welcome all nick wheatley stalkers!

I coach 30+ kids a week in Skills & Drills. Some are Team Hawker Squad players who are adding an extra on-court session to their weekly schedule, but many are more recreational players who might only be doing tennis once a week.

It's a privilege to be their coach, and to be responsible for making the sessions fun, relaxed, but at the same time beneficial. Tennis is a sport for life, and I know many of these players will continue playing tennis for the next 30, 40, 50, 60 years, and their skills will have been bedded in on the Hawker courts.

I have 25+ kids in the squads, and these are our highest level, and most committed junior players. All my 30 years of experience, knowledge, and coaching skills, go into helping these players develop their ability to enjoy competitive tennis, and perform well in it.

Team Hawker Squads are the centre of our Hawker Tennis family. I'm always delighted to support these players in team matches whenever I can, as well as in individual tournaments, and I'm always keen to liaise closely with their parents to ensure we're doing all we can to aid their development. 

I'm lucky enough to currently have a wide array of individual students, from a national level junior, to committed squad players, and from mega-keen adults to younger juniors starting out on their tennis journey. 

It's a pleasure and privilege to coach any player on an individual basis, and I always look to do my best to maximise the time and make it fun and enjoyable for both of us.

The on court work is fantastic, it's where knowledge is learned, skills are developed, rapport is built, and fun is had. However, the real magic happens on the match court when my players put in incredible performances and land themselves impressive and sometimes very unlikely wins!

Magical sporting success stories happen all the time at the highest levels, and there's always some version of the same story behind them; a player or team working together with the support of a coach (or coaches), and/or family, and/or friends. The rapport and connection between the group is always strong, with the player or team always feeling fully supported and cared for, and those giving that support doing so with passion and commitment.

Well, the same formula works at every level of competitive sport. It's not something that can be forced or created, it's something that just happens naturally in the right circumstances. I'm lucky enough to have experienced this many times over the years, magical moments and special victories that can't be erased. It's the best part of the job! 

I'll now share a few of them. I'm not taking credit for these successes*, because what is important to me are the cherished memories, priceless experiences, and the all-round positive effect these wins have on the players. Pictures from all of them are in the gallery below!

*Tap here to read the truth about who should take credit for sporting successes. 

The U16 Surrey Team Tennis Play-off's only ran for two years in 2015 and 2016, bringing together all the summer U16 Team Tennis league winners for a play-offs event at the end of August.

Hawker were defending champions after Harry and Zino won the event for us in 2015, though I wasn't in attendance that year. In 2016, I committed fully and took our team Harry and Moritz to Sutton TA for the finals. It was a long day, with 4 other teams to play, including our friends (and local rivals) Ham & Petersham! 

It was an early start, we left Kingston at 9am. Normally fine, but Harry (our more experienced No.1 player) had just got back from the Reading festival in the early hours!. Moritz, being 2 years younger, was less experienced but very good. I took the boys through a warm-up practice at the venue, before they got started. We won our first 3 ties, though one of them was decided by a doubles champions tie-break. That left us playing Ham & Petersham for the title. Harry was tired, and both were concerned with the opposition who we knew well, and we knew were good players. However, the boys both executed their tactical plans brilliantly and played really well, to ensure we won without the need for doubles!

I shouted them to a KFC on the way home to celebrate a fantastic day and a great team effort, and to this day we all fondly remember the win and the KFC afterwards! Both have now finished Uni and were at my house for a BBQ this summer, where we spent a great evening catching up and reminiscing about all the good old days!

I was Moritz's coach for 14 years (2006-20, from age 4-18), and Harry's coach for 11 years (2007-18, from age 7-18). They were standout performers for Hawker, and responsible for winning numerous team titles and tournaments. 

Hawker has a rich recent history with the PYWTW national finals, and the August scheduling means I can usually offer my full support to our players. 

Tristan and Georgiy have epitomised what Hawker Tennis is all about, embracing the relaxed and supportive environment we have across all the squads. They left for Uni in September 2023, but have kept close links with the club and our current Team Hawker players. 

They wanted to go in for the Men's Doubles event this year (having previously played the U18 doubles in 2022), and they qualified for the national finals quite comfortably to join 23 other qualifiers from around the UK. I committed to be there for every match they played, as did their parents. We were also joined by various friendly faces from Hawker through the event.

They won their two group games, but needed to come through a champs tie-break in one of them, as both guys struggled a little with their games and getting used to the grass. Georgiy wasn't feeling his return, so on his request, I went out and hit 100+ serves at him that evening to work on it.

In the 1/4 Finals, the boys were playing better, more solid, and with more confidence, and they beat a good pair 6-2 7-5. In the semi-finals later that day, they maintained a good level, and edged a thriller 7-6 5-7 (10-4)!

The key to the final was to stay relaxed and keep enjoying it, and to use the experience of the U18 Doubles final they had lost 2 years earlier. The guys were UNBELIEVABLE! They both played incredibly well from start to finish, and destroyed a decent pair 6-1 6-1, the most one-sided scoreline in the entire competition. It was a classic case of building your level through the event, and then playing your best when it mattered the most, and it was a real buzz for everyone involved!

The guys and I went out and celebrated quite late into the night, to mark a quite incredible achievement, and a day that will live long in our memories!

Tristan started Saturday group lessons in 2009 (aged 4), and did them for several years. His family moved to Kew, but he maintained regular weekend Matchplay's, and then got more involved in squads and regular individuals with me. Georgiy started out with individual classes when he was playing orange ball, and then moved to an academy, but he wasn't happy there, and came back to Hawker as a 13 year old in 2018. Tristan was also 13. They made their Hawker debut as a doubles pair a few weeks later in the Ham/Hawker Cup, and that started a consistent theme of enjoyment, success, and that classic Team Hawker camaraderie!

The Ham/Hawker Cup was a fantastic team event, set-up by myself and the former head coach of Ham James Kober. We used the classic Davis Cup style, played across 8 or 9 different age/gender categories, and we allowed on-court coaching to maximise the benefits for our players.

I absolutely loved this environment, because it tested every single aspect of my coaching ability, and it was a proper team event that brought the whole club together. I loved it!

In 2017, we hosted the event, and cruised to a comfortable 5-4 victory. I say comfortable as the 5 ties we won were all straightforward.

2018 was the highlight victory! Ham were hungry to level the series and win the cup, especially as they were at home this time. They had a much stronger squad, and were strong favourites in 6 of the 9 ties, but I left no stone unturned in the preparation of our players for the event, which later inspired one of my articles on TennisPlayer from my marginal gains series entitled 'The Cup'!

Our players scored several notable upset wins, and it was Tristan and Georgiy who landed an early blow, both playing exceptional singles to secure the U14 Boys tie by a 3-1 scoreline. In the end it came down to our Ladies team to score a stunning upset, represented by two of the Mum's, who rode their luck at times, but in the end were too solid for Ham's fearsome ladies players. That secured a 5-3 win, with the final tie being abandoned.

In 2019, we once again hosted, and unable to agree on a 9th tie, we only had 8 ties, and so worked with a sets count-back rule to decide the cup in the event of a 4-4 draw.

Of course, 4-4 is how it ended up! However, it took two amazing wins from Moritz to set up a situation where Tristan and Georgiy needed to win their tie by 3-0 to win us the Cup. Moritz beat Ham's two strongest juniors, with two performances that are simply the stuff of legend! Both were big upset wins that were not expected. 

Tristan and Georgiy won their singles to go 2-0 up, and around 9 hours after we started the event, everyone knew that the cup would be decided on the outcome of the doubles. Tristan and Georgiy had lost this doubles tie to the same two players by 6-1 the previous year, and both James and I did the best we could to prepare our players, and then coach/support as necessary during the match. Tristan and Georgiy got the job done, working great as a pair, and sneaking a very long tenth game of the set to win 6-4!

Hawker won the cup for the 3rd straight year, and after James left for his native USA when Covid hit, the event has never been staged again.

This all came down to the final. Lucca was playing well and hadn't dropped a set in 4 matches. I'd been there for his 2nd round, 1/4 final and semi-final wins. The two of us got on very well and he was keen that I was there for the final too, and there was no way I was going to miss it!

Lucca's opponent had impressively beaten the top seed the day before, and he got off to a strong start in the final, converting a 5-1 lead into a 6-3 1st set. Lucca went an early break down in the 2nd set, before raising his level and gaining confidence in the process. He levelled the match with a 6-3 2nd set, and closed out the win with a tense 11-9 champions tie-break! I was court-side the whole time, just doing my best to find the right balance at the right time between giving encouragement and looking calm. 

At the time, this was Lucca's best ever win, and he was Surrey U14 Boys champion. It was also the first time anyone I'd coached had won a Surrey Championship, so it was a special day for both of us.

I was Lucca's coach for 4 years (May 2020 - March 2024, from age 11-15). He was the first one of my students to break through to national level, which he did in 2023. We worked most extensively on technique, whilst I also supported him with the mental side and tactical side of the game. He continues to enjoy tennis, and remains one of the best players in the UK in his age group. 

Magical wins are always possible when some form of that magical formula of rapport and support is in place. Sometimes it's more weighted to giving emotional support, and other times it's more weighted to finding the right tactics and executing them.

I love working out tactics for players, and it's often quite simple tactical plans that can make the difference between a straight forward win and a loss.

I'd watched Nicho and Oliver win their semi-final the day before, and also knew their opponents for the final and seen some of their match. Their opponents were both higher ranked, were top seeds, and fully expected to win, but the tactics were clear in my mind.

Right before the final, I spent half an hour with the boys at a local park venue to work through the tactical plays and make sure they understood them. It's fantastic when you have players who understand tactical plans and have the skill to execute them. I watched them deliver a near perfect performance, sticking to the plans, and winning easily 6-3 6-1 to stun the top seeds.

Nicho has been at Hawker from a very young age, and has been involved in more club successes than any other player in the history of the club, starting in 2017 when he was part of our winning U9 Team Tennis orange ball team! Oliver joined in Sept 2022 and started individuals in early 2023. This year he became the first Hawker player to qualify for the main draw of a Tennis Europe event, and win a match. Oliver left the squad in Sept 2024. We also stopped individuals as my vision for helping him fulfil his vast potential wasn't shared. I wish him the very best, and we have left the door open in case circumstances change.

This one reminds me of the famous 5-1 football win away to Germany that all England fans will forever remember, a truly magical win from the football world!

Our team of Rohan, Sam, Mac, and James were all great friends and very close. They were in a tough division and looked underdogs in every match, but they gave it everything and played for each other, highlighted by the fact they won 9 out of 10 doubles ties during the season.

They beat Sutton Academy 4-2 at home, including Sam winning a match from 0-4 0-2 down! They lost to Barnes 3-4, but beat Southwark 4-2, including a doubles win that involved saving 5 match points! Our next match was Downs away, who had won all their matches, and their coach was an old acquaintance who had always beaten me on the court! This was the crunch match, so I was keen to take it on. I took the 4 boys down there early to be well prepared, and we'd been warming up for 20 minutes before the opponents arrived. 

Mac and James won their doubles on a champs tie-break, Sam lost his singles, and Rohan was in a tough battle with their No.1, which went to tie-break. I still remember some VERY long rallies, but Rohan saved 2 match points and won it something like 13-11 to give us a crucial 2-1 half-way lead.

The boys pushed on and won the remaining 3 matches (two of them on champs tie-break), to secure a 5-1 win away at the league leaders and leave the league in our hands. A routine win against Annabel Croft Academy in the last match secured it.

Along with Charlie, and Josh, this group of U10's would go on to be Hawker's first ever team to qualify for Premier Team Tennis as U14's in 2020. All the players were long-term Hawker squad members, winning plenty of titles for Hawker as well as G5 and G4 tournaments for themselves. In 2024, most of them still play recreationally, and keep in touch with the club.