Two Genius Coaches and what You Can Learn from Both

Gilad Bloom: my former coach and architect of the attacking style. I have had serendipitous opportunities in my tennis career--as a player and as a coach--to train and study with some of the most legendary and smartest coaches in the game. From all of my travels and study, two coaching heavyweights--I would call them geniuses--stand out from the rest. These elite coaches are Gilad Bloom and Pato Alvarez. Likely you have never have heard of either. But in these two articles I am going to explicate what makes them geniuses in my view - and what you can learn from both. Gilad Bloom, a former ATP top 100 player, as well as an Israeli Davis Cup player and coach, was my personal coach for several years as I pursued a professional playing career. He was also my coaching mentor as I transitioned into high performance junior coaching. Pato Alvarez, a former top 10 tour player, was National Coach for Spain and also coached many top junior and professional players such as Emilio Sanchez and Sergio Casal. Pato is the architect of the very successful Sanchez-Casal Academy training system. I was lucky enough to personally study with Pato on court at...