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1. Harry Instructor

To Harry Hopman a Great Coach

In this day and age tennis is a sport where the players on court have become larger then life with even larger entourages of "star Coaches" and other "Gurus", an image of the past often flashes in my mind and sobers me.

As an aspiring tennis-player and later on as trainer, I was often at the Harry Hopman Tennis Camp located at Bardmoor, Florida. Through the years in many ways I had the privilege to get to know Mr. Hopman with a certain degree of depth.

Mr. Harry Hopman, as a Trainer and Davis Cup Coach had staggering results: 16 Davis Cup wins, a record Gram Slam collection of players trained with him from the 1950`s through the 1980`s. From Frank Sedgman through to Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Ashley Cooper, Mervyn Rose, Rex Hartwig, Mal Anderson, Neale Fraser, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Fred Stolle and Tony Roche. , Andres Gimeno, ........John McEnroe, Vitas Gerulaitis, Guillermo Villas, Bjorn Borg, Illie Nastase, Yanick Noah, Andres Gomez, and even young Jim Courier and thousands of others drew inspiration and improved their tennis games through that man.

In time I understood the greatness of that man through his training methods; clear and simple, plain and sufficient, direct to the point, disciplined without wavering and consistent at all times.

This may seem over-simplefied, with the hoards of PHDs, Dr. psychologists, Dr. sports medicine specialists, time and again 'diplomed' Dr. Professor Coaches with status of wonder men, bodyguards, masseurs, nutritionalists, private trainers (fitness & aerobics, speed, you name it), physiotherapists, finally agents and tennis parents of today.

Forgive me if I am going to hurt some egos, but, todays' experts all together including myself can not fill 1/100 of one shoe from the man Harry Hopman was. The leadership, command, respect, inspiration and desire to train and better yourself that Harry instilled in his pupils was remarkably astounding! But why and how?

What is the answer to what this man really was? I once learned that on a Sunday late afternoon in a newcomers weekly meeting at the Harry Hopman Tennis Camp in Bardmoor, Florida:

Approximatelly 300 hundred tennis players of all ages, sexes and nationalities gradually came into the large meeting room at the Club house, promptly filling out all seats and dozens stood-up around the room.

At the front table facing all campers, Mrs. Lucy Hopman stood-up, politely introduced herself and welcomed all newcomers. Then, made a brief summary of rules plus important things to know for all campers. After that, kindly went on to ask everyone in the room to introduce him/herself by saying name nationality/residency, state and if they were players/campers or trainers;

One by one they stood up and... John Herricks, Columbus, Ohio, USA, player. Filipo Benuto, Bologna, Italy, player. Jaime Villalobos, Mar de Plata, Argentina, player. John Barrens, Sydney, Australia, player. Tim Tarabella, Pennsylvania, USA, trainer.....and dozens of others stood up from Africa, Europe, Asia, South America, and told their names and status. Finally the flow went towards Mr. Hopman, although he was then a man in his mid seventies, got-up with extraordinary gait and with an heavy Australian accent said:

Harry Hopman, Largo, Florida, USA, "instructor".

The great Harry Hopman was just "a simple instructor"!

This old-aged, meek looking little man in the picture below, was capable of making you be the best you could be. There was no pie in the sky, just simple words full of strength and conviction. What an extraordinary giant of a man, Dr. Professor, Master, PHD, MBA you name it, he was!!!

Sorry that Mr. Hopman left us in 1985, he was a great loss to tennis and all of its facets. A legacy of instructors and players learned some of his ways.

by Sergio Cruz

.....and ah! If you have a question such as this; Would Harry Hopman have made Pete Sampras or Roger Federer better players? Oh yeah! 30% to 40% better without a question!

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