The Importance of Relating to your Players

By Michael Provenzano
An aspect of being a consummate tennis professional and coach that is often overlooked is the ability to relate to your students. The majority of players you will teach in your coaching career will not be lifting the winners trophy at Wimbledon, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t want to achieve something by picking up a racquet. Whether your student wants to play college tennis or simply run around, hit balls and get a good workout, you as the professional have to make him or her feel as if they are the most important person during that session. You have to bring out your human side and make it about more than just tennis. Not all players want to divulge every aspect of their lives while on the tennis court, but they also don’t want to feel as if the time is completely transactional. While your student’s main concern for the hour may be finding better rhythm on their topspin forehand, they also want to feel like they are interacting with another human being. Too many pros think saying hi at the beginning of the lesson, standing at the service line feeding balls, picking balls up and saying bye at the end is plenty. Asking your students how they feel about aspects of their games and certain shots they would like to focus on makes them feel as if you care about their development as a player. It’s easy to go through the motions and deliver a decent lesson that won’t necessarily feel like it was too bad, but it’s not going to invigorate your players and make them feel eager to continue working with you. If you, like most full time professionals, are looking to build your book of business, you must realize the importance of relating to your students. Find out what their tennis goals are, ask them about their hobbies, what they do for work and how you can help them as a coach. Staying in contact with your students in between sessions is also key in terms of building your relationship with them. If they had a tournament over the weekend, ask them how it went. See if there are things that happened in their match that they noticed and wanted to work on. Asking questions about someone and their interests, in this case tennis, shows a sincere interest in them and their progress. If your student is feeling down about their backhand, then try to uplift them and see the positives. While they may think they are missing too many backhands, emphasize that there are good misses and they are making more progress than they realize. As a coach, you are not only responsible for sharing your knowledge, but also conveying it in a clear way with positive reinforcement. We as tennis coaches get into this profession because we want to use our skill set to help people become better players, but also better people. A lot of people put a strong emphasis and importance on their extracurricular activities, and you can be a major helping hand in their journey with the sport of tennis. Being knowledgable but more importantly relatable and understanding of your students is the key to being a great professional. Treat your time with your players as more than a means to an end and I guarantee you will build your book of business and be a more successful teaching professional.

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