Will British Tennis get the memo?

Lizzy Yarnold

The winter Olympics in Sochi has been a great event with so many sports to enjoy.  From ski jumping, downhill skiing, speed skating to ice hockey, figure skating and snow boarding, there is one recurring theme throughout the games.

Which is the athleticism of the participants on display in virtually every sport I’ve watched so far.  The speed, power, endurance, twists, turns and bravery is there for all to see and is a sight to behold; especially as so many of the sports come with a “don’t try this at home tag”.  And Lizzy Yarnold’s dominance to take gold in the Skeleton is a culmination of all of those things mentioned.

Lizzy Yarnold’s achievement is incredible for a number of reasons.  After taking gold, she was interviewed on BBC radio 5 live and immediately made herself available to schools in her local area of Kent! where she offered to go in and give inspirational chats to schoolkids and girls in particular to chase their dreams and participate in sport.  Lizzy sited former heptathlete Denise Lewis as a strong woman and inspiration to her growing up.  It transpired that Lizzy had only been doing the Skeleton for five years, having switched from heptathlon as a teenager, and had issues initially with funding along her journey to dominance and achievement.  The reasons are precisely that, switching from heptathlon to trying the Skeleton and taking so well to it after at first not having ever heard of the sport.

I understand what allowed Lizzy to switch sports is a programme where athletes are encouraged by UK Sport to try out different sports presumably to use their athleticism in other areas where they may be able to excel better.  This seems an excellent idea; potentially top class athletes are not lost at a young age and may find their calling in other areas.

As far as I can tell, British tennis is not part of this set up.  Run by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) we know that British tennis has failed to produce a champion of any significance for decades other than Andy Murray.  We also know that Andy Murray’s parents took the risk of mortgaging their house to send Andy to Valencia in Spain to get elite training, which clearly worked.  In fact, it’s not just a matter of not producing champions, but the thing that has vexed me for so long is  the woeful lack of athleticism of many past and present British players.

There are many reasons for this but one of the key reasons is the obsession with British coaches and Tennis Leadership of hand eye co-ordination.  I refer you to quotes by former Queens club Tournament Director Ian Wight made during a speech recorded by the Observer newspaper in December 2006 “'We excel at middle-class sports in the UK and tennis is a middle-class sport. Let's exploit it”.  Ian Wight went on to say that tennis is a complex game to learn “'An intelligent player will, over time, win out, so let's think about finding kids who are bright enough to excel at the technical and tactical aspects of the game. Let's put brains before brawn. The former is a god-given gift, the latter can be developed.”

If this is the approach that has been taken for decades, well this approach has failed miserably.  Look at some of the best tennis players male and female in the open era.  In the late 1970s and early 1980s Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe held the number 1 position.  Ivan Lendl took over from John McEnroe and there were a host of players who burst on to the scene including Pat Cash, Yannick Noah, Mats Wilander, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg.  In the 1990s, new breed of players came through in Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, Pat Rafter, Richard Krajicek.  Then came Hewitt, Safin, Federer, and then Nadal, Murray, Djokovic, Tsonga.  In the womens game we had Martina Navratilova at the very top followed by Steffi Graf and since the 2000s superior athleticism became ultra important with Serena and Venus Williams, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin and Amelie Mauresmo.

Many of these players could easily have turned their abilities to other sports at a young age.  Steffi Graf had the ability to be a sprinter or long jumper, Sampras had the spring in his legs to play basketball or volley ball.  Yannick Noah also had that spring and his son is a successful basketball player in the NBA.  

The legendary ex Wimbledon winner and founder of professional tennis Jack Kramer made some interesting comments to Tennis magazine back in 2004 when he said youngsters should be allowed to choose which sport they would like to follow at the age of 14, until that age they should be allowed to play a range of sports until they find their niche and stick to that.  We have seen examples of that here in England where the likes of Philip Neville and Joe Hart were accomplished cricketers before deciding to concentrate exclusively on football around the age of 16.    

In tennis, Czech player Petra Kvitova started to concentrate wholly on tennis at the age of 16, and became Wimbledon champion at the age of 21. Being encouraged to follow different sports gives young players a different perspective on how to approach sport.  For instance, Anabel Croft mentioned once that footballers make really good tennis players because they have naturally good footwork and movement. In fact, since retiring from football in 2011, ex Cameroon and Chelsea player Geremi Njitap has played in his national tennis championships. 

So, this goes back to why the Lawn Tennis Association are not getting the right types of young athletes to play the game of tennis, they often appear to be looking in the wrong areas and at the wrong criteria.  If the LTA have changed that policy in the last few years then so far I do not see any evidence of our best players coming through who can be considered natural athletes.

 

Arvind Parmar had very nice strokes indeed, but his movement was just not good enough to make it to a decent level.  Ditto with Jamie Delgado who was junior world number 1 in the 1990s but never got beyond the challengers in the pro level.  Then there was Alex Bogdanovic who never won a match in Wimbledon after almost 10 wildcards.  In the womens game Melanie South had a very strong serve and good groundstrokes but struggled for movement.  The same can be applied to Elena Baltacha.  Anne Keothavong neither possessed world class athleticism.

And our current top two players of Laura Robson and Heather Watson also do not possess elite athleticism.  In Laura Robson’s case, her lack of athleticism could prevent her getting to the very top as she has all the other attributes of hand eye coordination and clean strokes, but her lack of athleticism really prevents her from moving forward and adding important net play to her game.

A lot of players above were given the opportunity to play the game because as Ian Wight quite rightly points out, they had parents who could afford to pay for expensive lessons and travel to tournaments, the opportunity to play is there.   

However, the reason Britain is much more successful in athletics and other individual sports is because the clubs are much more intertwined into the community, allowing kids with natural ability to make their way, and try out different sports.  We know that in France, tennis is also linked to local authorities who run many of the facilities, and the results are clear by how many players they have in the top 100 in both the ATP and WTA tours.

British tennis will only improve when it is acknowledged that athleticism, speed and physicality are as important as the fabled hand eye co-ordination and intelligence borne from the opportunity to attend very good schools.  I think anyone who has natural athletic ability can pick up good hand eye co-ordination because they simply can get to the ball quickly and efficiently to play the strokes.  The technicalities can be taught such as serving, volleys etc.  Tennis is no more technical a sport than high hurdles, triple jump or basketball.  From that viewpoint I disagree with what Ian Wight stated back in 2006.

We need to find kids with natural athletic ability first and foremost, and then the technical and tactical aspects can be put in place.  And we have to encourage kids to discover tennis from different sports and not be obsessed with concentrating on that alone from the age of 4, 5 or 6.