If you are a tennis coach looking to teach a new shot to your players, Jean-Yves Aubone has a word of advice for you. In the piece below, Aubone, who has been a former ATP player and current coach, looks at inculcating a systematic approach towards teaching a new shot.
Learning a new shot or technique can include a lot of information. If it’s thrown at the player all at once, it will be too much to think about. They’ll be overwhelmed and frustrated, making it harder to learn.
The best path is to go step by step, and at the speed of the player. Everyone learns at their own pace. However, if you follow these systematic steps, you’ll improve their learning curve.
Here’s a step by step guide for a tennis coach looking to understand how to systematically teach a new shot.
Teach the New Technique
Most players are visual learners so as a tennis coach you’ll want to show them how to hit the shot. You can hand feed the ball to yourself and hit. You can have them toss the ball to you and hit, or you can pull up a video online of a professional player hitting the shot.
Watching the video is extremely helpful because you can replay it as many times as you’d like, and pause any portion of the swing where they might be confused.
After they verbally confirm an understanding of the shot, have them shadow swing (this is when they swing without hitting an actual ball). If they can’t shadow the shot properly, they’re not ready to hit the actual ball, so let them shadow swing as long as it takes. When you think they’re ready, introduce the actual hitting.
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Practice the New Technique in Place
As a tennis coach, you want the player to practice the shot without moving too much. If they have to move too much, they’ll be thinking about too many things. This can be overwhelming.
The fewer things they have to focus on, the better.
So before you start teaching them how to move to the shot, make sure they can execute the shot without having to move more than a step or two.
The easiest way to do this is by standing as close to them as possible and hand tossing them a ball. Once they can execute the shot in this scenario, go to the other side of the net and feed the ball as close to their contact point as possible.
Feed the New Technique on the Run
Once they can execute without moving, it’s time to make them run! Tennis is a movement sport after all. Therefore, they have to learn how to hit the ball while running to it.
Just like in step 1, shadow swing running and hitting the shot yourself. You can also hand toss the ball to yourself or have the player hand toss the ball to the location you’d like. If there’s a specific footwork that needs to be taught, now is the time to introduce it.
Then just like in step 1 again, have them run and shadow swing. Once they can execute the shadow swing, have them stand at a distance where they’ll have to run to where they’re going to make contact with the ball, and hand toss. If they can walk to the ball, and execute, it’s too easy. Hand toss the ball farther away or at a faster speed so they have to run.
Once they can execute with you hand feeding, go to the other side of the net and feed the shot.
Start Rallying with Them and Mix in the New Shot
Points in tennis can be unpredictable. A player needs to practice executing in random scenarios.
Start a rally or even play some regular service points and randomly mix in the shot they’re learning on purpose. This is going to help them practice the shot in a manner that’s as close as possible to what they’re going to experience in a match.
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Repetitions. Repetitions. Repetitions
The more a player practices what they’re learning, the more they develop two important things: the visual interpretation of what’s happening, and the physical muscle memory of how to execute.
So the more opportunities they get to practice the shot, the faster their brain will be able to process what to do, and the less thought that goes into executing. Don’t jump in to teaching a new shot or technique too soon.
Depending on how often a player practices, they need a couple weeks or longer to start developing the muscle memory.
Author Info: J.Y. Aubone is a former professional tennis player, and coach of Reilly Opelka. He started the most personalized online tennis platform available AuboneTennis.com.