ITF

ITFWorld // WINTER 2019/20 2 5 Austrian coach and former pro Petra Russegger spoke on 'How to foster success and motivation in girls' with compelling real-life quotes from her teenage students. This from a girl on centre court at a major tournament: 'Everybody is watching me. Everybody can see how bad I am. I am so bad.' Another teenager, when asked to take an extra fitness session, replied, 'Why do I have to do it? Am I too fat?' Diversity and inclusion are not just buzz words but real growth areas for the sport. There were demonstrations of blind tennis and wheelchair tennis, including integrated doubles. "The main takeaway: it's tennis," said coach- demonstrator Holger Losch. "We're still trying to win the last point." Sanchez spoke of tennis as a vehicle for social inclusion. His eponymous foundation runs programs in several Spanish cities to engage players with physical and intellectual disabilities as well as the socially disadvantaged and those on the autism spectrum. "Through tennis, all these people live better lives," he reported. Swiss conditioning coach Beni Linder turned up the volume with his session on 'Winning through intensity'. And master strategist Craig O'Shannessy exploded plenty of tennis myths with his jaw-dropping analysis of rally length in his keynote address 'The first four shots'. Coaches departed with plenty of information and inspiration from their three days in Bangkok. The next Worldwide Coaches Conference is scheduled for 2021, but the 2019 edition will take some beating. n the Coach. "That's the magic of our profession. Changing people's lives - that's why I keep doing this." Sanchez can rattle off a long list of famous protégés – his sister Arantxa (former No. 1 player in singles and doubles), Andy Murray, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Grigor Dimitrov among them. But he is just as proud of former players who are unknown to tennis fans. "Not all made the top of the pyramid but all did well. They have amazing jobs in other industries because of tennis," he added. "You make a much bigger impact than you think,' said Czech coach Tomas Ruzicka, in his session on 'The person- athlete-player approach.' Ruzicka recalled his satisfaction at receiving a thank you letter from a former player – not a Grand Slam winner but a medical graduate from Oxford University. He ran an insightful interview with Serbia's Novak Djokovic on prioritising personal development ahead of tennis gain. "We [coaches] focus on business, money, skill-sets; we think the person has nothing to do with us," challenged Ruzicka. "You can't grow a player without growing a person." Another feature of the Worldwide Coaches Conference was the impressive number and calibre of women coaches. Kenya sent an all-female contingent of four coaches, including Rosemary Owino, her country's Davis Cup captain since 2015. Women have so taken over Kenyan tennis, joked Thierry Ntwali, ITF Development Officer for East and Central Africa, that the country may need to launch a programme to attract men and boys to the game. Iran was represented by five women coaches, while other nations with all-female representation were Bangladesh, Chile, Guyana, Honduras and Puerto Rico. Despite 47 per cent of global tennis players being female, there were several presentations about the challenge of attracting and retaining girls and women as both players and coaches. "Women feel they need to tick all the boxes," said Roxanne Clarke, head coach of the ITF Pacific Training Centre in Fiji, on why women lack confidence to apply for coaching positions. Clarke also singled out a lack of mentoring for females, saying: "Women do courses and are then thrown into coaching." Jo Ward, former British No.1 and LTA coach, presented on 'Understanding the Psychological Challenges for Girls in Tennis'. Drop-out rates from age 14 are unmoved, with tennis also facing increased competition for female athletes from formerly male-only sports. Ward's parting shot: "Tennis needs to talk to girls differently or we're going to keep losing them." The conference featured a blind tennis coaching demonstration

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