Darren Cahill says on-court coaching makes for compelling television, but asserts it must be expanded to truly help players.
Cahill is a master motivator who has coached three players—Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt and Simona Halep—to the world No. 1 ranking.
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The ESPN analyst says on-court coaching engages viewers because it pulls back the curtain on coach-player conversations.
"I think it's good for television," Cahill told the media in Cincinnati. "It's good for people sitting in the living room. It's basically what we do on the practice court when your players are playing practice matches is that between points or it could be a couple of games, we just talk about things."
Cahill said the current rule of one-coaching visit-per-set is inadequate because it only gives coaches about 60 seconds to talk tactics and limits their opportunity to reinforce the message with a follow-up visit.
"I think with the WTA, if you're going to do on-court coaching, I would actually like to see more of it, not just once a set, because I think there is, to be really effective," Cahill said. "The problem with the once-a-set is normally the player will call you out when things are going badly.
"As we said before, emotions can play a part as well. Sometimes the message is going in this ear and out the other one, because all the player wants to do is complain. But if you know the coach can come out more often, then it's a more relaxed conversation.
"You're not trying to get all this information out in 60 seconds. It's tough to retain a lot of that information, but if she knows she can call me out every four games and we can talk about how those last four games went and have a more relaxed conversation about how things are going, then I think you'd get some more technical stuff. So if you're going to do it, I would like to see it more often."
Cahill, who shook off one of Halep's requests for a coaching consultation during the Montreal final on Sunday, said his goal is to help Halep problem-solve on her own so she eventually doesn't need a coaching visit.
"I do think there are big benefits for [on-court coaching], but as you say, in the Grand Slams, it's really important the players problem-solve for themselves," Cahill said. "I think the last couple of years I have done it less and less with Simona for that very reason, and she's getting a lot better at it, as well.
"She knows exactly what I'm going to tell her most of the time, because she understands the game incredibly well, but I think she likes to hear it from me just to reinforce the message. Sometimes good, because she can go out there and execute; sometimes bad, because she can use me to blame me if it's not working."
Sometimes, a player calls out the coach to combat the loneliness of competition.
"The mind of a tennis player is really complicated," Cahill said. "We have all been through it because it's a lonely sport. You're stuck out there one player on one player and you've got nobody to talk to. You've got 10,000 people looking down at you. You can feel pretty lonely at times."
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