What do people think of a tennis coach who is carrying an extra forty or fifty pounds?
What do they think of a poorly dressed coach?
This reminds me of a story Dennis Van Der Meer related when running a Tennis-University back in the '70s. He related that he was on a flight and a stewardess asked him if he was Vic Braden. He said, "No, I'm the skinny one." 🤣
It brought lots of laughs and at the same time, it was a subtle way of saying, your image matters. He was very insistent on that down to the manner of dress. If you are a tennis Pro/Coach, it is best to dress and look like a tennis player, so four or five inner tubes around the mid-line become a hard sell. All that said, it can be tough to maintain that look once you hit your 40s upward. It takes work. Anything you can do to look professional should also add to your bottom line.
I have another example though. I worked for a former Davis Cup player back in the 70s-80s who carried some extra weight, but in his 40s he could easily outplay any ranked students that came for lessons. I never heard a negative word of judgment against him for this, rather, it added to his aura His reputation as a player and skills silenced anyone thinking about it.
