Tennis Coaching Tips
They come from many years of experience...
If you are a coach, these tennis coaching tips will hopefully help you with your work with tennis students. Being a tennis coach is a very responsible and also very enjoyable job to be in. Being passionate about the sport and about helping others is a must if one wants to be a good coach. The following coaching tips are based on my personal experience and years of making mistakes and learning from them. Hopefully this will shorten your learning curve and help you make your practices more effective and more enjoyable:
1. When you start your practice, explain to your players the main goals of that practice. They will be much more motivated and focused than if you just begin your lesson with drilling from the basket.2. Be aware of how much you correct the players and how much you praise their execution. Don't fall into the trap of only correcting. Most players respond negatively after a while. They know that they made a mistake and they want to hear good things too. 3. Just to check how this works decide that you won't correct players (or criticize) for one whole week. If they make a mistake, be quiet. If they make a good shot or the correct movement, praise them. You'll see something amazing after one week. Trust me. 4. Avoid feeding from the middle of the court, unless you practice short cross court shots or down the line passing shots. Players need to have a clear view of the court that they play in. Strokes without purpose and direction are not worth much. 5. When you coach players during the match know that you cannot make them play in a totally different way they usually play. What they need is a little change in their course (imagine a ship sailing in the sea) and after some time they will be much closer to reaching their destination. This is one of the most important tennis coaching tips. 6. Make the transition from one drill to another or a playing situation logical. Don't just mix drills that you read in some drill book. The lessons need to have some sense to make the best out of your players. 7. Even when you practice for serious competitions try to implement some fun games and drills. This helps the players lose some of the tension that they accumulate during the practice and in anticipation of the tournament. 8. When you practice with girls or women know they really don't want to work on their weaknesses. Practice a lot of areas that they are good at. Men are much more ready to grind it out until it works well. This is of course just what the majority of the male and female players prefer. There always are exceptions. 9. When you are at a tournament with your players don't talk too much about the upcoming match. This signals to your players that you are worried. That means that you don't trust them. Just say a few most important things and trust that they will play well. Your players will feel that positive energy and respond to it much better that to lots of analytical talking. 10. Respect your players no matter what they do. They will then respect you. Do not fall into the trap of feeling superior to them since you know so much more. If they feel inferior, they will lose confidence and consequently matches. You must be someone who organizes and advises to players, not someone who commands and doesn't listen to their wishes.
Being a good tennis coach is not so much about knowledge, although this is necessary to a certain extent. The most important part is the relationship between the coach and the player. The player must feel trusted, being a worthy person and a champion tennis player. This is probably the most important tennis coaching tip in my experience. The right combination of knowledge, tennis expertise and understanding of human psychology will help you and your players fully enjoy tennis practices and matches. Back from Tennis Coaching Tips to Tennis Tips
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