Bob Brett passes away at the age of 67

[don_budge]

I met this extraordinary fellow at a Swedish Tennis Seminar some years ago. Here's the article with my thoughts to follow:


https://www.atptour.com/en/news/bob-brett-obituary-2021

[stotty]

That was a good obituary and it was great to see all the nice, grounded comments by many of the tour players all echoing Bob's great coaching qualities.

''Thoughtful.'' That is what impressed me most about Bob and something you hear over and over again. For quieter, softly spoken people being thoughtful is their way in. It's their way of getting heard above the din. I always enjoyed what Bob had to say because he never talked for the sake of it.

Asked about his coaching style by ATPTour.com in 2008, Brett admitted, “I benefitted from my exposure to Hopman. I didn’t copy him, but a lot rubbed off on me. Work and repetition is the key in a player-coach partnership. A player must be mentally tough, with the ability to execute under pressure. It’s always a battle of their character against the other player’s character. You can guide then, provide them with examples and talk about history, but in the end you need to bring out the qualities a player has. Also, you must have an all-seeing eye for detail.”

The Australian listened intently and watched Hopman’s every move, his technique and the two-on-one drills that sharpened a pupil’s speed, reflexes and movement. He also watched on as Hopman would feed once and if a player made a mistake, he would feed a ball to the same spot again to see if a player made a technical adjustment. Only then would Hopman, a captain-coach to 22 Australian Davis Cup winning teams between 1939 and 1967, speak to the player. “Having a conversation with him was always illuminating,” said Brett. “I initially sorted out buckets of balls for Mr Hopman, removing the dud balls, but I soon learnt that every player needs something different.”

He coached former British number 1 John Lloyd when John was struggling. John was a seriously talented tennis player but lazy. Bob soon sorted that out and John soared in the rankings. Back then his 2 on 1 drills, which he derived from Hopman, really started to take off. Once he saw how well John was doing, his father, Dennis Lloyd, started to use 2 on 1 drills all the time, and I still use them today. The bottom line with many of those drills was ''can you make one more shot'' before you drop.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Bob was he was never a great player. Yet he understood tennis at the highest level and had the ability to make players prick their ears up and listen. As a friend of mine once said: ''Bob could hold a player in the palm of his hand.''

[stotty]

Nice interview with Bob taken a while back. He feels, like me, poor behaviour is infectious. Also that coaches benefit from going to strong tournaments so they can familiarise themselves with the standards their charges are up against, and what needs to be done to keep their players competitive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HzV9g9I8N8

[stotty]

And what an awesome way to start a session!

https://es-la.facebook.com/bobbretttennis/videos/morning-time-warm-up-drill-bob-brett-style-two-teams-with-one-having-to-catch-th/987363421353305/