The german Tennis Magazine published on  2019, July 01 an exclusive interview, here is the translation of the article.

From a club player to a college player and then to Wimbledon. Dominik Koepfer’s journey is unique and shows that there is not one path, the Royal Path, to the top. In addition it demonstrates that solid a foundation can lead to the big leagues. The biggest tennismagazine in Germany  spoke to Oliver Heuft, who together with Juergen Mueller was responsible for player development training at BW Villingen in Germany for 20 years and trained Dominik Koepfer for a long time.

Mr. Heuft, in his youth at BW Villingen, Dominik was a very versatile athlete who played exclusively club team matches and regional tournaments. When did you realize that a professional career would make sense for Dominik Koepfer?

I'd like to add something: At 16, Dominik was runner-up in the German Nationals, with practically no TE and ITF tournaments experience and his ranking was not great. After graduating from high school, the big change occurred in college. After four years at Tulane University (New Orleans), he successfully completed his studies, was two-time All-American 2015 ITA Indoor Collegiate Champion and number one in the collegiate ranking. It was only after college that he joined the professional tour.

Yes. But we Black Forest people are not very quick to recommend this. We do not agree with the "all or nothing" principle, i.e. to put everything in one basket early on. My view of the job of a development coach is to provide children and young players with choices towards the end of their junior years by providing them with a solid technical and athletic foundation. A high school diploma must always be clearly in focus, parallel to their sports training. Anything else would be irresponsible. Reasonable parents don't want it any different. This is exactly how Dominik Koepfer was trained.

In my opinion, a decision to become a professional player can only be made in a sustainable way if this decision is the natural result of certain development processes and considers information from all the different coaches involved. Our friend and colleague Edgar Giffenig once posted a blog about this topic. The title was: "You do not choose to be a professional player, it chooses you! Jürgen Mueller and myself couldn’t agree more with this statement.

There is a clear connection between explosive bounce and serve speed! If you can jump up 1.14 m like Dominik here, you have advantages when serving - good technique of course. In performance training, technique and condition are often combined (as here in the video) with complex training.

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Something like "I always believed in his special talent", "I knew from the first stroke what he was made of", "I knew he would be great" - nonsense.

Honestly? Dominik was trained by me as well as by many other trainers at the club according to solid DTB (German Tennis Association) training guidelines. I was responsible for the first stage from age 7 to 14, then Juergen Mueller took over. In my opinion, young german players should first grow up in a functioning club system. They need a variety of training stimuli, different training partners, team competitions, other sports and a solid athletic-motor foundation. They should also be integrated into the adult teams at an early age.

The closer the second men's team is to the first in terms of level, the easier the transition. Dominik’s first assignment was with 16 in the second men's team, which played in Villingen at that time in the third division of the German league (Oberliga), directly one division under the first team at the club (Badenliga). That was ideal for him. One year later, at 17, nothing stood in the way of his deployment into the Badenliga.

That depends on how much parents let it happen. This constant individual competition, the fight man against man, seduces parents to slide into a different scheme themselves and to see all other players only as competitors. When I started as a coach in Villingen in 1993, I went on a four-week tournament trip with 25 children for three years in a row. We traveled to 5 big junior events. Five parents with big vehicles were allowed to travelled with us, with one condition: .None of the fathers or mothers were allowed to care for their own child.

This experience was worth its weight in gold, for the parents, the children and for me. Every evening at 10 pm we got together and the parents told us about their experiences with other children until midnight. This team experience shaped me and certainly also influenced the way I managed parents and players from then on. The demands on tennis parents is enormous. I have always involved them in the processes.

Immensly important. Head coach Marc Booras at Tulane definitely turned him into an athlete.

It is quite clear to me that such a huge task as the support of the mass of young tournament players in Germany can only be controlled with clear regulations. And the simplest solution is of course to use the ranking system. The problem is that by doing so, young tennis players are forced into a never ending spiral, having to play many tournaments to improve their ranking.

The rankings are used to determine support. So the players often act against the age recommendations from sports science and when they turn 18 they have so much training and competition on their backs that they can no longer greatly increase their training and competition volume. This is my perception, and certainly not only related to this sport.

A colleague of mine once came up with the idea of a player performance test, which would test certain athletic, motor and tennis-specific factors. Neutral and independent, similar to the well-known FMS (Functional Movement Screen). But in the conversion complex and presumably priceless. But certainly fairer.

What does a ranked position say? The actual playing level? That's the first thing I taught the young players, including Dominik: Don't look at the ranking position, judge your opponent by what he's got right now. If he cannot hit an overhead in the warm up, or even better, doesn't want one at all (often already experienced), then lure him to the net and lob over him. If he has a hard time hitting his Western grip forehand when you slice then play the slice as often as possible. Players who get scared by their opponent's ranking position sometimes don't even notice that their opponent is left-handed. I have experienced this several times.

First and foremost the personal assessment of Marc Booras (head coach of Tulane), the first impression Dominik made when Mark watched him train and also the conversations with his family. Surely it wasn't to Dominik's disadvantage that Edgar and I told Marc that he had a lot of room to improve, had a great affinity for athletics and fitness and is a great team player. The bottom line, however, was that Tulane took quite a risk at the time.

You have to see what's going on in the Villingen WhatsApp groups when he plays. A professional's life can get pretty lonely. Maybe not right now, with all the hustle and bustle around him after making it into Wimbledon’s main draw and with all of the players and coaches from his Saddlebrook team there.

He plays many tournaments alone and has to take care of everything himself: Arrival, hotel, training grounds, training program, hitting partner. I guess it's good for him to always be in touch with the base. And the base is not only the "primeval soup" Villingen, but also the players of Tulane, his Green Wave coach Marc Booras and also his current Saddlebrook team.

He's ready to work right now where it really hurts. Dominik has a hot temper and tends to put himself down, dealing with himself very sarcastically. Ever since he was a kid. My opinion is that one has one's character and cannot deny it under any circumstances - and must not deny it. On the contrary, you have to learn how to handle it properly. One should not bend oneself, must be honest to oneself and direct one's energy correctly. It's going to take professionals who'll take care of it.

What makes me proud - for him, not for me - is the fact that he works with experts on his mental attitude and whoever followed the tournament in Ilkley (grass court challenger before Wimbledon, where the winner gets a wildcard for Wimbledon; ed.) knows what I mean. Staying calm, even in tight situations and even with match point against oneself. And this with a Wimbledon Wild Card at stake - oh man!

For professional athletes? Sure some do, but certainly not all. Most people don't tell you either. To a certain extent, socially competent and emotionally skilled tennis coaches can also do valuable work. But when it comes to the cream of the crop, the top 100, and you as a player know exactly that in tight situations it's about optimizing your performance? It is recklessness not to confide in experts. Dominik has recognized this and acted accordingly.

You never know what will come and how everything will end, but there is one thing I always believe as a coach: You have to try everything to reach your potential. When you look back on your career as a player and realize that you weren't willing to try everything, that is something you will always regret.

Top players are able to train intensively but at the same time with high quality. This sequence at practice in Villingen shows Dominik focussing on tennis specific endurance training in connection with heavy load over "knee jumps".

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