As a tennis coach, you can decide to teach your students to win in the short term or win in the long term. When you have witnessed as many matches as I have, you can see the difference. So many players, especially juniors, can get caught in the trap of keeping the ball in play -- retrieving, not taking any chances, not picking up the pace, not being aggressive (offensive), not playing in all parts of the court (baseline, mid-court, the net). It is certainly easy to teach this style, however, in the long run, it does not produce top players or players that are fun to watch.
 
How many times have you and I gone to watch a match and all the points are horrendously long, boring and with no offense? How much fun is this to play or watch? I just move on to another more exciting match. My theory is to teach all my students the whole court game. In the short term they may lose a little more as they are trying to learn to win playing all court instead of trying "not to lose." However, as they develop they continue to improve and become more and more competitive. I think everyone should be taught to serve and volley, chip and charge, volley high balls out of the air from the baseline and come in, take the short ball and go to the net and play aggressively.
 
I see players all the time get to a certain level by playing safe, then quit playing because their competitors have been working on a move aggressive, offensive game which is now "kicking in." They start to lose to the players they used to beat, but now cannot compete against the more complete, versatile and competitive game they have developed.
 
So go after your game. Learn how to play all over the court. Go control your destiny. Go out to win, not to "not lose." Be in control, don't be controlled.
 
Good luck on the courts!