There's a phrase we come back to more than any other in our coaching: *Festina Lente*. It's Latin, and it means "make haste, slowly."

It sounds like a contradiction. It isn't. It's the single most important idea in how we develop players - children and adults alike - and it runs against almost everything the wider coaching world does. This article explains what it means, why chasing quick results actually holds players back, and what genuine, lasting improvement really looks like.

If you've ever wondered why your progress stalled, why the lessons that looked impressive didn't hold up in matches, or how to make sure your child develops properly rather than superficially, this is the thinking that answers it.

Quick Summary

The fastest route to genuine, lasting improvement in tennis is to build deep skills slowly and thoroughly, rather than rushing towards impressive-looking results. This is our core principle, *Festina Lente* - "make haste, slowly." Chasing quick wins produces players who look good but are fragile under pressure. Prioritising deep skill, variation and mastery produces players whose game holds up when it matters. It's the difference between raising your ceiling and settling for a low one.

Festina Lente - Make Haste, Slowly

Every player wants to improve, and every good coach wants to help them get there. The temptation - for coaches, players and parents alike - is to try to reach the "top" level as fast as possible.

In practice that looks like rushing through the stages. A junior racing through the mini tennis colours to reach full yellow-ball tennis early. A player pushed up into older age groups or adult tennis to "prove" they're progressing. A coach drilling impressive-looking shots before the foundations are there.

The problem is that speed like this produces superficial quality. These players aren't bad - they may well be improving - but they're lowering their own potential. By skipping or rushing the foundations, they leave their base level lower and cap their ultimate ceiling. They've built a tall house on shallow footings.

*Festina Lente* is the opposite: making significant, meaningful progress slowly, carefully and deeply. In practice that means spending longer at each stage and genuinely mastering it - not just passing through. Extending time on mini red. Exploring serving and volleying, drop shots and lobs. Committing fully to competition to properly test a skill against genuine peers before moving on.

Our four watchwords capture it:

•        Properly, not quickly

•        Variation, not repetition

•        Mastery, not passing

•        Deep, not shallow

The ultimate goal isn't to get good as fast as possible. It's to maximise a player's potential across their entire tennis life.

The Tell-Tale Sign - When Practice Doesn't Match Matches

Here's how you spot superficial development: a big drop-off between how someone plays in practice and how they play in matches.

If a player looks great hitting in a lesson but falls apart in a real match, it's a clear sign that deep, meaningful skills have been skipped in favour of bigger, better-looking shots. The impressive practice was an illusion of progress.

Genuine development shows up the other way round. A player who has built real foundations can produce their game when it counts, under pressure, in the wind, at break point down. On the surface they might not look flashier than the player who was rushed - but they're far better where it matters.

The test we apply is simple: can a player use their skills in *any and all* scenarios? On high balls, deep balls, fast and slow balls, balls with slice, in extreme wind, when they're break-point down? Once the answer is yes, the player is significantly better - even though, on the surface, they may not appear to be. That's *Festina Lente* in action.

Playing With a Pistol - Skill Over Power

There's a related trap, and it's one of the most common in junior tennis: developing power and physicality at the expense of skill.

Traditional coaching is often short-term and quick-fix based, so strength, power and physical training get prioritised because they produce fast results. A bigger, stronger young player wins now. But done too early, at the expense of skill, it produces a less able player in the long run - and it catches up with them badly at higher levels, where everyone is physically strong *and* highly skilled.

We call the alternative "playing with a pistol," and the idea comes from video games.

In a first-person shooter, you start with a basic weapon - a pistol. As the game gets harder, the designers hand you bigger, more powerful guns to cope. It feels like progress, but the game is really just making things easier. A genuinely good player takes on the harder levels *still using the pistol* - because that develops real skill, not borrowed power.

Tennis works the same way. An underpowered player has to become over-skilled to compete, and that skill is what lasts. Power is easy to add later, especially after puberty when the body can actually develop it. Skill developed young is what raises the ceiling. So we prioritise skill first - and we're wary of any quick fix that substitutes power for it.

For children especially, this matters enormously: the strong ten-year-old who wins on physicality often gets overtaken by the skilful one, because skill compounds and power plateaus.

Round Bat, Round Ball - Why "Perfect" Technique Isn't the Goal

Here's an idea borrowed from baseball. "Round bat, round ball" means that when you try to strike a round object with a round object, a truly perfect contact is rare - even a player with a flawless swing will mishit plenty.

Tennis has a flatter striking surface, but the principle holds. A tennis ball moves through space, spins, bounces and arrives differently every single time. Watch any professional with a "perfect" swing and you'll see how often the ball doesn't go exactly where they intended.

This raises an awkward question: is there much point relentlessly drilling a "perfect" swing? Our answer is largely no - and here's what matters instead.

Once a player has developed a genuinely good technique, making it look even more perfect is a poor use of their time. What actually separates good from great is the ability to make micro adjustments - tiny, split-second alterations to the stroke to cope with what's actually happening.

A gust of wind mid-swing. A ball that bounces oddly. A shot arriving faster or higher than expected. Every one demands an instant, imperceptibly small technical adjustment, often after the swing has already started. The players who make those adjustments fastest are the ones who rise to the top.

Think of Messi dribbling a football - the endless tiny adjustments to speed, surface, direction and opponent, technique applied to a constantly changing environment. That's the real skill. Good technique is necessary, but it's the *application* of it to infinite variety that separates good from great.

The practical takeaway: we develop sound technique and then, rather than polishing it endlessly, we test it in every possible condition so players learn to adjust. That's what makes a game hold up in the real world.

Soft Skills vs Hard Skills

This all connects to a bigger distinction: hard skills versus soft skills.

Hard skills are the visible execution skills - the service action, the swing, the technique. They're easily taught, drilled and measured, and they're necessary. But they're also exactly what everyone else is working on, and once a player is competent, chasing further "perfection" delivers tiny, hard-won gains for enormous effort.

Soft skills are the invisible ones - problem-solving, handling pressure, decision-making, adapting, composing yourself. They can't easily be seen, measured or directly taught, which is why they're hugely undervalued. And yet they're precisely the skills that separate good from great. Champions have highly developed soft skills that make their hard skills easier to perform.

You can't teach soft skills with a drill sheet. But you can develop them by creating environments that demand them - games and situations where a player has to solve problems, make decisions and cope with pressure themselves. That's a huge part of how we coach, and it's why our sessions look less like repetitive drilling and more like guided, challenging play.

The bonus: soft skills are universal and long-lasting. A hard skill is specific to its exact task and changes many times over a career. A soft skill - the ability to problem-solve, to stay composed, to adapt - serves a player for life, in tennis and beyond.

What This Means for You or Your Child

Pulling it together, here's what our approach means in practice:

•        We won't rush a player through the stages to look impressive. We'll build deep foundations that raise their long-term ceiling.

•        We prioritise skill over power, especially in young players, because skill lasts and compounds.

•        We develop sound technique and then test it in every condition, rather than polishing it endlessly for its own sake.

•        We deliberately build the invisible skills - problem-solving, adapting, handling pressure - that actually separate good players from great ones.

•        We measure real progress by whether a game holds up in matches and under pressure, not by how good it looks in a relaxed practice.

It's a slower-looking approach on the surface. But it's genuinely the fastest route to lasting improvement - because it builds a player whose game doesn't fall apart the moment it's tested. Make haste, slowly.

The Philosophy in Practice

Everything above isn't just theory - it shapes every session we run, for juniors and adults alike. Our constraints-led coaching, our use of sensations and trajectory, our pressure-based training and our whole developmental pathway are all built on these principles.

If you'd like to see how it translates into actual coaching, our programme pages explain what each stage looks like on court - and you're always welcome to come and watch a session or book a taster to see *Festina Lente* in action.