Interview with famous tennis coaches and players

[tennisconsultcom]

I started to publish interviews with famous tennis coaches, sports scientists and players. I already published interviews with John Evert, Taylor Dent, Johan Kriek, Allen Fox, Oscar Wegner and other interesting people. Last interview is with Mili Veljkovic, tennis technique expert coach in Partizan Tennis Club, Belgrade.
Hope, you find it interesting. Here is link: http://wp.me/p2iyrR-4Y

[Milan]

Thanks! I thought they were video interviews. A bit difficult to navigate the site. Thanks for your work!

[tennisconsultcom]

Any suggestions about a new interview? Whom from tennis coaches do you want to hear? Ask your questions for them.

[Harry_Wild]

Originally Posted by tennisconsultcom

Any suggestions about a new interview? Whom from tennis coaches do you want to hear? Ask your questions for them.

Ivan Lendl would be a hoot!
Brad Glibert would be interesting!
Richard Williams if you can get him - would be unbelievable (William Sisters) Coach!

[ga tennis]

Originally Posted by Harry_Wild

Ivan Lendl would be a hoot!
Brad Glibert would be interesting!
Richard Williams if you can get him - would be unbelievable (William Sisters) Coach!

Interview Heath Waters and you will do the tennis world a big favor.

[tennisconsultcom]

Originally Posted by ga tennis

Interview Heath Waters and you will do the tennis world a big favor.

Give me your questions. I will make the interview soon.

[egilgrim]

Interesting list of people you got there. I'm really interested in reading an interview with someone who worked with Djokovic when he was younger. Might be difficult to get hold of his first coach, but an interview with Niki Pilic?! I know I would read that

[tennisconsultcom]

Originally Posted by egilgrim

Interesting list of people you got there. I'm really interested in reading an interview with someone who worked with Djokovic when he was younger. Might be difficult to get hold of his first coach, but an interview with Niki Pilic?! I know I would read that

I will try.

[tennisconsultcom]

Here is excerpt from the interview with Bruce Levine, Technical Adviser for Tennis Magazine and tennis.com for racquets and strings. "...The big trends today are that the vibrations are dampened in the frame and grip systems and that frames have intelligent materials in their make up..." Full version link http://wp.me/p2iyrR-68

[tennisconsultcom]

I continue talking with tennis coaches, here an interview with Mitch Bridge, So Cal Tennis Academy. http://wp.me/p2iyrR-6p

[tennisconsultcom]

There is a excerpt from Allen Fox new book “Tennis: Winning the Mental Match”."Points tend to be won and lost in streaks. This happens because the players winning them start to feel good and play better while the players losing them start to feel bad and play worse". You will read more on http://wp.me/p2iyrR-77

[andfor]

Originally Posted by tennisconsultcom

There is a excerpt from Allen Fox new book “Tennis: Winning the Mental Match”."Points tend to be won and lost in streaks. This happens because the players winning them start to feel good and play better while the players losing them start to feel bad and play worse". You will read more on http://wp.me/p2iyrR-77

Great stuff. I love it. Easily the most negelcted part of the game. Playing with a purpose, controling the pace of the match, playing steady when needed and aggressive when ahead, emotion control. Many players don't even realize this is the single area of their game with the greatest upside for improvement.

[tennisconsultcom]

I found very informative and valuable information from the book Maximum Tennis by Nick Saviano. I hope it is a good idea for tennis players and tennis coaches to read good books sometime. So I decide to posted it on my blog with the kind permission of Nick Saviano. There is the secret 1 of the tennis champions.

Focus on only those things that you can control and disregard the rest.

This is the first and most important concept, and it must be the foundation from which to build your psychological approach to competition. If you can grasp and apply it, it will help you to free you psychologically to play the best tennis you are capable of.

Great athletes mention this concept all the time. Sometime they say it in fewer words, yet we often don’t seem to hear them. Monica Seles (who I felt was one of the greatest competitors I had ever seen in any sport before her unfortunate attack by a crazed fan) said it before the 2000 French Open: "I truly will try to worry about things I can control and not worry about stuff that’s really outside my control”. Andre Agassi was quoted by USA Today before a tournament as saying” “If I come in here physically ready and hungry, then I‘m giving myself the best shot to win here”. And perhaps John Wooden, the great basketball coach at UCLA, said it best: "The more concerned we become over the things we can’t control. The less we will do with the things we can control”.
Full story here: http://wp.me/p2iyrR-7m

[tennisconsultcom]

Regarding the discussion about the styles of play in modern tennis. I am sure that the following rule works well in tennis competition:

A player that uses a style that’s different from most other players has an advantage over them. But the tennis player must master his game, and understand how to outplay his/her competitor.

The conclusion: study which style your tennis player is most fit for and teach it to him/her according to their natural capabilities. Their ability, will, and readiness to attack the net, for example, as opposed to 90% of players who don’t have that will and ability to do so, greatly increases their chance of success.

Roger Federer is the smartest tennis player at all times. He literally plays on the court, unlike many others who do hard job. A creative player like Agnieszka Radwanska who, unlike most top tier players, does not have powerful shots still manages to beat most of the more athletic and linear players on the tour. It’s unlikely that she can achieve the number 1 ranking, but being in the top 20 for many years hasn’t been a problem for her.

One of the reasons for the lack of (or the minimum presence) of young players in the top 100 in the world is their hurried and forceful preparation. Everyone is in such a hurry – the parents, the coaches, and subsequently, the players, for the jump to professional tennis, but they don’t even have the necessary technical and physical arsenal to make the transition. Overtraining and the extensive practice times (the more, the better) are both big problems in current juniors who dream about playing at a pro level. As a result, the principles of gradual and sequential training processes are abandoned.

All of this comes from talking with many tennis specialists and coaches. Feel free to compare this to your own experiences and share your own thoughts.

[tennisconsultcom]

I received a lot of feedback from blog’s readers about that winning is not the main goal for a tennis player. Some of the readers disagree with that opinion. In the following article from the book Maximum Tennis, Nick Saviano explains in details why he thinks that winning is not the number-one goal for a tennis player.

Winning is not the number-one goal when you are competing.

Winning is extremely important, and, of course, it is always one of your most important goals for competition. But when winning becomes your number-one goal during competition, it will psychologically consume you because you will be focusing your energies on something you cannot control. This will distract you from executing your game to the best of your ability. At that point, you are no longer giving yourself the best chance to win, and that means you are not going to win as often. Great champions know this concept well and the bigger the match, the more they attempt to discipline their mind. Concentrating on the things they can control, they know that winning will be a by-product of executing to the best of their ability.
Winning, as your number-one goal, in reality means striving for mediocrity relative to what you are capable of. The question is not whether you win or lose. Billie Jean King said: “When you stay in the process is when you win. Not when you get into the end results.” The question is did you do everything in your power to give yourself the best chance to play up to your potential and are you constantly trying to improve? After Tiger Woods won his third Masters championship, everyone was speculating on how many majors he would win. What he said illustrates my point: “The thing I keep saying to myself is that I want to become a better player at the end of the year. And if I can keep doing that year after year for the rest of my career, I’ll have a pretty good career.” That is the pursuit of personal excellence! Winning is a natural by-product of this pursuit. The commitment to personal excellence does not guarantee winning. It does, however, ensure success. The end result is that you will win far more than you otherwise would have, and you will often exceed your self-imposed limitations.
Rising American star Andy Roddick, as he was preparing for the 2001 French Open said, “I really don’t have any expectations (concerning winning or losing). I want to play well (in other words, execute his game). If someone is going to beat me, I want him to have to play a good match (concentrating only on what he can control).”
Later in the year, as Roddick was preparing for the 2001 US Open after winning four tour events, he said, “I’m just going to go in and try to play well (focus on what he can control), have some fun, and see what happens”. Andy reached the quarterfinals, where he lost 6-4 in the fifth set to the eventual champion Lleyton Hewitt.
Roddick concentrated on what he could control and gave himself the best opportunity to win. This is the mental approach the top pros take. Don’t interpret this to mean that winning is not important to them. Quite the contrary, which is exactly why they try not to think about winning while they are competing. http://wp.me/p2iyrR-7v

What do you think? Let's discuss?

[ClarkC]

The way you win is by thinking about details like footwork, preparation, getting to the ball early, seeing the ball come off the strings, etc., not by thinking about winning. You have to see the trees (technique, tactics), not the forest (winning or losing).

[Ash_Smith]

Originally Posted by ClarkC

The way you win is by thinking about details like footwork, preparation, getting to the ball early, seeing the ball come off the strings, etc., not by thinking about winning. You have to see the trees (technique, tactics), not the forest (winning or losing).

Actually, the way you win is not thinking about details at all! If you think about details during play - you're going to be in trouble!

[andfor]

Originally Posted by Ash_Smith

Actually, the way you win is not thinking about details at all! If you think about details during play - you're going to be in trouble!

Correct. Clark is on the right track just a little off. I'm sure he'll take offense to my comment but none is intended. I'll try to reword it for him.

The way you win is by focusing on details like effort, attitude, executing a game plan, playing each point with a purpose, emotion control, etc., not by thinking about winning. You have to see the trees/journey (strategy, tactics, effort and attitude), not the forest/finish-line (winning or losing).

The best time for thinking about technique is during practice. If a shot is off during a match or you miss a few ball with a certain shot you may want to shadow a few strokes (don't over do this) or recall a certain tip. But don't make it obvious to your opponent you are having an issue with a certain stroke.

When analyzing post match results it's easy to simply say you won good, you lost bad. That's counterproductive to continued growth, improvement and to long term enthusiasm for the game. The focus post-match and even post-practice should be measuring effort and attitude point over point, each game and set by set. Did I execute my game plan? Did I play each point with a purpose? When I lost important points when the score dictated playing consistent/a long point what happened? Did the player have an unforced error on a routine shot, hit a winner or did the opponent hit a winner or unforced error? What was the mindset before that important point started? Was controlled agression used when ahead in the game or when I was up a break. Did the player have proper emotion control during the match? Was positive emotion used at the right times after winning important points? When negative emotion was displayed was it at the right time (i.e. after a routine shot), was it calculated and was the focus then quickly reset for the next point? Did the player embrace the battle and enjoy engaging in it? Did the player display a good attitude and was he a good sport? Was confident and strong body language displayed throughout? Did I identify my opponents 2 strengths and weaknesses and how did I match my strength up to exploit his weaknesses? Was any mid-match adjustments necessary, what where they and what changes did I make? How'd that work for me? I could go on. Most importantly, what did the player learn about his game, his opponents and what can the player do in the next practice to improve in areas that were identified as deficient?

There's more detail behind some of my points but I've tried to cover the important areas. For the most part maximum effort and good attitude need to be the focus.

[Harry_Wild]

Originally Posted by Ash_Smith

Actually, the way you win is not thinking about details at all! If you think about details during play - you're going to be in trouble!

Agree! It just flows! Especially at the higher levels of play 5.0 and above; balls just come back too fast and at angles! Serves, returns, groundstrokes. You are running around all the time!

[tennisconsultcom]

I remember my own experience. I was 22 and participated in Siberian University Games (in Russia), I used to do track and field, specializing in long jump. I wanted to win this event very much and did two foot faults in the first two jumps and then with difficulty reached the final stage. There were six sportsmen in final and I have the 5th result after qualification. We had three attempts in qualification and three ones in final. I made the first jump in final close to my personal record 6.97 meters, then I made foot fault. So, before the last attempt I had the best result and another athlete made 7,05 meters in his last attempt , just 8 cm (3 inches) better than me. I was so nervous and my coach (he was a really good coach) came to me and said "just relax, made your usual routine and imagine that you need to show how you could fly, like a bird". It was his usual phrase "not jump, but fly like a bird". You know what, I did it and won with 7,1 meters. It was incredible day.