New US Open Format, Perfect for Coaching

Fast forward 66 years, and this year’s US Open introduced a new format that allowed multiple matches to be played simultaneously throughout the facility without commentary, opening the door for that learning process to be fostered. This change will help coaches who like to use live matches as teaching tools. Until now, if you wanted to share the experience of a match, you had two options. First, you may be lucky enough to have a professional tournament nearby that you can attend, or you could watch a match on TV with a student. The first option is usually a bit uncomfortable, since you are part of an audience and either are a distraction to those near you, or it’s the other way around. The constant commentary input naturally hinders the second option, and muting the sound of the match takes away from the impact of how a ball is struck. With this new format at the Open, many matches on the outer courts are live and without commentators. Now there is an opportunity to exercise the learning process of asking your student what took place and how that player should address the issue. All you need are two cell phones on speakers, and the sharing and learning begin.

This new opportunity allows for an exchange that can emphasize more input and analysis from the student. Instead of a coach providing most of their perspective, the student can watch and study to understand and learn as the match progresses. They may notice, and then comment, on the great preparation and footwork that these top players have, something you have been working on for some time. They see and appreciate the impact on that player’s ability to hit committed and quality groundstrokes. Or they may witness a player on the tour experience a lapse in their mental and emotional approach and see how they reset their focus and overcome that challenge.  

This is also an opportunity for your student to find issues that they can associate with a player.  “Been there, done that” is sometimes the perfect observation that will help them avoid repeating a failed effort to fix their own game during match play. It’s basically a dress rehearsal without consequence, allowing the student to recognize the cause and effect of every point won or lost.

This type of learning through evaluation is critical because, even though coaches are often in attendance at a match, the changes a player makes are mostly under their control. The benefits are simple to understand. If you were to give a student a puzzle or any similar challenge. and then quickly intervened when they were struggling to provide them a solution, the development of learning by that student is nowhere near as beneficial as having them learn how to solve that puzzle on their own. Coaches and parents often fall into this “always helping pattern”, trying to avoid failure and also hoping to accelerate the improvement of their young tennis players. This frequently results in a very dependent student.

Once a student observes and asks, “Their toss on their serve is not that consistent, seems to cause a lot of errors.” The coach can agree and then follow through by asking the student what caused that to happen and how they will correct their service motion to improve their tosses.  

It’s a difficult challenge for those who deeply care about their student or for parents who care so much about their child, but I remember my father, a very well-read individual and highly educated, whom I would ask how to spell a word or what that word meant; his response was always, “Look it up.” That type of response was crucial; it helped me learn to find answers.  

Of course, every coach will need to individualize their approach and recognize that there will always be some topics that may require explanation and guidance, after all, no two students are alike and will learn in the same way.

But as a coach, I’ve always felt that the day my student says, “I was missing my low forehands, or I wasn’t getting enough first serves in,” and then immediately says, “but I figured it out.” That is the day I know I have done my job as a coach.