Learning from Watching
at the ATP Finals 2019
The ATP finals (this year in the O2 Arena in London on 10th -17th November) is the finale to the tennis year for the top male professional players. With the top eight singles and doubles players/pairs vying for a share of the $9 million prize money and the 1,500 ATP ranking points for the winner – it really is worth the effort to participate and especially to win it. For the UK crowd, this year is almost the last chance to see the event at the O2 – with the event moving to Turin, Italy in 2021.
Club tennis coaches (like the GSM Team) spend much of their time on court with their squads and individual players. It isn’t often that there is time to sit down with a player, or a small group of players, and watch the top pros slug it out. However, all coaches know that some of the most powerful lessons learned are those which are picked up when watching other people play.
We all know how easy it is to see what someone else is doing ‘wrong’. With the pros, we can often see when someone is on form or slightly off – maybe we can suggest what they could try to overcome the current opponent. Unfortunately, it isn’t so easy to spot our own shortcomings! Watching a tennis match for entertainment is a fun activity. Watching with a view to spotting opportunities or shortcomings is an educational exercise – fun too!
The GSM coaching team encourages all of the players to watch games as a learning opportunity. If a player practices analysing the game of other players they will improve at recognising the strengths and weaknesses of their opposition and maybe even their own.
GSM ran a competition to give 2 lucky people the chance to watch the ATP finals on Tuesday 12th November. Fun and educational!
