The Rules of Tennis
For the most part, coaching is not allowed during a tennis match. This is one of the things that makes the sport so compelling to me. When two players are engaged in a tennis match, it is up to them to figure out a solution to every problem their opponent throws at them. A tennis player has to figure everything out for themselves when competing. I like that.
The first sentence of section 30 of the ITF Rules of Tennis as appears in the USTA Friend at Court defines coaching as follows:
Coaching is considered to be communication, advice or instruction of any kind and by any means to a player.
ITF Rules of Tennis, USTA Friend at Court, Section 30.
I find the definition to be somewhat lacking. For clarity, it should also include the clause “during a match.” Clearly it is perfectly legal for a player to engage a coach for practice and also for pre-match strategy and post-match analysis.
I openly disclose that I work directly with a coach — one on one — on a weekly basis. I am frequently surprised that this seems to come as a surprise to a lot people. While I play at a level that most would consider to be quite advanced, there is always room for improvement. I would observe that most of the top professional players retain a coach.
Perhaps there is an opportunity to change the tennis vernacular to make working with a tennis teaching professional more appealing to serious tennis players. The current phrase “taking a lesson” carries a connotation of learning the basics of the game. At some point, players move beyond that point.
That is probably why I tend to use the phrase “working with a coach” to describe the tennis lessons that I take. These sessions tend to focus on strategy and tactics. There are also occasional tweaks to mechanics, but those are usually to be pretty subtle adjustments. A tennis professional is indispensable for working on pattern play and can feed balls with situational precision that is significantly better than a ball machine.
All that ends once the players step onto the court for a match. For the most part the rules of tennis prohibit coaching when a match is in progress. As is the case with all the rules, there are some exceptions. Per tradition, it will probably take a few posts to work through all the nuances.
- United States Tennis Association (2020) Friend at Court. White Plains, NY
I once played on a team with some players who had a complex vocabulary for in-match advice. For example the word “cupcake” meant to aggressively crash the net. So the perfectly innocuous phrase “Let’s go, cupcake!” conveys tactical advice.
(Not so effective when I was on the court… “Yum, cupcakes… I like chocolate.”)
Players receiving “helpful communication” during a match is a personal pet peeve of mine. I also think “communication” is a very broad term with lots of room for interpretation. Would simple encouragement be considered coaching under this rule? Or If a player successfully serves-and-volleys for the first time and hears “smart play” or “there ya go” from the sidelines, the player receives the message the tactic should potentially be used again. Shouldn’t that be considered coaching?