A couple of recent tennis coaching scenarios.
A player trying to break into the ranks of 3.0 play has the potential as he’s on court more than five hours a week. Dave has a chance to develop a plus forehand if he can reduce mishits on the bottom edge of his racquet and center the ball more frequently on the strings.
The Tim Gallwey ‘Bounce, Hit’ was not an effective tool as the ‘hit’ for him promotes a forward swing that is too steep resulting in shanks from the bottom edge. The term ‘Bounce, Smooth’ helped a bit as did the eye coach tool to help develop Fed like eye focus.
What seemed to help the most was the On Court Off Court Spin trainer and a demonstration of the 32 forehand.
3 means rally ball speed on a 5 scale married with #2 spin on a 3 scale. When he goes to a 42, erratic contact and results are the norm, and I just hold up 4 fingers with one hand and then 3 fingers while lowering my hand a few inches to remind him of the shot tolerance combo he is striving to own. One day he may own a 42 but it isn’t today or tomorrow or thirty days from now.
Dave has had quite a number of extended 32 rallies where he appeared to be a legitimate 3.0 with the potential to one day reach 3.5 if other areas continue to improve.
The moral is that for some, ‘Bounce, Hit’ may need to be tweaked if their results are comparable to golfers in The Long Drive contest who hit the smithereens out of the ball but only hit 2 of 10 balls in the fairway.
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A 2.0 player in his late 40’s is a decent athlete with a topspin forehand and developing serve and transition game.
He looks pretty polished playing underspin approach shots and has caught on to executing simple looking forehand and backhand volleys.
His challenge are the words effort full and hecticity.
The last word is my invention to describe people who operate on the court as if there’s bonus points awarded for being frantic.
So yes, the effort full forehand where he attempts ‘overspin’ (hate that word) while finishing abruptly with the handle just above the left elbow creeps in frequently.
We do the age old exercise of standing near a dividing curtain while being tossed balls to smooth it. That is why they are called tennis strokes rather than tennis slugs.
No, I choose not to use the word ‘hit’ to one who is muscling the ball. He’s familiar with System 5 and looks much more polished finishing at 4 while catching his finish above the left shoulder. Dave knows that to avoid owing me $600.00, he cannot crash into the dividing curtain while finishing low to the left. When we return to the court, he is stationed near the left singles sideline and hits inside out forehands after choosing a color.
A creative character, he chooses ‘Indigo’ and when the color is called, he hits a forehand up the center while holding his smooth #4 follow through. He checks to see if it resembles what we practiced on the dividing curtain and if he’s close to matching my forehand executed simultaneously in the same direction he’s hitting.
The muscling is evident immediately on the serve as well.
His internal system seems always stuck in overdrive and a composed idling seems not to be in his nature. So, I demonstrate three speeds of serving with first clearing an imaginary second net and then drooping into the court.
I choose not to tell him there’s five speeds because his system only craves speed 4 and 5. He’s asked to ‘place’ his strings on the ball and clear that second net at speed one and then a 2 followed by a 3. If he continues to muscle the 3’s, I ask him to hold the racquet in his thumb and first two fingers only and that seems to help.
Dave is then shown the six ball game where he keeps score and tries to go 15-30-40-Game using 6 or fewer balls. I tell him most students take 14 balls on the first game until they discover the pace of serve they own.
If the goal is tough to reach in the 6 ball game, and the next court is open, I’ll take him there and have him place some serves over the dividing curtain and that usually solves the control factor.
Bottom line is that his system is stuck in overdrive and needs to find an idling speed after two transition drills of approach and 4 volleys leaves him gasping for breath.
Today, I’m afraid that extreme measures were taken on the volley to tame his hecticity and lurching at the volley. Telling him to play as if he’d consumed quaaludes for breakfast helped produce volleys that were unhurried and simple. I consciously slowed the feeding tempo to allow for split steps to feel the rhythm instead of the rush of net play.
You do what ya gotta do.
Tennis is not a drag race where over amped effort wins many matches.
I am reminded about a story told long ago by pro Steve Stefanki. He was a nationally ranked junior in California and scheduled a lesson with legendary coach Tom Stowe.
After the lesson in which he raced around in overdrive for an hour, he asked Stowe what he thought about his game.
The master replied that the kid had no idea how to play the game.
I have an abundance of hope for these two players as they develop a feel for the ball and the rhythm of the game.
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