Values and Philosophies
We try hard to influence the lives of our pupils in a positive way by providing a happy, personable and quality coaching environment that people (juniors and adults alike) want to be a part of, and where friendships and a lifelong love for the game are fostered. We take pride in producing good people as well as good tennis players, and we are proud of the players we have helped nurture so far.
To coach players so they develop all-round games: players can then choose the style they want to play, have a varied game style to fall back on if need be (e.g. if losing in a match and need to change they way they play), plus developing all-round games can increase the player's enjoyment of tennis throughout their life and it can make them play better doubles as well as singles.
Coaching sessions versus practice sessions: coaching sessions are for learning (technique, tactics, strategy, movement and physical attributes, right mentality and thinking), whereas paid hits, practices with other players and practices on the wall are times for players to think for themselves, be creative and ingrain what have been learning.
Junior vs. adult success: if developing an all-round game, players should expect greater success later on in their junior tennis journey/ early in their adult tennis journey as there are so many things to perfect.
LTA rankings and ratings: best not to over-focus or place an over-emphasis on these as can hinder player development. Players must compete and win sufficiently to enable them to gain entry to events as the get older e.g. Nationals, Grade 2s and 3s, etc. • Academics: vital to continue and strive to achieve at school due to the cross-over of skills e.g. self discipline, using your brain on court! Plus, players need academics for careers if not successful pro careers.
"Trust us": we have huge collective experience of competing and coaching, the LTA system and how players in other countries have developed. Plus, we have a track record of coaching hundreds of recreational players, club team players, university scholars, county champions, national champions and world-ranked professional players.
A sensible and realistic approach to player development: by using our coaches' collective playing and coaching experience, we know how best to avoid players "falling out of love with the game" and unhappy family relationships. We have designed what we believe is a sensible and realistic approach to helping aspiring players fulfill their potential.
Parents treatment of their child after wins and losses: we advise parents not to go overboard if they win or lose, and instead to reward effort and behaviour whilst penalising a lack of effort and bad behaviour. • Children playing too much tennis and too many different activities: beware of your children doing too much, which can lead to burn out, falling out of love with tennis, and them switching their minds off in coaching sessions.
Players involved in different coaching programmes: "too many cooks spoil the broth!". When players are young (up to age of 11-13 typically), beware of players having too many coaches from different programmes. It can lead to confusion for the player, upset personal player-coach relationships, and to jealousy/ teasing/ resentment from other players.
A young player's mind is crucial for success and happiness, both in their tennis careers and in their life: we try to help parents avoid overly pressuring, spoiling, and structuring their child's tennis and lives.
Instilling Heron and Ace's values: we try to instill our values of self-discipline, responsibility, thinking for yourself, bravery, honesty (with oneself and others), respect, loyalty, a love for the game, friendships, intelligence and a try your hardest work ethic.