Tribute to Vic Braden (1929-2014 / USA) – tennis educator to the world

Vic Braden, former American top 10 player, licensed psychologist and life-long tennis educator must be considered as one of the biggest tennis promoters of the 70’s and as a man who ushered the modern sports sciences into tennis, Alpine skiing and some other sports. The findings of his research proved many tennis myths wrong and created the base for modern tennis teaching. He served as a catalyst to many tennis scientists and famous tennis coaches and his books and videos inspired millions of players and thousands of tennis coaches around the world. Without selfless Vic, tennis would have been in a different place today. It was my enormous honor and privilege to have Vic as one of my mentors. The photos here are from Vic’s last big presentation during the 2012 USPTA World Conference on Tennis in Monterrey, CA / USA. Here he talked about the importance of the upper-arm being streamlined against the target during the follow-through. As we have both worked on similar concepts (in my case elbow position during the follow-through), it was my enormous pleasure to get the confirmation from Vic as his 3D-data from the matches during the tournaments in Indian Wells, where he was conducting big part of his research as of late, were always hard to beat. The confirmation from the side of Vic then greatly supported my developmental work on the TENNIS 3.0 benchmark.

Vic Braden – legend of tennis teaching and research in action – 2012 USPTA World Conference on Tennis – Monterrey, CA / USA

Vic Braden – legend of tennis teaching and research in action

Vic Braden – legend of tennis teaching and research in action

Vic Braden – legend of tennis teaching and research in action at the 2012 USPTA World Conference on Tennis in Monterrey, CA / USA

Vic Braden – legend of tennis teaching and research in action

It was an honor and privilege to have Vic as one of my mentors since the 90’s – 2012 USPTA World Conference on Tennis – Monterrey, CA / USA

Allen Fox (USA) & Vic Braden (USA) – Former competitors and fellow psychologists, coaches and authors – with a great amount of tennis knowledge among them – 2012 USPTA World Conference on Tennis – Monterrey, CA / USA

Copyright 2012 (photos), 2016 (text) by Dr. Martin G. Baroch