The Complete Player

Can any player develop a more complete game? Click on Photo.

There are two elements to becoming a complete player. The first is having the technical ability to hit all of the shots in the game; groundstrokes, approach shots, volleys, serves, and returns. That seems obvious. The second element is less obvious. This is being comfortable with using each of those shots under match pressure. Without the second element, the first is irrelevant.

This second element is where many players fall short, even at the highest levels of the game. For example, when you watch Andy Roddick hit volleys in the warm-up, his volleys look reasonably sound from a technique perspective. But when Andy comes to net against Roger Federer, you can sense that deep down Andy does not have confidence in his volley and believe he will win points at the net. Just as importantly, Roger knows that Andy is uncomfortable. The result is that Andy is not effective coming to the net against Roger.

Deep down Andy does not have confidence in his volley.

There is a similar story from my era. Ivan Lendl boycotted grass early in his career, but later he made a monumental effort to…