Australian Open

I was very fortunate to be invited to the Australian Open Grand Slam Coaches’ Conference to present on the Mini Tennis World Tour so far. What a privilege to be able to tell the story on this international scale, I gladly accepted.

We arrived in Melbourne, to a 4.5 star hotel (Mantra) for a four night stay for the conference, with a lovely note from Tennis Australia welcoming me as a speaker. Quite the difference from most of our travels so far in some of the third-world countries we have visited on this journey, there was an air of guilt, but enjoyed the comfy bed and accommodation. I also received a ground pass to the Australian Open, of which I definitely made use of. Who knew this adventure with a tennis net and a guitarcase would take me to the Australian Open to tell the story.

The event is usually held in the grounds of Melbourne park on the, comically named, Batman Avenue, although on this occasion Tennis Australia had hired the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. An impressive site for any international conference, let alone one for tennis coaches. I arrived at the event to join in the morning’s wellbeing classes and social activities, including a mass team mini tennis tournament and treasure hunt - a brilliant concept and a great way to meet new coaches before the event starts - with a focus on coach wellbeing and networking.

On our first day delivering, we presented the MTWT story. If you’ve read any of the previous blogs, you’ll know how personal this journey has been to me. The presentation followed the project from the initial conception of the MTWT idea, to the travel adventure and delivery across the world. Most notably this included a ‘day in the life’ video from Guatemala showing what a typical day on the road and delivering consisted of. And also including the video of the volcano erupting behind us as we played tennis on top of mount Acatenango (you can read more about this in our Central America blog), this got a great reaction from the crowd.

After many edits, the presentation evolved and was eventually entitled ‘Why we coach?’, as it was so much more than just following the travel journey. You could see ‘what’ we did online, this was, more importantly, the learnings we gained from it. To stage this, I asked the coaches at the beginning of the session: ‘Why do you coach?’. With many answering; ‘to help others reach their goals’, ‘to connect’, ‘get the best out of others’, ‘because I love the sport’, along with many more. I was hear to challenge this and reconnect with these statements.

This was my story, me rediscovering my ‘why?’. I surprised myself when I got teary and emotional half way through when talking about Fatima in Ecuador and the impact the people I had met had had on so many young people’s lives. Having such meaning in life. On reflection, it made me realise how impactful this charitable project has been on my own life and how lucky and privileged I have been to be able to go on this journey of helping others and recalibrating my own meaning. Trying to rediscover the purpose of what I was doing, through giving back to communities on a global scale and exploring their cultures, lives and outlook on life.

When you think of them logically, most sports could be considered a pointless timewasting exercise i.e. hitting a ball over a net into a box, kicking a ball into a net, hitting a ball with a stick into a hole (a long way away). But sport brings so much more than this, it is easy to lose perspective when you are in this world daily.

I went out there to ‘change lives through tennis’; although in honesty it was them who changed mine. It was through this tour where I truly understood what sport brings to people and their communities. and what we as human beings really need in life. Reminding myself why we do what we do. In particular, highlighting the importance of the four pillars; food, water, shelter and relationships - everything else on top of this is as a bonus, or often sometimes a distraction. The project showed me that sport can be used as a vessel to develop so many transferable life skills i.e. Confidence, resilience, teamwork, communication, respect. Aiding the sense of inclusion and brining the local community together. Strengthening these pillars - particularly experience and relationships.

When discussing these learnings, it’s when it hit me… my eyes started welling-up, the passion and my reason or ‘why’ came out, similar to that of a self-therapy session, but in front of a crowd. I had been so matter-of-fact on the build up to the presentation and the project that this moment hit me. It really meant so much - and to share this was a big moment for me, as this was the first time I had really told the story to others.

This evoked emotion from the crowd, with many of them also getting teary at this moment. This surprised me even more - that this also meant something to them as listeners, something they could all relate to in their own lives. I had multiple people come up and shake my hand afterwards saying thank you for sharing and how inspirational the story was. It feels like a selfish story, but I realised that this is something that many people go through in their lives and careers - the need to recalibrate with what really matters - and can relate to in all walks of life. The story meant something and I’m grateful I had the chance to share that with those in attendance. There was a connection I wasn’t expecting and for that I will always be thankful. I was told of ‘the hero’s journey’ and that it’s great to go out and adventure, but it’s more powerful to come home and tell the story.

Delivering the presentation ‘Developing the serve: Transitioning from Orange to Green’

The second presentation was on ‘The Serve. Transitioning from orange to green’. An area of mini tennis I have had a lot of experience in, taked with developing the International High Performance Centre player pathway ‘from Tots to Tour’ in my time as Head Coach at Team Bath, University of Bath and on a smaller scale at my time as Head Coach at Epping Tennis Club. Within these sessions I explored scaffold learning and skill acquisition to help children develop their motor skills and become 360 athletes to help the transition through ball stages. The exercises shown were pretty straightforward and easy to transfer to the coaches courts the next day, but it was the learning principles that I hope the coaches took away that will mean more to all the players they work with in the future. A person-first approach and having the long-term player development always in mind. Tennis Australia went on to use some of the exercises in their own curriculum and I can’ think of a bigger compliment.

After the Australian Open and conference, we managed to do some exploring, escaping down the Great Ocean Road and of course, with a racquet in our guitar case. We even had a koala friend join in. What a transformational trip. I’m glad we got a chance to tell the story and has given me further drive to report on the programme further in the future.