Sartorius
Hall of Fame
This is actually a response to christos_liaskos' post in the "Your favourite pro shot" thread.. But seeing how my response is actually way off topic and can be made a new topic of discussion, I decided to go with a new thread...
Now I'm no tennis coach, and you say you are one, I must ask this: Do you genuinely believe that?..
I always thought that this "genius and talent of Federer" talk has been mostly exaggerated.. Yes, he clearly has a lot of "talent" and is a genius at tennis, but isn't that, the way he plays the game right now, actually a result of hard work and lots of practice?.. People usually talk about Federer as if he had a racket on his hand when he was born, actually that's exactly the impression your entire post gives me, "it's pure genius and talent"?..
Surely you must have heard how intensely Federer practices off-season and in-between tournaments (Long hours of practice sessions in Dubai?), and how his fitness trainer Pierre Paganini worked (/still works) wonders with his coordination, movement, and obviously fitness when Federer was young?.. Reminds me the title of an article on Federer, by Darren Cahill: Young Federer had nothing.
People always say: You can't be trained to play like Federer, or how hard work and lots of practice won't get you there at all, you need talent (what really is talent anyway?).. Again, I'm no tennis coach but when I watch Federer, I don't see purely talent or genius, I also see a lot of hard work, but most of all I see dedication.
All that said, you probably do have a point when saying "the game 'Federer' cant be taught"... That's probably true. But with the fact that it is real, it is actually played by someone... I would say that the real right thing to teach a a young player is that the game 'Federer', through hard work and dedication, is possible?
Dont want to start a huge debate lol but i'm a coach myself and my favourite player is also Federer. But in terms of teaching kids to play like him, I pick wouldnt use Federer as someone to base your teachings on. Out of the world no1 and no2 I would pick Nadal as someone to copy.
The game 'Federer' cant be taught, it's pure genius and talent, you cant coach someone to play like that and have huge success.
Now I'm no tennis coach, and you say you are one, I must ask this: Do you genuinely believe that?..
I always thought that this "genius and talent of Federer" talk has been mostly exaggerated.. Yes, he clearly has a lot of "talent" and is a genius at tennis, but isn't that, the way he plays the game right now, actually a result of hard work and lots of practice?.. People usually talk about Federer as if he had a racket on his hand when he was born, actually that's exactly the impression your entire post gives me, "it's pure genius and talent"?..
Surely you must have heard how intensely Federer practices off-season and in-between tournaments (Long hours of practice sessions in Dubai?), and how his fitness trainer Pierre Paganini worked (/still works) wonders with his coordination, movement, and obviously fitness when Federer was young?.. Reminds me the title of an article on Federer, by Darren Cahill: Young Federer had nothing.
People always say: You can't be trained to play like Federer, or how hard work and lots of practice won't get you there at all, you need talent (what really is talent anyway?).. Again, I'm no tennis coach but when I watch Federer, I don't see purely talent or genius, I also see a lot of hard work, but most of all I see dedication.
All that said, you probably do have a point when saying "the game 'Federer' cant be taught"... That's probably true. But with the fact that it is real, it is actually played by someone... I would say that the real right thing to teach a a young player is that the game 'Federer', through hard work and dedication, is possible?
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