2019 Worldwide Coaches Conference wraps with action-packed Day 3
Emilio Sanchez closed the 2019 ITF Worldwide Coaches Conference with an entertaining blast of winning doubles and Davis Cup insights, bringing down the curtain on the 21st biennial gathering of the ITF’s global coaching community.
Spain's 2008 Davis Cup-winning captain revealed how he used a three-on-two drill to mould a reluctant doubles pair from Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco when he joined his national federation to work with Spain’s best players in 2006.
As a multiple Grand Slam doubles winner and Olympic silver medallist with countryman Sergio Casal, Sanchez was first stunned that none of his elite players wanted to pair up in Davis Cup.
"I had 20 players and none of them would play doubles," he recalled with comic exasperation. "Finally Lopez and Verdasco said they would play but they were not talking over something. They were on court together but not communicating."
Sanchez had them take on three players in competition drills, forcing Lopez and Verdasco to "find the corridors" to hit through. The lefty duo bonded so well that they won the pivotal doubles rubber in the 2008 final in Argentina, and Spain had its third Davis Cup without the services of Rafa Nadal in the final. Job done, Sanchez stepped down as captain.
Sunday’s closing session was the third keynote address at Bangkok's Berkeley Hotel from Sanchez, humming with his trademark intense energy at age 54.
Mary Pierce, dual Grand Slam champion and newly installed Hall of Famer, was the first keynote speaker, sharing on Day 1 her experience of training full-time by age 13 and the swing-volley drills she performed every day to hone her aggressive style.
The program for this 2019 conference was stuffed tighter than a tuk-tuk on market day. Across the three days there were a dozen keynote presentations around the specially laid hybrid claycourt, plus 32 breakout sessions on everything from stroke development and predicting elite success to motivating and retaining junior girls in the sport.
We had demonstrations of blind tennis, wheelchair tennis and integrated doubles - wheelies and able-bodied. There were panel discussions on women in tennis and making the transition to the pro tour.
Australian Craig O’Shannessy exploded several tennis myths with his Day 3 keynote address 'The First Four Shots'. You could almost hear jaws hit the floor as he presented his analytics of rally length to illustrate that consistency is oversold, clay does not produce longer rallies and the top players do not dominate long points.
Sunday's two-hour interactive session gave attendees the opportunity to follow up with all the presenters, as well as mingle and take countless selfies with new tennis friends. The closing dinner was the last all-in gathering before 600-plus coaches from a record 113 federations bid bye-bye to Bangkok.