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THE TENNIS TACTICIAN, LLC

Themed Cardio Tennis Clinics in the Fort Lauderdale Area

cardio tennis for resilience — the Head Lynx Touch 16g Tennis String Reel combined with the national flag of Afghanistan
cardio tennis for resilience — Buddha Niches of Bamyan in Bamyan, Two colossal empty niches carved into a golden sandstone cliff face above the Bamyan valley, honeycombed with hundreds of caves, where giant standing Buddhas stood for fourteen centuries
cardio tennis for resilience — Shahr-e Gholghola in Bamyan, A conical hill in the Bamyan valley crusted with the eroded mud-brick ruins of a citadel city, its crumbling walls and towers glowing ochre against the snow-capped Koh-e Baba range
cardio tennis for resilience — Shahr-e Zohak in Bamyan, Deep-red mud-brick towers and ramparts clinging to crimson cliffs high above the confluence of two rivers east of Bamyan, the fortress walls almost indistinguishable from the rock itself
cardio tennis for resilience — Band-e Amir Lakes in Bamyan, A chain of impossibly blue lakes held behind natural white travertine dams amid bare pink-and-tan cliffs of the Hindu Kush highlands west of Bamyan
cardio tennis for resilience — the Head Lynx Touch 16g Tennis String Reel combined with the national flag of Afghanistan

Head Lynx Touch 16g Tennis String Reel

Bamyan, Afghanistan  ·  Strings > 16g

Head Lynx Touch 16g Tennis String Reel

This is thread you can trust — 1.30 mm of Lynx in its softest Touch tuning, durable gauge, low shock, on a 200-metre reel so the whole collection stays strung. Knot between every pearl. Then let it walk you through Bamyan: the great niches, two citadels, and six blue lakes on one thread.

↓   Tour Bamyan, Afghanistan

Four stops before the checkout

Bamyan, Afghanistan
01
cardio tennis for resilience — Buddha Niches of Bamyan in Bamyan, Two colossal empty niches carved into a golden sandstone cliff face above the Bamyan valley, honeycombed with hundreds of caves, where giant standing Buddhas stood for fourteen centuries
Stop one

Buddha Niches of Bamyan

Head Lynx Touch 16g Tennis String Reel: FIFTY-FIVE METRES. The larger Buddha stood fifty-five metres, the smaller thirty-eight, cut into that cliff in the sixth century when this valley was a flourishing Buddhist centre on the Silk Road — the two largest standing Buddhas ON EARTH — and the rock around them is honeycombed with caves that served monks as cells, sanctuaries and painted chapels, described by the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang in the seventh century. In March 2001 the Taliban dynamited both statues, and the loss was felt across the world. I will not shout about that. The niches were inscribed by UNESCO in 2003. Stand underneath. The scale still takes your legs.

02
cardio tennis for resilience — Shahr-e Gholghola in Bamyan, A conical hill in the Bamyan valley crusted with the eroded mud-brick ruins of a citadel city, its crumbling walls and towers glowing ochre against the snow-capped Koh-e Baba range
Stop two

Shahr-e Gholghola

Head Lynx Touch 16g Tennis String Reel: Climb up from the bazaar and the whole valley opens under you, hill, citadel, snow on the Koh-e Baba behind it, one of the great views anywhere. The fortified citadel grew from the sixth century onward and became the stronghold of Bamyan's rulers in the Islamic era. Its name, the City of Screams, comes from 1221: Genghis Khan besieged the city during the Mongol pursuit of Jalal al-Din, and after his favourite grandson Mutugen was killed by an arrow fired from these walls he ordered every living thing in the city killed. It was never resettled. Eight centuries empty. We go quietly here.

03
cardio tennis for resilience — Shahr-e Zohak in Bamyan, Deep-red mud-brick towers and ramparts clinging to crimson cliffs high above the confluence of two rivers east of Bamyan, the fortress walls almost indistinguishable from the rock itself
Stop three

Shahr-e Zohak

Head Lynx Touch 16g Tennis String Reel: RED CITY. Say it again — RED CITY. Towers the exact colour of the cliff they stand on, nine kilometres east where the Bamyan and Kalu rivers meet, and you cannot tell where the rock stops and the wall starts. A fortress has held these crimson cliffs since at least the first century CE, and most of the mud-brick towers you are looking at come from the Shansabani and Ghorid rulers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It controlled every road into Bamyan, took tolls off the Silk Road caravans and blocked invaders, until the Mongols swept the valley in 1221. Named for Zahhak, the serpent-shouldered tyrant of Persian myth. SERPENT. SHOULDERED.

04
cardio tennis for resilience — Band-e Amir Lakes in Bamyan, A chain of impossibly blue lakes held behind natural white travertine dams amid bare pink-and-tan cliffs of the Hindu Kush highlands west of Bamyan
Stop four

Band-e Amir Lakes

Head Lynx Touch 16g Tennis String Reel: BLUE. Louder: BLUE. Six deep-blue lakes strung along a high valley of the Koh-e Baba west of town, each one held back by a natural dam of travertine built up over millennia as mineral-rich spring water laid down its carbonates. Nature built the dams. NATURE BUILT THE DAMS. Local tradition attributes them to miracles of Hazrat Ali, so people come here as pilgrims as well as sightseers. In 2009 Band-e Amir was declared Afghanistan's first national park — the FIRST — and for generations it has been the one excursion out of Bamyan nobody skips. Sapphire water, bare tan cliffs, no edit required.

The Bamyan, Afghanistan track

Head Lynx Touch 16g Tennis String Reel

Written for this world alone.

Knot between every pearl. Always. If the thread goes, you lose one, not the necklace. Head Lynx Touch 16g is thread I would trust: a co-polyester monofilament at 1.30 mm, the durable gauge, tuned in the Touch character for a softer and more comfortable response than standard Lynx.

It comes on a 200-metre reel — 660 feet, roughly sixteen racquets — which is how you keep a whole collection strung rather than one favourite.

Bamyan is where things are strung along a valley, so come and see.

We begin at the Buddha Niches. The cliff wall north of the bazaar held, until 2001, the two largest standing Buddha statues in the world, carved in the sixth century when the valley was a flourishing Buddhist centre on the Silk Road — the larger about 55 metres, the smaller about 38. Around them the cliff is honeycombed with caves that served monks as cells, sanctuaries and painted chapels.

Then Shahr-e Gholghola, the City of Screams, crowning a lone hill within walking distance of the bazaar. The fortified citadel grew from the sixth century onward and became the stronghold of Bamyan's rulers in the Islamic era. Its name records the events of 1221, when Genghis Khan besieged the city during the Mongol pursuit of Jalal al-Din, the last Khwarazmian ruler.

Then Shahr-e Zohak, the Red City, guarding the eastern entrance to the valley about nine kilometres out, where the Bamyan and Kalu rivers meet. A fortress has stood on these crimson cliffs since at least the first century CE, and the dramatic mud-brick towers visible today largely date from the Shansabani and Ghorid rulers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

And we finish at the Band-e Amir Lakes: six deep-blue lakes strung along a high desert valley of the Koh-e Baba range, each held back by natural dams of travertine built up over millennia as mineral-rich spring water deposited its carbonates.

A reel this size strings everywhere from a hard court in Bamyan town to whatever flat ground you can find out toward Band-e Amir, and the thread holds at both ends. It is also perfect for the long stretch when nobody is coming to restring for you — sixteen racquets off one spool, knotted one at a time, so if the thread goes you lose one, not the necklace. Now come and see how a valley strings itself.

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