In the 1980’s and 1990’s Jo was the most dominant force in British Women’s tennis. In 1984 she reached a career high of number 5 in the world whilst being the number 1 British player between 1982 and 1995. Whilst Jo was on the professional tennis tour, Alan Jones was the coach who influenced her tennis immensely. Alan was a former National Coach and spent 15 years travelling with Jo and Jeremy Bates, as well as coaching 8 British number 1’s and over 20 national age-group winners. He is the most successful British coach ever and is still at the heart of coaching at the FC** Tennis Academy at Dukes Meadow in London.

The two day visit was coordinated by Milton Keynes based Tennis Works. Tennis Works is a unique professional tennis support organisation that helps clubs, players and coaches. The focus of the organisation is to create educational and ‘open minded’ forums that enable coaches to network, share ideas and learn from each other. Tennis Works is 100% independent and showcases information and opportunities to enable coaches to improve themselves and those around them. They believe there is no one way to develop a player as everyone is an individual and that is how they should be treated. As long as the interests of the players are at heart, tennis talent will prevail.

On Sunday 4th October, Jo and Alan took to the court with ten junior tennis players from Milton Keynes based Cavill Academy who endured a two hour coaching clinic. The clinic was an opportunity for the players to be put through their paces and train in the environment Alan and Jo create back at the FC** Tennis Academy. The Cavill Academy is a performance environment that works with small numbers in a high intensity atmosphere. Coaches John Cavill and Simon Tomlinson run the academy at Stony Stratford Tennis Club and have been creating a long term relationship with Alan to help create a pathway for talented juniors. After the session, Alan said, “The attitude and vibe about these players and their parents is true testament to the environment John and Simon have created. The players are focussed, are prepared to run every ball down and enjoy their tennis. If there are more environments like this across the country, the national standard would be much higher.” The Cavill Academy is a self sufficient performance environment that is directed by the coaches. As we all know, tennis is not a cheap sport to excel at and the Cavill Academy have to ensure that funds are available to keep the quality high and a comprehensive programme.

On the evening of Sunday 4th, Jo and Alan were guests of honour at a fund raising dinner in Milton Keynes. This is one of the many ways the academy are raising funds for gifted and talented players, which will ensure the academy has financial stability. John Cavill expressed, “It is very important British Coaches take control of their own destiny. There should be no compromise on performance and standards, otherwise this is NOT performance tennis. We choose what is best for the players and guide the parents without outside interference. As long as the players and parents trust that they are in genuinely good hands then we can help. Our beliefs and results speak for themselves and we are focussed on maximising the players’ individual potential with no distraction.”

Alan and Jo are well-established figure heads of British tennis and on Monday 5th October they delivered a three hour on-court presentation to over 30 coaches at the Tennis Works Coaches Forum. The presentation was an ‘eye-opening’ experience for many of the coaches, as their creditable experience contradicted much of the information British tennis coaches are being fed. They believe that to create champions there must be a burning desire to cover all aspects of what is a brutal sport. Players must be fast, have explosive first step speed, commit to chase every ball, ensure the ball is consistently contacted properly and good tactical decisions made. During the demonstrations that involved four National level Under 14’s, Alan and Jo fed back to the coaches their observations and views on where the players fit into the ‘great world of tennis’ and what they must do to take their tennis to the top.

During the two-day trip, Jo said, “It is wonderful what is happening in Milton Keynes. I started playing tennis at eight years old and having worked my way to the top in Britain, Alan was the one person who believed I always had more to improve. Like what happened to me, with inspirational coaches that have your interests at heart and except nothing but 100%, tennis can only benefit. The work that John and Simon are doing in Milton Keynes with the players is exceptionable and everyone should continue to support this good work as great things will happen.”

The question has always been, “why are we as a nation so bad at tennis?” but the answers are there in every aspiring player and coach, you’ve just got to dedicate yourself to find them.