Coaches are the most critical member of a player’s team. Nothing would be possible without a coach, from developing new strategies to improving techniques. Naomi Osaka is one player who has improved immensely with the help of coaches. She has trained with many famous coaches who saw great potential in her. One of her ex-coaches, Jermaine Jenkins, talked about his experience of training in Osaka.

Along with Jenkins, the former hitting partner of Venus Williams, Osaka has been coached by Serena Williams‘ ex-hitting partner, Sascha Bajin. With Bajin, Osaka was able to win two grand slams, one against his former student, Serena Williams.

Naomi Osaka’s old coach on his experience

On the Baseline Intelligence with Jonathan Stokke podcast, Jermaine Jenkins talked about his time spent coaching several players. One of his favorite players to teach was Naomi Osaka. The two were together for a brief stint in 2019. At that time, Jenkins had understood a great deal about the player. 

He shared his thoughts about his time with the Japanese player on the podcast. As it was his first coaching role, he said that, above all, Osaka’s work ethic was the most impressive part about her. 

“It was scary, you know, it was really scary. In all transparency, it was my first official coach role, you know, coaching a pro player, and, you know, I think at the end of the day, it was a great learning experience as well. So many positives to bring from that, you know, Naomi at the time was like, wow, her work ethic.”

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He further said that she focused more on fitness than any other aspect. She would spend many hours maintaining her fitness and fewer hours practicing tennis. 

“Most of her confidence comes from her fitness, and so I just remember spending about four hours out of the day working on fitness and maybe, like, an hour and a half of tennis, you know. So it really taught me, you really have to find out what makes each player tick because you know each player is so different.” 

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Naomi Osaka is on a hiatus at the moment. Her coach, when she comes back, will have the same experiences as Bajin, Jenkins, and others. They would have to adjust to the level of the former number 1.