(Inspired by the podcast episode #1: “Former DC Player, Tour Coach & Academy Owner” w. Patrick Langvardt on The Adam Blicher Show — Dissecting High Performance in Tennis)
Q: What do you consider the single most important characteristic in a tennis coach?
Being able to see each and every person. I think that’s very, very important because they’re all different. You want to get to know every player and getting to know every player is getting to know every human behind the player. Get to know their aims, how they think in different situations on and off the court. If I can make the players feel comfortable in my company it’s much easier for me to get into the things I really would like to get done on the court.
Q: So how do you get to know the person behind the player?
Ask them about their history, what they do, what their interests are. I have a friend who is coaching hunting dogs. He’s very successful. He’s one of the best in the Scandinavian countries and people travel a long way to get him to coach their dogs. I asked him why he was so successful in his coaching.
I’ve heard that people visiting his farm in disbelief saying “What you have done in two hours no one else has done working with the dog for months.”
So obviously, I got a bit curious about what he’s doing and he said that a lot of people come to him because they find that there is a problem with their dog.
Most coaches approaches the dogs weak spots immediately and then work from there. I do the totally opposite. I start with exercises where the dog is already strong. I give them credit and I reward them. That gives me a happy dog with a good feeling when it’s being around me, with the right mind frame.
First after having working on the strong parts he will start working on some of the weaker sides. I think we as tennis coaches can and should invest the time and simulate that approach when possible. It can seem like a counterintuitive approach to start working on something that isn’t the main challenge, but in my experience in the end it’s a more efficient way that will speed up the process of what the players are struggling with.
Q: So how do you as a coach balance the training of the players strengths and weaknesses?
It comes down to the individual. Some players will feel like everything is a mess in periods of working on weaknesses and go home and be miserable after the practice whereas others are fine with struggling a little bit on areas of their tennis. This comes back to getting to know the human being and the player. Knowing how and when to communicate in what way and also knowing when a good time to focus on a weakness of a player will be.
I always like to put a lot of effort into building the strengths of a player because at the end of the day you build your player identity around your strengths. Obviously you have to work on the weaknesses as well because an aspect of the game might continually be breaking down and create a ceiling of how far the player can go, but from my perspective most of the time should be spent on getting the players strengths better.