Wimbledon winner Pat Cash is thinking line and length with his new pupil

Pat Cash has been sending video footage of former Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson to Qiang Wang as he works to improve the serve of the women who beat Serena Williams in Melbourne last year.

Qiang Wang has benefited from coach Pat Cash thinking outside the square.

Almost six years after Mitchell Johnson bowled his last bouncer for Australia, the quick is being used as an unlikely inspiration in a sport he once dreamt of dominating.

Chinese player Qiang Wang was understandably perplexed when her new coach Pat Cash recently sent her a footage of the left-arm bowler to analyse.

According to the Wimbledon champion, Qiang’s first response was; “What is this sport?”

It is not clear what she made of Johnson’s handlebar moustache, nor the all whites of Test cricket.

But her next question, as to why the Wimbledon champion wanted her to assess Johnson’s bowling technique, is understandable. But it also prompted a surprising answer and an insight into Cash’s coaching methods.

Cash, who has spent the past few days on the court with the 28-year-old, said a player could improve their serve a lot by incorporating aspects of a bowler’s action into their motion.

When teaching beginners, it is not uncommon for a coach to tell their pupils to practice a throwing motion given its similarities with the latter stages of a service technique.

Effectively, the racquet arm is cocked at the “trophy position”, while the other hand is pointed at the top of the ball toss midway through the swing.

But Cash believes that the point from the delivery stride to unleashing the cricket ball provides a perspective that can add power and pace to a serve.

He said the rotation of the torso, the momentum in the motion and the drive to deliver the ball at full stretch had similarities to the service technique.

“I have been sending videos of Mitchell Johnson bowling to her and told her that I want her serve to be more like his action. He had a fantastic technique and the power he got was incredible,” Cash told The Weekend Australian.

“Mitchell Johnson was a very good junior tennis player and allegedly had a rocket of a serve. So did Shane Warne, who was a top junior.

“Bowling has far more to do with a serve than throwing does. It is no surprise that most Australian players serve well, because they would have been playing cricket as kids, that sort of stuff.”

Not long after his retirement, Johnson spoke of his love of tennis and said he was looking forward to having more time to spend on court.

“I had idols like Pete Sampras and Stefan Edberg. I remember when I was quite young watching Edberg play, although I wasn’t a serve-volleyer,” he told cricket.com.au

“I used to love watching Pete Sampras, the single-handed backhand and his serve and I wanted to go to Wimbledon.

“I made a goal that I wanted to get there by the age of 18, but cricket was always a passion as well, always playing in the backyard and played it at school and eventually played club cricket and really enjoyed that as well.”

For all his experience as a player, coach and media analyst in tennis, Cash has found his latest partnership with Qiang both riveting and a challenge for several reasons.

ATP tournament director and former WTA executive Peter Johnston paired Cash with Qiang late last year.

She had been looking for a new coach after the death of Australian Peter McNamara late in 2019.

But with Cash living in London and experiencing a strict lockdown, he was unable to train with the world No 34 in person, with their initial work over a couple of months done via video conferencing.

He would then send footage of Qiang training to a biomechanist based in Toowoomba who he worked with as a player.

This has become far more common in the COVID-19 era.

Craig Tyzzer, who coaches world No 1 Ash Barty, would watch practise sessions of the Roland Garros champion training in Brisbane via a streaming service while he was locked down in Melbourne.

The pair would exchange notes via text messages whenever Barty took a break during each session.

Dani Vallverdu, who coaches former Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka, focused more on finding a balance with his star client.

He would check in daily to monitor how motivated the Swiss star was, but also to make sure that Wawrinka was not overtraining as he awaited for the circuit to resume.

An obvious issue for Cash is the language barrier between the pair, with a translator on hand to decipher more complex instructions.

When The Weekend Australian caught up with the 55-year-old, Cash said he was whiling away the time in quarantine playing the guitar and learning some Chinese.

But the dual-Australian Open finalist has been pleasantly surprised to find little has been lost in translation in terms of the technique changes he is trying to make with his charge.

If anything, the Davis Cup star has been blown away by how swiftly Qiang has picked up the adjustments.

“I have never had an athlete like this. She is able to analyse things and pick things up so quickly, it is a joke,” he said.

“She would send me back a video a few days after I asked her to do something and it would be fixed. I could not believe it.

“It was something I thought might take six months to get right, yet she was able to fix it almost immediately.

“I am absolutely thrilled. She is a lovely girl. It has been really interesting and it is quite exciting.”