THE STORY OF LONG DISTANCE COMPANIES by Craig Cignarelli

Written by: Staff on 14th September 2014

THE STORY OF LONG DISTANCE COMPANIES by Craig Cignarelli |

Photo by Alejandro Gonzalez

Editors note : We pulled this classic Cignarelli out of the archives. It’s a timeless piece. Enjoy.

In the 1990’s, tennis academies started popping up, like meerkats, all around the country. Playing off the successes of Bollettieri’s model, Russia’s Spartak, Hopman’s Saddlebrook site, and Sanchez-Casal’s place in Spain, single-court facilities, where one coach taught three or four students, suddenly become academies. The term academy was the handshake du jour, the cool-fist-bump of coaching. Except, by the mid-2000’s, half those places fell off the map for lack of performance or increasing rents. Their entrée into the academy world produced the same results as local country clubs, at twice the cost. Shingles fell off the fences and the tennis world was left with un-recyclable banner shreds sticking to old windscreens, not to mention a bunch of kids tossed out onto the streets looking for a new coach.

Today, we are in the second decade of the new millennium and, once again, evolution has launched a few fish onto the shore to see if they can learn to walk. In this scenario, however, the new animal is long-distance coaching. Remember when cell phone deregulation struck and you could find a cell phone company in every shopping mall? Each company had a logo and some cute name like Cellulair or Graham’s Bell. Of course, a few years down the road we’re back to a few major companies and cell phone reception that is about as reliable as junior tennis rankings.

Point is, these new long distance coaching vehicles are becoming more ubiquitous. Seemingly there’s some guy in every part of the world who wants either his fifteen minutes of fame or feels like his stuff is better than everyone else’s. We see online Dartfish analysis, online strategy sessions from ATP pros, former pros offering tips for a dollar if you “sign-up today,” and match charting with statistical data coming from the coaching community. You can join newsletters and magazines and subscribe to daily emails to bring you new drills and tactics with your morning coffee. Maybe, and this is where it gets interesting, maybe the future of tennis coaching really is some guy sitting in his pajamas, with a video screen and a light pen, making comments about your game for $200 an hour. Maybe we’ll no longer see coaches out on the court feeding balls, but rather, propped up next to their laptop with twelve cups of coffee and a menu of Youtube videos.

I don’t know though. Somehow I’m inclined to believe that coaching requires a more personal touch – some insight into the player’s character, their history of handling pressure and overcoming adversity, and their overall temperament. Sure a long distance analysis can help once in a while – always good to get a second set of eyes your game. To me, however, distance coaching is sort of like those horses you get when you stop at the rental place and they say you can go out for an hour trail ride with a guide named Slim. Those low-motivation steeds give you the feel of a horse without engaging. If I’m going to ride, I want a horse that can enthrall me, that can gallop me over all obstacles with speed and confidence, a horse that knows the traditional path and chooses to go a different way because the ride will be better. I want a horse that can lead me to the winner’s circle and who will be there to nuzzle my hand afterwards because he/she knew the struggles we had to endure to get there.

But then, I guess that’s what eventually happens, right? The biggest, strongest and fastest survive. The other horses just go back to their stables to await tomorrow’s customers while the true trailblazers head off into the sunset? In the end, it all comes down to information. The name behind the website is about as relevant as the face on billboards. The product is what matters. To date, I haven’t seen much that sets my hair on fire. I think it’s coming though. Someone will eventually put together an analytical tool that can truly change a player’s understanding of the game. It’s an exciting time in our sport, where technology’s space sits out before us like a new frontier.

There are a lot of awkward metaphors in this story, but that’s intentional. After all, you never know which ones will stick…sort of like these coaching sites.

Topics: Craig Cignarelli, Tennis News