Adam Brown

Adam Brown is a Senior Performance Tennis Coach who has been at the forefront of Scottish tennis for the last decade.

As a junior player growing up in Cumbria, he was the County Champion for every age group and went on to captain the Cumbrian Men’s Team as an adult.  At the age of 16, Adam secured a Tennis Scholarship at Sir Hugh Owen School in Wales and then a further Scholarship to the University of Stirling.

Upon graduating with a degree in Business Law, Adam followed his passion in tennis by taking up a job in Cumbria as a Community Tennis coach for 2 years.  From this, Adam moved to New Zealand where he was the Junior High Performance coach at the Waikato Tennis Academy in Hamilton.  Here he worked with some of the top junior tennis players in New Zealand.

After 2 years in New Zealand, Adam returned to Scotland to take up the role of Central Scotland District Tennis Coach, basing himself out of the Gannochy National Tennis Centre at the University of Stirling.  Since then, Adam’s role has expanded and he currently runs and manages the Tennis Scotland Pathway  Programme at the Gannochy.

During this time Adam has created an award winning set of tennis competitions throughout the Central Scotland and Tayside regions, as well as establishing one of the largest Tennis Projects in Primary Schools that has taken place in Scotland in recent years.  He has picked up 4 national awards during the last 5 years, the highlight of which being Scottish Tennis Coach of the Year.

 

Joe Gill

Joe Gill is a Performance Tennis Coach who has been involved in coaching a wide range of ages and abilities for ten years.

Joe grew up in Sheffield and played the majority of his junior tennis at Graves Tennis Centre. His junior career highlights were winning becoming 18U County Champion for both singles and doubles in 2006. In addition, he represented Yorkshire in both 2005 and 2006 at junior county cup. Furthermore, Joe also began his coaching career at 15 years old when he volunteered to assist coaching sessions at several tennis clubs in the area for a wide range of abilities, from pre school tennis to the top international junior players. In 2006 Joe accepted a Tennis Scholarship to the University of Stirling to further his tennis playing ambitions alongside gaining a degree.

From 2006 to 2010 Joe achieved a degree in Politics and Sport Studies and decided to continue to study and obtain a Masters degree in Sport Management between 2010 and 2013. During his time as a student Joe focused on improving his playing and coaching ability. Some of his playing highlights were:

• Representing the University of Stirling at the European University Championships in Moscow (2007) and Cordoba (2012) where the team came 8th and 3rd respectively.
• Winning three AEGON British Tour titles in Stirling (2010, 2012) and Sheffield (2012).
• Helping the University of Stirling win the European Clay Court Championships (2010) held at Roland Garros.
• Winning the doubles title at the British University Individual Championships (2012) and runner up in the singles in the same year.
• Being selected to represent Great Britain in the BNP Paribas University event hosted in Aix-en-Provence (2012).
• Reaching the doubles final of a $10,000 futures event in Greece (2013).

These highlights helped Joe gain a career high world doubles ranking of 1268 and a top 30 British senior ranking.

Alongside his own training and competing, Joe began coaching at the University of Stirling. In 2012, Joe became a Graduate Tennis Coach, which formalised his role as a coach part of the national junior tennis programme and also included the assisting of University of Stirling tennis sessions. After completing his studies in 2013, Joe became Tennis Scotland Coaching Futures Apprentice Coach, which expanded his role at the University of Stirling and also grew into assisting with the performance tennis programme based in Edinburgh. Joe has also helped with the delivery of the Pathway programme based at the University of Stirling as well as some primary school tennis sessions and mini tennis, which has helped him grow his coaching skills.

During his tennis coaching experience, Joe has coached/assisted to coach a wide range of players. Some of his coaching highlights are:

• Assisted with coaching of 2006 12U Orange Bowl Champion, Jessica Ren, for several years.
• Travelling coach to Jonny O’Mara in 2011 who won four junior ITF titles in the first four weeks of travelling with Jonny.
• Assisting with coaching of 2012 14U Orange Bowl Champion, Maia Lumsden. Also travelled to several events with Maia, who won a junior ITF title in Malta in 2013.
• Hitting partner for Great Britain Davis Cup player, Colin Fleming.
• Coached/assisted with coaching of seven junior grand slam players and two senior grand slam players
• Joe has works with top-ranked wheelchair tennis player, Gordon Reid since 2015. This includes supporting him at Grand Slams and at the Rio Paralympics.

 

Richard Knapman

Richard Knapman is a fully licensed LTA tennis coach. Richard is passionate about the sport and is a driven coach who is constantly seeking new ways of improving coaching. His ambition is to help tennis players of all levels to reach their full potential.

Richard achieved his first LTA tennis coaching award at the age of 15 and represented the North of Scotland senior county team as a teenager. He went on to study Banking and Finance at Loughborough University, where he captained his University tennis team. After a career in the City, Richard returned to coaching. He is first team captain at Bridge of Allan Sports Club, who play in the Tennis Central Scotland first division.

He has a post-graduate diploma in Sports Coaching and is in the process of completing his MSc at the University of Stirling. Richard has played with many ‘greats’ of the game, including Bjorn Borg and Ilie Nastase. His coaching philosophy is based on creating a positive and encouraging environment for players of all standards and ability.

Richard says: “The Gleneagles Tennis Academy provides unparalleled access to first class tennis coaching at one of the world’s greatest leisure destinations. Our ambition is to help every tennis playing guest to improve his or her game in an exciting and fun environment.