Does Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, and Andy Murray need coaches? Let's take a look...Nadal has his uncle who was a great junior in his country but that was as far as he got. If you want my professional opinion Nadal would be washing cars if it were not for Uncle Toni. Federer does not even have a coach but he uses a team of people to train with to keep him competitive. This has been an evolving approach and does not seem to be working in his case too well. Andy Roddick a pro with many coaches and many hats and has Larry Stefanki in his corner these days. Larry did not have a great tennis career but it was nothing to be ashamed of reaching the top 50 in the late seventies and winning one ATP tournament. Still I am sure there are many more accomplished tennis pros out there who are coaching at the club level that have better credentials than Larry. On top of that so far Larry and Uncle Toni would both get bageled by their students regularly. Finally, Andy Murray who parted ways with Gilbert and is now on the Federer recipe of having a team rather than one coach. This appears to have been a successful decision in the short run for him, cutting Gilbert loose has hurt Gilbert as a coach and helped Murray as a player. There is also no chance Brad could beat Murray, except with a frying pan off court.
Is it possible for a player to turn coach when he has great coaching skills but not the sharpest of playing skills? How does one judge great coaching skills? Can we judge through people like Nick B. who can bring people into the limelight or is by some of the other coaches who trained those players and then handed them off to Nick B. so they could get more exposure. Some of the people in the positions of hiring in the tennis industry typically have incoming candidates compete against their top students. This is a good ice breaker for the group as a whole but could be embarrassing for an incoming coach. In many cases the candidate will win a match or tie break and still not get the job and in some cases they will not win so is that still deserving of the opportunity? It is clear that tennis is maybe more of a journey than defined rules. Tennis is not the marines where there is black and white and for some people that is what they need. Does tennis need a marine?
It is true that if coaches were still good enough then they would not be coaching, they would be playing. The truth is tennis is not immune to the hustle. Although it may be a gentleman's sport people hustle and people get hustled and that is just the nature of life. I have been on both ends, and like to believe I have been on the sucker side way fewer than most but it is always embarrassing to feel that sucker side feeling and it always feels the same. To get through it you just have to stick your pride in your back pocket.
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