I went to an LTA forum held by my local county office recently. The forum was held under the pretense that we would be discussing new coach education initiatives and we would be informed about improving coach-club relationships. In fact, it seemed to be held as an information gathering exercise and to inform as that under the new system, for a coach to be LTA licensed, they must now pay an annual fee of £60. YES, £60!!!!! Clubs were told they should only employ licensed coaches.
Is if it isn't expensive enough to be licensed having to pay for courses, first aid, CRB checks etc. Who at head office thought that charging coaches £60 a year was a good idea??? Absolutely mental. For the average part time coach who does a few hours coaching a week, this fee is not realisitic. Should clubs now be paying this fee.
I am also under the impression that the cost of becoming a coach is also far too expensive. I could understand said costs if the association was scraping the barrel but it doesn't need the income from the relative small number of new coaches that each year brings them, it's pennys compared to what they rake in from Wimbledon. I don't see why they can't make the cost much lower whilst simultaneously raising the bar - so the cost might be £50 to do your coaching training however you would need to be seen to be twice as capable than you do at the current moment to pass the examination. Surely this would be the simplest way of getting the best and most talented, but not necessarily the richest, people into tennis coaching jobs.
And in this instance. Rather than rising the price of subsciption to weed out those committed coaches from the bunch (as I assume that that is their party line in front of all of this) instead why not make sure that each club coach is examined by a high level performance coach, say every 2 years.
However the LTA seems intent on taking more and more money from the little guys whilst sparing no expense at the top. There seems to be a lack of understanding that a successful tennis association is formed from a strong base, the LTA on the other hand seem to be heading the opposite way, constantly installing new 'Head of...'s etc etc in the hope that this will help them find new talent. At this rate however there won't be any new talent as their won't be anywhere enough capable coaches out there to provide for the masses of promising players that I see week in week out (Im head of junior tennis at a tennis club in Lancashire).
-- Edited by James on Monday 26th of October 2009 01:00:35 AM
I agree with all. It will mean that all part time coaches and coaches that volunteer on an ad hoc basis won't be working within the LTA system. Its a real shame.
