Hi All,
Recently I read our club newsletter and in the staff profiles it said that I was the “Performance” coach. As nice as that is I started to think about the wording and the message that this sends to the members, in particular the juniors. In addition to this a few coach friends had mentioned that they prefer the “development” coaching.
I became confused (this is not difficult for me). The words just don’t make sense and I will begin to explain why.
“Performance” tennis seems to refer to the “talented” ones or those that show a greater degree of competence at a certain age or stage. “Development” seems to be considering everyone who does not fall into the “performance” category. This infers that there is a transition a player can make from development to performance tennis?
Having done some thinking on this development can be linked with improvement. This makes it independent of standard or skill competency. Simply every time a player is on court with a coach the aim is to develop or improve as a tennis player. Performance coaching is a redundant term as the goal of the coaching sessions is still to develop and improve the players tennis. After all a coach is aiming to develop the player to improve the performance within a match. This is the case always. If not then there is a question to be asked as to what the point of coaching is.
Some issues that come up in my own head is that not everyone is at tennis coaching to try to become number 1 in the world and of course the vast majority won’t realise this but that does not take away the fact that they all have the right to learn to play tennis. Develop their skills to improve their performance when they play the game.
There will be degrees of coaches who specialise in certain areas but in the centre I work in every player is in development (as primarily U10) even those reaching national standards. Every person who enters the centre is in the same boat of wanting to play tennis and therefore they have the right to be taught and developed.
Coaches, whatever the qualification, experience etc should all be aware that they can teach people to play tennis and play tennis well. Whether the player is once a week or 4 times a week a player must be taught as this will allow the player to realise success. Success will breed enjoyment and enthusiasm. Circumstances in terms of money and parental interest play a part in the whole rate of development discussion but still foundations can be implemented to future proof the players.
I see myself as a both performance/development as my primary goal is to enable everyone who steps on my court to learn and improve at tennis which means developing technique, tactics, physical capabilities and a mind set to play the game. the players I work with are good but that is because they have been taught and they have learnt and worked hard to improve.
I am a coach with the goal of producing tennis players (whatever that means).
3D Training Concept 