Various people have said that it's too late for Naomi to make fundamental changes.

And, up to a point, I agree. After all, the backhand action is SO unorthodox (but pretty effective in certain situations i.e. as long as the balls aren't too high or deep) that you're never going to change it properly so you've got to go with it and make the best of what it is.

But there are other things that are 100% improvable. Ginny Wade made a couple good points when commentating her match at Wimbledon. (Now Ginny is always pretty disparaging of Naomi, simply because there are so many areas to improve, but in a way she's missing the point, it's precisely because there are so many areas she can improve that it's interesting).

But Ginny said, for instance, (and quite rightly) that when Naomi runs forward to a short ball she runs with her raquet in the wrong position. So it's no wonder that she's more likely to mess up. That's really easy to change - as long as you have a coach who notices it. And her return of serve positioning and 'little jumps' are pretty poor and would be very easy to improve. These are not 'fundamental' parts of Naomi's game - they're just areas, in my view, that show that she hasn't had a coach for a fair while. And small improvements can go a long way.

Fitzy wrote:

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hi guys :D

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 It's been a while Fitzy.

What are you up to - we are making assumptions from your tweets?

I really hope someone can work on that remarkable strength of hers - the serve - to make it more consistent - even preferably go for two first serves and hedge her bets when playing top 100 players. If that's done, she will have a good base to threaten a lot of the players in top 100 and move on from there to start looking at other areas as mentioned by CD.

-- Edited by TennisLover on Friday 7th of August 2015 05:51:36 PM

Hi Fitzy - long time no see.

just wanted to put out a feeler to see if anyone would remember me!

Yes been a while alot has happened in the time since i last wrote on here.
been coaching naomi for coming up to a month now. Really enjoying it and i dont think she has managed to get anywhere near her potential yet. Little bit shown from her success this week.
But alot to look forward to in terms of her game and where she can go with it.
much more to her game than just a serve but serving stats this week were pretty impressive.

Was fun working at the top of the womens game, ups and downs, many stories which i will not go into now.
so i will be mixing the itf level and the tour level for a little bit, but this week was nice to see friends i have made from the last 3 years on tour at this level.

currently better for me right now to be travelling as i do not have any sort of a base at all in the UK. To say i am ALL in would be an understatement!!
With sloane i was living in LA. Then when i started with caroline i moved out and didnt move in anywhere as there was no point.

would be nice to have some sort of a home at some point or a base to go back to, but for now i am enjoying the early stages or the process with naomi.

Of course we remember you, Fitzy!

Lovely to know that Mr Fitzpatrick's coaching experiences are being put to good use to assist Ms Broady. May the good work from both continue!