HEAD COACH - Paul Rock (LTA LEVEL 4 Performance Coach)

Mobile: 07961 282 347

Office: 020 8449 5560

Email: admin@tennisrocks.co.uk | Website: www.tennisrocks.co.uk 

Paul is a Level 4 coach and Head Coach of Vicars Moor LTC, also coaching at several private and state schools. He works closely with the coaches and committees to make the clubs a great place for everyone to spend their free time and to inspire existing and new members to play this wonderful life-time sport to a high standard.  

Paul has trained at some of the very best tennis academies here in the UK and in Spain. He has gained a lot of experience competing in National & International tournaments, achieving a world ranking in junior tennis.  As a junior, he competed against and trained with top level players and managed wins against three of the Davis Cup Team that won the world finals in 2016: Jamie Murray, James Ward and Dominic Inglot, also beating Jonathan Marray, who went on to win the men’s doubles title at Wimbledon in 2012.  During this time he was interviewed and an article was written by Neil Harman, who was the chief tennis correspondent for The Times at the time. Shortly afterwards, he gained a full sponsorship deal with Simons Squad who at the time sponsored Britain’s No.1 Lucie Ahl, this sponsorship covered all his coaching and enabled him to travel full time to international tournaments. Unfortunately, following an accident which caused a shoulder injury, his professional career was cut short and he was forced to retire in 1998. 

Paul didn’t want to waste all the experience and knowledge he had gained and decided to become a coach. Over the following 21 years, he has spent time developing his extensive knowledge of the game and with continual research on coaching and teaching methods. The coaching network he’s built up over the last 20 years has allowed him to travel regularly to many different academies, including São Paulo, Florida, Los Angeles, Algarve, Berlin and more. 

His intention now, along with the support of his coaching team, is to advance every member's tennis skills and constantly develop the junior coaching programme, encouraging every player to be the very best they can be. Paul is a rarity in the tennis world, possessing the ability to teach all ages and abilities simultaneously, from pre school to international juniors, to beginner adults and 1st Team adults at the club. It’s this everyday variety that he loves so much about coaching - and it’s this adaptability, enthusiasm and likeability that has resulted in a track record of growing tennis club membership at an impressive rate.

Paul says: "Not only will tennis keep you fit but it develops your mind with valuable mental life skills. The tennis scoring system is unique in so much as you could win more points but still lose the match therefore focusing on controlling your emotions throughout the match is important, this skill set is transferable to other areas of life."

When he has time outside of tennis, he likes to....travel, play padel, go to the gym, play golf.

Favourite player: Gustavo Kuerten and Beatriz Haddad Maia

Favourite shot: Single Handed Backhand