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Nick Jacques on the Importance of Play Outside Lessons

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Tennis24/7 Nick Jacques on the Importance of Play Outside Lessons

Nick Jacques on the Importance of Play Outside Lessons

An interview with Nick Jacques who shares his thoughts on why it’s important for kids to play outside their lessons and how to achieve it.

Nick is the Tennis Manager and Participation Coordinator for Tennis Northern in New Zealand. In this 45 minute interview, Nick shares his thoughts on why it is so important for kids to play outside their lessons – solitary practise and unstructured play – and how this can be achieved.

The interview is aimed at coaches, tennis parents and programme managers.

We asked Nick:

  • What exactly does he mean when he says play outside lessons?
  • How is learning in the lesson different to what is achieved by playing outside of lessons?
  • What do children gain by playing outside of lessons and why is it so important?
  • How can clubs can encourage and provide more opportunities for children to play outside of lessons?
  • What is the conflict faced by parents when booking more individual lessons vs playing outside of lessons?

Key Take-aways for Coaches

  • In this context, play outside lessons refers to solitary practise and unstructured play. A good programme has lessons, competition, social play – but play outside lessons is exploring and experimenting – without judgement.
  • Players who have an opportunity to make mistakes and have time to become more aware of the body will be able to take instruction (in lessons) better.
  • You build off your emotional, mental, physical and tactical traits – so, if you don’t develop an awareness of yourself and what the game of tennis is (through play outside of lessons) then you don’t have a blueprint or foundation to build from. Coaches know what the blueprint is, but kids don’t.
  • It’s not fun to be told what to do all the time, so if kids get to play they’ll be able to take instruction better (and enjoy their tennis more).
  • The “MOP” (Moment of Perfection) is the great shot that happens as a result of hours and hours of mistakes made in an uncritical environment.
  • Counting the number of mistakes is a totally different mindset to counting the moments of perfection. A focus on the number of mistakes can tip someone over from enjoying the game to not looking forward to it.
  • We should be measuring all the good stuff; not hiding from the bad stuff – but we don’t need to measure it.
  • The lesson court is structured. The practise court is unstructured.
  • Many people think a “competitive” person is someone who just wants to win. An alternative view is that it’s a person who likes a challenge and loves to battle. Nick looks at what is being done in lessons to encourage this behaviour.
  • If competition is done badly it can turn players off. For younger players that means ensuring that the battle is winnable for them. You can structure competition so that the level of challenge is right for anyone.
  • Methods of coaching will depend upon who is standing in front of you.
  • The intention isn’t to make it hard for coaches to earn a living. Lessons and play outside of lessons go hand in hand. You don’t need a lesson to learn how to play; you need a lesson to learn how to play better.
  • Volunteers, “culture keepers”, parents and junior players are often happy to organise sessions for play outside of lessons. Its’ important to engage with those people because you can’t be everywhere at the same time.
  • A good programme has more than lessons; it has lessons, competition, parent engagement, play and social engagement where players can just hang out at the courts.

Thinking CAP

Nick’s Thinking CAP is summarised in this interview but is available in more detail in this dedicated post: Nick Jacques’ Thinking C.A.P. (Interview)

  • The first pillar of Nick’s “Thinking Cap” is COMPETENCE. The stages of competence are
    1. Unconscious Incompetence
    2. Conscious incompetence: I know what you’re saying but I can’t do it.
    3. Conscious competence: I know what you’re saying and I know how to do it but it’s not automatic and I need more time to practise.
    4. Unconscious competence: its automatic.
  • The second stage of the Thinking Cap is AUTONOMY and it’s about owning their own tennis. It comes from the child’s own personal wants and they’ve got to understand that everyone has a role in their own personal development and they’re responsible for their own actions. For example if the child is on court and their opponent is cheating – kids will often ask me should they cheat back. My answer is to that is, “No – that’s not what I would do, but it’s your match. If you decide to cheat and then people label you as a cheat, well that’s on you. That was your decision and you bear the consequences. If you want my advice on what I would do, well I would stand there, stick my racket in the air stubborn as anything and refuse to play. You don’t have to do that though.” So, what I’m doing is giving advice and guidance all the time.
  • The third stage of the Thinking Cap is PURPOSE; why is the player here? Am I coaching them because they need it or because they want it? If you’re coaching a child on something they don’t want to do then there’s a process that can happen; the child starts by hating the exercise, then they start to hate you – and then they hate the sport.
  • At the end of each lesson reflect on which part of the Thinking CAP you were coaching and if you weren’t on track – address that at the next lesson.

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Irena Chichmarova on Working With Junior International Players

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Tennis 24/7 Coaches Club, Irena Chichmarova on Working with Junior International Players

Irena Chichmarova on Coaching Junior International Players

Irena Chichmarova of the Belarus Tennis Federation talks about coaching talented players and her role in the ITF junior development fund team.

Irena Chichmarova has been coaching tennis for about 20 years. She is a well respected Coach and Coach Educator. In addition to her daily coaching role, Irena is a coach with the ITF junior development fund team working with 14U, 16U and 18U.

She started as a player; reaching the top 30 as a 14U player in Belarus (then part of the USSR). She wasn’t particularly aware of her options so followed the traditional path towards coaching, which – in Eastern Europe is to attend University to study sport and specialise in tennis.

We ask Irena:

  • What is your coaching philosophy?
  • Some people listening will say that coaching is a science. Do you agree with that at all?
  • When you’re looking at young players what qualities do you look for that tell you that somebody is going to be a tennis player?
  • What advice would you give to parents who are have high ambitions for their kids? Who think their child could become the next Azarenka?
  • What advice do you give to young coaches about how they can develop their coaching and their coaching skills?
  • What is your role with the ITF junior development fund team?
  • What is the difference between the players that successfully make the transition from juniors to seniors, like Ostapenko, and those that don’t make it?
  • Why do you think there are so many top female players from Eastern Europe?
  • Do you think that in the culture in “modern” Russian is changing and will that change the way tennis is presented in the future? 

Key Take-aways for Coaches

  • Coaching as an art and coaching as a science are like the different sides of a coin. There are some elements of both.
  • Irena’s personal philosophy is that coaching is an art – she doesn’t have any formulas. You have to go on court to “feel” the situation and it’s individual for each player.
  • Irena looks for:
    • Mental toughness – particularly in girls as that’s where she has most experience. Not fierce – that’s different – she looks for toughness.
    • Glasses – Irena looks closely at players with glasses because they can’t see perfectly they have to develop the ability to think and predict where the ball is going.
    • Quick arms – many Russian/Slavic girls have quick arms. Two girls might have the same mechanics but one can make the ball fly.
  • Tennis opens many doors during life – not just to the Tennis Centre. There are many options. If a kid likes to play tennis, Irena encourages them to keep playing.
  • Mentoring is really important in this profession. Young coaches should keep their eyes open for opportunities. However, you start as a beginner coach and there is lots to learn.
  • It’s difficult to say why some players make it and other don’t. There’s no rule. Sometimes it’s talent, other times not and players can surprise you by succeeding far more than you think they will. Coaches can make mistakes and miss potential.
  • Irena explains that in the former Russian countries if you do sport you do it to perform your best – that philosophy still remains in those countries. Kids who start a sport are not looking for fun. They’re motivated and they’re looking for results.

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Nick Jacques’ Thinking C.A.P. (Interview)

This Interview with Nick Jacques from Tennis New Zealand, was filmed at the Evolutionics 2018 International Coaches Symposium, where he talks about the CAR (competence, autonomy, relatedness) acronym and how he has adapted it to become the Learning CAP and how he has reflected on his own experiences to be a better coach.

Bookings are now open for our exclusive, one-day training with Nick Jacques at our University of Warwick Tennis Centre. This is a one-off event running on Wednesday 29th May – don’t miss out!

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The Thinking CAP

Mark Tennant (Director of i2c): I’m here with Nick Jacques in Florida at the Tennis Conference here in Orlando. Nick works for Tennis New Zealand, and I’ve just seen a great presentation that he did.
Just explain ”The Thinking C.A.P” to us. It was a really interesting concept.

Nick: Thanks, Mark. ”The Thinking CAP” evolved from a very similar philosophy that Paul Dent from the UK had which was the ”CAR journey”; Competence, Autonomy and Relatedness. After years of thinking about this and how I could adapt my own, I came up with ”The Thinking CAP”.

Competence

Competence meaning the child’s ability to feel like they can do it whether it’s before the session, during, or after the session.
That would inspire them to go on and practice the skill or the drill, or whatever the exercise was. Not just wait for the session to happen. It also made them feel comfortable in their own skin and understanding competence and the different stages of competence where they go through different states until they reach a stage of– starting at unconscious incompetence and hopefully finishing with unconscious competence. That’s a big part of it.

Autonomy

The autonomy is a huge part of it as well. It’s based around giving responsibility and ownership to the child, so that they can create their own practices and feel like it’s their tennis, not the coach’s. They own their own tennis, not the coach, and they aren’t reliant on the coach.

Purpose

Relatedness is very important, but in the world that I am living in and the experiences that I tend to get, I’ve found that a lot of the time, I was trying to – or not understanding – why the child was there. What was their motivation? So, what I was trying to get out and what the kid tried to get out was quite often different.

So, I decided to change the R to a P, where it’s more about purpose, why are they here. I recently created a tennis initiative that was based around cardio tennis for teenage girls. Looking at it, the girls wanted to have fun and they wanted to increase their fitness levels and they wanted to play with their friends.

The purpose for them was based around cardio tennis rather than the structural lessons. That worked really well, and we got funding through KiwiSport. That’s a good example of purpose, why they are here, not them trying to be the next world champion. Also, with some kids, they might want to play with friends, opposed to some other kids who might want to be a high performing tennis player at some point. Knowing that, I can then let them know that, “Okay, I’ll work with you up to 12 years old, and then when you reach 12, I’m probably no longer the coach for you because the purpose I can help you with is the development stage up to the age of 12, and then I’ll be looking for the next batch of kids to work with.” The purpose is not only the player, but also the coach as well.

Life Changing Moments

Mark: When we were talking earlier, you told me about something that dawned on you while you were working at Wimbledon. Can you tell us about that?

Nick: Well, it was even before that. I was very fortunate to be mentored by Paul Dent. I remember him asking me the question, “Nick, what do you stand for?” While that seems like a really simple question, I actually couldn’t really answer it. At the time, I thought I gave a decent answer, but on reflection, I know that I really couldn’t answer the simple question, ”What do you stand for?”

During my time at Wimbledon, we were going to 65 schools a year. When you visit 65 schools a year, you start to see that ability levels are quite often very, very low. Kids get to a good level through developing a love of the game and repetition of playing, so, that was a big sort of life-changing moment for me.

The other life-changing moment for me was – and I can’t remember who asked me this question – but they said, “Nick, what do you think tennis will be like in 15-20 years?” I thought I had a pretty good answer. I said, “It’s going to be big and fast and strong.” I can’t remember who this person was, but they said, “Well, do you have a crystal ball, Nick?” I said, “No.” They said, “Well, you don’t really know then, do you?” I was like, “No.”

I went away and thought more about that. Inevitably I thought, “What am I doing? What is my purpose?” Surely, I should be coaching kids to be adaptable in a high-level skill acquisition? So that when the game does change then these kids can potentially change with the game because I’ve helped them be adaptable. The keyword is ”Help,” not make them. I help them on the way to do that.

Mark: What is really interesting to me about this is that you’re an experienced coach. You’ve travelled around a lot. You’re working in coaches education in New Zealand. Yet, some very simple questions – or what seem like very simple questions – are making you think so much about yourself as a person, as a coach, as a coach educator. What are your values? What do you stand for? I think it’s a really good that somebody as experienced as you, is still having to think about the absolute basics of why you’re there and what you’re doing and what your role is. Thank you very much for sharing that with us, Nick. Thank you.

 

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What we Learned From Parents and i2c Tennis Coaching Programmes

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Tennis 24/7, Coach Academy, What we Learned From Parents and i2c Coaching Programmes

What we learned from parents and i2c coaching programmes

i2c Director Richard Marklow reveals what has proven most important to parents of kids in i2c tennis programmes at 35+ UK venues.

Running tennis programmes at nearly 40 venues across the UK has given i2c a huge amount of insight into what kids and tennis parents are looking for in a tennis programme for kids. i2c Director Richard Marklow reveals the most important elements of a programme.

Interview with Richard Marklow

Tennis(24/7): What do you find that kids enjoy the most in i2c’s coaching groups?

Richard: While it does depend on each group, I think children love competing. They love playing. They love competitions. They don’t always love standing there and learning the technique of something. They love playing and playing the game of tennis. They love improving. I think they love being with other children. That’s critical, isn’t it?

We know that one of the highlights for kids is going with their friends. That’s a really important thing for us and for our coaches – we make sure we have these little groups that really form clubs within the club. It’s really critical that kids come with people they like and that they like the coach.

Tennis(24/7): What do you pay the closest attention to for making i2c programs appealing for tennis parents and children?

Richard: Our network. Through our partner (Inspiring Community Tennis) we can offer competition programs. We offer lesson plans which are the same across the country. We’ve got really good standardization.

We make sure that tennis parents know the coach is a good quality and will do a good job. Their kids will be safe and there will be an opportunity to compete.

Tennis(24/7): What is the most common question that parents ask you?

Richard: “Why is my child playing with that red ball? Shouldn’t they be playing with a yellow ball by now?” That’s the most common question that we get asked!

There’s a real education role for coaches and the industry to help tennis parents understand that we use the mini red, orange, green, yellow ball system – which has a competitive system that runs alongside it. Parents aren’t aware that there is lots of research about ball bounce height and equipment lengths et cetera. There are lots of good resources and evidence that growing the game from red to yellow ball makes senses. Nonetheless, that’s a question the parents ask quite a lot.

Similarly, we’re asked, “Is my child ready to play proper tennis?” Which is scary because you realise that parents haven’t been helped to understand the process of why the kids play mini red court matches that are right for the size, age, and height of the child. Then kids move on to orange and green so they can progress and organically develop with technique.

Tennis(24/7): For most of the children that enter into a program, how often do they usually play per week?

Richard: We have lots of children that play once a week and it is part of their healthy lifestyle, one of many things like swimming lessons and golf lessons; lots of different things they do once a week. It’s our job to help them love tennis! That’s the only way to convince them to play twice a week and then hopefully into three times a week and then add some competition elements to the offer.

We want to really engage kids and get them involved in the sport for the long-term. It can really became part of what they do and then kids will hopefully choose tennis over other sports. Although I do believe it’s important for kids to play more than one sport I would like our coaches and to really sell the benefits of playing tennis often.

Tennis(24/7): What would you say are the top things that children gain playing tennis, that they don’t gain from other sports?

Richard: I think the most important thing that it has got a really good structure that starts at three or four years old. There is a very defined structure right the way through and you can be playing tennis into your very very later years in veterans tennis and different competitive programs. Tennis really is a school for life. That’s the number one thing that we need to really promote tennis. There are not many sports that can go from 3 to 83 and players continue to grow through the sport.

Tennis also provides good opportunities for children to then go to university and play tennis. It is a good social skill to have throughout your whole life. It can open doors wherever you go. You can play and meet different people – all over the world.

For me personally, I also think it’s really nice to have a sport where you can be a little bit more technical; you have to learn the skill. You can go home and you can practice it. You can really develop your new skill and be with friends in quite often lovely settings.

Lots of really good benefits with tennis.

Tennis(24/7): If you had to summarise in one sentence; what does i2c do really really well?

Richard: We have quite a strict ratio of coaches to kids. In our focus groups, we work from a one to five ratio and then in training groups, we work from a 6 to 12 ratio.

By keeping the ratios tight, people know exactly what they’re going to get. I think we charge more money for a focus group but then we suddenly start to get 8 or 10 children and then it’s a real lack of respect to any further for like the product itself and to the answer the customer.

I think it’s really good to make sure that we keep we have pretty strict ratios and we follow some good quality planning over the year.

Tennis(24/7): Okay, what are you most excited about for i2c in 2019?

Richard: Okay. I think that term– as the as the business grows and we start to go to different parts of the country. I think there are exciting opportunities for us to really grow the brand and to really move into different areas of the country. To just keep doing what we know works really well in a club and just keep replicating it. Make sure that we grow the brand on the name and the quality of what we do.

Tennis(24/7): What would what would you say to encourage the young person to consider tennis coaching as a career?

Richard: Okay, the most important thing for tennis coaches is that there are so many transferable skills. You can grow your confidence coach in tennis and you can learn how to organize the players on the court. You can understand the professional standards. There are lots of life skills that you can get from tennis. If you’re a good tennis player or if you’re not a business player and you were in a coaching program, you’d like to offer advice to other children.

Really just a chance to get involved. Get on the court, do a leaders course, get involved in coaching and see whether it’s essentially a career opportunity for you. There are many opportunities in tennis which aren’t just tennis coaching. In our business, we’ve got telesales. We’ve got marketing. We’ve got finance. We’ve got refereeing. We’ve got coaching part-time. We’ve got, include area managers. There are many many opportunities in tennis which aren’t just about getting a tennis ball.

I think I’d recommend that coach when young people look at tennis for them as a chance to develop life skills. It’s also a chance to use the vehicle of sports for lots of other career opportunities, not just coaching. Maybe the guy says to be open minded to lots of different ways you can get involved in the career.

Tennis(24/7): If you were starting again, what advice would you give to your younger self about starting a business?

Richard: I would say that in life, you tend to gravitate to very very similar people. If you look at your – all your friends, it tends to be potentially quite similar people. Then what you can do then, is you can literally jump straight into a business with a like-minded person. I think that can be dangerous because the danger with that is then you’ve got very similar skill sets and you’re lacking other skill sets. I would say that Mark and myself were very fortunate and we’re good friends and also very different.

I think that the dangers sometimes, you can jump straight into a business opportunity with a like-minded person. The strengthening of i2c over the years has been that Mark is very different to me. The benefit of that is that then we then can grow the business in a more rounded way rather than going off. I think you’d be happy to riches in the business it wouldn’t work and to market, it would work so I think the fact that we’ve got different skill sets you definitely advice would give people when they start a business.

Key Take-aways for Tennis Coaches

Not all children are the same, but on the whole children love playing, improving and being with other children – more than they enjoy learning the technique of the game.

Coaches play an important role in education tennis parents so that they understand why we use the mini red, orange, green, yellow ball system – that it’s based on research about ball bounce height and equipment lengths et cetera.

Another important role coaches play is selling the benefits of playing tennis often – at the same time as encouraging young kids to play more than one sport.

One of the most important things that children gain from playing tennis, more than most other sports, is a structure that begins to be built from three or four years old.

There are many opportunities in tennis which aren’t just tennis coaching. In their career, tennis coaches build many transferable skills, including life skills.

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Revealed – Business Secrets, Successes and Mistakes from 10 Years Building i2c

Revealed - Business Secrets, Successes and Mistakes from 10 Years in Building i2c

In 2018 i2c celebrated its 10th birthday. From humble beginnings, working around a kitchen table (yes, really), i2c has grown to be one of the UK’s largest providers of tennis coaching and training. Everyone knows that hindsight is a beautiful thing! So we asked i2c Director Richard Marklow to share the highs, lows, secrets and mistakes from 10 years in the tennis industry.

Interview with Richard Marklow

Tennis(24/7): I think we should start by asking you to tell us what is the best business decision that you made with respect to building i2c?

Richard: When we first started with i2c, we had great aspirations of doing all different sorts of sports and we the talked about racket sports and we talked about getting involved in football and in the first year we did a little bit of that. We went off into different avenues and I think very quickly we realized that actually, the successful business was going to be concentrated on what we knew which was tennis. From those very early days of thinking we could go into other sports, we’ve concentrated on tennis, and for 9 of the 10 years, that’s been our focus.

I think the other thing that we’ve done really well over the years is that we’ve always tried to make sure that we’ve got the necessary resources before we’ve expanded the business. Sometimes I see people go into business and they’re scratching around for stuff and scratching around for resources. Early on we [Mark Tennant, fellow Director of i2c] made a commitment to make sure that we resourced the next project before we started it and that’s worked well for us over the 10 years.

Tennis(24/7): Now for an uncomfortable question! What was the worst decision that you ever made?

Richard: Right; it’s quite interesting to talk about worst decisions! In hindsight, there are many things we could have done differently!

When we first started i2c and we looked at opportunities [venues to partner with] – we looked at facilities from the perspective of the strength of facility itself; maybe courts and generally a fantastic facility. What we didn’t tend to actually do is look at the infrastructure and the people at the facility.

So, very early, we made some bad decisions. We partnered with venues which had great facilities, but we were not confident that the people at the facilities could work with us and share our goals and joint aims. In the latter years, we’ve worked really hard to interview the people in the facility as much as looking at the facility itself.

Tennis(24/7): So, it sounds like you have identified people and relationships perhaps as being very important. Is that correct?

Richard: Yes. It’s such a small world, the tennis world.

When you have been in the tennis business for as long as Mark [Tennant, fellow Director of i2c] and I have been, you realise that it’s all about people – getting the right partnerships and working with the right people. That’s when great things happen. When you actually put the people together. It’s not the facility, it’s definitely the people.

Tennis(24/7): Is there one key thing that you wish you had worked out earlier?

Richard: When you start a business, you go from being a tennis coach to maybe aspiring to grow and to get a bit bigger.

I think you underestimate the specialisations you need. Things like having specialist marketing support, having specialist website support… having people that understand finance really well. I think that’s a mistake we made early on and because of that, we made some bad decisions. We didn’t work out early enough that we needed to put some good quality people in to support areas that we don’t know a lot about.

I would definitely say finance is a big one of those specialisations that we underestimated. As tennis coaches we felt that we could market quite well, we could train coaches quite well, we could sell tennis, but what we didn’t understand was all of the operational things that sit behind a successful business.

Tennis(24/7): Do you think that the business environment has become more complicated for i2c over the 10 years? Or are the complications due to the growing size of i2c?

Richard:

I think when you set something up, you set it up very simply. What then happens is that over time you tend to complicate it!

So, there have been some moments in i2c’s journey when we’ve just had to say, “We need to look at this again. We need to simplify and strip it back and actually have a bit of a sense check”. We’ve done that three or four times over the 10 years. We’ve had to have a good hard re-look at how we do things.

Richard Marklow quote about i2c's 10 years in business, "when you set something up, you set it up very simply."

Tennis(24/7): What have you seen change the most in the tennis industry over the last 10 years?

Richard: I will say we’ve had some really good years in tennis. We’ve had the golden years of Andy Murray.

I think the power of Andy as a role model in those 10 years has been absolutely critical and we have seen real peaks when Andy won Wimbledon or the team had a great result winning the Davis Cup. That’s driven real peaks of interest in the sport and over the 10 years, that’s been a big plus for us as a business.

The other thing is that there’s been a real acceptance that coaching companies, like i2c, can be a way forward for clubs, organisations and coaches to work in tennis. I think that’s been a really big change over the 10 years. Coaching companies have been accepted as a way for facilities to share resources rather than having one coach at the club or the traditional one-person head coach type of situation.

Tennis(24/7): Just to be really clear on that, when you say that 10 years ago the industry looked very different in that regard – what did that mean at a club level? If you went to a club, what would be the difference then as compared to now?

Richard: Well, quite a few clubs had maybe three or four hours a week for a coach and they really couldn’t get a coach. However, if you actually put four or five of those facilities together you can actually start to grow that organically and have one or two people working across a series of clubs, it makes sense that then a club can provide a full-time opportunity partnering with other clubs in the local area and that’s been a big difference in the last 10 years.

Tennis(24/7): It sounds like you’re saying that it’s [coaching companies] enabled tennis to be a more reliable career path rather than a hobby on the side. Is that right? Has i2c changed the face of the industry for its coaches too?

Richard: Yes, definitely. It’s given coaches a chance to build a bit bigger as well. Running two, three, four, five clubs and having people working for them, it’s definitely a way that coaches can make a career for themselves.

The professionalism of the industry is critical. We need to be professional as coaches, we need to be doing a great job, and there needs to be enough money in it for people.

It frustrates me a lot when coaches don’t put their rates up on an annual basis. Sometimes I’ve seen coaches who might not put their rate up for five to six years. When coaches don’t put their price up on an annual basis we don’t keep up with the trends; for instance, we fall behind the personal training industry and we fall behind the golf pros and that’s just not the real world really.

Tennis(24/7): Has there anything that you would say has been a disappointing change that you’ve seen in the industry? Any disappointing trends?

Richard: I think that we have qualified lots of coaches. Unfortunately, though I think there are still lots of facilities that can’t get coaches. That’s been disappointing. When we advertise for coaches, it’s not easy to get people. There are lots of jobs on job databases, but there haven’t been many people coming into the industry looking at it as a full-time industry. People seem to be quite happy with what they’ve got and when you advertise for new positions, there doesn’t seem to be that many people out there wanting the jobs.

Tennis(24/7): What do you think has happened to overall participation in tennis in the UK? Do you think it’s grown or shrunk?

Richard: I can only speak from an i2c point of view – and that is that we’ve really grown participation. We’re now up to nearly 40 clubs in 6 areas and we’ve got around 50 coaches working for us. We really feel like we’ve really done a good job in growing participation.

I think from a national trend since i2c started, participation has moved up and down quite a lot. I think that’s really down to the media and national successes; role models like Andy and our Davis Cup win. That’s definitely seen spikes of participation growth. I think participation might be slightly down, very slightly down year-on-year from last year. However, I think it’s holding relatively well but with a slight decrease, I think from a national level. We’re not seeing that in our i2c businesses but that’s what I’m feeling from a national perspective.

Tennis(24/7): What advantage is it for customers that i2c have multiple venues?

Richard: I think it’s really important that there’s an offering across the country that has got good quality foundation and back up. We use the same lesson plan across all facilities. We use the same payment method across all facilities. We have the same coach standards across all facilities. If someone goes to an i2c venue, well they know that they’re getting the same quality at each venue. So, any customer across the country can go to an i2c venue and they’ll know what they’re going to get.

Richard Marklow quote on the power of Andy Murray as a role model during i2c's 10 years in business, "we have seen real peaks when Andy won Wimbledon"...Tennis(24/7): How has competition changed in i2c’s markets in the last 10 years?

Richard: Ten years ago, i2c was one of three or four coach education providers. There are now many, many providers offering level one and two courses – fewer offering threes and fours but definitely more in the market than when we started. The coach education market has really been difficult over the last few years because it is much more competitive. In our work with clubs and club programmes, we’ve grown organically within the areas we are in – and we’re really happy that we’ve retained clubs. That doesn’t feel as competitive as the coach education market.

Tennis(24/7): Are there any partnerships that i2c has formed during those 10 years that you think have been really valuable and pivotal?

Richard: Yes, definitely.

We’ve been with Wilson (Wilson Sporting Goods) for many years as a sponsor to us. They have supported us massively for 10 years. They’ve done a great job and their support grows as the business grows.

I think it’s also fair to say that the facilities that we’ve retained over that period of time have been fantastic. They’ve worked with us and when we wanted to try new things, they’ve done that with us. We’ve had great support from indoor centres such as Peterborough, Shrewsbury, the University of Warwick and also Leicester council.

The LTA too – they have massively supported us as a coach education centre to develop a workforce.

There has been lots of really good relationships and support we’ve had over those years.

Tennis(24/7): How valuable have the LTAs engagement programmes been for i2c?

Richard: Absolutely critical. The LTA is a powerful governing body; its relatively wealthy compared to other tennis bodies around the world. They are ever changing really and their participation models and things they put in to help growth and participation have been absolutely critical. We like the quality of LTA programmes and we’ve embraced them. I think it’s very difficult to write or produce the quality of resources that they’ve come up with.

Programmes like Cardio Tennis and Tennis Express have also been really good. Tennis for Kids has been the best initiative. Tennis For Kids formed on the back of the of the Davis Cup success. These programmes are absolutely fantastic for the number of players they bring through the doors.

For coach education the level ones, twos, threes and fours have stayed pretty constant. That has really helped.

Tennis(24/7): So, it’s now full steam ahead towards the next 10 years?

Richard: Definitely!

I’d like to stress how grateful we’ve been for the key professional partnerships and people who’ve supported us along the way to our 10 year anniversary. I said earlier on that people are the key – that’s really true. Our success comes down to people. I think that will be true in our future too.

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