teach’em how to Fish

The ability to rally is the most important skill a coach can teach

Have you ever seen one of your students excel at a drill where you feed and were excited to observe that progress during match play but then see them fail miserably playing against other students? For example, during a simple forehand and backhand drill where you feed two balls on each side a student starts to hit the balls beautifully in the right spot. The student is happy and so are you. Later in the lesson when the group plays a game with one another the student is confident after the successful drill. However, now the kid can’t manage to hit a ball correctly. All of a sudden, the perceived progress and the kids’ confidence in its ability has vanished.

Observing situations like this multiple times, I asked myself: What is the difference between a drill and a rally? I quickly realized the answer is: Everything! A coach’s ability to perfectly feed a ball without spin, the right bounce, and the right pace creates the illusion in students that they are able to play tennis. All it means is that they can hit a ball off a perfect feed. However, when playing with peers they fail because peers don’t perfectly feed them balls. In contrast, beginners have a wide variance in their ball’s spin, pace, and bounce as such they should practice for that. That’s why a coach’s primary focus should be teaching kids to rally with each other. Exercises that are structured in a way where the kids are paired up and are dealing with each other’s spin, pace, and bounce are more reflective of a rally than feeding them perfect balls. Doing exercises paired up they get used to the variance of balls. Once they are used to dealing with that variance they are able to play tennis. They will no longer be disappointed during games later in the lesson and even can go play outside of the lesson with peers.

The saying goes: ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.’ In tennis it would go something along the lines of ‘Give a kid a perfect feed it will hit the ball, teach it the ability to rally and it will have a hobby for a lifetime.’