneel and then use your thumb again, remembering the same spot on the side of your thumb to measure the distance between the target and your aiming point.

#3. Now that you have a better idea of where to aim you can use that point of reference to do your first shot with little worry of missing.

Note - If you don't use the traditional method of aiming off the arrowhead and instead use the Gap Shooting method of aiming then you don't really have to worry about this problem. Using Gap Shooting you can just aim using that method and your shot will still be accurate.\

If you don't know how to Gap Shoot or want to improve your aiming techniques you can always sign up for archery lessons in Toronto.

In other news a friend wore the shirt below to the archery range and I decided to get a photo of it. Happy Shooting!

Whitetail Deer at the Toronto Archery Range

The video below is from last Thursday (August 22nd), wherein I got within 8 yards of a whitetail doe at the Toronto Archery Range located at E. T. Seton Park, and also pretty close to the fawn too.




The following video is a compilation of 6 smaller (and older) videos of whitetail deer at the archery range. They visit the range quite often and have no predators in the region (unless you count cars, trucks, etc).

Now you might think, gee, isn't that dangerous? Not really. We leave the deer alone, except for taking photos and video, and they leave us alone. The deer at the range are a bit curious about what we silly humans are doing, but otherwise leave us alone.