Pat Rafter October 2009

Pat Rafter October 2009Pete Tramacchi:

Okay. Pat Rafter, thanks for joining us at TennisAssist.com. Firstly I’d like to ask you alittle bit of your early days of your playing career. At what age did you start playing the sport of tennis?

Pat Rafter:

I started picking up a racquet when I was about four or five. I lived in a small town inQueensland, Australia, and my older brothers all played. My father and mother were involved in the localclub in Mt. Isa, and I got involved because my older brothers played, and so I guess I had to play. And Ireally wanted to do what they wanted to do. And then I took it a bit more seriously, getting coaching whenI was about nine years old, when I moved to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. And that’s when myinvolvement started to become probably more in tennis and really started to, started to really enjoy it moreand more.

Pete:

Did you at the age of 9 or 10, and moving to Sunshine Coast, did you believe that you could haveever been a Grand Slam champion? Was that part of the dream?

Pat:

Oh, back then, no. I mean I was, it’s a very unrealistic goal. I remember when I got to about 12years old and during some squads on the Sunshine Coast we’d just sit and laugh and go “We’re going tobe number one, we’re going to be top ten.” But it’s so funny, you’re just saying it. You know kids saycrazy things, so I put it down as another kid saying crazy things. It’s not as if I went home and dreamedabout it. You know people say “You went home and dream about it.” No, I don’t. You know, it wasn't likethat. I played every day and I really enjoyed it, and I played tournaments every weekend. But did Idream? No, I didn’t dream about it. But yeah, I guess when you say “I want to play Davis Cup for Australia, I want to win a Grand Slam, I want to be top ten in the world,” you say them but to me it wasreally a throwaway comment.

Pete:

Alright. Well we’re going to go into some questions that our Japanese audience have emailed tous. So the first question is from TennisNakama. She writes: “You fascinated tennis fans with your tennisstyle, good looks and wonderful personality.”

Pat:

That’s true.

Pete: “

I believe today’s tennis is overwhelmed by giant power hitters like Del Potro and Sterling. Whatare your thoughts for smaller sized players like Asian players and how can they beat these types of power players? Is Davydenko a key?”

Pat:

Yeah, well I was always quite small when I started playing so you had to learn the craft of the actualgame a lot more. You had to learn how to get sort of the big guys moving or how to catch them out oncertain positions. So it a good thing to sort of start off small. Obviously it’s fantastic if you can grow. Butthere are certain advantages. You look at someone like Michael Chang who did very, very well; Simonefrom France who’s little as well. Layton’s not the tallest person either but he’s certainly not the shortest.You have to be a great athlete when you’re short – it’s one of those things. You have to have qualitiesthe big guys don’t have, and that’s mobility. And you’ve got to work extra hard on your fitness work. Andalso be someone who does not miss, and have that tenacity never to give in. And I think those arequalities that shorter people seem to have over taller people. But there are ways. You’ve just got learnthe craft of the game and hopefully have some good coaching and tips along the way.

Pete:

Three short but very important questions here from Takeyama. “What advice or words of your coach do you remember the most?”

Pat:

Oh. We had sort of different coaches, and obviously you probably remember the ones that werelater on in your career because obviously your mind works a bit better; it’s hard to remember back all theway. But I remember Bob Carmichael, he taught me a couple of very good tips. And one of those waswhen you are practicing, to, when the ball goes out or the ball is very wide and you don’t feel like youshould run for it, make an effort to run for it. And when someone hits a ball that’s going to hit the back

Pat Rafter October 2009

fence and you’re at the baseline, try to hit it and get the ball back. And what it does is it makes your hands and your feel, and does things where kids just let the ball go. It’s something where you try to makeevery single ball and your intensity in practice is very, very important. I remember that, that’s a very goodtip. And another one from Bob Carmichael, or “Nowadays” as we used to call him, was on return a serve,was just get the ball back into play. Get yourself an opportunity where you can play the point. Too manyguys go for the big winners and yeah, you can break every now and then but it’s also, the game’s alsoabout building pressure and getting as many balls back as you can. Give yourself a chance in every rally.Gee, another one…

Pete:

Well you don’t have to give us three – he’s actually got three questions. But that iterates a lot of what Michael and I are talking about as well, and I think that’s fair – just to compete in every point, makesure you’re a better competitor. And in turn you’re going to get more mistakes from your opponentinstead of being loose and cheap and trying to hit big shots off the wrong shots. So if you’re stayingcompetitive…

Pat:

It’s about building pressure.

Pete:

…and training. That other intensity factor of yeah, chasing extra balls in practice and things likethat, I think that’s sure a great learning curve for players coming through.

Pat:

Yeah, I

guess some people don’t have that in their nature. I couldn’t imagine someone like Federer having that in his nature. But we’re talking about someone who has so many other great attributes thatnobody else has got either. So but there’s something that I would try to instill in all the kids that I workwith.

Pete:

Mm-hmm. And the second of these three short questions. “When did you start playing serve &volley?”

Pat:

I was pretty young. I was probably around 11, 12. I grew up under really enjoying watching Borg. Iknow he’s not a serve & volleyer but I loved MacEnroe’s style and Pat Cash, and so I loved the way theyplayed and I loved being in the net. It’s actually suited my personality a little bit as well. It’s energetic andI find it very fun. I came to this age when I didn’t grow between 14, 16 and boom, I was in the 16 agegroup where I stayed small and the other kids got big. And I still tried to serve & volley and I it didn’t workvery successfully. It was a bad time for me but I still persisted with it, and in the long run it paid off.

Pete:

That’s interesting because in does lead onto some of these situations later on in our questions,because the focus of the junior is the real senior part of play. I mean the junior results at the end of theday really don’t mean much.

Pat:

No, the transition's got to be made earlier. And yeah, I never went through the junior system and Igot out of the junior system as soon as I could because I wasn’t one of the best juniors. So I alwaysadvise all the kids get into the senior ranks. Start playing the men’s tours when you’re 15 years of age.

Pete:

And the third question is “What made you decide to become a serve & volleyer?'" which you’vepretty much answered through watching the likes of Borg and McEnroe, and those sorts of players.

Pat:

Yeah, it got to be that that’s what I wanted to do.

Pete:

Okay. Adding to this several people have asked “What kind of training is important for juniors intraining to become a serve & volleyer?”

Pat:

Listen, there’s nothing better than doing the actual training itself: serve & volleying and playing thatway, and working specifically on that. There are a lot of footwork drills you can do as well. If you goback and watch someone like Stefan Edberg play, after they serve they have a certain amount of stepsthat they take, and there’s a split step, and on the split step they explode and go off into the volley. And

Pat Rafter October 2009

your goal is to get around the serve and you’re probably a fraction, a step back from there. So if you cantry and get a video tape of someone like an Edberg or a Cassis, but to someone like me it’s especially…

Pete:

Or yourself.

Pat:

Yeah, I guess so. I try to model myself on those sorts of guys. But certainly yeah, Edberg had someof the best footwork than any of the players in the serve & volley. So I would recommend you getting avideo tape and watching that. And then simulate that; it doesn’t have to be on a tennis court but if it is,great. If not out on the grass in your back lawn.

Pete:

And too it’s doing it off faults and doing it off just practice serves and stuff like that. Putting thebasketballs up towards the service line and that’s the… You position the serve, get a ball out of thebasket and place the ball, and throw your split step in there as well. I’m sure that’s one of the ways.

Pat:

Yeah, that’s one stage of it. Then you’ve got to incorporate a volley with it. So it’s one thing to runthrough it but if you're not in balance than that’s not going to work either. So you’ve got to get to,obviously get to the point and then you’ve got to balance the split step and reach for a volley. But it allcomes together. So I think the first thing to do is to practice it, get it a part of your game, and then get intoa set in that situation where you can consistently do it for the next couple years.

Pete:

Royo M says “I admire your net play. Your eyes always locked to the ball and your body alwayskept balanced. What practice did you do for this? Also what do you believe is the key for a goodapproach shot? Is it speed, spin, or direction?” Well, we sort of answered the first part of that questionwith the serve & volley. What’s your thoughts with the approach shot?

Pat:

And also with your, we’ve been doing that work on getting your balance, there’s a lot of really shortfootwork drills you can work on, where you do a bunch of tiny little steps and someone throws a ball off toyou, your right hand side or your left hand side and you make that volley. But it’s also very important thatafter you make that volley, or simulate that volley because you’re probably doing it without a tennisracquet in your hand, just catching it. But always with your dominant hand you play tennis with. Thenyou slip back and get back to that ready position as quick as you can. That produces your power, and ithelps your fast twitch fibers rock. The second part of the question was…

Pete:

The approach shot.

Pat:

The approach shot’s a very difficult one. It’s all about where you are on the court, where they are onthe court, what kind of shot they’ve hit at you. What I’ve done with the kids is I’ve actually stood behindthem while they’re sort of playing, and try to get the feel of what shot they play and what shot I wouldhave played. But to me it’s not about hitting the hardest shots to the corner either and getting to the net.Listen, if they’re right out of court yeah, you can hit the ball and they’re probably going to retrievesomething back quite softly if you hit it hard. If they’ve got good balance and the ball’s quite low it’sabout you making the approach. And I always like to approach with a slice because it lets me, gives thema slower ball to try and pass you off. It gives you time to get to the net and also get good balance. Nowwhether you go cross court, down the line, short, or down the middle even, you have to take so manythings into factor – where you are on the court, what their strengths are. There’s no real… What youplayed the last four times, maybe you might want to mix it up the next time. It’s a game that has to beplayed over many, many years. And a feel, a natural feel has to come into the type of game and youhave to understand that.

Pete:

Yeah, and I think you answered it another way, too, with using the slice which you used the most.So keep the ball low, and also you, I remember watching you play a lot, you approached not necessarilydeep all the time cause that’s back in the guy’s hitting zone, so you made them come forward a little bitmore, a little out of their comfort zone. That part of the court’s a little more foreign to them, so if they domake their shot you’ve got now a volley into a more open court as well. So that sort of makes them pullthe trigger a little bit more, but if they didn’t pull it enough you were there with a volley to go into the opencourt.