I’m a different coach since we have got access to the statistics. The interest in statistics started 11 years ago when we didn’t really have anything. I just went to watch opponents’ play and was putting some dots where the serve was landing and some returns. But obviously I realized soon that just information for 1match wasn’t helping a lot. It gave me a little bit of an idea, but I was so happy when SAP came into the WTA Tour to support coaches with analytics.
It helps me to communicate with the player as I never any more have to say to a player that I have a feeling, or I think you should have done better on x or we need to work on y. No, it’s all there. Now I can show the player exactly why we need to work on certain areas because we can see it in the statistics.
Where statistics is the most helpful for me is the development of the player. When we have 5–6 weeks of training and we can set goals based on what we see in stats. Then after a few matches we can again dig into the stats and see if we have achieved those goals or not.
I also use the stats to prepare a player for upcoming matches and for scouting. In the WTA we have the on-court coaching where we are provided with live statistics during the match, which helps a lot to support the feeling that I have as a coach and then be able to deliver facts to the player that I’m working with when I go on court for the changeover. At last there the data is helping me in the post-match analysis where I show and underline a few messages through the statistics.
Player Development
If we have 5 or 6 weeks, we always work on a few things that needs to be better. We also always keep working on the weapons and the winning patterns. Sometimes we will see in the stats that e.g. the backhand average is way too short and we will use that information to go back to the practice court and work technically on the backhand.
We work on the winning patterns every day, but whereas some coaches will say that you only need to work on the 4 first shots and the start of the rally I don’t believe in that.
Tennis is more than stats and that is the difficult part. The players are not robots and we can’t simply program them
There is still a lot of feeling and getting a good feeling is also sometimes about getting out there playing 30 balls in a row without a mistake. That gives you a nice rhythm and a comfortable feeling on the court.
Balancing working on strengths and weaknesses
We don’t want to focus too much on the weaknesses in general. Exactly how much work goes into each area also depends on whether we have 6 weeks time, or we have two weeks time.
If we only have 2 weeks, I don’t think it’s a good idea to work a lot on the weaknesses, but as a coach, that is where you have to have a feeling with the player as well. You have to pick your moment. I will never work e.g. 2 hours on weaknesses, but I will work on something where the player is confident and then pick a moment to go into the out of comfort zone where the player needs to work on something that is difficult and see how much we can improve. Then go back into the comfort zone and give the player a good feeling and make them confident.
Everyone naturally likes to do things they are good at, but of course, it’s very important to also keep working on the weaker points. It’s a tricky balance and it’s not easy to find the right timing.
Scouting
At the moment working with Naomi it’s very clear that I have to focus 90 percent just on Naomi. If Naomi plays her best tennis, she doesn’t really need to think too much about what the opponent’s best patterns or weaker patterns are. It’s more like just playing her best game against different opponents. Before a match it’s also a matter of how much information a player can absorb. I worked a long time with Victoria Azarenka. She was really, really good at taking information in and she wanted a lot of information which made it very interesting for me to go scouting and really look into the detail.
Looking at things like where is the player playing the passing shot when someone is approaching, if a short ball is played where is it most likely that the opponent will play the next ball. A very rational tennis player.
Afterwards I worked with Angelique Kerber who was more of an intuitive player. With Angelique I was not able to provide too much information before a mach. I had to focus on only 2 to 3 things before a match. One time when Angelique played Johanna Konta, who I used to coach I provided Angelique with way too much knowledge about Johanna and her game because I felt like I knew her so well and almost knew what she would do on every ball. After the match she showed me how her head where too full and she couldn’t think. It was clear to me how I had given her too much information.
I learned that Angelique needs more freedom because she is an intuitive player.
On-court Coaching
The biggest lesson I learned is that you can do the best on court coaching when there is no camera or when nobody is listening. When I was working with Kerber and she asked me to come on court for on-court coaching she knew that the whole world was listening and watching so she didn’t want to look weak. I don’t think players look weak when they ask for advice from the coach or I don’t think they look weak when they show some frustration or when they are a bit negative. But she saw it in a different way.
When she was playing Rome, she got to play on a smaller court. There was no camera and there was no microphone. I went on court and suddenly she was very open. She was telling me completely how she felt, which she would not normally do during the on-court coaching. For me that was the best on-court coaching I had because it was so much easier for me to help her because she was giving me all the information I needed.
Time to make a change in a Tennis Player
The choice you are making “What are you going to work on?” that is the most important task for a coach. The data from SAP provides me with all of the data, but where we have to go and where the biggest improvement can be made within a period of time that is the decision of the coach.
I ask myself; Should we work more physical? Should we work more on the serve? Should we work on the return? Those are the decisions I constantly need to take. The way I do it is we go to 3–4 tournaments and then we have a week off and then we start training. I wil then have my plan with the steps that I think we need to take moving forwards going into a new tournament block. I then speak to the player that I’m working with and explain what I believe will benefit the player the most and why, but then I also ask, “What do you think?”, “What do you have in your mind?”, “What do you feel on the court?” and “What do you think you need right now?”
Do you go with Data or feeling?
Data don’t lie. If I speak about variation, direction of serve and the data will show us everything. There is no discussion about it. That’s what makes it so interesting to have as a tool and guidance.
I’m a believer that t’s not all about data. It’s far from all about data, but data it is at the same time important
It’s tricky because, you might have a situation where you advice the player before a match to serve wide to the backhand and then look for the open court, but then the player go to prepare for that serve and they really feel like they have a big serve down the T. I feel that I have got it in my racquet. What do you then do? Do you follow the data where you might have a 70 percent chance of winning that point or do you follow your feeling?
I guess that there is no right answer and it’s specific to each individual player, but for me I always advise a little bit more to follow the feeling.
(Inspired by the podcast episode #75: “How to use Data as Your Assistant Tennis Coach” w. Wim Fissette on The Adam Blicher Show — Dissecting High Performance in Tennis)
Want to listen to the full episode: http://shorturl.at/jktA8
