Date: 3rd november 2024
In my life there were very few people that have helped me really change my DNA as a human being.
Obviously there was my parents, family and so on and so forth.
Outside my family though I think that I can count them on one of my hands.
Two of which were tennis coaches: Julio Pulido and Patrick Minster.
When I got to being Patrick's student I was in a shitty place in my life.
It had been one year since I had this other coach who I won't name and my tennis level had been making declines.
I went from high R5 to almost R6 which is one rank below and by that time it had been two years as an R5.
I was twelve and confused. This coach couldn't tell me one clear thing I had to do to hit a forehand over the net.
It was a death spiral.
My dad who always tries to help saw it from the outside and said:
okay you're done here we have to go look someplace else and lead
me to the man who would become my tennis coach for the next 6 years -1 where I was in the US of A.
Patrick was known as a rough guy who told parents to go to hell and who had unconventional methods
to make kids progress like letting them play against the net before each practice.
There was a certain fear about going there but little did I know we were a perfect match.
I came in with a open, curious and restless mind that sought to understand tennis.
He was a mastermind of tennis and knew how to answer my questions in a way that was rational and physically right.
At the beginning he would ask me questions like where is the ball going to go if your opponent sliced the ball?
--Obviously to the net because it's going to roll down while you hit it.
There are a couple of these effects that work like gravity to the human body but which actually very few tennis coaches really understand.
Anyway we got along like pees and carrots, so I took more lessons.
On Saturdays, I'd take lessons at 8am, so I'd wake up at 6:30 am eat, ride with my bike for 30minutes to the court and be there at 7h30.
Of course, he was already there drinking his coffee ready to go on the court.
He was a giver and still is. He played with me until 9am even though my parents just paid for 1hour of tennis lessons.
He was a giver. He answered all of my questions and I had an unlimited supply of those -stupid and good questions-,
he was patient with me because I have almost no memory he
had to repeat things nonstop until they went in and eventually out again and back in. What a boss.
Low and behold after years of play, hard work and love for the game and each other, I find myself R3 at 15 years old going to the USA where I'll meet my next coach Julio