{"id":19548,"date":"2024-05-22T13:30:49","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T05:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=19548"},"modified":"2024-05-22T13:37:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T05:37:26","slug":"coaching-spotlight-brad-dyer-embracing-journey-with-taylah-preston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2024\/05\/22\/coaching-spotlight-brad-dyer-embracing-journey-with-taylah-preston","title":{"rendered":"Coaching Spotlight: Brad Dyer Embracing Journey with Taylah Preston"},"content":{"rendered":"

When an eight-year-old Taylah Preston first signed up for tennis lessons, Perth coach Brad Dyer had no idea of the journey they would soon embark upon together.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can never really know, but she had really good qualities as a person and was quite driven,\u201d Dyer recalled of his first impressions.<\/p>\n

Now in their 11th<\/sup>\u00a0year of collaboration, WA’s Preston is\u00a0one of Australia\u2019s top-ranked women<\/a>\u00a0and verging on breaking into the world\u2019s top 100.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s pretty cool, because you don\u2019t hear of that happening too often,\u201d Dyer said of their enduring partnership.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften kids get to a certain age then find a different coach or move to a different academy. The grass is always greener, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Taylah and her parents have stayed extremely loyal to me. We\u2019ve stuck together and gone through it all together. From developing her game to her early teenage years, we\u2019ve been learning as we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such loyalty is even more admirable, considering the 39-year-old Dyer\u2019s inexperience coaching at an elite level.<\/p>\n

His first foray into coaching came as a means \u201cto earn a little bit of money\u201d in between playing State League in Perth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just sort of fell into it a little bit,\u201d he explained. \u201cI started coaching some kids groups in the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

This transitioned into becoming a hitting partner and then coaching some promising teenage talents, before joining the team at his brother Ash\u2019s\u00a0Next Step Tennis Academy<\/a>\u00a0in Perth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love being able to help,\u201d Dyer said of why he decided to pursue a full-time coaching career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find it satisfying to see them grow as people, as well as tennis players.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said this was particularly true for Preston.<\/p>\n

\u201cTay has evolved and changed so much over the past 10 years,\u201d he noted. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to see you can have some impact in them getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Dyer has guided Preston, he too has evolved and grown as a coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho wouldn\u2019t want to sit in a players\u2019 box at a Grand Slam and see their player get to that level?\u201d Dyer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think specifically that I always wanted to do that, but it was definitely something I was happy to set out to do if the right player came along.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t a Grand Slam player, so it\u2019s all new for myself too. As your player gets better, you\u2019re there learning with them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preston made her Grand Slam main-draw debut at the Australian Open earlier this year, an experience that Dyer described as \u201ctricky\u201d from his coaching perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to keep things as normal as possible, if that\u2019s even possible, with how you prepare and the things you do daily on and off the court,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

He noted the challenge of dealing with extra attention from media, as well as family and friends, as one of the biggest obstacles to maintaining a normal routine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know it\u2019s going to be there moving forward,\u201d Dyer noted of such external pressures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith age and experience she\u2019ll get better at it, and I\u2019ll get better at it too. We welcome it, but hopefully it won\u2019t be as foreign and daunting as it was in January.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dyer was \u201cextremely proud\u201d when Preston was selected in the Australian Billie Jean King Cup team in April. His charge performed well too, becoming the first Aussie teen to score a singles victory on debut in the team competition since Ash Barty.<\/p>\n

> READ: Preston secures Australia\u2019s spot in Billie Jean King Cup Finals<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI actually had to step back and go \u2018yeah, this is pretty cool\u2019,\u201d he acknowledged. \u201cTo be in the Australian team so young is great. If it was so easy, everyone would be doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australian captain Sam Stosur praised Preston\u2019s work ethic during the tie against Mexico in Brisbane, a quality that Dyer has been instrumental in instilling.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy philosophy is when you get in every day, you set your goals and work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this elite level, if you\u2019re not setting out to be the best you can every day on court or having those standards of being world-class, then I think you can fall behind very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Dyer\u2019s commitment to helping Preston achieve her goals is unwavering, it has required \u201ca lot of sacrifices and hard conversations\u201d.<\/p>\n

Becoming Preston\u2019s full-time coach meant stepping back from his role at the Next Step Tennis Academy, where he was also working with several other promising junior athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did disappoint a couple of people, but everyone was really good actually and said, \u2018good luck, we want to see you do well\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother was fine. He\u2019s seen Tay play over the years, so he thinks it\u2019s awesome. My family and the Prestons, everyone is pretty close now because it\u2019s been so long working together. They are fans of her and love watching her play, so they are okay with me not being home as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

A selfless mindset is important as a coach noted Dyer, acknowledging \u201cit\u2019s not about me\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the players that are ultimately playing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Yet there\u2019s no denying his pride in the part he has played in Preston\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n

They achieved another new milestone together this week, with Preston scoring her\u00a0first win at Roland Garros in the women\u2019s qualifying singles competition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo know I\u2019ve been part of it and nurtured her to this level, it\u2019s cool,\u201d Dyer said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if there are many coaches who have gone on that journey all the way through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When an eight-year-old Taylah Preston first signed up for tennis lessons, Perth coach Brad Dyer had no idea of the journey they would soon embark upon together. \u201cYou can never really know, but she had really good qualities as a person and was quite driven,\u201d Dyer recalled of his first impressions. Now in their 11th\u00a0year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6359,"featured_media":19549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}