08/04/2026
16 years ago, I took my very first coaching course.
At the time, I was still playing on the ATP Tour, and the course was held at Club de Tenis Cochabambaβthe same club where I first started playing tennis. It was a 10-day ITF Level 1 course, and to this day, I still consider it one of the best courses Iβve ever taken.
A lot of that was because of Papote Gonzalez . He was an outstanding coach and, more importantly, an outstanding teacher.
Before that course, I thought I understood tennis because I had spent my whole life competing. What I realized during those 10 days was that knowing how to play and knowing how to teach are completely different things.
That course gave me something I had never had before: structure. It taught me how to organize a lesson, how to build a player step by step, and how to look beyond technique. It completely changed the way I saw coaching.
Looking back at this picture, I had no idea that coaching would become such an important part of my life. Sixteen years later, I still believe one of the best investments any coach can make is in their education.
No matter how much experience you have as a player, thereβs always something new to learn.
