The Pathway to Becoming a Top Tennis Coach- A Coach centered approach to coach education.
This paper outlines an innovative systematic pathway for less experienced tennis coaches and former performance players to evaluate their current level and competencies and then to advise and motivate them to develop as coaches, become, over time, an expert and later a master tennis coach in their area or areas of coaching specialization.
Introduction
To develop into a tennis coach with very good expertise and to become effective with players of different levels takes time and involves learning and gaining experience and knowledge in many different areas related to coaching. Every day is a school day and after 30 + years involved in national and then at the highest level of international tennis coaching, I am still learning and trying to improve myself. However, you can only improve and develop as a tennis coach and as a person if you can honestly evaluate and recognize your level, if you are open to learning from others and are looking to improve, especially in the areas you are lacking competency and expertise.
The coach development compared to high performance player development.
I think you should approach coach education and coach development like you do player development. There are many factors involved in developing a high-level tennis player including technical, tactical, physical, mental competence. A positive and healthy approach to match-play though experience of playing matches on different surfaces against different styles of opponents is also important as is developing self-motivation and drive, a readiness to sacrifice …… and much, much more. Player centered approach recognizes that every player is different, and the key point is that it takes time and hard work in many different areas to develop into a high-performance player. The same can be said about developing as a tennis coach.
Player Development
In the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation, we are monitoring 100+ players aged between 11 and 20. In the development of a performance high level junior player, you need to:
- Assess where the player is now including technically, tactically, physically and mentally.
- Know where the player wants to be in the future both short term and long term, (the destination ranking and the performance goals).
- You need an agreed, challenging but achievable development plan in place to get there in the time allocated. This plan should be based on the recommended volume and quality of training and competition for each age.
Note: Please see an example of the player development plan below.
Coach centered development
In the same way as with player development, there are many factors that will help someone to move from being a novice inexperienced tennis coach or former performance player to become, in time, a very effective and successful coach in their area of focus:
- National and ITF Certification.
- Playing level and knowledge gained from past competitive experience and success.
- Other education, qualifications and expertise (University Degree in sports, Masters in sports and expertise in Biomechanics, Physical conditioning, Business/management etc.).
- Experience of working with and learning from more experienced coaches.
- Attending continual education courses and conferences.
- And probably the most important element is getting experience of working with and having success as a coach with players in terms of retention, increasing participation and/or in terms of high- level player development.
Openness to learn from others and to improve.
Before I worked in Kazakhstan as tennis Director, I worked at the ITF where I was involved in putting together the ITF Play Tennis course, ITF Beginner and Intermediate coaches course (Level 1), the Advanced Coaches course (Level 2) and the High performance coach course (Level 3), the i-coach (which later became the ITF Academy), ITF Coaching and Science review and I also chaired the ITF task Force on Coach education that agreed the minimum standards for coach education in 2012. I think I have reasonable experience in coaches education and am always looking to see how the educators in the 200+ ITF nations could better do this important role.
The big challenge for the ITF and the people working in the member nations in coach education is to motivate coaches to develop and improve in the areas that they were lacking and to be open to learning. At the KTF we have developed our own platform in Russian and we make sure that and the ITF Academy information in Russian available for coaches to use. But too many of the coaches do not make use of this. I hear this same story from coach educators in many of the top nations.
Knowing what to do: Doing what you know!
The first stage in developing in life is “to know what to do”. The more challenging second stage is “to do what you know”. Almost all coaches know about the coach education tools, the courses, the platforms and that this information is available and that it can help them to develop as coaches. However, not enough of them make use of these tools to help them improve as coaches.
I have observed the following common scenarios:
- Many former performance players feel they do not need certification or to learn from more experienced coaches. They think that because they were good players, they can be good coaches without any other qualifications.
- Many people that have four-year sports degrees or masters in sports or sports sciences think they are superior to the former players and ITF certified coaches without degrees.
- Coaches with National and ITF coach certification feel that this was all they needed to prove that they were good coaches and felt they were superior to former players or coaches with sports degrees or other education.
Of course, all expertise listed above is important in a person’s development and effectiveness as a coach and should all be taken into account in judging a coach’s level and qualifications. The respect from other coaches and players comes from a combination of the certification, the playing level and previous playing success, other expertise and education in other related areas or learning from more experienced coaches and of course from your experience working and success with players. But each area alone is not enough.
My Coaching pathway
I was a good national junior and adult player, and played US College tennis. After college, I played satellite tournaments in Asia and Europe (the lowest level of pro tennis) for 6 months. I learned a lot in that short time playing and observing the entry level pro tour, but I quickly realized that I was not good enough to be successful in pro tennis. In 1984, I stopped playing full-time and began to focus on becoming a coach. I did my British LTA highest level coach award and followed that with attendance at the European symposium in 1985 and 86 and the World Coaches conference in 1987 in Majorca where I met top coaches like Louis Cayer, Jim Loehr, Doug MacCurdy, Frank Zlezak, Jack Groppel, Richard Schoenborn and many other experienced coaches from successful nations. While doing this I was working in Ireland in the wind and the rain coaching different levels of players including some of the top national junior players. (I call it my breaking rocks phase!)
Sweden and Germany were dominating tennis then and I visited, at my expense in 1988, the Swedish (Bastad) and German (Hanover) training centers to see how the two top nations trained their best players. I was like a mosquito sucking the tennis “blood knowledge” from some of the World’s most successful tennis coaches.
I coached many different levels of players and worked with some very successful coaches and finally in the late 80s ended up owning my own indoor tennis and fitness center with 30+ staff working with me. I joined ITF in 1991 and have continued to learn by working with and observing players at tournaments, attending conferences and seminars and by listening to and learning from other experts in tennis and areas related to tennis.
During my development as a coach, I did not have access to advice about how to become a better coach and I did so through a long period of trial and error. I eventually found my way and was lucky enough to hold for 17 years one of the most interesting coaching jobs in tennis, ITF Director of Development. But if I had the right advice and a good development plan back in 1984, it might have been a quicker learning curve.
A new “coach centered” development program and pathway
I think people entering the tennis coaching profession, and those with little coaching experience, need some guidance on how they might best develop over time into more experienced, competent and effective coaches. Over the past two years I have worked on a system to first evaluate coaches based on various important elements of coaching expertise and then to develop and agree an individualized coach centered development programs to help them to develop as coaches.
I assumed that there are 6 different roles of tennis coaching:
- 10 and under coach and animator.
- Club Coach working with recreational adults and beginner and intermediate juniors National Junior Coach working with performance players on a national basis.
- International Junior performance Coach working with players on the international junior tours at 14 and under and 18 and under.
- International pro tour coach working with players on the international pro tour.
- Coach Educator/Tutor who has the experience and the skills to train and certify other coaches.
In the end, the proof of the player is in their results on the court in matches. For the coach, the proof of their work in the role that they are focused on will be their success with players in terms of participation/retention of players, technique of their players and results in matches and rankings.
The Coach Development system -The obvious is too often the greatest secret!
After all these years involved in coach education, it became obvious to me that coaches need to be treated like a performance player and evaluated in an objective way taking many factors, abilities and competencies into account. Then they then need, like a performance player, a detailed plan to develop in the short and long term.
I have developed the following chart which includes the things that combine to make a top tennis coach:
Respecting prior learning and expertise-Giving values to each area
I have taken time, with the input of some of the world’s top coach educators, to put point values on each area related to a coach’s development. Under this system shown in this chart, a coach can achieve a maximum of 400 points as follows:
- National and ITF Certification – 120 points
- Continual Education – 45 points
- Other expertise and qualifications – 75 points
- Coaching Experience – 60 points
- Success with players – 100 points
Total: 400 points maximum
The values in points that we have put in the chart are based on what KTF thinks is important for the development of a coaches in Kazakhstan. But of course, other federations, coaching organizations or clubs might give different values to each area depending on their focus and evaluation of what is important in their country in terms of tennis development. The important thing is the assessment of each coach and the follow up and systematic individualized planning for the short and long-term development of each coach.
On the basis of the points earned, we are planning to evaluate coaches as:
A Coach – 280 points
B coach – 240 points
C Coach – 180 points
D Coach – under 180 points
The financial conditions offered by our tennis centers and the KTF and its branches and from students will be linked to the assessment of each coach. For the lower rated coaches, they will have an incentive to improve themselves by following the agreed plan. We also think that we will be able to use the rating of the coaches to better inform the public (the customers) about the level and experience of the coaches they are hiring and paying for.
The Coach Development Plan
We will ask each coach to submit their experience in each of the areas listed in the chart including any courses they have attended in the past two years and success with players. On the basis of this information, our team will evaluate and rate the current level of the coach. We will then discuss and agree, with the coach, what areas of coaching they want to focus on and work in (their destination) and then put an agreed individualized plan together for each coach to improve their effectiveness and their KTF rating as a coach.
Please see an example of the assessment and the planning template attached:
Conclusion
I am aware that this proposed system might scare some former players and coaches, and maybe some coach educators! However, we hope that they will realize that the purpose of this system is to help the less experienced coaches who are at the start of their coaching journey assess their current level as a coach, to plan their development and to motivate them to take time to systematically improve themselves across all of the different areas that impact on a coach’s work, and on their effectiveness on the court with players.
It can be implemented in different ways in a nation. It could be imposed on coaches as part of the system, or it could be optional and offered as a “self-assessment” tool for coaches to use if they chose.
Our plan is to start the coach centered development system by recognizing successful older coaches with great experience and with success with players as Grade A or master coaches. We think this is fair. These coaches will be used in the mentoring part of the system which will focus more on younger, less experienced coaches. Coaches that want to work in one of our tennis centers will have to be part of this system and be open to developing and improving themselves.
I hope that you find this article and the concept outlined interesting and the system can be adapted to improve the education, and more important the effectiveness, of coaches in other nations.
Footnote
I want to thank the many coach education experts from various nations and regions for their input and advice in putting this coach education system together including:
Frank Zlezak (former Director of Coach Education Czech Republic), Bernard Pestre (Former Director of coach education France), Frank Van Fraayenhoven (former director of Coach Education Netherlands), Doug MacCurdy (USA and former USTA Director of Player Development and ITF Director of Development), Suresh Menon (Malaysia and Former ITF Development Officer for Asia), Gustavo Granitto (Argentina and Former ITF Development Officer Central America), Gustavo Luza (Former Davis Cup player and captain Argentina), Bettina Fulco ( Former Argentina BJK player and captain and ITF Touring Team coach), Hrvoje Zmajic (Croatia and Former ITF Development Officer Europe), Mark Bullock (UK and former ITF Manager Wheelchair tennis) and Miguel Miranda (Chile and former ITF Development officer South America), Sergio Guillem (Spanish coach, former highly ranked player and MBA and MSC in sports High performance), Irena Chichmarova (Belarus and ITF Coach education tutor and Touring Team coach on the junior and pro tour), Shukhrat Kayumov (Kazakhstan Director of Coach Education and ITF Tutor) and Ivan Molina, former ITF International junior and pro touring team coach, ITF Level 3 Tutor and ex top 25 ranked professional player, Boris Sobkin, former Russian and Kazakh Davis Cup coach and former coach to top male pro players.
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