More From The Convention

The 175 or so coaches that made the trip down to Naples for the 2015 ITA Coaches Convention got treated to a slew of terrific speakers and demonstrators who gave them tips on everything from developing a championship team to learning how to add 10 miles per hour to their player’s serve.

While Sunday was loaded full of strategy sessions and round table meetings, Monday and Tuesday was a lot more loose with a number of high profile guest speakers with many of them providing on court demonstrations.

The first half of Monday had 4 different coaches forums with each 45 minute forum talking about a different topic.  Pomona-Pitzer’s Ann Lebedeff, who would also be awarded the 2015 ITA Meritorious Service Award at the banquet, talked about the history of coaching and some of the perceptions that student-athletes have about men’s and women’s coaches.

Martin Blackman (USTA PD GM) and Stephen Amritraj (USTA National Coach-Collegiate Tennis) talked about college tennis and the development pathway from college to the pros.  Stephen mentioned that they want to continue to link Future/Challenger wild cards to ITA major event winners (if they are American).  They want to continue to grow the USTA Collegiate Team which gives players that meet certain criteria the chance to train, travel, and play events during the summer on the USTA’s dime.

Stephen mentioned that he thinks there could be as many as 15 new pro events in the U.S. next year with many, if not all, held on college campuses throughout the country. Just this past year there were 4 new Futures events that were held on the campuses of Virginia, Wake Forest, Florida State, and Baylor and there were also 2 new $50K Challengers with one at Ohio State and the other in Cary, NC that UNC, Duke, and NC State helped bring to life.  He mentioned that the colleges found the sponsors and basically organized the events themselves.  These extra events will give college players that many more chances to compete at the pro level and earn ATP points. The reason why that last part is so big is because when the high-potential players move on from college, instead of starting at the bottom of the heap with 0 points and playing Futures qualies, they’ll potentially have enough points accumulated to gain direct entry into Futures main draws.

He talked about an excellence grant program that would provide additional funding to post-college players that have recently made the full time commitment to playing on the pro tour. They’d get this funding if they are able meet certain ranking plateaus during a certain time frame. So for example if a player can reach the ATP 400 within 6 months after finishing college they’d be able to get $1000, if they hit the ATP 350 it’d be $1500, and so forth. Reaching those plateaus will be tough but with the additional pro events being added the pathway will be more manageable.

Lastly Stephen mentioned the USTA PD Post-Graduate Fellowship Program for recent college grads that are interested in getting into the coaching profession. The link talks about the program and 1 of the guys that was in the program this summer, Eric Diaz, has already landed an assistant coaching job at Boise State.

Vanderbilt’s Geoff MacDonald, 2015 Wilson/ITA D1 Women’s Coach of the Year, talked about student athlete development on and off the court. For those that don’t know Geoff here is a good article that talks about his coaching philosophy and his love of tennis – you will be hard-pressed to find a more genuine and down to earth guy.

USC’s Peter Smith, Florida Roland Thornqvist, and Williams’s Alison Swain talked about the anatomy of a championship team. Each had good stories about the culture of their programs and times they’ve been able to win matches when they didn’t think they would. This forum had more Q&A than the others and it was great that Peter, Roland, and Alison were able to provide guidance to many of the newer coaches.

Next up everybody went outdoors for several on court sessions from several teaching pros and knowledgeable minds.

Stephen Amritraj demonstrated how to develop a pro game by showing the coaches some of the drills he uses on a daily basis with his guys at the USTA PD.

Dr. Mark Kovacs of the International Tennis Performance Association demonstrated the different progressions of the service motion. He talked about how going through the progressions properly will not only reduce injuries but could also potentially add up to 10 miles per hour to your serve.

The Coaches Celebration and Awards Banquet closed out the night. The National Coaches of the Year each received their hardware and there was a moving tribute to the recently retired long-time head of the ITA, David Benjamin. I’m sure the ITA’s site will have plenty of pictures uploaded in a few days.

There were 3 terrific classroom sessions this morning (Tuesday) from Bo Hanson (Athlete Assessments), Nick Bollettieri, and Warren Pretorius (Tennis Analytics)

Bo Hanson, who is a 4-time Australian Olympian and 3-time Bronze Medalist, talked about his experiences in rowing and what it takes for a team to be successful. Bo teaches the DISC method which identifies the 4 different behavioral styles which are Dominance, Influence, Steady, and Conscientious. He said to have a successful team you need have to the right composition of Ds, Is, Ss, and Cs because if you have too many of one kind you can be in for a rocky road.

The legendary Nick Bollettieri talked to a full-house about his upbringing and his lengthy career and had one great story after another. His unfiltered tell it like it is style is something you don’t see as often nowadays but with his track record he can say whatever he wants and how he wants. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak it’s well worth the price of admission. In talking about college tennis he said for the sport to stay relevant it needs to have an exciting format and it MUST get on TV – baby!

Warren Pretorius of Tennis Analytics closed out the classroom sessions with a detailed look into the analytics of tennis. His system does some unbelievable things and lets you break down match footage by just about any type of scenario you can think of – 30-30 point, second serve to your backhand, first serve to your forehand, rally over 6 shots, etc.

Warren has worked with many of the top players including Novak Djokovic and is currently working with Tennis Canada, the USTA, Tennis South Africa as well as many D1 schools. Warren had a great story about Novak Djokovic’s coach reaching out to him the night before Novak played Rafael Nadal in the 2013 US Open Final. He wanted to see if Warren could analyze Rafa’s matches from the quarters and semis to see if he could spot any situational tendencies that Novak could potentially exploit. Warren saw a few things and gave Novak’s coach his take on what he saw while Novak listened in. Novak wasn’t able to execute those situational points well enough to win the next day but he was able to a few months later at the World Tour Finals.

I personally had a blast in Naples and it was great to be able to meet so many people in person. The speakers were all fantastic and when you’re able to get someone as accomplished as Nick Bollettieri to come and speak for free you know you’re doing something right. I want to thank Erica Perkins Jasper for the invite and I’d love to come back next year to take it all in.