http://0rz.tw/qz5XO Global Coach Takes on Challenge in Roddick By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY Published: January 18, 2009 里面有提到Andy最近减重15磅 因为教练说服他 190-195磅的人才能拿冠军 而当年Andy拿冠军的时候 也是在那个体重范围内^^" 教练07年帮助González打入澳网决赛 他觉得Andy更有为了夺冠而牺牲的意愿 所以同意担任Andy的教练 MELBOURNE, Australia — As a young man, Larry Stefanki remembers his father-in-law, the former N.F.L. quarterback John Brodie, offering some career advice: “Get out of your comfort zone.” For most of his adult life, Stefanki has done just that. He has traveled the world and worked with it, too, parlaying an adventurous spirit, an early connection with John McEnroe and his own positive energy and tactical acumen into a career as one of the top coaches in tennis. What began as a helping hand for McEnroe, his childhood friend, in the final two years of McEnroe’s tour-level career in 1991 and 1992 has continued as a much more diverse cultural experience. Stefanki helped Marcelo Rios, a crotchety Chilean, reach No. 1 in the world, then did the same for Yevgeny Kafelnikov, a moody Russian with silken ground strokes who had managed to navigate his way through the chaotic breakup of the Soviet Union. Stefanki also coached three less-challenging characters who all reached the top five: Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden, Tim Henman of Britain and, most recently, Rios’s more amenable countryman Fernando González. But now, after nearly 15 years of exploring the strengths and fault lines of players from other countries, Stefanki has returned to more familiar territory. For the first time since working with Patrick McEnroe and his doubles partner, Jonathan Stark, in 1993, Stefanki is coaching an American: Andy Roddick. It is an assignment that still represents a major challenge. The huge-serving Roddick, a former United States Open champion and a longtime fixture near the top, lost touch with the leaders last season, struggling at the major events and finishing with a No. 8 ranking. Roddick’s power game is no longer leaving the same sorts of dents in his opponents’ defenses, and he will now try to reverse that unsettling trend at an age — 26 — when most tennis stars have already peaked. Stefanki, no stranger to helping players in midcareer funks, said he sensed no dimming of the flame. “Andy’s been pretty exceptional when it comes to the work ethic, which is nice to see for a guy who is 26, who has been the No. 1 American for six or seven years,” Stefanki said in a telephone interview last week. “Andy is still highly motivated to get back in the top four or five in the world. That’s among his goals and to win another slam. He believes he’s going to win one, and I think he’s going to win one myself, or I wouldn’t be doing the job.” Roddick said a shoulder injury that troubled him in 2008 had been resolved, and according to Stefanki, Roddick also lost nearly 15 pounds in the short off-season by altering his diet and emphasizing whole foods. Stefanki said he was convinced that the speed of the modern game made it difficult for players over 200 pounds to challenge for a Grand Slam title. “I was a little shocked that his weight was as high as it was,” Stefanki said. “And I said to him, ‘No, you have to be 190 to 195.’ He told me: ‘ There’s no way I’m getting that thin. I haven’t been that thin since I was 21.’ “And I said: ‘Yeah but what happened when you were 21? You won a slam.’ ” Roddick started this season in style, reaching the final in Doha, Qatar, before losing to Andy Murray. But it will not get easier from here with all the established and emerging talent in the sport. (Roddick won his first-round match Monday in straight sets.) Stefanki said he spent five close-to-sleepless nights making his decision last November after Roddick offered him the position. Stefanki had developed a close relationship with González and his family, helping him slim down and craft a more tactically sound game and reach the final of the 2007 Australian Open. Stefanki, now 51, said he was ultimately swayed by his sense that González, unlike Roddick, was no longer quite so prepared to make huge sacrifices to win and also by his desire to help his dream of coaching promising American juniors from his base in Encinitas, Calif., near San Diego. Stefanki, who played tennis at the University of California at Berkeley, never scaled the heights as a player, failing to break into the top 30. He won just one tournament in singles, and that came after he received a wild card into the 1985 La Quinta event as the club professional. But having coached Roddick, the most visible American player of his generation, certainly will not hurt Stefanki’s credibility with future prospects in the United States if he decides to open an academy or coach privately. “When Andy called, I just felt it was the right time,” Stefanki said. “ When I stop traveling in three or four years, Andy will probably be one of the last guys I work with, if not the last guy, so then I can start working with American juniors and get these kids to get a little bigger picture on the global spectrum of what it’s going to really take to be a high-level professional tennis player.” According to Stefanki, what it takes is getting outside one’s comfort zone. “Until you do, you never know how good you can really be,” he said. “Get over there to Europe. Go over to Russia. Go over to Africa and go wherever it is and see if you can win with bad balls on bad courts with bad umpires, and then you know, you really know, you can play. A lot of these kids in the States, I just don’t think they’re getting the right advice. I just think they’re soft.” --

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