WTA On-court Coaching Front and Center at Family Circle Cup
by Rick Limpert on Apr 17, 2010 10:34 AM EDT
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There aren't many differences in the rules between men's and women's professional tennis, but one big difference is the WTA allowing on-court coaching of its players. Once a set the player can request a meeting with her coach on the changeover.
I like it for a couple reasons. One is that there is strategy involved when you ask to see your coach. Do you do it when you are about to lose, or do you use it as a basketball coach uses a timeout? Maybe you have a problem with you serve that can be cleared up in a 60 second meeting. Whatever the reason, it's fascinating to me to see these on-court meetings. Another plus is the fact that ESPN has a live mic set up to capture the dialogue of these meetings. And if you watched the ESPN3, formerly ESPN360 coverage this week you got to hear the coach and players dis their opponent, criticize the courts, and have the occasional meltdown right on the court. Even during meeting where English is not spoken it is still fun to see the players whining and their facial expressions as coaches try to calm their players down.
One great exchange happened during the Melanie Oudin vs. Christina McHale round of 16 match. Before closing the first set out against McHale, Oudin told coach Brian de Villiers that she couldn't believe she was struggling with McHale, and McHale was affecting her play. de Villiers told her not to worry about who was on the other side of the net, and it shouldn't be personal. So not sure what kind of bad blood is between Oudin and McHale, but it added intrigue to an otherwise routine victory for Oudin.
This really is compelling stuff for tennis fans, and I think it should be included in Grand Slam events as well.
This piece was written by a reader of The Daily Forehand, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the site.
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That is really interesting.
I’ve been wanting the men to add coaching too. I need to watch some ESPN3 and catch some of this stuff.
On Court Coaching
So, I finally found the fan that the WTA has been talking about that loves on-court coaching. All of us tennis fans have been wondering which fan has the WTA been saying that loves on court coaching because everywhere we looked people were calling for it to be abandoned. It is hilarious that you like on court coaching not because it provides some amount of assistance to the players but that you actually got to hear about some alleged rift between 2 players. Most of us who love women’s tennis think that it is the worst thing ever implemented. It makes the women look weak and ineffective and it is embarassing that it is only the women who are allowing this travesty to overtake women’s tennis. If the ITF ever decides to allow on court coaching at the Grand Slam level I would be the first in line with a petition to stop this travesty from ever occurring. The beautiful thing about tennis is the one on one format of the sport. Each player can only rely on themselves, their games, their instincts and their abilities to think their way out of problems. The worst part of on court coaching is that it perpetuates the myth that a woman needs a man to constantly hold her and prop her up. Most of the coaching stints that I have seen usually end up with the coach telling the player that she should believe in herself. If your player has to be reminded mid-match that she needs to believe in herself then she needs to lose or find a different profession. . The champions of the sport do not use on court coaching. On court coaching was brought in not for the benefit of the fans as the WTA likes to spin it but to basically legalise illegal acts by players such as Sharapova, Ivanovic and Henin. Players like these who kept constantly looking at their boxes and asking for advice during a match. It was illegal and because these were the so-called stars they implemented this travesty. \
All of these players have been fined and/or warned for receiving illegal coaching from the stands.
I hope one day they decide that on court coaching needs to be abandoned and I pray that it never gets to the Grand Slam level because that would surely be the death of tennis as we know it.
You are right about one thing...
That coaching was going on in every match before they allowed the coaches on to the court. It may have been by hand signals, lip reading or head nods, but there was coaching going on in every match whether top players were involved or not.
At this point, blame whoever allowed ESPN to put a live mic right there between the player and coach. The fact is, this is women’s tennis and since many of them are teenage or young women there is an emotional element to the sport, much more than in the men’s game. This is just part of the game, and in an age where organizations are trying to make their sports more fan friendly or give an “inside” look at the sport, I think that is the price that has to be paid.
ESPN always likes adding a “TMZ” element to their broadcasts, it doesn’t matter which sport.
Rick Limpert
by Rick Limpert on Apr 18, 2010 11:34 PM EDT up reply actions
The fact that ESPN likes adding a “TMZ” element to tennis broadcasts does not mean that we the fans have to put up with it. In case you do not know the fans wield a lot of power in the world of tennis. A case in point is at this year’s Australian Open where fans openly protested having Mary Carillo in the booth constantly berating Serena Williams. Fans wrote in, called in, went on message boards and informed moderators who had the ear of the powers that be at ESPN that they wanted to watch tennis, not listen to Carillo’s view on Serena Williams. It stopped and we were able to enjoy the rest of the fortnight doing what we love to do, watch tennis. In relation to your assertion that many of these women are young girls. No, they are not. They are professional athletes. The fact that we are of the view that they are more emotional than their male counterparts only feeds into the stereotype that a woman needs a man to hold her hand because she is emotionally fragile. When Martina Hingis was 15 years old she won Wimbledon. She attained the No.1 ranking at 16 years old. This was during the time of Monica Seles and Steffi Graf. When Serena Williams won the US Open she was 17 years old. She got the No.1 ranking at a very young age as well. Serena Williams is now 28 years old and has only used on-court coaching once and that was at the start of the experiment. Since then she has abandoned the idea. These young women have chosen a career (or their parents have) where self suffiency is a major part of it. They should be allowed to sit with their coaches and come up with a 2 or 3 game plans before a match. Coaches should do their job and scout the opponent prior to the match. In almost every Grand Slam that I have watched you will usually see Venus or Serena’s hitting partners in the stands scouting the next opponent. Why can coaches not do that? Why do you have to come on court during the middle of a match not to offer sage advice but to hold your charge’s hand and soothe her sensibilities because she is having an emotional moment. . Allow her to stay out there and figure it out. That is one of the reasons why these younger players cannot make the breakthrough to win a major because when they get under the spotlight they have no idea how to make mid-match adjustments. It is the reason why Dinara Safina with all her talent has yet to win a major. Too dependent on the coach to come down and tell her what to do.
Two fans.
I don’t think there is only one fan of on-court coaching out there. I know I make two. And I’m not a fan just because of hearing an on-court riff or meltdown or whatever. I do agree that many players feed that stereotype that women are emotional or fragile and need someone to hold their hand. That’s something I really like about Melanie Oudin. She seems to handle the pressure really well, and she’s not out there looking for signals from her dad and crying and all that stuff. The women players who freak out look up at their domineering father/coaches and break down really annoy me. But I do think that it would be cool if men’s and women’s tennis had on-court coaching. I don’t see why tennis has to be the only sport that doesn’t have that.
It's all done for the fans...
Professional tennis is a sport, but it’s also entertainment viewed in person, on television and now on the internet. Without the fans there would be no professional tennis circuits. Because of fans players don’t have to wear all-whites anymore with the exception of Wimbledon, loud music is played on changeovers, movement is allowed in the stands during play and super tiebrakers are now used in the 3rd set of doubles matches in most events.
In order to keep tennis relevent and interesting, tournament directors and officials need to keep experimenting with new rules and ideas that will keep the fans interested. The on-court coaching is one of these experiments. I think it would be equally interesting if they had it in men’s matches as well. Women keep asking for an equal playing field; prize money, scheduling times, and television coverage, but men’s tennis is still the major draw and they play 3 out of 5 at the Slams.
I don’t look as the on-court coaching as degrading, it’s a part of the sport and in an age where people have short attention spans this may keep both hardcore and casual tennis fans tuned into the matches a bit longer. Add polarizing commentators into the mix like Mary Carillo, Luke Jensen, and Justin Gimelstob and all this helps tennis, I believe.
If the women players had female coaches would that make a difference to you? I’m all for full-time female coaches on tour giving advice and perspective to today’s young players. Former players like Mary Joe Fernandez (Fed Cup Capt), GiGi Fernandez, Jana Novotna and other could be an asset to today’s stars.
Rick Limpert
You state that tennis is changing and that that is good for the game. Some changes are good, but others are not. The super tie-break in doubles is not good for the game (no other sport has abbreviated their scoring methods). Movement is not allowed in the stands as can be seen from the many attempts by umpires of stopping play in order to allow fans who are moving around trying to find seats as it is distracting to the players. As someone who has volunteered at many tournaments, I have had to stop people from trying to enter while the ball is in play and have them wait until the changeover or a break in play for whatever reason (medical time out etc). I am not sure how on-court coaching can be fan friendly when 80% of what is being said on court is not understood by even the commentators. How many of our US and indeed English commentators speak French, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Russian, Chinese etc. The fact remains that the fans are never engaged during this process and even when we are able to determine the coaching strategy 9 times out of 10 it is all about the hand holding and calming players down.
You mention that in terms of parity the game should be played on an equal basis. I agree with you there and that is why they need to disband on court coaching for the women. The ATP will never institute this in any change to the game.. Can you imagine Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal calling their coaches down during a Tour level match? These guys have made their living out of being mentally tough, having all the shots at their disposal and being able to strategise during a match. What would that say about the aura that they have built over all these years?
When your opponent sees you calling a coach down during the match every chance you get all that does is tell your opponent, well I am doing the right things, I am going to keep doing it. We only have to look no further than at this year’s Sony Ericsson Open when guru coach Darren Cahill was out coached by Venus Williams. Venus at no point called her mother or father down to assist her but she was out played for most of the match. Darren came out so many times I lost count but at the end of the day it was the player who was able to change her strategy, tactics and withstand everything that her opponent threw at her, as well as believing that her game was good enough to withstand everything that won the match. Not the one who kept calling her coach for assistance.
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