LTA Coach Development podcast

Listen to this podcast to hear from expert speakers, including Matt Smith, Development and Learning Manager, and Paul Skipp, ERSA Master Professional Tour Stringer, as they discuss the essentials of racquet customisation and explore optimal racquet settings to enhance players' performance.During this conversation, Paul helps you discover:Why racquets with identical specifications can feel different. How to customise for consistency or tailor specs to individual player needs. Practical tips to adop a player-centred approach and match racquet to player's style and goals. If you'd like to explore key aspects of racquet frames and customisation to help players perform at their best, don't miss this opportunity to learn from a true industry leader. 

In this podcast, Caragh McMurtry, CEO of Neurodiverse Sport, and Lesley Crocker, Tennis Manager of the South Devon Tennis Centre, discuss the different aspects of neurodiversity and share practical strategies to support neurodivergent players in your coaching programme.Caragh and Lesley share valuable insights into neurodiversity and the barriers it can present, particularly for children who want to engage with the sport. Based on personal experience, they focuse on autism and offered top tips to help make coaching sessions more inclusive for autistic people.If you're looking to gain strategies from industry leaders, support autistic players in regulating, and adapt your coaching to meet their individual needs, this podcast is for you. 

In this podcast, Ana Soares, specialist in sport psychology with more than 15 years of experience in high-performance tennis and LTA Coach Mentor, helps us navigate the most common on- and off-court challenges of dealing with pressure for players.Ana shares her knowledge on identifying the various ways players react under pressure and provides the fundamentals for introducing mental training into your coaching sessions, along with detailed action plans for creating routines.If you'd like to hear from an industry leader in the psychology space and gain top tips to help players deal with pressure more effectively, this podcast is for you.

In this podcast, Jemima King, LTA Level 4 Senior Performance Coach and Coach Mentor, shares her journey both as player and coach. She explains the challenges she faced when trying to excel in her coaching career while keeping her passion for the game and balancing family responsibilities.With more than two decades of coaching experience and deep expertise in the mental side of tennis, Jemima has contributed to player development from junior to senior level. She completed her Level 3 tennis qualification in 2005 and began her coaching career at Halton Tennis Centre, where eventually became Head Coach. Later in her journey, she expanded her impact by working as a travelling coach, supporting players competing at ITF standards. Since 2019, she has also taken on the role of Buckinghamshire Tennis Junior County Performance Officer and runs a consultancy dedicated to helping players reach their dream of playing tennis at a US College. On the competitive side, she enjoyed the junior LTA circuit, competing in junior nationals and represented Buckinghamshire from juniors to senior level (15/15 at county week).If you'd like to get tips from a former player, mum, and Head Coach on how to find a healthy work-life balance, where you can make time for the things you love while enjoying the sport, this podcast is a must-listen.   

In this podcast Sandra Zaniewska, Coach to Marta Kostyuk, and Jo Anne Downing, LTA's Programme Strategy Manager and Women & Girls Lead, discuss the opportunities for female coaches in tennis.Both speakers provide information on the current landscape of female participation and coaching in tennis, and focus on the challenges and solutions to promote gender equality.Sandra had an extensive playing career, with highlights that include 2 WTA titles, 2 Grand Slam quarterfinals and 9 victories against top 10 players, achieving a WTA career-high ranking of #142 in singles and #203 in doubles. As a coach, she had to the opportunity to work with top WTA players such as Petra Martic and Alize Cornet, while also spending two years at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in different roles. This experience places her in the right position to advise on how to support active female players and coaches.Jo-Anne Downing has been working on developing programmes that offer women and girls opportunities in tennis and padel through different managerial roles for the last 16 years. Listen to this podcast to discover strategies and gain practical tips to support female players in overcoming mental challenges and developing their technical and tactical skills. 

Robert Wedlake, LTA Level 4 Coach and LTA Coach Mentor, and Lydia Edgar, Employment Partner at Brabners, discuss the various contributing factors to guarantee a successful coach-venue relationship.Lydia brings to this podcast over 30 years of experience as an employment lawyer, along with insights from having dealt with more than 1,600 calls through the LTA-Brabners helpline. She focuses on the importance of having a contract in place and the different elements this document should include to benefit both coaches and venues. Robert, on the other hand, shares his wealth of experience as a coach, and his journey from being a volunteer to oversee a multi-venue coaching business. Rob has gone through all the stages of engaging with a venue, from joining as a coach to creating his own coaching programme at the venue, and ultimately sitting on the committee to influence decisions.  If you're looking for top tips to enhance the relationship with your venue, so that you can see yourself and your coaching programme thrive, this podcast is for you. 

In this podcast, Merlin Van de Braam, Head of Coach & Official Development & Support, helps us navigate the Coach Development Strategy for 2024-2026, emphasising emerging priorities such as the coaching workforce shortage. Following years of continuous growth in participation in Great Britain, the 2024 ITF report concluded that GB is at the top of percentage of the population playing tennis of any of the 199 nations included in that report. It is great news that more people engage with tennis and enjoy all the benefits that it has to offer. However, this increase has influenced the current shortage of coaches. Merlin takes us through this and other contributing factors to this shortage, explains what the LTA is doing to tackle it, and also provides top tips on what coaches can do to alleviate this problem. If you're looking to grow your coaching workforce or are considering ways to improve workforce retention, this podcast is a must-listen for you to be able to address these issues.

In this podcast, Stuart Maidment, LTA Level 5 Master Club Coach and LTA Coach of the Year in 2013, takes us through the numerous opportunities that parks can provide for coaches. Stuart began his tennis journey playing in parks, where he spent over 15 years coaching. He played a key role in helping Cannon Hill Park become the LTA Venue of the Year in 2015. Currently, as the LTA Parks Investment Delivery Manager, Stuart utilizes funding from the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) and the LTA Tennis Foundation to renovate parks across the UK.If you're lookinig for top tips on how to get started as a Tennis Operator, or seeking opportunities for your coaching programme or yourself individually within a park setting, Stuart touches on several challenges and solutions that will point you in the right direction. He covers topics such as the importance of parks for participation and how to effectively deal with local authorities. Whether you're currently working in parks or thinking about giving it a go, this podcast is a must-listen.