Why you should have a method

I’m a fan of every coach having his/her own way or idea of who they are as a coach. It’s important to be able to answer why are you doing what you’re doing right now. Everyone is different and it’s not about good, bad, wrong or right.

It’s better to have a method than not knowing why you are doing what you are doing. So, first of all, it’s a good self-reflection for coaches to think about their way of coaching. Are you able to immediately answer if someone asks you: “What’s your method?”.

Ten years ago, I didn’t. Now I can. My method is a little bit by accident. You have to ask yourself:

– What’s my system

– What do I really believe makes a good coach

For me I have come up with what I like to call the 4F method. It’s easy to remember and we Belgium people need easy stuff to remember.

The 4F Method

My method consists of:

1) Fun
It should be fun for a player. When training sessions or the development of players are not fun anymore, they will quit. They will quit practicing or training with you. So, it should be fun. Fun can mean a lot of different things depending on who you are and at what developmental stage you are. If you’re a 5-year-old kid that’s a different kind of fun compared to a pro player or maybe you have some adults that just started with tennis. Maybe it’s the social context that’s important for them, maybe the progression or it might be the competition that’s important. So, fun can be a lot of different things. Equally so it has to be fun for you as a tennis coach. When you’re not having fun on court or off court with my players, you will stop being coach. It’s that easy. You will not do it in ten years.

2) Fit
We have to remember that tennis is a sport. Ask ourselves if the players we are coaching are moving enough and is there enough energy involved? Why is this important, you might ask yourself? Tennis often has a very technical approach. So, the players are not really moving or sweating. And is that really a sport? This might be a dangerous personal philosophy, but you should be practicing what you preach. I do a lot of physical demonstrations where the level of demonstration is important. I’m not saying you have to be a professional or a superstar, but a decent level is important. So, we also have to be a little bit fit to do demonstrations. When I do a lot of running, I do better work on court as well.

3) Focus
Ask yourself are the players I coach really aware of what they are training? There should always be a focus. First of all, it’s awareness. Is the player really aware of what he/she is trying to develop? Observation skills are important too, like where is the ball going. Decision making is right up there as well. Do I have to play in this direction or a fast ball or a slow ball? Is he/she aware what he’s really training? I’m not always sure that we really have the guarantee that the player is really focused on the job that we want. A small test for a coach is to give a task for a player and after 5 minutes ask what is the thing that you have to look for? What is the focus?

A lot of times the player will say, I don’t know, I’m just hitting the ball you’re feeding to me. I did that test many times. I was like sh**. I’m explaining exactly what the player needs to do and why, but after 5 minutes I ask the player and they go “I don’t know”, so I believe that is a good test for us as coaches to simply ask from time to time.

4) Functional
When we do a drill it need to be functional. We need to ask ourselves what’s the goal? Why are you doing this drill? Why is this feedback or technical, tactical or physical tip very good for that specific exercise? Because sometimes I was also guilty. I did a drill because I saw it and it looked very nice. Wow, but function no clue! It looks amazing and you go “Let’s do this.” Still, you’re a good coach when you copy drills, but you’re not a gold coach.

Besides thinking about what is important you also have to think about what is not important. What will I not do. That’s also functional. Ask yourself what you could do but you will skip doing. I will skip it. That’s really also a challenge for the coach.

So, this is my 4F method.

…and if I want to develop my own method?
You have to start with what you are already doing. Ask yourself why you are doing it. How you do certain drills. What is your way of communication? What’s important for you? Think about what is typical for you as a coach if you look back over the coaching that you have done. Ask yourself about what usually works very well for you as a coach and conversely what is not working very well for you. It’s a self-reflection on yourself as a coach. Further you should get some feedback from other coaches, players, parents or members in your club/academy. Get them to tell you what they think you’re especially good at and build your method around your strengths.

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