Gritsch on Djokovic engagement - coincidence or determination?
Gebhard Gritsch has made Novak Djokovic one of the fittest players on the ATP tour. In an interview with "Kasi live" (on weekdays at 6 p.m. in our Instagram account "tennisnetnews"), the Tyrolean described his career.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Apr 25, 2020, 01:28 pm
As life sometimes plays, Gebhard Gritsch goes to a flea market one day in 2009. And there he meets Günter Bresnik again after a long time (who, connoisseurs of the tennis scene know that, can be found quite often at flea markets). So Bresnik asks Gritsch whether he knows that Novak Djokovic is looking for a fitness coach? Didn't know Gritsch, who previously worked as a coach in the Philippines and Indonesia. And three days later, Nole had to report growth in his team of supervisors.
At that time Djokovic was in a small crisis, had problems with motivation - no comparison with the player who has dominated tennis with a short break in recent years. The first major goal, however, of increasing the stamina in the matches, would only have been achieved after two years. For this, massive numbers of intervals were necessary. "It just doesn't work without brutality," said Gritsch in conversation with Christopher Kas .
Djokovic improves biomechanically
In the phase of getting to know each other, he only did basic work, after all, the partners first have to get closer. The following then happened in Beijing: Roger Federer had trained two places further, Djokovic would not have been in a good mood. And Gritsch said to his protégé: "Look over there: so little input, so high output." From then on, the collaboration got a new quality, especially with regard to biomechanics.
The most important thing was the 60-40 balance - that means that 60 percent of the body weight is also brought forward from the run. Stability is extremely important - also for hobby players. For Novak Djokovic, mobility was also extremely important - but what the current world number one had known since his stay at Niki Pilic in Munich. In addition, Djokovic is an incredibly disciplined player. He met the coach's specifications meticulously, including the warm-up program.
In contrast to Federer, Djokovic sometimes had phases where he did not operate with a stable technique. Therefore it was very important to work on the biomechanics again and again. With success: Physiologically, Novak Djokovic is still so young that he will be able to play at least as long as Roger Federer. And he turns 39 in August.