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Sunday, March 4, 2007

It's Patton week on Tennis Blogs


I'm back home, and happy to report that the return trip from Boise was as simple as the journey to was complicated.

Spending a weekend watching Boise State head coach Greg Patton in action is a crash course in motivation and leadership, and his ability to inspire others, not just his tennis team, has made him much in demand as a speaker. But it wasn't a formal, convention setting where Patton made a significant difference recently, it was at the ITA Team Indoor, where West Nott of Underground Tennis caught on video a typical Patton pre-match pep talk. West transcribed it and posted it on his site, and it found its way to the Princeton women's tennis team, who used it as inspiration for their 4-3 win over Maryland.

Here's the entire story in the Princeton's assistant's telling. To know that something you've said or written has had this kind of impact is the true reward for a coach, or a blogger. West should be very proud of his role in conveying the excitement of college tennis, which has been the best kept secret in tennis for far too long.

For West's original article that started this chain reaction, click here.

2 comments:

mannyD said...

Greg Patton is THE MAN!
Im a fan,
Manny Diaz

Anonymous said...

Sorry my comment is not related to Patton, but I was wondering if you were going to post something on the NY Times "Play" magazine article about the the Spartak tennis club and the role of Myelin in developing players. I thought it was pretty interesting, although I had to laugh when I saw the quote from the Russian instructors that "technique is everything." They must go crazy watching Dementieva serve.