Annacone hits a similar theme. Loading up a player with metrics and data can “suffocate” his or her instincts, which is never a good thing. “In individual sports, players have innate skills and with too much data they’re just not going to feel it, or get that instinctive sense of, ‘This is going to happen,’ or, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’”
He cited a time when his protege Pete Sampras, in a Wimbledon final with his career rival Andre Agassi, unexpectedly began to hit second serves fully seven mph faster than in previous matches. After Sampras won, Annacone asked him why he made that strategic choice.
“Because it was Andre,” Sampras said, demonstrating yet again his instinct for doing the right thing—sans analytics.
Now that analytics are so influential, it pays to remember that their message should be delivered carefully. Boynton liked to “frame it up” a certain way for his player: “Hey, look, if you can’t get a feel, or some tell, about what your opponent’s doing to bother you, here’s a tendency. Don’t make it non-negotiable. You want the player to make the judgement and the final decision.”
Sometimes, though, even that is of little help. As Arias said, “When you watch [Jannik} Sinner, and he’s hitting every ball a billion miles an hour into the corner, you know that you’re in trouble regardless of what the stats say.”
