What do you know about tennis coaches?

Tennis Coaches – what do you know about them? For some reason I’m fascinated by them!
I think we all realise that tennis is a very individual sport, which is why, I imagine, that every tennis coach I’ve ever met is shy! I have to point out here that I don’t go out looking for tennis coaches – my daughter plays tennis, so I’ve travelled to numerous clubs and tournaments and have met many coaches.
Some coaches don’t appear shy at all. When they’re on the tennis court coaching, they’re shouting instructions all the time. On the court they’re the experts and it’s very unlikely that anyone will question what they’re doing. These cpaches are usually well qualified coaches who are obviously very good at their job.
However, oncethey come off court and have to make converstaion with parents they’re suddenly very quiet. Put them in this situation and they’re notthe experts anymore.
There are others, that appear shy on court. These tend to fall into two categories, those that were very good competitive players until they were in their early twenties.
They were above average players and perhaps had dreams about becoming professional players but either weren’t quite good enough or mentally strong enough. They’ve become coaches, reluctantly, because they love to play tennis and could never work at a 9 to 5 job.
They’ve spent, most of their growing up years playing an individual sport, perhaps travelling around the country with mum or dad and whilst these children benefit from making friends from around the country they sometimes miss out on the close friendships children often have.
These young coaches, although very good players are not used to having to talk while they are on court and quite often can’t be heard att he other end of the court.
The next type of shy coach is the person who has come to tennis later in life. They possibly took up tennis when their children had lessons and started out by helping the children out. Perhaps helping at club tournaments until a coach suggested that they themselves took the coaching courses.
I know of such a coach who lived in the South of England and although the LTA ran a coaching course 5 minutes from where he lived, he chose to go to Liverpool (approx 7 hour drive) to do his course and take hos exams so that he wouldn’t be with anyone who might know him. He later went on to build (from scratch) a very successful childrens tennis club. Note how he never felt comfortable coaching other adults.
Unfortunately communication is not a skill that is taught on most tennis coaching courses (for any sport), but I think it should be one of the main components. This is why I’ve written a book ‘How to get even better results from your athletes – what most coaching manuals don’t tell you’ which I obviously recommend that all would be coaches should read. This is available from http://www.afraid-of-speaking-a-speech.com/sportscoachingbook.html