Are Coaches truly necessry ?
In these past weeks, apparently there has been a lot of discussion about Coaches in many different scenarios. As a Tennis Instructor, I tend to understand the pressure Coaches are under daily especially on the Pro Circuit.
Try to understand the gut wrenching agony of a person coaching someone who is on the Tour currently. Unless you happen to be the Coaches for Rafa Nadal, you don't stand a chance of remaining in your position very long without your horse obtaining the results they're hoping for and that is usually winning a Major. Once a Player is firmly in the Top 10, all that is on their minds are winning Majors (period) anything less and they're constantly disappointed.
How about Andy Murray's coach Miles Maclagan. Murray was suppose to win Wimbledon this year. It was a forgone conclusion and all the fanfare had been laid out simply awaiting for Andy to make it official by winning the Title but what happened? Oh yeah, this other Andy got in the way of all the Hoopla. So who's fault was it that Murray didn't get the prize he worked hard to achieve. Well the Coach of course. I mean each & everytime a Player fails to accomplish the goals they have set out for themselves, it's the Coach's fault and that person gets fired. But isn't it amazing with all the firings going on throughout a year, generally the Player doesn't fair very much better on their own or with a different coach. So why do they or anybody need coaches?
But what about those Players who have serious game until the heat is on like Dinera Safina & Jana Novatna, etc. They already know how to win big matches that don't have conclusive endings like whoever wins this Match takes the Title. So basically is it a coach that is needed here or maybe a Shrink to find out whats going on in their head that prevents them from performing at the level they normally do when the stakes aren't so high.
Think about poor old Larry Stefanki who all but anointed Andy Roddick by assuring him of a Wimbledon win this year, was it his fault that it didn't happen? Not suggesting Roger Federer had anything to do with the letdown but Andy did play a very clean, powerful, thoughtful & aggressive match in the Finals but that Federer guy just downright spoiled it for everybody like Nadal did the year before. Of course we need Coaches because you just can't figure out the mechanics of what you are doing without the help of someone trained in watching for specific areas of a game.
Coach
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