Oscar Wegner
Encyclopedia
Oscar Wegner is a tennis
coach and pre-open-era tour player, author and creator of Modern Tennis Methodology, a tennis-teaching system which he began developing in 1968. He is Founder and President of Oscar Wegner Enterprises, Inc. and Tennis Kids For Life, Inc. a non-profit corporation. Other projects he has created include The Modern Tennis Methodology Coaches Association, The Oscar Wegner Elite Training Program and The Oscar Wegner Modern Tennis College. He teaches publicly and privately throughout the United States
and internationally, contributes to tennis publications and events, and publishes TennisTeacher.com. He is a USPTA Professional 1, the highest tested rating possible in that organization. Wegner became an American citizen in 2005. He currently resides in Southern California
and is a member of the Coaching Staff at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.
, Argentina
, the son of Dalmira Ofelia Jimenez and Oscar Pablo Wegner, Chief Engineer of Argentinian government oil fields in Comodoro Rivadavia
(YPF) and an initiator of Aero Club Comodoro Rivadavia. He attended the Instituto Euskal-Echea, Liceo Naval Militar Almirante Guillermo Brown and Colegio San Jose. At the age of 12 he learned to sail at the Club Yacimientos de Petroliferos Fiscales, marking the beginning of a lifelong love of the sport. Later he joined the Club Nautico San Isidro, where he continued sailing
, and at age 14 took up tennis, soon becoming the #1 junior player at his club and entering national tournaments. Beginning at 15 years of age and in the next few years he saw Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonzales
, Tony Trabert
, Lew Hoad
and Ken Rosewall
play in Buenos Aires and began to model some of his strokes after theirs. Notable players in Argentina he looked up to at the time were Enrique Morea
and Eduardo Soriano
. Seeing those players travel the world he decided he would try it himself. By the age of 16 he had earned a 100 ton motorsailer vessel pilot's license and was acting as chair umpire for finals of international tournaments in Buenos Aires. After graduating from secondary school
he studied engineering and surveying at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, was drafted into the Argentine Air Force
. He later decided to join the international tennis circuit. He played his first tennis tournament outside Argentina in Asunción, Paraguay in 1961, beginning an enthusiasm for traveling which has continued throughout his life. Wegner made his first trip to Brazil
in 1962 to meet his father's cousin German Frers
who was in the Buenos Aires - Rio sailboat race, which his cousin had won in 1950. In Rio de Janeiro
Wegner practiced tennis with Lucy Maia at Fluminense Football Club
, attended soccer matches and fell in love with the country. He returned on several occasions to enjoy the city, visit friends and play tennis with locals such as Jorge Paulo Lemann
and coach Pepe Aguero at the Country Club of Rio de Janeiro.
he traveled through South America
, the Caribbean
, Europe
, then Africa
, back to Europe, the USA
and back to South America. The challenge of traveling around the world with the small budget of a few hundred dollars of "under the table" expenses paid by the tournaments was very exciting to the young Wegner, and in 5 years he visited over 30 countries and met numerous top players and local personalities. His friendship with top players, including Roy Emerson
and Martin Mulligan, helped him come in contact with tournament directors and receive invitations to participate. He gave tennis lessons and served as a chair umpire to earn extra money along the way. Tales of his adventures playing in tournament
s and hitchhiking
through South America, Europe and Africa were reported in magazines and newspapers during his travels
Wegner represented Argentina in July 1965 at the annual meeting of the ILTF in London
. There he proposed a change of the Davis Cup
Americas Zone rules. Up to that point the Americas Zone rules required that all finals be played within the confines of the North America
n section, forcing all South American teams to travel to the USA, Mexico
or Canada
to compete. The proposal, which was passed by an overwhelming majority and against the wishes of Australia
, the USA and Great Britain
, specified that the finals would be played on alternate home and away locations (a rule which was common to the rest of the world). Beginning in 1966 the finals of the Americas Zone were played under the revised rule, which may have resulted in the USA losing on red clay in Porto Alegre
, Brazil in 1966 and in Guayaquil
, Ecuador
in 1967.
After sustaining a severe hamstring
injury in Curaçao
in March 1967 he was forced to quit the tour. Staying behind while the other players moved on to Caracas
, he later traveled to Mexico City
, the second-to-last stop on the Caribbean circuit, to say goodbye to his friends and colleagues.
and arranged tournaments in the Caribbean and Latin America
for George MacCall, then USA Davis Cup Captain and Owner of the National Tennis League
(NTL), which had 6 players and 2 alternates under contract: Laver, Emerson, Rosewall, Stolle, Gimeno, Gonzales, and Segura and Olmedo. Also during this time Wegner met with another tour player, Mike Davies, Tour Director for Lamar Hunt
's World Championship Tennis
(WCT), which represented The Handsome Eight
and discussed the advantages of both groups playing tournaments together. Hunt would later purchase the NTL from George MacCall.
In 1968 after recovering from his injury Wegner took a position at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club as Assistant Coach to Pancho Segura
. Because Pancho liked Oscar's emerging teaching style he permitted Oscar to coach many of his celebrity clients, including Dinah Shore
's son Jody, Charlton Heston
, Anne Douglas, Barbara Marx, Ava Gardner
, Dean Martin Jr. and the children of Robert Taylor
, Terrance and Tessa. During this period Wegner tested and developed a revolutionary new way of teaching tennis that he would later name Modern Tennis Methodology™.
In the Summer of 1969 Wegner taught at the Westside Tennis Club
, home of the USLTA National Championship (now the US Open) in Forest Hills, NY as Assistant Coach to :fr:Warren Woodcock. Next Wegner moved to Florida
where he worked as Assistant Coach at David Park Tennis Center in Hollywood, Florida
. In 1970 he took the position of Head Tennis Coach for the City of West Palm Beach
. In 1971 he went to Le Club International in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
as Head Pro.
In 1972 Wegner left Florida for Spain
and became Director for Junior Development at Real Club de Tenis de Santander
. The following year he was hired as the Junior Davis
Captain for Spain and one of three National Coaches in Barcelona
for the Escuela Nacional de Tenis at the Real Club de Polo
then the Club de Tenis Andres Gimeno. While there Wegner persuaded the national coaching team including Joaquin Moure that reinforcing open stance and topspin was the best way to develop their juniors into players of international stature. According to Bud Collins
, who met Oscar Wegner in 1973 in Miami Beach
where he was coaching the Spanish Junior boys team in the worldwide Sunshine Cup tournament: "Those kids were hitting extra hard and with plenty of topspin in a way that startled spectators - and me."
In 1974 he left Spain to take the position of Head Pro at the Aventura Country Club in North Miami Beach
. That winter he served as the Tennis Pro at the Marco Polo Hotel
in Palm Beach
. He decided to build his own club, The Tennis Club International in Fort Lauderdale
in 1975. After 3 years he sold his club and for the next 2 years he taught tennis, sailing and windsurfing
at the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, then, in the Winter of 1981 became Director of the Junior Academy at the Laver Racquet Club in Del Ray Beach, where he met Carlos Alves, and Jurgen Fassbender
. In 1982 Alves invited him to Florianópolis
, Brazil where Wegner spent a month working with a group of young players, including Gustavo Kuerten
, then 5 years old, prior to going to Germany
for the summer to coach at the Weiden Tennis Club in Cologne
at Fassbender’s invitation. Fassbender later wrote: "Oscar's techniques are incredible. He was with me in Germany and the students started to call him the ‘American who could teach tennis in two hours’. Over and over, he had total beginners that would rally 40, 60 balls back and forth in just two hours of instruction. He also helped the Weiden Tennis Club have an undefeated junior team that year and to get our main team up to the Bundesliga
." After spending 4 months in Germany Wegner returned to Florida and worked as as Owner and Head Pro of the American Tennis Academy in Sunrise
for the next 3 years.
After the Academy's lease expired in 1985 Wegner went back to Florianopolis to coach at Alves' tennis academy at ASTEL. Living in the Alves home for 10 months Wegner worked daily with 8-year-old Kuerten and other youngsters. For the next 4 years he visited Florianopolis and Itajaí
often, coaching Kuerten and many other players including Marcio Carlsson, Maria Fernanda Alves
and Rita Cruz Lima at ASTEL and Itamirim Clube de Campo. He also helped them with their games during their visits to US tournaments including the Orange Bowl
for the next several years, with the exception of Guga, who started working with Larri Passos
from 1990 onwards.
Wegner self-published his first book "Tennis In 2 Hours" in December 1989. Of its contents Martin Mulligan wrote: "This book is incredible! It describes to a "T" what I felt when I was at the top of my game. It is amazing that Oscar made it so simple to learn." During the Sunshine Cup, Wegner gave a copy of his new book "Tennis In 2 Hours" to Russian team captain Anatoly Lepyoshin, personally signed with the quote: "To the Russian Tennis Federation, with my best wishes, Oscar Wegner". The following year Bud Collins traveled to Moscow
for the first Kremlin Cup
and was asked by Russian coaches for more copies of Oscar Wegner's book.
In the Fall of 1990 he returned to Boca Raton
private-coaching players including Vince Spadea
and his sisters Luanne and Diana at St. Andrews School, where Luanne is currently on the Alumni Association Board of Directors (he had previously coached them at the Laver Racquet Club when they first started playing, instructing their parents on how to coach them with his techniques). In January of that year Wegner coached Bjorn Borg
for a month at The Colony and the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy
in Sarasota
and Bradenton, Florida
. Of the experience Borg wrote: "Oscar is a great coach. He help me regain my strokes and my feel for the ball.".
After seeing Wegner's methodology at work in person with four of his own children ranging from 16 to 30 plus a 7-year-old granddaughter, Bud Collins was convinced of its efficacy and consented to write the foreword to the second edition of Wegners' book (released at Lipton Tennis Championships
in Key Biscayne, Florida
March 1992), commenting: "I think you'll find it worthwhile to dump the past and join Oscar in your tennis future. In listening to him I've unlearned a few things myself that I long considered gospel." In 1993 and 1994 Wegner worked for the Greater Miami Tennis Patron Foundation under Donna Floyd Fales in conjunction with City government and the Miami Police Department
in the inner city area of Overtown, establishing a successful tennis program in the elementary schools and parks. He worked as Tennis Pro at the Newfield Bath and Tennis Club in Stamford, Connecticut
during the Summer of 1993.
, Florida
and Pennsylvania
were shown nationally on Prime Network
and aired in Florida on Sunshine Sports Network
. During this time Venus and Serena Williams
had moved from Compton, California
to Florida where they trained under the supervision of their father Richard at the Macci Tennis Academy, then left Macci's to train exclusively with their father thereafter, achieving tremendous success, from singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles to reaching #3 and #4 in the world by the end of 1999. Mike Daley introduced Wegner to Richard Williams during a satellite tournament at the Patricio Apey Tennis Academy in the Miami Airport Marriott in January 1999, and according to Oscar: "He greeted me with a great smile and said 'Oscar, it is an honor to meet you. I used to watch your show. Your techniques made so much sense that I taped them and had my girls watch them every day'.". A decade later in a BBC interview highlighting her newly released book "Serena Williams My Life Queen Of The Court" Serena said of her father: "he taught us this new innovative game that had really never been seen before." Biography.com reports that "With their signature style and play, Venus and Serena changed the look of their sport."
From April 1994 to December 1999 Wegner, who speaks 5 languages, worked for ESPN International
as a tennis commentator in Spanish for Davis Cup, ATP
and WTA
tournaments including the Australian Open and the French Open
, and in 2000 he joined the :es:Panamerican Sports Network doing ATP and WTA tournaments including Wimbledon. Through these broadcasts Wegner became well known throughout South America. Also contributing to Wegner's worldwide recognition were 40 "Play Like The Pros With Oscar Wegner" Tennis Tips, instructional vignettes both in English and in Spanish, which were broadcast by ESPN International from June 1997 through September 1999 several times daily in more than 150 countries around the world, including airings during the Super Bowl
, NBA Finals
, Stanley Cup Finals
and US Open Golf Tournaments, generating over two billion impressions on television worldwide.
In 1992 segments of the Tennis Television shows were compiled into videotape
s, which became available for purchase. In 1997 Wegner acquired the rights to the videos and initiated a website in order to sell the videos and introduce his tennis methodology to the public. He also made tips and articles as well as the second edition of his book available free of charge on the site. Over the past 14 years Wegner’s website has had millions of visits.
In 2005 Wegner published the third edition of his book and a new video, produced for the first time in DVD
format. He has subsequently produced 5 more DVDs and offers the 5 original videos as "classic" DVDs.
In 2007 Wegner formed his own coaching organization, which currently has over 200 members worldwide.
: "The game of tennis is one great circle that never quite closes. Progress will not allow a complete return to the old style...the ground stroke game was the style of the past, just as it will be the style of the future; but the modern method of making ground strokes is a very different thing from the one used by the old-time stars.".
Oscar Wegner recognized early on in his coaching career that the way tennis was traditionally taught bore little resemblance to the way the pros played. Thanks to his keen eye and experience on the tour he was able to distinguish between the "modern" method as Tilden referred to it and the traditional techniques and so-called conventional wisdom of tennis instruction, and set out to devise a more effective approach. His system of teaching tennis is based on the premise that players at every age and ability level can and should use the same basic techniques employed by the top players in the game, hence his motto "Play Like The Pros". The system is based on allowing the player to use instinct and natural movement together with fundamental techniques that emulate the best strokes of the all-time great players in tennis. These fundamentals include an emphasis on open stance, highly developed hand-eye coordination, impeccable timing characterized by waiting rather than early preparation of the stroke, and absence of self-conscious emphasis on footwork. The simplicity of the method is summed in the phrase "Find, Feel, Finish".
Many of today's tennis teaching professionals, combining elements from the past with the term "modern tennis", mirror techniques which conform in part with the basic principles of Wegner's methodology. Some remain critical of Wegner's techniques, others have modified their viewpoints and still others now openly advocate his original tenets. A 2004 USPTA bulletin to tennis teaching professionals warned: “There is an undeniable thread between professional tennis and recreational tennis, and the most important link between the two is you, the tennis-teaching professional. You bridge the gap between the shots
and techniques of the competitive player and recreational players of all levels. That’s why tennis teachers must know how to teach shots like the swing volley and open-stance, loaded groundstrokes and several other shots that characterize modern tennis and why we’ve spent the past 15 months creating the USPTA Player Development Program.”. In a presentation at the 2008 USPTA World Conference Nick Bollettieri
admitted that after over 30 years of teaching the closed stance he now advocates the open stance, a mainstay of Wegner's method for over 40 years. In the 2008 Quickstart tennis practice and play plans manual the forehand is illustrated with an open stance and finish over the shoulder and advises that “coaches who work with young players at the start of their tennis careers will recognize the importance of starting them off well and with success”, while the 2009 USTA Quickstart teaching manual for parents and recreational coaches illustrates the forehand with a traditional closed-stance position with the racket finish toward the target. In a 2010 article for Tennis Magazine Rick Macci listed verbatim as the biggest myths of tennis instruction three of the "common tennis misconceptions" from Wegner's 1989 book. Chronological age and publication dates of other practitioners of modern tennis coaching techniques will indicate where on the timeline they relate to Wegner's methodology.
Wegner has written several articles for TennisOne, a leading tennis instructional site since 1996 "founded on the dream of bringing the best teaching pros around the world to everyone". In an introduction to one of his articles the editors of TennisOne wrote: "A lot has been written about the modern forehand with its natural movements, open stance, windshield-wiper swing, and most importantly, tracking the ball and waiting before taking the racquet back. Much of this has been pioneered by Oscar Wegner, who has been teaching this method since 1968. Back then, this was very controversial, however, history has proved him right." Although a 1991 review of his book "Tennis In 2 Hours" in Tennis magazine stated that Wegner: "advocates an outdated brand of tennis that over-relies on topspin" top players such as Tilden, Kramer, Laver, Borg, Lendl, Bruguera, Kuerten, Muster, Sabatini, Sanchez-Vicario and Nadal demonstrate the timelessness and efficacy of huge topspin throughout the history of the sport.
In a 1992 episode of his TV series Tennis Television With Brad Holbrook, the host referred to Oscar Wegner as "The Father Of Modern Tennis", initiating a reference that has been widely used and debated over the years, particularly in the past decade. Holbrook, who was largely responsible for launching Wegner’s career in the USA, is himself an avid tennis player and fan. Wegner denies that he "invented" modern tennis: "I didn't discover something new. It's the way the top players play. If you go back 60 years there are some players that were already playing this way.".
In a more amusing vein Wegner has been compared to the little boy who sees through the folly of convention in Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale: "YET even today tennis associations and coaching organisations still insist on wearing The Emperor's New Clothes
and ignore Oscars advice. Just look at the British LTA who spend millions on trying to find the magic formula when it’s sitting right under their noses ...."
David Bailey tennis footwork and fitness coach at Sydney Academy Tennis and creator of The Bailey Method, summarizes Oscar Wegner's Modern Tennis Methodology as follows: "Oscar's teachings make a lot of sense especially because the ideas are based on years of research and careful observation of how the modern day professionals hit the ball"
Referencing Wegner's influence on Russian tennis "Leading Russian Coach Tatiana Matokhniyuk, who mentored Nadia Petrova
and Marcus Baghdatis as juniors said of Oscar's system, 'You won't find beginners improve this quickly with any other method. It is the only way to teach at all levels. It's how we do it in Russia; surely everyone teaches this way'."
According to Andy Rosenberg, longtime Director for NBC Sports including Wimbledon and the French Open: "Oscar has broken the mold in understanding the modern tennis stroke. In working with him and watching super slo-motion sequences of the top pros, I have seen the genius of Oscar's analysis of their dynamics and technique. He has translated that into effective teaching methodology that is easy and fun to learn from." Of Wegner Guga Kuerten wrote: "This book is another great contribution to tennis that Oscar is giving us. Known and respected all around the world, Oscar has worked many years teaching techniques and coaching and has helped the development of tennis in Brazil."
Wegner considers his greatest accomplishment the dissemination of his tennis teaching technology to coaches over the past 40 years. In addition to hundreds of tennis teaching professionals, high school coaches and parents certified in his methodology numerous coaches worldwide have been influenced by Wegner including Angel Jimenez, Lorenzo Fargas, Carlos Alves, Richard Williams, Chan Srichaphan, Jasenko Palos, Scott Gilmore, Sheri Slobin, David Glackin, Tia Hall, Bob Ruzanic and Vincent Spadea Sr. Ron Waite, certified USPTR tennis instructor who has successfully coached several NCAA Division III teams, has trained with many of the game's leading instructors (including Wegner), and writes the "Turbo Tennis" column on tennisserver.com, refers often to Wegner's methodology saying: "Oscar is a most unconventional tennis teacher. Some doubt his methods and insights, but I would beg to differ. In many ways, I believe Oscar was the "forerunner" with respect to the modern game. His "unorthodox" doctrine has made him an outcast of sorts. But, his devotees will certainly support that he knows what he is doing. I am one. His unorthodox methods and techniques have in major measure become a new orthodoxy!".
During his introduction of Wegner at the 2011 USPTA Nor Cal Annual Convention Dick Gould remarked: "Sometimes you listen to things a little different from what you've done before and Oscar and I go back a number of years...get to know him a little bit...to talk to him. He is not afraid to test the barriers a little bit, he is not afraid to say, hey, you don't quite do it like this and to look at how the players are really really playing...the mark of a good teacher is someone who listens and evolves with the game and leads that evolution and you have that guy here today. First time I saw this my mouth dropped, my jaw dropped open, I go holy criminy! The more I thought about it, the more I watched these guys play, I watch these guys and that is exactly what he is talking about."
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
coach and pre-open-era tour player, author and creator of Modern Tennis Methodology, a tennis-teaching system which he began developing in 1968. He is Founder and President of Oscar Wegner Enterprises, Inc. and Tennis Kids For Life, Inc. a non-profit corporation. Other projects he has created include The Modern Tennis Methodology Coaches Association, The Oscar Wegner Elite Training Program and The Oscar Wegner Modern Tennis College. He teaches publicly and privately throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and internationally, contributes to tennis publications and events, and publishes TennisTeacher.com. He is a USPTA Professional 1, the highest tested rating possible in that organization. Wegner became an American citizen in 2005. He currently resides in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
and is a member of the Coaching Staff at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.
Early life
Oscar Wegner was born and raised in Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, the son of Dalmira Ofelia Jimenez and Oscar Pablo Wegner, Chief Engineer of Argentinian government oil fields in Comodoro Rivadavia
Comodoro Rivadavia
Comodoro Rivadavia is a city in the Patagonian province of Chubut in southern Argentina, located on the San Jorge Gulf, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, at the foot of the Chenque Hill. Comodoro Rivadavia is the most important city of the San Jorge Basin....
(YPF) and an initiator of Aero Club Comodoro Rivadavia. He attended the Instituto Euskal-Echea, Liceo Naval Militar Almirante Guillermo Brown and Colegio San Jose. At the age of 12 he learned to sail at the Club Yacimientos de Petroliferos Fiscales, marking the beginning of a lifelong love of the sport. Later he joined the Club Nautico San Isidro, where he continued sailing
Sailing
Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...
, and at age 14 took up tennis, soon becoming the #1 junior player at his club and entering national tournaments. Beginning at 15 years of age and in the next few years he saw Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonzales
Pancho Gonzales
Ricardo Alonso González , generally known as Richard "Pancho" Gonzales was an American tennis player. He was the world no. 1 professional tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s...
, Tony Trabert
Tony Trabert
Marion Anthony Trabert is a retired American tennis champion and long-time tennis author, TV commentator, instructor, and motivational speaker...
, Lew Hoad
Lew Hoad
Lewis Alan Hoad was a champion tennis player....
and Ken Rosewall
Ken Rosewall
Kenneth Robert Rosewall AM MBE is a former world top-ranking amateur and professional tennis player from Australia. He won 23 Majors including eight Grand Slam singles titles and before the Open Era a record fifteen Pro Slam titles . Rosewall won 9 slams in doubles with a career double grand slam...
play in Buenos Aires and began to model some of his strokes after theirs. Notable players in Argentina he looked up to at the time were Enrique Morea
Enrique Morea
Enrique Morea was an Argentine tennis player.Morea won the mixed doubles title of the 1960 French Championships. He also won two gold medals at the inaugural men's tennis competition at the 1951 Pan American Games.Morea is the current president of the Asociación Argentina de Tenis .-References:...
and Eduardo Soriano
Eduardo Soriano
Eduardo Soriano is a former tennis player from Argentina.Soriano played the Davis Cup representing his country along the 1950s and the 1960s. He played a total of 32 matches and his best match is considered the five-set match in the 1966 Davis Cup when Roberto Aubone and himself won top players...
. Seeing those players travel the world he decided he would try it himself. By the age of 16 he had earned a 100 ton motorsailer vessel pilot's license and was acting as chair umpire for finals of international tournaments in Buenos Aires. After graduating from secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
he studied engineering and surveying at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, was drafted into the Argentine Air Force
Argentine Air Force
The Argentine Air Force is the national aviation branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic. , it had 14,606 military and 6,854 civilian staff.-History:...
. He later decided to join the international tennis circuit. He played his first tennis tournament outside Argentina in Asunción, Paraguay in 1961, beginning an enthusiasm for traveling which has continued throughout his life. Wegner made his first trip to Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
in 1962 to meet his father's cousin German Frers
German Frers
Germán Frers is a naval architect renowned for designing successful racing yachts. He designed his first yacht in 1958. There is a design team consisting of Germán Frers and his son, also named Germán Frers, supported by a team of engineers, architects and designers, some of whom have been with...
who was in the Buenos Aires - Rio sailboat race, which his cousin had won in 1950. In Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
Wegner practiced tennis with Lucy Maia at Fluminense Football Club
Fluminense Football Club
Fluminense Football Club is a sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Founded in the beginning of the 20th century as a single-sport institution, Fluminense is today an umbrella organization for several teams in more than 16 different sport activities. The most popular endeavor of Fluminense,...
, attended soccer matches and fell in love with the country. He returned on several occasions to enjoy the city, visit friends and play tennis with locals such as Jorge Paulo Lemann
Jorge Paulo Lemann
Jorge Paulo Lemann is the third wealthiest individual in Brazil. He is ranked as the 55th richest person in the world by Forbes, with an estimated net worth of as of September 2011.-Biography:...
and coach Pepe Aguero at the Country Club of Rio de Janeiro.
Touring career
Oscar Wegner played on the international tennis circuit from 1963-67. After completing his military serviceMilitary service
Military service, in its simplest sense, is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, whether as a chosen job or as a result of an involuntary draft . Some nations require a specific amount of military service from every citizen...
he traveled through South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, then Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, back to Europe, the USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and back to South America. The challenge of traveling around the world with the small budget of a few hundred dollars of "under the table" expenses paid by the tournaments was very exciting to the young Wegner, and in 5 years he visited over 30 countries and met numerous top players and local personalities. His friendship with top players, including Roy Emerson
Roy Emerson
Roy Stanley Emerson is an Australian former tennis player who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and 16 Grand Slam men's doubles titles. He is the only male player to have won singles and doubles titles at all four Grand Slam tournaments. His 28 Grand Slam titles are an all-time record for a male...
and Martin Mulligan, helped him come in contact with tournament directors and receive invitations to participate. He gave tennis lessons and served as a chair umpire to earn extra money along the way. Tales of his adventures playing in tournament
Tournament
A tournament is a competition involving a relatively large number of competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:...
s and hitchhiking
Hitchhiking
Hitchhiking is a means of transportation that is gained by asking people, usually strangers, for a ride in their automobile or other road vehicle to travel a distance that may either be short or long...
through South America, Europe and Africa were reported in magazines and newspapers during his travels
Wegner represented Argentina in July 1965 at the annual meeting of the ILTF in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. There he proposed a change of the Davis Cup
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...
Americas Zone rules. Up to that point the Americas Zone rules required that all finals be played within the confines of the North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n section, forcing all South American teams to travel to the USA, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
or Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to compete. The proposal, which was passed by an overwhelming majority and against the wishes of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, the USA and Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, specified that the finals would be played on alternate home and away locations (a rule which was common to the rest of the world). Beginning in 1966 the finals of the Americas Zone were played under the revised rule, which may have resulted in the USA losing on red clay in Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
, Brazil in 1966 and in Guayaquil
Guayaquil
Guayaquil , officially Santiago de Guayaquil , is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador,with about 2.3 million inhabitants in the city and nearly 3.1 million in the metropolitan area, as well as that nation's main port...
, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
in 1967.
After sustaining a severe hamstring
Hamstring
In human anatomy, the hamstring refers to any one of the three posterior thigh muscles, or to the tendons that make up the borders of the space behind the knee. In modern anatomical contexts, however, they usually refer to the posterior thigh muscles, or the tendons of the semitendinosus, the...
injury in Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
in March 1967 he was forced to quit the tour. Staying behind while the other players moved on to Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, he later traveled to Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, the second-to-last stop on the Caribbean circuit, to say goodbye to his friends and colleagues.
Coaching career
After leaving the tour in 1967 Wegner traveled to Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and arranged tournaments in the Caribbean and Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
for George MacCall, then USA Davis Cup Captain and Owner of the National Tennis League
National Tennis League
There are "National Tennis Leagues" in many countries but this article is about the US National Tennis League.-History:The National Tennis League was formed by George McCall in 1967, as a governing body to a US Professional tennis tour...
(NTL), which had 6 players and 2 alternates under contract: Laver, Emerson, Rosewall, Stolle, Gimeno, Gonzales, and Segura and Olmedo. Also during this time Wegner met with another tour player, Mike Davies, Tour Director for Lamar Hunt
Lamar Hunt
Lamar Hunt was an American sportsman and promoter of American football, soccer, basketball, and ice hockey in the United States and an inductee into three sports' halls of fame. He was one of the founders of the American Football League and Major League Soccer , as well as MLS predecessor the...
's World Championship Tennis
World Championship Tennis
World Championship Tennis was a tour for professional male tennis players established in 1968 and lasted until the emergence of the ATP Tour in 1990...
(WCT), which represented The Handsome Eight
Handsome Eight
The Handsome Eight were eight professional tennis players that Lamar Hunt signed in 1968 for his newly formed tour, World Championship Tennis...
and discussed the advantages of both groups playing tournaments together. Hunt would later purchase the NTL from George MacCall.
In 1968 after recovering from his injury Wegner took a position at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club as Assistant Coach to Pancho Segura
Pancho Segura
Pancho Segura, born Francisco Olegario Segura , was a leading tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, both as an amateur and as a professional. In 1950 and 1952, as a professional, he was the World Co-No. 1 player...
. Because Pancho liked Oscar's emerging teaching style he permitted Oscar to coach many of his celebrity clients, including Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore was an American singer, actress, and television personality...
's son Jody, Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
, Anne Douglas, Barbara Marx, Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
, Dean Martin Jr. and the children of Robert Taylor
Robert Taylor (actor)
Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor...
, Terrance and Tessa. During this period Wegner tested and developed a revolutionary new way of teaching tennis that he would later name Modern Tennis Methodology™.
In the Summer of 1969 Wegner taught at the Westside Tennis Club
Westside Tennis Club
The Westside Tennis Club is a private tennis club located in Houston, Texas. It was the former home to the ATP Tour U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships. Gallery Furniture Stadium, located on the club's premises, is the home of the Houston Wranglers of World TeamTennis...
, home of the USLTA National Championship (now the US Open) in Forest Hills, NY as Assistant Coach to :fr:Warren Woodcock. Next Wegner moved to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
where he worked as Assistant Coach at David Park Tennis Center in Hollywood, Florida
Hollywood, Florida
-Demographics:As of 2000, there were 59,673 households out of which 24.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.5% were married couples living together, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.2% were non-families. 34.4% of all households were made up of...
. In 1970 he took the position of Head Tennis Coach for the City of West Palm Beach
West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach, is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and is the most populous city in and county seat of Palm Beach County, the third most populous county in Florida with a 2010 population of 1,320,134. The city is also the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida...
. In 1971 he went to Le Club International in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
as Head Pro.
In 1972 Wegner left Florida for Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and became Director for Junior Development at Real Club de Tenis de Santander
Real Club de Tenis Barcelona
The Real Club de Tenis Barcelona 1899 is a private tennis club in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The facility has 18 clay courts, including a stadium court with a capacity of 7,200 and show court for 2,000 spectators. Since moving to its current location in the northwest of the city in 1953, the...
. The following year he was hired as the Junior Davis
Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup
Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup is the international team event in junior tennis.The senior's equivalent of the Junior Davis and Fed Cup is the Davis Cup and Fed Cup.- Junior Davis Cup :*1985: Australia*1986: Australia*1987: Australia...
Captain for Spain and one of three National Coaches in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
for the Escuela Nacional de Tenis at the Real Club de Polo
Real Club de Polo de Barcelona
The Real Club de Polo de Barcelona is a sports venue located in Barcelona. Established in 1897, it has 9000 members at the time of the 1992 Summer Olympics...
then the Club de Tenis Andres Gimeno. While there Wegner persuaded the national coaching team including Joaquin Moure that reinforcing open stance and topspin was the best way to develop their juniors into players of international stature. According to Bud Collins
Bud Collins
-External links:*** 2001 interview with Collins*...
, who met Oscar Wegner in 1973 in Miami Beach
Miami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter which separates the Beach from Miami city proper...
where he was coaching the Spanish Junior boys team in the worldwide Sunshine Cup tournament: "Those kids were hitting extra hard and with plenty of topspin in a way that startled spectators - and me."
In 1974 he left Spain to take the position of Head Pro at the Aventura Country Club in North Miami Beach
North Miami Beach, Florida
North Miami Beach is a Miami suburban city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. Originally named Fulford in 1926 after Captain William H. Fulford of the United States Coast Guard, the city was incorporated in 1927 as Fulford, but was renamed North Miami Beach in 1931. The population was...
. That winter he served as the Tennis Pro at the Marco Polo Hotel
Marco Polo Hotels Group
Marco Polo Hotels Group is a hotel chain group based in Hong Kong. It operates hotels in the Asia-Pacific region including Hong Kong, Mainland China and the Philippines. Its hotels in Hong Kong are all located in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wharf Limited...
in Palm Beach
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...
. He decided to build his own club, The Tennis Club International in Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
in 1975. After 3 years he sold his club and for the next 2 years he taught tennis, sailing and windsurfing
Windsurfing
Windsurfing or sailboarding is a surface water sport that combines elements of surfing and sailing. It consists of a board usually two to four metres long, powered by the orthogonal effect of the wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and comprises a...
at the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, then, in the Winter of 1981 became Director of the Junior Academy at the Laver Racquet Club in Del Ray Beach, where he met Carlos Alves, and Jurgen Fassbender
Jürgen Fassbender
Jürgen Fassbender is a retired professional tennis player for West Germany.Fassbender won one singles and sixteen doubles titles on the ATP Tour. His best Grand Slam result was reaching the quarterfinals at the 1973 Wimbledon Championships.-Singles :...
. In 1982 Alves invited him to Florianópolis
Florianópolis
-Climate:Florianópolis experiences a warm humid subtropical climate, falling just short of a true tropical climate. The seasons of the year are distinct, with a well-defined summer and winter, and characteristic weather for autumn and spring. Frost is infrequent, but occurs occasionally in the winter...
, Brazil where Wegner spent a month working with a group of young players, including Gustavo Kuerten
Gustavo Kuerten
Gustavo Kuerten is a retired former World No. 1 tennis player from Brazil. He won the French Open three times between 1997 and 2001, and was the Tennis Masters Cup champion in 2000...
, then 5 years old, prior to going to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
for the summer to coach at the Weiden Tennis Club in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
at Fassbender’s invitation. Fassbender later wrote: "Oscar's techniques are incredible. He was with me in Germany and the students started to call him the ‘American who could teach tennis in two hours’. Over and over, he had total beginners that would rally 40, 60 balls back and forth in just two hours of instruction. He also helped the Weiden Tennis Club have an undefeated junior team that year and to get our main team up to the Bundesliga
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga is the name for the premier league of any sport in Germany or Austria...
." After spending 4 months in Germany Wegner returned to Florida and worked as as Owner and Head Pro of the American Tennis Academy in Sunrise
Sunrise, Florida
-Overview:Sunrise is a city in southwestern Broward County, Florida, United States. It was incorporated in 1961 by Norman Johnson – a developer whose World Famous Upside-Down House attracted buyers to what was then a remote area...
for the next 3 years.
After the Academy's lease expired in 1985 Wegner went back to Florianopolis to coach at Alves' tennis academy at ASTEL. Living in the Alves home for 10 months Wegner worked daily with 8-year-old Kuerten and other youngsters. For the next 4 years he visited Florianopolis and Itajaí
Itajaí
Itajaí is a Brazilian city in the state of Santa Catarina.-History:The city was founded on June 15, 1860, but the colonization of Itajaí started in 1658, when the Paulista João Dias D’Arzão arrived in the region. In 1750, Portuguese colonists coming from Madeira and the Azores made this region...
often, coaching Kuerten and many other players including Marcio Carlsson, Maria Fernanda Alves
Maria Fernanda Alves
Maria Fernanda Barbato Alves , also known as Nanda Alves, is a Brazilian tennis player. She is currently coached by her father Carlos and former World No. 4 male tennis player Thomaz Koch. As of 1 March 2010, Alves is ranked World No. 262, and is the highest ranked Brazilian player...
and Rita Cruz Lima at ASTEL and Itamirim Clube de Campo. He also helped them with their games during their visits to US tournaments including the Orange Bowl
Orange Bowl (tennis)
The Orange Bowl is an annual college football bowl game. Orange Bowl may also refer to:* Miami Orange Bowl, a demolished stadium formerly in Miami, Florida* One of two tennis tournaments, one for juniors and the other for youth...
for the next several years, with the exception of Guga, who started working with Larri Passos
Larri Passos
Larri Passos is a Brazilian tennis coach most recognized for being coach of the tennis player Gustavo Kuerten. Larri had started to play tennis in Novo Hamburgo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. However, since he was teenager, he showed that he had more ability as a coach...
from 1990 onwards.
Wegner self-published his first book "Tennis In 2 Hours" in December 1989. Of its contents Martin Mulligan wrote: "This book is incredible! It describes to a "T" what I felt when I was at the top of my game. It is amazing that Oscar made it so simple to learn." During the Sunshine Cup, Wegner gave a copy of his new book "Tennis In 2 Hours" to Russian team captain Anatoly Lepyoshin, personally signed with the quote: "To the Russian Tennis Federation, with my best wishes, Oscar Wegner". The following year Bud Collins traveled to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
for the first Kremlin Cup
Kremlin Cup
The Kremlin Cup is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It is currently part of the ATP World Tour 250 series of the ATP Tour and is a Premier Tournament on the WTA Tour...
and was asked by Russian coaches for more copies of Oscar Wegner's book.
In the Fall of 1990 he returned to Boca Raton
Boca Raton, Florida
Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA, incorporated in May 1925. In the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 74,764; the 2006 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 86,396. However, the majority of the people under the postal address of Boca Raton, about...
private-coaching players including Vince Spadea
Vince Spadea
Vincent Spadea [SPAY-dee-ya] is an ATP Tour professional tennis player from the United States. He is one of only four players in history to defeat Roger Federer 6–0 in set, at a major event....
and his sisters Luanne and Diana at St. Andrews School, where Luanne is currently on the Alumni Association Board of Directors (he had previously coached them at the Laver Racquet Club when they first started playing, instructing their parents on how to coach them with his techniques). In January of that year Wegner coached Bjorn Borg
Björn Borg
Björn Rune Borg is a former world no. 1 tennis player from Sweden. Between 1974 and 1981 he won 11 Grand Slam singles titles. He won five consecutive Wimbledon singles titles and six French Open singles titles...
for a month at The Colony and the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy
Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy
The Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy is located in Bradenton, Florida, and was founded in 1978 by Nick Bollettieri as a full-time tennis boarding school that combines intensive tennis training with an academic curriculum....
in Sarasota
Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota is a city located in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. It is south of the Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers...
and Bradenton, Florida
Bradenton, Florida
Bradenton is a city in Manatee County, Florida, United States. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's 2007 population to be 53,471. Bradenton is the largest Principal City of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2007 estimated population of 682,833...
. Of the experience Borg wrote: "Oscar is a great coach. He help me regain my strokes and my feel for the ball.".
After seeing Wegner's methodology at work in person with four of his own children ranging from 16 to 30 plus a 7-year-old granddaughter, Bud Collins was convinced of its efficacy and consented to write the foreword to the second edition of Wegners' book (released at Lipton Tennis Championships
Miami Masters
The Miami Masters is an annual tennis tournament for men and women held in Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida. It is an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event on the men's tour and a Premier Mandatory event on the women's tour and is played on hard courts at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park...
in Key Biscayne, Florida
Key Biscayne, Florida
Key Biscayne is a village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States on the island of Key Biscayne. The population was 10,507 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 10,324....
March 1992), commenting: "I think you'll find it worthwhile to dump the past and join Oscar in your tennis future. In listening to him I've unlearned a few things myself that I long considered gospel." In 1993 and 1994 Wegner worked for the Greater Miami Tennis Patron Foundation under Donna Floyd Fales in conjunction with City government and the Miami Police Department
Miami Police Department
The Miami Police Department or MPD, often referred to as the City of Miami Police, is the chief police department of the U.S. city of Miami, Florida. Their jurisdiction lies within the actual city limits of Miami, but have mutual aid agreements with neighboring police departments. The current...
in the inner city area of Overtown, establishing a successful tennis program in the elementary schools and parks. He worked as Tennis Pro at the Newfield Bath and Tennis Club in Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
during the Summer of 1993.
TV, Sportscasting and Other Media
From November 1991 through October 1995 Wegner was featured on the instructional segment of The New Tennis Magazine Show (renamed "Tennis Television With Brad Holbrook" in 1993), exposing the differences between conventional tennis teaching methods and his own. The segments, shot in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
were shown nationally on Prime Network
Prime Network
The Prime Network was a group of regional sports networks owned by Liberty Media that served several regionalized areas that was in operation between 1983 and late-1997. While Liberty owned many of these stations, some were affiliates and owned by other companies...
and aired in Florida on Sunshine Sports Network
Sun Sports
Sun Sports is a Florida sports broadcasting network, with its headquarters in Orlando. Launched in 1988 as Sunshine Network, the station is now affiliated with virtually every cable company throughout the state of Florida and can be picked up by some satellite providers around the United...
. During this time Venus and Serena Williams
Williams sisters
The Williams sisters are two professional American tennis players: Venus Williams born 1980, seven-time Grand Slam title winner , and Serena Williams born 1981, thirteen-time Grand Slam title winner , both of whom were coached from an early age by their father Richard Williams...
had moved from Compton, California
Compton, California
Compton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city of Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county and on May 11, 1888, was the eighth city to incorporate. The city is considered part of the South side by residents of Los...
to Florida where they trained under the supervision of their father Richard at the Macci Tennis Academy, then left Macci's to train exclusively with their father thereafter, achieving tremendous success, from singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles to reaching #3 and #4 in the world by the end of 1999. Mike Daley introduced Wegner to Richard Williams during a satellite tournament at the Patricio Apey Tennis Academy in the Miami Airport Marriott in January 1999, and according to Oscar: "He greeted me with a great smile and said 'Oscar, it is an honor to meet you. I used to watch your show. Your techniques made so much sense that I taped them and had my girls watch them every day'.". A decade later in a BBC interview highlighting her newly released book "Serena Williams My Life Queen Of The Court" Serena said of her father: "he taught us this new innovative game that had really never been seen before." Biography.com reports that "With their signature style and play, Venus and Serena changed the look of their sport."
From April 1994 to December 1999 Wegner, who speaks 5 languages, worked for ESPN International
ESPN International
ESPN International is a family of networks around the world. It was begun in 1989 and is operated by ESPN. It consists of:Asia: *ESPN SEA*ESPN SEA 2*ESPN China*ESPN Hong Kong*ESPN India*ESPN Malaysia...
as a tennis commentator in Spanish for Davis Cup, ATP
Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the...
and WTA
Women's Tennis Association
The Women's Tennis Association , founded in 1973 by Billie Jean King, is the principal organizing body of Women's Professional Tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women. Its counterpart organization in the men's professional game is the Association of...
tournaments including the Australian Open and the French Open
French Open (tennis)
The French Open |Roland Garros]]) is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between late May and early June in Paris, France, at the Stade Roland Garros. It is the premier clay court tennis tournament in the world and the second of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments – the other three are...
, and in 2000 he joined the :es:Panamerican Sports Network doing ATP and WTA tournaments including Wimbledon. Through these broadcasts Wegner became well known throughout South America. Also contributing to Wegner's worldwide recognition were 40 "Play Like The Pros With Oscar Wegner" Tennis Tips, instructional vignettes both in English and in Spanish, which were broadcast by ESPN International from June 1997 through September 1999 several times daily in more than 150 countries around the world, including airings during the Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
, NBA Finals
NBA Finals
The NBA Finals is the championship series of the National Basketball Association . The series was named the NBA World Championship Series until 1986....
, Stanley Cup Finals
Stanley Cup Finals
The Stanley Cup Finals is the championship series to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, emblematic of the professional club championship of ice hockey. Although the Cup itself has existed since 1893, an annual championship series between professional teams was not established until 1913...
and US Open Golf Tournaments, generating over two billion impressions on television worldwide.
In 1992 segments of the Tennis Television shows were compiled into videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
s, which became available for purchase. In 1997 Wegner acquired the rights to the videos and initiated a website in order to sell the videos and introduce his tennis methodology to the public. He also made tips and articles as well as the second edition of his book available free of charge on the site. Over the past 14 years Wegner’s website has had millions of visits.
In 2005 Wegner published the third edition of his book and a new video, produced for the first time in DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
format. He has subsequently produced 5 more DVDs and offers the 5 original videos as "classic" DVDs.
In 2007 Wegner formed his own coaching organization, which currently has over 200 members worldwide.
Coaching System
According to Bill TildenBill Tilden
William Tatem Tilden II , nicknamed "Big Bill," is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. An American tennis player who was the World No. 1 player for seven years, he won 14 Majors including ten Grand Slams and four Pro Slams. Bill Tilden dominated the world of...
: "The game of tennis is one great circle that never quite closes. Progress will not allow a complete return to the old style...the ground stroke game was the style of the past, just as it will be the style of the future; but the modern method of making ground strokes is a very different thing from the one used by the old-time stars.".
Oscar Wegner recognized early on in his coaching career that the way tennis was traditionally taught bore little resemblance to the way the pros played. Thanks to his keen eye and experience on the tour he was able to distinguish between the "modern" method as Tilden referred to it and the traditional techniques and so-called conventional wisdom of tennis instruction, and set out to devise a more effective approach. His system of teaching tennis is based on the premise that players at every age and ability level can and should use the same basic techniques employed by the top players in the game, hence his motto "Play Like The Pros". The system is based on allowing the player to use instinct and natural movement together with fundamental techniques that emulate the best strokes of the all-time great players in tennis. These fundamentals include an emphasis on open stance, highly developed hand-eye coordination, impeccable timing characterized by waiting rather than early preparation of the stroke, and absence of self-conscious emphasis on footwork. The simplicity of the method is summed in the phrase "Find, Feel, Finish".
Many of today's tennis teaching professionals, combining elements from the past with the term "modern tennis", mirror techniques which conform in part with the basic principles of Wegner's methodology. Some remain critical of Wegner's techniques, others have modified their viewpoints and still others now openly advocate his original tenets. A 2004 USPTA bulletin to tennis teaching professionals warned: “There is an undeniable thread between professional tennis and recreational tennis, and the most important link between the two is you, the tennis-teaching professional. You bridge the gap between the shots
and techniques of the competitive player and recreational players of all levels. That’s why tennis teachers must know how to teach shots like the swing volley and open-stance, loaded groundstrokes and several other shots that characterize modern tennis and why we’ve spent the past 15 months creating the USPTA Player Development Program.”. In a presentation at the 2008 USPTA World Conference Nick Bollettieri
Nick Bollettieri
Nicholas James Bollettieri is an American tennis coach who is credited with developing many world-class champions, including Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, and Mary Pierce. Recently, he has worked with 2006 U.S. Open champion Maria Sharapova, Jelena Janković, Nicole Vaidišová and Sabine...
admitted that after over 30 years of teaching the closed stance he now advocates the open stance, a mainstay of Wegner's method for over 40 years. In the 2008 Quickstart tennis practice and play plans manual the forehand is illustrated with an open stance and finish over the shoulder and advises that “coaches who work with young players at the start of their tennis careers will recognize the importance of starting them off well and with success”, while the 2009 USTA Quickstart teaching manual for parents and recreational coaches illustrates the forehand with a traditional closed-stance position with the racket finish toward the target. In a 2010 article for Tennis Magazine Rick Macci listed verbatim as the biggest myths of tennis instruction three of the "common tennis misconceptions" from Wegner's 1989 book. Chronological age and publication dates of other practitioners of modern tennis coaching techniques will indicate where on the timeline they relate to Wegner's methodology.
Wegner has written several articles for TennisOne, a leading tennis instructional site since 1996 "founded on the dream of bringing the best teaching pros around the world to everyone". In an introduction to one of his articles the editors of TennisOne wrote: "A lot has been written about the modern forehand with its natural movements, open stance, windshield-wiper swing, and most importantly, tracking the ball and waiting before taking the racquet back. Much of this has been pioneered by Oscar Wegner, who has been teaching this method since 1968. Back then, this was very controversial, however, history has proved him right." Although a 1991 review of his book "Tennis In 2 Hours" in Tennis magazine stated that Wegner: "advocates an outdated brand of tennis that over-relies on topspin" top players such as Tilden, Kramer, Laver, Borg, Lendl, Bruguera, Kuerten, Muster, Sabatini, Sanchez-Vicario and Nadal demonstrate the timelessness and efficacy of huge topspin throughout the history of the sport.
In a 1992 episode of his TV series Tennis Television With Brad Holbrook, the host referred to Oscar Wegner as "The Father Of Modern Tennis", initiating a reference that has been widely used and debated over the years, particularly in the past decade. Holbrook, who was largely responsible for launching Wegner’s career in the USA, is himself an avid tennis player and fan. Wegner denies that he "invented" modern tennis: "I didn't discover something new. It's the way the top players play. If you go back 60 years there are some players that were already playing this way.".
In a more amusing vein Wegner has been compared to the little boy who sees through the folly of convention in Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale: "YET even today tennis associations and coaching organisations still insist on wearing The Emperor's New Clothes
The Emperor's New Clothes
"The Emperor's New Clothes" is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent...
and ignore Oscars advice. Just look at the British LTA who spend millions on trying to find the magic formula when it’s sitting right under their noses ...."
David Bailey tennis footwork and fitness coach at Sydney Academy Tennis and creator of The Bailey Method, summarizes Oscar Wegner's Modern Tennis Methodology as follows: "Oscar's teachings make a lot of sense especially because the ideas are based on years of research and careful observation of how the modern day professionals hit the ball"
Referencing Wegner's influence on Russian tennis "Leading Russian Coach Tatiana Matokhniyuk, who mentored Nadia Petrova
Nadia Petrova
Nadezhda Viktorovna Petrova is a Russian professional tennis player.Overall, she has won 28 WTA Titles, ten in singles and eighteen in doubles. In singles, Petrova has reached a career high ranking of World No. 3 in May 2006 and has reached the semi-finals of the French Open in 2003 and 2005...
and Marcus Baghdatis as juniors said of Oscar's system, 'You won't find beginners improve this quickly with any other method. It is the only way to teach at all levels. It's how we do it in Russia; surely everyone teaches this way'."
According to Andy Rosenberg, longtime Director for NBC Sports including Wimbledon and the French Open: "Oscar has broken the mold in understanding the modern tennis stroke. In working with him and watching super slo-motion sequences of the top pros, I have seen the genius of Oscar's analysis of their dynamics and technique. He has translated that into effective teaching methodology that is easy and fun to learn from." Of Wegner Guga Kuerten wrote: "This book is another great contribution to tennis that Oscar is giving us. Known and respected all around the world, Oscar has worked many years teaching techniques and coaching and has helped the development of tennis in Brazil."
Wegner considers his greatest accomplishment the dissemination of his tennis teaching technology to coaches over the past 40 years. In addition to hundreds of tennis teaching professionals, high school coaches and parents certified in his methodology numerous coaches worldwide have been influenced by Wegner including Angel Jimenez, Lorenzo Fargas, Carlos Alves, Richard Williams, Chan Srichaphan, Jasenko Palos, Scott Gilmore, Sheri Slobin, David Glackin, Tia Hall, Bob Ruzanic and Vincent Spadea Sr. Ron Waite, certified USPTR tennis instructor who has successfully coached several NCAA Division III teams, has trained with many of the game's leading instructors (including Wegner), and writes the "Turbo Tennis" column on tennisserver.com, refers often to Wegner's methodology saying: "Oscar is a most unconventional tennis teacher. Some doubt his methods and insights, but I would beg to differ. In many ways, I believe Oscar was the "forerunner" with respect to the modern game. His "unorthodox" doctrine has made him an outcast of sorts. But, his devotees will certainly support that he knows what he is doing. I am one. His unorthodox methods and techniques have in major measure become a new orthodoxy!".
During his introduction of Wegner at the 2011 USPTA Nor Cal Annual Convention Dick Gould remarked: "Sometimes you listen to things a little different from what you've done before and Oscar and I go back a number of years...get to know him a little bit...to talk to him. He is not afraid to test the barriers a little bit, he is not afraid to say, hey, you don't quite do it like this and to look at how the players are really really playing...the mark of a good teacher is someone who listens and evolves with the game and leads that evolution and you have that guy here today. First time I saw this my mouth dropped, my jaw dropped open, I go holy criminy! The more I thought about it, the more I watched these guys play, I watch these guys and that is exactly what he is talking about."