Quote:
Originally Posted by arche3
Have you guys seen the video of Djokovic teaching how to serve? He says its all in the wrist snap. High speed video of top pros show its really not about snapping the wrist. But that is what djokos coach used to elicit a certain performance from him. So djoko thinks its because he snaps his wrists.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragan
Good point, it is this video, towards the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0dldQUtRbo
It looks like he truly believes that he actually snaps his wrist, while in practice he clearly pronates, not snaps. Regardless, somebody apparently used "wrist snapping" as a way to teach him how to improve his serve. |
That is why coaching tennis is so interesting. It's almost like being the student, looking at things from their viewpoint, and then explain things with full understanding of the impact you are going to have for the things that the student wants achieved. So, if I am teaching a kid and he says "I want to play like Roger Federer", I acknowledge him and show him what Federer does and how to copy him. If he says he wants to play like Rafa, then Rafa is the model, and so on. It used to kill me when I watched a lesson and the kid said: "I want to play like Andre Agassi", and the coach teaching him would say, "you can't do that". "First you need to learn sideways, racquet back towards the fence, step into the ball with your left foot, hit and finish towards the target". I even heard a coach say to a kid, after a similar can't do message: "When you get good, then you can copy Agassi".
Kids deserve better than that. Thankfully, coaching has improved dramatically, and I think I achieved quite some success presenting this viewpoint, especially through the ESPN International "Play Like the Pros" Tips, with billions of impressions in more than 150 countries, and my videos and books.
Happy New Year for everyone! And for a reflection of very sad things we still need to solve, here is a link to a John Lennon song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN4Uu0OlmTg