About this episode
Pam Rende has led both the men’s and women’s tennis programs at Division III Arcadia for the past 5 seasons. However, Pam has been coaching for over 20 years in the Philadelphia area and has worked with players of all levels from beginner to grand slam participants. She serves on the board of the USTA Philadelphia Area Tennis District and is working towards her PTR Master of Tennis certification. In this podcast we discuss how Pam manages two college teams while running L3 Tennis and leading a staff of seven full time pros and up to 20 seasonal pros. We discuss some of the assumptions people make about a woman coaching a men’s team, why continuing education is so important for coaches and if college coaches should consider pursuing a coaching certification. Pam also provides some great answers to our newly implemented rapid fire round. Key points of this conversation have been indexed for easy listening here: 01:35 - How did you know that tennis would be the sport you would dedicate your life to? 04:25 - Why did you land on college tennis coaching - what interested you in becoming a coach? 06:19 - Being a female coach, how did the men's team accept you as a their coach when you came on board? 10:05 - Have you found any differences between coaching men and coaching women? 13:55 - Toggling between both genders, how did you develop being able to balance coaching these genders? 14:55 - How do you go about developing relationships with student-athletes? 18:00 - Do you see the gender bias statistics of women as coaches reflected in college athletics? 21:25 - Do you have any advice for young female coaches that are starting out in this profession? 23:30 - How do you manage your time and do you have any management tips/tools? 27:00 - What are some of the coaching programs that you have attended for coaching development? 32:11 - What are some of the lessons that you have learned in life outside of college athletics that have helped you as a coach? 36:51 - What is a book that made a major impact on you as a coach? 37:29 - What is your favorite drill? 39:50 - Name one thing that you have changed your mind on in recent years - in coaching or life! 40:11 - Do you have a favorite quote? 41:10 - What is one lesson you hope your players have learned by the time they leave?