CPD For Coaches
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (cpd) PROGRAMME FOR COACHES
Tennis Ireland values continuous learning for coaches of all levels and encourages coaches to engage with workshops, online learning and other methods to increase their experience and improve their overall standard of coaching to further enhance tennis across Ireland.
Continuous professional development of coaches is key for player development at all ages, retention of players and growing the game.
CPD is important for:
- Upskilling as a coach and progressing through the coaching pathway
- Learning new skills, concepts, methods for coaching etc. to stay current as tennis coaching is always evolving
- Refreshing skills and knowledge
- Enhance player development at all ages
- Improve coaching effectiveness and player experiences
- Networking with other coaches
- Learning from others based in Ireland or abroad to strengthen relationships with other nations
How do I gain CPD Points and what are they required for?
CPD Points are gained by attending workshops (in person or online), upskilling through courses (Level 2, 3 or 4), seminars and conferences (including the Tennis Coach Ireland National Conference) and undertaking other learning opportunities such as captaining junior international teams.
Keep an eye out on the CPD calendar below as workshops are added from time to time.
If you or your club is running a workshop or if you see great webinars or workshops that are worth adding to the calendar – please contact Tennis Ireland – [email protected] with all information to ratify the CPD points and add the workshop to the calendar.
CPD points are required for licensing the following year i.e. coaches need to gain 100 CPD points in 2026 in order to be able to apply for their 2027 Coach License.
CPD Programme Changes for 2026
- From 2026 all CPD points will now be administered by Tennis Ireland and a record of CPD points for each coach will be kept.
- If coaches are completing CPD outside of what is provided below, coaches must submit certificates/logbooks/reflections to Tennis Ireland to ratify the points. These should be ratified before the coach participates in a workshop etc.
- Insurance can still be purchased from Tennis Coach Ireland under their group Public Liability Insurance Scheme or other insurance companies that provide adequate cover for coaching.
- The National Conference in September is now worth 75 CPD points.
- Coaches can obtain a maximum of 50 CPD points from online workshops/webinars/material etc.
2026 Coach Licensing
Coaches who wish to apply for their 2026 Coach License must obtain 100 CPD points in 2025.
Coaches can view the requirements for 2026 Coach Licensing and apply for their license here: https://www.tennisireland.ie/coach/licensing
CPD Calendar 2026
January
Topic: Foundations of Mental Coaching for Junior Athletes
- Highlights:
What mental skills actually are – clear definitions from sports psychology, neuroscience, and developmental psychology (with minimal jargon) - Why early mental training matters (brain development, habits, resilience)
- The four core pillars of junior mental performance: Awareness, Regulation, Resilience, Identity
- Introduce simple mental drills into every training session
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
Topic: Learn how to teach all 3 serves: flat, slice and topspin
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
Topic: Learn how to teach your students how to use their legs to drive their body
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
February
Topic: Planning and Effective Implementation of Mental Training
Highlights:
- Annual, quarterly, and monthly planning and adaptation
- Understanding mental-skills periodization (helping juniors progress from basic awareness to mental-skill
- How to align mental-skill development with the athlete’s training calendar (pre-season → competition → transition phases)
- Applying simple monitoring tools to assess mental readiness and track progress
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
- Understand why and how group coaching can be a great opportunity for your tennis programme
- Understand the importance of great organisation in your group coaching
- Know how to organise your groups to get them playing in a fun and safe environment
- How to coach players effectively in a group environment
- Learn the key patterns of group organisation which will work in your singles and doubles group lessons
- Take away some great games, drills and competition formats to use with your junior and adult groups
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
- Understand the details which make a great drill, including game situations, tactical intentions, ball characteristics and feeding which will take your drills to the next level
- Take away a set of 10 core principles to elevate your drills to the next level
- Take away a drills checklist to help you evaluate the effectiveness of your coaching after the workshop
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
March
Thursday 19th March
Topic: Raising Resilient Athletes Together: Parent–Coach Alignment in Practice
Highlights:
- Why alignment matters more than methodology
The coach’s role vs. the parent’s role - Collaborative tools for creating a shared developmental approach
- How to prevent conflict through structure, clarity, and transparent communication
Sunday 29th March
2.00-5.00pm
Naas LTC
NA – free of charge
Level 1- Level 4
25 CPD points for attending
Tennis Ireland is running a Schools Tennis Workshop for coaches interested in getting involved in Schools Tennis or refreshing their skills and knowledge in this area.
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
April
- Analyse and know player’s levels from the start
- Explaining technical skills and teaching control
- Adapting rules to players – Red, Orange or Green – When and How?
- Key coaching cues for adults
- Designing lesson plans and admin
- Teaching tennis etiquette for better integration
- Homework/tennis at home
- Keep them coming back to continue to develop as players – emphasis on FUN!
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
PRESENTERS AND TOPICS:
Stephen Garvin: Red Ball Made Simple – A 3-Level Pathway to Serve, Rally and Score.
Red ball players can vary in standard from complete beginner to youngsters who can comfortably engage in extended rallies. This presentation examines key competencies and shows relevant on court exercises for red ball players at different levels.
Stephen is Chairperson of TCI, a level 4 coach and a Coach Developer with Tennis Ireland. He serves as Director of Tennis at Castleknock Tennis Club, one of Ireland’s largest clubs.
Will Wilshere: The Long Game – using Tennis Ireland’s Development Pathway to Build Lifelong Players.
A practical on-court session exploring how Tennis Ireland’s development pathway can be brought to life in everyday club coaching. This session demonstrates what developmentally sound coaching looks like in practice, with examples of drills relevant for club players of every level.
Will is a Level 3 coach and member of the TCI committee who has been coaching tennis for over 20 years – currently Head Coach at Claremont Railway LTC in Dublin. A background firmly rooted in club tennis, working with all types of club player from red ballers to first team players.
Mark Finnegan: Help Your Players Win More Doubles Matches.
Mark has developed a system to shift the percentages in favour of your players – positional awareness, the right energy, effective communication.
Mark has gained extensive experience in world-class doubles coaching, with many players he has coached now ranked in the world’s top 50 in doubles. He currently helps players find sports scholarships around the world.
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
May
PRESENTERS AND TOPICS:
Stephen Garvin: Red Ball Made Simple – A 3-Level Pathway to Serve, Rally and Score.
Red ball players can vary in standard from complete beginner to youngsters who can comfortably engage in extended rallies. This presentation examines key competencies and shows relevant on court exercises for red ball players at different levels.
Stephen is Chairperson of TCI, a level 4 coach and a Coach Developer with Tennis Ireland. He serves as Director of Tennis at Castleknock Tennis Club, one of Ireland’s largest clubs.
Will Wilshere: The Long Game – using Tennis Ireland’s Development Pathway to Build Lifelong Players.
A practical on-court session exploring how Tennis Ireland’s development pathway can be brought to life in everyday club coaching. This session demonstrates what developmentally sound coaching looks like in practice, with examples of drills relevant for club players of every level.
Will is a Level 3 coach and member of the TCI committee who has been coaching tennis for over 20 years – currently Head Coach at Claremont Railway LTC in Dublin. A background firmly rooted in club tennis, working with all types of club player from red ballers to first team players.
Mark Finnegan: Help Your Players Win More Doubles Matches.
Mark has developed a system to shift the percentages in favour of your players – positional awareness, the right energy, effective communication.
Mark has gained extensive experience in world-class doubles coaching, with many players he has coached now ranked in the world’s top 50 in doubles. He currently helps players find sports scholarships around the world.
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
Over 4 years in the development, this will be an industry leading short course, fully practical, on the court from red ball to competitive tennis players. This workshop will focus on singles tactics and will be suitable for development & performance coaches wanting some new ideas around delivering tactics in group training sessions for juniors or adult club members.
Dates and Venues:
Wednesday 20th May: Rushbrooke Tennis Club, Cork – 9.30am-1.30pm
Thursday 21st May: National Tennis Centre, DCU – 9.30am-1.30pm
Friday 22nd May: Belfast Boat Club – 9.30am-1.30pm – CANCELLED
Cost: £50 per coach
CPD Points: 25 points for attending
Target Coaches: Level 1 – Level 4
Workshop Objectives:
- Present new ideas for teaching tactics on court with players
- Deliver a range of progressions/regressions to work with different ages and stages of players
- Show a range of ways to develop ‘thinking’ players
- Explore dozens of drills to develop tactical decision making on court.
- How to observe a player tactically and improve them immediately.
- Show different approaches to tactical training from around the world.
About Simon Wheatley:
Simon Wheatley is one of the world’s most respected and credible Tennis Coaches & Coach Educators. Simon has a degree in Sports Development & Psychology. He is a LTA Level 5 Master Performance Coach and Tutor. He is the author of 2 best selling coaching manuals, 3 coaching qualifications and over 50 Professional Development Courses.
He has trained over 10,000 coaches & teachers in over 40 countries. He was formerly LTA Performance Coach Education Manager responsible for the Education & Development of over 1000 British Coaches working in Performance Tennis. He is a Davis Cup analyst, and technical consultant to many WTA, ATP and ITF Junior players.
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
June
PRESENTERS AND TOPICS:
Stephen Garvin: Red Ball Made Simple – A 3-Level Pathway to Serve, Rally and Score.
Red ball players can vary in standard from complete beginner to youngsters who can comfortably engage in extended rallies. This presentation examines key competencies and shows relevant on court exercises for red ball players at different levels.
Stephen is Chairperson of TCI, a level 4 coach and a Coach Developer with Tennis Ireland. He serves as Director of Tennis at Castleknock Tennis Club, one of Ireland’s largest clubs.
Will Wilshere: The Long Game – using Tennis Ireland’s Development Pathway to Build Lifelong Players.
A practical on-court session exploring how Tennis Ireland’s development pathway can be brought to life in everyday club coaching. This session demonstrates what developmentally sound coaching looks like in practice, with examples of drills relevant for club players of every level.
Will is a Level 3 coach and member of the TCI committee who has been coaching tennis for over 20 years – currently Head Coach at Claremont Railway LTC in Dublin. A background firmly rooted in club tennis, working with all types of club player from red ballers to first team players.
Mark Finnegan: Help Your Players Win More Doubles Matches.
Mark has developed a system to shift the percentages in favour of your players – positional awareness, the right energy, effective communication.
Mark has gained extensive experience in world-class doubles coaching, with many players he has coached now ranked in the world’s top 50 in doubles. He currently helps players find sports scholarships around the world.
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
PRESENTERS AND TOPICS:
Hrvoje Zmajić is a highly regarded tennis coach and tutor from Croatia, known for his analytical approach to player development and expertise in biomechanics.
Currently Hrvoje is International Consultant for Coach and Player Development. For fifteen years, from 2003 – 2018 he was in charge of ITF/Tennis Europe Development Programmes when he was assisting the National Associations in developing tennis. The focus of his work was development of promising juniors and coach education programmes in less developed tennis nations. He was involved in development of several top players such as Ostapenko and Dimitrov, as well as less famous ones like Irina Shimanovich, Ricardas Berankis, Albot Radu and Damir Dzumhur, and many others that played for Davis Cup and Fed Cup Teams.
Before starting to work for the ITF/Tennis Europe Hrvoje was coaching performance juniors. He was appointed as the national junior coach for Croatian Tennis Association and was travelling coach of the ITF international travelling teams.
At present, Hrvoje is ITF certified tutor presenting at Coaches Courses and Workshops around the world. Since 2021 he is consultant for the Finish, 2022 for Kazakhstan Tennis Association and 2023 for Italian tennis Federation in developing national junior performance programme. Between 2021-2023 Hrvoje was hired by Turkish Tennis Federation to prepare the new Coach education programme and since 2022 is assisting Swedish Tennis Federation in updating their Coach education programme. Lecturer at the Japanese, Kazakhstan, Hungarian, Finish, Irish, Slovenian and Austrian coach education programmes for coaches working with advance and high-performance players.
Hrvoje has spoken at several ITF World Wide and Tennis Europe Coaches’ Conferences as well as national coaches’ conferences around Europe (in over forty countries).
Workshop Details
This workshop delivered across two days is key for coaches looking to gain an understanding on coaching groundstrokes and the biomechanics involved. This workshop is aimed at Level 1 Play Tennis Coaches and Level 2 Coaching Beginner & Intermediate Player Coaches looking to understand the technical side of the game and progress in their coaching to Levels 2 and 3.
Monday 29th June: 3.00-6.30pm
- Key Biomechanic principles applied to tennis
- Biomechanical fundamentals of the modern forehand
- Biomechanical fundamentals of the modern backhand
Tuesday 30th June: 9.00am-12noon
- Groundstrokes – holistic development using biomechanics.
Coaches must attend both dates of the workshop for full benefit and to also receive the CPD points.
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
PRESENTERS AND TOPICS:
Hrvoje Zmajić is a highly regarded tennis coach and tutor from Croatia, known for his analytical approach to player development and expertise in biomechanics.
Currently Hrvoje is International Consultant for Coach and Player Development. For fifteen years, from 2003 – 2018 he was in charge of ITF/Tennis Europe Development Programmes when he was assisting the National Associations in developing tennis. The focus of his work was development of promising juniors and coach education programmes in less developed tennis nations. He was involved in development of several top players such as Ostapenko and Dimitrov, as well as less famous ones like Irina Shimanovich, Ricardas Berankis, Albot Radu and Damir Dzumhur, and many others that played for Davis Cup and Fed Cup Teams.
Before starting to work for the ITF/Tennis Europe Hrvoje was coaching performance juniors. He was appointed as the national junior coach for Croatian Tennis Association and was travelling coach of the ITF international travelling teams.
At present, Hrvoje is ITF certified tutor presenting at Coaches Courses and Workshops around the world. Since 2021 he is consultant for the Finish, 2022 for Kazakhstan Tennis Association and 2023 for Italian tennis Federation in developing national junior performance programme. Between 2021-2023 Hrvoje was hired by Turkish Tennis Federation to prepare the new Coach education programme and since 2022 is assisting Swedish Tennis Federation in updating their Coach education programme. Lecturer at the Japanese, Kazakhstan, Hungarian, Finish, Irish, Slovenian and Austrian coach education programmes for coaches working with advance and high-performance players.
Hrvoje has spoken at several ITF World Wide and Tennis Europe Coaches’ Conferences as well as national coaches’ conferences around Europe (in over forty countries).
Workshop Details
This workshop covers the return of serve, one of the most important shots as it helps neutralise the server’s advantage and compete effectively from the start of the point. This workshop will equip coaches with the technical insights, biomechanics, and practical drills needed to develop more effective and consistent returns in their players.
- Developing returning skills for 10&U players
- Developing returning skills for junior players
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
July
Artificial Intelligence looks set to transform many industries soon. Tennis and tennis coaching will feel the effects too. To help coaches understand what is ahead, and how to prepare for it, TCI has set up an online Workshop on the subject. We hope to see you there.
PRESENTER: Jerzy Lekowski.
Jerzy is a TCI member with a 20-year background in tech. He has worked in software development and server administration, in both startups and US public companies. He’s spent the past several months testing AI tools in his coaching, and is running this session to save other coaches the trial-and-error.
CONTENT:
- What AI is (and isn’t): plain-language introduction to AI and the tools coaches are talking about – ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini.
- What AI is good at, and where it goes wrong. Real examples of AI’s strengths and its failure modes, including the kinds of mistakes that can slip past you.
- Practical use cases for coaches. Demos: lesson planning, drill suggestions, and technique analysis from video. Plus a brief tour of where AI is helpful for admin, communication, term planning, and problem-solving.
- Tools, costs, and the pace of change. A side-by-side look at the major tools, including cost.
- Will AI take our jobs? The honest answer.
- What to do tomorrow: concrete recommendations to bring to your coaching now.
Registration is closed as this workshop is complete.
Vision Sports Awareness Training is designed to educate coaches, volunteers and teachers on Vision Impairment and how small adaptations to sport and physical activity sessions can make a huge difference to the experience of the participant with a vision impairment.
Attendees will learn about the various types of Vision Impairment, basic techniques of sighted guide training and the importance of description and colour contrast when delivering a session.
Examples will be presented of various Blind and Vision Impaired sports and adapted equipment available. Attendees will also be informed of the various programmes available through Vision Sports Ireland. Vision Sports Awareness Training has been endorsed by Sport Ireland Coaching.
15th July – 11am-1pm
4th August – 7-9pm
NB – Vision Sport Ireland will send a link to the session to all those who sign up to the course closer to the scheduled dates.
August
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September
TBC
Registration information: TBC
October
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November
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December
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Additional CPD Opportunities in 2026:
• Qualifying at Level 2, 3 or 4 – 100 CPD points for the year of qualification.
Upcoming Level 2 CBI courses: https://www.tennisireland.ie/coach/level-2-coaching-course/level-2-coaching-course-registration
Upcoming Level 3 CAP courses: https://www.tennisireland.ie/coach/level-3-coaching-course
Level 4 CHP courses: please contact [email protected] to express interest.
• Complete Provincial Referee Course to increase tournament knowledge – 25 CPD points
• Tennis Ireland Activators Course – 20 CPD points
Register and complete course: Courses – Tennis Ireland
• ITF Academy Courses
4 points per course. Points are not awarded if the coach completed the courses as part of a Level 1, 2, 3 or 4 course that year or previous years.
• Safeguarding 1 – 25 CPD points – only if safeguarding 1 renewal is due that year.
• First Aid – 25 CPD points – only if First Aid renewal is due that year.
Level 3 CAP and Level 4 CHP Coaches only:
- Coach/Captain for Ireland Team on junior international tours (Winter Cups, Summer Cups, European Championships and Junior Four Nations) or any international friendlies organised by Tennis Ireland – 40 CPD points. Please find more information and complete the Expression of Interest form here.
- Online WADA ADEL (Anti-Doping Education and Learning) eLearning Course ‘Coaches of High Performance Education Program’ with two certificates of completion – 15 CPD points.
Link to create account and complete course: adel.wada-ama.org
Additional opportunities will be added in due course.
If coaches are completing CPD outside of what is provided above, coaches must submit certificates/logbooks/reflections to Tennis Ireland to ratify the points. These should be ratified before the coach participates in a workshop etc.
