THE BEST 6 QUALITIES I LOOK FOR IN A NEW PLAYER
Before I coach any player for the first time, there are several things I want to know about them. I'm sure, as a coach also, you have been in this situation many times yourself.
For me, when a new player strolls through the gate and onto my court for the first time I immediately begin watching for signs that will help me coach them later.
The important distinction here is that I am not looking at every student as being the same. Far from it. I understand now, after coaching for many years, that every player is different.
As coaches, our ability to recognise the differences in each player, and coach them as individuals based on those differences will set us apart.
Here are 6 of the qualities I want to know about a new player:
1. WHAT MOTIVATES THEM?
"There is so much time and effort required to be a top player, that if you don't love what you are doing it will be almost impossible to reach the top".
There is a long list of things that motivate us to do things. We support our local sports team out of loyalty to our region, we go to fight wars to protect our country from invading forces, and we wear seat belts while driving a car for safety reasons. Everything we do requires some degree of motivation to do it, a reason for doing, otherwise why would we bother?
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If you don't love the process, it's going to be really difficult to sustain the years of training needed to reach the top. |
So, during our first interaction, I am looking to see what their motivation is for wanting to be a serious player. It will be my job later as their coach to continually keep pushing the correct "button" for them personally.
"Any rational person would give up... you have to have a lot of passion for what you are doing because it's so hard"
Steve Jobs talking about succeeding at what you do
The take-away from this? Teach individuals, rather than impose a blanket methodology for the whole group. If you have 8 players on the court, you are effectively trying to find what motivates each of them, and to actually conduct 8 individual lessons at the same time.
2. WHAT ROLE DO THEIR PARENTS PLAY?
"Parents play a major part in the relationship between you and the player. You need to be clear on their role because it will certainly impact on your work"
Parents sometimes get a bad rap, and they often fully deserve the bad press. However, parents are still going to be an integral part of a young player's tennis journey and you'll need to gauge what part the new player's parents will play in the future.
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| Parents play a vital role in a young players tennis journey |
If it's mostly the parents who are steering the ship it's not going to work in the long term. Overbearing parents can help their child be successful during the early period of the young player's career, but later as the child gets older they resent their parent's involvement and behavior.
So in these early encounters with the whole family, I'm looking to see who is jumping-in to answer the questions and whether or not the young player is involved in the discussion at all.
This parent and child relationship is interesting though. I should mention here that I have seen parents who are far too excessive with their behavior, even abusive, and yet the child has still been able to reach a high level at the professional level. My take-away from seeing this type of overly intense relationship between parent's and their child is that the discipline directed towards the child's training, and the focus on the outcome of their matches (winning), does have its benefits, but can harm the family environment and sometimes destroy the relationship between the parent and the child in the long term.
3. ANY PAST CONTAMINATION?
"A player's previous training environments will be brought with
them to your program also".
Often the player you are meeting for the first time has been training previously somewhere else. They have probably been working with a previous coach or at another training facility somewhere else in the area. This scenario is common and to be expected but it does mean that there will be a certain amount of "contamination" in the player from their previous environment.
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A player's previous training environments will be brought with them to your program also |
Therefore you need to ask yourself 'has there been anything in their past which will affect our training into the future.'
Contamination can take the form of their demeanour, and/or their technique.
- Demeanour
Once a player has been involved at any training facility long enough they will adopt the culture of that facility. That's where they have learned their behavior, and they will bring that behavior with them as they join your training. Because they will be training with your existing squad, and around your players, they will probably adapt quite quickly to your environment. Let's hope so!
Of more relevance is that the new player will have a certain way of interacting with a coach, and this will play a part in how well and how quickly they process information from you. If they are used to 'switching off' mentally every time a coach begins to talk, that will have to be changed immediately.
- Technique
All coaches teach slightly different. Many years ago I was teaching the volley to a group of players along with one other coach. We both had a court each and were going through the Volley basics.
It was obvious that we were both teaching the Volley in a completely different way. He was insisting that the players move quickly and get as close to the ball as possible. I was focusing on the players locking their wrists and retaining the locked wrist throughout the volley.
We both talked later about our different styles of teaching the volley and found that actually, we were asking the players to do something that was quite similar. When he was asking the players on his court to focus on getting close to the ball, he was also making it easy for them to retain a locked wrist. The major reason a wrist becomes unlocked during a volley is that the player is too far away from the ball. If the ball is too far away they will be forced to unlock their wrist because the volley is now an emergency, they're too far away!
As I asked my players to retain the locked wrist throughout the volley, the players automatically understood that to retain the locked wrist they needed to be close to the ball and not to reach out.
We were both achieving fast feet and a locked wrist. Just in different ways!
Coaching is like this. We should all have different ways of doing things, but ultimately we're trying to teach basically the same fundamentals. It may take time for the new player to become accustomed to your style of coaching but with patience, they will begin to adapt to your ways.
An important thing to mention here is to never talk disparagingly about their previous coach. It's just not cool to do that under any circumstances. Always respect your fellow tennis professionals, but particularly in front of your students.
4. ARE THEY PHYSICALLY OK FOR TENNIS?
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The athleticism of the player is important in today's modern game. |
"A good big man will beat a good small man most times"
During the early 90s, I was involved with the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Scheme (BAT) in Madras, India. It was a program for 8 boys from throughout India who we were seeking to play Davis Cup for India in the future.
At the beginning of each training year, we held trials to fill any vacancy in the team. Boys from all over India attended the trials and went through 3 days of on-court sessions.
These on-court sessions certainly gave us an insight into their playing ability, but often we would find out after selecting a boy that the problem wasn't their game, it was their inability to handle the physical demands of the program.
In my second year of selection trials, I decided to add many of the physical training elements we did on a daily basis in BAT. I took all the trainees on a beach run (something we did at least 3-4 times a week normally), we did a variety of court fitness drills, and I added some of the tougher on-court hitting drills we would do most days.
Many of the players present at the trials couldn't handle the physical training during selections. What we were able to do early was eliminate them as candidates because they would not have lasted very long in our program anyway.
This taught me that no matter how important strokes and results are in tennis, the player's physical potential was just as important. In order to develop world-class players later. We needed young athletes to work with who could handle the day to day stress of training, and who wouldn't be continually injured due to the workload.
As you observe your new player, try to assess what they will look like in a few years. Does it look like they will grow to be much bigger and stronger, or will they remain small and weak?
5. CAN THEY AFFORD TENNIS?
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| To reach the top in tennis requires money over a long period of time |
"It's an expensive journey in the early days and unfortunately if the money is not available for training, equipment, and travel, it's going to be difficult".
While tennis would like to shrug-off its reputation as being a sport for rich people, if you want to play tennis at a high level, the expenses involved are great.
Both the player and you will be devoting a lot of time and effort to practice sessions. Can the family afford you? Perhaps, if the player has exceptional talent and you feel that by working with them you can promote yourself better, you will coach them for free. This can sometimes be a good idea and can gain you an increased number of students and develop your reputation in the long-term.
Whether the money is there or not to launch a career in tennis is something you will have to consider as your relationship with the player and their family continues.
6. WHAT IS THEIR PAST RECORD IN TOURNAMENTS?
"With young players, early success in tournaments is not always a guarantee that they will continue to be successful in the future"
Often, success early in a young player's tennis journey can be a problem. The danger is that they can become obsessed with winning at the expense of their longer-term development. Any talent they may have had in the beginning will not develop, and players' that they used to beat easily before, will begin to beat them instead. This is hugely demoralising for young players and can even lead to them giving up tennis.
It's important to assess whether players have a positive attitude towards developing their game, or whether they are afraid of working on any improvements at all.
If the new player you're seeing for the first time has had success in tournaments before, it does point to the fact that they can win, meaning that the player is mentally not afraid to win.
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While success at a young age is a good sign, it doesn't always guarantee success later. |
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It's not easy being a tennis parent or coach, but if you can embrace the "Times 6 Principle" you will go a long way in helping your child navigate the mental minefield that is competitive tennis
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