The Value of Working on Your Strengths

[johnyandell]

Would love to get your thoughts on Sven Groenefeld's latest - "The Value of Working on Your Strengths"

[bottle]

What neat advice. Which, like very best advice anywhere and any time should be apparent but isn't. Human beings really need each other, I tell you. Can't wait till tonight when I'll hit much more skunk-tail slice than ever thought possible-- even running around a few forehands-- and thank you forever, Stotty, for putting me on to that (Ken Rosewall's demonstrations in the 1954 pre-Davis-Cup video).

http://www.tennisplayer.net/bulletin/showthread.php?t=1198&page=158

[stotty]

The video is terribly short but touches on some good things.

Most decent players seem to know their strengths in my experience. They often just don't know how to build it into their game style. Often it's their game style they have trouble defining, not so much identifying what shots they are good at.

Me, I like to help players create a personal game style built upon what they are good at. It's very important young players have some basic formula for how they are going win matches...and strategies they can reach for and hang on to in a crisis.

[arturohernandez]

It is an interesting video. As I posted in another thread, I have been working with my son to improve his backhand. I worry that he really needs a great one-handed backhand and should develop it. He can definitely neutralize with it. The interesting thing is that his slice is good but could actually be better. He is a lefty and says that people rarely hit to his backhand. When I asked him why he lost he said they basically outlasted him. So then I began to hit to his forehand from my backhand side. What I noticed is that he did not cover his wide forehand very well. He would run straight across. So I told him to begin running a bit back so that he could move forward to cover the forehand but still get to really wide shots. As he did this he began to hit better and better forehands and I could feel him hitting to my backhand with a little more angle. Then I told him to try hitting up the line at times to confuse me. Basically, hit to the backhand to open up the forehand so that he can go back to the backhand. As we began to rally he began to naturally run around his backhand when he could and to develop a better feel for using his forehand as a weapon.

So the problem was that we were worrying about improving his weakness and not taking advantage of his strength.

Out of this whole episode I realized that we should work on his forehand and try to build a game around it rather than worrying about a backhand that no one is really attacking yet and for which he has a perfectly good neutralizing shot.

So now the game plan and practice plan are the same. Develop a good backhand slice and topspin that accentuate his natural strength which is his lefty forehand. Apply this to every part of his game. His serve, his volleys, his overhead, etc.

I agree that developing a game plan and style is the difficult part. I think that working on strengths can help speed up the discovery process.


Arturo

[arturohernandez]

I watched the video again. So my take is that basically he thinks you need to develop a positive attitude. Working on your strengths helps you to become positive. This can then transfer to working on weaknesses within a positive framework. In essence you are building up someone's confidence and then letting that take them further. This reminds me of a line you have somewhere in which you had caught a flaw in Pete Sampras's backhand. But Pete didn't even notice it and Paul Annacone told you to not even bother trying to fix it. The most important thing was for him to stay positive and confident. Hopefully, I am not misremembering. Sven's advice is to work on what you do well and it will make you better all around. Stay positive!

Was that your take?

Arturo

[johnyandell]

Arturo--that's exactly what Paul told me.

[arturohernandez]

Interesting. Because there is this sense that the great champions have a stubbornness which people often discuss as self-belief. The notion that your way will take you to victory. Sampras had that. All great champions have that. Interestingly, Nadal seems to be a different beast. He always thinks that he needs to add something else. He has added so many shots and plays doubles much more than the others. To me he has a mentality like Jerry Rice used to have for the 49ers. He will never be good enough. So he has to become even better. Clearly he is positive about himself emotionally during a match. He puts in the effort. But I really think in his mind he sees himself as less gifted than Djokovic and Federer. He has a humility to accept that he might be less but the grit and fight to overcome it.

Maybe it has to do with Uncle Toni being his coach with no pay. He can tell Rafa, his nephew, the truth. There is no sugar coating of it. At the same time he helps him find solutions.

It is a unique situation that we may not see again and may eventually put him in the GOAT discussion above Federer...