I've coached tennis for a while. I've also coached a bunch of other sports. I thought I should write down some of the stuff I've learnt before I forget it now that I am about to retire. I have organised this as a series of bullet points under
some rough headings. I apologise for this format but this content is not as
clear in my head as it once was. I will begin with some preliminary points and
move on to other headings.
1. Don’t start too early:
Tennis requires a great deal of basic coordination that is
more efficiently developed through other sports, particularly multi-sport classes,
rather than by playing tennis. While there is no harm in giving a child a
racquet and letting them hit a few balls, taking it much further than that is
foolish until at least the age of five. Children should spend time around
tennis, racquets, nets and balls from the age of 4 but shouldn’t start
regularly receiving tennis coaching until they are 5 at the earliest. They
should not play tennis at the expense of more general exercise regularly until
the age of 7. At that point it is worth sending them to play 3 days a week for
an hour or two. At least one of these sessions should be with a professional
coach. I have included some tips on finding a good coach below.
2.
Touch is more important than power
Watching players smashing the ball on TV makes it easy to
think that the best thing for your child’s development is to have them move to
the baseline as fast as possible and pound balls. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Power is easy to learn; timing and touch are much more difficult.
What’s more, power is largely dependent on muscle mass, which comes with age.
Touch however, is best learnt by muscle memory, and this is something you can
only really access as a child. Do not neglect touch drills with your young
students. Start them on mini nets and emphasise touch and volleying rather than
topspin or power. Move them then to ¾ courts around the age of 6 or 7 and
emphasise topspin and angles. Finally, at the age of 8 move them to a full size court and begin building power. This is the process
employed by almost all top academies these days. I outline it in greater detail
below.
3.
General coordination
Motor skills are surprisingly hard to develop. The best
approach is to take children to multi-sport classes which are designed to teach
athleticism without an orientation towards any particular sport. This will give
your child a solid base. Sometimes these classes can be hard to find. One
option, which I have seen used to dramatic effect, is to have several parents
with different sports backgrounds all bring their children together one day a
week (usually a Sunday afternoon) for some general multisport in a park or
similar venue. You can rotate the children through several activities and share
the load between the parents.
The important skills to develop are hand-eye coordination,
limb coordination (e.g. rub your belly and pat your head at the same time),
balance, flexibility (get it now and you have it for life), feel and timing.
Some good exercises for each are listed below, but a good approach is just to
play different sports modified to be possible with children; for example,
playing baseball with a large spongy ball and a tennis racquet. The internet
has loads of articles on this sort of thing and many databases of drills and
activities that are suitable for children.
Hand-eye coordination
exercises:
- For small children, place a big spongy ball on a
large traffic cone and have them hit it off at a wall with a child-sized tennis
racquet. Increase the distance they from the wall as they develop competence
and encourage them to hit the ball hard enough for it to reach the wall
-
Have a child try to hit a ball against a wall
and achieve a certain rally score. Rally scoring is critical because it
encourages the child to control the ball so they can strike it again and again.
For every ten unbroken strokes the child should take a step backwards until
they are 7 metres away or so and then start to step forward again every time
they hit ten balls in a row.
-
Tee-ball: this is a simpler version of baseball.
Students hit a ball off a stand. It is similar to the first exercise above
-
Kick-ball: students play baseball but the
pitcher rolls a soccer ball along the ground top the batter who then kicks it
as far as they can into the field. Fielders try to intercept and pass the ball
to the relevant baseman (by foot usually) to get an out.
-
General catching drills. Learning how to throw
is critical for good serving in tennis and a valuable life skill. There are
many explanations of correct throwing form on the internet, so have a look
there for technique and drilling advice.
-
A great exercise for small children (say, <5
years old) is to have them catch balls of differing size, shape and weight,
both on the full and off the bounce. You can also spin the balls when you throw
them to the child so they have to think about how it is likely to arch through
their air and bounce off the ground.
General coordination:
-
The most basic exercises here are the rub your
head and pat your tummy at the same time style of activity. You make the body
do two different things simultaneously to develop independent control of each
limb.
-
It is also worth developing independent foot and
eye coordination. You can make a child move through an agility ladder while
trying to catch a ball for example.
-
For footwork, dancing is ideal, especially
Spanish and ballroom dancing. Agility ladders are also excellent.
Balance:
-
Balance beams (walking along narrow items)
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Standing on one leg and standing on one leg
while trying to do something else
-
handstands
-
gymnastics exercises
Flexibility:
-
Children should be encouraged to stretch all the
time (10 minutes at the end of each session is a good start). Kids don’t find
stretching as boring as adults, and if you develop flexibility as a child you
keep it for life.
-
Dancing is a good alternative to dedicated
stretching
-
Strictly
avoid anything that involves lifting things above your head or doing long handstands. Such
activities tend to inhibit growth. Avoid heavy gymnastics. Don’t bother with
any substantial muscle building activity until a child turns 18.
Feel/sensitivity:
-
lawn bowling, petangue and bocce are all great
for developing feel.
-
So is basketball and simple derivatives where
you have to throw something a certain distance and that distance varies
frequently
-
If you use basketball based drills, be sure to
vary the object that must be thrown in terms of its weight and size
Other skills, like fine motor skills and timing, can be
covered by ‘multisport’. Playing a wide range of physical games as a child will
develop a general athleticism that is much more useful to a beginner tennis
player than a few extra hours on court at the age of give.
4.
Make sure they have fun
As a general rule, tennis should be all about having fun
until the child is at least 5. Then it should gradually wind back, say 10% every
6 months, until it is 20% fun and 80% hard work by the age of 12. At that
point, winning is fun and you train so you can win. Note here that
competitiveness is integral to good development as a player, and this can be a
difficult trait to manage in people.
To keep things fun, early tennis lessons should be games-based rather than drills-based, should not fret too much over technique, and
should involve a lot of joking around. It is also good to use a lot of brightly
coloured equipment and the like to maintain the child’s interest. Few children
will progress in tennis if they start just hitting forehands and then progress
to just hitting static backhands because they will lose interest fast.
5.
Finding a coach:
Once your child is 5 years old or so and has a good base of
coordination and a basic set of tennis skills (for example, if you toss them a
ball they can hit it with a racquet), start taking them to a coach once a week.
If you take them earlier it is just a waste of money as the coach will be
working on things that you can do yourselves. Start with squads. Basic tennis
skills are universal and don’t need private instruction. You can start
employing a private coach at 7 years old once a week. Squads have the added benefit of
socialisation and make it easy to find doubles and hitting partners down the track.
Two squads a week for a year is great.
A big question here is which coach to choose. Some
considerations:
-
Go for someone younger. Olds can often be (not always) fed up with coaching and lazy. They also tend to be reluctant to try new
methods and prefer repetitive drilling. They are very good for students in the intermediate stage (9-12
years old) but tend to be a bit too hands off with the young ones. You need
someone dynamic and energetic who can crack good jokes and doesn’t mind making
a fool of themselves.
-
Don’t be too fussed about experience. Avoid
young coaches who are dumb, but otherwise they are a safe bet here.
-
Find a young coach who cares.
-
Be mindful of coaches with whom your child has
an awesome time but learns very little tennis.
-
At the same time, be equally wary of a coach who
is unnecessarily harsh and draconian. There should be no need for discipline in
pee-wee tennis.
-
Avoid coaches who do exactly the same thing
every session. If a coach just does mini tennis, then feeding to the
forehand/backhand, then rallies every single session, they aren’t trying hard
enough. Things can always be jazzed up a little and this will keep your child
motivated and attentive.
-
Coaches who use teaching aides like cones,
hoola-hoops, ladders and the like are often the best because they are clearly
planning lessons beforehand, but they might be hard to find.
-
If possible, go to a club that uses mini-nets
for teaching children. It dramatically aides their development.
-
Ideally you want a young (21–30 year old) coach
who is looking towards a career in the industry. Avoid managers who talk too
much and focus on the coaches who are efficient with their words. Managers tend
to want clients, coaches want good players.
-
A coach who uses live ball whenever possible
(i.e. rallies) is preferable, but may be hard to find in hot climates.
Some basic points on development
A typical progression
The mini tennis progression system is ideal and, I think,
critical. This system involves having the children play for one year on mini
courts (roughly just two of the service boxes separated by a custom net that is
shorter but as tall as a regular net) and then one year on a ¾ court (as wide
as a regular court but only ¾ the length) before progressing to a full size
court.
The main advantage of this approach is that the child learns
the importance of control from the outset. A small child cannot hit the length
of the court no matter how powerful they are. As such, they will swing wildly
if you encourage them to hit hard and they will develop none of the skills
necessary for the finer points of tennis (and it is the finer points that make
you really good). This wild swinging also reduces the likelihood that the child
will master proper technique. It is hard to maintain good form when swinging as
hard as you can. On a small court, the child must control the ball or else it
will go out. They thus are forced to master the most essential issue in
tennis—the balance of control and power.
There is an added benefit to this system. Because the first
net is quite high, it is extremely difficult for any child to hit hard. This
rewards net play in competitive games. A young age is the ideal time to bed
down the desire to go forward and a killer instinct at the net. On the ¾ court
net rushing is nearly impossible, so you want to encourage it a lot on the mini
court. Indeed, I would teach young children the game of tennis backwards. They
would first learn to volley and only then retreat to the baseline. This is a
sensible approach not only because it beds down the importance of volleying and
getting forward but also because children find it easier to hit balls on the
full than off the bounce. It also means that children learn slice before
topspin and will thus find slice more intuitive when they get round to needing
it on the baseline.
The advantage of the ¾ court is that the court is too short
to really hit hard without topspin, and its width makes angles devastating. Angles are another
skill that is best learnt in the early days. Like volleying, angles are
something that only comes up very occasionally in high level tennis. As such,
their execution must be wrote-learned in order to be drawn upon in matches.
Most practice at high level must go towards depth, but if a player is able to
draw on angles when necessary they will be much more dangerous than someone who
merely has consistent depth.
When the child first moves onto the full size court they
will still be too small to really be able to hit their opponent off the court,
so they should be taught to use time instead of power and focus on consistency.
Using time means taking the ball early on the rise rather than waiting for the
crest. There is more power in the ball at this time and the opponent has not
yet recovered into a defensive position. If you press your advantage at this
point you are more likely to hit a winner even if you hit a little softly. This
is the essence of Federer’s game. Again, taking the ball on the rise is best
learnt early. The student should be taught to play consistent tennis because there is
not much reward to hitting hard as the court is too long to really cause harm.
Only when the opponent is really on the ropes and plays something short should
the young player charge forward and hit the ball of the rise.
In the long run the child will grow (around age 16). At this
point, two changes occur, one big one small. The small change is that he
child’s wingspan increases so they can once again cover the net and charging
forward becomes viable again. Passing shots are much better now though and
students will have mastered topspin, so volleying will be difficult. It is
still very profitable however, and those students who mastered the art way back
on the mini court will now reap the dividends.
The second is that power will increase dramatically. Winners
from behind the baseline will still be difficult but playing shutdown will not.
Training needs to move towards focusing on playing long straight shots and
cross-court shutdown tactics with only the occasional flourish of an angle, a
volley or a rise-ball.
Competition
The rigors of competition are fundamental to a tennis
player’s development and, in most cases, for maintaining someone’s interest in
the game. Without a goal (wins) it is hard to maintain motivation, and without
becoming accustomed to the psychological pressure of match-play someone is
unlikely to become a truly excellent player.
However, you should not push children into competition
before they are ready. Do not start playing competition until the child has
been playing for at least a year. Do not enter them into a tournament or round
robin event in which they will not win at least 30% (50% for sensitive
children) of their matches. This is critical to maintain their morale and
enthusiasm for the sport. It is a good idea to start with point play and match
play in a squad-based setting with which the child is familiar before taking
them to a tournament full of strangers and angry parents.
Competition can be psychologically difficult, and you can
never tell how important winning is to a child. I once had a student who gave
every impression of not being interested in winning, having total confidence
and being very relaxed. He crushed all comers in his first competition,
which was a small, insignificant intra-club event run on 10 consecutive
Sundays. All of a sudden he had a complete nervous breakdown in the final,
experienced psycho-somatic cramps and could barely hit a ball. He cried
throughout the match (he was 8) even though he was slightly ahead the whole
time. In the aftermath it took 6 months to undo the damage to his confidence (even
though he won) and get his technique back to where it had been. His dad and I
were both dumbfounded. I maintain to this day that his parents were perfect
tennis parents (i.e. very laid back but supportive) and had no role to play in
his trauma over the importance of winning. You can just never tell with kids.
Once a child is comfortable playing matches you should send
them to a small club round robin tournament. These are very common. Take them
for a few seasons and let them rise through the divisions (say for at least a
year) before you take them to a single elimination tournament. This will give
them confidence and a degree of familiarity with competition.
Once a child is 10 they should be playing single elimination
events if they are serious about tennis. This is where you are knocked out once
you lose a match. Have a doubles partner so that you have something to do if
you come up against a tough opponent in the first two rounds. Try to find
tournaments with so-called ‘consolation draws’ where the losers from the first
two rounds go into a secondary tournament. This will make travelling for a
whole weekend of tennis worth it.
By 12, good players should be getting scouted for
development squads. Don’t expect the squads to do this for you. If your child
is doing very well in local events, make inquiries about where the development
programmes are located and how they recruit. Don’t be pushy but if your child
doesn’t make the cut do ask why and try to make improvements in time for next
year. Long term development into a US college (or tour) worthy player is next
to impossible without the rigor and financing development programmes
provide.
Only buy clothes, paraphernalia and random gear (like huge
bags and headbands) as a reward. These things don’t actually make your child
play better. Point out that the professionals don’t use them except when the
camera’s are on. If the child does well in competition or is putting in effort
in training, get them rewards. They will appreciate them more. Also encourage
them to only wear their best gear for matches as this will create a
psychological distinction between matches and training. You can train in
cotton—it stops sweat from dripping down your arm. It is more important to
actually be a tennis player than just look like one. The measure of a player
isn’t his gear but his match results.
Buy good racquets early and make sure the size is
appropriate for the child. Discuss what racquet would be most appropriate with
a head coach not a club manager. Managers typically have a contract with a
particular company and will push that company’s products. All top line racquets
are excellent, but each is subtly different and will suit slightly different
swing paths and play styles. Ask a coach for suggestions and then take four
racquets simultaneously for
trialing. If you only try one racquet at a time you get used to it. This is
not what you want. What you want is an almost instant match. Use a racquet for
ten minutes. Hit a few serves. If it’s pretty bad then let it go. If it works
well then shortlist it. Once you have two racquets to choose from hit with each
of them for half an hour and see which one you prefer then stick with that one.
Most shops have demo-programs for top line racquets that make this approach affordable. Oncee you pick a racquet at around the age of 16 that is your racquet
for life. So make sure it is the right one.
Be very careful about cheating in junior tennis. It is
unavoidable. Even the nicest children end up cheating inadvertently. Their eyes
are not good enough yet and they want the ball to be out so much that they
actually see it out. This is an ongoing nightmare for grassroots tennis
generally. If your child loses to a cheat encourage them to look long term and
focus on how they played rather than the statistical result. Cheaters prosper
for a very long time but they never become champions and most meaningful
tournaments have umpires. There are other ways of dealing with cheats but any
coach can explain them to you so I won’t go into them here.
When a child is motivated get them to play a lot of tennis.
When they lose interest wind back but don’t let them quit because they will
never go back. If the child doesn’t re-develop interest for 12 months then they
can quit. They may come back as an adult.
Don’t be in a rush to dedicate your child’s entire life to
tennis. If a child trains 2-3 times per week and comp once a week for 10 years
they will be a damn good tennis player. If they train every day they will be
one of the best juniors in the country. The chances of becoming a professional
are incredibly slim and not worth excessive badgering or training several hours
a day for unless your child really is super talented. Coaches will tell you so.
You will know because you child will be identified for development squads and
scholarship programs from the age of 12 and will be the best player in them.
Most top 10 players are the junior (under 18) champions of their nations at age
14 (Hewitt, Kyrgios, Tomic etc). Almost all pro tennis players are the children
of coaches or people otherwise interested in and good at tennis. Aim for a US
college scholarship to a good school rather than a professional career. The key
to this outcome is consistent, sustainable
development.
Tennis Parenting:
This is an incredibly tough subject and a difficult line to
find. I have only minor points.
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You want to be laid back but supportive. You
don’t care whether your child wins or loses as long as they try hard (not even
necessarily their best, as some days this is not reasonable). They must respect
their equipment. You are supportive as long as they are putting in the effort.
You will be at games, you will pay for coaching and you will pay for racquets
so long as you see that they care and are putting in. As much as they ease off
you ease off, though try to always be encouraging and motivating.
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Give your child tips and provide match analysis,
but never immediately after a game has concluded, or even in the next week in
most cases. Throw it in way down the track. For example, if you child loses a
match because they went for too many winners, don’t let them know about it
until a similar situation comes up in training
e.g. “remember that times you lost a few weeks ago to that guy who just hit the
ball back? What was the problem—you hit too many errors. Try to work on that
here. Hit solid, consistent shots.” Help children learn from mistakes but don’t
be too pushy at the moment those mistakes actually occur. As you learn about
this and get a feel for it you will become increasingly good at reading your
child, but the best rule is: keep it to yourself; then tell the coach about it.
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Be particularly encouraging of your child when
they are tenacious in a match, win or lose. The most important thing to develop
in a young player looking long term is determination and willpower. It is okay
to lose frequently as long as you always get back on the horse. When a child is
having a tough match encourage them to dig deep and make the other player
really work hard for the win.
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Try to avoid telling your child that they are an
amazing tennis player and instead complement them on their hard work. Encourage
them to think that they win because they train hard and work on their game, not
because of innate talent. Player’s whose talent is always mentioned tend to
become lazy players in the long run and easily disheartened by loses. These
players will never go pro and most college coaches won’t like them because they
won’t be team players. This approach—complementing effort rather than talent—is
a good generally parenting and teaching tip.
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