Over the course of 30 years coaching competitive tennis, the author has learned that coaching is about more than just developing individual players' skills. It involves educating parents, creating a systematic approach that integrates technical, tactical and performance optimization, and accepting that players will come and go over time as their needs change. The author emphasizes repetition and giving new ideas enough time to work, noting that concepts seen as "ridiculous" decades ago are now common practice. Overall, the document outlines the author's philosophy of coaching as an ongoing process with constant challenges to overcome.

1. 
3o Years Coaching Competitive Tennis
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2. The coach does not make the player. The player
makes him or herself with the help of the coach.
• Many factors determine the ultimate product
• The Natural Order

3. They are never your players. Players pass
through your program.
• It is impossible to be the best option at every stage
• Players will leave.

4. No one can steal your players. Players will leave
when you cannot give them what they are
looking for.
• Great Coaching is only one of the reasons players choose a program.
• It is a business.

5. Your best player is not a true reflection of your
coaching ability. It is the average level of all your
players that reflects your ability.
• Create your own system
• My System
• Integrated approach
• Technical Mastery / Stroke Flexibility
• Tactical Mastery / The Laws of the Battle
• Optimizing Performance / Athleticism and Mental Game

6. Integrated Approach
Tactical
Mastery
Competition
Technical
Mastery
Optimizing
Performance

7. Parents are part of the package. You cannot develop
players without them. Do not spurn them; educate
them.

8. Technical Mastery
Achieving Stroke Flexibility: The ability to handle every type of
ball that the opponent sends and return it with the desired
combination of spin, speed, height and direction.
How do we accomplish this?
Planned Variability: Identify key stroke variations and practice them on a
regular basis.
Optimizing
Performance
Technical
Mastery

9. Everything is easy once you mastered it. Do not
assume that something that is easy to you
should be easy to everyone.

10. Tactical Mastery
Ability to respond automatically to every situation on the
court with the shot that will give you the best chance of
winning the point.
How do we accomplish this?
Incorporate the Laws of the Battle into your players’ games.
Define your Laws of the Battle for Singles and for Doubles
Optimizing
Performance
Develop drills to internalize these laws.
Tactical
Mastery

11. “Obvious” patterns are only obvious to you
because you have been on the court many more
years that the players you are coaching.
• Explain the “obvious” patterns patiently and practice the situation over
and over.

12. Optimizing Performance
General and Specific Athletic Development
Optimizing
Performance
Develope a Game Style
Optimizing
Performance

13. Demanding maximum effort is easy. Constantly
producing maximum effort is very hard. Pushing
yourself often through competition or conditioning
will make you much more empathetic.

14. Competition
Competitive Practices
Optimizing
Performance
Pressure Drills
Plenty of Match and Tournament Play

15. Stay the Course. Players develop through
repetition. The best ideas will not work unless you
give them enough time.

16. Keep your Cup Half Empty.
Analyze and examine new
ideas closely before
dismissing them. You may
not have all the answers.
Ridiculous Concepts 40 years Ago:
Western Grips
Open Stance
Finishing on Same Side of Body
Jumping
Weight Training

17. Coaching competitive players is an uphill battle.
There is always a crisis around the corner. Accept it
and enjoy the process.

18. Edgar Giffenig
giffenig@hotmail.com
www.edgargiffenig.com
www.tennisgate.com