Different Strokes

Was this show before your time??

Oooh I like this one, too - challenging, so maybe for intermediate players and above.

Both players start at baseline. Coach feeds medium pace ball to ad side of Player A (deuce side if player is a lefty). Player A must return this ball with a cross court backhand. Point is played out.

• Repeat, but Player A must now hit an inside out forehand (cross court) on the first fed ball.
• Repeat, but Player A must now hit an inside in forehand (down the line) on the first fed ball.

This drill teaches the player the various options available to him/her and the consequences of each. Variations are endless, so use this construct to work on whatever shots or situations work best for your students.

Adapted from "Live Ball: Let Them Play!" by Oliver Stephens, TennisPro Magazine, Sept/Oct 2013

Tennis Volleyball

Yet another sport we can adapt to our own nefarious purposes! Actually we are just borrowing the

scoring scheme from volleyball to highlight the role momentum plays.

If you are not familiar with volleyball, here's what we are doing differently: in volleyball, you cannot earn a point unless your team is the serving team. So have your students play singles or doubles, but allow them to earn points only if they are the ones who served that point. If they served but the other team won the point, serve transfers to the side that won the point. Try first to X points the first time you do this to avoid confusion. Once they get used to the idea, you can return to traditional tennis scoring but make sure everyone is paying close attention to the score.

Set Your Court Abuzz

Last weekend I was at beautiful Hilton Head Island, SC attending PTR's first conference dedicated solely to 10 and under tennis. The presentations were outstanding. I will be sharing the highlights with you in the next several blog posts, starting with this one.

On the first day of the conference, Faisal Hassan gave a presentation about using 'kid friendly' buzzwords in teaching progressions. Many of you are probably already using alternatives to tennis jargon. For example, when I try to explain forehand stroke mechanics to a 5 year old, I ask them to 'scoop it' to get the low-to-high swing path we need to get the ball over the net. By comparing it to one of their favorite treats (ice cream) and pairing it with a visual, my students understand immediately what I am asking of them.

Faisal's examples were numerous, but the ones that really resonated with me were his examples of what he called Mistake Ritual Buzzwords. It wasn't so much the words themselves that were revolutionary. But I loved his idea of helping young players manage adversity by suggesting some phrases to help them maintain confidence and work through tough situations. As tennis instructors it is easy to spend much time on forehands and backhands and topspin and recovery and ready position and point of contact and serve and return of serve and . . . where was I? I think you get my point. So do your students a favor and take some time to offer them some positive mental touch points when things aren't going as planned.

Mistake Ritual Buzzwords
No Sweat
Brush it Off
Good thing you're tough!
Play with pride
You can handle it
You got this
And my personal favorite: Find a way

While we're on the topic of mental toughness, check out this TED presentation by Ann Cuddy. It's kinda long so I will break it down for you: positive body language plus positive attitude should yield positive results. So encourage your students to stand tall and grin and bear it. You might want them to work on that gymnastics dismount pose, too. Turns out there's something to that!