Daily Coaching Schedules

In this episode I go over the entire days coaching schedule. From before work tennis players to day time lessons, after school and into the evening there are potential lessons everywhere. 

This will help you as coaches to work out who you should be focusing on to build out your schedule. 

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Cheers

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Coaches Rick from the out of tennis here, welcome back to episode eight. Today, we're gonna look at the coaches' schedule from sunrise or first light, or even when the lights are on in the morning, through to 9, 10 p.m. at night. This is not realistic to do all of these time slots. It's uh you're going to pick and choose to find a schedule that works for you. But I think it's important to understand that almost every hour of the day there are potential lesson slots for people. Now, first first lesson, I've done six o'clock lessons, I've done 5 45 a.m. lessons. I'm an early bird, but even still in winter, it's it's a bit tricky at that 5:30, 5.45. I'm these days for me, I'm 6.45 first lesson, but I think six o'clock is very reasonable. So who are you gonna get at six o'clock? You're gonna get the before work people. So it could be guys, girls who need to get into work, perhaps they're working in the in the city uh at 8:30, uh, nine o'clock, they need to do their tennis, they need to get home, shower, change, and get into work. Now they want it early because they might need to catch public transport, they might need to um allow for a bit of uh driving time or or getting ready time. So quite often you'll get those types wanting lessons at 6 to 7, maybe 6.30 to 7.30. Um, and sometimes if they work closer, the the 7 to 8 will work where they've got time to shoot off. But if we think of the the sort of 6 to 8 a.m. is the before work crowd, and so you can schedule some lessons in. Um, they will normally be 25 to 25 to 55 would be the the standard age range for those types. Um they will see this as a bit of a workout as well. Normally getting up in the morning, we do tennis, we get a good workout, and then we go to go to work. So that's a before work crowd. Now, obviously, uh during school terms, you've got the before school uh times there as well. So before school, now before school private lessons, 6.30, 645 starts, reasonable for the for those who are happy to get up early. Not all kids can handle that that time, uh, but 6.45 to 7.30, 7.30 to 8.30. So that that sort of 6.30 to 8.30 range is your before school. Um, I'll normally, if I'm doing privates, then I'll have someone at 645 to 7.30, and then someone from 7.30 to 8.15. And so that will that will have two time slots where people have plenty of time to get to school. A lot of times school starting at 8:30 or 9 o'clock, so that gives time um to get to school there. Now you get your before school group though, that's going to be normally your 7:30, 8:30, maybe 7 o'clock to 8 o'clock, depending on the school. But most times, even with a 7:30, we find kids are still late on getting them, getting them there. But the group lesson, the standard would be 7:30 to 8:30. Maybe it's 7 to 8 a.m. So you should be really crafting a before school lesson, um, whether it's at a school, or you can even do it at your club if you've got parents that are happy to then take them to school. So that might be a seven to eight. You could do it at the club, um, and then parents take give them time to get to the school. Um I recommend as a coach as as soon as you can, you want to establish a relationship with one of the local either primary schools or or or high schools, private schools, um, because you really want to be able to offer before school tennis lessons because it works twofold. One, you've got an hour there where you can build a nice group lesson, um, and two is it it works as a bit of a marketing funnel for your club program so you can get them started there. And if it's a school that doesn't have tennis courts and it's just got but all schools have a hall or have a um you know an outdoor, hard, hard surface outdoor area, quadrangle type thing, um, you set your mini nets up and you you can easily do your your under tens, um, under 10 type tennis. Can you know it's participation? This is early stage tennis, this is hot shots, it's not going to be squad training on mini nets, um, but you are gonna be able to introduce tennis to them and provide that link back to your club program. So, really important. Um, you know, we work at a private school uh called St. Mary's, and and we have a there's border border kids there, borders. So a lot of times the borders, um a lot of borders from the from the country that they're actually really good at waking up early, um, I've noticed, and so they'll be happy to do 6:30, 645 lessons, um, and then we will run our 7:30 to 8.30 group program after that. So that works quite well. But otherwise, if you've just got a relationship with a local school, primary school, um, maybe it's mini nets, then your 7:30 to 8.30 is when you'll do that lesson. So once we finish school, so as tennis coaches, sometimes we just have to get up and do the one hour. All right, it's just it's not ideal, not ideal to just do an hour, um, but it really goes with the territory. We need to make hay while the sun shines, and the sun is shining when people are ready to do tennis lessons or are able to do tennis lessons. So um, but normally we can patch that up. We don't have to do the one hour, we might be able to get a private lesson before the group, as I said, um, but otherwise, you may do the group, and then you're pushing to to have some private lessons that are coming in that 8:30 to 11 range. Now, who are you getting at 8:30 to 11? Okay, so kids are out, kids are at school, so we're into adult land, and you're gonna get flexible workers, so those who um maybe they work from home, um, maybe they can start late as long as they work a little bit later. Um, that happens a lot. Um, maybe that part-time, maybe they work on uh four days a week and have one day off. But you know, on that one day off, what better way for them to spend the the first part of the morning with a with a tennis session with you? So uh the the part-time workers, um you're obviously going to get some retirees as well, and they've got lots of lots of free time and they want to fill it with recreational activities. So let's say um you've got that part-time worker or retiree, flexible worker, um, they're wanting to book 8:30, 9:30, um, you know, maybe up to up to 11 o'clock finish. Um, I find we don't do many lessons after 11 or between 11 and 11 and 3. Okay, 11 and 3. I think you're meant to sit under a tree between 11 and 3, but um, so I guess we're we we're having a rest time there. As a as a coach, we work split shift, so you need to have downtime as well. So 11 and 3, you're pretty safe to mark that out as as downtime. Um, and as if you're a coach running a business, then half of that time you're gonna be spending working on the business, um, whether or not you're you're involved in doing the admin or the marketing or uh other things like that, you're gonna have at least a couple of those hours busy, and then maybe you've got a couple of hours where you're you know you're resting, you're you you're showering, you're doing running errands, you're you're watching a Netflix show, whatever it might be, that that's gonna be the time. So, but that 8:30 to 11, and you're not always gonna feel 8:30 to 11, but you might get an hour, 8:30 to 9.30. So that makes that morning uh a little bit uh of a thicker shift where you're coming in doing the before school, and then you're coming in for your your private lesson, um, private lesson with uh Leone or um Larry, you know. So um once you've once you've got your your your schedule going there, then you will pick and choose how long you go. So maybe you've got uh you've already got an hour and a half before school. Um so maybe you only want to do one one hour um in that 8:30 to 11 time slot. So you've got to pick and choose because we can't work 10 hours a day. It's too it's too hard. So as coaches, we should be aiming um five to eight, all right. Five to eight hours. Eight hours is is is quite physical. Um, but some of your big days you'll be doing eight hours. Uh five hours is is really quite easy to do if you're splitting that up between, you know, maybe it's two in the morning, three in the afternoon. Um, but really I think six or seven uh on court is going to be uh is is going to be, I guess, the expectation because otherwise you you're not gonna earn enough money. So um what else we got now? Between those hours, not quite 8:30, but at say nine o'clock after school drop-off, you're gonna get a whole lot of I'm stereotyping saying mums, because it's it is more common, but there will be some dads who will be looking for maybe more of a social tennis session in this time. So that's where uh when I was in England we used to have something called coffee, coffee mornings, which which which was great, and basically it was it was a it started as a little bit of coaching, 30 minutes of coaching, an hour of of match play, match practice, social sets, and then coffee. And so we were at a next generation in in Cambridge, so it was pretty nice, and I quite enjoyed it because I'd do all the the social session, um, and then the the ladies would would buy me breakfast and coffee afterwards and um sit and sit and relax and have a chat uh uh there. So that's your coffee morning. Or in Australia we don't use coffee morning much, we we might call it social tennis session. Um the naming doesn't matter, but what it is is is a combination of some coaching and some uh match practice, some social sets, and that works really nicely. You know, your 9 till 10:30. Maybe it's eight, you know, eight. No, I don't think it's it's it's not normally 8.30 because it it normally fits in after a school drop-off. Okay, so nine o'clock is better, or 9.30 to 11. All right, that sort of time. So you've got that morning period to choose. Do you do you fill it with the privates of the the of the of those uh in that time slots there, or do you do you run a more of a group session uh with the social tennis? Now in in coaching, if you run a group, if you're running your own business, then your group session has the potential to earn more. Um and so when it's pumping, you're you're earning really good money. Maybe maybe you're earning you can earn double what you earn in a private lesson, but that's when it's absolutely pumping. Now, that same social session, if it's not a weekly commitment, if they turn up when they want to, which these sessions are normally that way because they might have kids sick, or um, you know, you may get you may get less, you might get only three come, and then you're you're actually earning less than a private lesson. But that just goes with the territory. Um, so your private lesson, your rate there is almost like your average. Um, and a group you can go higher or lower. Um, but you know, quite often with groups, you think you're always earning more, but for me, I'm all I try to run them as much as possible. You don't want to lose money, but you you want to be running them with even with one or two kids, um, you know, a couple of adults doing a lesson, you want to run it. So if you have to run that at a lower, a lower hourly rate for the reputation of your business, you should be running it to make it happen. So that's our morning time slots. Um, now then we've got this, we've got this 8:30 to 8:30 to 3.30 school gap. Now, as I said, generally, coaches, probably 11 till 3, we want to be resting. Okay, that's our downtime. Now, you are going to get opportunities to to do school workshops, which is you know, working with the the school PE teacher to come in, and you're really running their PE class, um, and specifically focused on tennis. So you may be doing uh up and down type stuff, little partner activities, you set up mini nets. Um, so that can work well. Uh, and you know, it's really a it's almost a marketing machine for you as well. You you're getting the kids going, oh, I have fun's tennis. This is great, isn't it? You know, and so you want little Jimmy um to go home and go, Oh, we we had this tennis coach coming, it's so good. I want to, I want to, I want to do tennis. Um, so that's uh that can be great. Now that doesn't not gonna happen all the time. Um in Australia, there's uh something called sporting schools funding, which means that the PE teacher can uh can can try to get the well can get funding to use on this type of program. So especially in the early stages of building a business, this should actually be your priority to establish that relationship. Um, and you know, you get paid to do it uh through sporting schools you do, and you also have the marketing machine. Now, before sporting schools, I used to do this for free. So this was just this was my my give was I'm offering free workshops for your your kids. Let me know if you want to do it. We'll do it over a three-week period like that. So I would do this for free, um, and I would hand flyers out to try to push them to the club to get a I guess a return on that investment. But it's a give that you can you can get back. So I would do that for free. If you can get funding for it, then even better. Um, as we go back to the 330 time slot, so this is where we're getting after school. Now, I'll quickly just say you can run an after school session, a 3:30 to 4:30 in a similar way to the 7:30 to 8:30. Uh it's fine, it's just the issue is then if you're coming back to the club, you're losing a bit of time. So we have sort of never always steered away from after school sessions, but you know, if you you were just more part-time and you wanted to just run a before and after school, you get a nice little two-hour a day program that you could do. Um, but we tend to, you know, we want people to be coming to our main club program um at 3:30. So who's at 3:30? 3:30 to 4:30, red ballers, little kids, the youngest ones, straight after school, have a little snack on the way, um, out they go. Now they're often a little bit tired. There's probably no ideal time for the red ballers unless it's a Saturday morning or Sunday morning because they they do get tired from a long day, but you need to get them, you need to get them done quickly after school because you know they're winding down quicker at night time. All right, they're not going to come at 6 30 for a for a four-year-old's uh mini lesson. So 3 30, 4 30, red ball, tend to put them in. 4 30 to 5 30. We're looking at the orange ballers, so that's 7 to 7 to 10 age. Um, you know, they can go home, have a snack, do some homework if they're doing homework at that age, and then they're coming down 4:30 to 5:30. 5:30, 6:30 tends to be green and yellow ballers, so more your 10 and up. All right, it's getting a little bit later, so you're 10 to well, 18. Okay, so 10 to 18, that 5:30 to 6:30, or or 5 to 7, 5:30 to 7:30, that little pocket of time is okay. 7:30 is probably a little bit late for a 10-year-old, so 6 30 finish is better there. Um, if you've got your obviously your older teenagers, yellow ball squad or something, then you can you can go up to to eight o'clock um with them. But generally, that yeah, that 5:30, 7:30 range is where you put your green and yellow ballers. Now, at 6 30 is where we run our adult programs, so we'll run beginner courses, we'll run uh drill sessions, cardio tennis, uh, you know, maybe there's a match play tournament night, and 6 30 is a good time for that. Okay, they've finished work most times, most people can get back for a 6 30. There will be the odd person worked longer hours and they're wanting seven o'clock type stuff, but generally 6 30 is going to get most people there, um, and then you can run an hour and a half, you've got an eight o'clock finish. It's still not too late, and people are pretty happy with that. So that's your um that's your adult program there. Um now, in that same lot of time slots, 3 30 to 8 o'clock. Again, I've talked about group lessons, but you can be putting private lessons in there. So um, depending on what state you're at, if you're the only coach, you're it, then maybe you run a three-day-a-week program with these group lessons, and a Saturday morning, I would do group lessons, and then maybe Tuesday and Thursday you're you're doing private lessons in this time slot. Okay, that that would be a a way to begin there, but there's just so many different ways to do these programs depending on what you've what you like to do, what size place you're involved in, uh, how many other coaches do you have? Is it just you? Is it three of you, four of you, how to split that program up, it really depends on the the situation you've got. Um but I guess my point here is that you should have a you should have some group lessons always running, um, and then you fit in some privates uh maybe on a couple of days a week. If you've got other coaches working for you, then they might be taking the group, or maybe they're taking some some privates and you're taking the group, but you you can work work that out, but you need to not just go to private lessons because you're gonna lose your your funnel of players that you're gonna get from groups. So the group lesson, as I talked about on a I don't know what episode four maybe was about the group lesson. Um, and you know that's where you can build your program. You you get the kids in, okay, they're doing privates, they're doing extra, uh, they're now doing four days a week. So that's all gonna come from the group lesson. So you've got to consider how you get that balance, but uh yeah, group's important, so don't ever forget about the funnel. So then we got um we're finishing at eight o'clock at the moment. Now you will get plenty of options to do eight to nine privates or eight to eight forty five privates. This is probably the same people who work during the day and they go home, they have dinner, and then they're good to go and and do it do another session late. So if you want to, co often thinks eight o'clock is enough if you start it at 6 30 a.m. But you know, there's another hour there that that there'll be plenty of people keen to, you know, especially if they play a bit and they're wanting that that workout type session. Um, you're gonna get you're gonna get people wanting that. Um, so it's up to you as a coach on how you how you structure this. Now, the point of doing this is so you understand that almost through the whole day there are potential uh potential clients that can fit into that. So you've got to design your your schedule the way you want it to be, and you've got to, I guess you've got to also look to where you are. Uh, you're gonna some places attract more adults, maybe they're you know the the demographics of the area has more um adults in their 30s and 40s, okay. Um some are gonna attract more retirees, which may mean you get more day stuff, okay. You might get more day private lessons or social sessions. Some are gonna be more kid heavy, all right. So you've got to you've got to really look at your demographics and do some research on that, and then uh and then you offer your program uh to to offer your program to suit those demographics. Um that's it. Coach's schedule uh from before sunrise, actually, and uh to well after sunset. All right, thank you, cheers. The art of credit, art of it.