Michelle Jaggard-Lai - Tennis Player Mentor

I grew up in Sydney, Australia and have also based in USA and Europe during my tennis career. My dad introduced me to tennis with my 3 brothers and I fell in love with it from 12 years of age, then became very determined to make a career out of sport. I went on to being ranked number 1 in Australia and became a professional WTA player and Australian Federation Cup representative. My key learning was from Australia’s best coaches and Davis Cup players such as Phil Dent, John Alexander, Tony Roche, Harry Hopman, Kim Warwick and the famous Sheriff family trained personally by Gail Chanfreau (Sheriff) in France.

As a junior I played softball, enjoyed sprinting, netball and music. As an adult I love to play tennis with my kids, swimming laps, walking, self education, writing, reading and playing with my ” sausage squad ” dogs and simply hanging out with my family on our little mini farm.

I began teaching tennis and coaching in my own business after being selected by Tennis Australia as a mentor for National Champions guided by Multi award winning Grand Slam champion Lesley Bowrey as her understudy. I was awarded the TA Women’s Coaching Scholarship and pursued roles with national players progressing from junior to pro pathways.  After teaching tennis for 30 +years and running sporting venues with my family for 19 years, including numerous head coaching roles I decided to evolve from my coaching career as I noticed coaches were being overloaded with too many jobs so I wanted to support the coaches and players more. This motivated me to provide first hand playing experience and founded  Jaggard Sports working as a tennis mentor and coming back full circle excites me so I can service the tennis industry even more but on a global scale.

I am a tennis mentor and I draw from my 3 skillsets:

a) Former tennis coach

b) Professional WTA Tennis Player

c) Parent/ Parent Coach of two international playing children

I understand the high demands of sport on the athlete and their families, the need to be the link of communication to the team behind the athlete and keep the vision of the player clear and achieving growth at the same time. From personal playing experience and realising my own 20 year long term journey to becoming a pro athlete it now allows me to provide a complete education for players and their families, offer sports mentoring as a tennis mentor and be able to communicate to the the team to not overload them and allow them to enjoy the journey with the athlete.

A mentor provides leadership learning and data shows that 89% of those mentored in life end up mentoring others and this gives us the power to impact more than just the player and person. This excites me for the future of the tennis industry to be able to lead the way for a new innovative approach to sport.

I am now based on Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.

Jaggard Sports partners with:

• World class coaches & Academies known for specific methods and outstanding niche qualities as training grounds.
• Australia’s most awarded development coaches who personally produced world class champions.
• Racquetworldonline for tennis equipment, personalised clothing line, performance strings & expert advise.
• Sportsprosconnect for player support.
• Lifetime Tennis Director Gary Stickler ( Yoda).
• Tennis Fitness by Nathan and Giselle Martin providing fitness assessments, online programs and player education support.
• WTA physios & Health alliances recommended by pros.
• We are a growing business partnering/ collaborating with local and global businesses and people that put the player first.

Our 7 core values include:

• Belief
•  Integrity
•  Education
•  Trust
•  Teamwork
•  Growth mindset
•  Positive Impact.