The Short Version
I grew up competing in football, basketball, Gaelic football, and ultimate frisbee, captaining Ireland underage in ultimate and playing two sports at university level for UCD.
An ACL tear in 2015 ended all sport for six years. When I picked up a tennis racket during Covid in 2021, I'd never had a private (or group!) lesson and hadn't been a club member since age 10.
Within six months I'd won my first club championship.
Within three years I'd climbed from the bottom division to the top of the national rankings in the intermediate divisions, built my own analytics systems, and decided to make coaching my career.
Every tool I've built for my clients started as something I built for myself.
BEFORE TENNIS
A Competitive Sporting Background
Five sports growing up. Four competitively. Sport was everything.
Football: County league and cup winner at multiple underage levels; undefeated league winners in senior year
Basketball: Team captain, leading scorer, player-coach
Ultimate Frisbee: Captained Ireland underage; captained school team to Leinster final
Gaelic Football: Minor B champions
Tennis: Recreational with my brother and schools teams
At UCD, I played ultimate frisbee and basketball at university level. Lost in the national freshman intervarsities final.
In 2015, I tore my ACL in a football match, ending all sport until 2021.
During that time I qualified as a solicitor and completed my MSc in Data Analytics.
2021
The Year It Started
April 2021. Started playing tennis during Covid on study leave.
I can't say I started with much of a 'base'. Never had a lesson. Hadn't been a club member since age 10. 4-4 junior singles record, with the high point being a u14 0-6 1-6 2nd round loss in the local open.
Three months of paid leave. Played every day. Became completely obsessed.
- By June: social competitions
- By July: first open tournaments: 3-2 record in Class 7, losing in the 2nd and 3rd rounds
- By August: made a Class 7 final
- September: won the singles club championship (Div. C) at my home club
- October: moved to Dublin, joined a new club, won their Div. C singles championship
2 Club Championships (Div. C)
Finished 6th nationally: Div. 7
2022
Climbing While Working Full-Time
Less time to play. Still improving.
Won the B division club championship in singles after moving up from C the year before.
Moved from Class 7 to Class 5 in opens. The jump was real.
- Club championship B singles winner, B doubles finalist
- 1-2 record in two Class 5 opens
Club Champ: B Singles
Finished 132nd nationally: Div. 5
2023
The Plateau
Struggled at the same level.
- Best open finish: a quarter-final loss in Class 5.
- Went 4-4 in the club championships. All 2nd round exits
Finished 137th nationally: Div. 5
Two straight years stuck in the 130s nationally. Something had to change.
2024
The Breakthrough
Took time off after years of juggling law, my masters, and full-time work.
Initially, I thought I would take a few months off to recover from burnout and pivot from my legal career (which I always knew I wanted to leave) into a role as a data analyst/software engineer.
I had spent over a year working with the technology group in my firm and I was excited to finally put my masters to good use.
Dove headfirst into tennis. Never came back out.
This was the year I started building systems (physical, technical, tactical, and mental), many of which later became tools for my clients.
I tracked every match. Logged what worked and what didn't. Recorded opponent tendencies.
Built mnemonics for staying relaxed on court. Created custom match-prep guides.
Bought a ball machine and designed training programmes for myself.
Started analysing tennis statistics obsessively (both amateur and professional) and became consumed with building systems to track real progress.
- May: won singles and doubles titles at home club open (Class 5): 8-1 overall. Stopped playing Class 5 from that point.
- May/June: Moderate success in five straight Class 4 opens (6-4, one semi-final)
- July: County Dublin Class 4 singles final: lost in 3rd set tiebreak (5-1 in the draw to reach the final)
- September: Club Championships: 13-1 record. Won B singles, B doubles, and Div. A mixed doubles. Lost Div. A singles semi-final - three years after starting in Div. C.
- By the end of the club championships, I had played 198 matches for the year. I finished the tournament with a Grade 3 hamstring tear - the cost of averaging 5 matches a week for nine months.
3 Club Championships (B Singles, B Doubles, A Mixed)
Class 5 Open: Singles and Doubles
County Dublin Class 4 Final
Finished 1st in Div. 5 (of 215) and 14th in Div. 4 (of 456)
2024: THE PIVOT
From Player to Coach
Decided tennis was how I wanted to spend all my time.
Sidelined with my hamstring injury, I invested in long-term development instead of taking a new job.
Started training as a coach that autumn, with the long-term view of combining coaching with my analytics background.
I began shadowing Mark Finegan with our regional performance squad.
Mark was a Division 1 NCAA coach and former Irish national champion.
I studied tennis coaching methodology, attended workshops on disability tennis and coaching skills,
took copious notes on the leading experts, and started volunteering as a coach with vision-impaired tennis. I continue to coach vision-impaired players to this day, and it's been one of the most rewarding coaching experiences I've had so far.
I started building what would become a database of over 500 drills and formalised the mental, tactical, and technical systems
I'd developed for my own game into structured coaching frameworks.
At the end of 2024, I received my Level 1 qualification and had a decision to make:
- Stop ignoring the recruiter emails and go back to the higher-paying, more stable world of corporate law.
- Look for a job in data analytics or software engineering while I explore coaching on the side.
- Go all in. Invest in coaching full-time and take the time to build the right foundations for a long-term coaching career.
After years in a career I knew wasn't right for me and working on things I had zero passion for, I chose to follow my passion, and I've never looked back.
Began coaching pathway
Level 1 licensed coach
Disability tennis workshops
Vision-impaired tennis volunteer
500+ drill database started
2025
Coaching, competing, and building
Started working as a private coach with Naas LTC and joined our performance academy as an assistant coach in January. I started my Level 2 coaching course that spring, taking up many of my evenings and weekends for the next few months.
By September, I'd taken on the role of performance analyst for the academy - recording, tagging and analysing over 50 matches and providing development analysis on roughly 20 players.
In addition to my role as assistant coach/performance analyst with the academy, I coach many of the students privately as a support coach.
Less time for my own game. Moved up to Division 3 opens (and the occasional Division 2).
The transition closer to the top levels was difficult: 9-7 in singles.
Focused more on doubles: won 3 open titles in Class 2/3, lost a Division 1 final, and defended our A mixed doubles club championship title.
Lost in the A doubles final as well.
Level 2 licensed coach
Private coach: Naas LTC
Performance academy coach (Jan)
Video analyst: 50+ matches reviewed
3 Open Doubles Titles (Div. 2/3)
Defended A Mixed Club Championship
Div. 1 Open Doubles Final
2025: ACADEMY RESULTS
Performance Academy
Our academy players combined for 50 titles and over 100 finals in 2025.
16 players are ranked in the top 100 nationally. 5 are in the top 25.
50 titles, 100+ finals
16 players top 100 nationally
5 players top 25 nationally
2025: CLIENT RESULTS
Private coaching outcomes
I keep a small roster of private clients. In 2025 I focused on group coaching while gaining experience, building out my systems and completing more coaching qualifications. I have recently opened up capacity for some additional private clients in 2026.
For transparency: the only long-term clients omitted below are players too young to compete, adults who don't compete, or academy players who I don't want to take credit for their results.
Adult Player 1
- UTR increased from 2.5 to 3.75 over 12 months
- Win rate: 38% (2024) to 44% (2025) across roughly 40 matches - despite average competition level rising by one division in singles and 1.5 in mixed doubles
UTR +1.25
Win rate +6%
vs harder competition
Adult Player 2
Went from 58% win rate in Class 5 (zero wins at Class 4) and zero wins at their Masters Age Group in 2024 to an 80% win rate in the higher Class 4 division.
| Class 4 | Class 5 | Masters | UTR | WTN |
|---|
| 2024 | 0 wins | 7-5 (58%), 1 final | Lost every match | 4.59 (65th %ile) | 30 (40th %ile) |
| 2025 | 12-3 (80%), 2 titles | N/A | 11th in Ireland | 6.92 (90th %ile) | 24.8 (75th %ile) |
UTR +2.33
0 wins to 80% at Class 4
11th nationally: Masters
Adult Player 3
- Win rate up from 54% to 60%
- Won a Class 3 open singles title: first singles open title in 13 years
Win rate +6%
First open title in 13 years
Adult Player 4
Competition win record improved from 2-3 in 2024 to 6-4 in 2025.
40% to 60% win rate
Junior Player 1
0-14 in singles matches as of August 2025.
Since working together: 36% win rate over 14 matches, up 100 spots in rankings. Promoted to performance squad.
0% to 36% win rate
+100 ranking spots
Promoted to performance squad
Junior Player 2
Had never played tennis before. Promoted to performance squad within 6 months.
Complete beginner to performance squad in 6 months
2026
Signal Tennis Launches
Took over as lead coach of our weekend performance academy group.
Developed and launched Signal Tennis and the Signal Portal.
Carried out in-depth research into long-term player development pathways, club performance metrics, and benchmarks for success at different levels of the game.
Started work as the league coach for Clane LTC's doubles campaign. Five teams across the men's and ladies' draws.
- Men's 1st team stayed in Class 3: avoided relegation for the first time in 6 years
- Ladies' 1st team finished 9th of 48, losing in the playoff quarter-final
- Overall win rate of teams I worked with increased year-on-year from 30% to 39% across 81 matches
Lead coach: weekend performance academy
League doubles coach: Clane LTC (5 teams)
Clane Men's 1st: survived Class 3 (first time in 6 years)
Clane Ladies' 1st: 9th of 48, playoff QF
League win rate: 30% to 39% YOY (81 matches)
