Mats Merkel is scouting and coaching for Adidas. At the US Open, the 33-year-old German took care of the Taiwanese Chun Hsin Tseng in addition to his activities for adidas. The fifth part of our series is about the difference between talent and potential.
tennisnet: Mr. Merkel. Many, many years ago it was said that Thomas Muster had had less talent than Horst Skoff. Yet the one, Pattern, has become the number one in the world. Skoff didn’t. What does talent in tennis mean to you? And what potential?
Mats Merkel: I can very well remember Thomas Muster and also Horst Skoff, the front runner. Talent can certainly be defined in many different ways. I’m of the opinion that talent doesn’t just mean having a good touch. This also means motor intelligence, finding solutions, having a feel for certain game situations. But also to feel when the strain on the body is perhaps too high. But talent cannot be equated with success. A lot of players who were supposedly talented never made it, not even into the top 100 in the men’s singles. And not with the ladies either.
tennisnet: What does it need then?
Merkel: I think that talent in tennis and also in competitive sports is a very funny term at all. This year I had the pleasant pleasure of working with Michael Berrer quite a lot. I appreciate him very much as a person and as a player. I think the word potential fits much better than talent. Potential means: Is someone perspective or not? That is, the athlete has the skills and abilities to survive in professional sport. And by that I don’t mean financial development, but simply further development. And then of course to climb up the ladder.
tennisnet: Like Michael Berrer?
Merkel: I discussed with him how to maximise potential. What does it actually mean to explain to a young player: “Hey, you have potential, but…”. Young games in particular are very quickly eaten up when you say “but”. “You play well, but…” Only this belly brushing but is not always the best for athletes. Because there are many players who work hard, even off the court. Tennis has become totally professional. Also over the last six to eight years again by the sport medical realizations. The teams of the top players have grown bigger, they just stay up there longer.
tennisnet: With what consequence?
Merkel: You have to tell the young players what it actually takes to have the chance to climb up at all. And Michael Berrer said, “Only in the dictionary can success take precedence over hard work.” I think of this saying quite, very often, because it simply aptly describes what reality looks like. You can have as much potential as you want – if you don’t spend the hours on the court to create certain automatisms, it just gets difficult. And one says yes, until a movement sequence has perfected, one needs 10,000 repetitions. Let’s say you play 10,000 forehand volleys at hip height, 10,000 forehand volleys over shoulder height, and so on. There’s a lot of hitting going on. You need time for that, time on the court. And you need tennis instructors who can really teach you that. And who have fun doing the same. You need much more than talent and potential. First and foremost, a good team that always reminds you what the goal is and how hard you have to work.