After The Big Three...

 

After the Big Three…

At some point seemingly soon... Tennis’ “Big Three” of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic will have to pass the baton to the next generation of men’s tennis players. Who will fill the void? Will any of them have the skill, athleticism, competitive drive, and fitness/health to ever approach the accomplishments of the Big Three? 

It was easy to dismiss the 2021 Miami Open because a) it conflicted with the NCAA Final 4 b) it conflicted with the opening weekend of MLB and c) the Big Three all pulled out of the tournament.

The relative ‘“void” created by the absence of the Big Three created opportunity for younger players to seize the spotlight and 4 players in particular caught my attention and they all share a few qualities that may serve them well as they attempt to ascend the ATP rankings and compete for Major/Slam titles.

Sebastian Korda made the quarter finals in Miami where he lost to eventual semi-finalist Andrey Rublev (I’ll get to Andrey next). Korda is the rare American born player (also speaks Czech) that looks like an imminent contender. At 20 years old (6’5) Korda is being “slow-cooked” by his coaches. In other words, DEVELOPMENT is taking precedence over chasing tournament success. The plan is to develop a complete tennis game and not burn him out/bang his body up before he’s ready. At this stage in his development the focus is on building a foundation on fitness/athleticism, nutrition, recovery. Pete Sampras took a similar approach during his junior career and it worked out pretty well for him.

 Korda’s father Petr is a former ATP Pro (at one point was the #2 player in the World) and mom, a former WTA Pro, his two sisters play on the LPGA women’s golf tour.  Petr and his wife encouraged their children to experiment with multiple sports, so they would find what best suited them, and to understand the different skills required by each of them. The kids dutifully tried skiing, skating, taekwondo, hockey and ballet. Across the board at the highest level of sports a vast majority of the best athletes in the World participated in multiple sports as kids and/or come from extremely athletic/active families.

 Two former American tennis greats Jim Courier and Andy Roddick (in reality the last relevant American men’s tennis player on the ATP tour) are all in on Korda! They see something that American Men’s tennis has lacked for nearly 20 years… Hope! 

 I love watching tennis for its athleticism and the movement. Korda is an athlete that plays tennis and with that comes a high ceiling!

 Andrey Rublev is the 8th ranked player in the World and made the semis in Miami. Rublev is 23 years old and stands 6’2. His dad was a former boxer, mom and sister are tennis coaches. As a kid Rublev boxed, played basketball, and speaks three languages! I love watching Rublev play, he’s extremely aggressive and hits absolute lasers with his forehand (the hip/torso rotational speed is crazy!).

 Jannik Sinner is ranked 23rd in the World and made the Finals in Miami. Sinner is 19 years old and stands 6’2. Sinner was a champion skier in Italy from ages 8 to 12. Sinner eventually chose tennis over skiing at age 13. He also played soccer as a kid and continues to play the sport now! He also speaks three languages!

 Hubert Hurkacz won the Miami Open and rose to #16 in the current ATP rankings. Hubert is 24 years old and stands 6’5. Hurkacz’s mom, dad, sister and uncles all played tennis (mom was a junior champion in Poland). His grandfather was an international level volleyball player. His parents were also on the same swim team in college (it’s how they meet). Hubert participated in gymnastics, basketball, and soccer as a kid.  

 

In quick summary these young men have a few traits in common. They come from athletic/active minded families, they played multiple sports as kids (did not specialize in tennis from a young age) all are at minimum bilingual and at least 6’2. If you aspire to be a great tennis player it would be wise to follow their lead as the only one of these traits that is not modifiable is your height. I guess you can blame your parents for that one and potentially not leading by example without their own fitness and sport participation. For parents no one spends more time than you with their kids particularly during their formative years. Show them the way!

 You may have noticed that I made a big deal about speaking multiple languages… Why is that important? Basically it boosts your ability to process information faster (amongst several other benefits), pretty important in a sport like tennis!

 Keep your eye out for the next generation of men’s tennis players. The four mentioned above are extremely intriguing prospects from my perspective and I am excited to see how they progress.

 

The Best Way to Develop a Major League Baseball Player

What is the best way to develop a Major League Baseball player?

Major League organizations have been trying to tame this beast for decades and none of them have hit on a winning formula consistently. Sure, they have stretches but if we're being honest by the time athletes make it to MLB their athletic foundation has largely been set and they are just cherry-picking the best talent. By and large the pros are working with pretty good material. That said, what sets the best organizations apart is their ability to take very good athletes and mold them into elite baseball performers. But that's starting at the end. 

So much happens before an athlete gets to professional baseball that can literally make or break a potential career in the sport. Parents and amateur coaches are responsible for guiding young athletes through these very sensitive years. The baseball industry foists quite a heavy burden on many of these folks whom often work day jobs among a vast array of other responsibilities.

But what if there was a way to make that pre-professional process more manageable? What if the amateur level supplied even better raw material for the professionals to take "advantage"of?

To help shed some light on these questions let's turn to Dr. Greg Rose. Rose is the founder of OnBase University and is one of the leading sports science/bio-mechanics experts in the World with a particular expertise in how the body functions during athletic movements.

Dr. Rose has a very important message that parents and amateur coaches need to hear if they want to optimize the long term development of their young athlete(s):

If your goal as a coach is to create a Major League Baseball player and you get to choose between two boys at the age of 12 (you can only choose one of these kids to coach for the rest of their career) would you choose the best twelve year old athlete in America (whom has never played baseball before) or the #1 twelve year old baseball player in the country? 

According to Dr. Rose if you choose the baseball player the data tells you 96% of the time you would be wrong!

The goal when developing young athletes should always be to build a well-rounded athlete. In order to be a great baseball player you first must be a great athlete. Most of the top MLB players have some type of multi-sport background which is a pretty good indication of how athletic they really are. The very few, like Cody Bellinger, that don't appear to have a multi-sport background are still off the charts athletic. Teammate Max Muncy calls Bellinger's athleticism "freakish."

Playing multiple sports and exposing young athletes to diverse activities from early ages is the absolute best way to develop athleticism. I understand some kids may not want to play other sports but they would also skip math class and eat mac&cheese all day if left to their own devices...

That said, the amateur coaching community and the folks that support them (parents) really should include and insist upon overall athletic development in their programs. If kids aren't getting it elsewhere you have to give it to them where they are at. In other words, the kids may go to "baseball" practice but in reality you have to create a "multi-sport" environment for them.

As Dr. Rose says-

It's easy to play 1 sport... You're just being lazy! The best in the World did all this other stuff...

A foundation of overall athleticism provides kids with a higher ceiling! If you give the best coaches in the World a great athlete it makes their job so much easier. That should be the role of amateur baseball, create environments that allow kids to explore and develop the athleticism they'll need so that when they do ascend to the college/professional level they have the necessary tools to compete. If all you've given them are baseball skills it will not be enough to compete with the best in the World.

If your goal for them is to be the best 12 year old baseball player in town then focusing on baseball may, may get them there. That said, I don't know many kids that dream like that. They dream much BIGGER than that. We need to give them the tools they'll need to have a shot at making their dream a reality.

This May Be the Key for Winning the Pitching WAR...

WAR is an acronym for Wins Above Replacement. WAR measures a baseball player's value in all facets of the game by deciphering how many more wins he's worth than a replacement-level player at his same position (e.g., a Minor League replacement or a readily available fill-in free agent).

Nine out of the top Ten (American Born) in Pitching WAR over the last decade have multi-sport backgrounds/in addition to playing baseball:

1. Justin Verlander- Basketball
2. Zach Greinke- Tennis, Golf, Basketball, also switch hit as a kid
3. Clayton Kershaw- Football
4. Cole Hamels- the only one I could not find without a multi-sport background
5. Max Sherzer- Football, Basketball
6. Chris Sale- Basketball
7. Jon Lester- Basketball, also played a great Centerfield
8. David Price- Basketball
9. Adam Wainwright- Football (Wide receiver and Kicker) 
10. Jacob DeGrom- Basketball. Also bats Left. Was not a full-time pitcher until his junior year in College.

The two foreign born pitchers in the top ten are Felix Hernandez who played basketball in High School and the legendary Bartolo Colon. Colon was likely too busy to play another sport because he worked full-time from ages 9-14, harvesting coffee beans and fruit. Colon credited his childhood job for developing his considerable strength.

Not only did these pitchers play other sports but they excelled at them. For example, Greinke routinely won tennis tournaments as a junior (in the tennis hotbed of Florida). He also excelled as a junior golfer but stopped playing after he was "skipped" ahead 3 levels and could no longer play with his friends. He switch hit in Little League and was primarily a hard-hitting short stop on his high-school baseball team. Greinke lead all Major Leagues pitchers in 2019 with 3 home-runs. Not to mention he's the best fielding pitcher in the sport, winning 6 consecutive Gold Glove awards.

The other take away from this list, these pitchers have all been remarkably durable. They have all pitched a very long time and have done so at an extremely high level.

A broad base of athleticism is essential to becoming an "elite" baseball player. And playing multiple sports is a great way to develop that athleticism.