The Sensei
F
rancois tells his
students to pick up the tennis balls, and tells them
to gather around the service line. He exclaims, “If
you came here because you
think I will make you a better player, you are wrong. I
can help you become a better player, but you have to
want to be the better player.” The students are excited to face the challenge
of hard work and effort
to become the player they
hope to be. They are now
aware that just showing up
won’t make them a better
player. Like the tool of his
trade -the tennis racketFrancois is a device tennis
players can use to become
a better player. The racket
won’t make a player better,
but it allows the player to
train and become a better
player. The students come
to Francois with intentions
of becoming a better player
just by showing up, but they
soon learn that they have to
put in work to get results.
Francois
emphasizes self-motivation and improvement through effort.
This attitude towards tennis has been inspired by
Carol Dweck, the author
of Mindset. This book is
focused on changing your
fixed mindset to a growth
mindset. A growth mind-
set is where you approach
challenges with the impression that you can overcome them through hard
work and effort. Francois
takes this idea to the tennis
courts and encourages his
players to practice hard and
to challenge themselves.
Francois was a high
school student working at a
bakery, cutting bread, trying
to make some extra money.
He was also an avid tennis
player and wanted to pursue a career in teaching English. One day, while playing
tennis, his old tennis coach
saw him and offered him a
job teaching tennis for Foster City. Francois quit his
Dedicated
Motivated
Passionate
job at the bakery and took
up this opportunity. It was
only supposed to be the job
I do through high school,
and I figured I’d do it in
college to make money, and
somewhere along the line it
became the real job.” This
potential that Francois’s
old coach saw in him was
the catalyst for Francois’s
tennis coaching career.
Francois saw that other coaches weren’t coaching
their students properly, so
he decided to coach how
he wanted to. He believed
that the coach shouldn’t be
responsible for the player’s success, but the player
should be the one responsible for their own success.
Francois was annoyed that
coaches were boasting about
their players going on to
great places. At Sylvano’s
Tennis Academy where
Francois used to coach, the
players went to become really good tournament players and go off to college on
scholarships. All the other
coaches would talk about
how they were the runs
that should be credited for
these kids’ success, but in
reality it were the kids that
were putting in the effort
and trained to reach their
goals. Francois thought that
the coaches almost wanted their students to succeed more than the kids
themselves for the sheer
factor of bragging about it.
tennis by going deep into
the principles of coaching
tennis and is constantly researching new techniques.
When Francois saw
something he didn’t like,
and thought he could do
better, he took the initiative to become the “best”
tennis coach. He committed himself to coaching
Francois’s main passion has always been coaching tennis, and he devotes
6 days of the week to teaching tennis at Marymeade
Park through the city of
Los Altos. When Francois
When Francois went
to college, he continued
coaching tennis, and studied English. He planned on
teaching English, and considered English to always
have been his best subject
in school. As he continued
college, he devoted more
and more time to coaching
tennis. Francois still pursued his English teaching
career, and teaches English
at College of San Mateo.
phrases Francois says to his
students when they are practicing with him. He encourages his kids in a fun and
motivating way which allows
them to listen to Francois
and respect him as a person.
In order for a coach to teach
his students, the students
must respect the coach.
This is especially hard with
the young kids who are not
mature and get easily distracted. Francois has to get
their attention and keep
them focused if he wants
to be a successful coach.
This is a typical weekday for Francois, which
consists of teaching tennis
to kids. Francois’s life revolves around coaching tennis and researching tennis.
It is the end of August
and Francois’s hard work
is about to pay off. He has
been training his team all
summer for the Whitlinger
Cup, a tournament where
teams play against each other and then the final round
is held at Stanford. He is in
the final round, a feeling he
has grown accustomed to.
Here he will be able to show
off his coaching abilities.
tennis bag on the bench and
then goes back to his car and
gets 4 baskets of tennis balls
where he places next to the
net. His first lesson of the
day is at 4:00 and is a clinic
Francois arrives at of kids aged from 10-12, folMarymeade Park at around lowed by two private lessons.
3:15 in his compact white
“If you get all of your
car. He unpacks all of his tennis gear and heads over shots in, Your mom will let
to court 3 where he sets up. you have ice cream for din- As the day continHe sets his notebook and ner!” This is one of many ues, Francois wins more
isn’t coaching tennis, he is
studying the mechanics of
the strokes and researching
the principles of tennis, so
he can be a better coach.
and more of the matches, nearing victory. Francois rushes to the players when they switch sides
and gives them advice and
things he witnessed earlier
in the match. Francois tells
his students, “You have to
want to win, you have to
want it more than your opponent.” His students are
tired and exhausted from
playing in the 90 degree
summer heat. This doesn’t
stop them from playing
their best and pulling out
all the stops. Francois’s emphasis on effort and being
dedicated pay off. He wins
his 5th Whitlinger Cup.
to teach kids the “right way”
to learn tennis. He started
out coaching because he
wanted a job, but now he
continues coaching because
it is his life. Francois commits his time and effort to
tennis and maintains strong
enthusiasm. He wasn’t happy with the current status of the tennis coaches,
so he decided he was going to make a difference.
This motivation to do
something about an issue,
truly depicts Francois’s dedication. Gerard Ho, a fellow
tennis coach, and a father
of Chris Ho who played
with francois and went off
to Dartmouth, describes
Francois plans on Francois as, “a dedicated
coaching tennis as long as coach. He will do everything
he can. He is determined to make sure the kids learn
the right strokes and to go
to tournaments and do the
right thing.” Francois’s reputation has grown over the
years he has coached tennis and is a respected coach
in the tennis community.
“I try to provide
a home for my
students no
matter what”
-Francois Chan