ABOUT
My coaching methods, philosophies, and attitudes are the direct result of my years in sport, and the positive and negative experiences I have had in the sports world. I created The Experience Edge after a career-ending injury in 2019, which now prevents me from playing and physically coaching the sport that has been central to my life. In reflecting on the next phase of my career, I knew I wanted to use my 30 years of experience to provide an honest and independent resource for athletes and their families, and bring calmness and clarity to the often chaotic and tense world of sports.
Raj Gill
Founder
The Experience Edge
Competitive Training and Playing Experience
My competitive tennis career started when I was eight years old. I found success early and was quickly placed on a “high performance” path. During my junior tennis career, I competed nationally and represented Great Britain internationally. By the time I was 13, I was traveling globally for training and tournaments. I held a Top 10 national junior ranking and a world junior ranking. When I was 16, I was awarded a tennis scholarship to a boarding school in England, and it was around this time that I found myself in a difficult situation. My apathy towards the sport to which I had dedicated a decade was growing. My tennis performances and results were poor – under the pressure that had developed from years of training and competing, I was burnt out, stressed, and anxious, and found myself going through the motions for the next two years. By the end of my junior career, I had achieved an ATP doubles ranking and made the decision to go to university.
My approach to tennis, and the results I achieved, changed when I went to Marquette University in 2000 on a full athletic scholarship. During my four years at Marquette, I played #1 singles and doubles, led the team as its Captain, and was elected All-Conference. Through a combination of mental coaching, increased autonomy over my schedule, and a more sustainable sports-life balance, my collegiate tennis career became fulfilling and allowed me to end my playing career on a positive note.
I know that my story of early success leading to burn-out is extremely common. One of the primary goals of The Experience Edge is to create a different path for young athletes so that this cycle is not repeated.
Coaching Experience
Although my father was my first coach and consistently mentored me throughout my life, I have experienced different types of coaching during my career. I have received training from tennis clubs, international academies, and regional and national training centers. I have played without a formal coaching arrangement for periods of time; and have also had high school, college, regional, and national coaches. These wide-ranging coaching experiences have had positive and negative elements, but each one has been instrumental in shaping my views on athletic development and performance.
Over the past 20 years, I have coached at various levels. Upon graduating college, I focused my coaching efforts on high-performance tennis at the professional, collegiate and national junior levels. I have worked with ATP Tour players both as part of a coaching team and as a hitting partner, and have coached both men’s and women’s U.S. college tennis teams. My junior player coaching experience includes working at high-performance tennis academies, and coaching nationally-ranked juniors and Division I, II and III scholarship and non-scholarship tennis players. I have held Director of Tennis and teaching pro positions at various tennis clubs in the United States, most recently as a tennis pro at the East Bank Club in Chicago.
As my coaching experience grew, I started to see many players experiencing the same burnout, stress and injuries that I had experienced as a player. Many junior players became uninterested and discouraged, which usually continued through their college careers. I saw the pressure and expectations created by parents and coaches, and a culture in which the athletes’ best interests were not put first. I also often worked with adults who had quit tennis after their junior or college careers and they realized that they were actually enjoying playing tennis again without external pressures. As a coach, I encountered these themes on a daily basis and I found myself focusing on addressing these issues again and again. After my injury, transitioning from a coach to providing consulting to athletes managing these issues felt natural.
My experience in training, competing and coaching at all levels of sport provides a unique platform to guide all types of athletes – from across different disciplines – on their sporting journeys.
