The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is turning attention to a group that often goes unnoticed: coaches. Behind every player, every rising star and every weekend clinic, there’s someone shaping the game and now the USTA is giving them a digital home.
Enter USTA Coaching, the organisation’s first national membership platform for coaches, designed and built by Code and Theory. The timing couldn’t be more strategic. Participation in tennis is surging, courts are crowded, yet only about two in ten players in the U.S. receive formal coaching. For the USTA, empowering coaches is key to hitting its ambitious target of 35 million players by 2035.
The platform is built to support coaches at every level, from volunteer parents running youth clinics to professional instructors training competitive athletes. Code and Theory led the full digital experience, designing a coaching dashboard, modern certification system and personalised learning pathways.
Coaches can access workshops, connect with peers and receive practical tools like drills and practice plans straight to their inbox. Membership perks, including gear discounts and exclusive events, create a fully connected ecosystem for the coaching community.
To shine the spotlight on the platform, Material developed the Serve Your Passion campaign casting coaches as the heartbeat of the sport, leaders, mentors, motivators, reframing them as essential to tennis’s future, not just figures on the side lines. It also handled the brand strategy and design, aligning USTA Coaching with the overall USTA brand.
Michael Treff, CEO of Code and Theory said the platform shows what happens when design and technology are used to meet people where they are, “USTA Coaching is a blueprint for how organisations can use digital platforms to meet users where they are. By blending design, data and technology, the goal is for coaching to be more accessible, more rewarding and more impactful. When you empower the user, in this case, coaches, you elevate the entire ecosystem they serve.”
The launch marks a big step for the future of tennis. By putting coaches at the centre, the platform ensures that every player can access quality instruction and mentorship.