I try to pay as little attention as possible to people who are not part of my team. What counts for me is what my father says, because he is my coach. I listen to my brother and my fitness coach. I don't care about anyone else.
Of course, on the road with me, I've got my coach, my own private physiotherapist. Back home, I have another coach who coaches me and also does all my racquets. I have a fitness trainer. I have a mental coach. It's a pretty big team.
If a man can coach a female, why can't a female coach a male? When I was looking for a coach, the gender of the coach never occurred to me. It was about who I thought was good and who I could get along with and listen to.
As a coach you need to choose the characteristics your players can contribute. I don't think it's a good thing for a coach to analyse his team by looking for something he sees in other teams. He has to pay close attention to the characteristics his team have, and make the most of those.
A coach - any coach, not just a national team coach - should try to be exemplary. And a national team manager even more so.
I try to come in, try to defend, help on defense, play as hard as possible and do whatever my coach and my teammates tell me and try to listen and get better.
There is no way that me or anyone else could be like Coach Bryant. I think it would be ridiculous for anyone to try.
I coach at Rutgers University and help out there as a part-time assistant coach. I feel like the coach is kind of in me, and it would also be great exposure, so I'd be down for it, for sure.
There's different types of coaches in life. I don't have to be a coach on the basketball court. I can be a coach for businesses. I can be a coach for kids. I can be a coach for people who have gone through adversity, because everyone has had some type of damn accident in some form or capacity.
Coach isn't the one playing. The players do that. The coach can only help with planning so if the team loses, I don't think the coach is not as accountable as we hold him as a nation.
I remember when I went to try out for the Olympic team in 1972, Coach Iba told me he didn't care how many points I could score because if I couldn't guard anybody, I wasn't going to make the team. I knew to make the team I had to become a better defender. If you can play offense, you can defend. It just comes down to competitive will.
Becoming a coach has to be in your blood. There are hundreds and thousands of former athletes out there, but there are maybe only 10 people who want to dedicate their lives by taking on a job as a coach. Not only a master, a coach should also be a brother or sister to his apprentices.
When the lads see that the coach loves football and believes in what he says - he'd really prefer to be playing with the team - that creates a sense of enthusiasm among the players and trust in the coach. They notice that you're one of them.
I won't coach this team next year if he is still here. He won't listen to anyone. I've had it with this kid.
I don't go in there thinking about my family, friends, girlfriend, or my daughter. I want to prove to my coach that I'm the best. I don't care about anyone else.
When I see these kids 6 years old with a private coach, and at 7, they have a fitness coach, I'm like, 'Aw, come on.' At 12, it's for sure they will lose all the interest in tennis because they do not interact with other kids.
I think one of the things about being a good coach is to recognise when you have given all that you can. In fact there should be some sort of unspoken law that says that a coach cannot have anyone for three or four years - if you have not passed on most of the stuff you know in that time, then you are not doing a good job.