What an eye opener 10 & Under tennis really is!

The other day, a colleague and dear friend of mine invited me to observe his practice session with two of his players. As I entered the building, I saw all eight courts at this particular facility full. All kinds of lessons were going on; private lessons, group lessons and semi-privates. It was a good sight, so many juniors in one location in attempts to perfect their craft. As good as it was to see these courts full of players, my eyes started to shift to one particular court.

Forehands hit crisply cross court, then backhands, a slice was thrown in from time to time escape the defensive position and a volley to finish the point; an actual, well-constructed tennis point was being played. The beauty of it was that it wasn't just one, it was MANY! I took the one available seat to

Failure to Prepare is to Prepare to Fail! Why plan?

After some great comments and high number of views, I decided to re-post this article I had written last year.  This should wrap up the 4 segment series I wrote on planning.
Enjoy!


Chaos, bedlam, disarray, disorder and eventual anarchy! This is exactly what happens when players head to a practice/drill and nothing has been laid out. Most programs "wing it" and this is the perfect recipe for disaster. I have been in charge of various junior programs and the first thing I did in my first director position was to establish a curriculum. This allowed our coaches to know what the end game was along with the path to follow. Their input was key as I had to make sure their voices were heard otherwise they would become disgruntle because they would be no more than puppets. Get the staff involved! The curriculum allows the staff and I to observe our players and develop better microcycles and mesocycles according to the talent and skill level. For some players we would change the cycles as they might have more or less talent/skill than others, but because we knew what the next step was, it allowed us to have a specific plan. The specific practices were very smooth and more FUN for our players. Once the players come in, we would give them the focus for the day and begin practice. At every session, we made sure we had ONE FOCUS; no more and no less. This allowed our players to acquire the skill, practice it, and solidify it. To make sure our players are not bored doing the same thing, we changed the drills between courts or, if we are all doing the same drill on every court, we changed in increments of 10 to 15 minute. This gives various looks to our players keeping them engaged but at the same time, players are working on a specific Focus. The strategic planning of the specific practices allowed our staff to dynamically manage our mesocycle planning. If players were more advanced or were not up to par with their development we were able to adjust the subsequent practices. Players develop differently and tweaking is vital to allow the players to be comfortable with how they develop. There is much more that I can go into, but for today I leave you with quote by the late, inspiring, and famous coach John Wooden, "Failure to prepare is Preparing to Fail!"

How to plan a practice. Know the path, don't be blind!

"The blind leading the blind" 

Check out the bottom for its meaning!

I have been talking about the importance of planning out practices for your players.  Not only is this planning for specific practices crucial, but so is their career planning.  In the past, I made the distinction between teachers and coaches with the latter focusing on ALL aspects of the player's game while teachers only focus on the practice at hand (teachers can't be coaches, but coaches are teachers).  In this final installment of How to Plan a Practice, let me talk about periodizing, which is the planning short term and long term for the player.  I will explain it, but also use a hypothetical player describing his development, let's call him Ace ;-)

How to plan for practice. Know your audience

"The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been."

— Henry Kissinger

"Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand."

— General Colin Powell

Planning is crucial in everything.  When it comes to developing a player or group of players planning is the most important action a coach will perform.  Knowing what type of players the coach has will make the difference in the plan, the direction the coach will take them and what kind of results will be achieved.  Let's break down they types of audiences and the three areas where planning will make a difference.

Type of Players

Players can be categorized in many levels.  I like to break players down to very specific categories as this will give us the best results possible.  The major catergories you will find are Juniors and Adults with subcategories being broken down as such:


Juniors
Beginners
               Recreational
                              Competitive


Adults
Beginners

               Advanced

                              Competitive




Keep in mind that you can be even more exact according to goals, training ability, specific age, etc.  For this article, I will  focus on juniors with a mention on adults as I can write on this topic alone extensively.  Remember that the more specific you break down your categories, the more your program will produce a better outcome.


Here is the break down...

How to plan for a practice. Know your Resources

"A bad workman quarrels with his tools"
Chinese Proverb

"A good archer is known by his aim not by his arrow"
Proverb

Tennis planning is key in maximizing the practice time for the player.  There is only so much time a player can be on the court making it crucial that every second counts.  It is imperative that coaches are able to use their resources in the best way possible to maximize the amount of balls hit in order to improve the player.

So what are the resources that a coach has at his/her disposal?  Let's take a look at the tools and determine the best way to use them.

Courts

How to plan for a practice. Introduction

"Failure to prepare is to prepare to fail" 

John Wooden

As a coach, you be hard pressed to find a better role model than John Wooden (UCLA hall of fame coach).  He transcends all sports and all of life.  This quote has inspired me to become the most prepared coach I can be.

One of the toughest challenges that a tennis coach encounters is planning for practices.  Either he/she doesn't do it or has trouble thinking about what the next step is for the player.  This goes for individual players or group practices.  In this multi-post article, I will be detailing how to build a good practice plan to ensure that the coach is getting the most out of the player(s).  I will cover the essentials, talk about the advantages and disadvantages of being unprepared. 

Let's take a look at the benefits of planning practices.

Advantages

Watch Your Language!

Language is one of the most powerful tools we have.  The way we compound words together, our tone, and what we attempt to communicate transcend a meaning that can be extremely powerful.  Do me a favor; I want you to think of someone who has impacted your life in a positive manner.  Someone who has changed the way you think and/or the way you act.  I guarantee you, that special mentor was someone who spoke and it demanded attention from you; whose language hit you deep inside of you.  That's the power that a coach has with his/her players.  The way coaches communicate with their players IS the difference between success and failure.

You are always practicing, the question is what are you practicing!

"Practice makes perfect", that statement couldn't be more true but the question is what kind of perfection are you trying to attain?  If you think about it, perfection just like beauty is on the eye of the beholder.  We all write our stories in life and in our games, the question is how neat or messy will the handwriting be?


Let me start by giving you an example.  A player runs as hard as he can, hits a very good rally forehand, and then stops to watch the ball.

What has he practiced?
1) Movement to the ball -Good
2) Hitting the forehand- Good
3) Lack of recovery- Bad

The PLAN for a perfect practice!

We all know that one coach/teacher who runs that perfect practice.  Players flock to them left and right as they want to share in the experience.  So what makes them so good?  What makes the practice run so efficiently?  One simple but yet complex concept, Planning!

What is Planning?!
Planning is looking eliminating all variables by knowing what resources you have and having a specific goal.

How do yo do it?
-Know your Players' Skill
No matter what kind of practice you are running there will always be a "top dog", the bottom player, and everyone in between.  It is vital that you rank your players according to their skill level in order to have them play with the ones of similar ability most of the time.  It is also very important that the top dog plays with the bottom player from time to time, as both will face these types of opponents at tournament play but it should be limited.
-Know the number of Players
As I have just pointed out, ranking the skill level is imperative but knowing how many players will be attending practice is as important.  Maximize the amount of balls the players hit by setting them up in the correct ratios (Perfect ratio players hitting to Players waiting).  Instead of having 2 players hitting and 4 waiting, reverse the ration, 4 hitting and 2 waiting.  If you have 3players on 1 court have them all participate most of the practice by playing half court games instead of having players wait.  Again, this is just to maximize the amount of balls players hit to give them better skill and stay engaged in the practice.  The more the players are involved, the more fun they have.

Know your resources
The way players are arranged around the courts directly influence their development and how much they take out of their practice.  When planning practices always know how many courts there are at your disposal.  This is a key concept and can make or break a practice.  Having 6 players on one court is counterproductive in comparison to having the same 6 on two courts.  This will maximize how many balls they are hitting which will add to their repetition equaling more consistent technique by the players.  A lot of practices are limited to courts and may have 6 players on 1 court.  This applies to the example we gave before with the ratio.  Have more players hitting than sitting out.  Place 4 players hitting with 2 waiting.  Another solution is to make more dynamic drills where rotations happen at a faster rate.  Last thing you want at your drills is for players to not be engaged and not come back the following week.

Have a focus
The most important part of a lesson is your goal.  Just like companies have mission statements, practices need to have a specific focus that players need to invest in.  At our practices, I like to give players an overall theme and I like to remind them of what they are working on individually.  This allows them to solidify their needs and learn new concept that will make them more complete.  

Execute
Simplest part of the practice.  It has been planned, written down on paper, and no brought on the court.  Follow the script and the practice should go as Planned.


In conclusion, a practice is just like making a cake.  Have a recipe that will show you what ingredients and the amounts you will need along with the knowledge of what kind of cake you want.  Now take your recipe and make that cake!

Old school doesn't necessarily mean success! 10 & Under Tennis

What is new with 10 & Under tennis
QuickStart tennis, better known as 10 & Under tennis, its not really a new topic or idea but more of a new trend. It has now been around for close to ten years in the US and for 25 around the world. It is a standard, comprehensive, & dynamic way of teaching tennis to young kids. Its large success has been seen all over the world and its only picking up steam especially in the US.

What is needed for 10 & Under?
A great passion to having FUN! That's what it is all about; an opportunity to have kids become more engaged in their practices allowing them longevity in the sport. Besides the FUN aspect, you do need a couple of things, a tennis court, racket and a ball. No different than what we use to do as kids right? This is where it differs. Do you remember when you had to chase down balls because they come streaming passed you, or even better, when you had to fetch the ball from the woods because your buddy couldn't control his strength and hit it over the fence? This element has been pretty much removed from the game. With smaller courts, rackets & compression balls kids are able to maintain longer rallies which engages them more and more. Let's face it, when you go play tennis, you want to hit the ball most of the time and pick them up as little as possible not the other way around. Granted, if you still want to be Babe Ruth and crank one out of the "park" then by all means GO LONG!


What is this? Miniature tennis?!
OK, so you're asking yourself what are these smaller courts, rackets and compression balls or maybe you know already. Let's do 10 & Under tennis 101 real quick.
-Court
3 different types of court. A 36', 60' & your regulation court 78' court. These will be used with various compression balls which I will get to below.
-Smaller rackets
Rackets have come in smaller sizes 19" to 27" for years. The difference now is the promotion of this rackets and the importance racket companies have put into these "sticks" as they are now made from Graphite and not cheaper materials.
-3 different kinds of balls
Stage 3 balls (Red)- 36', Stage 2 balls (Orange)- 60', Stage 1 balls (Green Dot) - 78'
Now that we have the general 101 studies out of the way, let's move to a philosophy course!

"Old School" Train of thought
"Agassi never played with compression balls and smaller courts and he had a full size wooden racket!"


"New School"
"Henry Ford was an innovator but he never drove a 450 horse power v12 engine 0-60 in less than 4 sec"


So Where is the disconnect?
Coaches that are stuck on their ways saying such comments like the one I proposed about Agassi forget one simple concept in life, Things change!  The nature of life and that of business is evolution.  Henry Ford was a great thinker, innovator & business man.  If he were here now in the 21st century he would come up with a new vehicle that was faster, cleaner, & better than what we have on the roads now.  This is how innovators think.  There will always be a better way to connect to players in order to relay the information for the sake of their development.  Remember that a good coach is one that adapts to the player not the other way around.  So, coaches adapt to the game that has molded and adapted to the player.

OK, how do we do this?
1)  Read
2) Educate
3) Practice
Coaches need to Read up on what is new & improved out there.  Due your diligence to read up on new trends on the sport.  It is amazing how much it has changed during the past 10 years from the time of linear big ball boy to now, linear and lateral big boy ball.  Educate yourself by going to conferences, seminars, webinars etc.  This is a great time to associate yourself with others in the field who might be doing things different and are getting great results.  Practice these things in your club or academy.  This is how you will develop as a great coach and your players as successful tennis participants.  Something I believe in very strongly:
"You can't teach what you don't know!"

Win Win for All
Kids are storming to 10 & Under tennis like never before.  We haven't see a tennis boom like this since the 70s.  With great ambassadors of the game like Federer, Nadal, & now Djokovic the game has reached its Golden Age.  Even The First Lady, Michelle Obama, has gotten into the act sponsoring 10 & Under tennis.  Kids want to play tennis and not fetch.  The success I and others have seen is tremendous with kids having longer rallies and bigger smiles.  They are staying in the game longer and are having great success with it.  Get involved in the game, the right game for younger kids!

Life is a sport, there are winners and losers.  Those who adjust their game will be the victors and those who don't well, let's just say they will be left behind.

Practice to Play, not to Practice!

"I play way better at drills than I do at my matches!" Haven't we all heard this before? At any level players come to their coaches and show this kind of frustration. The coaches response is to keep practicing and good things will happen. Good things will happen IF the right practice mentality is implemented but what is this "right" practice mentality? It's not a Practice mentality at all, but rather a MATCH MENTALITY!
Mardy Fish, america's #1 ranked tennis player, is said to practice with the same amount of balls on court at practice as he does in a match. This is to better get him into a match mentality. It's said that Michael Jordan didn't take practice lightly. He was often involved in altercations with other players because of his intensity. These professionals made sure that what they do on court is what happens in a match in order to be ready when those situations arise during competition. We have all heard the rule of 10,000 hours. It's true, it they are practiced with a match mentality.

What made Jordan so good during matches and propelled Fish to the top 10 in the world has been their Match Mentality during practice. They were and are able to practice as you are playing a match. This match mentality will get you in the same mind set as if you were actually in the middle of battle. Players too often are guilty of not indulging into a practice as they would in a match and come up with different results. Those players are guilty of hitting the same erroneous shots, having the same negative mentality, and coming up with negative results as they do in practice. Picture a practice session where there are balls all over the court, players are hitting low percentage shots, and the intensity is low. This unfortunately happens more often than not and we have all been a part of these practices. These players will get to a match situation where they will bring their intensity up but all those bad habits they spend hours on the practice court mastering will come up and bite their rear end. "You are what you eat", in this case, "You are what you do!"

At your practice sessions, make sure you and your players act as it was a match. My players are required to do small things that add big in competition. Some of these include: -Removing balls from net right after they hit into it -Adjusting strings, whether its needed or not, after each point -Taking change overs during their practice sets -Using scorecards These are some simple things that allow our players to put themselves in a match situation. Once they go to tournaments, they are able to dictate the pace of play as they have encountered all these things during practice. Also, players at practice are required to play all their points with the same strategy as they would in a match. Sometimes they do well and others they don't, but we are able to make the adjustments necessary at the practice session with the match mentality to make sure their chances of succeeding at their tournament matches are high. Lastly, players are put in set situations where they are way up, down big, or even. Their goal is to win the practice matches with a match mentality. By putting them in these situations, they are able to match what happens in matches as those scenarios WILL occur.
Get yourself out of losing ways. The way you practice is the way you will play; whether on the tennis court or at your board meetings. Focus as you need to execute that day and you will put yourself in the best position when the time comes as you will know what to expect. You are what you do!

Is Perfection obtainable?

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." Vince Lombardi
I speak to my players of perfection all the time. The word is thrown around but it's careful and deliberate for I know that language is an extremely powerful tool that can encourage or discourage a player. What I'll discuss in this post is the real possibility of perfection but how it happens in brief moments. Also, how we can all be perfect at certain points but must understand that if we are not, it's not rather failure but an opportunity to become perfect later on.
I will never forget a Saturday morning practice where we stopped after our dynamic warm-up to discuss a topic that seems so, well, perfect. It was Perfection and if it was ever possible. My players all had various points of views on the word and what it meant to them and before you know it 45 minutes had passed by with all of us sharing, linking and evolving the idea more and more. What we came up with was that Perfection is unobtainable for long periods of time but it is possible for brief stints. Of course, as a coach you don't want to set up a player for failure, so to expect perfection all the time would be impossible. We have seen how the greats in every sport, Jordan, Federer, Ali, Navritalova, failed in certain situations. But what did we see from these great athletes time and time again, Perfection!
Kids to this day know who Muhammad Ali is. His name resonates as one of, if not, the greatest boxers of all times. We can see him doing the rope-a-dope against big George Foreman at The Rumble in the Jungle. When we struck Foreman with left hook followed by a right cross it brought the big man down and Ali was Heavy Weight Champion of the World once again, a moment of Perfection. For that brief combo, the left hook to right cross, Ali was Perfect. People will always remember that, but do we remember when Ali almost went down? How about when he took many blows from Foreman that almost finished his dream of recapturing the title? These moments are absent from our memory but we will never forget Perfection.

The greatest basketball player of all times, Michael Jordan, was Perfect many times. He always believed in his will to be Perfect but understood that he can only do it for so long. He was trusted with the ball in his hands 26 times, and failed but he also made 25 game winnning shots; some to win The NBA Championship. He was Perfect for those brief 25 moments and what made that possible were the 26 imperfections he had.

I remember last year at the US Open where Federer had a 40-15 lead on Djokovic. A 16 Grand Slam time champion serving to the deuce court and Djokovic swung his racket hitting the ball at the Perfect angle at the Perfect speed. Before we knew it he was raising his hands beating the all-time great. Djoko was imperfect for much of the match as he was taken to 5 sets but he was Perfect at that moment of time.

When I talk to my players I tell them to understand imperfection but to welcome and strive for Perfection at the same time. Of course, they will be dissapointed if they are not Perfect all the time and, frankly, I would be disappointing if they were not, but with the understanding that imperfection will occur they will welcome it and move forward to a positive mental state much faster. My players hear the message that imperfection or problems, as I call them, are nothing more than opportunities to succeed. We all love to strive and achieve, the sweetest victories in our lives are the ones that come from failing. Understand the problem, search for a solution, execute your decision and Perfection will occur; in the case that it doesn't, try again it will happen at one point.

Looking back at that Saturday, our players did a lot of growing up in those 45 minutes of discussion. The most powerful tool that day was not hitting balls or making adjustments to their tactical game, but rather being Perfect about Perfection for 45 minutes.

Make sure your Coach is Coaching you!

Coaches are special people. They oversee the career of a player to make sure their progress is steep and their failures are few. There are many things that go into coaching which I will describe in this article. The biggest misconception is that a coach is someone who sees a player once a week and is directing their development. This is not a coach but rather a teacher Nothing wrong with this if you are looking for someone to give you general tips or even as a hitting partner but a coach has to do much more than that to earn the title of "coach".

Techniche is a big part of tennis and can limit a player if the correct techniques are not applied to the player by the coach. This is where it is vital that a coach is able to evaluate a player more than a couple of times a week as the coach needs to understand the technical development of the player. Seeing a player once a week will only leave the coach guessing at how a player is really hitting the ball during competition. As most of you know, a 1-on-1 session with a coach usually involves feeding and controlled rallies. This really limits the situations a player is put into and because of this how much a coach is able to observe and analyze. One note to remember is a good coach will adjust to the natural tendencies of a player. Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer are both some of the greatest players of all times but their techniques could not differ any more. An outstanding coach will understand the "window of acceptance" and make sure the player is doing positive techniques.

Tactical play might be more important than the technical side depending on which coach you talk to. It is vital for a player to understand his/her game and this is where the coach comes in. By analyzing what the player's tendencies are, the coach can build a solid game tactic that the player can rely on. Coaches might notice that their player is very defensive and likes to play that way, the coach should build a counter-puncher game but at the same time develop an offensive side to compliment his defensive skills. Coaches need to study the way a player plays points during drills, their technical inefficiencies and most importantly the matches to understand the game plan that will be applied to the player.

The Mental part of the game is probably the most dissected but the least understood. A coach is not only a mechanic with technique and an artist with tactics but should also by a psychologist for his/her player. Tennis is such a demanding sport as coaching is not allowed on court in most instances. Even when there is coaching allowed is very limited. A player's psyche can change from day to day or even point to point. Making sure that the player is equip with the correct thought process is vital to development. By teaching a player how to think when they are losing, winning, or is a tight struggle on the court a coach can guide his/her player to a successful career.

Nutrition has become an immense part of the game in the past 20 years. What to eat before, during and after matches is critical for players as they might be playing more than one match per day and a couple of tournaments in a row. A coach should have a solid base on what a player should be digesting. Also, the coach should team up with a certified nutritionist in order to better understand what the new information is out there as this can change daily. This will allow good sharing of information from nutritionist to coach to player.

Fitness along with nutrition have changed more than anything during the past 20 years of our sport. No player is able to go on the court and be successful with poor fitness. Coaches should have a good base of understanding what the best training techniques for fitness are; these include strength, cardiovascular, flexibility and footwork patterns. They should also team up and work with trainers that know the best techniques and most recent trends. A good coach will make sure that his/her player is doing off court training as there is no room for lack of fitness in our sport today. To give you an example, Djokovic/Nadal Aussie Open final; five hours and fifty-three minutes of pure fitness.

Coaches have to understand that this is a never ending job. A player's career is the most important thing to them and it should be to the coach as well. While they have to gruel it out with the physical nature of the sport, coaches have to deal with the physical, tactical, mental, nutrition, and fitness aspects. This is what makes a coach just that, a COACH!

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The Perfect Ratio; players hitting to players waiting

Going to various programs I always get the question, "what makes a program successful?". Of course this is a loaded question but my first response is always," what's your ratio?". Right away the directors of these programs start telling me about their coach to player ration but that's not the ratio I'm talking about. It's all about the player participating to the one that's not.

Ask yourself one simple question, "what makes YOU bored?". Most people would say it's not being engaged. It's such a simple answer, so why don't we apply it to our players? Get them involved, make them participants of the practices not bystanders or even worse spectators. So how do you engage players the correct way? You have them bit balls!!! I couldn't be more emphatic on this. Players that come to play tennis want to do that; this is why they sign up for your programs. Sure, we can engage our players in other ways such as doing calisthenics or various activities but this shouldn't be the entrée but rather the side dish. Make your main course one with a longer table, invite more friends over, have a larger party and you will see players engaged having way more fun.

No matter if a player is recreational or high performance, they are all looking to improve in the sport they love. The more exposure these players have to hitting balls the better they become and in return the more their skills will improve. Having a player disengaged will do the complete opposite. They will become disjointed not allowing them to get into some sort of rhythm that will just make them go to the back of the line to wait their turn again. This then becomes a vicious cycle where the player becomes frustrated. Their annoyance will spread to other and before you know it, the class that begun with 16 players is down to a handful.

To avoid this problem have a ratio of players to waiting, at a minimum, being the same. 1:1 is doable but a 2:1, 3:1 or above will always be a winning recipe. Player are engaged as they are on the court and that player or small number of players can now do those calisthenics or extra activity that the coach provides. Get your players involved and your program will be a success!

Difference b/t Coaches and Teachers!

Would you consider your tennis (or any other sport) instructor a teacher and vice versa? Or is he/she really just a teacher and nothing more? So the question lies in what is a coach and what is a teacher. Today I will define the two. A teacher is a person who shares their specific knowledge to a student but that's where it stops. A coach is a teacher but also covers the ins and outs of their career. Think of your own training. When you visit a tennis instructor once a week is he/she more of a teacher or coach? How about an instructor that constructs your entire training cycles? The best players are those who have coaches not teachers. Communication is key in the advancement of sports. For a teacher or coach to convey their ideals into a player they must use the right language, mannerisms and correct ideas for their apprentice to register and regurgitate the information. A coach will understand their pupil as he/she sees them in action, knows how they think, and can pick up habits that the player has picked up or is lacking due to pass observations. A teacher can only go with what they see at that specific time slot. They are not able to really notice the process of development which really handicaps the ability to figure out what the next step in development is. The open communication between player and coach is the biggest factor in development. Knowing that both parties are on the same page allows the process of development to be steeper and not flatline. What other advantages do coaches have over teachers? Planning! Microcycles are short planning periods usually of a week while Mesocycles are long periods closer to 6 weeks. A coach can plan what the short term and long term plans and goals are by using both micro and mesocycles. A teacher on the other hand cannot do either. They can only observe what the player is doing at the instance, try to solidify, and maybe attempt to improve a new skill. This is too much to do in a short time. Remember that a teacher is someone who sees a players once a week for an hour. What can really be achieved here when in fact we can't even call this a microcycle. A coach has full or close to full access to their player which allows him/her to solidify what they have already seen prior to that practice and move on to a new skill. The time that has been saved because of the continuous observation is key. The ability to to plan ahead due to the observations made is vital to the rate of development for a player. So can we now make the statement that coaches are teachers, but teachers are not necessarily coaches? If we look at the overall picture and think of the goals of players I think so. I am not here to say teachers are not good. Rather I am her to tell you that if you are serious about your development look for a teacher that is a coach not just a teacher who will give you good tips but won't be serious about your goals and development. This will give you the best chance of improvement.

Chicken or the Egg; Students or Coaches changing the game?

We have all heard the philosophical question and I am not here to answer it as I will leave it for the experts but I am here to create a parity between this quandary and coaching. There is no question that players learn from good coaches but the query is do good coaches learn as much from good players? Also, and more importantly, do players change the way the game is played or are the coaches who foresee concepts, apply them to their players, and in doing so transform the sport? I have witness some coaches who know quite a bit of technique and tactical play but are not able to produce the type of players who can compete at a high level. How is this possible? The coaches are are so focused on what they see as correct that they become to rigid. The best coaches are those who see that there are many ways to achieve good results and are Fluid with their teachings. An example we can all relate to, Federer an Rafa. We couldn't find two more opposite players but yet they have taken our sport and reached new heights. Federer's coaches growing up saw this boy with great talent and molded his strokes to become very classical. Tony, Rafa's uncle and coach, saw a boy with great desire and let his player develop. People can argue all day on which techniques are the best but could we argue the results of both these players? NO! We have players who have all types of grips and all types of technique on their swings on tour. Why didn't their coaches change their techniques to the correct ones? Those coaches saw the potential of their players and allowed them to develop their own style. These same coaches are now using what they learned and applying them to new students attempting to obtain similar results. The game has changed because of players not necessarily coaches and the best coaches understand this. They are able to observe the changing trends and grasp them along with welcoming the new innovations. We as coaches establish the basics, which are not forehands, backhands, etc, but discipline, mental fortitude, and Yes the will to win! Bottom line is that any program needs well educated coaches but open minded coaches who are extremely observant. These educators need to learn from their audience as much if not MORE than the other way around. Rigidity is the way to failure while flexibility allows from progress!

Keys to Coaching Various Types of Players

Coaches have to remember that every student is different! Players should be grouped in various categories to allow them to be around people who have the same mind set along with similar skills. This will also enable the coach to have the correct mentality as he/she is communicating to the players.
The common mistake of programs and coaches is combining players who have different goals into the same group. Even though the skill level can be similar, seperation of the players is key. For example, a high school boy who is a recreational player is placed in a group of younger players who are tournament players. The high school boy can feel as he is belittled as he is with younger kids but can also feel alienated as he has no ability to socialize with the younger crowd. Adults sometimes forget that children grow extremely quick and the difference between an 11 year old and 13 year old is completetly different than an adult who is 30 and one that is 32. Comperatively the two groups are 2 years apart, but the difference in behaviour and interest can be vastly different with the kids. Let’s play role reversal with the example we used earlier. The high school kid is in a group of high schoolers who are recreational. The boy is loving his environement as players get to play the game they enjoy and talk about the things most high school kids talk about. A 10 year old high performance player is placed into this group because he is at the same level but now his practice sessions are not as intense, more suited for the recreational player, and with no peers to play against. He/she will also feel aliniated as there is no common ground.
The varoius clubs that have been successful at high retention of players do an outstanding job of figuring out the goals of their players and placing them within the correct peer group. These two prerequisites are essential for a player to develop and for a program to advance!