How to be a tennis coach - learn to be a tennis coach and not a trainer

You’re here as you have a dream and you would want to know how to be a tennis coach. Anyone who knows the basics of tennis could go ahead and teach someone to play; but, will that be called coaching? – I guess not. Below are the three main characteristics of a successful coach and in particular a tennis coach:

• You cannot call yourself a coach unless you have the abilities to point out the faults of the people you train and help them improvise rather than just complain and let them down.
• A coach is one who does his best to help the player improve even on his best skills as there’s always scope for improvement no matter what you do and how good you are at it.
• Lastly, a coach is a person who understands that not everyone is perfect in all aspects of a single sport – people have drawbacks and no matter what you do, you can’t improve on them; however, instead of stabbing them with harsh words you could help them improve the skills they’re already good at and teach them to use those skills to overcome any drawbacks caused due to their failure in another skill.

Tennis is a demanding sport and you would have to push your students to the limit but don’t overburden them or try pushing them too far as everyone’s got a limit.

Before you actually make up your mind and put all your might into becoming a tennis coach you would need to make sure that you know all the basic rules of the game. You don’t need to be an expert player to bring out the best from your students. However, you would definitely need to know the basics of the game so that you understand the challenges faced by the students you coach.

As already mentioned to be a tennis coach you would need to possess the three qualities mentioned above and not the skill of an expert player. So, don’t let bad tennis skills let you down.

Coaching tennis is one of the best hobbies and at times a profession, as it helps you pass on your expertise to others and helps them become the best. You could start small by coaching a family member, your neighborhood school or college team and as you get recognized for your skills even get a job as a national tennis coach. Unless you try you would never know, so go ahead and give it a shot as you may have it in you to be a tennis coach.

Now that you’ve made up your mind to coach students you would have to find someone willing to learn under you. Firstly, talk to your student and learn about their strengths and weakness about the game. If they don’t know the basic rules and are complete beginners you would have to familiarize them with the rules and only then get started. If you’re trying to teach people already familiar with the game you wouldn’t have to spend time on the basics and instead focus on improving their skills.

You’ve already asked your students about the things they know. They may have said their good at serving and backhands and can spin the ball well. However, who are they comparing themselves against when they say they’re good? They may be comparing themselves with their friends instead with actual pros. Consider a case where everyone in the team is a beginner and there’s just one experienced player who isn’t that good in the sport. But, when compared to the rest of the team he is a champion – this could happen and needs to be avoided. Therefore, test them in their top skills and it will help you get an overall picture of the person’s capabilities. If there are many players there are huge chances of them being at different levels of the game and this would cause the best players to go slow and hence their improvement would be hindered. Therefore, you need to separate them and train each group separately as it would help them all improve.

Very often we see amateur tennis players finding it hard to keep pace with the other player’s shots and are unable to run around the court when their opponent places the ball well. But, isn’t running around a part of the game? Therefore, you would need to train them and increase their stamina and improve on their footwork. No matter how experienced your players are the practice of footwork and physical training should be a part and parcel of all coaching sessions. Even the top players of the world train and warm up before they begin play.

Now that the initial steps are all done, you would then need to begin with the actual strokes and focus on one type of stroke at a time. Very often new coaches begin with the backhand as they have a false impression in mind regarding perfection of the backhand. According to them if a person is perfect in the backhand they will automatically be great with a forehand. However, a player will take ages to learn a backhand without mastering a forehand. Hence, if you want to be a tennis coach you would have to list out your priorities. Similarly go ahead and teach them all the possible shots that you think they would need.

After you’ve successfully taught the players the various strokes and you feel they’ve become good at it proceed with the matches. Let them play against each other as this way both players’ skills improve and if they work as a team their self-esteem would increases as they won’t lose by a big margin compared to playing with a pro. Take for instance I’m a learner and you’re a pro, you may defeat me in straight sets 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 – won’t this take away the little confidence I have? Instead if I play with another player whose skills are on the same level as me, I would stand a chance to win and hence feel confident.

Now that they’re playing against each other all you can do is supervise and let them know their advantages and disadvantages and help them improvise on them. The rest you’ll have to do by instinct. I’m sure if you follow these simple tips and you’re expertise you would certainly never have to ask and instead teach others how to be a tennis coach – a successful tennis coach.