In this article, I will discuss five tennis coaching mistakes I have encountered in my career and how to avoid them. However, as there are many types of coaches and players, these mistakes might not be universal.
Disclaimer! These mistakes are based on my own experiences and opinions and some of these styles might truly work for someone.
- 1. Too Many Instructions
- 2. Drills That Are Too Difficult
- 3. Wrong Type of Balls
- 4. Lack of explaining
- 5. Bad Evolution
- Summary
1. Too Many Instructions
The first mistake that I have encountered is giving the player too many instructions. Tennis is a very technical sport and requires a lot of concentration. Especially when coaching new players there are many areas of development to focus on.
One of the biggest mistakes is focusing on all of them at once. From the coach’s perspective, it is easy to point out what the player should do differently, but from the player’s perspective, it is challenging to focus on more than one or two aspects at a time.
Therefore it would be good if the coach gives the player feedback on the areas where he/she should develop but the feedback should be gradual. If the player gets too much feedback at once, it could be overwhelming and make it difficult for them to see their progress.
How to avoid:
- Depending on players’ level choose one main objective or one primary objective and one secondary objective for the training session.
- The main objective can be for example topspin and the secondary objective can be the direction of the shot (cross-court/down the line).
- Dismantle the training session’s theme into smaller elements. For example, if the theme is forehand it could go like this: hitting stance –> grip –> angle of the wrist –> swing path. Before advancing to the next element make sure that the current element is developed to a satisfactory level.
Especially when coaching more inexperienced players focus on one main topic that is easy to understand. For example, if you want to teach the player how to hit a forehand you should start by putting the player into a forehand stance (right-handed player’s left side pointing towards the net). When the player is in the forehand stance you can teach them the forehand grip.
When you see that the player has learned a certain skill or aspect you can move on to the next one. For example, if I see that a player has learned to hit the ball cross-court and down when I feed the ball from hand the “next level” is that I go over the net and feed from there. This adds to the next level of challenge because the player must now move and position himself/herself before hitting the ball.
2. Drills That Are Too Difficult
The second mistake that I see that coaches make is not matching the difficulty of the drill with the player’s skill level. For the best enjoyment and progression, it is important that the drills are challenging yet rewarding.
Feeding from the other side of the net
One of the most common mistakes is when someone is coaching beginners, and he/she starts by feeding the ball from the other side of the net.
For beginners, this is challenging because they have yet to learn the different bounces and trajectories of the ball. This usually leads to miscalculations and players end up hitting the ball either too high (badminton style) or too close to their body. When learning the basics it is important to start with easy drills where the player can maintain a good technique.
How to avoid:
- Start by feeding the ball from hand and closer to the player
- Make sure the player has learned the basics before starting to feed the ball from a further away
- Add challenge gradually
When coaching beginners, I like to start by feeding the ball by hand so the player can easily understand and learn the basic hitting technique. When hand-feeding the ball there are fewer variables and for the player, it is easier to concentrate on just the technique.
When the player has learned to hit the ball properly from hand feed, they have a benchmark on what it feels like when you hit the ball with correct technique. This “benchmark feeling” is important because, in the harder drills, the players can aim to pursue the same feeling. This way they can also “coach” themselves and know when they are doing something correctly or incorrectly without the coach mentioning it every time.
Feeding from hand
Feeding from hand can also be a coaching mistake if you do it too often. Hand feeding should be mostly used in beginner sessions because it reduces the variables and makes it easier for new players to learn a proper hitting technique.
The downside in hand feeding is that because of the close distance and slow ball velocity, the environment is too controlled and doesn’t provide enough challenges for more experienced players. Good technique is always important throughout a player’s career but when advancing to the next level the emphasis shifts to movement on the tennis court, which hand feeding doesn’t properly train.
When feeding from hand the player’s movement is very limited, and this is why it doesn’t simulate real game situations as much as drills where the coach feeds from the other side of the net.
How to avoid:
- When coaching more experienced players prefer feeding from the other side of the net so it trains the player’s movement as well
3. Wrong Type of Balls
One mistake that I often see in beginner sessions is that the coach uses hard balls right from the start. The ultimate goal for a tennis player is to be able to play with hard official tennis balls but beginners should first practice with softer training balls.
In modern tennis there are four types of training balls (dotted balls):
- Soft foam balls
- Red balls (75% slower than official balls)
- Orange balls (50% slower than official balls)
- Green balls (25% slower than official balls)
How to avoid:
- If not sure which balls to use go for the softer ones
- When using soft balls with adult players explain why they are beneficial (some adults want to go straight to hard balls which causes problems)
- When players start to be able to control the softer balls move on to harder balls –> do this gradually
Adult Players
Depending on the player’s level, adult beginners can skip the red and orange balls but should not move on straight to hard balls. For inexperienced players, the hard official ball is rather fast, and it bounces high. This makes learning tennis difficult because the ball is much harder to track and control.
One very common problem that the hard balls cause to beginner players is the hitting height. Because the hard ball bounces rather high it is harder for players to calculate its trajectory, and they end up hitting the ball at their shoulder level (badminton style). This causes problems with the technique because the stroke usually happens mostly with the wrist and the swing path is unnatural.
When using softer balls such as green balls their slower velocity and dampened bounce give players more time to position themselves properly before hitting the ball. This helps inexperienced players to hit the ball with better technique.
Junior Players
When it comes to junior players it is even more important to use correct balls when practicing tennis. Junior players are shorter than adult players so the ball bounces even higher from their perspective making it harder to calculate the ball’s bounce and to hit with proper technique.
Younger players’ hand-eye coordination is also not on the same level as adult players’ so it is good to start with softer balls.
Also, junior players’ muscles and joints are not as developed as adult players and they are more prone to tennis injuries if they practice balls that are too hard for them.
4. Lack of explaining
This might sound quite simple but explaining is very important for the player’s development and engagement. A tennis practice should always follow a clear goal whether it is technical or tactical. If the players don’t know what they are practicing other than hitting the ball over the net the practice becomes ineffective and dull.
The goal of the practice session can be almost anything, but it is important that the coach can explain to players why we are practicing this and how it helps our game. For example, if I’m teaching players to hit a slice, I explain to them that it is a good defensive stroke and it helps us to recover time.
How to avoid:
- Before the training session set a goal and think why you have specifically chosen that goal, how it can improve the player’s game
You can use a simple explaining formula:
- What are we practicing? –> Slice
- Why are we practicing it? –> To improve our defensive play
- How does it help us in the game? –> By hitting slice, we can recover time
Also in more experienced player’s practices, you can discuss alternative options. For example, if the goal is to improve defensive play a high topspin stroke can also be a good option in addition to slice.
5. Bad Evolution
The last coaching mistake is called “Bad evolution”. It refers to a situation where the gradual structure of training sessions fails and gets fragmented. There is no clear target of what is being pursued and players are practicing a bit of this and that. This will negatively affect the player’s engagement and progress.
Tennis practices can and should be versatile, but they should follow a coherent structure. The difficulty of the drills should gradually increase, and techniques should become more complex. We can compare tennis practice to building a house: First, you have to build the foundation before you can build the walls.
For example, if you think about a beginners’ group in which in the first session they train forehand, the next session backhand, and the session after that serve. The players get a decent understanding of the different strokes in tennis, but they do not make much progress in any of them.
When practicing a certain theme, it would be a good idea to spend a few hours on it before moving on to the next one. For example, if the players are practicing forehand topspin you shouldn’t switch to backspin after the first session.
How to avoid:
- Plan an “evolutionary path” and revise it as needed. For example, if the theme is slice, the path can be as follows: correct grip –> swing path –> contact point –> high (defending) slice –> low (attacking) slice –> drop shot
Summary
- Remember to focus on a few key points during tennis practices
- Make sure your drills match the player’s level
- Remember to use softer balls when coaching beginners and younger players
- Make sure to explain the training session’s goal
- Plan a good evolutionary path for your practices
By following these tips your coaching can become engaging for yourself and your players!