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THE TENNIS TACTICIAN, LLC

Themed Cardio Tennis Clinics in the Fort Lauderdale Area

beginner tennis class — the Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet and the flag of Georgia combined by the model into a single photoreal composition. The white field with its large central red St George's cross and four smaller red Bolnisi crosses in the quarters fills the frame, the cloth lit from one side so the folds carry light across the arms of the crosses, and the pale natural-coloured oversize frame is composed into the arrangement so the hoop and the central cross read as one deliberate object, with no lettering anywhere in the picture.
beginner tennis class — the Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet photographed at Khornabuji Fortress outside Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia. Bare stone wall stumps and a broken tower crown an isolated rock outcrop rising straight out of flat farmland. Camera low and close to the ground looking up the last scramble, early morning in April with raking gold light and long shadows across the wet grass: two hikers hauling themselves over the final rock step, a guide turning back to point at the wall line, a shepherd moving a flock along the base of the spur below, larks going up. The racquet lies flat on a worn stone block in the near foreground, ignored by everyone.
beginner tennis class — the Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet photographed at Eagle Gorge, the Artsivi Kheoba Natural Monument near Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia. A narrow limestone canyon with pale banded walls cut deep into the plateau, a green thread of forest on its floor, griffon vultures riding thermals level with the rim. Camera high on the canyon edge looking down, hard white midday sun in July, heat shimmer and no cloud: a group of birdwatchers with a spotting scope on a tripod, one crouched and calling out a bird, a ranger's dusty pickup with its door open, a volunteer refilling water bottles from a jerrycan. The racquet is small in the frame, resting on the bare rock lip of the overlook well off to one side.
beginner tennis class — the Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet photographed at the Takhti-Tepha Mud Volcanoes in the Vashlovani protected areas near Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia. A low grey-brown hill only a few metres high, its crown pitted with wet mud craters up to nearly four metres across and small vents bubbling and popping. Camera close and intimate at knee height with shallow depth of field, late afternoon under a low bruised overcast with rain coming, wind pushing the grass flat: a park ranger crouched at a crater rim explaining it to a family, two children squatting with their hands on their knees, a woman stepping back as a bubble bursts and spatters, a spaniel on a lead refusing to come closer. The racquet rests on the flat plank of a low boardwalk mid-frame, mud-speckled and untouched.
beginner tennis class — the Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet photographed in Vashlovani National Park south-east of Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia. Eroded badland ridges and dry gullies in banded ochre and grey run back toward the Alazani, scattered light woodland along the lower slopes, a rough track cut with tyre ruts. Camera at eye level in the middle distance, blue hour just after sunset in late autumn with the sky going indigo and the last orange still on the ridge tops, dust hanging in the air: shepherds bringing a flock down the track to a winter camp, dogs working the flanks, a man crouching to light a fire, a battered four-wheel drive with its headlights on. The racquet lies on the open tailgate of the vehicle, off to the right, nobody paying it any attention.
beginner tennis class — the Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet and the flag of Georgia combined by the model into a single photoreal composition. The white field with its large central red St George's cross and four smaller red Bolnisi crosses in the quarters fills the frame, the cloth lit from one side so the folds carry light across the arms of the crosses, and the pale natural-coloured oversize frame is composed into the arrangement so the hoop and the central cross read as one deliberate object, with no lettering anywhere in the picture.

Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet

Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia  ·  Racquets > Adult

Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet

This one is loess and gypsum: it gives before it cracks, and an aerospace elastomer in the composite pulls the ring out of a stiff frame. 105 or 110 in², 285 or 270 g, 23.5 mm tapered, 69 RA. Take the road out of Dedoplis Tskaro that turns to dust after nine kilometres. It has already claimed the passenger seat.

↓   Tour Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia

Four stops before the checkout

Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia
01
beginner tennis class — the Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet photographed at Khornabuji Fortress outside Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia. Bare stone wall stumps and a broken tower crown an isolated rock outcrop rising straight out of flat farmland. Camera low and close to the ground looking up the last scramble, early morning in April with raking gold light and long shadows across the wet grass: two hikers hauling themselves over the final rock step, a guide turning back to point at the wall line, a shepherd moving a flock along the base of the spur below, larks going up. The racquet lies flat on a worn stone block in the near foreground, ignored by everyone.
Stop one

Khornabuji Fortress

Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet: Good morning, and welcome. If you could gather in a semicircle, thank you. Khornabuji is the principal medieval monument of the Dedoplistsqaro area. Tradition attributes its construction in the fifth century to King Vakhtang Gorgasali, the founder of Tbilisi. Queen Tamar, who reigned from 1184 to 1213, greatly improved its fortifications and built works to carry water up to the site, and this is the line I always slow down for, because on a dry isolated hill that is not a detail, it is a serious undertaking and the whole problem solved at once. The fortress commanded the approach into Kakheti from the south-east. And the shape of the hill makes the ruin visible from a very long distance across the plain. That concludes the fortress. Questions at the end, please, and do mind your footing on the way down; we have never lost anybody and I have no intention of starting today.

02
beginner tennis class — the Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet photographed at Eagle Gorge, the Artsivi Kheoba Natural Monument near Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia. A narrow limestone canyon with pale banded walls cut deep into the plateau, a green thread of forest on its floor, griffon vultures riding thermals level with the rim. Camera high on the canyon edge looking down, hard white midday sun in July, heat shimmer and no cloud: a group of birdwatchers with a spotting scope on a tripod, one crouched and calling out a bird, a ranger's dusty pickup with its door open, a volunteer refilling water bottles from a jerrycan. The racquet is small in the frame, resting on the bare rock lip of the overlook well off to one side.
Stop two

Vashlovani National Park

Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet: Right. I am putting the notes away, because the notes allow four sentences and the notes are wrong. The Vashlovani State Reserve lies within Dedoplistsqaro Municipality and it protects the driest landscape in Georgia, a semi-desert quite unlike the green Caucasus that every single one of you pictured when you booked. Look at it. It supports the region's biodiversity and it shelters species not found anywhere else in the country. Nowhere else! And you can actually reach it, because the town of Dedoplistsqaro is the administrative gateway to the reserve, and the road east from it climbs out of the cultivated Alazani plain onto the arid plateau within a few kilometres. A few kilometres. That is the whole geographic character of this municipality delivered in one short drive, green to desert, and I have made that drive more times than I intend to admit in front of a group. I would keep you out here all afternoon if the coach permitted it, and one day I simply shall. Where was I. Yes. Biodiversity.

03
beginner tennis class — the Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet photographed at the Takhti-Tepha Mud Volcanoes in the Vashlovani protected areas near Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia. A low grey-brown hill only a few metres high, its crown pitted with wet mud craters up to nearly four metres across and small vents bubbling and popping. Camera close and intimate at knee height with shallow depth of field, late afternoon under a low bruised overcast with rain coming, wind pushing the grass flat: a park ranger crouched at a crater rim explaining it to a family, two children squatting with their hands on their knees, a woman stepping back as a bubble bursts and spatters, a spaniel on a lead refusing to come closer. The racquet rests on the flat plank of a low boardwalk mid-frame, mud-speckled and untouched.
Stop three

Mount Elias

Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet: Composing myself. Thank you for your patience. If you would follow my hand: directly south of Dedoplistsqaro is Mount Elias, which marks the edge of the Iori plateau, the dry upland that separates the fertile Alazani valley from the semi-desert we were just discussing, and yes, I did go on, and yes, I would do it again. The town's position on this rim is precisely why medieval Georgian annals first mention it, as a military post established by King David IV, who reigned from 1089 to 1125. The high ground gave a view over the approach from the south-east, the direction from which raids into Kakheti historically came. Geography first, then history. It is always that order, and on this single point the script and I are in complete agreement. On a clear day the snow line of the Greater Caucasus shows across the plain to the north, and you should look, because it is on the itinerary and people do enjoy it.

04
beginner tennis class — the Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet photographed in Vashlovani National Park south-east of Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia. Eroded badland ridges and dry gullies in banded ochre and grey run back toward the Alazani, scattered light woodland along the lower slopes, a rough track cut with tyre ruts. Camera at eye level in the middle distance, blue hour just after sunset in late autumn with the sky going indigo and the last orange still on the ridge tops, dust hanging in the air: shepherds bringing a flock down the track to a winter camp, dogs working the flanks, a man crouching to light a fire, a battered four-wheel drive with its headlights on. The racquet lies on the open tailgate of the vehicle, off to the right, nobody paying it any attention.
Stop four

Saint Seraphim Church, Dedoplistsqaro

Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet: Our final stop, and I shall deliver this one exactly as written. The church serves the town of Dedoplistsqaro, whose name means Queen's Spring and is traditionally connected to Queen Tamar. The town has changed name repeatedly with its rulers: under Russian rule from 1803 it was Tsarskie Kolodtsy, the royal wells, a translation of the Georgian; the Soviet authorities renamed it Tsiteltskaro, Red Spring, in 1963; and the historical name was restored in 1991 at independence. Three names, one spring, and the spring never once took an interest. Archaeological sites in the surrounding municipality reach back to the Kura-Araxes culture, which is where I would take you next if the schedule allowed. It does not. Thank you all for coming, do leave your feedback with the office, and one last thing, off the script entirely: if any of you have an hour spare this afternoon, go back out to the reserve on your own. It is better without me talking over it.

The Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia track

Diadem Dream Performance Tennis Racquet

Written for this world alone.

Dedoplis Tskaro is the last proper town before eastern Georgia stops being farmland and becomes badland, and its name means the Queen's Spring — legend has it that Queen Tamar's army found water here and a military post grew up around it. It is a beginning-of-something sort of place, which makes it the right address for the Dream.

This is Diadem's comfort-first oversize frame, built in two head sizes, and it is the racquet you put in someone's hand when you want the ball to clear the net without an argument.

The Dream 105 is 105 square inches, 10.1 ounces / 285 grams unstrung, balanced 4 points head-light at 330 millimetres. The Dream 110 is 110 square inches and 9.5 ounces / 270 grams unstrung, at the same 330 millimetre balance. Everything else is shared: 27 inches long, a 16 x 19 string pattern, a 23.5 millimetre tapered beam, and a 69 RA stiffness rating.

Grips run 4 inches (L0), 4 1/8 (L1), 4 1/4 (L2) and 4 3/8 (L3). Diadem lists it at $239.95.

Sixty-nine RA on paper usually means a frame that rings through your forearm, and this one does not, because of what is buried in the layup.

Kraibon is an elastomer borrowed from motorsport and aerospace, laid into the frame to absorb vibration before it reaches you, and it works alongside Diadem's FS (Flex Stabilization) System, which stiffens the frame where it needs to stay put and lets it breathe where it does not.

The result is a light, stiff, forgiving hoop that does not punish an off-centre ball or an arm that has already had a long week. That is the whole pitch: power and a big sweetspot from the head size, comfort from the materials, and a swing weight your shoulder does not have to plan around.

You will get use out of this everywhere from a public court in Tbilisi, about 130 kilometres up the road, to whatever flat ground the ranger station can spare on the way out to Vashlovani.

And by the way, it suits a region that measures a good evening in toasts: Kakheti ferments its wine in qvevri, clay jars buried to the neck in the ground, a method UNESCO listed as intangible cultural heritage in 2013, and nobody here has ever been talked into hurrying. A racquet this easy to swing is a racquet you can still swing after the third supra of the week.

One honest note. Oversize frames give away a little precision for all that forgiveness — if you already flatten the ball out and hit through the court, the 105 is your model, not the 110.

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