027 - Successful Progressions - My Foolproof Plan For Beginners

The PTM Podcast

027 – Successful Progressions – My Foolproof Plan for Beginners

So today’s quick tip is:  Start with contact and progress backwards when working with a NEW player, 

So why do people say that tennis is HARD?

I’m going to tell you how I achieved 100%, yes I said 100% success, with getting every new player I have ever worked with to hit a 20 ball rally over the net on their 1st day with me.

There are two secrets here and one of them is you

So come on, make it easy for them.

This way you can increase the chances of them being successful and coming back for more! 

Now you need to know your progressions, which are the step you might take from start to finish to hit the ball over the net.

Here is a little trick I like and if you remember anything, remember this if you are working with a NEW Player especially and they will be successful each week and can back off to stay successful if need be.

If you read the progressions of any stroke they will go something like this: 

1. GRIP

2. READY POSITION

3. STANCE

4. FOOTWORK

5. BACKSWING 

6, FORWARD SWING 

7. CONTACT

8. FOLLOW-THROUGH 

9. FINISH

If you look at this list, there are 6 things to do BEFORE the student makes contact.

Good luck with that.

What does the student really care about, hitting the little  ball over the net into the HUGE court, that is it

How easy should this be?  Think about it if this were an attraction at the fair

I was at Cherry Festival in Traverse City Michigan and was walking by the booths where everyone tries to call you over to shoot the balloons, knock over the bowling pins or sink the basketball in a hoop that is probably only ½ wider than the ball itself,

What if there was a booth like this………………………………..

OK Step right up. Step right up and hit this 2.7 inch diameter ball into this HUGE 1404 square foot hole and win a prize.

Just hold it and hit it.

Who has the guts to try……….. 

I bet if this was a booth, it would have a huge line right?

Well, this is exactly what tennis is 

And when you say it this way, does it sound like tennis should be hard?

My first house (2 bedroom 1 bath) was only 863 square feet.

So come on,  make it easy for them.

If they are successful, they will want to do it again and if they are not, they might have 2nd thoughts.

With Scott, I had lunch as a backup, but not so easy on the tennis court.

How about trying it in this order:  GRIP, CONTACT, FINISH (maybe)

I bet if you explained where they need to hit the ball (Contact), have them start exactly there and then lift up to the finish.

If you think about it, as tennis coaches we find ourselves telling our students how to SEND the ball over the net all the time yet, the key to being successful starts with how we receive the ball.

Think about my carnival example. If you have the ball in your hand you’re in total control of how to start, but when you’re playing tennis you have an opponent sending the ball over the net to you, so you want to make sure you are receiving the ball as similarly as you were when you were holding it just to drop it over the net.

So, Try to visualize this.

What I mean by this is that when I talk to students about this,  the first thing I have them do is turn somewhat sideways and just catch a ball in their hands that I feed over the net to them.

You will see that when we do this, they do not take their hand back first, They will usually just put their hand behind where they think the ball is going to be when they catch it.

This means if I feed them a high ball they put their hand up high to catch it. If I feed them a lowball, they put their hand down load to catch it. If I feed them and medium ball they put their hand at a medium level to catch it. 

The closer they’re hand is to the ball, the more successful they are going to have to catching it. The more they have to move their hand to go catch it, it will be more difficult to catch because of the timing.

The next step I take is to have the student to hold the racquet, with the proper grip and have them just stop the ball on their strings, just like they did with their hand.

I usually say if they hit the ball over the net successfully in the court, they have 100 push-ups, ha ha!, 

This works on The proper grip and how to track a ball as it’s approaching them.

The next step is to do the same exact thing but instead of letting the ball drop off the racquet, just  lift the ball up over the net and finish period

If you want to get technical on the finish you can, but there’s no need to here. 

What you will find, is that the player does not take the racket back but just waits for the ball to come to them which is important when it comes to balance. 

The racquet in the ball stay close and there’s limited distance between the racket and the tennis ball prior to contact.

Think about a player that takes the racket way back, They have to move their racket forward, commit to their swing, and hopefully that swing is going to run in direct line to wear the balls going to be at that precise point they want to make contact. 

Now I said earlier that one of the secrets is you. And it is. To make that 20 balls you are going to have to make sure you hit that orange ball or green ball or even a foam ball back to them in a manner to which they can receive it as easily as possible.

If you put a heavy topspin on the ball is going to be more difficult for them.

They don’t have to do a whole lot to hit the ball over the net, I promise you. 

Go stand in front of any wall and hit a ball at the wall. The wall does nothing. But I bet the balls going to come back at you because the wall is making perfect contact every time with your shot, In a way anyway.

Too many players think they have to take a huge stroke to make the ball go over the net. They do not have to do this at all.

Now once they understand this concept you can start adding in the other progressions but the great thing about it here is if they are having issues they can always regress back to where they know they can be confident. 

Even more so on the serve.  Start with contact, add in some wrist, hen some forearm, then some shoulder, then some trunk, then some legs  and so on.

The great part is that, like we talked about in episode 26, they can go until they find it difficult.  That is where they need to train or back off one more step, to just ensure success.

And they will probably be coming back for more!

Bottom Line: With NEW Payers start your progressions with contact and work your way to a complete stroke.  OR you may be losing a lot of potential players.

Good Luck,

Coach Mick, USPTA