My Tennis Coaching

My Tennis Coaching Helping tennis coaches design match-ready practice using ecological dynamics. Academically published | Coach educator | Researcher–practitioner
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As a tennis coach developer, I aim to help players and coaches reach their full potential. With over twenty years of coaching experience and a proven track record of success, I have developed innovative techniques and training programs that have helped countless players achieve their goals and become champions on and off the court. But my passion continues beyond there. I'm also committed to helpi

ng other coaches improve their skills and knowledge through professional development tips and ongoing training opportunities. Whether you're a seasoned veteran or just starting out, there is always room for growth and improvement in the coaching profession. As the founder of My Tennis Coaching, I have built a community of like-minded coaches who share my commitment to excellence and lifelong learning. Through my social media channels, I share insights and inspiration to help you take your game and coaching skills to the next level. Follow me on Facebook for regular updates, tips, and advice on improving your game and transforming into the best coach you can be. Let's work together to build a better future for tennis!

29/08/2026

Roger Federer won almost 80% of his matches but only 54% of the points he played. Even one of the greatest players ever lost nearly every second point.

That should change how we think about mistakes in tennis.

Traditional coaching often treats consistency as error avoidance:

❌ Keep the ball in
❌ Repeat the correct technique
❌ Eliminate variability
❌ Stop and correct every mistake

But tennis is an adaptive problem-solving sport. Players must respond to changing information, pressure and an opponent actively trying to make them unsuccessful.

An error does not automatically indicate a technical problem. The opponent may have created a difficult situation, the decision may have been appropriate despite the outcome, or the mistake may provide useful information for the next action.

When coaches intervene after every missed ball, players can learn that mistakes are dangerous and that the coach must provide the solution. This can produce cautious players who protect practice performance instead of exploring what the game affords.

Federer’s message was not that errors do not matter. It was that one unsuccessful action should not control the next.

For coaches:

1️⃣ Stop judging every action as simply right or wrong
2️⃣ Give players time to adapt before intervening
3️⃣ Explore the intention behind the action
4️⃣ Distinguish poor decisions from unsuccessful outcomes
5️⃣ Design practices that include pressure, failure and recovery
6️⃣ Help players become less dependent on the previous point

Confidence is not believing you will never miss. It is trusting your ability to adapt after you do.

The goal is not to develop players who avoid failure, but players who remain functional while failure is happening.

Even Federer lost almost half of the points he played.

It really was only one point. Then the environment changed and another problem emerged. 🎾

How differently would you coach if you expected players to lose almost every second point?

Evidence and context: Federer’s 2024 Dartmouth commencement address; Soderstrom and Bjork (2015).

29/08/2026

Elite players are not instruction manuals.

Sinner performing “beginner drills” does not mean developing players should replace match play with the same activities. From a short clip, we cannot know whether he is warming up, calibrating, managing load, returning from injury or addressing a specific problem.

The same activity also creates different learning experiences for different players. Sinner has years of perceptual and movement experience, allowing him to adapt to changing balls and opponents. A beginner does not. Removing the opponent, decisions and tactical problem may help an expert calibrate an established skill, but repeatedly removing that information can limit a beginner’s development of the perception–action relationships required in the game.

That does not make isolated practice inherently good or bad. Its value depends on:

1️⃣ The player
2️⃣ The problem being addressed
3️⃣ The practice intention
4️⃣ The information available
5️⃣ Whether learning transfers when match conditions return

This is not a choice between isolated drills and unrestricted matches.

Instead, preserve the game problem while manipulating the conditions:

• Change the court size
• Adapt the equipment
• Modify the scoring
• Constrain the available space
• Adjust the opponent’s task

Retain enough relevant information for players to perceive, decide and adapt.

A ten-second clip shows what an elite player did—not why they did it, whether learning occurred or whether another player should copy it.

Don’t ask:

“Does Sinner do this drill?”

Ask:

“What is this activity helping this player learn, and does that learning survive when the full game returns?”

Elite use is not evidence of developmental value. Context determines functionality. 🎾

Comment “PRACTICE” and I’ll send you my free Representative Practice Assessment Tool.

Evidence informing this discussion: Pinder et al. (2011); Soderstrom and Bjork (2015).

When an under-10 player repeatedly hits serves into the net, the typical response is technical:Change the toss.Adjust th...
28/08/2026

When an under-10 player repeatedly hits serves into the net, the typical response is technical:

Change the toss.
Adjust the racket path.
Correct the body position.
Repeat the movement until it looks right.

But this study changed something else.

Twenty under-10 players completed 80 competitive matches and 3,807 serves across two conditions.

The standard green format used:
A 23.77-metre court.
A 0.91-metre net.

The modified format used:
An 18-metre court.
A 0.80-metre net.

The players and green ball remained the same.

In the modified environment, players produced more first-serve aces, more unreturned first serves, fewer first serves into the net and fewer second-serve faults.
The study did not compare different technical instructions.

It compared different environments.

That matters because serving performance is not produced by the player alone. It emerges through the relationship between the player, ball, racket, net, court, target, opponent and score.

This does not prove that technique is irrelevant.
It also does not establish long-term learning.

The study examined a small group, measured short-term performance, always used the standard condition first and changed court length and net height simultaneously.

But it seriously challenges the assumption that repeated failure must mean the child’s movement needs correcting.

Before intervening, ask:
Is the task appropriately scaled?
Does it allow the player to serve with intention?
Is the environment encouraging exploration or merely forcing the child to survive?

What happens if I change the task before changing the player?

Sometimes what appears to be a technical problem is partly a practice-design problem.

Follow Steve Whelan | International Tennis Coach Developer for evidence-based, player-centred tennis coach education.

Tomorrow, change one constraint before offering another technical correction and observe what the player discovers.

Reference
Gimenez-Egido, J. M., Ortega-Toro, E., Palao, J. M., & Torres-Luque, G. (2020). Effect of scaling equipment on U-10 players’ tennis serve during match-play: A nonlinear pedagogical approach. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 139, 110011. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chaos.2020.110011

As a tennis coach if you have ever sat down and thought …“I understand the problem, but I need help how to coach it….”Yo...
28/08/2026

As a tennis coach if you have ever sat down and thought …

“I understand the problem, but I need help how to coach it….”

You probably don’t need another random drill saved on your phone.

You need a clearer understanding of what to coach, why you’re coaching it and whether the practice is likely to transfer into matches.

That is exactly why I created the My Tennis Coaching Academy.

Inside, you’ll find:

• 70+ hours of coach education
• 350+ adaptable practice designs
• Courses, ebooks and complete term plans
• Research translated into practical coaching
• Monthly discussions with coaches worldwide

It isn’t simply a library of activities. It is designed to help you question your assumptions, make better decisions and build more representative practices.

If you’re ready to invest in becoming a better coach, you can explore the Academy below 👇

https://mytenniscoaching.com/my-tennis-coach-academy/

26/08/2026

Conversation 39/43

Tennis coaching often talks about skill as though it were something stored inside a player.

Something we build, acquire and then carry unchanged from red to orange, green and yellow.

From an ecological perspective, that is the wrong unit of analysis.

Skill is not an object that belongs exclusively to the player. It emerges through the relationship between:

The player.

The ball.

The opponent.

The court.

The available time and space.

The player’s intentions and capabilities.

Change those constraints and the functional relationship changes.

Moving from red to orange changes ball flight, bounce, speed, court dimensions and the opportunities available for action. The player cannot simply reproduce an identical red-court solution. They must recalibrate their timing, positioning, force and decisions.

An important distinction, this does not mean nothing transfers.

Experience, capacities and previous adaptations still matter. But skill does not transfer as a finished technique copied unchanged into a new environment. It must reorganise as the performer–environment relationship changes.

That completely changes player development.

Stop treating red tennis as preparation for “real tennis” later.

Help players become more functional within the game they are playing today.

Then allow their movement solutions to adapt as the constraints evolve.

Development is not the accumulation of finished techniques. It is the continuing adaptation of functional relationships.

Tomorrow, examine one practice and ask:

What relationship is this player learning to regulate?

Follow for evidence-based tennis coach education.

The conversation continues tomorrow.

26/08/2026

This may be one of the most important two minutes of coach education you will ever watch.

Frank Dick tells the story of a nine-year-old athlete who finished eighth out of eight in her first race.

She returned disappointed because she believed she had lost.

Frank redirected her attention towards something different: she had run faster than expected and produced the best performance of her life.

His definition was simple:

“Winning is being better today than you were yesterday. Every day.”

I would not interpret that as athletes needing to demonstrate measurable improvement every day. Learning is non-linear. Performance fluctuates and progress is rarely that tidy.

But the wider message is incredibly important.

If winning is defined only by beating somebody else, a player’s perception of success becomes dependent upon their opponent, the draw, the conditions and the final score.

A player can perform brilliantly and lose.

They can also perform poorly and win.

Results matter in competitive sport, but they are incomplete evidence of development.

Winning might also mean:

Recognising information earlier.

Discovering another solution.

Adapting when the original plan stops working.

Remaining engaged when the match becomes uncomfortable.

Becoming less dependent on the coach.

Responding more effectively to a problem than before.

This is not about lowering standards or pretending that losing does not matter.

It is about creating a definition of progress that gives players a reason to keep exploring, competing and returning tomorrow.

Show this speech to a player, parent or coach who needs to reconsider what winning means.

Then ask your players:

“How could you win today, even if you lose the match?”

Follow for evidence-based conversations about coaching, learning and player development.

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