Above L to R: Kane Waslenchuk and Paola Longoria, current #1’s on the Pro Tours.
It’s all about the C’s; Courage, Commitment, Championships, and Coaching!
The thrill of coaching big time matches is addictive. I love the on court work with athletes and next weekend is a holiday but I have scheduled 6 hours of lessons to catch up with athletes from out of town.
Now some of these athletes have had coaching already and I know I will go up against what I call “Geo-Coaches” . These folks coach where to go, what shots to hit during matches.
They come up with a detailed game plan based on an athlete’s positioning and movement patterns. Me? Not so much Geo Coaching as execution coaching.
Say what? Okay, so instead of teaching “What” as in what shot to hit, what position to move to, I teach “How”. It is my contention if you cannot hit the shot correctly, all the “What” is irrelevant. It is also my contention that allowing athletes to hit with incorrect technique leads to injuries.
The big advantage to teaching the “hows” is the athlete can create on their own and do not need a micro-manager yelling at them during time-outs.
Two drawbacks to what I teach. One, it takes commitment to stick with practice to make it a habit.
The second drawback? It takes courage! Courage to stick with it even if it is going South for you as you learn. The two c’s of commitment and courage pay off!
The national, Pro, and World champions I have coached and the amount of “squeakers” they have won comes down to the C’s-courage, commitment, oh and Champions starts with C as does Coaching, the four C’s!!!