| Since I began coaching some 19 years ago now, I have gained a vast amount of experience coaching players at all levels of play. During my coaching career I have taught tennis in Kent, Essex, London and the USA. I have also attended many coaching seminars/workshops in the UK and abroad including ones by the top teaching professionals in the world.
Like most other coaches, I have offered a racket re-stringing service for tennis, squash, badminton etc and am about to re-launch that side of my business (as at 12.9.2009). Fortunately in England players are finally starting to catch up with those in other countries, with their knowledge of different strings and tensions and the effects of using them, although we still do not get retailers selling just frames and asking customers what strings they want in their rackets!!
Having kept myself up-to-date with the modern game I have been able to enjoy the privilege of working with performance level juniors and international players, and have kept myself busy on both the former British Tennis Coaches Association, Kent Division and the Kent County Tennis Coaches Association.
During my years in tennis I have held various positions starting off in the early part of my career with "Assistant Pro" to ‘senior professional coach’ ones and these days putting that experience to good use with my own tennis consultancy company alongside my coaching, advising clubs about effective coaching and playing programmes, plus what to look for in coaches.
I also help less experienced coaches to progress in their careers.
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It's time to get serious about tennis in England, what is your club doing about it?! If England is ever to produce players CONSTANTLY like Russia, Spain, the USA etc who are capable of WINNING Grand Slam Tournaments, then there should be FULL programmes available to the tennis playing community, including all levels of mini-tennis, junior squads, junior club nights, junior teams, adult team practice, adult group coaching etc etc. Some clubs even in this "21st century" treat "juniors" as a dirty word!!! Are they not the future club members/champions?!!!
On the coaching front some changes are also afoot:
A new European-wide coaching qualification(CC) in ALL sports is being instituted and over here it will be known as the UKCC. It falls under statutory European law, but naturally there is an implementation period. There are five levels, 1 being for those who normally organise games for the juniors or assist coaches in a limited way (Tennis Assistants {TAs}), levels 2-5 will be the main levels of coaching qualifications.
On the negative side of tennis coaching: the LTA in its wisdom has now created a further level of coaching qualification known as the Senior Performance Coach, which takes AN ALREADY QUALIFIED COACH(!!) no less than 48 days to complete it!!!! As one top UK and international coach said: it "highlights how much out of touch the LTA are with coaches and the coaching industry." Of course as coaches we see nothing new here, it's yet another tier of bureaucracy they have created which will no doubt, like all the other courses the LTA runs for those who want to qualify as coaches, costs hundreds of pounds just like the rest do, and at the end of the day with what result? Does England get player after player winning Grand Slam tournaments? Answer: NO. The last British man to win Wimbledon was of course Fred Perry, who most today will never have heard of, due to the fact that he won the title three years running way back in the 1930s (1934-1936)!!!
There are many successful coaching systems in place both here in the UK with the PTR, USPTA, RPT, and abroad in Russia, France, Switzerland, Australia, Czech Republic, USA etc, WHICH DO NOT REQUIRE ATTENDANCE ON LENGTHY COURSES, but DO produce coaches that themselves go on to produce players who win Grand Slam tournaments!!!
The UK will doubtless continue much the same, with lawn tennis clubs and their idiotic committees allowing themselves and the clubs to be brainwashed by the LTA, looking for LTA qualified and licensed coaches, instead of those who are qualifed under a system that DOES achieve results!!
When Boris Becker was at the height of his career it was reported that he continued to play local club tournaments in the Bundesbank League back home when he wasn't abroad on the tour!! How great that would be for England if it had Grand Slam tournament winners who played league tennis when they weren't abroud on the tour!! We live in hope....
SO TO DISPEL THE MYTH:
That many clubs and authorities have been misguided into thinking that if a coach is not LTA qualified or has not obtained an LTA license, then he or she is no good as a coach, THIS IS COMPLETE RUBBISH!!!
There is also the LEGAL SIDE: NO CLUB OR LOCAL AUTHORITY CAN DISCRIMINATE AGAINST A COACH WITHOUT AN LTA LICENSE as a coach has a right, provided he or she is properly qualified, to coach anywhere in the UK or elsewhere in Europe.
However, whoever a club employes, IT IS ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE THAT THIS PERSON HAS AN UP-TO-DATE CRIMINAL RECORDS BUREAU ENHANCED DISCLOSURE (CRB ED). Child protection is sadly is very much an issue these days and there have been cases where a certain individual has won the confidence of the club/parent/child and sought to abuse that trust, sometimes after a long period of time. BE VERY STRICT ON THIS ISSUE OF REQUIRING THE CRB ED, OTHERWISE MINORS COULD SUFFER. |
