More light at the end of the tunnel this past few weeks with the Australian Open taking place.
I never played professional but it was tournaments like this that inspired me to start looking up to professional tennis and helped start my journey to go on to become a tennis coach.
Becoming a tennis coach
It certainly wasn’t my dream to become a tennis coach when I was young. Is it anyone kids dream to do that. I hear kids wanting to be tennis players or doctors but never heard anyone child say I want to be a coach. I certainly never had any kids come up to be in my coaching days and say they wanted to coach like me.
I wonder if my journey is similar to other coaches. I enjoyed the sport, got to a reasonable standard, didn’t do great at school, started a uni course which bored me and then fell into coaching as there was not to many other choices out there.
I did love it though. It really did feel like a dream job when I started out. You are getting paid to do a sport you loved as a kid, almost feeling you have made it as you get free tennis gear thrown at you from the big brands. You then realise you get enjoyment out of seeing progression and improvement in the next generation. I remember putting programs together and pathways to allow kids to progress that showed real talent and promise.
As my coaching journey moved into the big private chains and my whole role switched to management, hiring, financial, basically running a business. I do look back on the early days and pay thanks to the Andre Agassi and the Pete Sampras to inspire me to get involved in the sport.
Nikki Thng,
CEO ClassForKids