What’s Wrong With the American Men and How Can Their Game be Helped
As we enter the season of the U.S. Open, a question that hangs over American tennis is why have we not produced male champions in tennis over the past 10 years? It’s a problem that I have spent months seriously considering. Like most issues, the answer is complicated, but I feel confident that I have arrived at a framework to approach a chunk of the issue. Our players need to learn to trade, neutralize and defend better, particularly on the backhand side.
From many corners, we are hearing that our athletes are not the best or our players lack the hunger of the athletes from other nations. It’s very difficult to answer those questions, so what I hope to accomplish is identify the specifics and address those problems. What is obvious is that the world’s best have a remarkable ability to trade, neutralize and defend attacks. Many observers believe that our players don’t want to suffer from long rallies. I believe most of our players have technical issues that prevent them from doing this at the highest levels. A look at our nation’s biggest prospects, Jack Sock and Ryan Harrison, demonstrates this.
When I speak about technique, I mean more than just the shape of the swing. I also mean footwork patterns, loading and recovery. The technical elements of trading, neutralizing and defending are distinct (though related). Any breakdown at the highest levels will be exploited. Both Sock and Harrison hit with subpar ball quality while trading and neutralizing on their backhands. As always, technical weaknesses lead to tactical weaknesses. They are both forced to hit forehands from deep in the backhand corner which, over time, leads them to be exposed in the forehand corner. It’s fascinating to compare these two with Andy Roddick. All three have inefficient footwork patterns and neglect to use their legs and core sufficiently to create world-class ball quality. The technical and tactical weaknesses of all three are remarkably similar though, obviously Roddick was a far more powerful player.
Any look at American tennis in the past 15 years shows a group of players adept at attacking, but inadequate at neutralizing and defending. Going back to Roddick and up through James Blake, Sam Querry and John Isner, most of America’s best players suffer from the same issues. Only the most solid technical players have a chance of making it to the top. I hope we can help our players reach the top again.
Anyone interested in a deeper technical analysis of Harrison and Sock’s game can contact me at my Twitter account, @Tim Mayotte.
