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Dominic Thiem's Journey and the Importance of Values Based Decision Making...
When Dominik Thiem was 11 years old, his coach Gunter Bresnik decided that he was too defensive and on the path to becoming just an average player. So he instructed Thiem to i.) start hitting his backhand one-handed and ii.) hit every ball as hard as he could.
Thiem hardly won a match for the next 18 months as his ranking went from 3 in Austria for his age to somewhere in the 20's. Other coaches thought Bresnik was advising Thiem incorrectly and other parents thought Thiem's parents (who are also coaches) were ill-informed and making a big mistake in letting Bresnik guide their son in this way.
In a 2016 interview Bresnik recalled, “I told his father, ‘If you go to a tournament and the people stop by and say who is this idiot who hits every ball as hard as possible?’ then we succeeded,” Bresnik said. “To make him hit the ball in the court is just a question of time. We needed to break down this barrier that he tries to put the ball...