What Do Spanish Tennis Players Have that We Don’t?
Javier Palenque
This weekend as we see the Madrid Open unfold before Rome and Roland Garros, one has to wonder what is it about the Spanish tennis players that makes them have a representative in each of the quarters match-up? four out of eight and three out of four in the semis? and at least one of the finalists?
Let’s look at their accomplishments as a country:
– 14 players in the top 100, highest number of any country.
– World’s number one (coached by his uncle, not a celebrity coach, or ex star).
– 20% of the world’s top 50 (10 players).
Well, one can wonder it’s the clay courts, the way they move their feet, how defensively they play, the patience they have, what exactly is it?. I want to know it and buy it. One also wonders why if we play in hard courts here, don’t we have four Americans in the quarters at the US open?
As I tried to figure out what is it about them, I came to the conclusion that the Spanish play under a system of recognizing patterns, and playing points with a defined logic, given the geometry of the courts, the pattern of the balls, always playing topspin in key situations and having a huge understanding of margins. Do this exercise for me any day when you watch a Spanish player. They play 80% of the points in an orange court, yes the one for kids that most parents here in the US complain about and most coaches don’t pay enough attention to. Count 10 points and pay attention where the balls land. You will reach this conclusion. 8 out of 10 balls are played in a 60 ft. court.
Now watch our top players and the numbers are simply nowhere near 80%. They are also fantastic at changing defense into an attack. My conclusion is they have a better understanding of the court, a clear understanding of the subsequent point and a higher taught tennis IQ.
When you see Spanish tennis players play, you will recognize this:
They seldom hit the net, in key points (40-15, tie breaks, 15-40 etc..) they always play topspin and are resilient in the time it will take to finish a proper point. Amazing it is. But, this ability to decipher points is taught. Why can’t we learn it here for our kids? My conclusion is that in the US, coaches and parents are not worried about the key tennis component, the mental game, and are very much worried and practicing strokes all day long, almost to the point of being senseless for years.
So, when a 15 year old who has been playing for 10 years plays on a global scale, his or her shots are amazing or just as good as anyone in the world. But, at that level as in the pros, winning a match comes down to a few points and how you play them. So, if we were to ask the 15 year old, how long have you been practicing, the answer would be 10 years. If we then ask how long have you been practicing your mental game? The answer would be nowhere near the years practicing. Here is the area we need to focus on as parents and coaches. Bingo!
In my pursuit for answers for my kids, I decided to have Oscar Borras (a Spanish coach who worked with Rafael Nadal) teach us that Spanish methodology of playing and part of the methods Spain uses to break all records with normal tennis players with the obvious exception of Nadal who is a generation wonder.
If you enjoyed this article, please don’t forget to tap 
. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you.
We have lived in Barcelona, Spain for four years. My daughter has trained here for all that time. The coaches here are no better than the UK or the US and in fact in my opinion are far less skilled at helping with technical aspects of the game. What the Spanish have is no mystery. Tennis is one of their most popular sports. Almost all kids have a go at tennis. There is a tennis club or tennis courts around almost every corner. All tournaments are open to everyone who enters by the deadline. If they have a lot of entrants they just put on more draws – I have seen tournaments here that have 6 boys’ under 14’s draws of 32 and 4 girls’ draws. We never have to travel more than 15 Kms to a tournament and could enter one almost every weekend and week of the year. It is part of the coach’s job to take the kids to tournaments and watch them play and they are also allowed to coach their player throughout the match – even parents are allowed to do this if no coach is there. Most of all Spanish kids compete for fun and there are players who lose most of the time but still enjoy playing.
agree 100% with Adrienne above. I was 1 of 2 coaches in charge of the ATP side of Gimeno Academy in Barcelona (Castaldelfells to be exact) My wife helped with WTA side she is Croatian and had to help the Argentine coach how to really coach women. I find it funny when someone tells me I need to send my daughter to Spain. she is now just turned 15 at 14 has wta ranking pts and at 13 some semis ITF jrs. I laugh and say “why, so she can learn Spanish tennis”? I tell them “give me Bulgaria, or Romania or Balkan region anyday”
I spent $ years taking players to Barcelona to train at Sanchez Casal. We even employed the expertise of the ‘Father of Spanish Tennis System’ Pato Alvarez. It was an honor working along side the legend and learning. Adrienne is so right. As a coach, I can tell you, their coaches are no better than US coaches, and there are things they can do better, but they have a system that allows you to work on technique, movement and understanding your best options from your position and situation. They have ball feed drills that that instill those fundamnetal principles. Try ball feed kids in the US. Their PARENTS (YouTube Coaches) and coaches will tell you all they need to do is just hit and just play live ball. They also play a lot of sets weekly in practice. On top of this, they take their students to tournaments and coach them through matches, here parents would rather take their kids to matches than pay for coaches to do it plus they say dont coach, kids need to learn to play on their own. I experienced the benefit of coaching them through the match, help them realize things that are tough to pay attention to on your own during a match especially at a young age. Adrienne’s final point is more important than them all. Kids compete for fun whether they lose all the time or not, they just love to play and parents let them play rather than pull them out of tennis to try other sports they might hopefully win or share the losses with teammates. Parents egos interfere with American tennis, more so now than ever coz these parents think they are coaches now.
Great points Ben! It’s so important to learn the game while playing the game. If you don’t understand how to receive a shot and know the proper response to a shot or situation, then you’ll break down under pressure. The idea that anyone can coach the players in the Spanish system of tournaments is a little scary to be honest (for us Americans) but the ability to learn the nuances of match play under actual match play conditions is priceless. The players in college that do not have this experience are really far behind in making those critical decisions during the tight times in a match. Pressure is a privilage!
I would recommend anyone with a young player who can afford it to come and experience Spanish tournaments. Coaching by the court needn’t be scary. Mostly I am just encouraging my daughter. If she says something negative to herself I can remind her to go to the fence and take a deep breath and come back out saying something positive. Instead of her worrying about what I am thinking which is what was happening before, she knows that I am there to support and encourage her. Her coach is more technical and at the moment is reminding her to step in and take the ball early. No one minds you talking to your player, the other parents (if they are there at all) and coaches are really relaxed about the whole thing. The scariest tournaments we have been to were three local US tournaments where my daughter and I felt intimidated by the aggressive attitude of the other parents and players. You could almost cut the level of anxiety in the air with a knife.
Another reason for top Spanish players is, I think, that Spanish kids generally start on the full tennis court with yellow balls. Red tennis is just for the really tiny kids aged 3/4 and there is no orange at all. This means that they are used to running round the whole court from an early age and sustaining mind numbingly long rallies. I have known 10 and under matches take 3 hours or more!
Monty Tour in Spain is great. Legally and allowed to coach as long as you are outside the court. Tourneys can be quite tough with lower ranked atp players. I always loved when there was a Spanish coach because they were non stop coaching. They will not only coach at changeover but while the ball is still in the air during a pt. As for Sanchez Casal I brought players there for tourneys when I was at Gimeno’s. I saw 6-10 on a court and most were Russian this was about 2002. As I mentioned my wife is Croatian and was top 100 WTA coaches in Croatia when she was young were terrible but the players had heart fight and courage. Back in 2004 i think in Tennis Europe 4 of top 10 u14s were Croatian country of 4.5 million but in the u16s only 1 player due to lack of world class coaches.
Spanish players have the will and endurance. As we all know Spanish and South American players are grinders. They will grind you down on every point. Their willingness on not to give up can apply hugh load of mental pressure on their opponents. When pressure and frustration sets in, that’s when players start making mistakes. The Spanards and South American players are known to be able to slow the ball down because of their clay court experience. For most American players, that are more comfortable on the faster hard courts; it will throw off the timeing on their game.
some seem to last and grind longer and better than others and I wonder how much of this is due to the Dr. who helped cyclists and tennis players?
Interesting read. Good luck with the plan and like you said, something positive will come of it.
When Americans Martin, Roddick, Change, Blake, Connors, Courier, Agassi, McEnroe and Sampras were commonplace at the top of the ATP rankings, were they playing the Spanish game? Absolutely not. What happens to Swiss tennis when Federer and Wawrinka retire? Do they start teaching the Spanish game? Probably not. Will the borrow from it? Sure. I think everyone is always adjusting, emulating, etc… and that’s all good.
Interesting point… In the current ITF male rankings, Spain has 2 players in the Top 50. France has only one player in the Top 50. The U.S has 5 players in the Top 50, and 3 of them are in the Top 11. If the goal is to get more Americans in the Top 100, we have to get more juniors playing the game at an earlier age.