Tennis Coaching is a Scam !

When will coaches evolve beyond the old coaching methodologies that limit the learning trajectory of our young players?

Tennis is an open skill sport. It requires the players to read, react and adjust to the incoming ball, all the while preparing for a forward swing. Unfortunately, the majority of coaches teach Tennis like the ball is stationary. They organize students in lines and have them stand on little circles. The coaches hand toss balls to the players and everyone celebrates when they hit the ball over the net.

This is not the best way to develop our players. Although it creates a happy and fun and environment for success, we aren’t doing any favors to the kids or parents by ignoring the fact that tennis is a movement sport. Those kids that are standing in a line, should be playing instead of waiting. Why do we tolerate this method of coaching?

This old approach to tennis coaching does one thing. It maximizes the revenue per court by getting lots of beginner kids on the court. Are they learning tennis? Yes, but they are falling behind every week by not training using a more game based approach like they teach in Europe. In Europe a more game based approach is used, allowing kids to learn by playing rather than following a prescriptive description of “how” a tennis ball is struck.

The reality is that the striking skill is the easiest part of tennis. The most challenging part of tennis is the ball receiving skill which requires the players to read, react and organize their feet in an efficient manner to set up the striking skill. Most beginners will have very little difficulty learning how to hit a ball over the net, however, they will struggle actually playing the sport. The struggle is due to the emphasis on the striking skill rather than the movement and receiving.

In a future article, I’ll address the game based approach to tennis that we take at TDI. Tennis is hard, so let’s make every effort to get our kids playing as soon as possible, otherwise they will perpetually attend clinics and burn through your cash without learning how to play the sport.

The (YouTube) coach below is promoting a teaching device that is not going to help beginning players. In fact, this trajectory is going to create problems that coaches like myself get the pleasure of fixing. But guess what, this coach has made thousands of dollars selling this device to parents and players who just don’t understand tennis development.

It is finally time that we demystify the sport and get our kids on a pathway to learn the sport. The snake oil that coaches attempt to sell to the masses are comical.

Game based approach teaching is a more dynamic approach to learning tennis where the players play mini-games with target objectives in a more live ball setting. This approach requires them to move and hit and learn how to coordinate their body while also learning tactics and strategy.

If you want to learn more about the TDI approach and how we train, please contact us using the form below.