#28: Robert Davis – The Non-Negotiables

In this episode you are going to listen to Robert Davis, Robert has been on the ATP Tour for 24 years. He has served as either a Technical Director & National Coach for Peru, Panama, Thailand, Indonesia & the list goes on an on. Robert is further more a writer who regularly contributes to ATP’s DEUCE magazine, ITF publications, and TENNIS Magazine Australia.

Currently he is the Technical Advisor of Strategic Operations of tennis for Sport Singapore & the coach of Matsui from Japan.

In this episode you’ll get to know:

– What Robert calls the “non-negotiables” in a coaching relation

– How Larry Stefanki had different approaches with Gonzalez & Roddick

– The difference between tennis coaches & tennis teachers

Enjoy the show!

Timestamps

01:30 Creating a long term coach-player relationship
02:52 The non negotiables
05:03 The difference on Technical Director & National Coach
08:20 Milos Ranonic example
09:56 Players from developing countries
11:03 Sock, Johnson, Fernando Gonzalez, Andy Roddick
13:53 What common trait the best coaches in the world share
17:45 Super Coaches
18:59 Who gets to call themselves Tour Coaches
21:18 Do apprenticeships if you are a young coach
23:15 The difference between tennis teachers & tennis coaches
26:10 What coaches deserves the credit?
28:10 The French Coaches System
29:42 How tennis coaches are left behind coaches from other sports
32:19 The chart system David Robert uses
33:30 Best part about being a touring coach
34:56 Why Robert finds the competitive nature of a player the most important
36:51 The care factor
38:17 Reading, talking, observing
40:46 Process over product
41:31 Why Robert could never coach Kyrgios
42:05 The old school fitness
43:55 Too much analytics
47:01 Specialty shots
50:02 Quality time
51:39 Robert’s advice