DERBYSHIRE COUNTY COACH FORUM 2025

The 2025 Coach Forums are aimed at coaches with an interest in coaching doubles and helping players feel more confident when playing at the net.

By the end of the session, you will:

Understand the importance of training net play in doubles early for children
Be able to develop confidence in your players at the net and be ‘fearless at the front’
Understand court positioning and how to cover the court to attack and defend at the net
Understand ways in which you as a programme lead can address local coach shortages and recruitment challenges

On-court session (2 hours 30 minutes)

Designed to take you through the benefits of coaching doubles net play with players at a young age, you'll learn how to help them build confidence coming forward and become more aware of their positioning and court coverage. You will practise exercises and drills at the net that are relevant to all stages of a player’s development journey, ensuring your players are having fun and all active whilst encouraging decision making, aligning to the LTA Youth principles. This will help your players be ‘fearless at the front’, whether in an attacking position covering your territory, or in a defensive phase covering the middle. The session has been developed in collaboration with Rob Smith, LTA Accredited Level 5 Master Performance Coach, LTA Coach Mentor and coach to players from LTA Youth red to ITF juniors, top 100 WTA, Davis Cup and Grand Slam-winning Champions.

Off-court session (1 hour)

Insight shows that recruitment is an ongoing pain point for head coaches, with 1:3 saying that they need at least another one part-time lead coach to fulfil the player demand on their programme. Therefore, off-court this year will focus on how head coaches and programme leaders can grow their own teams and address their local coach shortage. This will be a peer-to-peer session where like-minded and experienced coaches can share and learn from each other as well as the LTA tutor.

The overall duration of this event is 4 hours (2 hours 30 minutes on-court, 30 minutes networking, and 1 hour off-court).

Book your session now to secure your place and we look forward to seeing you on the day.

Derbyshire County Coach Forum 2025