I would come to a coach and say, look, I would like to have you, but I would like to know:

What do you think about my tennis?
What do you think I could reach in tennis?
How you can help me reach these goals?
What are your steps?
How will you help improve me?

If the Coach is not able to answer these questions, it’s difficult to see how the relationship can work. If the Coach on the other hand is able to answer the questions you can go on asking him:

What do you expect of me?
How much time do you envision me being on the court?
Off Court?
What would you start out by focusing on?
When do you believe I have a chance of reaching the goals set up?

You need to get a picture of what you can expect if you hire a coach. If you can follow the coach’s ideas and his arguments, then it might be a good fit. Often Coaches and Players come together without having a talk like the above, which I think is unprofessional. Further my experience is that the players that I have coached are also much better able to follow the ideas that I put forward if I have told them what I’m looking for, how we can reach the goals and what I expect of the player.

(Inspired by the podcast episode #74: “Managing a Top 100 Player” w. Dirk Hordorff on The Adam Blicher Show — Dissecting High Performance in Tennis)

Want to listen to the full episode: http://shorturl.at/jktA8