The Player Comes First
Before we talk about technique, before we talk about drills or training methods or what the forehand should look like, I think there is a question that matters more than almost anything else in coaching:
Why is this person here?
It sounds obvious. But I have found that it is one of the most underused questions in tennis coaching. We spend a lot of energy analysing what the player is doing wrong, or designing the session we think they need, before we have really understood what they are looking for.
People Come to Tennis for Very Different Reasons
Some players want to compete. They want to measure themselves against others, win matches, climb rankings, discover what they are capable of under pressure.
Some want fitness. Tennis is movement, coordination, cardio, for some people it is simply a much more enjoyable way of staying active than anything else they have tried.
Some want social connection. The club, the group lesson, the hit with friends on a Sunday morning, the game is a container for relationships.
Some want mastery. The feeling of hitting a ball cleanly, of improving at something difficult, of understanding a game that keeps revealing new layers.
Some want to feel young again. Some want a challenge. Some want an hour a week where they step away from everything else and just play.
And for many people, it is some mix of all of these, in proportions that shift depending on age, life circumstances, and what week they are having.
“Coaching becomes less useful the moment we assume every player wants the same thing.”
What This Means for Coaching
If two players walk into a session and one of them is there because they want to compete in club tournaments, and the other is there because they want to enjoy rallying and feel good in their body, they are not the same player. They might be the same age, same level, same forehand, but they are not the same player.
The first player needs practice environments that build match-readiness: decision-making under pressure, patterns that hold up against real opponents, the ability to manage their own emotions when it matters. The second player might need something that keeps the game feeling enjoyable and expansive, with enough challenge to stay engaged but not so much pressure that it stops being fun.
Applying the same approach to both of them doesn’t serve either of them well.
A player-centred approach does not mean giving people whatever they want, with no direction or challenge. It means starting from an honest understanding of what the person is actually seeking from the game, and designing the coaching from there.
The First Question Is Not About the Forehand
I used to see coaching that began immediately with technical observation: what the player was doing wrong, what needed fixing. There is a version of that which can be useful. But I think it misses something important.
The first coaching question is not “what is wrong with your forehand?” It is closer to: “What are you hoping tennis gives you?”
Or: “What does a good session feel like for you?” Or: “What do you want to be able to do on court that you cannot do right now?”
These questions often reveal much more than watching someone warm up. They tell you about the player’s relationship with competition, with failure, with effort, with enjoyment. They tell you what matters to them, which is the only useful starting point for helping them.
Motivation Is the Engine
This connects directly to what we know about how people sustain improvement over time. When motivation comes from inside, genuine curiosity, the desire to get better at something that matters to the person, the joy of the activity itself, people keep going. They practise more voluntarily. They recover faster from setbacks. They develop a relationship with the sport that can last a lifetime.
External motivation, pressure from a coach, comparison with others, fear of making mistakes, wanting to please someone else, can produce short-term results, but it is fragile. It tends to disappear when the external pressure disappears.
That is why I believe that understanding a player’s motivation is not just a nice thing to do. It is the foundation that everything else is built on.
A player who knows why they are playing, and who feels that their reasons are understood and respected, will learn better, engage more deeply, and stay in the game longer than a player whose reasons for being there are not understood or acknowledged.
References and Further Reading
- Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. Plenum Press.
- Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78.
- Mageau, G. A., & Vallerand, R. J. (2003). The coach-athlete relationship: A motivational model. Journal of Sports Sciences, 21(11), 883–904.
- Côté, J., Baker, J., & Abernethy, B. (2003). From play to practice: A developmental framework for the acquisition of expertise in team sport. In J. Starkes & K. A. Ericsson (Eds.), Expert Performance in Sports. Human Kinetics.