(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)
Developing a player philosophy
Each player should have a philosophy. Something to hang their hat on. That way players are not simply happy when they win and sad when they loose. If it is so, then the players are in for a bumpy ride. A kind of an emotional rollercoaster which traditionally, in my opinion, leads to then people stop playing tennis because they they don’t have a reason other than winning and losing.
Why you need a compass to guide your day to day training
If you have real clarity of what your identity as a tennis player is, then you will have a compass of what you should work on day in day out and how to improve your level of tennis. If you do so then the ranking will be a byproduct of that and will take care of itself. You could win a match by not expressing yourself not sticking to your philosophy, your identity that you’re trying to play but actually all you’re really doing is you’re papering over the cracks and not improving your level of tennis.
Lendl’s influence on Murray
When it boils down to it in the big moments of the match or in all the career defining matches whether that’s your junior career or your senior career you want to come through because you’r level is good enough. I guess Andy Murray would be a great example of that. We could clearly see that he’s a world class talent. He’s a phenomenon, but time and time again he would get through the draw as he would get to the semifinals of the Grand Slams. Every now and then if the draw was correct he would get through to the final. Unfortunately when pushed came to show that he wasn’t proactive enough in how he was playing his game of tennis.
It became very obvious when Lendl was brought on that he managed to get Andy to buy into a new philosophy. He got him to buy into being more proactive on the tennis court. Looking to pull the trigger on the forehand side when the opportunity came and then as a result of that his level improved. He was then able to perform to that level in big matches because he was used to performing at that level on a day to day basis.
Q: How do you work on creating philosophies with the players?
Baking the cake
You can think of it as baking a cake. Until the ages of 12 or 13 it’s very much our job, as Tennis Coaches, to provide players with all of the different ingredients. Give them the ability to do a dropshot, to sneak into the net, develop skills on the kick serve, a slice or the flat serve. Basically help them develop different tactical, physical, technical and mental skills.
It’s then a case of bringing the recipe together to a game identity in order for a player to then understand what they are trying to do. The less choices a player has the easier it is for them to perform. A player’s physical make up will in a lot of cases dictate or at least heavily influence a players philosophy.
If you have a guy who’s turning into a 6 foot 5 (195cm) and potentially isn’t going to be the world’s best mover. You know you better pretty quickly get on that bandwagon of turning his game into a big serve and a big intention on holding serve. That’s going to have to become his day job. The ability to get lots of first serves in, transition into the net and keep the points short.
When that is said I also think that a player’s mental makeup is sometimes overlooked.
I’ve worked with a player for five or six years now who is a big boy who has got a big serve who plays a big game. He’s actually quite a low risk mentality. He has quite a few concerns and getting him to buy into taking some big risks was quite a big challenge because of his personality, not because of his physical makeup
So creating a player identity for me is not quite as simple as he is big he plays more offensive or he is small he runs around the back and counterattacks. Ultimately it’s about getting to know the player. Understand who he or she is and where he or she is coming from.
Q: You said that the less choices a player has the easier it is to perform. Can you elaborate a little bit on that?
The top players are not there by accident
I do strongly believe that the top are not there by accident and they have a very very clear idea of what they’re trying to do. If you e.g. take Andy Murray then I saw a statistic on SkySports saying that during the whole tournament in Rome he hit one second serve outside of the baseline. That didn’t happen by chance, that was deliberate. He wasn’t just reacting to what second serve his opponent was about to hit. That was obviously a very very clear identity that he wanted to set with his coach that he was going to be proactive on second serve returns.