Louis Cayer
Major Accomplishments
Started his coaching career at Tennis Île des Soeurs in 1975.
Developed Method of actions coaching concept, which was successively adopted by Tennis Quebec in 1982 and Tennis Canada in 1989.
Coached the Canadian Davis Cup team from 1989 to 1993 and became the captain from 1994 to 2000.
He also coached Daniel Nestor and Sébastien Lareau during their Gold Medal run at the Olympic Games in Sydney.
Received the ITF Service to the Game award in 2011 to honour his immense contribution to coaching at the international level.
Biography
A coach for over 44 years, Louis Cayer has made a name for himself in tennis locally and at the international level. A geographer by trade, he traded in his high school teaching job for a tennis racquet in 1975 when he joined the team at Tennis Île des Soeurs, where he spent 30 years. During his career, Cayer contributed to the emergence of several players who have been the pride of Quebec and Canada. The likes of Lareau and Nestor, the Laurendeaus, Bonneau, Larose, Connell, Michibata, Delisle and Bernard are among the list of athletes who benefited from his incredible coaching and teaching talents.
He coached the Canadian Davis Cup team from 1989 to 1993 and was team captain from 1994 to 2000. He also coached Daniel Nestor and Sébastien Lareau during their Gold Medal run at the Olympic Games in Sydney.
Cayer played an active role in the development of tennis in Quebec and in Canada. While earning his degree in education, he developed an action-oriented methodology that, in 1989, formed the educational framework for the Canadien tennis coaching certification system and led to the game-based approach promoted by the International Tennis Federation. He oversaw the national certification program from 1989 until his departure for Great Britain. A true globetrotter, his passion for the world, which he hoped to satisfy by teaching geography, was instead realized through the dozens of conferences that he gave in over 25 countries.
In 2011, he was awarded the ITF Service to the Game award in recognition of his remarkable contribution to tennis. With this award, his contribution to the coaching of doubles was also underlined, in particular for the material he development in collaboration with the ITF. Thus, his name was added to those of Toni Nadal, Nick Bolletieri and Dennis Van Der Meer, to name a few, on the list of recipients of this very prestigious recognition.
On August 6, 2013, Cayer was inducted into the Canadian Tennis Hall of Fame in recognition of his invaluable contributions to the history of tennis in Canada.