It’s that time of year again.
The French Open is here and the tennis is red hot on the clay of Roland Garros, Paris. Roger, Novak, Rafa, Maria, Serena, Sam and Nick are among the stars in action and vying for the winners title.
My last blog was a lead up to this moment. All are prepared. All have their coaches planning their day-to-day routines. Practise court bookings, dinner arrangements, recovery and preparation sessions and opponent strategy planning.
It is the last point that I want to talk about. Strategy planning.
A major role of the coach on tour is to scout potential opponents to assess their patterns of play, to look for chinks in their armour and to devise a plan for their player to win the match.
As a junior player or budding touring professional embarking on the Futures Tour, the luxury of having a coach tour with you is usually not viable. The funds are just not there. We often hear the top players talking about their “team” and how important they are to their success. Well, the reality is, most junior players have a “touring team” of themselves and mum and dad.
This is a key scenario to understand. At the majority of tournaments you have to play a role not unlike a “touring coach” with the top professionals. You have to scout potential opponents. You have to look for chinks in their armour and assess their strengths and weaknesses. You have to devise a plan to win against them.
All too often I see players hanging around centres playing on their iPads or phones, chilling out with their buddies or heading straight home after a practise session while their competition is all around them playing and practising. The chance to assess and take notes is there for all to take.
While the French Open is powering along, a great challenge is to create a game plan on how to beat the top players. See if you can find a way that could beat Serena and tackle Rafa.
Remember, helping yourself compete at a higher level by paying attention to your potential opponents will help your coach bring the absolute best out in you when you hit the training court.
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