Essentials for Coaching Tennis Groups

Wayne Lilley, Public Tennis, wayne@publictennis.org

Success in coaching is built on a complex combination of technical and interpersonal skills, tied together by motivational ability rooted in belief in individual and group achievement.

Coaching is a lifelong pursuit … the learning process is ongoing for part- and full-time coaches.  The elements of group coaching include the elements of coaching individuals, plus the challenges of group dynamics.  This outline is intended to provide a glimpse of the breadth of topics good coaches strive to master.  It is not exhaustive – there’s more than this for sure!  Skills in a subset of the topics listed below are essential to coaching success, whether you are a lead coach, an assistant, an organizer, a regular, or an occasional volunteer helper … and whether teaching beginners or more advanced players.  For example, all coaches must have safety skills, “safe play” skills (required if age 17+), basic on-court skills, positive attitude projection, and a basic understanding of optimal challenge and how to create it through progressions.   Moreover, introductory coach training includes essentials, but not all the topics/elements listed here, and much can be gained through on-court apprenticing with lead coaches who understand that their role is to lead players and coaches by example.

Group Coaching Player & Group Success

  • Fun, passion, actively engaged (as individuals), everyone engaged (as a group, inclusion)
  • Adoption progression: casual recreation to lifelong enjoyment
  • Advancement progression: basic skills, mastery, proficiency
  • Group and individual growth, cohesion, sense of identity and team
  • Physical fitness, wellness, and mental health benefits
  • Tennis 4 Learning Programs using Tennis as a context for learning
    • Life skills learning, character development, and personal growth in cooperative, group context
    • Academic learning (both specific and parallel learning, learning how to learn)

Group Coaching Expectations for Success

  • Essentials expected of coaches and players
    • Respect, positive attitude, effort, cooperative effort
    • Communication, listening
    • Addressing each other appropriately, by name, title
    • Punctuality, attendance
  • Safety first!
    • Physical on-court safety
    • Basic first aid, first aid kits, emergency procedures
    • Hydration
    • Safe Sport/Safe Play child safety
    • Covid safety
  • Leadership, preparation, lesson planning, sense of direction
  • Knowledge of tennis skills, non-tennis athletic skills
  • Knowledge of specific academic and life skills in Tennis-for-Learning programs
  • Translation of knowledge into productive instructional and educational activities
  • Creativity, personality, enthusiasm, positive vibe, fun
  • Motivational skills, constructive/positive attitude projection
  • Tracking and documenting progress, player development plan
  • Watchfulness, awareness, and responsiveness to individual, group, and sub-group needs
    • Create optimal challenge opportunities based on progressions

Group Coaching Activities for Success

  • Optimal challenge activities based on progressions which take group diversity & range of skills into account
    • Positively challenging (not daunting)
    • Aspirational, with a sense of direction and what’s next
  • Inclusive activities which foster teamwork and fellowship (sense of group, everyone is valued)
  • Activities which creatively recognize all aspects of individual growth, improvement, achievement, and contribution to group success (not limited to technical skills)
  • Free-play and player-initiated activity opportunities, group-initiated variations of activities, discovery
  • Motivational, engaging activities which foster group cohesion and ownership of group practice and play
  • Activities which encourage self-assessment and individual ownership of self-development plans
  • Skill training activities which develop and reinforce essential tennis-specific techniques, patterns, and biomechanics
  • Cross-training activities which develop athleticism and athletic diversity, agility, balance and balanced fitness
  • Activities which impart knowledge of the sport/game of tennis, including historical and current information, and activities which encourage further independent discovery
  • Activities which incorporate TGfU (Teaching Games for Understanding) Approach (see below)
  • Academic topical activities in Tennis 4 Learning programs

Teaching Games for Understanding (“TGfU”, Butler et al, 2008)

  • “Teach games through games.”
  • “Break games into their simplest format – then increase complexity.”
  • “Participants are intelligent performers in games.”
  • “Every learner is important and is involved.”
  • “Participants need to know the subject matter.”
  • “Need to match participant skill and challenge.”

TGfU element examples: Tactical awareness (space, time, force), read/respond/react/recover, offensive and defensive strategies, “tennis toolkit” awareness (power, spin, direction, footwork, etc.)

Group Coaching Lesson Planning: Elements of a (typical) Structured Training Session

  • Set-Up, Check-In
  • Thematic welcome (repeat the theme often, e.g. “Practice makes Perfect”, “Go Team”, ”Big Spin, Heavy Ball”)
  • Warm-up activities
  • Theme-reinforcing Skill & Drill activities
  • Theme-reinforcing Games
  • Theme-reinforcing Review & Celebrate (and next session preview/reminder)

Note: “Themes” can be skill-based (e.g. stroke, technique, footwork), fitness-based, learning principle-based (e.g. “practice makes perfect”, “walk before you run”), life skill-based (teamwork, respect, decision-making, listening, negotiating), or simply fun (dancing, acting, celebrating a holiday or a tradition or an event)

Sport-Specific Tennis Coaching Skills

  • Dead ball, live ball
  • Progressions
    • Soft/hard, slow/fast, low/high, short/long, spin/flat, static/dynamic, simple/complex, etc.
  • Feeding skills
  • Drill and Game setup skills
    • Court equipment, teaching accessories, player positioning, etc.
  • Cooperative/partner practice skills and progressions
  • Footwork technique
  • Swing technique (stroke-specific essentials)
  • Athletic stance, hitting stance
  • Racquets, strings, balls
  • The physical court
  • The scoring system, the game, rules, competition
  • History, context
  • Strategy, playing to strengths
  • Mental skills
  • Player assessment, levelling groups efficiently

Non-Tennis-Specific Athletic Coaching Skills

  • Agility, balance, dexterity, speed, fitness
  • Coordination, hand-to-eye, proprioception
  • Strength, flexibility
  • Biomechanics, ground force, leverage, eccentric plyometrics
  • Throwing
  • Swinging
  • Acceleration, deceleration
  • Knowledge of anatomy
  • Diet, nutrition

Tennis 4 Learning (T4L) Programs (Additional considerations for Teachers, Pro Coaches, Volunteers)
Note: “Tennis 4 Learning” is a program targeted to elementary school children, utilizing tennis-related activities as opportunities for learning and reinforcing academic and life skills.  T4L activities relate fun, engaging and visual problems & solutions to understanding otherwise-abstract concepts, principles, and skills.

  • Lesson Plans and Lesson Structure are essential
  • Target audience (age, ability), topic & scope must be clearly stated
  • Research, preparation, fundamentals must be correct
  • Setup, props, and tools
  • What’s the tennis “hook” and how does the sport or the court or the gear support the learning opportunity?
  • Discovery, game play, optimal challenge and progressions are key tools for success