Facilities - Supplies - People

How the Tennis Pro is Impacted Above the Neck

By Rod Heckelman

LIVING WITH STRESS

As most experienced tennis coaches will tell you, teaching, and especially for the many pros that still play competitively, can take a toll on the body. Especially when working with more advanced players. Even pros who only feed a ton of balls for their lessons, pay a price. Their upward-planted stance and absence of weight transfer results in their arm doing most of the work. That one wing being so frequently used may result in either fatigue or injury over time. There is also the fact that many pros are standing most of the day on a hard surface. And lastly, if outside, the sun and its rays are not always friendly to the pro's skin. But even with these challenges, almost every pro will gladly bear these burdens in exchange for the pleasure, opportunity, and enjoyment of their job. But what is often not examined is the emotional and mental stress that many pros are saddled with. Much of this stress has come in recent years. Maybe for some initiated by the hard times brought on by the pandemic, but for many, it began way before that time.

The first challenge was the slow evolution of facilities altering their relationship with their teaching pros. For years most pros hosted an environment that was, for the most part, emotionally pretty easygoing. There were plenty of customers and most owners and managers respected the value of their teaching pros. Much of that changed when more corporate entities came into the business, and just as that implies, they altered their mission plan from being a more casual recreational tennis club to becoming a more profitable business. This choice wasn’t directed at anyone or any particular occupation, it was just the result of a business becoming more profit-oriented. No villains here, just inevitable progress.

A NEW M.O. FOR TENNIS PROS

This transition resulted in not just a new business model, but also a new method of operation for most tennis pros. As these facilities became more of a business, sales and promotion followed in step. For many teaching pros, that transition was difficult. They lost that once very comfortable and easygoing world of just helping people play better tennis. Now that pro needed to be able to sell both the game of tennis, the business they are working for, and themselves.

Here’s where the challenge for many teachers began. Too often, without even knowing it, they found themselves always in sales mode. For some that can be easy, but for others it seemed contrary to the goals of a coach focused on trying to educate their students. Like any other teaching profession, the main focus is on their students' learning. In addition, the new responsibility of prioritizing sales took time away from their personal lives.

PERSONAL SACRIFICES

Most pros got into teaching because of their love for the game, and that passion was their main motivation for success. As a result of their facility focusing on sales and income, their passion took a back seat to their new role of promoting and selling the product. If they did make that transition and were successful with this new agenda, the natural next step was to pursue recognition for their work and to pursue that new goal of being relevant in their market. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon in any profession to sacrifice much of their personal life in an attempt to be more recognized and more popular. This was a bit foreign to many tennis pros but, as it turns out, is rather prevalent in many occupations where popularity is directly related to income. As probably anyone in that type of business will tell you, many highs and lows will be experienced.

MANAGING LEAGUE PLAY - MORE STRESS

Finally, there is one more factor that has impacted most tennis pros in the last few decades; league play. The managing of these leagues is almost always taken on by the tennis director or head pro and can seldom be passed on to any other person in the facility. It’s a great source for attracting new lessons, and the work can be very rewarding, but when that time comes to tell one of your students that they are not strong enough to play on a certain team, that task is very emotionally taxing. Then there is the search for quality and energetic captains, hopefully, captains who will manage their teams to enjoy the experience and the teamwork involved. That’s the hope, but the reality of wanting to win, especially against other local clubs, can bring out the worst in people. If you can navigate through those politics, then there is the daunting challenge with the scheduling of the matches.

There will be nights when the weather and the roster will be unpredictable. This creates a challenge of providing accurate information for those playing the next day, resulting in the night before a match being very stressful. It’s just another new element in the job of being a tennis pro that adds work and stress, and unfortunately, the powers that be who run those leagues can offer or provide little help…the buck stops with you, and we’re not talking about money in most cases.  

Pointing out these emotional challenges is meant mostly to recognize and appreciate the new task teaching pros have taken on. Unfortunately, few teaching organizations have in place some education and help in this area, so as a tennis pro, you might feel that you are on your own.

Hopefully, knowing that we are all on this mission of creating tennis players, we can find strength in our collective goals. Knowing that we are so lucky to have an occupation that is fun, healthy, and provides daily rewarding feedback, should always be the focus of our emotions. Enjoy the journey, and remember, as long as you can swing a racket, you are good to go. The fact is, the more hours you put on the court, the more experienced you will be, making you more important and valuable with every lesson, allowing you, and only you, to decide when to put that racket down to enjoy your post-career life.