Right in at the Deep end!

I hope you are all keeping well in these strange times. Our thoughts are of course still with everybody who continues to be affected by Coronavirus.

So following on from my previous blog where I talked a little about my start in Tennis I wanted to move on to my first experiences with County Cup.

I’m sure you’re all aware of what County Cup is but just in case – County Cup is a national competition that takes place every year and does what it says on the tin! All the counties in the U.K. are organised into groups and play a series of matches until there is an overall group winner. The teams are split up into the usual age groups and are made up of the best players from the county chosen by the County Cup Captains and also sometimes a group/committee of tennis representatives from the county.

Around the time that I was starting out with my own coaching programme in Colwyn Bay, I was approached to help out with the North Wales County Cup teams. As I think I mentioned, at the time there were not many coaches working in North Wales and so even a relatively new coach like myself was needed to accompany the players to the competition.

I was asked to assist the team captain for the North Wales 14&u county team – this would include attending training sessions, advising on team selection and then accompanying the Captain to the competition days to help organise/train the players and offer moral support. The training sessions went pretty well – not too different from a regular coaching session with a bit more focus on doubles and match/teamwork tactics - and the team was selected and ready to go. The first competition weekend finally came – we were playing on the new indoor clay courts at Welwyn Garden City. We were pretty impressed by the size of the programme and the facilities there and the team and I were feeling positive and ready to give it our best – the Team Captain however….. it became obvious quite quickly that he had no idea what he was doing!! There was no pre-match preparation or warm up, no tactical plans made and absolutely no organisation from him. The team could sense he didn’t really know what he was doing and therefore didn’t really listen to or respect him (standard teenager reaction!). I knew that if there was going to be any chance of the weekend being successful and the players having a positive experience I would need to take control. Luckily, I had always been pretty confident in dealing with problematic situations and having been in the players shoes only a few years previously I was quickly able to draw on that experience to organise the team and get everyone where they needed to be. From that point on at every County event that year I just automatically took charge of the situation. I believe the Team Captain was actually relieved to have someone else take the responsibility of controlling a bunch of 14 year olds!

After being thrown in at the deep end with that situation I was called upon almost every year to Captain one or more of the North Wales county teams so I must have done something right! I always found it to be an enjoyable experience, representing your county and being with your peers away from home was always something that the players enjoyed and remembered and it was nice to be a part of that with them. That’s not to say it was all fun and games – trying to wrangle a bunch of 12 year olds to go to their rooms or consoling a group of teenagers who have just lost another round is never going to be easy!

I personally found that my experience with County Cup taught me a few things that may also be useful for other coaches starting out so I thought I’d share them with you below:

· It’s a very good opportunity for the players and coaches from the same county to get to know each other more. It may be the first time you have come across players from different venues and programmes in your county and therefore a good opportunity to educate yourself on the overall standards of players in your county.

· It’s also a very good opportunity to network with other coaches from around the country. Keeping up to date with the picture nationally is always worth investing time in and any opportunity to learn and exchange views should always be taken.

· For the reasons above it is a very good place to start if you are wanting to go down the route of being a performance coach. The coaches and players you interact with should in theory be the best in the country so making connections during County Cup should come in handy further down the line.

· It is a very good opportunity to observe and learn about how things are done in different areas of the country. Seeing how different facilities operate and how different programmes are structured will help with developing your own programme. Expanding your knowledge and experience by leaving your own bubble and travelling to different places can only be a positive thing. I’m going to repeat myself but – every opportunity to learn should be taken.

In fact that’s a good way to end todays blog – keep learning and keep growing.