In this months blog series we focus on aiding LTA Level 1 and 2 Tennis Coaches to gain a greater understanding of how players learn, and how this should influence their own coaching behaviour .
Importance of communication, demos and feedback
Communication
communicate effectively that knowledge is wasted.
the words we use must be carefully measured. We also know that How we say those words conveys more than the words themselves.
- Keep instruction to a minimum, don’t waffle.
- Tell players what they need to know at the moment they need to know it, not for the whole lesson.
- Use appropriate language that is easily understood
- Ensure a group can all hear you, never start talking until you can make eye contact with them all.
- Vary your tone and intonation to provide motivation
- Avoid generalities and repetitive phases ‘ unlucky ‘ ‘ great ‘ ‘ok’
- Consider your body language it conveys more than verbal communication.
- Move with purpose, use open gestures, don’t cuddle your racket it gives a closed message.
- SMILE it relaxes you and your pupils.
- Actively listen
- Use question and answer pit stops to check understanding and involve the players in their learning.
- Consider at all times the preferred way of learning of your pupils. For instance, is your pupil a kinaesthetic learner? if so get them to consider how the last shot felt.
- Consider at all times the stage of learning of your pupil, for autonomous learners ask them what went wrong with the last shot.
Feedback
- a key teaching tool to help players understand what they are doing and what they need to do.
- attempts at a technical movement or an action within the game.
- To benefit from feedback the information must be accurate.
- Do not one main teaching point.
- It is a two way process and as a player develops it changes, to recap.
- must be specific. Shouting ‘good shot’ is obviously praise, but you need to expand and let them know what was good about it!
Depending on the players stage of learning depends on the origin of the feedback…
Stage 1 – Feedback almost entirely from the coach to the player
Stage 2 – Feedback from both the player and the coach
Stage 3 – Feedback almost entirely from the player
tone your player will not believe you or understand when they really hit a great shot !
When to give feedback?
it may be after several attempts or after a particularly good/ bad shot. Feedback can be positive or negative, and you should now understand what influence the stage of learning has on this.
Feedback can be based on performance or outcome, girls learn more by performance
learning tool at mini tennis level is the visual picture created by a good demo.
they able to see your racket ? can you talk to them as you show them.? We know this is the way they will retain information best of
Step 2:
may be the whole shot, part of it, it may not be the outcome of where the ball goes.
have seen ( kinaesthetic learners)
be played from in a match. Eg Volley demo at the net
but what you want them to do.
ers, do you have any in your group? have they seen it from their perspective?
helper so all players get to see the demo.
players as you move around the court.
demo, it can be confusing. Always better to know what to do rather than what not to do !
And finally…
if it goes wrong don’t be afraid to tell your group and then do it again!
In next week’s final post in this series we consider lesson planning and setting up effective and appropriate tasks.
See you next week!
Jenny Thomas, Director of UCoach
Do you have any experience you want to share with others on this subject? Remember if you go away and put some of these things into action we would love to hear how it goes or any problems you encounter so feel free to comment below and join in the discussion.
