How to Find a Good Tennis Coach
by tennisconsult
How to Find a Good Tennis Coach
If you are not a professional tennis coach yourself and don’t have ties in the tennis community, then choosing a coach for your kid may become a rather challenging process. Tennis is a very technical kind of sport and a coach plays a huge role in the preparation of a tennis player. Never send your child to a coach without giving it an extensive amount of thinking beforehand. Think about choosing a coach in the same way that owners and business leaders approach to choosing the main accountant or financial director. Namely choosing the main accountant, as opposed to a secretary.
Make for yourself a list of criteria, which your future coach should be able to meet. For example:
– Have at least five years of coaching and a history of preparing players – (winners, finalists, etc), so that you can see the results of his work on the court, in the form of good tennis players.
– Have good feedback from experienced tennis parents, whose kids used to practice or still practice with the coach.
– You accept his work methods and his requirements from players, your child feels comfortable and confident during practice with the coach.
– Any other criteria, which helps you feel confident in your communication with that coach.
Now a little bit about the way we went through this process. I began to play tennis for fun when I was 27 years old. That’s how I meet my kid’s future coach. Still, I had no intention of having my children play tennis. It all happened rather accidentally. From 6 to 8 years old, my son did gymnastics and even managed to win a tournament in his age division after only 2 years of practice. At the same time, the gymnastics coach (truly a real coach) told me that my kid will not achieve much success in gymnastics. I also saw that he liked running, jumping and playing soccer much more than he enjoyed doing pull ups or splits.
That’s why during the summer when he was 8, I brought him to his first tennis coach. Her experience at the time included more than 15 years of work, being a first class certified coach and the upbringing of two junior players who reached top 100 ITF. For me, that was enough to stop looking and make my choice. Also, my previous friendship with her during my times of playing tennis casually under her watch helped. With my child we decided that he would play for the next two months, and then we would make the decision of whether or not continue tennis or return to gymnastics. In two months, gymnastics was no longer even an option, only tennis. Not even once during the next five years did I ever regret the choice of my kid’s first tennis coach.