Sergio Borné, Android Developer and Tennis Coach

Otia: Ethics in Tech

Hi, I am Sergio Borné, Senior Android developer for Verizon Connect. I was born in Bilbao, Spain, but I spent most part of my life in Madrid. I consider myself a techie and sports guy. I love to spend time outside, with friends, doing some sports, and traveling.

When I was in my second year in the university, I was chatting with a friend to start some kind of hobby project. He was an iOS developer, so we decided to make a mobile app. I tried iOS, but I did not like it too much at that stage, so I decided to give Android a try. Since then, I have really enjoyed it. I love the awesome community that around Android since its creation. You can find a lot of people wishing to share their knowledge, but at the same time, open to learning something new.

I moved to Dublin two years ago. The reason for this move was the situation in my country made it difficult to find a good job, and I wanted to discover new places, people, and improve my English. I was deciding between the UK or Ireland, but the Emerald Island’s landscapes made the decision for me.

My interest in tennis started when I was 12 years old, and I decided to enrol into tennis lessons in my home city. Rafael Nadal becoming a “super star” and a really well known person around the world made me feel proud of Spanish tennis. He pushed me into becoming more enthusiastic about teaching and giving classes to a possible future star.

At the age of 16, I realised that I could get some extra income teaching others, so I took a course on how to give racket sports lessons and started working straight away in a school. That became my day-to-day – studying (high school / university) and playing/teaching tennis.

I have not played as often as I have wanted to, but I do at least once or twice a week since I came to Ireland. During the week while working full time I cannot commit to teaching classes, so I try to do it during the weekends.

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Everyone can play tennis. I work with any age group, from 5 years old to any age. I do not have any favourite age group, although maybe with kids you can play more fun games, while with adults you play more serious ones, but in that second case and depending on the level I can play with them as well.

The first thing you need to teach them is that one of the most important things while playing tennis is your position in the court. You need to move quickly to prevent your opponent’s next movement and to be well positioned for your hit. The next thing I teach them is the right way to hold the racket and then the main movements to hit the ball (drive and backhand).

I would say to new tennis teachers: do not be afraid of your “students” being or becoming better than you. That should be your goal. That is something that no one teaches you when you do the courses to become a tennis teacher, but it is usual that other people will ask you about how you give classes to people who play better than you. Your main objective is to improve their skills, not to win against them in a match.

Tennis and IT rarely relate. However, trying to know how people think is something common between these two. In the case of the tennis, it is trying to adjust the class to make everyone enjoy it and not feel bored. During work, it is to create apps that help people improve their lives.

I do not think that tennis helps me in the way of being more creative, but in the way of stress relief. I do it mainly for fun and because I like tennis. It is a way to keep contact with that sport and, at the same time, meet people who share the same hobbies.

I take it more as a hobby than as a future job, so my main goals are teaching people on how to play, make them play better, but at the same time, enjoy playing the sport and to have fun.