We like the kids to be on time. If they are not there will be a consequence. After matches we like players to fill out a match evaluation, if they don’t do it there will be a consequence. On the other hand, for the players who always do it there will be a reward. It’s important to recognize the role models.

If a player is always late, that is a habit.

How do we change the habit?

We need to motivate them to create the habit to arrive on time. To do the warmup on time. To do the racquets. There are so many small situations in the life of a tennis player where we need to help them develop great habits.

We try to convince the players as we don’t want to punish them too much. There always has to be consequences for what is important for them. You compete how you train.

Daily the coaches vote on how well the player have done on each of the values on a scale from 1-5. At the end of the month the players who have done the best on the values gets little stickers. Besides that, there will be one off rewards for players that coaches see is making a great effort. They come into practice even though they didn’t need to e.g. after a tournament. Those are the players that improve even though they are not playing that well.

When we are working with kids, we need to remember that it’s difficult for them because they don’t always see immediate results. They don’t have the patience for the development to take place over e.g.10 years. They don’t understand that doing some of these small actions day in and day out is going to create a habit for them that will help them incredibly much in the rest of their lives.

An example could be that we had a player that later on became an environmentalist. He ran from New York to Los Angeles in 6 months, every day was doing almost a marathon. He was stopping in every city trying to make the people aware about the environmental problem with plastic and so on. When he is interviewed, everything he talks about is the mindset of a tennis player.

There is an article in The New York Times on the Financial Times that the top 1000 traders in Wall Street there are 500 of them that played tennis in college. It might have something to do with trading and dealing with losing points. Continuing when you have setbacks and keeping up the effort even on the bad days.  The mindset of a tennis player is good for those situations.

There are many stories like this and what is important to understand and take advantage from is the effort and the things that you’re going to get through this process of trying to become a good tennis player, even if you don’t make it, you’re always going to have this way of living of the tennis player. You can be devasted and frustrated that you didn’t make it as a tennis player, but you gain so much more compared to your friends who will not have the same mentality.

Here in the states we have the kids in the developmental stage when they are in middle and high school, so it’s not only about the tennis player and it’s not only about competition. We want to reinforce that the persons make the effort of trying to become the best that they can be.

Asking former players like Dimitrov, Murray and Kuznetsova what it was like for them to be at the academy, they all talk about what values they experienced. They talk about how it made them stronger. If you are a parent that is what you want from your kids. You want them to have strong values and a strong character to face adversity and difficulties in life.

Tennis is so demanding that it brings you to the edge every single time. So, if you get used to through shots, patterns, situations and practices to create good habits you are going to work on your character.

It’s about the hard work, the discipline and the respect. We embrace those values on a daily basis as they will stay with you for life. It’s not necessarily what is said, but it is what is done. Therefore, you need to be an example. You need to be a mirror. It doesn’t make sense that you praise hard work and you don’t show up. Discipline, if you arrive late. You have to go with whatever you say that you are and then show it every day.

The effort, even for the player who really desires to be top players cannot be taken for granted. They are doing normal school plus they are doing tennis. That’s a lot of effort for a kid. Already putting in maximum effort in school that is already very tiring and very tough. In some moments of course the kids are going to be very tired, some moments they are very off and some other moments they are very disappointed.

What’s important is that we are there on the court to help them give the best that they have in the situation. At the end the key is not to be the best on the days where everything comes out. The days where everything is flawless and perfect takes care of themselves. What happens when you have a headache, when you feel bad or when you have a huge problem are you then able to give your best on the day? – That’s what really matters. We have to learn how to do our best on the days where we are 50 or 60 percent of our maximum. We have to learn how manage ourselves to perform the best when we are not feeling the best. That’s one of the things that some of the better players are really good at. Even when they play terrible, compared to their own standard and level, most of the time they find a way to win.

Empathy is key. If a coach doesn’t emphasize with a player, he is not going to coach. There will be no connection with the player. The ideal coach for me has to care but also have a very strong voice because in some situations the humble and quiet voice is not going to work. There will be moments where the player is going to push you to the edge. The coach needs to understand that the person who needs to perform is the person on the court.

If you don’t have empathy and the player is not respecting you when you really ask them for the extra mile you will not be successful. Sometimes you have to have a louder voice. The best coaches are the ones who can raise their voice depending on the needs. There are people who have a very low voice and with some players they will not make a difference. Other have a very strong voice and they will also have players that they will not make a difference for. The best ones are the ones who are able to manage that voice and to convince the player in different situations.

In order to connect with a player a coach needs to emphasize with the player, and you have to be a role model first. As a player it’s tough to respect if the coach doesn’t respect you. It’s tough for the player to be disciplined if they see that the coach is not disciplined and put in the effort during practice. The same goes for commitment, you cannot ask for commitment if you don’t show it yourself.

It’s going to be a process for the player to joining the public and the inner voice and the inner voice is what comes out in the difficult moments when your opponent brings you to the edge. It’s a big part of how you are going to behave in that moment, it’s how crazy you are going to get, how blocked your mind is going to be. The moment that you go crazy you are not going to use your tools. If you don’t use your tools you don’t compete. If you don’t compete you don’t perform, which is the job of the player.

So, the most important is that you, as a tennis coach, manage to be there with the player to make him be there all the time with the best effort possible. Then winning and losing is not key, because normally if you work properly and normally in the long run, you’re going to be able to perform well and compete well. If you compete well you have tools, and if you have tools you are going to win a lot of matches because you are going to be ready for the key points.

If you look at statics for the world number ones for the past 10 years, they have on average only won 55 % of the points that they have played. That means that the number 1 player in the world is losing 45 percent of the points that they are playing. Therefore, they have to be able to accept the loss of those points in order to be ready for the points that is deciding the outcome of the match. The best players localize the important points extremely well. That’s why when the best players have finished a match, they can remember that match perfectly. They apply their best patterns on the key points. There is a small difference in the amount of points won, but there is a big difference in how those points are played.

The mentality of a tennis coach needs to be that you are always behind the player because your success is always related to the success of the player. You as a tennis coach cannot be before the player. There are some coaches which are so strong and so powerful that they will go before the player and they are the ones leading the boat somewhere and the player follows.

It’s depending on the stage that you work, if you work in junior tennis under 18, 16 or 14, I think that is a different type of coaching. Then there are also the coaches that give lessons, for me they are not coaches, they are trainers.

For me being a coach mainly starts when you are outside of the court. It’s when you watch a match with the player, when you talk to the player about their overall game and there is an exchange of information. The best players are the ones who listen the most. In order to get the player to listen you need to have empathy with the player. If you get to the point where the player is almost playing the match with you, you have an opportunity. If the player plays alone and there is no connection, I don’t believe there is much of an opportunity of improvement.

I always believe that the best tennis coaches are the one that explains why you win, why you lose and makes the player always be ready to come out from their comfort zone to keep improving. The best players are the ones that are always looking to become the best that they can become every time they go to the court.

The players must trust you.

In order for them to trust you, you have to be able to communicate with players in their language.

That means that it varies depending on what player you work with. Communication and a good relationship not only with the player, but also the parents and the whole environment is a big part of being successful as a tennis coach.

Sometimes less is more as a tennis coach.

It’s important to find ways to explain your message to the players that you are working with in an easy and short manner with high quality.

I (Peter) have sometimes made the mistake of providing too much information in a too short time span. Sometimes listening is more important than talking.

I (Peter) started playing golf a few years back and then for my birthday my sons gave me some golf lessons. All of a sudden, I was a beginner again, which I think is important to experience as a coach.

As a coach I (Peter) like to teach what I call “functional tennis”, where I would not necessarily change e.g. a more old-fashioned eastern grip, but instead work around it because my (Peter) belief would be that they would never change it.

Then when I (Peter) had the lesson with the golf coach she told me (Peter) “I would like to change your grip, because now you played a few years and in order to further improve it would be a good idea”. I said: “Oh, don’t do that – my grip is very close to what you are suggesting”

Anyway, we changed the grip. At first it was awkward, but then after one week of practice it became more normal and I (Peter) slowly learned it. Then after 6 months more the golf coach said that I (Peter) had to change the grip again. Again I (Peter) was hesitant, but it worked fine with a little bit of patience and that made me (Peter) think that maybe I (Peter) could actually do that with tennis players as well.

I’m (Peter) now 66 and I’m still looking for the best way to coach. I’m not satisfied at the moment and I have a lot of knowledge, but I’m still looking for new ways.

For me a common misconception is practicing with no purpose. Probably a lot of coaches are practicing how they liked to practice in their own career or simply how their coach used to run the practices with them as players.

But the game has developed over the years and of course, the practice court has to be updated as well.

An example is that a Porsche from 1980 is different from the one in 2020. If you always do what you have always done, you always get the same results.

This article is supposed to give an overview of modern content of tennis practice. It’s a result of my (Peter) practical experience as a coach on a national and international level combined with the latest research available in sport science.

Why do we need a new priority on the tennis practice court?

The evolution of tennis players has been enormous. The high level of performance is the result of higher quality in training and in planning. Therefore, we as tennis coaches have to ask for modern input for practices. We have to be open for new ways. Continuous learning throughout our careers is a must for us as coaches to be successful.

The development of the service is a good example on the evolution of the performance in tennis. Objectively measurable characteristics for the 1st and 2^nd serve have improved during the last 20 years to beat the precision, number of aces, the ratio of winning points after the serve has increased a lot.

Following these findings there is another priority of practice.

So, what should the new priority look like?

1^st priority is the serve, the return and the following 2 shots, 3 and 4 (Happens 70% of the time)

2^nd priority is the rally, 5-8 strokes (Happens 20 % of the time)

3^rd priority is the “so called” long rallies, 9+ (Happens 10 % of the time)

How do we do that on the court?

In practices look for short but high intensity drills with a good quality. That is far more valuable than having 30 minutes cross court rallies.

To have serve and return as a first priority doesn’t mean that you stop the so-called rhythm training, but there has to be more emphasize on the first 4 strokes as well as the rally length 5-8.

What is examples from Peter’s practice?

My (Peter) practice sessions start like usual with a little bit of hitting, so they get that “feeling” that the players are often looking for. Then the next drill is important. That should be a drill with serve and return. In that way it becomes a mixture of finding rhythm and doing the right thing on the practice court. Very often in the past, serve and return was always at the end of practice sessions. By practicing the serve and return last we are signaling that it’s not that important, but that is wrong. We have to prioritize the serve and return +1 more so it’s either in the middle or even at the start of the practices where the players are fresher physically and mentally.

The amount of emphasize on the serve and return is determined by your purpose of the practice. If you are working with a beginner, it makes sense to put a little more emphasize on developing the strokes and do more repetitions. If you are working with performance players, the emphasize should be more towards the start of the rally and what goes on in matches. In a match you very rarely hit the same shot more than once and that has the be reflected on the practice court.

Doing more serve, return +1 practice also allows you as a coach to give more tactical feedback to the players compared to technical, which I (Peter) think is important if you want to develop what I (Peter) call functional tennis.

With more emphasize on the serve – what do we need to be aware of as tennis coaches?

At first you have to prepare the body. It’s not a good thing to from one day to another put a basket of 100 balls to the players and let them serve. You have to from a young age prepare their bodies to be able to handle the load. Especially the shoulder is important. It’s a combination of developing strength and flexibility. When you then do practice the serve you go for e.g. 6 serves out wide for precision, power or whatever your purpose of the drill is. In between each serve the player is supposed to do his/her normal routine.

If you have practice session of 90-120 minutes aim for 60-80 serves per player per session and be conscious of getting breaks in between so the body of the players will not break down.

We need to think about how far ahead the players can think. What the future is like for them and what they are thinking about.

If you’re a young kid, you’re not thinking about next month. If someone says your birthday’s next month, you have no idea how long that is or how many sleeps that is. You have no concept of that kind of time. As we get older, we have a greater concept of time and what it means. That also means that time has a reference to our goals. So, a smaller kid generally needs to experience success a bit faster than an older kid.

A 10-year-old child can maybe work on something for a week. A 12-year-old can work a month with the goal of trying to get to something. A 15-year-old kid might be able to work on something for several months.

When we talk about time, the goal can change within those time frames and therefore the success or challenge also change. We start to reflect on how much risk the players are prepared to take, how much time they’re prepared to invest, how we position the environment in little increments or big chunks.

So, when we’re having practices with younger players, we might be trying to get them a little bit successful every day, whereas actually with older players, they don’t need to be successful every day. It’s actually quite good for them not to be successful and go through the process of working towards something. We need to understand how the player is perceiving time in order to pitch goals that are at the right level and that those goals relate to the level of success they might need to keep being motivated to push towards that goal.

When a player says: “I can’t do this”. That is not necessarily a bad thing. I can’t do this just means I can’t do it right now. If someone says I can’t do this at the moment or I can’t do this now, that implies that they’re ready to go a little bit further. If they didn’t say the “now”, in the end, maybe that implies that there is a judgment as to what do they want you to do.

Do they want you to make this easier or do they want you to give them more time? Do they want you to leave them alone? And do they want you just to be a lot less judgmental? What are they really saying in that?

More than anything, we as coaches need to listen. We need to understand where the players are at, and when you start understanding where they’re at and you are conscious of what you’re trying to say then you have the opportunity of getting on the same page.