(Inspired by the podcast episode #2: “Former British № 1 Doubles Player, Father of 3 and Academy Owner” w. Dan Kiernan on The Adam Blicher Show — Dissecting High Performance in Tennis)

Q: What is the most unusual coach or coaching method that you have seen with amazing results.

I’ve seen some very unusual ones but one woman sticks out, Bartoli. She went on to have great success but I remember being out in Australia back in 2012 and I was with Liam Broady and Josh Ward Hibbert. We were sent off to the practice courts 20–30 minutes away from the actual site. When we arrived Bartoli and her dad was there.

Methods vs relationship

I’ll be honest I didn’t study it but it was straight away noticeable with all kinds of crazy bands, and sticks coming from the trees. The interesting part here is that it got me thinking that actually is it the method that’s worked for her or is it the relationship with her coach (the dad) that work for her. That’s certainly something I believe pretty strongly in. She obviously had a very strong relationship with her dad and it seemed like she fully bought into and trusted what he was suggesting. I’m not convinced that it comes down to the next new method so much. I think if you have a strong enough trust in the coach player relation and the player buys into you as a coach, then they will learn and get better with a bunch of different methods that doesn’t necessarily seem logical og straight forward. I wouldn’t go to the extent and say that Bartoli has developed into the player that she is because she has been swinging with sticks from the trees while wearing all sorts of different bands, but it leads me to the question of just how important the coach player relation is in regards to drive development of players.