026 - The Ocean Liner Coach

Today’s Quick Tip Is: Become the Ocean Liner Coach if you are in the business in taking a player from one point to another. I have been on one cruise.  I thought I would never like them, but I really do.   The cool part, other than the free drinks and ice cream, it that even though there is a final destination, we make a lot of successful stops along the way. For example: My in-laws come to Florida every year to hang out with us for a few months.  Now when I make the drive, it takes me about 21 hours to get here from Michigan. When they drive it takes about 4 days, because they like to stop at some really cool places and soak in different parts of the country,  Kind of like the movie Vacation, when Chevy Chase, I forget his character’s name, would make all of those different stops on the way to Wally World, like biggest ball of yarn, mall of America, biggest hunk of cheese, something to that effect. Where this applies to coaching is that, even though you may have a destination, there should be a lot of successes along the way not only to keep the LEARNING in check, but your players motivation going, because they are seeing success after success along the way. This may be called “Chunking” which refers to breaking down a process into pieces that are more manageable and will help keep the student inspired along the way. For example: It is hard to work on the serve and volley for the first time and then go use it in a tournament for the first time 2 days later. You have to break it down into parts and maybe even those parts into smaller pats. So let’s go back to my player who I said NO too. She was surprised and her dad was too when I said that I would not give her another lesson , but what they didn’t realize was that when she hit with me in a controlled environment, she was a steady hitter. But in a match, her opponents were not trying to work with her, they were trying to make her life miserable, which was accomplished that day. What I told her dad was that she needed to go out and hit with someone.  A steady hitter.   A bunch of crosscourt rallies, no pressure. See if the two of them can get 20 in a row, counting down.  Cooperative hitting. (Counting down adds a small  element of pressure). SUCCESS Now if she can’t handle it when someone is trying to work with her and be nice, how is she going to handle it when someone is trying to be mean, right. Now start counting up and lets say whatever number either player misses on, that is how many jumps they have over their racquet ( I would say crunches, but I do not want to get emails saying that I punish with conditioning). Still got past 20 70% of the time. SUCCESS Now the point element Now let’s play a groundstroke game to 100.  The rule is that you play one point on the deuce side and then the next on the add side.  No serving. Count the number of times the ball goes over the net on the rally.  Whoever wins the point, get the same number of points as the ball was rallied over the net. ( 15, 3, 42) until someone gets to 100 points More pressure each time a ball is hit back to you. NOT SUCCESSFUL OK we just pinpointed out the stop that needs to be made and focused on until success can be achieved. Playing out pressure points crosscourt with someone other than me. I mean she knows where the ball is going, so the recovery element isn’t even an issue. Now you might think that as a pro, you can fill the shoes of the other player and make $30 bucks, but it is tough. You want to see them successful and if you start crushing them, your instinct will be to lay off a bit so they can achieve something. So stay in that arena, until you start seeing some success. You just defined where the TRAINING focus should be Kind of like when I am teaching a 3.0 player how to hit a slice for the first time. 1. Hand feed up close 2. Racquet feed from the other side of the net  And now they think they are ready for prime time. And that’s Very unlikely. So remember what Marc Gelina said in episode 022, an inch is a cinch and a yard is hard OK, so the final destination (The yard) is to hit these in match play successfully. Where might the stops (inches) be: Lesson with me: SUCCESS – Perfect feed and me teaching them  Try it on the ball machine - SUCCESS, still the perfect feed, no help from the coach and start thinking on their own Rally with a partner (20 in row, cooperative) – Varied balls (High, low, short deep…) , thinking on own –  NOT SUCCESSFUL OK, spend some time there on that island training. Then move to: Play out points with defined areas Play out pattern points that include that shot Play out normal points. At least they will be able to connect the dots a lot easier now. Wherever the breakdown is, that is where they should be training. I think you get the point now, but here is my challenge to you: Email me a suggested journey to learning how to serve and volley and what the stops along the way might be. ([email protected]) I will walk through one of the pathways in a future episode. Whichever one I use, I will send you a PTM promo package in the mail. Bottom Line: No matter if it is a stroke, a strategy, try to start piecing the pathway that you would teach to reach the final destination, including all of the steps in between.   When students experience small successes, that keeps them motivated to reach the long-term goal.  As a coach, it’s our job to put the (steps) or inches in order. Each lesson (or more) is an inch.  Each lesson is a success where they’ve learned something which keeps them interested and wanting  to stay on board.  Even though you have a destination, there are many mini stops ( successes along the way)  It will be different for every player, that is why I love teaching (AND COACHING) tennis. Good Luck, Coach Mick, USPTA