was nick bollettieri strategy/coaching unique and/or cutting-edge?

[tom-selleck]

hi, haven't posted here for a long time.

was talking to someone today who's child is really interested in tennis and a very good player....... 12 years old.

anyway, mentioned nick bollettieri and his legacy... and the father had never heard of him. he was from eastern european country so i wouldn't have expected him to have heard of Nick.

i described Nick as having trained many top players, that he had his academy before there were many competing programs around the world and i think before the worldwide explosion in tennis (ironically, the worldwide explosion corresponded with massive relative decline in USA/UK/Australia tennis success)..... Nick covered many years so someone could certainly describe that differently. and neither or us would be wrong.

i have a few questions,

1) i said NB stressed "big serve and hit big forehand as first next shot" and he is associated with it. i called it "first strike" tennis............ isn't that strategy sort of obvious? and only applicable if you can actually do it. i associate NB with Agassi, Courier, Sharapova, Roddick. am i forgetting other big names?.... of those 4, Roddick was definitely "first strike" tennis. and MS did it in the women's game (far less "big serve"-oriented)... i will note that game has changed where the points are much longer, esp. mens side.

2) i actually mentioned it in question #1 but what players beyond those 4 was NB associated with?

3) do people agree that JC and AA didn't really play "first strike" tennis?

4) is it merited that NB is associated with the strategy of "first strike" tennis?

thanks in advance.......... any other reflections on NB would be greatly appreciated.. i get the sense as time went on and there was much more competition that NB Academy focussed more on getting players college scholarships, which was fantastic.

 

[tom-selleck]

i forgot about monica seles.

i did remember mary pierce but didn't think she was note-worthy enough.

his wiki page also mentions williams sisters, hingis, and rios.... short time touring coach with boris becker

 

[Deleted member 771911]

Was it unique? I think it was more that he spotted the way the game was changing. Particularly as racket and string technology was advancing and allowing players to hit the ball harder and win more often with that baseline power tennis. Also, players were working out more and maximising their fitness. Courier for example was incredibly fit.
I think Nick had been in the game a while when he first made it to the forefront standing next to JC and AA at his academy and was a businessman, too. Tennis prize money was increasing and the sport was very popular back then in the mid to late 80s. Tennis academies were growing and there was plenty of business opportunity. So, I think the game was always going to go in that direction, big babe tennis, babes can be men and women lol, and Nick spotted it and monetized it. I think first strike tennis was again a catchy phrase you could reel off to the press or try and sell at a coaching conference as a methodology. I think all those players, JC, AA, Seles, etc are far more complex and nuanced than just first strike tennis players, well, the ones who make it big like them. The real ballbashers who think you can get a No.1 career just playing first strike tennis tend to get caught out very fast. Even Pierce really developed her game to far more than first strike tennis style which we saw her produce so well when she won RG '00. Same with Seles, she knew how to construct a point, and she knew how to end those points and I think she was sold to the public as an example of first strike tennis but was much more than that.
I don't know enough to say if I would credit NB with first strike tennis. I definitely credit him for moulding it into a sellable product and catchphrase that helped to brand a particular time in tennis.

 

[Frenchy-Player]

Jimmy Arias was have been the first "star" from the academy i believe his backhand was good and Bollettieri adopted it as a model .

 

[Topspin 365]

Bollettieri's academy was groundbreaking as it spawned the "big topspin forehand"(Arias, Krickstein, and Agassi) with success. Fortunately Agassi developed more to his game. These days I can't think of a current American player with such a strong forehand as those players.

 

[Moose Malloy]

SI Article about Nick from 1980(way before Agassi, Courier etc). It's longer than any article I've seen in SI about Fed, Nadal, Djokovic. So yeah, he was kind of a big deal. Funny to see Annacone mentioned being there. Also, interesting that he coached Brian Gottfried.

HE'LL MAKE YOUR CHILD A CHAMP

Nick Bollettieri likes to call himself the Michelangelo of Tennis, to impart the notion that he is an artistic genius who carefully molds youngsters into

vault.si.com

 

[RelentlessAttack]

It’s more force of personality with Nick. He’s like the Rick Rubin of tennis. He’s not really a tennis player, just like Rubin isn’t really a musician. But he knows what works when he sees it and he’ll yell at you until you do it. And he’ll sell you on the idea that you should listen to him, just like he sold your parents on the idea that they should abandon you at his academy. He does know sports in general though and is a good natural athlete, and most importantly is good at recognizing natural athletes.

I can’t remember which year it was, but somewhere from 10-14 years ago I asked him about why the US wasn’t producing quality tennis players anymore and he basically just said no one with talent wanted to play. He said if you gave him the Celtics starting lineup he would deliver you a US monopoly on slams.

 

[Jason Swerve]

He ruined whatever nuanced game Pierce could've had. In fact, he left her because he was insufficient as her coach.

He ruined Agassi before Agassi smartened up with Gilbert.

He had Becker freefalling until Becker left. The two of them were even feuding publicly. Agassi was angry over some other issues, but the coach was completing misguiding Becker.

He had Seles leave him because he couldn't teach her anything else. She went back to her father, her real coach. When she tried to come back to hit at his academy over a decade later, he held on to the resentment.

He never formally coached Hingis. She just went over to his academy to hit with other people, maybe get some quick lines of advice. There was no advice to offer when Hingis was already ridiculing his top prodigy and 'best-ever student' (Kournikova).


That's the reason the guy was successful at any rate. He had a good grift going on. Amass a few good players, convince them to keep hitting groundstrokes until their hands arms off, hope they thrive as the technology gears towards baselining, and sell your name as their early coach. Get a few more from your hype. Get a few more from that. Convince them to all keep coming back with an environment that's BaselineMania and, more importantly, with a plethora of other top names or promising juniors who want to practice their baselining against other, like-minded players with money or clout. Mix all these good hitters among rich kids with no pro potential attending the 'school,' and you've got a grift among grifts.

 

[BeatlesFan]

He ruined Agassi before Agassi smartened up with Gilbert.

He "ruined" Agassi prior to 1994? Care to elaborate? I watched countless Andre matches live when he was a junior between 1983-1986 and have no clue what you're talking about aside from mental fragility, which Gilbert scarcely improved.

 

[Jason Swerve]

He "ruined" Agassi prior to 1994? Care to elaborate? I watched countless Andre matches live when he was a junior between 1983-1986 and have no clue what you're talking about aside from mental fragility, which Gilbert scarcely improved.

25 > 8

 

[vandre]

i think what bollettieri did that was really unique was creating an academy where the best players he could find competed for everything. the players who rose to the top could win at the atp level (agassi, courier). the players who didn't were there to sharpen the others. starting out on the tour, aa didn't really have a "big serve". his favorite tactic when serving to the ad court was to hit a spin serve out wide so he'd be able to hit a forehand crosscourt into the open court. that doesn't exactly fit the "big bomb serve" model.

 

[vex]

He "ruined" Agassi prior to 1994? Care to elaborate? I watched countless Andre matches live when he was a junior between 1983-1986 and have no clue what you're talking about aside from mental fragility, which Gilbert scarcely improved.

I wish he would ruin my game all the way up to “guy arguably in the mix with the greatest groundstrokers ever”....

 

[Jason Swerve]

I wish he would ruin my game all the way up to “guy arguably in the mix with the greatest groundstrokers ever”....

Exactly, his father had nothing to do with that.

 

[vex]

Exactly, his father had nothing to do with that.

Fair point

 

[Jason Swerve]

Fair point

Agassi had an attachment to Nick. Kournikova, Sharapova did, but Seles did not. Hingis did not. Hingis basically just paid to use his courts. And Agassi, Agassi went as far as to say Nick didn't know what he was doing with these players, though that was during their feud. Seles' father was the one who said Nick wasn't teaching Seles much in the way of new game changers.

Let me put it this way, the players who could hit the ball exceptionally well at a junior level weren't progressing with Nick himself. They were benefitting from constant practice as they hit with the others in Nick's school rotation.

I suspect with 90% certainty, adding to comments from Andre himself, that Andre just got in repetition at Nick's, military-style. What Nick did was give Agassi an environment to keep hitting against other good hitters all day, instead of against a wall. The 'coaching' aspect of it was superfluous.

 

[Tshooter]

It’s more force of personality with Nick. He’s like the Rick Rubin of tennis. He’s not really a tennis player, just like Rubin isn’t really a musician. But he knows what works when he sees it and he’ll yell at you until you do it. And he’ll sell you on the idea that you should listen to him, just like he sold your parents on the idea that they should abandon you at his academy. He does know sports in general though and is a good natural athlete, and most importantly is good at recognizing natural athletes.

I can’t remember which year it was, but somewhere from 10-14 years ago I asked him about why the US wasn’t producing quality tennis players anymore and he basically just said no one with talent wanted to play. He said if you gave him the Celtics starting lineup he would deliver you a US monopoly on slams.

He’s very approachable at tournaments. Ask him what he thinks of a certain player and their prospects and he’ll give you a brutally honest opinion.

Incidentally, Hopman’s academy I believe preceded Nick’s so I don’t think Nick’s academy idea was unique maybe just more successful at training top players. And they both did the same thing. Hopman's was renown for drills. And drills. And drills. And exercise. And more drills. And more exercise. And more drills. And then. More drills.

 

[Raul_SJ]

any other reflections on NB would be greatly appreciated.

Curious to what Nick's playing level was. NOT to say that one cannot coach a junior to Wimbledon win without being a high level player yourself, but it is far less likely.

Nick did not play on his high school or college teams. "Played a bit as a teenager". It sounds like he might have been a 4.0 or 4.5 at the most.

Blessed with glibness, Bollettieri, a graduate of South Alabama, anticipated a future as a lawyer, and after his 1957 release from the Army, where he served with the 187th Airborne Division, he enrolled at the University of Miami law school.​

​

He moonlighted as a tennis "pro" at a pair of public courts in North Miami Beach, where the pro shop was a dilapidated soft-drink machine with an umbrella sticking out of it, the nets were wire mesh, and the fences had holes in them.​

​

Bollettieri charged $1.50 for half-hour lessons, and you got what you paid for; his knowledge of tennis—he had played a bit as a teen-ager, but he hadn't been on his high school or college team—was so rudimentary that whenever he had a lesson scheduled, he would race off to another pro for advice on how to teach it.​

 

[big ted]

Curious to what Nick's playing level was. NOT to say that one cannot coach a junior to Wimbledon win without being a high level player yourself, but it is far less likely.

Nick did not play on his high school or college teams. "Played a bit as a teenager". It sounds like he might have been a 4.0 or 4.5 at the most.

Blessed with glibness, Bollettieri, a graduate of South Alabama, anticipated a future as a lawyer, and after his 1957 release from the Army, where he served with the 187th Airborne Division, he enrolled at the University of Miami law school.​

​

He moonlighted as a tennis "pro" at a pair of public courts in North Miami Beach, where the pro shop was a dilapidated soft-drink machine with an umbrella sticking out of it, the nets were wire mesh, and the fences had holes in them.​

​

Bollettieri charged $1.50 for half-hour lessons, and you got what you paid for; his knowledge of tennis—he had played a bit as a teen-ager, but he hadn't been on his high school or college team—was so rudimentary that whenever he had a lesson scheduled, he would race off to another pro for advice on how to teach it.​

nick was/is a motivator more than anything else... i cant see him saying anything much more than "low to high" or "hit it early".. im sure he had good coaches around him tho...
i can see him succeeding as a coach in any sport without completely comprehending it

 

[Raul_SJ]

nick was/is a motivator more than anything else... i cant see him saying anything much more than "low to high" or "hit it early".. im sure he had good coaches around him tho...
i can see him succeeding as a coach in any sport without completely comprehending it

There are videos of Nick giving private lessons to average level 12 year old kids. At the end of the video he tells the kid and his parents, "That lesson was $800 and worth every penny!".

No, Nick is not worth that much.
Salzenstein charges around $300 per lesson and he is worth it.

But we are free market Capitalists and do not begrudge anyone who can succesfully market themselves.

 

[Devilito]

It's' not Nick specifically, it's the system he created that was unique and valuable. He basically innovated the international academy system that brought the best players from around the world in a single place to train with one another and improve, while living there full time (going to school, etc). Your ability to improve in tennis is highly dependent on the quality of players you can play with on a daily basis. His coaching, training and strategy philosophy were also very solid. He brought in some great coaches to work at his academy.

In terms of 2021, i have no idea. I'm sure there are plenty of other places that have attempted to duplicate his model and might be as good or better. But some people think he was some charlatan businessman that knew nothing about tennis and just got lucky with a few good players. Which is completely incorrect.

 

[Raul_SJ]

described Nick as having trained many top players, that he had his academy

Keep in mind that the typical player that joins his academy are already child prodigies who were developed by other coaches/parents. Agassi, Courier, Sharapova, Venus, etc.

Nick personally does not have the skills snd tennis knowledge to develop a child from scratch into a junior champion.

"I took my girls out of the tennis academies because I thought they looked at them as a commodity, and you know what happens when one commodity gets used up -- they throw it away and get a new one." -- Richard Williams.​

 

[Devilito]

"I took my girls out of the tennis academies because I thought they looked at them as a commodity, and you know what happens when one commodity gets used up -- they throw it away and get a new one." -- Richard Williams.

I can respect his experience, but i would say the Williams sisters are akin to winning powerball. If you think you're going to raise your girl as a tennis player the same way Richard Williams did, you're dreaming. Anecdotal stories are fun to hear, but are completely useless in terms of a prescriptive model for the average person. It's like hearing those lucky situations in how someone became a Hollywood star and believing that is the reality for the majority of people.