I would say that my brother (John McEnroe) and I often disagree on how to develop players, meaning, I came in with the mindset of doing a lot of feeding, a lot of hand feeding, a lot of live ball feeding, which we did a lot at the USTA.
I still believe in that, but I’m also starting to see my brother’s side of it, which is, just open a can of balls and let’s play, let’s compete. The mindset of why are you doing these crosscourt drills? You never do that in a match.
So, my brother kind of brings that mentality. Now, having spent a little more time really working with kids and coaches on the court, I see that there’s a method to his madness.
That he’s actually in a lot of ways, right. So, I’m now trying to kind of merge the two were obviously the kids still can work on their technique, work on their form without the pressure of a match type situation.
My brother and I were lucky enough to grow up in a place where, we had a local club and I used to practice on the wall. So, my feeding was basically me against a wall. I was able to mimic all these different situations. I think my brother did that as well, which maybe sometimes he forgets.
Do you believe that hitting against the wall? Should that maybe replace some of the lessons that we are seeing now?
I would love it. I mean, that would be great. I would not be great for business so it’s understandable that it’s not done more. Coaches, clubs and academies got to teach lessons. Got to make money. But I would love to. For us to have a wall at our academy, even for kids who go there for 10 minutes before their lesson. You still want the interaction with a coach.
I do it a lot myself, just for my own brain and well-being. I still go and hit against the wall and I find it very therapeutic. I also find that you can hit so many balls in a short amount of time. You can work on different things without someone talking to you all the time. So, I think it’s very important to have that. I would love to see clubs implement that more while still having the respect that we all have to make a living and stay in business. I think it can be a great addition to what clubs and what people are doing at academies and even at regular clubs.
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