What the coaches are looking at...
We love teaching tennis, and we'd like to share with parents and players exactly how we are teaching.
We have a strong belief in creating a positive, fun environment using our personalities, on court activities and treating everyone fairly.
To maximise the learning, it is essential to compete. This can seem like a scary step at first but it's important to look at competition as an opportunity: to practice what you've learnt, to learn what to improve, to have fun, to get fit, to make new friends, to learn a whole host of life skills!
Our coaches use the parent feedback forms pictured here. We now provide a more detailed break down for those who want to know. Please do speak to a member of the coaching team about this if you need more info, or contact Nick Skelton 07545871087 adtennis@icloud.com
Receiving Skills: To be able to hit the ball well, we must first be ready and react to the incoming ball.
Ready: Looking ready and BEING ready are two different things. We use fun games to teach genuine readiness.
Split Step: When the opponent makes contact with their shot, we take a gentle 'bounce' onto our toes to help us set off early.
Read: The incoming ball might be coming fast/slow, high/low, short/deep, a different direction or a different spin. THIS is the first big challenge in tennis. Judge the ball well and we stand a chance of hitting it back!
React: For a forehand or backhand we generally like to hit it at waist height. Once we have judged the ball, we need to move into a good position to hit it back.
Recover: If we just stand there watching our shots, we won't be READY for the next shot.
Sending Skills: We teach technique using the LTA progressions which we can give more detailed info on if you are interested.
Forehand: Hitting the ball on our favourite side is usually the strongest shot.
Backhand: Hitting the ball on our weaker side can be difficult.
Serve: Hitting the ball above our head can be difficult.
Volley: Making contact before the bounce can be difficult.
Mental Skills: As well as technique/tactics, we need to learn to master our minds!
Concentration: As well as judging the incoming ball, there may be wind, noise, sights, sounds and more that can distract us from getting the CONTACT POINT right.
Effort: It's ok to make mistakes, but we ALWAYS try our best - that's always good enough!
Competitive Skills: Can we play as well as we train?
Played a competition: As mentioned above, it's essential to play. It's FUN, we discover more about ourselves!
Deals with disappointment: Everybody loses sometimes, do we give up or try again?
Good Etiquette: This means having respect for ourselves, others and the game. We congratulate good shots. We shake hands at the end of our match. We wait until a point has finished before walking behind a match.
General Comments: Specific feedback for each player based on what the coaches see in training and competitions.