← Control the Controllables
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So as a former professional tennis player loosely and now a professional coach working on tour, one thing that I see constantly, even at the very highest level of the game is players working incredibly hard, but not always smart, not always in the most structured of ways. Now there's so much information around strength and conditioning that it can become a little bit overwhelming for people. You know, players are just adding more hours, more sessions, more volume when what they really need, they need clarity. And I've seen technically excellent players out there plateau in their tennis not because of their skill level but because their physical foundations weren't strong enough to support their game and their talent. That's why for me, tennis athlete is the platform that sets the standard. It provides a clear, structured approach to strength and conditioning. Every program is age appropriate, it's research informed and it's delivered by SC coaches with proven track records of long term results. It's the platform that I trust when it comes to physical development. And if you're ready to take your development seriously, head over to sototenis.com tennisathlete that's sototenis.com/tennis athlete. Because physical preparation is one of the biggest controllables that you have.
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Hi guys. And a big welcome to Control the controllables. We are on YouTube live coming to you December 18th. Merry Christmas everyone. Hope, hope everyone is well wherever you are in the world. And yeah, we're kind of bringing a bit of a, bit of a special episode. We weren't expecting it December 17th yesterday and the news broke that Carlos Alcaraz and Juan Carlos Ferrero have split. And I guess the, the, the reason that's big news, it's, it's obviously big news in the tennis world because of the success that they've had together. However, I think almost bigger than that is the fact that December 17, you know, anyone in the tennis world will know that's just not really when teams split. You know, that tends to be at the end of year, after Turin, after Riyadh. Okay. When people are reassessing what's happening, taking a break and then they want their new teams in place for their pre season as they're going in to the following year. So that tells us, and it's, it's not for me to start judging their relationship but I do want to talk through it because I think it is interesting. I'd love to hear your questions. You can add your questions in. We've had some in advance as well and I will absolutely answer as honestly as I can around this. But I, I, it, it is It's. It's strange timing, and that tells me that there's probably something that has happened, some. Some form of event, some argument, tension, whatever it might have been for. For them to have made that decision. Because it won't be long before Carlos Alcaraz is hopping on that plane over to the other side of the world for the first major of 2026. And as we know from the last two years, it's the Alcaraz Sinner show, right? That's. That's what it has been now for a coup, winning all the Grand Slams between them for each in. In that time period. He wants to be prepared, you know, and I'm sure that we're gonna. We're gonna get into it later. I've seen a couple of questions come through. How does this affect 2026? And we'll get into that, but I just want to start with a couple of things. Firstly, you know, Carlos Alcaraz started at age 14 with Juan Carlos Ferrero. You know, he was a standout junior. It kind of was a little bit lucky in some ways that geographically they were so close, from a little village, El Palmar in Murcia, very close to where Juan Carlos Ferrero has his tennis academy. And that kind of officially started as a relationship back in 2018. It actually was in 2019, early 2019, where I was traveling with a couple of players for ITF Futures events, 25Ks in Mallorca, and Juan Carlos was there, and I was like, whoa, what's Juan Carlos Herrera doing here? I think he'd recently split with Alexander Zverev, and he was there with this young span who I'd seen play a little bit, and you'd heard the name. And I had a little chat with Juan Carlos because we're. We're the same age. We. We used to play in juniors. We go back. Back a long way. Not that we've got a strong relationship. Juan Carlos has always kept himself very much to himself. But I said, come on, then, how good's this kid? And he said, he's already top 50 in the world level. And. And that was when he was 15, going on 16. He then went and won those two events, the two 25K events in Mallorca, and kind of back that up, you know, Billy Harris served for the match against him, a British player. I was scouting him, hoping that Billy might win this match. As good as Billy is, I wanted to. Evan Hoyt, the player I was with, I wanted to play Billy Harris. I didn't want to play this young Carlos Alcaraz, who was smoking forehands. And that was it. And, and it was very much more, more than a, more than a. Just a coach player, right? We talk about this transformational relationships that, that often the best partnerships have 24 tour titles. He won six Grand Slams under Juan Carlos. He became the youngest world number one. He finished 20, 25 as world number one, won another two Grand Slams. You know, we've got back in Miami, when Juan Carlos Ferreira's dad passed away, he flew out for the final. We all saw those pictures as he arrived at the hotel. They had this incredible bond and obviously played a massive, massive role in Carlos Alcaraz as career. So why, why, why has it happened? That's the question I think everybody, everybody in the tennis world is asking. I received, I was actually in a busy, busy week at sort of Tennis Academy as we, as we're going into the Christmas period. And then we were at friend's house for some carols last night and my messages were, were coming through asking, you know, what's going on? And, and I guess I don't know is the answer. You know, none of this is inside info. This is just, I guess based on a bit of a feeling putting two and two together. I might be making seven. But you know, I, I here and I see one, they've worked over seven or eight years. You know, it's a long time. It's, we see this a lot in the doubles world that partnerships often don't last much longer than two years. It doesn't mean that people don't like each other anymore. It often just means that just in this kind of bubble that we live in in the tennis world, it's intense and spending all of that time together, you do build niggles. There's natural niggles that build. And I think, you know, seven or eight years in that, in that relationship where you're with each other pretty much every day, every week, you're seeing each other more than you would see your wife, your husband, your kids, you know, your parents, your siblings. And, and you're in also a high pressured situation. You know, your constant nervous system is switched on. You know, there's not a lot of downtime for a Carlos Alcaraz. I can only imagine, you know, all the media, he has to do his commercial opportunities and distractions, whichever way you want to look at that. So that's the first thing, I think the second thing for me is we've seen a bit of tension for a while now. You know, if we go back to US Open 2024. There was clear tension in the team, you know, and I, and I, and I do think at that time you could start to see that, you know, they weren't the same person. We have this kind of image of what a Spanish tennis player is, you know, Rafael the Dal, David Ferrer, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Albert Costa, you know, all of these players, years and years and years, it's been this kind of tough grinder, fighter, you know, Tennis academies in general in Spain have been very basic. Juan Carlos Ferreira's academy was built on a basic, basic food. He lives on the academy. It's all very tennis, you know, and, and tennis, tennis, tennis. And there, there we have this youngster, Carlos Alcaraz. Not that it comes easy to him, but it's almost. He plays with a joy, plays with a smile on his face. He enjoys life, you know, he's smiling, talking to everybody at the tournaments. I would imagine he's got a bit of female interest in his world as well. You know, he likes to party, he likes to let his hair down. We've seen that on the Netflix show. And, and who are we to say that he shouldn't, you know, but that kind of goes against Juan Carlos Ferreiro and how he learned tennis and what he understood. I think tension started to form a little bit there. The other one that's not been talked about as much, but as an academy owner, I can tell you that this is something that could potentially have called caused some tension. Carlos Alcaraz basically made the Juan Carlos Herrero Academy in so many ways. You know, that's where he trained, you know, the commercial for Juan Carlos and the academy, and that's where everybody wants to go and trade. And then they set up the Alcaraz Academy not too far away. You know, Carlos started to train there. You know, people then. I'm sure there's a bit of a rivalry, naturally, in. In that world, same industry, same, same space. You know, all of a sudden he's kind of got his own. He's making his own way. His family are involved, his brother's heavily involved in east tennis. Has that caused tension? I don't know. I don't know that for a fact, in any shape or form, but I would imagine it might, you know, has there been some coaches that have been taken from Ferreros to Alcaraz's academy? I don't know. Maybe that's. That's something, you know, maybe there's some, you know, some players that. That's happened, you know, and that. That is some, Some Possibility that that is, that has built this tension. And I, I, I think then for me what I've seen is Nicolas Alcaraz is no longer little Carlos Alcaraz. He is a superstar, age 22, six time grand slam winner and he's his own person. You know, as you, as you're growing into this space, he's looked after by his, his tennis dad, right, almost his second dad. When Carlos Ferreira, we've seen it, he didn't want to work with Zverev. That stopped very quickly because it's one Carlos's way or the highway. He's got his very specific ways. He doesn't want to deal really with that modern day tennis player. Didn't like how Zverev was. The social media that you know, the playboy lifestyle, the, the he, that's that not Juan Carlos. And Carlos Alcaraz is wanting to be his authentic self. And you know, I, that's my, my image of these conversations is Juan Carlos has his thoughts on why he should be doing and what he should be doing to prepare for 2026. Maybe Carlos has got different opinions on that. You know, maybe he has been slightly distracted or perception is that he's distracted. You know, Juan Carlos maybe thinks that his mind's not in the right place because we have seen that before. These little tensions and niggles have built to, We've obviously picked up a few things from there. From what they've said, you know, as, as they, as they made their announcements. Juan Carlos rare. I wish I could have continued, you know, does that mean he wished he could have continued but Carlos made the decision or does that mean actually this has gone beyond my principles and values now I can't continue under that position. We don't know that yet. But I would have thought after seven, eight years a nice way that this would have ended if it ended the right way is maybe it's a joint statement. You know, it happens at a, at a natural end to the year which, which is why it tells me it's something a little bit, a little bit more than that. And I guess, you know, time will tell. We don't know what that means now on the ATP Tour as we go in to 2026, is it advantage sinner? You know that those questions I'm sure will be, will be coming through and I guess we will, we will soon find out. But it was lovely to obviously hear them thank each other. But I think there's a little bit more to this story that is maybe meeting the eye because of the, because of the Statements because that wasn't done together, which it maybe feels that this relationship deserves. But my guess is it's just. There's a bit of an outgrowing of each other. Carlos Alcaraz has got a lot of people around. You know, somebody said to me on text last night, he's still got six coaches. I don't know if it's that many, but he's got his brother in his corner. He's, he's, he's got Samuel in his caller, it's corner. He's got his agents, he's got, he's got his, his entourage around him. And, you know, maybe that was just starting to separate and split and Carlos Alcaraz wants to be his own man. You know, is. Is my guess on this is how, how this has gone. It is slightly worrying as a big fan of Carlos Alcaraz that this has happened on December 17th. How that, how that means going into 2026. Let's see. So that's where we're at. A little bit of speculation, I guess. I guess the one last thing I'd say before I jump into a couple of questions is just motivation for me is a big word. You know, it, it seems very obvious to us that where you'd be highly motivated going into a new season, going into playing a Grand Slam, had the success when you don't have any financial worries, when you are in the position that Carlos Alcaraz is in, he has to be motivated. Right? I think, I think we saw that in 2025. People were saying, including myself, you know, I think Yannick Sinner will be the world number one this year because he's the consistent one. Well, didn't Carlos ALCAREZ show us 70 and eight on the year in 2025? You know, one, I believe eight, eight titles, the two Grand Slam titles finish of the year as world number one. There was almost a bit of motivation. And I think we actually see that, we do see that with top stars. We've seen it with Michael Jordan, you know, there's a bit of that like kind of screw you. I'm gonna show you, you know, and where does, where does Carlos Alcaraz find that for. For 2026? Because I think he maybe isn't quite the same character as Janik Sinner, you know, as Novak Djokovic, you know, so he is someone that. One of the, one of the potential issues he has is boredom in this sport and how he maintains that motivation all the way through. I think in reality, the gaps so big between him and the other players that, that's not going to be a problem in reality other than Jannik Sinner potentially, you know, Yannick Sinner is where the gap is small and those guys are obviously fighting for world number one. They're fighting for, for the, for the major. So, so let's see. But a couple of questions coming through. We've got a couple coming here online. I can't quite work out your name, but Ozan, I think so. Thank you for getting in touch. Will Juan Carlos Ferreira switch to another high profile singles player in 2026? I could see him working with another Spanish talent like Davidovich or Hodair. I don't think so is my personal thought. Maybe, maybe. I, I'm not sure that Juan Carlos is necessarily going to jump into something. I don't think he needs to coach anybo. I think again I've referenced it already but Alexander Zverev, he had that. I think he's got, he's got a certain way he likes to work and I think there's not so many players in the world that would have that connection with Juan Carlos Ferrero. I think he's quite a tough character. Clearly very, very focused and driven. Davidovich for Keena obviously very, very different type of, type of character. Again, you know, if we think that Carlos Alcaraz is, is that way, you know, Davidovich for Keena has obviously had. Had a lot of over the years controlling the ability to tolerate his emotions. You know, quite a fiery character in, in lots of ways I'm sure he could have a massive positive effect on Davidovich for Keena, but I guess would be maybe not, you know, at the top end of the game that will be the fascinating one. You know, if we, we start to see, you know, one of one of those guys coming, coming through, you know, Ben Shelton. It's a different game style, right? It's a, it's a, it's a very different game style to, to what Juan Carlos is maybe used to. Used to coaching but somebody like that to get that mentality. We saw it a bit with Tony Nadal as well. Right? Tony Nadal, you know, it hasn't really had the success outside of Rafa. There was just such a connect there in how they worked. Obviously Tony Nadal didn't have the playing career of Juan Carlos, but I think, I think that's, that's going to be interesting. But my guess is no but, but, but let's see. The has come through is, is what about, what about Carlos? Who's he going to be working with next year, I'm not convinced he'll be adding anybody. Maybe. I think, I think he's already got such a big team that I think it's just probably going to continue. You know, thinking about it, there was some tournaments when Carlos wasn't going to. I do think his brother's playing a little bit of a bigger role now, you know, and he's still got a strong team around him. So I'd actually be a little bit surprised if Alcaraz even adds anybody else to the team. Team right now. You know, maybe, maybe through time that, that might come. But let's see, in terms of a couple of questions that were asked, somebody said, why is it shocking that this is happening Because Carlos is still number one. It will happen one day. Yeah, and, and absolutely, you know, it's, it's. I don't think it is shocking. I think, I think seven or eight years is a long time in, in, in any relationship of, of, of this type. And it's, it's not easy. Right. You know, we look at other sports as well. Premier league football managers, you know, NBA basketball coaches, NFL coaches, you know, we look at, you know, lioness manager, you know, who was with them for many years. But, you know, life moves on at some point. And I reiterate what I said earlier. For me, I would have almost had no surprise if it ended at the end of the year. I think more of my surprise is the timing of it. I, I don't actually think it's the act of them moving on from each other. I, I could see that a little bit, you know, just reading between the lines, like I've mentioned, with the tension and with different things. Obviously they've had an incredible 2025. More than likely they've agreed to work 2026 together. And then something has happened in the pre season that has led to this decision now being made. That's, that's, that's, that would be the. What logic would tell me. And that's more of the, More of the. We had a message here from Ollie Corres. He said with the supposed reason being Carlos wanting to break away from his tennis dad. How will it affect his season? Will it cause sin of dominance in 2026? We've had the same question come in from three or four of you. Time will tell. Who am I to say that Carlos Alcaraz is going to be deeply affected by this? You know, the guy's an absolute phenomenon. You know, he really is. My gut feeling is if, and I've said this A few times. If we're talking about over a five year period, a six year period, that Jannik Sinner will win more Grand Slams majors titles than Carlos Alcaraz. But I, I said at the start of the year that the same reason for that is I feel he's a bit more disciplined in, in everything he's doing in his world and also. So that will lead to the consistency. But I said that at the start of 2025 and Carlos Alcaraz shoved that right in my face because like I said before, he went 70 and eight on the year and finished the year world number one. But that's a year, you know, can you do it for two years, for three years, for four years? And also I think it's, it's, it's unlikely, you know, just if we just know the history of tennis, that it's just going to be those two players, right? Somebody is going to come up. It's, there's going to be injuries, there's going to be, dare I say, another drug ban of some sort at some point for somebody, you know, as we know in life, we've got to live a very humble life because you never know what's around the corner. So I think it's going to be very interesting. We're all talking about Alcaraz and Sinner, but maybe, maybe someone will, will surprise us and jump in there in the next 12 months. I certainly think within the next 24, 36 months somebody will. So, so yeah, let's, let's see what are the next steps for both. One, Carlos. Yeah, we've already talked about that. So Nate, thank you for your question, but hopefully that was answered again from Ozan. Thank you. How awkward would it be at the Ferrero Academy of Carlos still wants to train there and have his base there, albeit not being with jcf. I think this all depends, right? This all depends on what has actually happened. Happened. Has this been a, has this been a fallout? If this has been a fallout, Carlos Alcaraz won't be training at the Juan Carlos Ferrero Academy. You know, he doesn't need to do that, right? I'm sure he's doing that so that he's, he's there. Juan Carlos lives there, he's got his house there, so he's got his own academy, the Alcaraz Academy. Now, you know, we've seen he can train anywhere in the world, right? So if there's been a fallout, I think that would obviously be the end of that. If there hasn't been a fallout out and it's just, they've had a couple of honest conversations, gone. Do you know what? Now's the time. Big love, big hug, life moves on. Which is there's no problem having, you know, breakups in professional breakups like that, you know, that's absolutely the way it should be. Then I don't see any reason why not. So let's see. I just have a little inkling and maybe it's from personal experience, but I have a little inkling the academy thing is something, you know, and, and it's, it's more leading, leaving into that like the dynamic of the relationship has changed. You know, once when you're coaching someone from a young age, you tend to be the, the person who, who is in control has, has the power, which is why it's a dangerous position to be in as a coach as well, you know. But when you're with younger players, they're looking up to you. You know, Juan Carlos is a grand slam winner. You know, Carlos is looking up to him. Wow, wow, wow. Whatever. Yeah. Oh my God. And then, and then he's made his own way and, and, and now there's a flip, right, because he's now the six time major, major winner. He's got the millions in his bank. He's the one that everyone wants commercially. He's the one that all, all social media one. He's the one everyone wants to talk to. That's. He's a very humble guy, Carlos Alcaraz. But it's going to get in your head a little bit. So there's a dynamic shift and to make relationships evolve over a long period of time, you have to find a way of shifting with the natural dynamic shifts. And maybe that's just what this is that they haven't, they haven able to, to grow with the, the natural evolution of, of what's happening in, in their worlds because of who they are and what, what they are doing and, and what that all stands for. So let's see if there was another question or two coming in. Please do send them in. Otherwise I will just get to a couple that more that have come in online before. Do great player coach partnerships and better at the peak or do they usually break under pressure? Good question. We always want to go out at the top, right. I think it's a good way and you have to have good awareness to be able to recognize that, that maybe all good things are coming to an end. And if you're able to catch that moment, which is hard to do because we're all A bit greedy in this world and we all figure out that we can be the one that's able to do the job, you know. But yeah, there's definitely an art to that to be able to just recognize, you know what, this is the sweet spot. We've had this amazing time, this amazing, amazing period together. But actually, you know, maybe it is time to move on from that. So I think that's absolutely, absolutely possible. I think unfortunately in lots of relationships, player, coach, player, parent relationships, it can end based on assumption based communication. So what I mean by that is that people aren't having the honest conversations or people are thinking that the grass is greener on the other side, you know, but by having, if you've got that strong relationship and you're having those conversations, there's going to be natural ebbs and flows in any relationship and having open, honest communication is massively important. But obviously under pressure and under absolute stress that I can't, you can't stress this enough. At the highest end of the game as much as, yes, they're sorted with the money in the bank. There is so much stress and pressure around you on a daily basis from the media, from commercial output, from, from everywhere, you know, from social media, from just like I said turn, you're playing in front of thousands of people and then millions of people on tv. The, the nervous system is absolutely locked in and that, that's tiring, that's hard and that can lead, you know, we all have our arguments with our, our friends, our partners who, when we're tired, you know, and having, and having that awareness of that and that's where I think sometimes under, under pressure it doesn't feel like that's this for me because pre season tends to be the time where the pressure dilutes a little bit and it's like reset, spend time with the family, which is why I keep saying it. I believe that something has happened. I hope, because they're two absolute legends of our game. I hope that it's that thing that did happen was just honest conversations and they decided it's best to move on. But maybe from their statements, I'm not so sure. We have one coming in here from Jermaine. Thank you. Would you be willing to coach Alcaraz and if so, what would you focus on in his game in order for him to improve and be better than sinner in 2026? Wow, what a question. I mean, come on. I, I, I, he's not going to be asking me, I tell you that right now. But you know If I'll play along with that game, but with the understanding that I don't for one minute believe that that's, that's going to be asked of me. Yeah. I mean, what a dream. I think what, what a dream to be working with someone like a Carlos Alcaros. Right. But also what a, what a burden in some ways, you know, because how do you win, how do you win that game? You know, 20, 25, he's, he's gone 70 and eight. He's won, he's won four of the last eight majors. He's 22 years old, won six grand slams. He's got 24 titles. With Juan Carlos, there's going to be these natural comparisons, whoever the next person is that comes in, you know, so first and foremost, yes, because you can't, if you love this sport like I do and you, you had an opportunity to be around, arguably going to be one of the greatest ever, certainly male tennis players in, in our sport, you know, what a privilege, what a delightful young man he is as well. You know, he seems like someone that you want to be around in terms of his game. I think, I think certainly the serve is still a continued area. I believe that his serve is getting better and has got better, but as we heard when we spoke to Tom Corry from, from tennis viz. A few weeks ago, he does have the 67th best serve statistically, you know, in terms of the metrics that they look at. So, so on the, on the two, you know, so, so there's, there's clearly big room for improvement there, you know, in terms of his ability to, to hit his spots consistently, I think he's, I think he's massively developed the, the wide serve on the juice this year. We saw that on the grass courts. He used that incredibly well, his ability to open the court. I think that's, I think that is a, that's a massive area that he, he has developed. We have seen him also. He's coming forward well, obviously he is a good volleyer, but he needs to be. Not needs to be, but, but he can be a better volleyer, you know, in terms of maybe the moments that he picks, but also just being a little bit more clinical. I don't have the data on that. I'd obviously like to, for that to be backed up by data, but my feeling is he could be a little bit more clinical at the net with a player like that. I don't think you're going in and looking to make big technical changes. Right. You know, and it's it's, it's more about, I mentioned it earlier, how can you play a role in maintaining that, that motivation? You know, how does that motivation stay high? You know, some people, you could have that conversation and you could put things in place. Often the superstars, you've probably got to be a little bit clever. You know, if, if I, I don't know if they did it with him last year, but if somebody was going, oh my God, keep on dropping the, the news articles of people saying Janik Sin is going to be world number one this year because he's more consistent than you, Carlos, you know, that you can maybe do that indirectly. You know, so. Or maybe this year the motivation is obviously, if there is been, has been a bit of a nickel by one with him and Juan Carlos, you know, people, poor people are saying that you're not going to have a great year. You know, now that you're not with Juan Carlos, you know, maybe that's, it's finding those little bite points that, that, that are keeping the players absolutely motivated. And then lastly, what I would say is I'd make sure that he takes me with him to Ibiza twice a year. Two. Two times a year. He looks like he has a lot of fun, fun in Ibiza. And I'd. That's where I'd connect with him. That's where we get close out on the boat, diving into, into the Mediterranean, sipping on a, on a cold beer. I think that seems like a, like a good way to build that relationship with Carlos Alcaraz as well. Guys, thank you for, for jumping on. Thank you for, for all the questions. I did say on the last podcast this is going to be the last one before Christmas. We felt it was right to just jump on with this one. We might have a little short actually, coming from Lloyd glasspool. He our 80th guest years ago. Lloyd Glasspool is someone I coach from a very, very young age, obviously. He's finished 20, 25 as world number one doubles player, Wimbledon champion with Julian Cash. An incredible story and we wanted to share a couple of little sound bites from that one. So look out. We might have a little one of our shorts coming out. We're going to try. Me and Vicki are going to try and get to you with a Year End with a Year End podcast as well, pulling out some of our favorites over, over the last 12 months. But there'll also be a little period where a laptop gets shut and maybe don't see a tennis court just for a few days before where we're absolutely bursting at the bit to get back for a brilliant 2026. So hope everyone as well, wherever you are in the world, have a very merry Christmas. If you celebrate it, obviously it's also a time of year where people have lost ones and becomes a difficult period as well. So thinking of everyone, wherever you are, please do, do get in touch as always with the podcast, but until next time, I'm Dan Keenan and we are controller controllables.