Are you curious to know more about how do you break free from the mass of wannabes and qualify for Wimbledon? If you answered yes to this question, then this episode on The Coaching Podcast is one not to be missed with Slovakian Coach, Vlado Platenik. What does Vlado think makes a great coach? Empathy, Passion, Knowledge!

In the glossy world of ‘Grand Slam’ tennis coaches, there are very few Grand Slam Development Tennis Coaches i.e. tennis coaches that work in the trenches taking ‘nobodies’ with no ranking points, no money, into ‘somebodies’ Top 100, Top 64… and beyond. A former professional tennis player from Slovak has taken four players from lower-ranking to Top 100 WTA, four players to Top 20 WTA. His players have qualified for more than sixty Grand Slam Tournaments and qualified for more than fifteen Wimbledon’s. Are there other coaches that can equal those results in developing young talent? Rather than coaching a player that’s already broken through.

Each player development process takes around three years of Vlado’s life dedicated to this one person. His current client is Veronika Kudermetova ranked 32. Vlado has now been on WTA Tour for twenty + years spending eleven months of the year away from his own family. There’s a Winning life off-court on tour and a Winning game on court on tour. And his teenage daughter (Ela Platenikova), schooled in Vlado’s ‘method’ also dreams of Wimbledon! She is 17 years old, number 2 in Slovakia in her age, playing ITF juniors and ITF women tournaments. Vlado's can be reached via his e-mail: [email protected]