From the desk of a Tennis Pro

My passions in life

I’ll begin by introducing myself; my name is Ebony Banes and I’ve grown up on the tennis court. My parents are both tennis coaches, and I wanted to play professionally. I never originally planned on becoming a tennis coach until some chronic injuries as a player forced me into other avenues. I have been coaching for over 7 years now and in many different forms and styles covering many areas.

I have loved every minute of my tennis and my recent touring coaching work has given me many rewarding times. It has enabled me to be exposed to world class tennis, watching it day in and day out. I’ve been able to travel the world and visit places I would previously only have dreamed of or never thought possible for me to visit. I have met many wonderful coaches and tennis officials all really keen to share their knowledge, experience and wisdom which has created lasting friendships and contacts all over the world in different areas. The main thing though is that I’ve been able to indulge in my passion of tennis to the point where I’ve been playing, sleeping, eating and breathing tennis 24/7 for months on end and at the same time, have been able to class it as work.

I have always been a big believer in loving what you do and enjoying life, otherwise there is no point doing it. If you enjoy the things you do, you listen better, remain positive, are highly motivated, more productive, and get a lot more out of the experience. So for me to be able to love my tennis so much as I do and turn it into a job for life, with many other bonuses along the way, I couldn’t be happier.

I’m very thankful that I have never been pushed into doing anything I didn’t want to. My current situation and my life to date could have been very different had I been forced into playing and constantly pushed into tennis not to mention that my relationship with my family and the sport of tennis would both be shattered.

These days however, I unfortunately see too many parents forcing things upon their children that they either wish for them or want them to achieve to fill a void the parents themselves couldn’t.

I don’t wish for everyone to play tennis, or anyone to be forced into playing it, but I do wish that the people interested are able to happily get involved. I wish that parents could provide support and a positive environment for children to play in. Please enjoy it and have fun, whether it be socially, competitively, for fitness, to spectate or to travel the world!

I’m a coach and aim to improve playing level, skills, knowledge etc. but my personal objective as a coach is to get as many people as I can enjoying the wonderful sport of tennis. If everyone could get the same amount of enjoyment from the sport that I can, I feel it would have been a job well done.