I can be silent no more. At the risk of criticism and tennis coach career suicide I’m going to write this article and discuss why so many players just aren’t getting to a high playing level.
Simply, the tennis industry is set up for mediocre and a fun mindset. One could argue that is the goal in tennis right? Learn a new sport, play and have fun. This is true for most and there lies the problem.
I coach for a competitive high school team, competitive meaning state championship level. We run our program very different from most. It is not a development program, it is program that promotes a winning culture. You win at the high school level and college level by creating match up problems across the line up. Our focus through the season is on improving our line ups at every spot, from one doubles to 6 singles. We break down technique to a certain degree and we do a lot of tactical awareness, even using video for technique and post mortem match analysis. We take tennis serious at the high school level because winning a state championship is something 99% can’t or won’t achieve. Reaching a recreational level of tennis is achievable by most and that is the difference between a tennis club and our program.
For specific examples, I have video from some matches of good players, good recreational players and I note a lot of technical issues that we wouldn’t ignore but at the club it will not get corrected because it is good enough for a recreational level, however it doesn’t hold up under pressure and when using new balls. Many kids don’t understand why they can’t control the ball in match situations, but they look like rock stars at the afterschool clinic. It is a few things really. New balls are very different from that cart of old balls at the club and if you constantly train at the club and receive basket feeds you will likely have some trouble transitioning to new balls. The one or two degree change in racquet face can be the difference in a ball landing in during clinic and landing well out in a match. Anxiety plays a factor too and it gets compounded when players start losing control because of the new balls. Technique and fundamentals are a big factor as many players have good enough technique to be recreational level but that doesn’t hold up under pressure and the “country club” ball that you hit at the clinic just doesn’t win in matches and most aren’t trained well in defensive skills. This all results in a player that looks okay but just doesn’t have the ability to grind through points and trust their mechanics. I feel bad for so many of these players (and parents) because if they had been trained to win, versus just look okay and play recreational, they could have become much better players.
Do you see the issue here? Most coaches will not because he checks the boxes they ask like, Racquet back, racquet below the level of the ball, swing low to high etc. I see this exact same issue all the time. As kids move from MS to HS they continue to play with an open racquet face and as their bodies get bigger and they can swing bigger they actually lose more control. If they are trained from a basket of dead balls, this technique probably works well in the clinic. The biomechanics of how the arm and elbow work, going from the unit turn to the forward swing, suppinates the forearm. This forearm suppination sends the palm upward. In tennis we don’t want to have to mechanically rotate the palm downwards into contact, that would be too difficult to control, so the palm needs to be pronated more on the unit turn to accommodate the suppination during the forward swing. All this narrative means, is that this player, along with many others has an open racquet face into and through contact, combined with an upward swing path and there is no way he can control this ball and worse yet, he has no idea because I’m sure no coach has ever told him…until now.
Two very significant issue can be spotted immediately by a trained coach. First, the racquet is completely open, with the palm up during the serve. This works in 10U tennis but as kids get older, they cannot serve and control the ball with an open racquet face, nor can they try closing to contact. The backhand was missed because the player clearly hasn’t been taught that the the left foot is the key foot to land for spatial distance and alignment, and not the right foot. This player landed the left foot in a random spot, then used the right foot for alignment and ended up being too far from the ball, and missing in the net.
More evidence that this player has never been told to align the left foot to the incoming ball on the backhand side, which will result in a lot of inconsistency.
There are so many ways to play tennis at a decent level and I think many coaches are trying to do the right thing, however so many kids (and adults) would be better off learning to control the ball with more basic strokes and more conservative grips, than learn more modern mechanics once they reach a decent recreational level because what I see is the modern teaching is actually causing levels to go down for many players that just can’t control the racquet face and don’t have good recognition and receiving skills. This contrarian view can be validated when you see many adults that still play old school and would have no trouble winning against most high school players because they have good awareness of the racquet and also good tactical minds on how to win. They don’t look good but they can play. As players emerge above a recreational level, a highly trained coach can help them get to elite levels with more modern techniques because every player will always need to have skills to counter punch, play defense and hit flatter trajectories. The old school skills are still required in some situations, even at elite levels.
Every.Single.Player. Should have video and study their match play to better understand how simple the game can be and after watching I think many will realize they simply need to play more and spend less time at the clinic with some regular check in with a qualified coach either online or private on court. In our digital world that we live in today, you absolutely can get value from a coach helping you online and I’ve even done this with local players.
Find Your Game 