View Full Version : James Blake Got A New Coach!!!!!
musicalmedic81
10-07-2009, 03:58 PM
I almost pissed on myself when I saw this, did anyone else know about that? Says he's now with Kelly Jones and parted with Brian Barker after the US open. Sounds like Blake is finally getting serious! Hallelujah!!!!!
http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2009/10/Beijing-Thursday-Preview.aspx
it says it down in the Blake fast facts.
If this is old news I apologize, its the first Ive heard of it.
musicalmedic81
10-07-2009, 04:02 PM
Oops, just now saw the other thread on this...my bad.
SuperFly
10-07-2009, 04:30 PM
That's a pretty dick move by Blake. Brian Barker stayed with him even through neck rehab and zoster. What ever happened to loyalty?
Fedace
10-07-2009, 04:31 PM
That's a pretty dick move by Blake. Brian Barker stayed with him even through neck rehab and zoster. What ever happened to loyalty?
Brian has nothing more to offer. it has nothing to do with loyalty...
SuperFly
10-07-2009, 04:33 PM
Brian has nothing more to offer. it has nothing to do with loyalty...
Neither does James, unfortunately. He's too old to make any big improvements.
jamesblakefan#1
10-07-2009, 04:40 PM
That's a pretty dick move by Blake. Brian Barker stayed with him even through neck rehab and zoster. What ever happened to loyalty?
How is it a dick move? I'm pretty sure they're still friends, but business is business. If Blake recognized the need for a new perspective, nothing wrong with that, it's his career. He's just trying to make the most of whatever he has left, and come back strong in 2010. Not like he did what Rios did to Stefanki. THAT was a dick move.
Fedace
10-07-2009, 04:44 PM
Neither does James, unfortunately. He's too old to make any big improvements.
NO, James has lots of room for improment. especially in the stretegy department. he really needs brad gilbert....
edmondsm
10-07-2009, 05:03 PM
That's a pretty dick move by Blake. Brian Barker stayed with him even through neck rehab and zoster. What ever happened to loyalty?
There is no such thing as loyalty between a player and coach. If it's working, stay together, if it's not, split.
Besides, I doubt Brian Barker's phone was ringing off the hook when Blake broke his neck.
edmondsm
10-07-2009, 05:04 PM
Neither does James, unfortunately. He's too old to make any big improvements.
False. Look at the Renaissance the Agassi enjoyed. Blake is a good athlete, no Agassi, but to say his goose is cooked is totally shortsighted.
Shaolin
10-07-2009, 05:05 PM
It was a dick move for Barker not to teach Blake how to hit with margin over the net in his 60 years of coaching him..
Anyway probably too little too late for James...all the best though, hope he makes a deep run at a slam somewhere.
Fedace
10-07-2009, 05:06 PM
It was a dick move for Barker not to teach Blake how to hit with margin over the net in his 60 years of coaching him..
Anyway probably too little too late for James...all the best though, hope he makes a deep run at a slam somewhere.
with his new coach, he should win the US open next year...
jamesblakefan#1
10-07-2009, 05:14 PM
with his new coach, he should win the US open next year...
Yes, right after Roddick takes the French Open. :shock:
That's a pretty dick move by Blake. Brian Barker stayed with him even through neck rehab and zoster. What ever happened to loyalty?
That's a pretty definitive statement considering the back story has not been published. The article only says that Barker and Blake 'parted ways' after the USO, it does not say how or why. For all we know, Brian could have told James he didn't want to travel anymore (which has already been happening in the last few years) or that there were health/family issues. James has been damn loyal to Brian, in countless articles over the last few years whenever the subject of getting a new coach was brought up. Loyalty is not an issue here at all.
Fedace
10-07-2009, 06:34 PM
That's a pretty definitive statement considering the back story has not been published. The article only says that Barker and Blake 'parted ways' after the USO, it does not say how or why. For all we know, Brian could have told James he didn't want to travel anymore (which has already been happening in the last few years) or that there were health/family issues. James has been damn loyal to Brian, in countless articles over the last few years whenever the subject of getting a new coach was brought up. Loyalty is not an issue here at all.
Oh don't over analyze this, you. It was time for them to part ways. Brian was no longer being useful and James needed fresh input. This is a new start for James and i see positive outlook in the future...:)
HunterST
10-07-2009, 07:23 PM
Has anyone else read Blake's book? This is a little hard to take after the countless times Blake says that he would never get rid of Brian and that he was the best possible coach for him.
Fedace
10-07-2009, 07:25 PM
Has anyone else read Blake's book? This is a little hard to take after the countless times Blake says that he would never get rid of Brian and that he was the best possible coach for him.
so what.? MAybe Brian asked james and said he wanted out.:???:
ahile02
10-07-2009, 07:28 PM
It was a dick move for Barker not to teach Blake how to hit with margin over the net in his 60 years of coaching him..
Anyway probably too little too late for James...all the best though, hope he makes a deep run at a slam somewhere.
I love your avatar.
edmondsm
10-07-2009, 07:58 PM
The ONLY and I repeat ONLY way for Blake to ever get better is by having a brain transplant. Face the facts.....Blake is a bigger "Choker" then "Mama Cass".....I wonder if Blake likes ham sandwiches also? :)
But on a serious note, Blake just doesn't have it to break into the top 5.....at this point in his career he should be happy to be around 20 in the world...
A new coach won't do a thing for him......
For what its worth!
If he keeps getting results like he has, then he won't be around the top 20. You got to walk before you run, maybe he thinks a change of coach would stabilize his results. You seriously don't think he could hang in the top 20 for another 2-3 years? Have you looked at who's in the top 20? Haas, Stepanek.....Blake is better then these dudes, and younger.
The brain he's got had him in the top 5 once.
BTW, overdone and classless joke about Mama Cass.
jamesblakefan#1
10-07-2009, 08:09 PM
You mention a guy in Haas who's been up and down several times throughout his career. If Haas can have the resurgence he's had this year, things certainly aren't over for Blake. It's not like there's a huge new wave of stars coming, at least not that I see.
Shaolin
10-07-2009, 09:25 PM
I love your avatar.
Glad you respect Mugatu :)
Leelord337
10-07-2009, 09:34 PM
I almost pissed on myself when I saw this, did anyone else know about that? Says he's now with Kelly Jones and parted with Brian Barker after the US open. Sounds like Blake is finally getting serious! Hallelujah!!!!!
http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2009/10/Beijing-Thursday-Preview.aspx
it says it down in the Blake fast facts.
If this is old news I apologize, its the first Ive heard of it.
this really shocks me, i read his book and he talks about how he's going to keep brian barker through his entire career and he even disses other players for changing coaches all the time...
this really shocks me, i read his book and he talks about how he's going to keep brian barker through his entire career and he even disses other players for changing coaches all the time...
Well maybe Brian left him. He has a family, being on the road so much is tough. Anyway, we may never ever know what really happened, those are two of the most private people in all of tennis.
sureshs
10-08-2009, 04:41 AM
Don't write Blake off. He took Nadal to 3 sets yesterday, something few people can do.
OJ ROD
10-08-2009, 05:21 AM
How is it a dick move? I'm pretty sure they're still friends, but business is business. If Blake recognized the need for a new perspective, nothing wrong with that, it's his career. He's just trying to make the most of whatever he has left, and come back strong in 2010. Not like he did what Rios did to Stefanki. THAT was a dick move.
What did Rios do to Stefanki?
dropshot winner
10-08-2009, 05:40 AM
Don't write Blake off. He took Nadal to 3 sets yesterday, something few people can do.
Believe it or not, but Nadal choked, otherwise he would've won in two.
Fortunately for Nadal, Blake was a bit choking too, he had 3 breakpoints in the third, after wasting those it was all over.
jamesblakefan#1
10-08-2009, 08:10 AM
What did Rios do to Stefanki?
Fired him once he got to #1, as he was due to pay Stefanki a bonus once he reached #1. They went to court and everything.
dropshot winner
10-08-2009, 08:17 AM
Fired him once he got to #1, as he was due to pay Stefanki a bonus once he reached #1. They went to court and everything.
Really?
Rios was as stupid as he was talented...
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=4542097
Updated: October 8, 2009, 11:13 AM ET
Blake finishing '09 with Jones as coach
By Bonnie D. Ford
ESPN.com
One of tennis' most enduring player-coach tandems may have run its course.
No. 24 James Blake (http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/players/profile?playerId=364), struggling to regain the form that kept him in the top 10 for much of a three-season stretch from 2006 to 2008, said he and lifelong coach Brian Barker mutually decided that Barker would stop traveling with him after the U.S. Open.
Blake is finishing the 2009 campaign with longtime friend Kelly Jones, a former pro who has worked with other top Americans, including Mardy Fish (http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/players/profile?playerId=358) and John Isner (http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/players/profile?playerId=1023).
Barker has coached the 29-year-old Blake for 17 years, helping develop him from an erratic, hot-tempered club player to an accomplished pro. Blake, who lost to Rafael Nadal (http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/players/profile?playerId=261) in the second round of the China Open in Beijing on Thursday, told ESPN.com the parting was amicable and the strong bond between the two remains intact.
"It's not like we're ending our relationship," Blake said by telephone from Beijing. "We're still good friends, which will never change. Right now we both feel like I need to hear some things from a different voice. Kelly's been close to both of us for a long time, and he's a perfect fit for now. If things go well with him, everyone's happy. Brian wants nothing but the best for me. If they don't, then I go back to Brian and we know there's a reason I'm back. It was just time to take a little break and see how it goes with someone else.''
Blake splits his time between Tampa and his childhood home of Fairfield, Conn., near the town where Barker is based. The two say they will continue to work together when Blake is in Connecticut.
Barker said he encouraged Blake to make a change.
"I told him that the most important thing in his tennis career is to have a clear head and peace of mind for the rest of your life that you did everything you possibly could to get better, maximize your potential and not leave anything on the table," Barker said Thursday. "He eventually agreed that was a good idea."
Barker added that he and Jones have similar philosophies and expects Blake to "hear the same things in a different way ... Sometimes when you're not playing your best, the thinking is that you stir the pot. You put your hat on backwards. There are no guarantees, but you need to look at every option."
Blake came back from a serious neck injury, illness and the draining death of his father in 2004 to win nine ATP tournaments from 2005 to 2007 and hit a career-high No. 4 ranking at the end of 2006. Popular in the locker room, Blake attended Harvard for two years and his autobiography "Breaking Back,'' co-written with Andrew Friedman, cracked the New York Times best-seller list.
A perennial starter in an unusually stable U.S. Davis Cup lineup, Blake was part of the 2007 championship team, but he has yet to advance past the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event. Blake is 22-18 in 2009 and reached two finals -- on clay in Estoril, Portugal, and at the Queen's Club grass-court event in London.
According to Blake, Barker suggested that he step back late last season, "and I kind of squashed it, said I wouldn't want to do that, wouldn't want someone else around."
This year, Blake has been plagued by several small but troublesome injuries -- a rolled ankle, a sore knee, a broken toe -- that made it difficult to establish any match rhythm and contributed to early exits in several big events. His frustration level increased, and the hard-court season, when Blake normally prospers, offered no relief, either.
After a first-round loss at the Cincinnati Masters event in August, he and Barker renewed their discussion about whether it was time for a change.
"We were going through the same things over and over, and I was looking for answers that probably weren't there," Blake said. "It may not have had anything to do with the coaching. Going into the Open, we had both had come to the understanding that we were going to stop, but we didn't want to change anything during or before the Open, being so important. The comfort level between us is very good and will always be very good."
Blake, known for his high-risk, go-for-broke style on court, has taken heat in recent months for keeping Barker at his side rather than seeking different advice when his game seemed to stagnate. He has repeatedly emphasized his loyalty to Barker, and said Thursday that he wasn't affected by outside opinion in making the change.
"If they're talking about you that much, you must have earned that pressure that you've gotten," Blake said. "We never let it affect us. I didn't keep him just to spite people -- I'm going to do what's best for me. Now I've hit a point where I need to try something a little different. Kelly's a great coach and people he worked with clearly improved when they worked with him.''
Blake plans to play in three more tournaments -- Shanghai; Basel, Switzerland; and Paris -- this season.
Bonnie D. Ford covers tennis and Olympic sports for ESPN.com.
I almost pissed on myself when I saw this, did anyone else know about that? Says he's now with Kelly Jones and parted with Brian Barker after the US open. Sounds like Blake is finally getting serious! Hallelujah!!!!!
http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2009/10/Beijing-Thursday-Preview.aspx
it says it down in the Blake fast facts.
If this is old news I apologize, its the first Ive heard of it.
He should have done this a few years ago... after he peaked and started backsliding. That's the time for new blood... not when you're 30 and virtually over the hill by professional tennis standards.
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