LTA Strategy

Kolohead · Junior player

LTA Strategy

indiana · Tennis legend

Clay courts being dug up as well. Gee !!

wolf · Tennis legend

I love this thread, the words LTA and strategy right next to each other, just fantastic.

Strongbow · All-time great

wolf wrote:
I love this thread, the words LTA and strategy right next to each other, just fantastic.

It's called Oxymoron.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxymoron

christ · Futures level

As regards the LTA strategy for growing top tennis players, Dan Evans may have a point (from BBC):

"When you are growing up, you just want to be a tennis player - you don't really know what it entails to get to the top 100 in the world. I'm not sure in Britain how easy it is to explain to the guys how you have to do it, because none of the coaches who are explaining it have ever done it.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

christ wrote:
As regards the LTA strategy for growing top tennis players, Dan Evans may have a point (from BBC):

"When you are growing up, you just want to be a tennis player - you don't really know what it entails to get to the top 100 in the world. I'm not sure in Britain how easy it is to explain to the guys how you have to do it, because none of the coaches who are explaining it have ever done it.

Ouch and double ouch biggrin

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

Ah I see why clay court services laid two new clay courts at the NTC in June now. But they are non-covered. So basically the LTA have just got rid of two of the only covered clay courts in Greater London, in efforts to promote a rival sport. Wow.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
christ wrote:
As regards the LTA strategy for growing top tennis players, Dan Evans may have a point (from BBC):

"When you are growing up, you just want to be a tennis player - you don't really know what it entails to get to the top 100 in the world. I'm not sure in Britain how easy it is to explain to the guys how you have to do it, because none of the coaches who are explaining it have ever done it.
Ouch and double ouch

hard to fault the logic. He could go on and say and none of the coaches have ever been involved in working with someone who has reached that level (apart from maybe one or two eh David Felgate, Mark Hilton) certainly British coaches a few and far between

emmsie69 · Top national player

JonH comes home wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
christ wrote:
As regards the LTA strategy for growing top tennis players, Dan Evans may have a point (from BBC):

"When you are growing up, you just want to be a tennis player - you don't really know what it entails to get to the top 100 in the world. I'm not sure in Britain how easy it is to explain to the guys how you have to do it, because none of the coaches who are explaining it have ever done it.
Ouch and double ouch
hard to fault the logic. He could go on and say and none of the coaches have ever been involved in working with someone who has reached that level (apart from maybe one or two eh David Felgate, Mark Hilton) certainly British coaches a few and far between

Isn't that true of most of the top coaches though, you get the odd one that has been there and done that but it seems to me as though a lot of the coaches never really excelled at the top level, it doesn't make them bad coaches though. I'm also not sure that Dan is really the person to bring this up. I'm a big fan of his but lets face it, would he have ever listened to anyone, easy to be critical at 29 after some hard lessons but as a teenager he always seemed to know best and everyone has their own journey.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

emmsie69 wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
christ wrote:
As regards the LTA strategy for growing top tennis players, Dan Evans may have a point (from BBC):

"When you are growing up, you just want to be a tennis player - you don't really know what it entails to get to the top 100 in the world. I'm not sure in Britain how easy it is to explain to the guys how you have to do it, because none of the coaches who are explaining it have ever done it.
Ouch and double ouch
hard to fault the logic. He could go on and say and none of the coaches have ever been involved in working with someone who has reached that level (apart from maybe one or two eh David Felgate, Mark Hilton) certainly British coaches a few and far between
Isn't that true of most of the top coaches though, you get the odd one that has been there and done that but it seems to me as though a lot of the coaches never really excelled at the top level, it doesn't make them bad coaches though. I'm also not sure that Dan is really the person to bring this up. I'm a big fan of his but lets face it, would he have ever listened to anyone, easy to be critical at 29 after some hard lessons but as a teenager he always seemed to know best and everyone has their own journey.

Good point but I think my point was that even if they never made it as a player, having top coaches with the experience of taking a player to the top 100 would be a good thing, but most of those involved in our game in GB hvent done that. It isnt their fault necessarily, there arent many top 100 Brits to have worked with, but someone who has worked with a non GB player would have great experience, that is relevant, that would help them work better with a GB player striving for the top echelon...

christ · Futures level

I think that the point is that coaching a player is about more than just teaching them how to hit tennis balls. Qualifications skill and knowledge are good - and necessary - in a coach, but they dont fully make up for a lack of actual experience.

... a good few of our current players would have probably benefited from such experience.

Hindsight is wonderful, and it is amusing to speculate; maybe Dan would have been more predisposed to listen to a been there, done that style of training rather than a do what I say and keep your nose clean style.

(Im sure that I am not the first to note that posting punctuation from an iPad is a bit hit and miss - quotation marks appear to be ejected by the system!)

-- Edited by christ on Monday 14th of October 2019 04:57:06 PM

emmsie69 · Top national player

I'm not sure that many players from any country have that level of input from successful players though. Dan is my favourite player but he is kidding himself if he thinks having a top 100 player tell hm what its like on tour would've made any difference. As for the coaching, again thats more a case of getting the right coach. My son was a bit of a pain in the arse (not rude just not switched on all the time) so I had to find a coach that would give him a bit of time to mess around then get him back into line, primarily because first and foremost tennis was a past time and had to be fun. I think its this that a lot of players lose, it becomes a grind and they forget why they play the game. The piece of advice that all young players should heed is to remember why they play the game and if they're not enjoying it take a break. Its this that has benefitted Dan the most, that year made hime realise why he plays.

EddietheEagle · County player

Tony Pickard is English, British, a former tour player and one of the most successful ATP coaches ever. He lives in Nottingham too. Were I Evans. I'd have beaten a path to Mr Pickard's door to pick his brains. I'd say that was a no brainer, particularly for a player who had at one point based his own training in Nottingham.

christ · Futures level

emmsie69 wrote:
... he is kidding himself if he thinks having a top 100 player tell hm what its like on tour would've made any difference...

Im not sure that it is about what its like on tour, you can find that out by being in the top 1,000: it is about how one turns the journeyman player into a grand slam player.

... even apostrophes have left the room!

-- Edited by christ on Monday 14th of October 2019 09:29:16 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Respect for the been there done it can count for a lot in some cases. It was with Ivan Lendl that Andy changed to the consistent pragmatic more attacking game that won him Slams, I think largely because it was now Lendl giving out the message.

But I agree, different strokes ...