Ivan Lendl does have enough to do (coaching Andy Murray) so he has decided to open his own International Junior Tennis Academy in Hilton Head Island, S.C. The spring class features students from Canada, New Zealand, Russia and the U.S.
“The enrollment influx from fall to spring is a tribute to the elite instruction our coaches provide students each day,” says Peter Orrell, President and CEO of Junior Sports Corporation, owner/operator of the Ivan Lendl IJTA. “Ivan Lendl IJTA offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for passionate junior tennis players to reach their ultimate potential.”
Ivan Lendl IJTA students (grades five through 12) will attend Heritage Academy as they see school as a vital piece of the puzzle.
p.s. In the photo it looks like Ivan has been eating a little too much over the Christmas period. Im hoping he starts to do some fitness training himself when coaching Andy
Svetlana Kuznetsova has decided to start the year off with a new coach. Svetlana rehired Olga Morozova as her coach. Kuznetsova is currently training with Morozova in Dubai ready for the hot Australian summer. It will be very interesting to see if she is able to improve her performances from 2011, where she didnt do so well.
World number one Caroline Wozniacki has finally hired a new coach to replace her father, Piotr. The Dane announced a couple of months ago that she and her father have decided no to work together on a coaching basis, but didn’t announce the name of her new coach since the announcement.
Her father Piotr accompanied his daughter to tournaments even after they agreed to split, but a Danish newspaper recently announced that her new coach will be Spain’s Ricardo Sanchez.
Wozniacki hasn’t had any luck at the Grand Slam events, and didn’t even reach the semis at the year-ending championships this year. The Spanish coach has stated that his goal will be to get the number one player up to her potential and win the Australian Open next month.
Hopefully Sanchez will be a good coaching match for her and will help her win at least one Slam to consolidate her top ranking in the women’s game. If she is to win a Grand Slam she shouldn’t play so many tournaments throughout the year and make wise choices as to where to play in order to get ready for a Grand Slam. I think Ricardo will help her realize her objectives as a player and maybe we will see an improvement in her game next year!
Jelena Dokic has released a statement about her father being her new coach.
“I want to thank the Australian public for their incredible ongoing support and assure everyone that I remain Australian and will continue to play for Australia,” she said. “I would like to confirm media reports that I have reconciled with my father. My partner Tin Bikic and I have visited my father at his home to finally put an end to our disagreement. I initiated the meeting as I want to reunite my family and allow us all to get on with our lives and be happy. This has gone on too long. I am in a very positive and confident frame of mind in my life and I really wanted to do this because I believe it is the right thing to do both for me and for all of my family. My father was very receptive and I believe he has changed greatly. He understands that I am my own person who makes my own decisions.
“He is now accepting of Tin and I am very pleased we have been able to sort things out. This has been a very uplifting experience for me and for my family. I am very excited about the future. I plan to continue to work with my fantastic coach Louise Pleming with the ongoing support of Tennis Australia and am extremely thankful to both for their help. My next tour event will be in Linz, Austria.”
It seems as though Jack Sock has changed his mind and rehired Mike Wolf as his coach. Sock split with Wolf prior to the US Open, but has been regretting the decision ever since.
Sock will play USTA Challengers in Sacramento and Tiburon, California in the next two weeks.
It seems like the time of year when all of the top players on both tours split with their coaches.
The latest player is Melanie Oudin and she has split with her coach Brian DeVilliers and is now working with Tom Gullikson.
Im a big fan of Tom Gullikson so it will be interesting to see if he can get the best out of Melanie Oudin. Oudin is known for choking in big matches, so it will be tough work for Gullikson.
After Li Na split up with her coach, Kim Clijsters of Belgium has decided to take the same route. She has replaced Wim Fissette with former Belgian Fed Cup captain, Carl Maes.
He has coached the former top player before on a private basis, but Kim isn’t expected to return to play until the next season due to injuries she has sustained this year.
Stanislas Wawrinka has just announced that he has split with coach Peter Lundgren. Lundgren was previously the long term coach of Roger Federer and he has been able to keep Wawrinka in the top 20 for over 3 years now. However, Wawrinka hasnt really had the performed well in Grand Slams this year.
“He played a major role in my career and I am deeply grateful,” Wawrinka wrote. “We have had a lot of success and fun working together, I can’t thank him enough.”
I came across this video about how to pick your tennis racquet. The video is very interesting, but I just wish the guy knew the information instead of just reading it all from a board.
Having coached for over 20 years at every level of play I have seen quite a bit. There are a few parts to this subject which we will get into in different articles.
How to pick a coach
Doing your part as the student
When and why to change coaches
Picking a coach… There are coaches all over the place, just Google it and you can find a coach but how to you find the right coach for you. Take a few things into consideration, your level of play and what you are trying to accomplish. Taking this example… a junior player with a mid range ranking trying to get to a top 10 ranking in their section.
First, do your homework. Ask other players where they train and why they like it there. Ask parents as well. Once you have a few names look into, What is the coaches’ background? Do they or have they played competitive tennis? Do they currently work with competitive players? Please understand that this is just to get things started and hopefully getting you on the right track. If this particular junior player is serious about reaching their goal, the process of picking the right coach can be a bit lengthy.
Next, schedule a few meetings with a minimum of three coaches and do an informal interview. Get a feel for the facility and most important ask if you can watch a class or practice session (this is mainly for players looking to join a group class) Take note as to how the group is run, do they look organized? What is the player-coach ratio? And most important, is there any instruction taking place or is it just a bunch of hitting balls and rotating courts? After you have met with a few coaches it’s time to select which one you are going to try first.
So, you have selected someone that fits what you are looking for, great, now the work begins. I always recommend to try a coach for a minimum of 30 days which means you will either take four private lessons and/or participate in the coaches junior program a minimum of two times per week. In this time you can learn a lot about the coach, their personality, their style of coaching and most important, do they have a plan for you?
Now that your 30 days are over, you either go thru the same thing with your number two pick or you decide to stick with the coach you just tried out. Next we will discuss doing your part as the student.
Liezel Huber has been talking out to CNN about the state of South African tennis. Huber has been a top doubles player in the world for many years and she was basically forced to move to the USA from South Africa to improve her game at the age of 15.
“In South Africa I don’t think they are looking at it as a business. That’s kind of what hurts the most,” she said. “When Wes Moodie and I won Wimbledon doubles titles in 2005, I actually thought it would change tennis in South Africa. Nothing changed. Maybe there’s more important things to spend money on, maybe tennis is not important. Maybe it’s more important for the government to build schools. I’m not there so I’m not sure why tennis is not getting funding. But it shows.”
Huber recently went back to South Africa to hold a clinic but was very disappointed with the talent.
South African tennis really needs to step up their game and get the top players to really try to give back to get more kids involved at the grass roots of the game.
Gael Monfils has announced that he has split with his coach Roger Rasheed. The pair have been working together since 2008, but it hasn’t yielded the right results for Monfils.
“We decided to stop our collaboration by mutual agreement,” said Monfils after helping France into the semi-finals of the Davis Cup with a comfortable victory over Germany.
“We had reached the end of a great story. I owe him a lot, I learned a lot with him.
“It went very well. We talked, we had a good discussion. We’re still very good friends.”
Its seems that Andrei Pavel is really getting results for Jelena Jankovic. Jelen hired Andrei as her new coach recent and it seems that the partnership is working and Jankovic’s game is improving.
There were a lot of people who thought that Andrei Pavel might not be up to the task, but they have been very wrong!
Long gone are the Jankovic practice sessions that were marred with goofing around and long chatty breaks. Pavel is making Jankovic work and is running her hitting sessions like a football practice. They spend a certain amout of time on serves, then it’s on to passing shots, then serve returns; every drill has a purpose and every ball hit has meaning.
Lleyton Hewitt has announced that Tony Roche will become his new coach for 2011. Roche previously coached Hewitt between July 2007 and August 2009 and was last month re-appointed Australian Davis Cup coach under new captain Pat Rafter.
“I’m really looking forward to working with both guys and feel that if I can keep the body performing then I can climb back up the ranks again,” said Hewitt, who has slid to No.55 in the rankings.
“I have been discussing this with Rochey for a few months now prior to him accepting the job as Australian Davis Cup coach, and when he asked me about taking that role with Pat, I thought that would work in well with what we were planning for myself.”
Do you think with the help of Tony Roche that Lleyton Hewitt will be able to lift his game and challenge for Grand Slam titles again?
Yesterday we reported that Andy Murray had split from Miles Maclagan, but now The Guardian has suggested that the Scot will likely begin a coaching tenor with Australian coach Darren Cahill after the US Open.
Murray, who is currently sponsored by Adidas, would have an opportunity to work with Cahill based on the clothing and shoe maker’s development program. Cahill has also worked with other Adidas players, such as Ana Ivanovic, Fernando Gonzalez, and Fernando Verdasco.
Cahill will continue to fulfill his broadcasting duties for ESPN throughout the summer, while Murray will work with part-time coach Alex Corretja
Andy Murray has announced on his site that he is no longer working with Miles Maclagan. Anyway, according to an article by The Telegraph there have been rumblings for weeks and it wasn’t so mutual though still amicable. The rumour is that Murray was keen to keep Miles on his coaching team, but Miles wanted a break.
Alex Corretja has been working with Andy Murray for a long time as a part-time advisor. Corretja will remain and will help Murray get ready for the US Open and US Hard court season.
Rafael Nadal has been fined $2,000 by Wimbledon officials for receiving coaching during his third-round match. The match was against Philipp Petzschner in which Nadal was down 2 sets to 1. Typical!
Nadal was given a code violation by French umpire Cedric Mourier for allegedly receiving advice from his coach, uncle Toni Nadal, during his five-set win over Philipp Petzschener on Saturday.
Both Nadals said Toni had only been giving the player encouragement. The fine was announced Monday. Nadal said, “The rules are the rules.”
Dinara Safina has parted ways with her coach Zeljko Krajan, after a three year partnership. Krajan could remain on as Safina’s coach until the end of the French Open and after that she will begin work with Gaston Etlis.
Gaston is from Argentina and has played many years on tour with career high rankings of 17 in doubles and 114 in singles.
Krajan did an amazing job with Safina as she got to Number 1 in the world and played in in 3 Grand Slam finals and won the silver medal at the Olympics in Beijing.
Ana Ivanovic has announced on her website that she has split with her coach of only three months, Craig Kardon. This is a very short appointment for Kardon who has previously coached 18 time Grand Slam champion Martina Navratilova.
Ivanovic has seen a slide in her ranking ever since she reached the number one spot for a short time last year. Currently Ivanovic is ranked 13th in the world after she lost a whole load of points from her French Open performance.
While searching for a new coach, she will use temporary coaches for Eastbourne and Wimbledon later this month.
Tennis Australia has today advertised for a new coach for the Optus Australian Davis Cup team.
The position has been vacant since Darren Cahill resigned earlier this year.
Former national coach Wally Masur returned to his old job temporarily to help the team out for the Australian victory against Thailand in March.
The traditional responsibilities of the role have been expanded to make it a full time position overseeing the improvement and development of every member of the Optus Davis Cup squad as well as other leading athletes.
“The job is pivotal to the development of tennis in Australia,” said Tennis Australia Director of Tennis Craig Tiley.
“We are looking for a major commitment from a world-class coach,” he explained. “It will involve travel on the tour and on-court work with our very best players and coaches. The successful applicant will undoubtedly be one of the leaders in the sport in this country.”
The successful applicant will work closely with program coaches (including AIS and National Academy coaches) and have strong input into the technical and coaching direction for the tennis training and competition pathway.
Some of the key skills required for the job include:
• A proven ability to develop and implement successful, high performance tennis programs for evolving elite tennis athletes
• Successful and extensive experience coaching tennis at an elite national and international level with a proven ability to influence and motivate athletes
• Past playing experience at the elite international level
Liezel Huber has been talking out to CNN about the state of South African tennis. Huber has been a top doubles player in the world for many years and she was basically forced to move to the USA from South Africa to improve her game at the age of 15.
Ana Ivanovic has announced on her website that she has split with her coach of only three months, Craig Kardon. This is a very short appointment for Kardon who has previously coached 18 time Grand Slam champion Martina Navratilova.
Tennis Australia has today advertised for a new coach for the Optus Australian Davis Cup team.
