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Q&A with Fed Cup captain and national coach Sylvain Bruneau
Welcome back to the second edition of the TPA monthly interview. This month we sat down with Canadian Fed Cup captain Sylvain Bruneau to discuss a wide range of topics from growing as a coach in Canada, encouraging females to coach, and finally some key points when considering how to train some of Canada’s top tennis talent.
TPA: How did you reach the position that you are currently in today?
Bruneau: Step by step. I think my story makes this possible for anybody to believe that this could happen to them. I was not an extraordinary player growing up, but I started young working in a club. Then I started to take care of the junior program, and trying to make the program one of the best in Quebec, which it was. I put in a lot of time trying to develop good players. After working with and developing juniors, Tennis Quebec, then Tennis Canada started to send me to nationals.
My first trip outside of Canada was an under-14 tournament. I really moved up the ladder, and then I got started working with the team events. Then we go back, as I was still in my early twenties at this time, I got to start working with some of the older players. Then I became Fed Cup coach for six or seven years and then I became Fed Cup captain. In the meantime I became a full-time national coach, so it was really step-by-step.
How is it different going from being an individual player’s coach to Fed Cup captain?
Well, the mentality is a little different. When you are working individually with one player, your mission or goal is to make that player better. So basically everything you do is always just about that one player, and the interests of progressing them.
When you are Fed Cup captain, it is no longer the individual or player that gets priority, it’s the team. Everything you do, every decision you make is toward the team, what is best for the team. This can mean sometimes what’s best for the team is not what is best for a single player, as they have to sit out a practice, or perhaps are a doubles player and they need to play a little bit of singles. The mentality needs to be different to get the most out of the team.
Why is growing the number of tennis coaches in Canada important?
I think it is a very important issue. I remember when I was younger I thought that there were a lot of young coaches who were very motivated, and wanted to do some different things. And I think it is very important that if we want to have more and better players, it starts with having more and better young coaches. I think if we can get more coaches in every province motivated by high performance, that want to help develop younger players, it is one of the key steps to Canada becoming a better tennis nation. It is not the only key element, but it is definitely one of them.
Why do you feel that professional development is so important for coaches?
For me, tennis was a passion early on, and through that coaching became a passion. It was all about getting better: reading, watching videos, talking to other coaches, all in the quest to get practical knowledge. I was very lucky because when I was younger I had a number of coaches who were excellent examples for me. These were older coaches and a little more experienced, that I could spend time with, asking them questions. I think it is important to have mentors, and a confidence in these people that you can trust and learn from them as well.
Do you feel that having more female coaches is important to the growth of tennis in Canada?
Definitely! I feel this is something we are definitely lacking, and if we could get more female coaches involved I think it would absolutely be a positive for what they can bring to the table. I wish we had more. Having a female on court gives the girls somebody who they can relate and talk to; someone who can maybe understand a little better what it is they may be going through. And I think that is very helpful. I learn a lot talking to other female coaches, I am not a woman but gaining their perspective on things that maybe I would have overlooked is very beneficial. It helps me to see some new ideas or angles that I may have overlooked otherwise.
Do you have any specific advice for different training techniques for boys and girls? Is there a difference when you are coaching boys and girls?
I would like to say that there isn’t. I would like to think that it is the same sport, same training method, and same psychology, but it is a little different. For the girls, it is all about how they feel with their strokes; that is generally way more important than on the boys’ side. The boys love to practice by competing, and playing a lot of points and the girls are more about sensation and feeling what they are doing so they do a lot of repetition. I do question myself sometimes if this is something, as coaches, we should try to change when they are younger.
What fundamentals should coaches focus on with players aged 10-12 and why are these skills so important to their development?
There are a lot of skills that should be focused on, and it is a very important period in the development of players. In Canada we put a lot of emphasis on the technical aspect of the sport, which is very good. I think sometimes we don’t put as much of a priority on the notion of hitting with easiness or economy to generate pace with little effort. That whole notion of rhythm which is a little more intangible. You can have the proper grip or position but those other aspects that are a little bit more invisible, they are also so important and it is definitely something we need to make more of a priority.
Having coached some of Canada’s best young talent, how do you prioritize what an elite athlete needs to work on to become better?
I focus on strengths first. I think the natural thing to do is try to improve weaknesses, which also does needs to be done. But I really feel that a lot of the top players, or players on tour, they develop more than one strength. And I think if you can develop strengths, and as you go try and make sure the aspects of the game that are not as strong are addressed as well, this has always been my philosophy.
How has tennis evolved in your time as a coach, and how do you see it evolving looking into the future?
It is always difficult to predict what is going to happen. The only thing that I have noticed is that every two to three years, you see the game changing and evolving at the highest level. The game is becoming more physically demanding and powerful because of the equipment. It also helps that players today are much better trained physically in comparison to the past. I think that in tennis we definitely need to be aware that it will continue to evolve, and that the athletes are going to keep getting more and more athletic. And we need to make sure that our athletes are keeping up with those around the world.
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