“The greatest gains in S&C can be made in how you make yourself an integral part of the team,” says Johnny Parkes.

“You have to be out there with the team on a daily basis, you have to have those soft skills – I actually call them essential skills – we have to recognise that we have to make ourselves completely valuable to the team.”

Johnny, who was recently appointed Associate Head Coach of the men’s tennis program at the University of South Carolina’s men’s tennis program, is the third and final guest on this Keiser miniseries, which seeks to understand the world of S&C through a leadership lens.

He is both an S&C and a tennis coach out on the court and, in his dual role, is in no doubt about what it takes to develop the essential skills of which he speaks.

He adds: “That might mean going out there for extended periods of time, watching practices, going above and beyond and staying later after an S&C session because a guy needs to work on their hip mobility a little bit more as opposed to just shutting the practice down.”

Also during this episode, we discuss:

• The distinct challenges of coaching youth and adult tennis players [2:30];
• The need to give the player a voice and shape your coaching cues to them as an individual [7:00];
• Johnny’s comfort in discussing performance topics outside of his domain [14:00];
• Why the gamification of elite athlete training resembles a PE class [23:00].

Previous episode:

Emily Hall – Queensland Rugby League

John Portch LinkedIn | X

Listen above and subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and Overcast, or your chosen podcast platform.