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Emma Doyle Interview: What Makes a Great Tennis Coach?

Will Boucek · November 27, 2022

Emma Doyle is a high-performance coach and author with a wide-ranging background in tennis.

We discuss her book “What Makes a Great Tennis Coach?”, how she views modern coaching, and how you can become a better coach or student.

In this conversation you’ll learn:

  • How to make your relationship with your coach/student better.
  • How to find the best coach for you.
  • How to better coach yourself and your doubles partner.
Emma Doyle, high-performance coach.
Emma Doyle, high-performance coach.

You will also hear how Emma got into tennis, what inspired her to be a coach, and how she thinks we can make doubles more popular.

25 Winning Doubles Tactics to Help You Play Smarter

Expert serve, return, net-play, baseline, & approach strategies and tactics you can use on the court.

Get the eBook!

Interview Notes from this Podcast

*To help support The Tennis Tribe & provide more free content like this, we may earn a percentage of purchases through the links below. See our affiliate page for more info.

  • Follow Emma on Twitter, Instagram, & check out her website.
  • Buy her book: What Makes a Great Coach?: Top 10 Practices of the World’s Best Coaches
  • Special offer: Buy 10 copies or more to gain access to The Coaches Toolkit – online tools that provide you with practical (off-court leadership) strategies aligned with the top 10 practices. Buy 100 copies or more – Emma Doyle will do a talk for your team (in-person if you are in Denver, or virtual if you live outside of Colorado, US)(Screenshot your purchase and send it to: info@emmadoyle.com.au).
  • “It’s not what you say, it’s what they hear”
    • Too often coaches communicate and coach how they like to be coached, rather than how their student learns.
    • Knowing what you want from a coach and how you receive info is good for both you & the coach to know.
    • Understanding your partner and their personality is very important.
  • The Curious Champion Mindset
    • Curiosity is a coach’s superpower because it helps them learn and adapt.
    • Always ask questions to better adjust your own game and your opponent’s game.
    • In his podcast with Emma, Darren Cahill discusses his changeover philosophy of reflecting on the past two games, thinking about the current situation, and preparing for the next two games.
    • Curiosity helps build resiliency and prevents anger because you’re thinking about improvement.
  • 3 Practices from Emma’s Book
    • Decision-Making
      • Empowering your students with decisions is important to allow them to build intuition and thrive under pressure.
      • Pulling decisions out of people helps them solve problems in every part of life and gets them more invested.
    • Purpose
      • Purpose is directly linked to motivation, if you know your purpose, practice is enjoyable.
      • Purpose also allows you to track progress and better reflect, but that doesn’t necessarily mean goals for every student.
      • For example, in our podcast with Luke Jensen, he discussed his intense training regimen while his brother Murphy practices very loosely. Both players are former pros.
    • Communication
      • The four types of learning styles are visual, auditory, kinesthetic, & auditory-digital.
      • Make sure you know which one you are, which one your partner is, and let your coach know (you could be several).
      • Having values and making sure everyone on your team is striving towards those helps to make better decisions.
      • Remember, you don’t always have to be teaching to coach, you are just helping students to learn.
  • Emma’s Favorites
    • Tournament: Australian Open
    • Tennis Book: What Do I Wear on My Feet to Play Tennis? by Emma Doyle or The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey
    • Non-tennis Book: Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson or The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma

About Will Boucek

Will Boucek is the Founder & CEO of Tennis Tribe. With over two decades of experience playing & coaching tennis, Will now works as a doubles strategy analyst for ATP & WTA tour players and coaches. Will helps tennis players at every level play better doubles through smarter strategy. He also has expertise in tennis racquets & gear, testing the latest products from Wilson, Babolat, Head, Prince, and other tennis brands.

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