Finding enjoyment in everything we do is an important aspect to my coaching and the journey we go through in life. Whether that’s on court, in the gym, travelling to tournaments or just being around others. To be the best version of ourself there is no way around hard work. Developing work ethic, positivity, optimism and enthusiasm whilst combining that with a strong motivating ‘purpose and why’ is going to help find that - enjoy the work.

Showing respect at all times is a must. That can be to coaches, officials and people we come across in everyday life. Respecting someone’s opinion, time, goals we set, and obstacles along the way are just some examples. Combine this with constant challenges that the tennis world throws at us we arrive at the high challenge / high level of support framework I use to prepare athletes to problem solve, deal with pressure, manage adversity and develop resilience through setbacks whilst developing the mentality of - respect the challenge.

Being disciplined and task orientated are important, meaning we stay process focussed controlling the controllable and in turn giving us a greater opportunity to improve and perform to the best of our ability. Discipline is one of the most valuable performer values I work through with a player. The choices we make, level of professionalism and habits we have day in day out over a long period of time defines who we are. What time we arrive, quality of physical warmups, sleep, what we’re fuelling our body with, getting back on the practice court after matches etc. A ranking is a reflection of the last 52 weeks, so first focussing on doing everything you possibly can each day to improve for a year is a non negotiable - stay disciplined to task

Developing self confidence and self belief in a player is an essential component of who I am as a coach. Self confidence comes from our thoughts, feelings, self talk and actions. I love this quote from Henry Ford ‘Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t. You’re right.’ Giving a player self confidence and trust in their identity and patterns on court also comes from training with the right intent, purpose and focus on developing weapons. I use a lot of video analysis to steepen the learning curve combined with measuring performance goals set. Every player has their own Wimbledon final, so finding that sense of ‘belonging’ at certain levels is also a key work on of mine.

A lot of the time players can get fixated on rankings, chasing points, defending points and wanting to win so much that it consumes them and that’s only what they measure success on. The majority of tennis players competing round the world each week lose, so shifting a players mindset to celebrating controlling all of the controllable and becoming the best version of themselves should be the priority. Tennis results don’t define who you are as a person, so mindfully working on you and who you want to be known for is success in my opinion. Know you. Be you. Stay you. Know you - Who is the person you are and or want to become. Be you - Make the choice to live authentically each day towards that version.
Stay you - Staying who you are under stress, pressure and adversity.