The way a coach communicates and acts toward their student can make a life-changing difference in how the student thinks and responds to challenges. A coach can help instill a strong belief in oneself or plant seeds of doubt. The best form of communication is supportive of the person, not just what they do.

Having trained under German, Russian, French, and American tennis schools, I had the privilege of experiencing the effects of different communication approaches, including extremely negative and positive coaching. While both extremes can incite quick reactions that may appear as successful results, neither always positive nor negative communication approaches work in the long run.

I have witnessed some coaches drag their students down with years of daily negative attacks. Negative comments are discouraging and traumatic, stripping away the student’s belief in their abilities. For example, if a coach tells you that you are doing a bad job, are a horrible player, and not worthy of their time every time you miss a shot, it would likely put you down. With that kind of negativity, players begin voicing the same ideas in their minds. It’s negative programming and difficult to reverse (though not impossible). Those students would make comments during matches like “I suck” and display depressed body language.

Some coaches take a positive-only approach and tell their students "good job" at every opportunity. While it’s not as bad as raining fire on the student’s mind, it also poses problems for the student. "Good job" implies there is a bad side too, so the fear of failure hangs over their heads.

The most important thing a coach can do, aside from sharing knowledge, is to provide a judgment-free environment for their student. Whether they hit the ball as intended or not, it doesn’t matter. The key is to help the student explore and learn. This way, they are not distracted by thoughts of good or bad outcomes but find themselves focused on learning the game.

A research study titled “High fives motivate: the effects of gestural and ambiguous verbal praise on motivation,” published in 2014, showed that hand gestures and “praise without explicit attributions motivated as well or better than praise explicitly focused on effort.”

Kids are happy to get acknowledgment and to play in an environment without any fear of judgment. So, be mindful of how you communicate with your students and aim to create a judgment-free training environment.