Tennisnerd contributor and tennis coach Evan Gaudreau came on Zoom and we talked for two hours about various topics like Brooksby, combos, coaching and more.
Coach Evan has written loads of posts and analysis for Tennisnerd and is a keen perceiver of pro tennis. He has worked as a coach for many years up to the college level and played D1 college tennis himself. He is fascinated by Jenson Brooksby’s rise in the game and we discussed that and the kind of patterns and combos Brooksby employs to beat players like Bautista-Agut, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Karen Khachanov.
Evan talks a lot about how to learn different patterns of play and how you can utilize combos to break down your opponent. He also thinks that there is too much emphasis on technique and the swing in tennis instead of learning how to place the ball uncomfortably over and over again. He also discuss concepts like probing in the warm-up, why cross courts and hand feeds might be a waste of time and what tennis players can learn from MMA.
Watch the interview
It’s a long one and I edited it down from 2 hours, but there are many nuggets of wisdom here to chew on, so I definitely think it’s worth watching the whole thing. I have created some timestamps below for you who want to skip in between different topics.
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TIMESTAMPS
01:55 JENSON BROOKSY’S SUCCESS
03:57 LET’S GET INTO COMBOS!
08:27 BACK TO BROOKSBY
09:25 WHY CARBALLES BAENA GETS HAND-FEEDS
09:54 SHOULD YOU READ MORE TENNIS BOOKS?
12:06 WHY HE STOPPED DOING CROSS COURTS
12:36 UGLY STROKES CAN WIN MATCHES
14:15 TOO MUCH EMPHASIS ON THE SWING
16:34 IVASHKA’S BACKHAND
17:28 WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE PROS HITTING VIDEOS
18:27 MANY CLUB PLAYERS GO FOR WAY TOO MUCH RISK
20:34 IT TAKES TIME TO DEVELOP YOUR GAME
21:14 BACK TO BROOKSBY
22:42 WHAT TO DO AGAINST BROOKSBY?
23:36 WHAT TO DO AGAINST CAM NORRIE?
24:14 WORK ON HAVING TWO OPTIONS FOR EVERY POSITION
24:19 HOW TO TRAIN COMBOS
30:05 WHAT TENNIS PLAYERS CAN LEARN FROM MMA
31:02 DON’T HIT SHORT BALLS LIKE A BASELINE SHOT – DON’T BRUSH UP, BRUSH OUT!
32:27 FUTURE PLAYERS HIT THE SAME BALL-FLIGHT
33:04 VARY YOUR BALL FLIGHT
34:14 USE THE WARM-UP FOR PROBING
35:33 SQUEEZING TIME – PYTHON TENNIS
36:15 WHAT DETERMINES A WEAKNESS
38:25 EVAN’S RACQUET
44:12 WHAT GOES ON IN A TYPICAL TENNIS CLINIC
45:32 A GOOD FITNESS DRILL
1 comment
Super interesting. Thanks for making this happen.
Where can I find more information on all the different combos I’ve read his other pieces on your site but I think I would need a diagram for every combo he mentions through his blogs.