Indians must focus on craft and skills, not on power: Bloxham

The Indians are not built to play the power game and must rely on their natural craft and skills to make a mark in the world of tennis like Leander Paes, feels All England Club Head Coach Dan Bloxham.
The Briton observed that the Indians are gifted with wonderful hands, so they must develop a style woven around their natural skills to counter the power game which is dominating world tennis.
Bloxham, on his first visit to India for the 'Road to Wimbledon' initiative, said it would be futile for the Indians to try and counter the stronger and taller players from the European countries with power.

"How can you match power with power? It's probably not going to happen if you are a certain body shape," 48-year-old Bloxham, who is the head coach at Wimbledon for the last 10 years, told PTI in an interview.
"The Indian and the British kids are almost similar in size. We are not East European giants. Some of the American players are really big. So there are some really strong players like the Williams (Serena and Venus), Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, they are physically very very strong.
"The skill of the Indian athletes is their spin and craft. They must not try and play like Serena because they are not built like Serena," Bloxham observed.

The average height of people in India is 65.3 cm (5' 5") for both males and females while in UK it is 176.8 cm (5' 9.6") for men and 163.7 cm (5' 4.4") for women.
"They have to use their skills better. They should use the angles of the court better, get the ball to break the sidelines more and come in more to take ball in the air. They should try to play different types of points rather than match pace with pace because when someone is taller and stronger, it's not going to happen.
"So they need to develop the craft, have all the tenacity and become as strong as possible but to use their natural skills which is with their hands," he said.