Benefits of having a coach at a place to play/tennis facility

A coach is a valuable asset for any tennis provider; a really good coach, however, is invaluable. Whether employing your first and only coach or looking to recruit a new member to the team, a good coach should:

  • Help maintain the standard of play in the place to play or raise it to a higher level
  • Encourage members to play tennis and improve their game
  • Increase membership numbers by enhancing the place to play’s credibility
  • Actively source new members and help promote and market the place to play
  • Act as a point of contact for members and interact on a social and coaching level
  • Optimise facilities and resources and help advance the place to play’s overall development
  • Design, market and deliver the tennis programme
  • Help organise competition for your adult and junior members

A good coaching programme can help your place to play access funding to extend the programme or improve the place to plays facilities as well as retain and attract new members.

Identify the need for a coach

Before you begin to look for a coach you should think about the direction you wish to move in as this will steer the recruitment process. Ask questions such as:-

  • Do we want to increase our membership significantly?
  • Do we want to increase the number of juniors playing by improving our school links?
  • Do we want to begin to focus on junior performance players?
  • Do we want to retain the status quo and support our existing membership?
  • Where do we want the place to play to be in 5 or 10 years time?

This will help inform:-

  • The level of coaching expertise/experience required
  • The specific skills and experience needed e.g., working with children, performance coach or coach experienced in developing school links
  • Whether the position will be full time or part time

Write a job description

Before you begin to actively look for a coach, it’s important to draw up a clear job description that takes account of all the needs of the place to play/tennis facility. Make sure that the job description and person specification is appropriate for your needs. For example don’t advertise for or appoint a performance coach if you want to develop and extend your tennis programme.

Include some information on the place to play/tennis facility e.g. aims and objectives, details of the current programme, league and player success as well as the key role requirements, as follows:

  • Set up, manage and promote the on court tennis programme
  • Establish a mini tennis programme
  • Develop a performance programme
  • Work in partnership with the local satellites to support the development of players in the local area
  • Identify talented young players and work with the talent performance coordinator to support those players
  • Establish quality school links
  • Deliver a programme of adult coaching opportunities
  • Organise regular intra/inter competitive opportunities for adults
  • Attend management committee meetings
  • Work with the management committee to achieve Clubmark
  • Work with the junior management committee to provide inter/inter competitive opportunities for juniors

Person specification - set out who you are looking for. Not everything will be applicable.

  • Qualification – do you need a coach capable of working across the whole membership or one who focuses on the performance side of the programme?
  • LTA licensed coach with a commitment to personal development
  • Capable of delivering a quality tennis programme
  • Capable of working with schools to develop quality school links
  • Capable of providing local competitive opportunities for juniors and adults
  • Capable of working with performance players
  • Capable of working with the countyLTA
  • Satisfactory CRB disclosure
  • Excellent customer service skills
  • Capable of working with amanagement committee

Advertising for a coach

A good way to advertise or find out about a new coaching position is through the ‘In your area’ section of the LTA website – to do this please contact your local county office. You should also contact your local Tennis Development Manager who may know of coaches looking for a new role.

You should ask coaches to submit a curriculum vitae and covering letter detailing how they meet the person specification and why they would be the best candidate for the role.

Short listing

You should decide who is going to be responsible for short listing and interviewing. It is recommended that a panel of management committee members is formed and that they take responsibility for the whole process. You can also ask your Tennis Development Manager for advice as they are likely to know the coaches that apply for your position.

Depending on how many applications you receive you should consider short listing the applicants based on the candidate’s curriculum vitae and covering letter. Some tips to help you include:-

  • Only interview coaches who have the right qualification or are working towards it
  • Only interview coaches who are LTA licensed
  • Check the coach has the correct level of experience for the role
  • Check prior learning and achievements – what have they done in the past?

Once you have short listed the coaches you should inform the coaches whether they have been selected for interview. Remember to keep on file the details of those you have not chosen as they may be good contacts for the future.

Prior to inviting the short-listed candidates to an interview it would be prudent to check with LTA Coach Support or your local county office the validity of stated coach qualifications and licence status for all coaches. Clubs can also check if a coach is licensed by using the ‘Find a Coach’ search on the website.

Interviewing Process

Once you have short listed your coaches you should invite them to the interview. You should conduct an off court interview and on court interview. You can ask your local LTA Tennis Development Manager to help with the interview process or even a local coach who you know runs a good programme to help, particularly with the on court interview.

The off court interview

The interview should be conducted in a business like manner in a suitable venue by the nominated panel of management committee members. We have listed a few interview questions and included the option of asking the coach to deliver a short presentation on an agreed topic. The questions you ask and whether or not you ask the coaches to deliver a short presentation will depend on the type of role you are advertising. For example if you are looking for a head coach you will mostly likely want them to deliver a presentation, but for an assistant coach this may not be necessary or appropriate.

Presentation

You should ask the coach to prepare a short presentation (5 – 10 minutes) on a pre arranged subject. This will enable you to judge whether the coach has prepared for the interview appropriately, test their presentation skills and give you a feel for how the coach analyses information and can deliver against a pre determined brief. Make this relevant to your needs.

Some suggestions for presentation topics include: -

  • How would you look to develop the current tennis programme and what would be your priority?
  • Our place to play doesn’t have any school place to play links at the moment. How would you go about developing a school link programme and how will this increase the number of junior members?
  • We want to become a satellite venue, do you think we will be able to meet the standards and if not what elements of our current tennis programme would we need to improve?
  • We want to become Clubmark accredited. We understand that the management committee needs to play a key role but how will you be able to support us?

Interview questions

You should then ask the coach a number of interview questions. Some suggestions include:-

  • Can you give an example of when you have identified ineffective element of your tennis programme and tell us how you went about improving the programme?
  • How would you manage and support other coaches who are working to deliver the tennis programme?
  • How would you support and work with the tennis management committee?
  • What is your knowledge of our programme and are there any immediate improvements you would make?
  • We would like to improve the mini tennis programme and this would be a key area for you to develop. How would you go about this?
  • We haven’t got much of an adult coaching programme, how would you develop a coaching programme for adults and what would be the priority?
  • We have read that junior competition is really important for young players. We have teams in local leagues but don’t run much intra competition. How would you build this into the tennis programme?
  • Can you give us an example of when you have worked as part of a team to achieve a shared goal?
  • Have you set up a tennis coaching programme from scratch? How did you go about this?
  • What’s your understanding of the LTA’s competition framework and how would to implement the principles at our place to play?
  • How would you ensure a high standard of customer service is delivered to our members?
  • How would you set up school links?
  • How would you encourage players from schools to come and join?
  • Many members of the club don’t understand the ratings and rankings system how would you explain it to them?

You should record the details of the interview to help you with the decision making process.

The on court interview

It is vitally important for coaches to perform well in a formal off court interview but they also need to show you what they can do on court. You should ask the coach to take a coaching session. Here are some tips:-

The on-court coaching session should involve players that are of a similar standard to those that the newly appointed coach will predominantly have to work with. You could give the coach a lesson topic to prepare, for example for adults you could ask the coach to structure the lesson around the serve and volley in doubles or when and how to intercept in doubles.

You should check that the session is well structured. Here are some things to look for.

  • Warm up
  • Competitive situation to allow for evaluation of players
  • Clear teaching point, demonstration and practice
  • Progression of the teaching point to include demonstration and practice
  • Competition to end with
  • Cool down
  • Reinforce the teaching point and set out the aims for next week

Check that the coach is enthusiastic, provides guidance to all players, watches the players for the whole session and has fun with the players. Once the session is over ask the players what they though of the session. But remember a coach can make a session fun without teaching anything! Check the coach knows the players names at the end of the on court session.

If you are unsure what to look for it is recommended that you ask your local Tennis Development Manager to come and observe the session. Or you could ask a good coach who works in the area.

Recruiting and appointing a new coach

RECRUIT SAFELY

Everyone should be able to play tennis in a safe and enjoyable environment. This relies on the good practice of adults, on court and off. Bad practice and abuse from a minority of people can undermine the efforts of others. The best way to deal with bad practice and abuse is to prevent it from happening. One important way to do this is to follow safe recruitment practice before new employees, volunteers and contactors gain access to tennis venues and events.

Who does this apply to?

Anyone who will be in a position of authority over children or other vulnerable people should be recruited with care. This includes volunteers, employees, contractors, coaches, officials, assistants, management committee members and tournament organisers. If someone is going to have substantial contact with children, you must be thorough. This also applies to senior management committee members and other officials who have responsibility for overseeing and managing activities involving children or young people.

Unfortunately, serious abuse is often committed by adults who are known and trusted in their community. This means that you should follow good procedures in every single case. Do not be suspicious of the people around you, but be thorough enough to meet your responsibilities.

There are five important steps that you should consider;

  • TAKE REFERENCES
  • CRB
  • BACKGROUND/HISTORY
  • SET OUT AGREEMENT/CONTRACT
  • INDUCTION

Also remember that the LTA produces detailed guidance on many of the issues discussed here. To access this guidance go to contact the Child Protection Department directly on 0208 487 7008/7116 or mobile (24 hour) 07971 141024.

Before Offering the Position

  • Check the coaches CV for inconsistencies or gaps
  • Take up references - these should be thoroughly checked prior to an offer being made particularly in relation to suitability to work with children, as well as character references
  • Check whether the coach has a satisfactory Enhanced Criminal Records Bureau certificate - see the Child Protection information in the safeguarding section of the LTA website
  • If one of the referees is not the coach’s previous employer it is probably wise to contact the previous employer. Although it is important to bear in mind that any difficult circumstances may be to do with the previous employer, and are not necessarily a reflection on the coach

Offering the position

See the various options in the ongoing management of the coach/coaching team section below.

When the coach starts

Organise an induction – make sure that all new starters are given a proper induction. This should include information on the standards expected of those working with children and on the arrangements in place for ensuring the welfare of children and young people. Remember to hand out a copy of your child protection policy and to provide contact details for relevant child protection officers and agencies.

Have a probationary period at the end of which you and the coach can walk away if either are not happy, this probationary period would need to have clear goals to be achieved in the time span and have clear monitoring and evaluating.

Ongoing Management of the Coach/Coaching Team

Please see some options to help your management committee decide the most appropriate way of managing your tennis coach or coaches. It covers 7 areas:-

  • Employing your coaches
  • The benefits and constraints for the place to play and coaches
  • What to include in your contract of employment
  • Consultancy agreement for coaching services
  • The benefits and constraints for the place to play and coaches
  • Appropriate fees for coaching services
  • Coach agreement
  • Not as formal as employing your coach or having in place a consultancy agreement for coaching services but sets out the basis of the relationship between the place to play and the coach
  • What happens if no agreement is in place
  • What happens if there is more than one coach working at the place to play
  • Additional support available through Baseline legal services
  • Ongoing management of the place to play/coach relationship

Employing your coach or coaches

A contract of employment is an agreement between employer and employee and is the basis of the employment relationship. A contract is made when an offer of employment is accepted (remember this can be verbally so take care in any discussions with coaches so there is no confusion when the contract is prepared). A number of rights and duties, enforceable through the courts, arise as soon as this happens.

Below are a list of some of the benefits and constraints associated with employment relationships in a tennis environment:

Benefits

  • Professional and formalised approach to the management of your coach or coaches
  • Management committee has greater control of the coach and/or coaching team
  • Financial security for the coach – they have a salary paid monthly
  • Coach has a specific job description and responsibilities are clear and understood by all parties
  • The coaches’ hours of work will be set
  • Performance of the coach can be managed and monitored in a formalised way
  • Ability to obtain an income from the tennis programme
  • Support a flourishing performance programme as performance players don’t have to pay for coaching by the hour which can be a financial burden on the player
  • Ensure delivery of a balanced mix of coaching and competition as the coach isn’t relying on coaching hours for his/her income
  • Ability to control the charges of the coaches which can help with consistent customer service
  • Formally agreed notice period for the coach which can provide continuity for players
  • Ability to stipulate that the coach must conduct themselves in a professional manner and be licensed

Note: an employed coach will have no reason to do extra work outside their contracted hours and responsibilities. The employer (place to play) needs to be clear who is going to administer and promote the coaching programme if this is not included in the employed coach’s job description.