The hunt for a trainer: Joshua and Raducanu

Although seemingly on two very different trajectories, Emma Raducanu and Anthony Joshua have found themselves in a rather similar plight over the past couple of months: both, for albeit different reasons, are on the difficult hunt for a new coach.

For those of us who are more familiar with team sports, this is a subject that we can usually weigh in on, adding our opinion to the debate on who’s style would best suit a certain club or nation, but in individual sports, the search is different and, arguably, trickier.

To start with, coaches in individual sports are simply not as well known, which means that, for the fan, the search is more dissatisfying and obscure. We know that a certain sportsperson needs a new coach, but they are the only person who knows what they are looking for, and who that coach should be.

In comparison to team sports, the coach needs to fit far more boxes, with the first, and most important, the fact that they need to be tailored to a singular personality, which is often a harder fit than a manager who is often appointed just for their tactics, instead of their personal characteristics.

In this respect, Raducanu and Joshua will both probably need to readjust their expectations, as whoever replaces their former coaches, will find it difficult to find a similar connection to their long-term ex-trainers. Following on from her US Open triumph, Raducanu split with her coach Andrew Richardson, who had coached her for seven years, nurturing her from an 11-year-old into a Grand Slam champion. Similarly, Rob McCracken has coached Anthony Joshua since 2016, leading him, in the five years since he took over, to become heavyweight champion of the world, and possibly one of the best boxers in history. Both had incredible personal connections with their coaches, which perhaps explains their longevity, but are now looking for something more.

Finding an individual coach who you spend most of your waking hours with, is a hugely difficult task

Beyond personal connection, athletes also need someone who is right for them for a certain stage in their career. Raducanu, outlined this when she explained why she had got rid of Richardson: “I need someone who’s had that professional tour experience, and has been through it, and seen players in my situation for many years, going through the same because it’s going to take a lot.” While tough on Richardson, you can understand Raducanu’s reasoning. To use a footballing analogy, you could not see Steve Bruce managing Real Madrid, simply because he does not have the right profile or experience to deal with the pressures of dealing with elite sport and elite personalities. Raducanu has reached a level where she has won one Grand Slam, but she now needs someone to take her to a new plain where she is competing consistently. Andy Murray found that person in Ivan Lendl, who had experienced the strains of top level sport personally. Now Raducanu needs someone similar.

Joshua, however, is at a different stage of his career, and therefore needs a coach with different characteristics. McCracken is a brilliant coach, and has done an unbelievable job in taking Joshua from an amateur to the heavyweight champion. However, Joshua’s problem is that he now needs to stay there. When an athlete has stayed with a certain coach for a prolonged period of time, on occasion that coach becomes their comfort zone, and, to improve further, they need to move away, or, in Joshua’s case, someone to work alongside McCracken.

McCracken is well renowned for keeping things simple, for honing and re-honing certain aspects of a boxer’s game until they reach the very top level. What Joshua needs at this point, however, is to move away from the general, and towards the specific. He was thoroughly out-boxed by Usyk, and would also be by Tyson Fury, and he therefore needs a coach who will focus on the technicalities, to go beyond a glass ceiling that for the moment he seems to find un-breakable. He is already at the top of his sport, but, if he wants to stay there, as the level keeps on improving, he needs something different.

For both Raducanu and Joshua, therefore, there are very few people in the world who fit into these boxes. Not only do they need to be the right coach, and have the right experience, to suit the two athletes at the different stages in their careers, but they also need to click at a personal level.

These specificities explain why it has taken so long for the two to find a new coach, with Joshua still undecided on whether or not he will stick with McCracken, while Raducanu has tried out a variety of coaches, amongst them Johanna Konta’s old mentor. The search will undoubtedly go on for a while yet, as, unlike in team sports, finding an individual coach who you spend most of your waking hours with, is a hugely difficult task.