My name is Ignacio “Nacho” Salom and I’m from Palma de Mallorca, Spain. I’m 28 years old and I have almost 10 years of experience of coaching. As a player, I have 20 years of competitive experience including one year in NCAA division 2 & three years in NAIA division. Additionally, I have eight years of coaching experience working with players of all ages and skill levels, ranging from total beginners to advanced juniors.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a family in which tennis was a big thing. Both my father and uncle played tennis from an early age, and they were quite successful as juniors at Regional level. Furthermore, my uncle became a tennis coach and has been since then. He actually runs his own tennis club in Palma. He soon taught me the importance of working hard, and I would always work hard because “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work”.
Apart from tennis, I like playing any kind of racquet sports (specially ping-pong), football (soccer) and basketball. I used to play golf as a kid until I was 10 years old but I found it quite boring compared to tennis. Also, I had the chance of getting introduced to pickleball at my last overseas position in the Caribbean. I like spending time in the gym as it’s been part of my life since I was in College in the U.S.
EXPERIENCE
- I had the pleasure to be the Tennis Pro at the new Richard Branson’s Son Bunyola Hotel in Mallorca where its single court oversees the Mediterranean. Jul 2023 – Nov 2023.
- My last job overseas was being the PBI Tennis Director at the astonishing Four Seasons Resort Nevis (Top 10 Tennis Resorts in the World) in the West Indies, where I was in charge of all activities regarding racquet sports. This included tennis and pickleball. Oct 2022 – May 2023.
- I spent the summer of 2022 working at the famous PBI resort, Bio Hotel Stanglwirt in Austria delivering high quality private and group lessons as well as performing clinics and adults & kids weekly camps. Jul – Sept 2022.
- I was part of the coaching team training high performance ITF-level juniors at the renowned Vilas Tennis Academy in Palma de Mallorca, Feb 2021 – Jul 2021.
- My first overseas position was as the PBI Tennis Director at the ultra-luxurious hotel La Samanna in St. Martin, FR, Dec 2018 – Jan 2020.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor of Science: Business Management & Marketing
- +300hrs PBI Training Certificate
IMS Tennis 