Some of the coaches that I work with recently asked me why someone’s message is stronger than someone else’s?
For me it’s all about impact.
I don’t believe I’m the smartest guy. Other people know more about the physical aspect of tennis than I do, but I do believe that I’m quite good at creating an impact as a coach.
As a tennis coach you are helping the players to solve problems. Whether it’s a player or a tennis coach who is having some problems my job is help them with tools to fix the problem. A key way of helping players and coaches with tools is your communication and your ability to listen. You can know a lot, but if you’re not good at communicating and listening you will likely not have a huge impact on the players or coaches that you are working with.
It’s my job as a coach to solve that problem. I can ask someone, but at the end, I’m not the problem solver. I have to find a solution. Same for workshops. I see my coaches have some problems with this. They ask, can you give me some tips on this? And we have to solve that problem and give some tools to help them, and a lot of the personnel are very consistent. Your problem solver, how is your communication? Can you list all those items are important because when you really know a lot, but you’re a very stupid person, nobody will listen to you.
And what do we go to the extent saying then it doesn’t matter that much about what you know, or is it a way of elevating what you already know?
Oh, that’s a good question. I’m still a fan of knowing your stuff. Of course, it’s important that you know what you’re doing about technique, tactics, the physical and mental aspect. A typical error in tennis is being very negative in our communication. Many have the same content, but the way we interact or bring it to the players often determines the result. Optimally we have both. The question that I ask myself is if we are focusing enough in our education and our workshops on the personality or soft skills of tennis coaches? I’m not sure. To be honest. We have to upgrade the soft skills in our education.
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