How To Become A Tennis Coach: What It Is and Career Path

What is a tennis coach and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Tennis coaches help professional, semi-professional, and casual players improve their capabilities in tennis. They may work in gyms, educational institutions, tennis facilities, or work for professional players.

The duties of a tennis coach are not that different from that of any other coach. They are usually responsible for developing individualized training plans, conducting skills assessments, teaching game strategies, and recording progress updates. Moreover, they also help ensure that players don't injure themselves and assist them in choosing the right clothes and equipment.

Most tennis coaches have a degree in kinesiology or other related fields, but employers may consider applicants with a high school diploma, given that they have prior work experience or proven coaching skills. Furthermore, tennis coaches must be patient, communicative, and great instructors to be able to help bring their students to success.

The salary of a tennis coach is around $46,000 per year. But this figure can be a lot more if they work for professional tennis players.

ScoreTennis CoachUS Average

Salary

3.4

Avg. Salary $43,321

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.0

Growth rate 20%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 5.42%

Black or African American 8.79%

Hispanic or Latino 13.11%

Unknown 6.21%

White 66.25%

Gender

female 36.65%

male 63.35%

Age - 34

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 34

Stress level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.3

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a tennis coach

Explore tennis coach education requirements

Most common tennis coach degrees

Bachelor's

74.8 %

Master's

11.1 %

Associate

6.6 %

Start to develop specific tennis coach skills

Skills	Percentages
CPR	23.81%
Student Athletes	22.43%
Kids	10.00%
Role Model	8.66%
Tennis Program	8.55%

Complete relevant tennis coach training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New tennis coaches learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a tennis coach based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real tennis coach resumes.

Research tennis coach duties and responsibilities

Achieve certified USPTA tennis professional status.
Lead boy's tennis team to a conference championship.
Comply with NCAA D1 rules and regulations while achieving team success.
Lead a group of 9 other coaches and help them to teach kids of ages 7-15 to play tennis.

Prepare your tennis coach resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your tennis coach resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a tennis coach resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable tennis coach resume templates

Build a professional tennis coach resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your tennis coach resume.

Apply for tennis coach jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a tennis coach job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do tennis coaches rate their job?

-/5

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Tennis coach reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2019

Pros

Working with individual players in one on one lessons. That's when I get a real chance to find out what knowledge the athlete is bringing to practice, who taught him that, and how and why it may work or not be the best technique available. I am about as nuanced a coach as you could get. The game of football is one of mental fortitude, discipline, and preparation. Raw athleticism, circus catches and big hits or helmet to helmet collisions.

Cons

I don't like parents getting involved or attempting to persuade coaching decisions such as play playing time and depth chart seeding. What I would allow for is any of my concerned parents (at any potential public school) who wouldn't ordinarily come watch practice and see the way the coaching staff interacts with your student athlete as we will go through a proper tackling methods clinic for LB/defensive backs, different types of blocking for the offensive and even the multiple defensive pash rush techniques that are now able to be implemented by a modern football coach.