This is a short blog on how Mike Herd got into tennis coaching. Mike has always loved tennis from an early age and spent many hours training and competing as a junior at Wrexham Tennis Centre.
Mike was a recent finalist for Tennis Wales Coach Of The Year. You can read more about this by clicking here.
Mike is the head coach of Pen-y-ffordd Tennis Club and Hawarden Community Tennis Club in Flintshire. He is also the head coach of Helsby Tennis Club in Cheshire.
He is also a UKRSA qualified stringer and technician and offers Racket Restringing for all racket sports in Wrexham and the surrounding area.
Wrexham Tennis Centre is where Mike’s coaching career began
Mike’s first coaching experience was as a 15 year old at Wrexham during a work experience placement. Shortly after this Mike completed his level 1 coaching qualification at Caernarfon Tennis Centre. He was then mentored by experienced coach Ian Preston for his level 2 and helped assist with junior and adult coaching.
In 2009, Mike enrolled on a sports science degree at Bangor University where he continued assisting at Caernarfon. After graduating in 2012, Mike was unsure about what he wanted to do for a career. One of Mike’s close tennis friends suggested he should try his hand at tennis coaching.
Soon after, Mike sent his CV to Wrexham and was offered some hours to assist with the mini tennis and adult programme. He loved it straightaway, and knew tennis coaching was what he wanted to do for his career.
Shortly after a vacancy came up at Pen-y-ffordd Tennis Club for a head coach job which he grabbed with both hands. There were only 68 members at the club with no coaching programme in place. Mike wanted to change this and could see the potential at the club.
Mike enrolled on a level 3 coaching course with Inspire2coach for advice and guidance to grow the club. Many hours were spent in the cold outdoors trying to build up the programme and membership numbers. Within 2 years, the membership grew massively, to over 170 members and the club were awarded runners up for Club of the year in Wales.
Fast forward to 2017, the club now have over 220 members and the club is thriving.
What Mike is up to now?
Mike is now a UKCC4 Senior Club Coach running successful coaching programmes at Penyffordd Tennis Club, Hawarden Community Tennis Club and Helsby Tennis Club
He also spends a lot of time restringing rackets for tennis, badminton and squash.
Click the to view the latest Junior Tennis Coaching and Adult Tennis Coaching. Private Tennis coaching is also available.
Contact Mike to arrange a free lesson.
You can contact Mike on 07527 908808 or [email protected]
You can try your first lesson for free.
Facebook: Mike Herd Tennis / Mike Herd Racket Restringing
Twitter@ @mikeherdtennis