All the principles that I have built over the years are based on accumulated knowledge. All of us have had many influences in our career and these principles are developed over time through the work that I’ve done as a coach, player and as a person.

1) Potential

2) The Desire to succed

3) Responsibility

4) Overcoming resistance

5) Adaptability

6) Observation and analysis

7) Hard and Soft Skills

8) Service

It doesn’t have to be in order because to me each principal stand by itself. It’s a holistic approach to working. I put the eight on its side, so the eight principles is like an infinity because it’s all connected.

Potential

The principal is focused on the human potential, what they can achieve not only as a tennis player, but also as an individual. I look for where the most capacity is. Which also can be translated as the biggest strength in each individual. It’s not so much the talent, it’s more about how to succeed in taking that potential and maximizing the potential through exercises, through communication, through spending time together. By allowing the person to speak and the coach to listen. You’re tapping into their true potential as a human being. Then you look on court what their potential is and then the physical capacity.

The desire to succeed

Potential is not only about the ability, but also how can you activate that ability and to succeed through your own motivation. It’s the desire to work hard towards reaching your goals. I like that the players write their goals down, making sure those goals are clear and that they’re not just in your head. You have to speak about them. Write them down. Make them more of your own and really start taking ownership of that and pursue those goals on a constant basis. Now, those goals can be set on a daily basis, short term or long term. A lot of times it’s just like a business plan. If you are an entrepreneur and you’re looking for investors or you want to start a new business, it’s the same with a player. It’s about how much do you want to apply yourself? Have a clear pathway that will lead you there.

Responsibility

The responsibility comes together with potential and the desire to succeed because you have to stay really committed and the responsibility of making that decision. It’s how they practice, how they think. Do they ask enough questions? How do they respond? Are they coachable?

So, the responsibility lies not only with me as a coach, but also with the player. I expect that the player takes full responsibility of being on time. Being prepared. I give them homework and for that homework, they come back and you ask some questions so that you connect each session again with the next session. That will take responsibility.

Now, how do I translate it on court?

Responsibility is about following the game plan. If you are going onto a court with all the data that we receive in this day and age, you can give a clear pathway, a clear set of rules and they have to follow those rules. In practice, that’s easy because then you can really hold them accountable for that in a match. You always want to give them option A and option B, and then there is a parachute, kind of option C that they should be able to apply at all times. You really want to give them that responsibility and follow a plan.

Overcoming resistance

Why is overcoming resistance so important? It’s because in tennis we have big egos. Big egos in tennis that will always challenge the coach. If they are not strong enough, if they are just followers, you do not want them just to follow your lead. You want to build up some resistance because that will happen in a match as well. Otherwise, they will be dictated on the court and they will not be able to hold a plan in place and have that responsibility. When they do have that resistance. We as a coach should not take that personal. We should say, OK. If you’re resisting my exercises or resisting my advice how can you get to the point that you get them to lower that resistance, meaning that it can be their idea? In an exercise, give them responsibility to lower that resistance. Ask them if they want to succeed. If they want to succeed, they will have to lower the resistance. If you go through those steps, the resistance will be lowered. However, they will have an explanation on your side in order to work towards their goal. The resistance is not something negative. It’s a perfect opportunity for a coach to build a relationship.

Adaptability

As a coach, we have to adapt to the player. That doesn’t mean that you cannot have your standards in place or your principles, actually it will be even better for them to know your principles. At the end of the day, we need to find out what are the needs of this player? What is their strength? What makes them different? What makes them work at a higher level? How can you have a shared common interest or a path that you can take? Whether it’s on the court, whether it’s strategy, whether it’s physical training. Not everybody is the same, but it’s about learning to listen, asking questions instead of giving them orders. Learn to adapt to the player’s needs.

Observation and analysis

Adaptability can also be after you observe, and you make your analysis of their game or their personality. You’ll learn their strength. Most important, you need to know their weakness or their barriers that they put. That’s that adaptability. That’s the overcoming the resistance. Where lies that barrier what you need to be very sensitive to the patterns that will continuously come back. You have to look for those. Look for the patterns, whether it’s how to prepare for a practice or how to enter a court or how to prepare their racquets or what they do before a serve or return. Patterns will always give you more insights for you to be able to analyze what is important to them as a player, but also as a person. You as a coach becomes an architect of learning how to apply those skills that they have and build a big base where they feel that they are secure, and they feel they can build on that base. We have to build our confidence based on a broader base. The wider the base the higher the peak of the pyramid.

Hard and soft skills

It’s not enough to only teach the hard skills. A good coach, in my opinion is willing to work hard, set goals high, and find the players skills. The hard skills are your ability mechanically to follow a plan. The soft skills are the mental capacity. How emotionally immersed are they into their game or their game plan? Can they maintain their composure? Can they sometimes use it as an exhaust and actually get really upset? Can they do that on purpose. Teach them skills to develop those soft skills, emotional skills. That can be an incredible drive. I’ve been watching the last couple of episodes of The Last Dance with Michael Jordan and he taps into those soft skills constantly. At one stage he talks about that he made things up, that his competitor, told him something that was not even true, but he used it to himself to get himself up to a higher level, to perform on soft skills, not only his hard skills, his technique and his ability, so the soft skills are really important.

Soft skills

I always say to myself; my beginning is the first and maybe also my last day. So that’s why I refer to a service industry. I aim to be a Michelin star service, meaning that I’m always aiming to maintain a certain level of service towards my player. That’s because at the end of the day, they are paying our salary. The players are your clients. You need to be aware that they can, and you are replaceable. If you take the fact that you’re replaceable, you will understand that service becomes a very, very important part in our industry. You should work towards a point that you actually are replaceable, that they will replace you and you will be replaced. So why not service your player, your clients to the maximum level? The greatest compliment is service. The greatest compliment is if you make them feel that they are so important to you as a client, as a player, as an individual. This is what you want to achieve, that the player feels valued by you.

Those are the eight principles that I uphold every time I step on a court

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