November 8 , 2005
Do Not Leave Your Wingman! For those of you who are working on improving your tennis game and want to reach your ultimate potential, this article applies to you. On the other hand, if you are quite content with your current game and lack the commitment of long term game improvement this might not be the best advice for you.
Just as Maverick had to learn a costly lesson, we too can learn a similar lesson regarding our tennis game. So how does leaving your wingman in air-to-air combat apply to tennis? Well, I know it's a stretch, but think of your wingman as your own tennis game's strengths, your style of play, your go to shots. These are the parts of your game you are best at. Whether you are a serve and volleyer, a power baseliner, a slice and dicer, an angle lover, a counter puncher, or an all court pressure applying player like Federer, when under pressure, it is surprisingly easy for most of us, coaches included, to leave our wingman. I remember watching Boris Becker in the middle of his career begin to take some uncharacteristic losses because he wanted to prove to the world and more likely to himself he could win from the baseline. He did have some reasonable success but never to the degree that he had when he stuck to his strengths, following his booming serve and ground and pound strokes to the net.
Similarly, Pete Sampras, in the last year of his career, suffered a horrid losing slump when he quit going for his big forehand, all together stopped hitting topspin backhands, and dropped several mph on the serve. Pete and coach Paul Annacone had split during this time and that may have been part of the problem. It was not until the US Open, the final tournament of his career (and one that Paul Annacone came back to coach him), that he once again stuck with his wingman. In that tournament, he went back to his strengths and the rest, as they say, is US Open history. As a coach, it is very easy to provide band-aids to our players' games in order to obtain the instant gratification a win can provide. For example, say a coach knows his player's strength is the serve and volley game and that style will lead the students to achieve his ultimate potential. So far, so good, however, the student has been struggling with his volleys for a couple of days and has a match coming up against a good player. The coach also knows that his player, if he stays back and plays from the baseline against this particular player, he might possibly pull out a win. What do you think the coach should advise? Go for the instant gratification or stick with his strengths by serving and volleying and try to figure out how to win with what he does best even when having a bit of an off day? The easy route is tempting but it is not going to help the players ultimate development. If you truly want to reach your tennis potential you need to choose a style that suits your strengths and stay committed to this win or lose. In other words, stay with your wingman if you want to reach your ultimate potential. Long-term development vision is essential. Patrick Rafter, John McEnroe, and Stefan Edberg, no matter how much they struggled on a particular day stuck with their game plans which was to put non-stop pressure on their opponents by serving and volleying. and getting to the net at the first possible opportunity. They did not try to be Andre Agassi or Ivan Lendl at the first sign of trouble. They simply made adjustments to their serve and volley game styles rather than abandoning it altogether.
So, the moral of this story seems obvious. Stick with your game, it gives you the best chance to reach your full potential as a player, and learn how to make adjustments to your game when things are not going as you would like them to. If you get in the habit of putting band-aids on problems, you will never allow for complete healing. How can you master your game style if you always leave at the first sign of trouble? In closing, everyone wants to win and many will ask the question, shouldn’t I do whatever it takes to make it happen? The answer is, of course you should. Try different strategies, tactics, etc. but do it within the framework of your game style and do it off your strengths. Don’t waste time playing styles that do not suit your strengths or you will not master your own style, the ultimate key to winning. As always, we would love to hear from you! Questions, comments, personal experiences all create helpful dialogue for everyone! Please click here to send us your email.
Current professional tour coach, Heath Waters and wife, top 100 and former no. 33 in the world ranked tour player, Lindsay Lee-Waters, are proud to release the first predominantly all streaming video based e-learning tennis instructional website at www.virtualtennisacademy.com
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