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Raise Your Game: You're the only female performance coach in Wales. How does it feel to have reached such a high standard?

Joanne Thomas-Kemp: Obviously it's good, but I hope that other people do it as well because the more female coaches we have involved the better, as we struggle in terms of the number of female coaches.

Quite often girls like going on court with a female coach. It makes it a lot easier. There are other good female coaches in Wales so hopefully they'll follow on and get it as well. There was Ellinore Lightbody before me, but she's now the Scottish National Coach.

RYG: Why do you think you are the only one?

JTK: I think it's a time issue. It depends on how long you want to take to do it - you can do it over three years. If you've got the motivation to complete it in a year, it's easy to do.

It's one of those courses where if you get behind or you miss a project or have to redo a project your motivation can go down, especially if you're working at the same time. Just in terms of keeping your motivation up, some coaches might falter with that. It was something I set my mind on, it was what I wanted to achieve and strive for.

I think support, and being able to work around other performance coaches, like Simon (Aims, the Welsh National coach) helps you to raise your game as well. They know what you're trying to achieve, and watching their sessions can help you and inspire you to get better.

RYG: How did you first get involved in tennis?

JTK: I actually got on the wrong school bus in Swansea! I was meant to be going to cross country, but I got on the wrong bus and ended up at a tennis tournament!

I came runner-up in the tennis tournament and a gentlemen there picked me out and I went for a talent ID through Cliff Richard's Search for a Star and I was selected through that. I was about nine-years-old - nearly 20 years ago now! That was the original Cliff Richard Search for a Star. There's a trail now which is slightly different.

In those days they'd pick out a certain number of children from each county who'd then go to Bisham Abbey. There were about 10 of us through the country who were picked out and we got funding through that.

It was different because it wasn't just about tennis. I'd only played once. It was more to do with different skills - running and kicking. I had four brothers so that made it a lot easier in terms of being able to play football and rugby and stuff like that.

RYG: How on earth did you do so well in that tournament?

JTK: I don't know. Sheer determination I guess. I couldn't play very well; I was just really fast around the court. My parents lived on a farm so I had plenty of open space to run in, so that made it a bit easier.

RYG: Do you still compete?

JTK: I still play for south Wales at county level. We came down from group one this year and are in group two, so I still play for them and play some matches for my local club in the Welsh leagues.

My junior doubles world ranking was around 70. Not a great standard, but I did alright nationally. I wasn't a superstar by any means, but I did alright [laughs].

RYG: What is it about tennis that you love so much?

JTK: I think it's a sport you can play for life. It brings out social skills - you can meet so many different people through playing it. You don't have to be great to join a tennis club. You can go down and there's a social side to it.

If you do get good you've then got the benefits of being able to play with other good players. There's the enjoyment factor. Certainly here we've got a good team of coaches, people coming in. It motivates you to come down if you can see other people enjoying themselves.

RYG: Which tennis players do you admire?

JTK: Lindsay Davenport, who has stayed at the top of her game for quite a number of years. Certainly with all the young guns coming through she's stuck up there and stuck with it. She's always been one of my favourite players.

And I guess someone like Tim Henman who takes a lot of criticism. There was a lot of pressure on him, but he remained at the top in the world for a number of years. If he was a football player no one would question that, but he was always scrutinised at Wimbledon etc, that's the pressure he had to take.

RYG: Is it important to have people to look up to?

JTK: We have young kids in the centre who see the older ones training and look up to them. That's what I think you need, all levels, from five-year-olds right up to 15 or 16-year-olds. I think if they've got kids to look up to it motivates them about what they want to achieve, 'I want to look like them,' 'I want to play like them,' etc.

It's great for any kid to aspire to, and I think it's easier if you're in a centre where you've got all that because then there's more scope for them to say, 'oh, one day I'll play like Nick Jones, or Josh Milton or Ed Jones'. I think it's good for the little ones to see the better players playing here.

RYG: Can you tell me about some of your players?

JTK: Leah Cox who's doing well in the under 11's, she's number five in the rankings. Jack Putner is number four in his rankings in Britain. We've got about three or four under 12's who are doing very well nationally and getting into the main draw events, and then we've got a Masters event at the end, so we'll wait and see.

Then we've got Nick Jones who's done well in America recently, and Josh Milton who's playing in Mexico at the moment and doing quite well out there. Ed Jones from Carmarthen trains here and he's doing well. We've got quite a good setup with different ages which makes it easier, like I say, with motivating each other and pushing each other on to get better.

RYG: Do they work and train together?

JTK: It's unfortunate that we're such a small country and county and north Wales is miles away from here. It can be quite hard when there are just a few in each age group who are reaching the top in Britain. It can seem like you're on your own.

It is quite a lonely sport, you're out there fighting for yourself. So it's good to have a group of players who can play together and motivate each other to go on and be better. It's easier for them then. It certainly gets competitive when they have to play against each other in matches! (laughs)

RYG: How do you motivate the players?

JTK: When you think they've done a good session, or maybe performed better than they should have, it's showing them videos of themselves playing for self-motivation by taking a deep look at themselves.

Or showing them videos of other players in their age groups from around the world. It makes them realise how hard they've got to work to be at the top, and it's someone else to look up to.

RYG: What do you think it takes to be a top tennis player?

JTK: I think it takes dedication and attention to detail as well. Sometimes you can think you're really good within Wales, but there's a big world out there. I think their motivation to become better needs to come from the bigger picture. You might think you're doing well here, but you need to push yourself to do that much better.

Desire's something to do with it as well, certainly to become the best you can. Some of the best players might not have all the ability, but it's the desire to get better and the motivation to want to improve.