Real-Life Communication
A good tennis pro must be able to communicate with her players.
"You
have to know how to get through to each player," says Tudor Nita, a tennis
pro. "You can't use the same language with a client who is playing on a scholarship
and is serious about the game as with older guys who are just out to have
fun."
Your goal is to improve everyone's game, but during the past
few weeks you haven't been satisfied with the improvements of many of your
players. You question whether they are listening to you, whether they are
practicing and whether your coaching methods are working.
To brush
up on your coaching skills, you read a newsletter listing four ways that a
player can tell if a coach is helping to improve her game. "You can't learn
to play tennis by reading a book, but tennis pros do have to read a bit to
learn about new developments," says Nita.
Read the text below and answer
the following four questions to test your coaching skills:
Tournaments
or Match Play
If you compete, then you may see immediate improvements,
although this is usually quite minimal in measure. When we train during lessons,
there is an almost closed setting, psychologically speaking. When we play
a match during a tournament, a player will do what is most comfortable.
Newly
acquired actions are more difficult to execute as the body doesn't automatically
perform them. Therefore, we consciously may have to think an action completely
through in its entirety. Over time, possibly a month or a month and a half,
the newly acquired action will be performed with much more common ease.
Targets
Spatial
area or specific targets can be used to measure how much improvement you have
achieved in learning a new action. A well-qualified coach will most probably
use targets to show the player how much they have or haven't improved.
Movement
Movement
can also be used to aid in measuring how much a player has improved. A good
coach will force the player to move and hit the same type of newly acquired
strokes. Tennis, after all, is very dynamic so it needs to be measured as
such. If your coach never challenges your movement then you may be in a state
of shock when you play your next match.
Reception of Different
Balls
Make sure to measure your newly acquired stroke by having
the coach feed you various types of balls. By receiving a number of different
balls you will be able to see if your stroke is solid or full of holes.
(Excerpt
from The Tennis Server column by Reggie Vasquez. Permission for use granted
by John Silver of the Tennis Server.)
Questions:
- Why are newly acquired actions more difficult to execute?
- What are specific targets used to measure?
- Why would a good coach force a player to move and hit the same type of
newly acquired strokes?
- Why is it important for a coach to feed a player a variety of different
balls?