01
A session with a purpose.
A lesson plan shaped around your goals, learning style and recent progress.
About Kieran Lardner
Your obsession deserves a coach to match.
I combine on-court coaching with video and performance analysis to help you understand your game and practise with a clear purpose.
Level 2 Tennis Ireland CoachLicensed coach qualification
MSc Data AnalyticsFirst Class Honours · University College Dublin
What you can expect
Preparation. Clarity. Follow-through.
Good coaching is the work before, during and after the session.
02
Feedback you can use.
Observation, video and match patterns explain what to work on and why.
03
A clear next step.
Updated notes, regular communication and priorities for practice keep development moving.
My background
Coaching and data, in one direction.
Tennis became the place where an analytical career and a competitive sporting background could serve a clear purpose.
2021
An adult beginner, absorbed by the game.
I picked up a racket during Covid after time away from sport following an ACL injury. I began playing, competing and learning how much a player can improve when practice has direction.
More about the starting point
Before tennis, I competed in football, basketball, Gaelic football and ultimate frisbee. I had also played sport at university level, and that competitive background shaped the way I approached learning a new game.
2024
A plateau became a question.
After qualifying and practising as a solicitor, and completing an MSc in Data Analytics, I began bringing the same habits of observation and problem-solving to my own tennis: recording matches, tracking patterns and building more deliberate ways to practise.
How this became a coaching pathway
In 2024, I started my coaching pathway through coach education, disability-tennis workshops and volunteering with vision-impaired tennis. I also formalised match preparation, technical and tactical ideas into practical frameworks, and gained my Level 1 qualification late that year.
2025
From player to coach.
I began private coaching and joined a performance academy as an assistant coach in January. I completed my Level 2 coaching qualification and added performance analysis in September, bringing an analytics background into video review, match preparation and development reports.
Coaching experience
I continued private coaching at Naas Lawn Tennis Club and volunteer coaching with vision-impaired tennis. Each role has reinforced the value of clear communication and a plan players can understand.
2026
Signal Tennis brings the work together.
I took on lead coaching for a weekend performance group and began league doubles coaching at Clane Lawn Tennis Club. Signal Tennis connects coaching, match analysis, development planning and the player portal, so the work on court has a clear link to what happens next.
Why the portal matters
Players and families should be able to return to the key ideas: what was observed, what matters now and how progress will be reviewed. The portal gives that coaching conversation a useful home between sessions.
Real World Examples
Examples from the court.
Individual and team progress, with the context that gives the numbers meaning.
Junior player · Building confidence
0-20 ➡ 40-33
From winless to winning regularly.
A 0-20 career record in Aug '25 became 40 singles wins in the last year.
Ranking progress 2024-26: Unranked ➡ 20th Percentile ➡ 70th Percentile.
Junior player · Finding consistency
39% → 70% win rate
In-season improvement.
Top 50 Junior I coach privately went from 39% win rate & 0 Titles Jan-Jun '26 to 70% win rate (23 matches) and three titles since then.
Adult Male
4.5 → 7.0 UTR
Real improvement as an adult.
UTR increased from 4.5 to 7.0 in less than a year.
80% win rate (15 matches) in the division he was winless in the year prior.
Group Squad I Led
+1.01 UTR
Average rating improvement.
Performance squad players gained approximately one UTR point on average from 2025 to 2026.
Adult Doubles Pair
81st → 92nd percentile
Climbing the rankings together.
Improved from the 81st to the 92nd percentile, winning five doubles titles.
Club
30% → 39% win rate
Team progress over time.
The teams I worked with improved their combined year-on-year win rate across 81 matches.
The Signal Tennis method
Find the signal. Build the next step.
A simple cycle that connects what happens on court with purposeful practice between sessions.
Observe
Watch closely in practice and competition, with video where it adds clarity.
Analyse
Turn observations into patterns: strengths, pressure points and tactical habits.
Target
Choose the priority that will make the biggest difference to the player’s game.
Review
Revisit the work, update the plan and make the next decision with better information.
The philosophy
What is "The Signal"?
Every match generates thousands of data points. Most of them are noise.
I find the few that actually matter.
A 5% edge in points won compounds into a 36% gap in matches won.
5% Changes Everything
Just 5 percentage points separate Dan Evans from Novak Djokovic in career points won. That 5% edge in points compounds into a 36% gap in matches won.
Most players win around half their points. For those players, winning 1 more point in every 100 goes with winning roughly 7 more matches in every 100.
1
Find the Signal
I use match data, video review, and structured observation to identify the 2–3 patterns that explain most of your results.
2
Filter the Noise
I deliberately ignore what looks important but isn't. One bad match isn't a crisis. A hot streak isn't a game plan.
3
Train the Signal
Constraints-led drills, process KPIs, and trend tracking over weeks: not snap judgements after one session.
The Numbers That Matter
The Three Rules of 70
Three facts that shape every point you play and every session I plan.
Only 70% of serves are returned
The serve and return are the most underpractised shots in tennis, yet they decide 30% of all points before a rally even starts.
70% of points end in errors
You can't avoid errors, but you can force more of them from your opponent. That's the signal.
70% of points end in 4 shots or less
Opening shots (serve, return, serve+1, return+1) decide the vast majority of points you'll ever play.
Let’s talk about your game.
Tell me where you are now and what you want to work towards.