The Pathway to Becoming a Top Tennis Coach by Dave Miley
21 January 2025
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.