Gabor Boczonadi - Associate Tennis Professional

Gabor ("Boci") grew up in Budapest, Hungary where he started to play tennis at the age of four and earned the No.3 national junior ranking and played for the Hungarian National Junior Team throughout his teenage years. While representing his country internationally, he reached the semifinals in the European Team Championship and quarterfinals in the World Team Championship. In doing so, he competed with many current top players in the world, including Roger Federer and Marat Saffin. In the men’s category, Boci’s reached the #16 national ranking in singles and played finals in the Men's National Doubles Championship. After playing years of Professional League Tennis in Hungary and then Germany (where he worked as the Head-Pro for TC Neustadt) he started his college career at Anderson College in South Carolina in 2002, where he played #1 singles and maintained a #18 national ranking in Div II. While playing for Anderson, Boci received several awards including "Freshman of the Year" (NCAA East Region, 2003), "Player of the Year" (CVAC Conference 2004), All Conference Team Member (CVAC Conference 2004) and MVP for two consecutive years (Anderson College 2003-2004). Then, in 2003, Boci took up the chance to transfer to Hawaii Pacific University (then ranked No. 1 in the Nation in Div II), where he played #3 singles in his first year and #1 singles and #2 doubles in his second year. While attending HPU, he completed his Bachelors Degree in Business Administration with a major in International Business. Boci has been teaching tennis in Hungary, Germany and the U.S. since 1999.

 

Windward Tennis Academy

Dear Windward Members and Parents,

First of all, let me grab the opportunity to introduce myself to you in this open forum as part of my first article for the WLC website. My name is Gabor Boczonadi, but please feel free to call me Boci (pronounced as Botzi) as all my friends have since I was a kid. I am the new tennis pro here at Windward, and I am really excited about the opportunity to work at such an excellent tennis club and to be a part of such a professional teaching staff – I look forward to working with you and/or your child. On this same website, you can read a little bit about me and about my tennis/coaching background under the staff bios. However, if you have any questions, please feel free to talk to me anytime at the club, as I would like to personally meet every individual of the "Windward family".

As part of my first article for the WLC website, I would like to share some of my first impressions of my first two weeks of work at the club. I have been asked by the management to write about my opinion on the Junior Programs and the Academies and to give a little feedback as a professional while I can still be "outside-looking in". They’ve also asked me to evaluate the overall strengths and weaknesses of the Windward kids as players on the court. In my understanding, Windward has the best junior development program in the Atlanta area (which is part of the reason I joined the staff). This title of achievement reflects in numerous ways through the overall approach, atmosphere and teaching methods I have witnessed during academies and practices so far. Like everything else at the club, the academies and practice sessions are very structured and organized and the work ethic of the staff seems to reflect on the players’ work ethics and mentalities as well.

The first thing that occurred to me while I was still just observing the academy sessions, which is very surprising in contrast to other academies, is that all the kids seem to be very well behaved and disciplined on the court and were very respectful of their coaches. All of the young players stay quiet during the coaches’ instructions and seem ready to execute those instructions once they step foot on the court. This good behavior and discipline not only makes practices more organized, but also makes the time spent on the court much more effective. Such focus and motivation is always expected out of all players, regardless of age or skill-level, which is very much in-line with Windward's "Building Winners-On and Off the Court" mantra.

The other very attractive factor in these sessions is the fact that coaches do not ever seem to let players and kids get away with playing with false techniques and do a great job of correcting such techniques immediately. Playing with the right technique is also expected from and emphasized on all playing levels, and should be rigorously exercised not just during drills and match play, but during "game-time" and warm-ups as well. This is a key factor to successful play, and is especially important for players on and below the advanced level, where shots are not yet comfortably set and game styles are still evolving. I was also pleased to see that conditioning and footwork are also a significant part of each session as such drills bear key importance in developing not only speed and endurance, but also balance and overall body movement. For me, this aspect was great to see, especially since it is often ignored at other clubs within the academy/drill-type setting.

For my first article, I was also asked to point out some of the things that I would like to see generally improve in the games and practice styles of Windward players. This isn't necessarily in comparison to other academies, but more on a general level in order to be able to help our kids reach their full potential and become the best players they can possibly be. First of all, I would have to say that even though our kids here at Windward are exceptionally disciplined, I would like to see some more intensity and "fire" during games and match play, regardless of academy and/or skill level. At times, it seems to me that the kids do not get too excited about match-play and competitive, game-like drills, which is surprising to me since I’ve always been a naturally competitive individual. Obviously, we are by no means encouraging kids to be mean to each-other; but self encouragement and occasional fist-pumping is definitely okay to boost your confidence and attitude. Frankly, if you do not compete during practices, how do you expect to compete and put up a full-hearted fight during tournament matches? Also, on the higher academy and home-school levels, I feel there is a definite need to focus on point construction and point development, as a lot of the players I worked with the past two weeks don’t seem to play quite patient enough and appear to rush points. We need to learn how to use our shots to progress the points in a favorable way for us and to properly judge shot selection to maximize effectiveness on the court during match-play.

I wish to continue working along these lines, and I am very excited about the opportunity to work with all the kids at Windward both in and outside of the academy setting. I know that by being a part of this great program, we are going to elevate your child’s game beyond the next level and make Windward's Junior Program even better. I believe we can earn not only southern but nation wide recognition for our players and our program.

See you on the court!
Boci