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Raise Your Game: What does a performance coach do?

Howard Jones: Basically I take charge of all the performance players on the programme, all the players who are at competition level in the UK and internationally. I ensure that their training programmes are at the right level, they do the right amount of training and they play in the right tournaments. I'm involved in the programme as well as coaching the players.

RYG: How do you go about planning the training programmes?

HJ: We try to get together with the school and look at times during the day where maybe they can come out of school or maybe do very early morning training or after school training. It's a very individual thing with each player, but it's difficult to compete with players from abroad. At the moment we're keeping abreast with it, but it's very difficult to put in the right number of hours that they need to train.

Nick Jones (my son) has just been to Florida for four weeks for the World Championships. There are players there totally focused on their tennis and they play four to six hours a day, and that's what you're up against in this country. Doing your tennis for about two hours isn't enough.

Going back about five years it would have been enough up until age 14, but now the benchmark has been pushed higher. You need two sessions a day really, which is usually four hours tennis and one hour fitness and conditioning, five hours a day, six days a week plus tournaments.

I think what's happening is a lot of people now within the tennis fraternity in this country are taking internet schooling, home schooling, which allows them to be a little bit more flexible in their training and their tournament schedule.

There are children within the UK and certainly in world tennis who are full-time tennis players at 12-years-old and they just pay lip service to any education, which is tough because you're putting all their eggs in one basket. Personally I think you should undertake some sort of educational development because there are no guarantees by any stretch of the imagination.

RYG: It pays well if you are successful!

HJ:Yes but that's only a small minority of players, top 150 men, top 100 women at one time. So when you think that most established countries now have tennis programmes, national tennis programmes with players with aspirations to become professionals... It's very tough - not impossible, but tough.

RYG: Can you tell me about some of the promising young stars you're working with at the moment?

HJ: Well we've got a good number of players aged from 11 right up to 16/17 who are competing either nationally or internationally. The older ones in particular now are starting to make big strides, playing international tennis tournaments and doing well on a national level here.

We've got players like Leah Cox and Jack Pitman who are 11 years of age, right up to people like Joshua Milton, Edward Jones and Nick Jones - all players who are competing well on a national level and certainly in the top 10 in their age group if not higher within the UK.

RYG: So how much time do you spend training these kids? Do you get any time off?

HJ: Not really, I think it's a full-time job if you're going to do it properly. You have to be totally committed to it because it is a seven day week schedule with tournaments. Of course the players don't necessarily play seven days a week; they play six days a week.

RYG: Really, how many hours do they do?

HJ: It varies depending on their age. When they get to 16/17 they're putting in 20 odd hours a week.

RYG: Plus A levels or GCSEs as well?

HJ: At the moment they're at GCSE level, but if they're good enough they can go on to other things that the LTA set up after GCSE, or if they don't do A levels they come into full-time tennis at 16.

RYG: Do you think any of the people you've got here will be at Wimbledon one day?

HJ: There are two to three players who are probably going to play Junior Wimbledon within the next couple of years. Further than that it's very tough, and difficult to make predictions, but they've got a chance.

RYG: What do you think it takes to be a top tennis player then?

HJ: It takes talent - obviously you have to have the ability, but also extreme dedication and extreme focus. I would say that most people involved in British sport at the lower levels, particularly the parents, haven't got a clue what it takes.

To become a top professional player you have to be totally focused for the time you train, not dip in and out. It's a huge commitment, a massive commitment from the whole framework around the player also - family, friends, coaches, everything.

RYG: So it's a big team?

HJ: Yes. There's a whole core of people involved in the development of each player. We've got fitness trainers, obviously the coach and the parent. Every player has to be treated equally because you never know what their potential is.

RYG: Do you go travelling with them a lot then?

HJ: Yes, we travel with the kids on the programme as much as we can, which is expensive. There is some funding but it's never enough. Again, the chances of becoming a pro are very, very small, but the way that I reconcile it is you're actually doing something healthy. You're doing something with dedication involved which, at the end of the day, I think is going to benefit you.

Whatever field you go into, you have to realise you have to dedicate yourself to whatever you want. You only get out what you put in, and what else would they be doing? Standing on street corners, problems with drugs, and what's the cost of drug rehabilitation and a wrecked life? We're trying to do something positive with the kids, giving them something that will hopefully stay with them for the rest of their lives.

RYG: Do you think there are other things they can learn from tennis?

HJ: Most people who don't play tennis don't understand that when you're out there, you're on your own. You have to work out how to beat your opponent on your own, and sometimes with a crowd of people watching your every move. It's like being naked out there; it's not like a football, hockey or netball match where you've got team mates to blame. You learn a lot about yourself on a tennis court.

RYG: You mentioned the importance of focus. Any tips for staying 'on the ball'?

HJ: I think that one of the best tips I ever heard was that Monica Seles' father used to tell her to block out everything apart from the ball or the tennis court, that's the only focus she would have. She wouldn't look around, and in-between points she'd look at her racket strings, and stay totally focused on one or two objects that are key to your situation. Don't look around - that's the worst thing you can do. Pick out a face in the crowd and you'll loose your concentration.