Invisible Greatness: Part 4

Allen Fox: are you learning how to win in practice—or how to lose? What about practice? What is the role of practice in developing greatness? Most of that is truly invisible to the fan—the years of development, what players do when not competing, what they do or don't do in that short off season at the end of the year. First, who practices with whom? I can't tell you how many times I have heard players and parents claim "you get better by practicing with better players." Tennis parents who know little or nothing about development especially love this thought. They often won't let their children practice with players they think are inferior. As a lifelong coach I have found this statement to be erroneous. In my experience, the "better player" of the two is typically the player who gains the most from the practice. Why? Listen to Dr. Allen Fox: "It is productive to play occasionally with better players," and just hitting balls with great players is fine. "But when you're playing matches, you're essentially learning responses that work. In other words, the player's off in the forehand corner. You have an opening. How hard do you hit it?...