Since 1977 I have been teaching tennis, full time since 1979. I feel incredibly lucky that I found such a wonderful career. And while i really love teaching all levels of player, there is a difference in how fun each lesson plays out. Below are some things to think about for students and tennis pros that can make lessons more fun and more productive.
1. HAVE A GOAL. One of the things that I will always ask a new student is “If you could magically improve some part of your game without any effort what will it be?”. This question helps to open the students mind and relieve some of the anxiety of telling me what is wrong with their game. It also helps me to work with the student on the goal of the lesson. If the student tells me they would like to magically improve their serve, or forehand or consistency, then I have an idea of where this lesson might go. The toughest students are the ones who say “I don’t know” or “Everything”. For students I recommend that you come to the lesson with some idea of what you would like to work on. This will make the lesson more fun for you and your instructor. For tennis pros it is important to realize that you may have to help your student to discover what they need to improve the most. The best way to do this is by asking questions. Does your student play more singles or doubles? Do they play from the baseline or do they like to come to the net? There are many questions that can lead you to the best place to start the lesson. But a word of warning…DO NOT trust what the student says about their game without hitting some balls to evaluate for yourself what the state of the students game is. The best formula to use is LOT. This stands for Listen (ask questions), Observe (feed some balls or hit with the student) Teach (once you have evaluated the student then start working). The biggest mistake that I see new tennis pros make is they rush to start teaching before they really understand the student and what they need to work on.
2. BE OPEN MINDED. For the students – Once the lesson begins, try your best to be open minded about what the tennis pro wants you to try. This can be difficult as we all have past information and beliefs about tennis and our own games. Sometimes the hardest part of improving can be letting go of old beliefs. For the tennis pros – I want to paraphrase the great Stephen Covey rule… Seek first to understand before being understood. Your student wants to improve, they want to do what you are telling them, but maybe your instructions are in conflict with long held beliefs. These beliefs might not even be something they are aware of. A student of mine was working on her serve. During one of the exercises she seemed concerned that her toss was too low. I said no, she was executing the exercise perfectly. She seemed concerned with this but she was excited about hitting the best serves of her life. As we discussed this successful serve practice it became obvious that she believed she needed to toss the ball higher. This belief made it hard to accept the success she was having with her new service motion. Sometimes a lesson will be successful during the lesson, but the changes don’t stick! If this happens, have a discussion with your student and see if you can discover some beliefs that may be preventing your student sticking with the changes in their game.
3. DO A 5 MINUTE REVIEW. At the end of the lesson make sure that you do a short review with the teacher and student. If the teacher asks the student to sum up what they learned from the lesson you can correct any errors in communication or misunderstanding about the take away value of the lesson. I have a rather memorable example from early in my career. A man took a tennis lesson from me and from my point of view the lesson was a great success. Later that same day my student took part in the round robin tennis tournament we ran at the resort every week. Much to my chagrin and my students dismay, each time it came to his turn to serve he double faulted…EVERY TIME he served!!! After the event I took him aside and we discussed what happened. He said “I did just what you said. I gripped the racket as tight as i could on each serve.” This was EXACTLY the opposite of what we had discussed. But i did not do a review summary at the end of the lesson so in spite of hitting beautiful serves with a very loose grip throughout the lesson he walked away thinking he was supposed to grip the racket handle tight. Did I mistakenly say the wrong thing to him or did he remember it incorrectly? I don’t know, but I am sure that if I had asked him what he learned at the end of the lesson we would have caught the mistake. At the end of every lesson take the time to review so that both the student and the teacher are in agreement on what the most important points are from that lesson.
If you follow these 3 simple steps you are guaranteed to have a more successful and FUN lesson.
Thanks for reading and head out to the courts to enjoy
THE JOY OF TENNIS
