#27: Christian Groh – The Rise of Fritz & The Return of Haas

In this episode you are going to listen to Christian Groh, Christian was an ATP ranked player himself & then went directly into coaching after pulling the plug as a player. Christian has worked with the likes of Michael Berrer & Bradley Klahn & was the Coach who guided Taylor Fritz to the US Open Junior title & the number 1 spot in the junior rankings. Christian is currently the coach of German Veteran Tommy Haas & has been so since 2012. In this episode you’ll get to know: – The steps Christian & Taylor Fritz worked on in order to successfully transition from a great junior into a professional senior player – How the coaching relation with Tommy Hass came about despite the fact that Haas is actually older than Christian. – The fine line between being self-confident & having to big of an ego Christian is based in San Diego, Rancho Santa Fe where it is possible to play outdoors all year. Make sure to say hi to Christian on Social & tell him what parts of the interview you liked! Enjoy the show! Timestamps 01:30 How Christian started working with Tommy Haas 03:05 How it works for a coach while a player is injuried 04:43 Christians considerations before starting to work with Tommy 06:06 Being younger than your player 07:15 What Haas would say about Christian 08:15 How to balance the on & off court life on tour 09:29 How Christian nurtures his mind when on the tour 10:09 The difference in working with Haas & Fritz 12:03 What made Fritz decide to fully focus on tennis 13:44 The steps that lead Fritz into the top 100 15:03 The off-court transiton steps for Fritz into the top 100 16:25 Taylor Fritz’s biggest room for improvement 17:18 How Fritz being married will affect his career 18:26 It’s really not that glamorous 20:37 The biggest challenges when traveling on tour 22:36 How to go about communicating with your boss who also happens to be the player you are working with 24:15 No regrets 25:37 Being surrounded by the best athletes in the world 26:27 Persistence 28:06 Stress tolerance 30:26 Integrity 33:27 How Christian gets better as a coach 36:02 The value of time 37:08 The way Haas practices 38:30 How to deal with fiery guys 38:23 How Christian would go about training Haas if he had been 14 years old 41:23 How the level has changed 42:11 Ego vs self confidence 44:58 Christian’s advice