Wisdom of Legendary Spanish Coach Luis Bruguera
“The most important developmental goal for a tennis player is to become automatic. For me, this means building what I call the ‘intuitive intelligence’ of a player. For that, it is important for the player to not think–just do.
Be automatic and do it!”
–Luis Bruguera
Note from Chris: I have studied with Luis Bruguera for 12 years now and continue to be impressed by his method and philosophy.
Luis talks a lot about building automatic players who make good tactical decisions instinctively. This is why, for Luis, coaches should not talk too much, as it distracts from building automatic processes in the player. From his perspective, most coaches instruct too much rather than find the right exercises that let their student discover the solution to the problem at hand.
In Spain, this philosophical approach has filtered down to many younger coaches who have been influenced by Luis. Coaches often give less frequent and less technical feedback than in some other countries and systems. The end result is players who do not overthink about technique and who do not overanalyze tactical situations during competition.
By contrast, legendary coach Toni Nadal from Mallorca advocates “talking a lot to your player to make them feel your presence and energy, and to guide them.” This is a significant difference in philosophy between these two Spanish coaching titans.
Luis directs the Bruguera Academy in Barcelona.
Chris uses the Bruguera Method in his coaching in New York and at his high performance summer camp in Vermont.