Blog

Are you training the dead time in matches?

The dead time is the time in between points, games and sets. Data shows that dead time makes up 75% of the actual match time. Which means that 25% of...

When I first started coaching, I was asked by one of my mentors what my coaching philosophy was, and at that time, I had no idea. Actually, I had no idea what a coaching philosophy was in general.

Today I spent a lot of time with a player working on their perception and ability to read the incoming ball. In other words, we spent a lot of time on the receive aspect of the game.

Tennis is a...

There are a few concepts I was told repeatedly as a young player that I never quite understood. I would nod at my coaches and pretend to understand, or I would kinda understand, but not enough to...

Over the years I have found there are two types of players. The first trains amazing but when they play a match, it doesn’t translate. The other trains so-so but turns it on in a match. Today...

One of my philosophies around developing a complete player is adopting a holistic approach. And to explain this, I use what I call the Complete Player Pyramid. This pyramid is made up of three...

Last week I talked about a player who had lost confidence and how we reframed his thinking so that he focused on what he did well. I want to expand on that idea this week.

We are our worst critics

Last week I was out at a tournament with one of my players. Before he went out to play, he turned to me and confessed, ‘Marc, I’m really out of form. I’ve lost five matches in a...

Last week I talked about how stories can be used in coaching to cement ideas. This week I want to share another story. It’s an old Chinese proverb about a farmer and I use it to illustrate...

I coach in an academy where we have over 35 players in our program. It’s a squad-based environment, so to stimulate our players thinking and creativity, my coaching staff and I come up with...

One thing I’ve learnt from years of coaching and mentoring is that often, one good analogy can do the job of multiple repetitions of the same advice. But for that analogy to really hit home,...

You need only need 52%

Guess what? When you play a match, you’re not going to win every point. Seems obvious, doesn’t it? But how many do you have to win, on average, to win more...