- The one who stays up all night and checks every hour in your player's room to see if the cramps
have subsided or provide relief and comfort if necessary!
- The masseur
- The cook
- The...
There are many ways to look at a coach! And there are many ways a coach has to look at
himself.
One of them is with the eternal questioning and answering:
Am I doing the best I can to help this young man as an athlete/tennis player and as a human
being?
Am I taking care of his athletic development and simultaneously am I taking care of his intellectual needs as well?
How much freedom is right to allow, discuss and agree between us, to have fun and time for himself either
socially or even sexually when needed?
How high are we going to push the bar and when?
Am I allowing enough freedom of playing expression (creativity) to this young person?
Am I relaxed and inspiring, instilling confidence and motivation to my player?
How long do I take after a damaging defeat to talk about the tape of the match?
When is time to praise and when is time for constructive criticism?
Will the development time for a given skill affect negatively other areas of his/her game?
Am I keeping up with the evolution of the game, the scientific developments, on nutrition, training methods,
techniques, mental training, tournament regulations?
Am I open minded enough to work in co-operation with sports medicine doctors and other scientists,
colleagues or peers?
Where do you set the bar for parity on who are you going to trust to support your work?
Yes, many more questions and they arise at every moment of the day and you as a Coach have the
discretion
and responsibility to find the right answer.
In this article I am going to talk just about one little aspect of the
gargantuan puzzle that the development
of a tennis player is:
Sports Medicine support.
As a top coach it is imperative that you understand and associate yourself with the best team of sports medicine
experts you can.
If you use sports medicine correctly you can avoid most of the pitfalls of sports training:
- Injuries
- Over training
- Under training
- Burn out
-- Tunnel vision
- Nutrition
- Mental imbalances
...and so on and so forth.
Nevertheless tests are just tests and if proper action is not taken immediately you will not benefit.
Let me give you an example:
Since I started working in 1987/88 with Jim I noticed immediately that his resistance levels were far to low for the
level of tennis he played, so I made him hit the track and field with interval/resistance work without neglecting speed
work.
There was an immediate increase in Jim's resistance, but a nagging question kept bugging me in the
back of my mind, 'Why does he still fail in long matches?'
Partially I knew the answer, he is a young athlete in development and sooner or later he will get there. Patience.
But to get all doubts out of my mind, I went the scientific way and before the Basel Open 1989, Jim and I took a two day
detour in Lisbon and went to visit my good friend Dr. Justino da Fonseca Esteves at the Olympic Sports Medicine Center.
No need to mention but Justino is world class and world renowned in the physiology of effort and the heart.
Sure enough after the tests I had a long private talk with Dr. Esteves and one of the conclusions of this:
- 'The problem you have is, here you have 'grosso modo' an athlete with a Volkswagen engine but with the 02
consumption
of a Ferrari!'
In other words Jim Courier created great O2 deficits very quickly, resulting in fatigue and lactic acid build up
which in long matches was fatal and in the event of a win would still be present the next day.
Boy that was a real cold shower!
But I am not one to give up and immediately asked but, there must be a solution! Or?
And my friend Justino looked at me in the eye and smiled, he knew me for 20 years,
and I could tell what was going on in his mind, 'this Sergio never gives up!'
'You can try three things':
- 'First, he must slow down between points and take the full 30 seconds rest and breath well! To allow him full
oxygenation
between points.'
- Second, take Jim to jog lightly if possible on grass, for ten to fifteen minutes, after each match with proper breathing!
To allow for some or total lactic acid elimination from the match'.
- Third, 'Tell him to slow down a bit, he hits the ball harder and harder all the time...and he
out-punches himself!'.
Immediately in my mind the third option at the time was out of the question, but one and two were things I agreed
100 percent.
Sure enough we go to Basel, apply one and two and Jim Courier wins the tournament! His first Grand Prix series tournament.
The rest is his history and you know it!
Hope you Enjoyed!
Sergio Cruz
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