The road to becoming a top coach is long and requires a combination of dedication, hard work, and a love for the sport. It can also be complicated as you're pulled in many different directions. Breaking the journey down into these six areas can help you focus and start the process of achieving your best self.
1/ Pathway
What does becoming a top coach actually mean? That's one of the first things you need to figure out. The pathway you take will depend on your end destination.
Do you want to coach professionals at the ATP or WTA level?
Do you want to coach at a sporting high school or a college?
Is your path to join the national tennis association and coach top juniors?
Or is your aim something a little more niche - like being the best in the field of tennis analytics, tennis biomechanics or fitness?
Whatever your goal is, always keep it in mind. Then tailor the rest of the areas to help you achieve it.
2/ Education and Training
There's no doubt that tennis coaching is more of a trade than an academic pursuit, so the first step is to find work as an assistant coach. This is your apprenticeship.
Depending on what your goal is, you may decide to find work in a tennis academy, for a club coach or as an apprentice to a data analyst.
But you also need to back up this practical apprenticeship with some formal training. This could include:
- obtaining a coaching certification from your national body
- obtaining a certification from another accredited training organisation
- taking courses specific to coaching or areas of tennis.
Online courses are a flexible, low cost, easy way to build up your knowledge. Another advantage of online courses is that they allow you to be quite targeted with your learning.
3/ Experience
This is doing the hard yards. The best coaches spend countless hours coaching on court, reviewing endless amounts of videos of their athletes and opponents, making ‘real time’
coaching decisions, having tough conversations with support staff and athletes, and making multiple mistakes along the way.
All this contributes to their growth, personally and professionally.
Like any good high performing athlete, excellence takes time, commitment and passion.
Once you make the decision to take your craft to a high level you need to be patient, be willing to make mistakes and be prepared to be critiqued heavily from others in your field.
It's a competitive landscape at the top end of sport.
The fact is that 99% of people will never reach the pinnacle in their field and never coach at the highest level. Only the most resilient, consistent and hardest working survive.
You can read more about what it takes to become a successful high-performance coach here.
Gaining experience will also help you to establish your coaching philosophy and
methodology, your values and your standards. So, get out there and coach as many different players and travel as much as you can. Go and see what the best players are doing, what the best coaches are doing and get a blueprint for success from the best.
4/ Mentoring
Think about someone you admire. Perhaps it’s someone who is very successful in their career, their family life, or even socially? In our lives there are dozens of people who have managed to be very successful at what they do, and these people are a wealth of information, as long as we are able to tap into that wealth.
That’s why it's very important to find someone you can learn from, a mentor.
“My belief in life is that success leaves footprints and that the best pave the way for the rest to follow.”
Mentors have a wealth of experience and have generally walked in your shoes many times before. They’ve seen what works and what doesn’t and can give you some lasting advice. They become part of your team lending you both coaching and personal support.
How to choose the right mentor:
1. Mentors need to have had experiences in the area you are trying to achieve in.
2. Mentors need to be honest, good communicators and trustworthy.
3. Mentors are not people who tell you what you want to hear.
4. Mentors inspire and motivate you.
5. Find someone who has different strengths to you.
6. Try and find specialists in their field.
So, ring up the best coaches in the world and see if you can spend time in their organisations. Do it for free. Or pay your way. Spend your own time and hang around. Listen. Get comfortable in their world.
Because when you learn to become comfortable in a successful person’s world - you become successful.
Our coaching excellence course offers you guidance from our experienced team who will take you through the process of developing along the coaching pathway. Check it out here
5/ Professional Development
It's important to continue learning and to stay up to date with the latest techniques and trends in tennis. You can do this by attending coaching clinics, reading coaching books and articles, studying the strategies of other successful coaches and completing targeted training online.
Knowing your strengths, areas for growth and development and most importantly what motivates you will help you to get the most out of your professional development.
Professional bodies in accounting and law require set amounts of continuing professional development to maintain membership. This can be as much as 120 hours over a three-year period. Currently, most tennis bodies don’t require CPD, but this is set to change. Get ahead of the game and invest in your own professional development; we have courses and free content that can help.
6/ Networking
No one becomes great on their own. Networking is an important part of becoming successful.
So, get out and look for opportunities - don't always expect them to come to you. Attend events, work the room. You never know who you will meet, and chance meetings can change your life. It happened to me. (You can read about that here)
Creating partnerships is also part of networking, and the types of partnerships you foster will vary depending on the pathway you choose. But there are many complimentary relationships you can set up. For example:
1/ A partnership with your local tennis shop
2/ Partnerships with health professionals – osteo, physio etc
3/ Gyms and personal trainers
4/ Partnerships with other coaches
These partners may provide sponsorships for individual athletes, teams or events. They also have the added benefit of allowing you to build a holistic team around your athletes.
Becoming a top coach requires a lot of hard work and dedication. It can also be difficult to know where to focus your energy.
Hopefully these six areas can provide a guide to help you navigate the journey more smoothly. Good luck!
By Marc Sophoulis