Your first lessonFirst of all, I talk to them about their experience. In trying to learn tennis. Find out their background. and what may be several of their goals, such as being able to play with their friends who are semi beginners, just be able to control the ball and sustain a rally. Or it may be to play competitively on a high school or college team someday. Then I will go over the different grips needed to hit forehand backhand, etc. then talk about some of the skills specific to build their ability such as how to watch the ball being hit by the strings and keeping your eye on the place, the ball used to be after you hit it. Then, then we will move over to a training aid. I have called a stroke master. It is a flexible rod with a tennis ball on the end that gives them a motionless ball to swing on and make contact with. Then. I will demonstrate the proper form for hitting a forehand, how to put your feet how to turn your shoulders into the shot, watch the ball and a proper complete follow-through. Depending upon their ability to swing and make contact with the String on the stroke master, I will actually stand 30 feet back and pitch them an underhanded ball that sits up in their strike zone. 90% of the time a beginner will find it difficult to make String contact with the ball. This is when they find out how difficult the sport of TENNIS actually is. I keep it low-key and say “all we want to do is hit the ball on the strings today. We don’t care where the ball goes, so don’t worry about that”. One of the things I try to accomplish in their first lesson is to put them at ease and don’t worry if they can’t hit the ball, etc. I think it’s very important to establish a relaxed rapport with students and be as patient as you possibly. Can. I tell them “if you knew how to do this you wouldn’t be hiring me to teach you so don’t worry you’re gonna get better“ the more relaxed, they feel about making a mistake the faster they will learn according to Bloom’s taxonomy of education. At the end of the lesson, we do a quick review on the things we tried to accomplish and how well we did with those beginning techniques. The review is very important at formulating and establishing their goals and complementing them on how well they’ve done.
Lesson 2-3We review very quickly what was done in the last lesson and do a recap of things like grip change for shot selection, keeping your eye on the ball until it leaves the strings, getting your feet in the right position to hit the particular shot. Then if they had a chance to go out and practice
that hitting up against the wall or have somebody else pitched them a ball for a couple of days, they be more profession and hitting a live ball you pitch to them underhanded so we step it up a level I pitch the ball away from them a couple of feet. They have to take some steps and hit the ball. This involves them getting their feet in the right position quickly and the racket back while running to the ball.
Lesson 4-10Everyone’s progress depends upon how much they practice what they learned or should’ve learned in the last lesson sadly, most younger students use their lesson as practice time. I believe that learning is a series of plateaus. You learn how to bounce the ball up and down well, then you’ll learn how to hit the ball on the strings. Then you learn how to hit targets on the other side of the net and so on so forth the concept of giving them new things to practice that are well within their capabilities is what I try to do. I tried to bring the student along as fast as possible without creating a situation where they become frustrated a point I would like to make is that it’s very important that a good instructor realizes when the student is just not getting it and then drop back a few plateaus to where they, feel comfortable and accomplishing the task.
Lesson 11+Once again, everything depends upon the students success as what has been taught in the last lesson, a good instructor knows when to reestablish a level of proficiency in all the different areas of learning such as simple, forehand, and back hands then working on the serve showing a different types of serves than working on volleys and talking about what it takes to win under pressure. Now I become a tennis coach more than a tennis teacher showing different techniques and tips and tricks on how to turn the tables in your direction.
Youth players
Working with kidsSince I was a 6/7 and eighth grade teacher in the public school system, I have a pretty good rapport of kids that age. You need to channel their energy rather than try to hold them down. I have several games that we can play to stimulate more focus of that energy
Working with teenagersTeenagers have to be recognized as individuals that can think on their own, and you need to bring out some of their hidden talents and give them challenging enough tasks to bring them along in proficiency as quickly as possible
What you need to bringAll students must have a pair of shoes made for TENNIS, not just “tennis shoes”
And, it’s good to have a hat to shield your eyes from the sun a baseball hat is good for this
What I can bringI have several training aids that shorten the students learning curve drastically. One is called a stroke master, which is a flexible rod with a tennis ball mounted on the end so that they can swing away at a slower racket, head speed, and get the form down very well without having to be confronted with the bouncing ball, etc., etc..
I also have the ultimate tool for teaching someone the proper service motion for maximum efficiency. You can see it on YouTube if you put in the search term “Tennis serve Flop Stick“
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