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

New Delhi: 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.

Bloxham cited the example of the legendary Leander Paes, who at the age of 40 is still winning Grand Slams.

"You need to be creative and a good example is Leander still playing and playing so well because he has the craft. He changes the pace and mixes the game.

"The young players can't understand how they can't break Leander's serve because he hits one with spin, one with hard, hits a deep volley then a drop volley... one slice, so my recommendation for Indian players is to develop your natural skill," he said.

Bloxham emphasised his point by saying that how good Indian cricketers are playing artistic shots and it should be followed in tennis too.

"Indian kids have good timing and nice hands, you are a skill nation. Your cricket shots are unbelievable, the English (players') shots are a little more wooden. So your nation should look to develop that skill rather than making players hit hard, hard and hard. It should be one hard, one slice, one quick and one on net.

"You can't bowl like Australians, who are 6'2''... 6'4''. Same in tennis. You need to do something different. Guys can use the net to big advantage. Now it takes four hours before they stop the match. How hard you play those guys. Become specialists. You got to have different style and it should match your body shape.

"If you have an Indian player who is 6'5 and heavy, then don't play like that. Then you play aggressive," he concluded.