People are used to hearing endless stories about famous tennis players or telling each other tales about how they play tennis themselves or how good their kids are on the tennis court. However, there are hardly any stories about people, who stand behind the achievements of such big names as Milos Raonic and Eugenie Bouchard as well as behind the successes of average Canadians playing tennis.
Tennis racket is work tool not only for tennis players, but for tennis coaches as well
Coaches usually remain in the shadow of their great students. Of course, there are exceptions such as Tony Nadal, Brad Gilbert, Tony Roche, etc. There are a lot of interesting facts about the life of these great people both on and outside of the tennis courts. But these examples are exceptions that prove the rules and for the most part coaches stay outside the area of interests of others.
This is even truer in case of local tennis coaches, who do not have pupils with big names in the tennis world. They are often seen as tools for person to learn how to play and to have some fun on the tennis court couple of days a week. Nevertheless, coach is so much more than just a person, who can play tennis and teach everyone how to do it.
Tips and tricks for tennis coaches
At first it may occur that the life as a tennis coach is pretty simple and there is no problems at all. It is not true and this profession conceals a lot of difficulties.
Firstly, as in so many other businesses there is a question of a work placement and as a result an issue with money. Editor in Cheif and Social Media Manager at TennisConnected.com Nima Naderi explained that there is two different types of positions for coaches:
– those ones who are on club salary;
– those who are not;
The first category have nothing to worry about other than their performance and students, because they already have fixed income, which they will get no matter how many lessons they have a day. Of course, they also get additional bonuses for every training session.
The second category is not so lucky, so the only income they have comes form the lessons themselves. That is why sometimes such coaches take up to 10-11 trainings a day, which without a doubt is affecting their performance and quality of their work.
“I know guys, who have done 14 hours a day. I think to myself…they are getting up at 8 o’clock in the morning and they are coaching till 10 o’clock at night straight. You are gone leave the day making $400-600, but who cares if it is impossible for the quality of the lessons to stay high,” said Mr. Naderi.
However, there is no other way for these people, because the majority of tennis coaches in Canada are not on salary and it very hard for them to make a leaving.
Rain can ruin not only tennis practice, but also a financial stability of tennis coaches.
It may sound like joke, but one more challenge that tennis coaches are facing in Canada is weather. Moreover, it is not only the cold and long winter season when they have to “fight” for the training time in indoor courts and here again coaches on salary have priorities. The summer time is not better, because they have to deal with rains all the time. If there is rain – there are no tennis sessions and if there are no tennis sessions – there is no money.
As Mr Naderi points out that tennis coach is not a very secure profession and these people have to be ready to give up a lot. So, if person wants to be tennis coach for 30-40 years, he must really plan his life beforehand, especially, the coaches without a club salary. Than, when it comes time to retire one should have a good savings, because this person is not in situation like schoolteacher, who is going to have a pension.
“The many can be great, but you have to love it (coaching), because there are going to be up and down moments.”
Of course, lets not forget that this profession also has tones of positive moments.
There is good news for people, who love tennis and can play it on high level, but have never been professionals. You guys are still have a chance to become tennis coaches. As one of the Bayview Country Club coaches explained to us the only criteria for getting this job is to be able to play on a good level. So, do not hesitate to try yourself and probably it is you who will raise next Rafael Nadal.
Moreover, everyone can find his or her place as a tennis coach. Weather person likes to train little kids or would rather teach adults, or even he or she wants to face a challenge of coaching professionals, it doesn’t matter tennis could provide all these options. The only thing to remember for those, who want to teach future professionals, is that if the person had not played in high level himself it would be very hard for him to stay on the same step with his students.
“If you not good enough, if you has not played at a very high level, it is hard for you to train at very high level yourself, because you cannot keep up with the players and you don’t know what it is like to be in competition”, says the coach from Bayview Country Club.
Moreover, tennis coach should always know what’s going on in tennis world. New names and new tendencies…
As any other profession out there, being a tennis coach has its pros and cons. However, for those people who love the game, it is an excellent opportunity to make it their life. Thus, these tennis lovers should follow their dream and listen to a couple of advices from tennis coach with 17 years of experience.
“First of all you have to passionate about the game…more important than that is if you have an ego it is hard to improve, because you think you know everything and nobody knows everything. I don’t care if somebody has coached Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal for 20 years, they still don’t know everything,” says the coach from Bayview Country Club.
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