3 Coaching Tips For Teaching Adult Tennis Students Better.

I guess.

My first question to you is this.

What is your coaching philosophy toward teaching adult students?

Most coaches don't even have one.

This is why many adult tennis students never progress or develop in these tennis schools.

And what's really sad about this fact is that... it's been going on for years!

Look.

Tennis coaches need to always ask themselves the same coaching question daily.

How can I get my students to learn and develop faster in my lessons with them?

That's the critical coaching question that has to be answered after each lesson, and it has to drive their coaching philosophy daily.

You know something.

One of the biggest mistakes I see tennis coaches making is not asking themselves insightful questions daily and then meditating on their answers and recording them in their coaching journals.

After coaching for 30 years.

I spent the last 15 doing my research on this topic and came up with the coaching method and philosophy that works for adult students or all students for that matter.

And yes.

It's been tested and proven to work in other sports and development skills as well.

So.

Here are the steps.

First.

The imprinting phase of learning.

This is a crucial phase because it sets the stage for the foundation for them to learn and develop faster in future lessons.

Because.

Once they imprint the stroke or the image on their subconscious mind.

They can actually leapfrog the learning curve altogether and develop and master any stroke in days.

How.

I'll explain this in the other steps.

But.

To imprint the stroke on their subconscious mind, have them watch videos of pros in slow-motion for 5 minutes doing the stroke and then have them do shadow swings simulating and emulating what they just watched.

They should be doing these shadow swings in the mirror if possible and very slowly breaking down every part of the stroke.

Stress to them to get the feel for the swing during the imprinting phase.

And let their swing flow through the zone.

After 2 weeks of doing this every day, the imprinting should start taking place.

Next.

The repetition phase.

Coaches should make sure that their players are getting in enough reps during the lesson.

This is where they can leverage the reps and use the imprinting phase as a combination to get them to develop faster.

The more, the better, too.

They should also make sure that their student is adjusting after every rep. And they should make every rep count for them.

The actual journey for the student should look something like this.

Through constant adjusting after every rep, the shape of the stroke will start to take place on its own, and then it will appear suddenly during the lesson to the student.

Or as I used to tell my students.

When the student is ready, the stroke will appear!

Last coaching tip.

Mushin tennis training.

This is when you get them to free their mind from thoughts and emotions through deep breathing and allow their subconscious mind to do all the work for them on the court.

Mushin training is a Japanese form of Budo training, very traditional here in Japan, and it goes deep into spiritual training.

In other words.

It's all about freeing your mind and being mentally present to perform in the moment and allow things to happen and flow with whatever does happen.

As you can see.

The imprinting along with the reps, and then the subconscious mind taking over and doing all the work for the student, will work together in helping them develop on their own terms and at their own pace.

I will never forget what one student told me after developing a topspin backhand.

I don't know how I did it, but it happened after doing all 3 of these tips!

That's the magic of using this modern coaching philosophy to teach your students.

Anyway.

Test them out for yourself and let me know your coaching results later.

You can also click here and get the e-book for them.

Thomas Daniels is a PTR/MTM tennis pro with more than 29 years of expense teaching all ages and levels the game in Kansai.

He is now a tennis writer and online tennis consultant based in Osaka. To hire him for seminars, workshops, or clinics, call 0798-51-4481 or email [email protected]