The ITF World Coaches Conference by BNP Paribas enjoyed its most successful staging yet on 5-7 November, with over 1700 participants from 151 nations taking part in the first virtual edition of the event.

The biennial conference, which has been held on 22 occasions since its inaugural staging in Florida in 1982, regularly attracts over 600 participants from across the globe. As a virtual event, the showpiece of the ITF’s Education Programme was able to reach a far broader audience.

A high-profile and expert cast of speakers added the stardust to the 2021 edition, with the likes of Martina Hingis, Feliciano Lopez and Judy Murray all delivering presentations alongside other industry leaders in tennis coaching, coach education, player development, sport science and participation.

Murray, who famously raised two boys to become world No. 1s in singles and doubles, respectively, highlighted the opening day with her keynote presentation on 'building skills, growing confidence and developing a love for the game'.

Murray, a former British Billie Jean King Cup captain who has developed a range of grass-roots tennis initiatives, explained her coaching philosophy: essentially to create games and activities that do the teaching for you.

A huge believer in "skills before drills", Murray explained that a tennis journey doesn’t always have to start with a racket in hand. Her ethos is centred around creating key coordination games in a small space to encourage accuracy, control, rhythm and timing - beneficial skills for any developing young player to master in a confined area before they expand to a larger space.  

Feliciano Lopez took part in an open conversation on day two, providing views from an active professional about the importance of players finding their own solutions on court, the state of the game today and how it has changed over the years.

“When I started the game was more tactical,” Lopez admitted. “You needed to think more about preparing the point and how you would create winners. I think now the biggest difference is the power and physical condition of the players overall.”

Lopez, a former world No. 12 in singles and No. 9 in doubles, enjoyed one of his biggest career successes on the doubles court, winning the 2016 Roland Garros crown alongside Marc Lopez.

It’s unsurprising then that the Spaniard is a big advocate for doubles play – believing that his regular involvement in the discipline enhanced his success on the singles court.

"I think it’s important for kids to play doubles from a young age to develop their game" - Feliciano Lopez

“It’s a very challenging game and I think it’s important for kids to play doubles from a young age to develop their game,” said Lopez, who went on to identify his serve, return and reaction-time as elements of his armoury improved by doubles play.

Former world No. 1 Martina Hingis also took part in an open conversation with Swiss tennis colleague Jurg Buhler on day three, providing insight into the importance of developing an all-court, and all-surface, game.

"In Switzerland it was very natural to grow up on different surfaces so you naturally become very flexible to the surfaces, to the balls,” she said. “You have to naturally become an all-round player because you have to play well on fast courts as well as on clay.

“I think this is really cool because you learn the groundstrokes, you learn how to play from the middle of the court and you learn how to play at the net. These are the natural basics that we have in Switzerland.”

Hingis, who won five Grand Slam singles titles and 13 Grand Slam doubles titles during her playing career, is part of Switzerland’s Billie Jean King Cup coaching team and one of several former star players from the nation (Timea Bacsinszky being another) who are following the coaching route within Swiss Tennis.

"I love to do what I do and the better you get the more fun you have doing it,” said Hingis. “It's a passion to me, so if I can help other people get people introduced to tennis, and liking it…

"Maybe I need some help with my daughter," she joked. "How do I get a two-and-a half-year-old to like tennis? That's my priority!"

Hingis, Lopez and Murray were just three of the 64 speakers across the three-day conference, providing a host of insightful contributions across a broad range of topics.

Missed the event? You can still sign-up and watch all the sessions from the 2021 ITF World Coaches Conference by BNP Paribas at the ITF Academy for a fee of $14.95. Find out more and sign-up here.

 

 

🌎 149 nations
👨‍👩‍👧 1700+ participants
🏆 Hingis, Lopez & Murray headline

In its 22nd edition, the first virtual ITF World Coaches Conference by BNP Paribas provided an unprecedented knowledge exchange and proved to be the most successful to date. Sign up to watch all sessions 👇

— ITF (@ITFTennis) November 11, 2021

 

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