socallefty
G.O.A.T.
While thinking for reasons about why there are hardly any top 10 ATP players from the US in the past 15 years while there is no shortage of players from Europe, I was wondering if it might be due to coaching differences. In another thread, I see posters arguing that top athletes in the US don’t play tennis anymore or they blame the USTA player development program and Patrick McEnroe in particular.
On the first point I wonder if top athletes from the US ever played tennis even 30-40 years ago - the best athletes always played American football, baseball and increasingly basketball even in the seventies and eighties and all the US ATP champions were country-club kids from well-to-do families who could afford private lessons at private clubs at an early age. They don’t look particularly fit or athletic if you look at the top US tennis players from the 1970s-1990s compared to the ATP champions today or even American athletes in other sports at that time. On the 2nd point, no one has clearly explained what the USTA is specifically not doing to develop top ATP players while there seems to be no problem developing top WTA players and champions.
I started thinking about the main differences between ATP and WTA tennis and also what I see from an eye test standpoint as differences between top players from Europe and the US on the ATP tour.
1. The ATP tour has much more physical tennis than the WTA tour where quick footwork is needed to play defense well against much more powerful shots with heavier spin. The top ATP players all have great offense combined with fantastic defense while the WTA champions are usually the best offensive players. The Big 3 and most of the top European (and Latin American) players seem to play defense much better than their US peers while also having big serves and big groundstrokes and the difference seems to be their immaculate footwork. While there doesn’t seem to be a lack of US players hitting heavy spin, they usually don’t seem as mobile with as much shot tolerance for long rallies as their European counterparts. Makes me wonder if coaches in the US don‘t focus on footwork drills and movement as much as European coaches.
2. European players seem to construct points much better than their US peers including hitting closer to the lines, varying the spin, changing the direction of the ball etc. When I see two US players having a long baseline rally (as on WTT tennis on TV right now), they seem to hit a lot of hard cross court shots to the relative middle of the court whereas the long baseline rallies in the European exhibitions (like UTS, Berlin) show much variety and ability to hit balls closer to the lines at high pace/spin - this is definitely true at the later stages of ATP tournaments also. The favored US way to end a ATP baseline rally seems to be to hit harder and harder (and maybe deeper) and that doesn’t work well against top players from other parts of the world - this still works ok on the WTA tour where movement is not as good as the ATP. Again, is this due to coaching differences In the US when top juniors are being developed? Here I think playing on clay at an early age in Europe could make a difference as a big serve/big FH is not enough for a top junior to end points on clay while it may be enough on hard courts where most US juniors play.
The big 3 are a great example of players with phenomenal movement/footwork and point construction abilities (additionally Federer has a great serve and Djokovic has all-time best return ability). Not only do we not have US players capable of winning Grand Slams in the last 15 years, but we hardly have any top 10 players. So, is this due to proper coaching or lack thereof of junior players? When I have met pros at challenger events in California, they mostly seem to come from National Coaching Centers and Academies in Europe while the US players generally had their own coaches as juniors in isolated towns and small cities (typically suburban clubs) all over the country. So, do we lack a systematic way of coaching top juniors on footwork/movement and point construction in the US unlike Spain, France, Russia, Italy etc. which costs us dearly as tennis has become much more athletic and all about baseline defense in the 21st century helped by poly strings and slower courts?
If you look at even the tennis tips discussion on this forum, it is all about improving technique on forehands, backhands and serves and I rarely see any discussions on footwork drills, different types of recovery footwork footwork, ideal recovery position after different shots, shot-selection during long baseline rallies, improving shot-tolerance, best drills to improve shot accuracy near the sidelines etc. Are these discussed more on the European tennis forums? Are there TW members who have been exposed to top-level coaching in the US and Europe who can comment on the differences? We have American and Russian coaches at my Southern California club who coach juniors extensively and I see the Russian coaches doing many more footwork and shot-tolerance drills and also focusing more on generating heavier top-spin rather than pace at a young age. After taking lessons from many of them, I personally stick with a Russian coach (who developed at a Russian national academy as a junior and was a low-level ATP pro a decade ago) for 1-1 lessons as he usually designs special drills (including many hand-feed drills) to improve whatever I want to work on during a particular lesson. Does anyone else notice these kinds of differences?
I am not trying to denigrate coaches in the US, but genuinely trying to figure out if our lack of standardized coaching systems across our large country prevent juniors from developing modern tennis skills and mobility that work on the ATP tour while European juniors go to National Academies with standardized systems at a younger age. What are the experiences of others who have been exposed to coaches with diverse backgrounds or from Europe?
On the first point I wonder if top athletes from the US ever played tennis even 30-40 years ago - the best athletes always played American football, baseball and increasingly basketball even in the seventies and eighties and all the US ATP champions were country-club kids from well-to-do families who could afford private lessons at private clubs at an early age. They don’t look particularly fit or athletic if you look at the top US tennis players from the 1970s-1990s compared to the ATP champions today or even American athletes in other sports at that time. On the 2nd point, no one has clearly explained what the USTA is specifically not doing to develop top ATP players while there seems to be no problem developing top WTA players and champions.
I started thinking about the main differences between ATP and WTA tennis and also what I see from an eye test standpoint as differences between top players from Europe and the US on the ATP tour.
1. The ATP tour has much more physical tennis than the WTA tour where quick footwork is needed to play defense well against much more powerful shots with heavier spin. The top ATP players all have great offense combined with fantastic defense while the WTA champions are usually the best offensive players. The Big 3 and most of the top European (and Latin American) players seem to play defense much better than their US peers while also having big serves and big groundstrokes and the difference seems to be their immaculate footwork. While there doesn’t seem to be a lack of US players hitting heavy spin, they usually don’t seem as mobile with as much shot tolerance for long rallies as their European counterparts. Makes me wonder if coaches in the US don‘t focus on footwork drills and movement as much as European coaches.
2. European players seem to construct points much better than their US peers including hitting closer to the lines, varying the spin, changing the direction of the ball etc. When I see two US players having a long baseline rally (as on WTT tennis on TV right now), they seem to hit a lot of hard cross court shots to the relative middle of the court whereas the long baseline rallies in the European exhibitions (like UTS, Berlin) show much variety and ability to hit balls closer to the lines at high pace/spin - this is definitely true at the later stages of ATP tournaments also. The favored US way to end a ATP baseline rally seems to be to hit harder and harder (and maybe deeper) and that doesn’t work well against top players from other parts of the world - this still works ok on the WTA tour where movement is not as good as the ATP. Again, is this due to coaching differences In the US when top juniors are being developed? Here I think playing on clay at an early age in Europe could make a difference as a big serve/big FH is not enough for a top junior to end points on clay while it may be enough on hard courts where most US juniors play.
The big 3 are a great example of players with phenomenal movement/footwork and point construction abilities (additionally Federer has a great serve and Djokovic has all-time best return ability). Not only do we not have US players capable of winning Grand Slams in the last 15 years, but we hardly have any top 10 players. So, is this due to proper coaching or lack thereof of junior players? When I have met pros at challenger events in California, they mostly seem to come from National Coaching Centers and Academies in Europe while the US players generally had their own coaches as juniors in isolated towns and small cities (typically suburban clubs) all over the country. So, do we lack a systematic way of coaching top juniors on footwork/movement and point construction in the US unlike Spain, France, Russia, Italy etc. which costs us dearly as tennis has become much more athletic and all about baseline defense in the 21st century helped by poly strings and slower courts?
If you look at even the tennis tips discussion on this forum, it is all about improving technique on forehands, backhands and serves and I rarely see any discussions on footwork drills, different types of recovery footwork footwork, ideal recovery position after different shots, shot-selection during long baseline rallies, improving shot-tolerance, best drills to improve shot accuracy near the sidelines etc. Are these discussed more on the European tennis forums? Are there TW members who have been exposed to top-level coaching in the US and Europe who can comment on the differences? We have American and Russian coaches at my Southern California club who coach juniors extensively and I see the Russian coaches doing many more footwork and shot-tolerance drills and also focusing more on generating heavier top-spin rather than pace at a young age. After taking lessons from many of them, I personally stick with a Russian coach (who developed at a Russian national academy as a junior and was a low-level ATP pro a decade ago) for 1-1 lessons as he usually designs special drills (including many hand-feed drills) to improve whatever I want to work on during a particular lesson. Does anyone else notice these kinds of differences?
I am not trying to denigrate coaches in the US, but genuinely trying to figure out if our lack of standardized coaching systems across our large country prevent juniors from developing modern tennis skills and mobility that work on the ATP tour while European juniors go to National Academies with standardized systems at a younger age. What are the experiences of others who have been exposed to coaches with diverse backgrounds or from Europe?
