Tennis Conferences - Lethal weapons of information.
Are you licensed to thrill?

The game of tennis has become faster, bigger and more extravagant in many areas. This fact has put some pressure on the coaching world to improve their knowledge base. One source of information for many coaches is to attend internationally acclaimed tennis coaching conferences. Coaches are becoming armed with a whole arsenal of knowledge obtained from conferences, books, other coaches, the Internet, etc., and this makes me very optimistic that the level of coaching will improve but a bit wary because of what is truly being ingested in the minds of coaches. It is a fact that there is a great deal of information out there to help us improve our coaching. The problem is that there are coaches out there that may not choose the most appropriate information to pass to their own students.

Our global society has an almost unsaid way of convincing people that the top echelon of anything is the best, and this is absolutely not the case. For example, in our profession many say that the Davis Cup captaincy is the most respected and prestigious coaching position in the world in each country. Well, in some regards there is definitely a great honor and prestige in holding that position. But if you think that the Davis Cup or the Federation Cup coach is the most knowledgeable or most experienced coach then you are incorrect.

The Davis Cup or Fed Cup coaching job is a very specialized position, which caters to a very specific clientele of players. Don't get me wrong -- I do not want to take away anything from these very special coaches. In fact, I have some very good friends and past employers who have been either Davis Cup captains and Federation Cup captains and I have the greatest respect for them. But the truth of the matter is that these specialized coaches are often not up to date with how to teach the average junior or beginning player. One internationally acclaimed Captain was kind and confident enough to tell me (after a lecture I had given on teaching kids) that coaching top 10 professional players like Sampras and Becker is easy in comparison to what I had just done with kids. This coach went on to say that if I had put him/her on the court with 10 kids for a few lessons he/she would be totally scared to death. Now, if your aspirations are to become a Davis Cup or Fed Cup captain it is attainable but of course there is lots of work ahead of you in the years to come and the political gods need to favor you when the time is right.

Because of all the flash and spotlight on high performance tennis there are many coaches who continually attempt to teach their students tennis skills in hopes of developing international caliber players. The problem is that many students do not have the ability to perform such complex skills while others have no aspirations to become high performance players. You might say that some coaches may actually try to live through their students, a dangerous situation for all who are involved.

At conferences around the world there is still this hype about high performance coaching. Lecture upon lecture about teaching the perfect biomechanical stroke and learning the ultimate strategy and tactics, etc. What occurs is kind of scary. Coaches come home to their clubs and try to implement wonderful new ideas that may hurt rather than help their student's development. Injuries occur and mental obstacles happen, providing lots of frustration for your students. But why? You've just come from this fantastic conference and heard some great speakers, haven't you?

Now those coaches who have some coaching experience may have the ability to take the information they have learned and then apply what they feel is most appropriate to their players. Experienced coaches come away from these tennis conferences with valuable information cutting edge tools and master strategies in coaching. Now don't get me wrong -- I do realize that all of us still have lots to learn to become that best that we can be. But the thing is that even very experienced coaches can easily make a terrible mistake by teaching new skills and information to players for whom that information may not apply.

The bottom line is that we all need to continually assess our coaching skills so that we can understand where we are as coaches and who we are best apt to service. Think of it this way -- doctors learn through their general experiences, but they completely understand whether or not they have a specialization. A doctor cannot just decide one day to make a specialized operation because they just heard a great lecture on a medical topic. Paralleling this, coaches cannot just simply return from an international conference and then apply radical new ways of teaching.

A smart coach, regardless of experience, must take the time to think whether or not new information can be applied to specific players. The only way we (as tennis professionals) can decide this is to understand where we are in our own coaching development. For example, if a coach teaches intermediate players and only a couple of high performance players then it can be easily determined that this coach is most probably qualified to teach intermediate players. This coach needs to understand this so that information that is attained from conferences and resources that may help this level of player. Though there may be lots of topics at conference that are very interesting and advanced such information cannot be applied to their intermediate players. Now, I say this generally speaking of course, there may be a few players in his clientele base to try these new skills and information.

Now you might ask how do you improve these players without applying advanced training techniques? Well, the answer is simple -- a good coach needs to slowly try new information and skills on specific players. Also, it is very important to realize before attending a conference where you are in your own coaching development so that you can choose which lectures to attend. The fact of the matter is that if you teach tennis there are today all kinds of tennis conferences covering the whole spectrum of coaching from the absolute beginner to international professional. I think that the powers of the tennis world have finally figured out that if they continue to put all their emphasis towards developing the high performance areas there will be no other players to develop as a result the grassroots movement. This past year was the first time in tennis history that tennis organizations like the International Tennis Federation held themed conferences, catering to all levels of coaching. In fact, this past year I was honored to be one of five speakers chosen internationally to speak on the topic of mini-tennis during the first ever Worldwide Coaches Participation Workshop in Bath, England. Other tennis bodies such as the USPTA, Tennis Canada, USTA have also in the past few years really made an attempt to cater to various levels of coaching -- way to go!

Today it is much easier to find information that can help you develop an intermediate player so that he or she is eventually ready to learn advanced skills and techniques. The bottom line is that we as tennis professionals need to understand what we need to focus on learning in order to best service our clientele base. After all, it's difficult to make a living if all your students have more appointments with the physiotherapist than with you on the court!

Till next month take care and thanks for reading!

Reg

P.S. Congratulations to the true SURVIVORS in the land down under, Andre and Jennifer, well done! Lastly, this month I would like to say a warm hello to Anna, Gran, Michelle, Sean, Josh and Matthew who all reside in South Africa!

This column is copyright 2001 by Reggie Vasquez Jr., all rights reserved.

Reggie Vasquez Jr. is one of Canada's leading tennis coaches for juniors. He is actively involved with Tennis Canada's grassroots player development. A frequent and enthusiastic speaker at tennis conferences, he is certified by the U.S.P.T.A., Tennis Canada and the U.S.P.T.R.. For almost 7 years he was a head coach for the Canadian Davis cup Captain's Academy at the Canada's National Tennis Center. He has been a Tennis Canada - National Youth Tennis Center Leader for over 8 years and is presently a head coach of an Elite Tennis Academy. He has experience working with juniors from the absolute beginner to the international caliber tennis player. Reggie is also a published author on junior tennis. His personal web site has additional information on his book, the Tennis for Kids. The Tennis for Kids can be ordered directly at a discount using this link to the Amazon.com online bookstore.

Questions and comments about these columns can be directed to Reggie by electronic mail at reggie@tennisserver.com.