Blair O’Brien:

At the young age of 4 years old, Blair began his tennis journey. It started  with regular hits with the family and a group lesson. Five years later, Blair won his first tournament: the Auckland Championships, in singles and doubles. Following this, he won over 10  junior age group tournaments in the next few years.

At 12 years old, Blair coached for the first time; a group of 13-18 year olds. Over the next 10 years, he gradually built up more group and individual lessons, coaching up to 30 hours a week. 

While studying at University, Blair managed to maintain an average of above one match per day in between training and competitions. This lead to playing for 5 clubs at once between Auckland, North Shore and Wellington, and he was crowned the New Zealand University’s tennis champion in singles and doubles. 

Upon completing a Science Degree (Statistics, University of Auckland), Blair’s journey as a full time coach began at West End LawnTennis Club, Auckland. By 2012, Blair was the Assistant Head Coach, and was responsible for the training and coaching of a team of up to twenty coaches. This led to modernising the coaching style with the most recent methods to make the tennis more fun and easier to learn. 

After 20 years of coaching at West End, Blair left New Zealand to coach in London, UK for two years. Here Blair added to his previous coaching course (Tennis New Zealand’s JDC), by completing the LTA Level 3 programme.  

Being stuck out of the country during the Covid-19 pandemic, Blair and his fiancée journeyed around the world before returning to New Zealand for good in April 2022.  

Blair’s vision as a club level coach is to show a passion for the sport, and by doing so inspire others to want to play and improve. He finds that those who are hungry to improve and learn are always the fastest learners. Hence he likes to lead by example and show passion in order to help others find their passion! 

Blair’s coaching style is high energy, play based tennis,. He teaches with an open mind to individually cater to bring out the best in everyone technically, tactically, physically and mentally.