Melbourne, 28 June 2018 | Tennis Australia

Last week some of Australia’s top former and current players began their transition from life on the pro tennis tour to developing the next generation of players.

Casey Dellacqua, Jelena Dokic, Sally Peers, Lauren Breadmore, Sam Groth, Chris Guccione, Greg Jones, Ben Mitchell and Blake Mott joined current players Storm Sanders, Gavin Van Peperzeel and Belinda Woolcock in Melbourne Park to undertake the internationally recognised Junior Development Coaching course.

The course was facilitated by Tennis Australia Coach Education specialist Belinda Colaneri who taught the group how to develop the skills of junior players through the delivery of the ANZ Tennis Hot Shots program and focussed on creating positive learning environments and using contemporary coaching practices to deliver sessions to build the tactical and technical skills of players.

“Acquiring a formal coaching qualification is an integral part of transitioning from playing on the circuit to helping to develop the next generation of players,” Andrea Buckeridge, Tennis Australia’s Manager of Education and Professional Learning said.

“These former players have fantastic experience and insights into life on the tour and how to develop as a player, and this course will help them use their existing knowledge to guide young players both on and off the court.

Speaking highly of his coaches, Sam Groth believes they played an integral role in his life.

“I’ve had a lot of coaches over time growing up and I think the ones that influenced me most I think are the ones that have really understood me as a person.

“I think it’s a very different coaching relationship, a high-performance coaching relationship to say a development coaching relationship.

“Phil Shanahan for me growing up, he really helped develop me as a person as much as a tennis player, and then obviously from a high-performance side, Ben Mathias and I, we had a great relationship on and off the court. He’s still one of my very best mates. He was able to get the best out of me as a tennis player, but also I think helped me improve as a person. And that’s something I respect from both those guys, is that they both helped develop me into the person that I am.”

Tennis Australia offers a comprehensive education pathway to train coaches to develop players at all levels of the sport, for more information visit: https://www.tennis.com.au/coaches/coach-education