When they talk about the greatest coach, make sure it’s you

By Tatiana Batalla and Ivette Nieto, Marketing department of ASC Florida 

What makes someone a great coach?

What characteristics does a great coach need to have?

During the ICI courses provided at ASC, these are the questions we typically get from the participants. I believe that a better question someone can ask is: how far am I from becoming the greatest coach?

In Sanchez-Casal, a coach is not only the one who feeds drills, and corrects the player’s game. The coach is the tutor, the one with the power in his/her hands to develop the game of the player. A coach is a person who is responsible for a group of players, the one that creates a connection with those players that make them feel secure. When you watch tennis on TV don’t you see the player looking for the blithers after a point to make eye contact communication with his/her coach that nobody understands but them? That is the vital connection I am talking about. The coach has to know the player’s needs, he/she has to know when to push the player and when to engage with the right motivation.

If you google the 50 best tennis coaches of all times, what will show up is a list of ATP/WTA tennis coaches that are currently or recently retired from the circuit. In my honest opinion, these ratings are not the most accurate because who trained Andy Murray when he was 11, or Svetlana Kuznetsova when nobody believed she could make it to the top 10? I believe that the coaching profession is never fulfilled and that, with progress and dedication their job gets better. They will to want to keep learning from others, to keep rising, keep improving, and keep guiding, makes the coach become better each step of his/her career. Players are never alone, have you noticed the reactions of the coaches during those important points of the tournament? They have little heart attacks. If you are a coach, you will know what we are talking about. Coaches are bigger than tennis, they live for the sport, they are dedicated, they get emotional and their concentration is through the roof. The work behind a player’s game is the design of many repetitions, many hours of sweat, many moments of almost giving up, many successes, and many defeats.

Leadership builds a player; coaches are the leaders that players look to for guidance. Because players find the eye contact of the coach on the blithers when they lose the point but, also when they celebrate a victory. It is hard to be the greatest coach of all time but, what is stopping you from becoming it?

Tatiana Batalla and Ivette Nieto
Marketing department of ASC Florida