Lessons for Tennis from World Series MVP?

[jimlosaltos]

World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, is the first pitcher to record three (3) wins in a world series since Nolan Ryan.
Both have big, 100 MPH fastballs. But the similarities end there. Ryan is a 6 ft 2 in power pitcher; Yamamoto is 5 ft 10 in, 80 kg.
Yet Yamamoto threw 96 pitches in the prior game, then came back with ZERO days rest, when pitchers normally need 5-6 days to recover, and retired, I believe it was, the final eight batters.

He'd demonstrated this ability to recover quickly earlier: "his back-to-back complete games in the playoffs marked the first such feat for pitchers in nearly a quarter century."

One key might be his training regime -- which sounds to me a bit like what Jelena Gencic, who coached Novak Djokovic, along with Monica Seles, Goran Ivanišević, Mima Jaušovec, Iva Majoli, and Tatjana Ječmenica to 36 Grand Slam single titles, favored.

Is there anything tennis can learn from Yamamoto?

Yamamoto has his own biomechanics expert as a trainer: Yada Sensei. "He's the person who built me," Yamamoto said.

From ESPN: "For years, Dodgers scouts had admired him. They marveled not only at his stuff but the methods that extracted it from him. Yamamoto was the antithesis of the muscled-up, high-effort pitchers the American youth-development system churned out. He never lifted a weight under Yada's tutelage. Instead, they focused on mobility and balance, breathing and pliability. He did handstands and threw mini-soccer balls.

Yada introduced him to a featherweight javelin so light that any deviation from proper mechanical sequencing would cause it to flutter and die. Over time, Yamamoto learned to launch it great distances with a delicate touch.

"It's easy to use one muscle at 100% output," Yada said, "but what Yoshinobu is trying to do is to use 600 different muscles at 10% output. You can't think about 600 things at once and throw. So it's learning to prioritize which parts of the movement are the most important. And learning to have that conversation with yourself about where there might be imbalances and how to correct those things.

"We often talk about moving specific joints in certain ways, and when you try to approach what we're trying to do, you always run into these conflicts between various things. The way of approaching things that way can be explained by Newtonian physics. What he's trying to do is explained more by Eastern philosophies. And so it's difficult to find a common language, and it's difficult to talk about."



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[jimlosaltos]

Another less sports-specific lesson perhaps is that while some are touting an "American victory", it is a victory for America's Melting Pot. The winning 2025 Dodgers include players from Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, even South Sudan. The remarkable tying home run came from Rojas, a Venezuelan immigrant who likely couldn't come here now. That's only fitting for Jackie Robinson's team.

[doctorhl]

World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, is the first pitcher to record three (3) wins in a world series since Nolan Ryan.
Both have big, 100 MPH fastballs. But the similarities end there. Ryan is a 6 ft 2 in power pitcher; Yamamoto is 5 ft 10 in, 80 kg.
Yet Yamamoto threw 96 pitches in the prior game, then came back with ZERO days rest, when pitchers normally need 5-6 days to recover, and retired, I believe it was, the final eight batters.

He'd demonstrated this ability to recover quickly earlier: "his back-to-back complete games in the playoffs marked the first such feat for pitchers in nearly a quarter century."

One key might be his training regime -- which sounds to me a bit like what Jelena Gencic, who coached Novak Djokovic, along with Monica Seles, Goran Ivanišević, Mima Jaušovec, Iva Majoli, and Tatjana Ječmenica to 36 Grand Slam single titles, favored.

Is there anything tennis can learn from Yamamoto?

Yamamoto has his own biomechanics expert as a trainer: Yada Sensei. "He's the person who built me," Yamamoto said.

From ESPN: "For years, Dodgers scouts had admired him. They marveled not only at his stuff but the methods that extracted it from him. Yamamoto was the antithesis of the muscled-up, high-effort pitchers the American youth-development system churned out. He never lifted a weight under Yada's tutelage. Instead, they focused on mobility and balance, breathing and pliability. He did handstands and threw mini-soccer balls.

Yada introduced him to a featherweight javelin so light that any deviation from proper mechanical sequencing would cause it to flutter and die. Over time, Yamamoto learned to launch it great distances with a delicate touch.

"It's easy to use one muscle at 100% output," Yada said, "but what Yoshinobu is trying to do is to use 600 different muscles at 10% output. You can't think about 600 things at once and throw. So it's learning to prioritize which parts of the movement are the most important. And learning to have that conversation with yourself about where there might be imbalances and how to correct those things.

"We often talk about moving specific joints in certain ways, and when you try to approach what we're trying to do, you always run into these conflicts between various things. The way of approaching things that way can be explained by Newtonian physics. What he's trying to do is explained more by Eastern philosophies. And so it's difficult to find a common language, and it's difficult to talk about."


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Brian Gordon meets Harry Hopman? Ali versus Frazier? Federer versus Nadal? Strength versus balance? Applied biomechanics versus applied sport psychology? The U.S. coaching system never seemed as willing as systems in other countries to integrate sport science into the art of coaching. It always sermed to be a monolithic system. Stotty can probably speak better to the successfulness of diversity of thought in various European systems.

[stotty]

Brian Gordon meets Harry Hopman? Ali versus Frazier? Federer versus Nadal? Strength versus balance? Applied biomechanics versus applied sport psychology? The U.S. coaching system never seemed as willing as systems in other countries to integrate sport science into the art of coaching. It always sermed to be a monolithic system. Stotty can probably speak better to the successfulness of diversity of thought in various European systems.

Biomechanics over here has gained traction in recent years thanks to John and Brian’s wonderful work. It’s still not always easy to apply sound biomechanics and the coach has to make sure he thoroughly understands what he/she is trying to achieve. Coaches often have to get there via playing around and using intuition once the more common ways of applying Brian’s work become exhausted; sometimes the student's body doesn’t want to do what it’s told or fall into place exactly how we would want it. This is the real challenge of coaching.

I can’t offer much about what the rest of Europe are up to. I just sent a girl aged 13 (with outstanding potential) to Italy for one week to the academy Sinner went to as a junior. What they have in Europe more than us is a better coaching infrastructure; essentially plenty of good players, fitness trainers, physios, fully fitted gym, a team of coaches, and…most important…good quality hitters. If you want to make players, you are going to need the whole works under one roof.