Getting better

One of my greatest challenges is getting players to play more. It goes without saying that the more someone plays, then the better they’ll get but there are quite a few challenges to overcome to enable the players to do this. There are two main reasons I hear from parents or players as to why they can’t play more:

• Not enough time – All the other activities going on in the week plus siblings
• Increased cost – If they do more coaching then it will cost more

Every player is different and I think we have to be careful not to get children playing so much that they are put off tennis but equally it’s frustrating when you have a child who wants to do more and the above factors limit them.

The parents ultimately decide and as today’s world is already so fast with so many things going on, it takes a certain parent who manages their time or sacrifices other things to enable them to help their child.

Cost is usually an issue but tennis isn’t a cheap sport as it requires professional coaching with small numbers on a regular basis but people don’t have to take the option for more coaching if they want to play more as there are many other opportunities as below:

• Find a hitting buddy
• Club sessions
• Local competitions
• Playing with parents

As well as actually playing more tennis at the tennis club or park, there are a number of other ways players can improve their skills for tennis of which some can be done at home:

• Internet research
• Home fitness
• Rallying against a wall
• Playing other sports
• Reading books
• Watching videos and matches on TV OR going to the club / tournaments to watch others play

At my club in Stony Stratford near Milton Keynes we have significantly increased the number of people playing regularly due to a number of things. When we first started at the club there would be many hours when the courts would be sat empty and what was even more disappointing was that once you are a member there are no additional costs to use the courts (unless under floodlights at £5/h or in the indoor courts £6-£10/h) so why were people not taking advantage of this? The challenge was to get court usage up, which would mean more people are playing tennis and more people getting better by enjoying the game. To increase the usage we did several things as below:

Get more schools involved

Every club needs to look to the future for new members and where better to find the youth of the future and their families than in schools. By doing curriculum sessions, breakfast clubs, after school clubs and demonstrations, we can get to a massive market that are encouraged to join the club and its activities.

Grow the coaching programme

As a team we are always looking at how we can grow the programme and over the past 3 years we have a very solid structure which has expanded due to demand and the increase in levels. This doesn’t come over night but when you engage people in coaching they must play at least once a week outside of the programme. With more numbers and more people being given guidance on how they can do more, this will only result in more tennis being played.

Internal box leagues

Two years ago I set up something called the Grand Slam League. Quite simply it is a box league with people moving up, down or staying the group depending on their results over a 2 month period. This league had been a huge success with many players at the club discussing it all the time. It’s an ability based league with Mini Tennis Red players in the bottom, through to Men’s team players and County Juniors in the top. This alone is creating 54 extra matches every 2 months at the club with more players using the previously dead court time on the weekends.

Team Tennis

Over the years we have increase the number of junior teams in the local leagues from 3 to 10 plus we have organise friendly matches against other clubs.

Make junior club night more attractive

A year ago, our junior club night was a disaster with only a couple of children turning up in the winter but more in the summer. If people are going to get better then they need to play all year round. We needed to make junior club night more attractive so the junior committee set up a tuck shop which runs during the junior club night sessions and the format of the night changed to make it more games based with our older juniors helping the younger ones. We now have around 30 people each week in the winter with more joining every month. It’s free for the juniors so the cost element is taken out but its great see how it’s getting more people playing.

Attract more people to our club through reputation

Over the past year we have more people coming to us through word of mouth and reputation. This has taken a few years as we establish ourselves but when something is successful, people want to be a part of it. We offer an all year round programme which only stops for 3 weeks a year. We have also recently installed a bubble over two courts for the winter period which also allows people to play more in the adverse weather conditions. It has taken the club 3 years to get to this point but the benefits will be received for many years to come.

Regular Communication

On a monthly basis we send out a newsletter to all the people in the club and on the programme and I am regularly emailing or talking to parents about competitions and other opportunities. On many occasions, people are contemplating to do more but don’t act on it immediately. When I communicate asking people if they want to do more, we usually get a good response.

Everything above takes time and effort to get in place as well as the commitment from the coaching team, administration, the club committee and members. Every club and coach has the responsibility to grow the game and give people opportunities to improve so I hope some of what I’ve discussed will help as motivation or inspiration for getting better.