Why are so many tennis players struggling to transfer practice into real match performance?

In this episode of the My Tennis Coaching Podcast, I sit down with Jeff Webb to explore the growing tension between traditional coaching methods and ecological approaches to skill development.

We discuss:

• Why demonstrations and technical models often fail players

• The problem with isolated drills and biomechanics-led coaching

• Why children need more play and less instruction

• How ecological dynamics is challenging traditional tennis coaching

• The resistance coaches face when questioning old methods

• Why match play and adaptability matter more than “perfect technique”

Jeff also shares stories from coaching his son’s Little League baseball team, where suggesting a more ecological approach created pushback from traditional coaches focused on mechanics and technical instruction.

This conversation dives deep into:

• Skill acquisition

• Representative learning design

• Repetition without repetition

• Self-organisation in sport

• The future of coach education

If you’re a tennis coach interested in modern coaching methods, ecological dynamics, and helping players actually perform under pressure — this episode is for you.

📘 Mentioned in this episode:

The Turn Sideways Project – Jeff Webb

Do beginner tennis players really need to learn technique first?

Most coaching sessions for beginners look the same:

Throwing drills, catching exercises, isolated technique work…

But very little actual tennis.

So when beginners finally play points, everything breaks down.

In this episode, I challenge the idea of “fundamentals” and explore a different approach to beginner coaching — one that focuses on playing, adapting, and learning through the game itself.

You’ll learn:

• Why traditional beginner coaching often fails

• The problem with isolated drills and technique-first learning

• What beginners actually need to improve

• How to design sessions that help players play tennis from day one

If you’re coaching beginners and struggling to get them match-ready, this episode will change how you think about skill development.

🏆 Join My Tennis Coach Academy:

https://mytenniscoaching.com

Is tennis dying?

In this episode of the My Tennis Coaching Podcast, I explore a question many people in the sport are starting to ask: Is tennis slowly losing relevance?

With the rapid growth of padel and pickleball, tennis is facing real competition for players, court space, and cultural attention. But the real issue may not be the new sports themselves.

The deeper problem lies inside tennis.

In this conversation, I break down some of the structural challenges holding the sport back, including:

• ​ Path dependence in tennis coaching – why the sport struggles to evolve• Gatekeeping in coach education and development​ The lack of academic research influencing real coaching practice​ Why outdated systems continue to dominate coach education• How innovation is often resisted inside traditional tennis structures• The growing popularity of padel and pickleball and what tennis can learn from them

Tennis has incredible history, culture, and competitive depth. But if the sport wants to remain relevant for the next generation of players and coaches, it needs to be willing to challenge long-standing assumptions about how the game is taught and developed.

This episode is a reflection on where tennis currently stands — and what may need to change.

• ​Is tennis declining?
• ​Path dependence in sport systems
• ​Coach education problems in tennis
• ​Why tennis struggles to modernize
• ​Ecological approaches to coaching
• ​Padel and pickleball growth
• ​The future of tennis coaching