Traveling with tournament players

This post revolves around what it takes to be a traveling coach.

Some of the roles of a coach on the road include:

Driver, psychologist, surrogate parent, travel agent, hitting partner, medical consultant, organizer, and, most importantly, disciplinarian and friend.

The coach must devote their attention to the player's needs and attend to them as required during the tournament. During matches, the players often are looking for support and positive reinforcement from their coach. Nick Kyrgios, after beating Karen Kachanov in five sets last night at the AO 2020, credited his team with much-needed support to get over the line. It is a selfless job, and we must leave no stone unturned for the success of the player. Coaches must recognize the personality of the player, and find the best ways to communicate on and off the court, respecting the individual traits of each player's character. Moreover, traveling with younger players is an excellent opportunity for life skills and character development.

Some of the critical guidelines that help players develop life skills can be built-in players of all age divisions.

Under 12

- Preparing things themselves - Packing their bags before practice

- Always be on time for practice

- Learning tennis rules and use them in matches

Under 14

- Warm-up correctly

- Develop a correct drinking regime - Send in entries for tournaments - Find their own doubles partners - Deliver the rackets for restringing, etc.

Under 16-18

- Practice with quality and intensity - Maintain emotional control

- Book practice courts and get practice balls - Arrange different practice partners

- Arrange to wake up calls- Scout their next opponents

- Maintain good eating habits - Find their way to prepare for matches

- Put everything into the bag for the next match - String their rackets when at home

- Fully understand the tournament levels, ranking system, regulations, and tennis rules.

Some of the crucial learning skills from the standpoint of tennis development that players may learn in a tournament are:

- Strategic application of patterns to beat all types of players

- Handling adversity

- Game management and between the point rituals

- Handling loneliness

- Proper warm-up techniques and time management