The Tennis Coaching Merry Go Round

[JazzNU]

good that Leylah has a coach at all.. not good to be coached by Papa all your life.. Coco Gauff should consider it too..

And it is not as if the experiment has not been done plenty of times:
Yuri Sharapov: no good for Maria.
The Tsitsipas parents: let's not even go there.
Wozniacki: I say he held her back.
Bencic: nah, not working.
Caro Garcia: once daddy left, look at the results.
Peter Graf: Steffi was so much better off without him.
The Williams: all kudos for bringing them both that far. Then even more for letting them go and find their own way.

Exceptions:
Seles: Her dad did well.
Connors: Gloria always kept the proper distance, and it worked well.

Richard Williams and possibly Sharapov belong in the exceptions. You get your kid, and in the first instance, kids to a GS title while you're coaching them, and you belong in the exceptions. The experiment worked.

Caro had several stints with a few other coaches or I'd throw her dad in there as well. And for all his faults and not getting her to a GS title quickly. he got her to #1. So that experiment really also worked.

I don't remember particulars about Graf's dad other than the tax evasion.

[ponchi101]

I should have worded Richard Williams better. My point was that, at one point, he let go. He did a great job, then he relinquished, for his daughters' good.
Peter Graf did a very good job too; her Slam season was with him still there. But once the tax issues came to the spotlight, he had to go. And she was better off.
I remember Sharapova having a few situations with her dad that would make Apostolos look like Lendl. It did not end well.

[Deuce]

I don't think anyone can say definitively that parent coaches work or don't work. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. There are some variables that will determine whether it works or not - not the least of which is the dynamic and relationship and history between the parent and the child.

All of the parental coaching examples listed above - both the ones listed as positive and the ones listed as negative - include players who've achieved marvellous things - all these players are/were very top level players. That's successful by any logical definition.
Could Tsitsipas, for example, accomplish more than his current top 5 in the world without his father? Who knows? Maybe, maybe not. But he has already achieved remarkable things with his father as his primary coach.
Perspective is important.

With the exception of parents who once played tennis at a high level, I think most tennis coaching parents become more of a psychological coach than a technical coach - because they've known their kid for all of the kid's life, which includes many aspects and elements not related to tennis, but to personality and character - and so, psychologically and emotionally, in most cases they know their kid better than any other coach can.

[ashkor87]

good that Leylah has a coach at all.. not good to be coached by Papa all your life.. Coco Gauff should consider it too..

Gauff has been coached by Diego Moyano for several months now.

Yes, had forgotten that...

[ashkor87]

Raducanu has hired Sebastian Sachs as her coach...he had worked with Bencic it seems..let us hope this works out

[ponchi101]

I lost track. Number 5 or is it number 6, since the USO run?

[ti-amie]

Raducanu has hired Sebastian Sachs as her coach...he had worked with Bencic it seems..let us hope this works out

Well at least he's used to temperament...

[ashkor87]

I lost track. Number 5 or is it number 6, since the USO run?

They say #5

[ashkor87]

So basically Bencic and Raducanu have done an exchange of coaches!
They have pretty similar playing styles so maybe not so surprising,!

[ti-amie]

This is a big get for Sloane.

[ponchi101]

Will Rafa have any coaches left?
Good move.

[skatingfan]

This is a big get for Sloane.

Sorry if this sounds snarky, but is she actually working with him or was this just a photo op. This doesn't look like much of a workout.

[ponchi101]

Well, it does seem staged. So just an announcement.
I guess.

[Deuce]

I just found out who Tamara Zidansek's coach is....
I spoke with him a couple of times at a tournament this past summer - he really liked my Head Vilas wood racquet, and told some stories about it.
His name is Carl Maes, and he was once the head of women's tennis at the British Lawn Tennis Association, and was Kim Clijsters's coach back when Clijsters was winning a lot.
He was the Director of the Kim Clijsters Tennis Academy until it closed a few months ago, and is currently the Performance Director of the Soho Tennis Academy in Spain.

He saw me with the Vilas racquet and came to me once alone, and another time when I was talking and joking with Daria Kasatkina and her coach Carlos Martinez about the racquet.
I had no idea who he was at the time - I knew only that he appreciated old racquets.

If any of you have some old racquets in decent shape lying around, bring them to a pro or junior tournament and just carry one around openly - it can sometimes invite some interesting comments from some interesting people.
You can even take the old racquet to the official tournament stringer and ask him/her to string it - they'll get a laugh out of that.

[JazzNU]

This is a big get for Sloane.

Just an FYI, he was already working with her. So it may be a get, but it's hardly a surprise. I seem to remember it being posted here when they were spotted together. Since at least back at the US Open. This may be the official announcement as her head coach, it was definitely a part time or consultant role before, but it's not a new coaching relationship.