Knowledge in tennis is a must for tennis coaches. Some may get it from their experience in playing. From their experience on tour and experience with different coaches through the years as a player.
In the quest of seeking knowledge, NTTACADEMY coaches have attended the AO Coaches conference in January 2018. It was 6 years ago, and the experience was important in developing the players in Kangar Perlis and Malaysia in general.
Back then, the conference was done by attending few days before the Grand Slam of tennis started. The privilege to be in Melbourne park before the park was flooded with crowd is amazing.
Coach Ruhil Amal, Ahmad Faizal and Ahmad Hazeeq were there to gain knowledge of tennis coaching. In one of the session, we were on court outside the park for conditioning session with top pro conditioning coach, Nathan Martin. I believe it was John Cain Arena, just outside the main Grand Slam venue. One of the session was about the steps taken at the baseline during lateral movements.
According to Nathan, the court can be covered just by using 3 steps and it can be done by adjusting the first steps every time trying to get to wide balls on the baseline. The players are taught that way by using medicine balls to enhance the correct steps taken.
In NTTAcademy, we quickly adapt the method for the players to get to balls faster using medicine balls exercise since then. A lot can be done with medicine ball exercise and will definitely improve performance.
The simple knowledge, once applied, will gain extra benefit to players. Going for knowledge is not a waste. Getting one thing at a time and apply it in training is better than getting a lot of knowledge but do nothing about it.